UFC St Louis: Lewis vs Nascimento - May 11 ??

[wandshogun09]

Took me all week but finally caught up on this. It was a solid little Fight Night, to be fair. Nice little tribute to Art Jimmerson from Bisping at the top of the show as well…

Was chuffed to see Derrick Lewis get the win and finish in the main event. For one, just because I’m a Lewis fan but, also, if he’d lost then that would’ve probably meant more Nascimento headliners and nobody needs that in their lives.

Have it. 

I picked Lewis in the poll in the end, just because I know at his best he doesn’t generally lose against this level of opponent. But given the run of form he’s been on the last couple of years plus him getting up in age plus Nascimento being more of a grappler…I had fears it could go very wrong for him. Thankfully he found the finish but there were spells where it looked like it might all go tits up. I liked that he started the first round off by surprising Nascimento with his own grappling approach. The last thing Nascimento would’ve been expecting would be for Lewis to initiate the clinch and go for the takedown. Once that initial element of surprise passed though, and Nascimento got on top, there’s always the risk Lewis becomes disillusioned, starts feeling sorry for himself and mentally checks out. We’ve seen it before. Whenever they were on the feet, Lewis was clearly the more effective striker. But towards the end of both the first and second rounds, Nascimento got him down and was having success. Obviously, Lewis coming out and bombing him at the start of the third ended all that but there were shaky moments there for him.

It was great to see Lewis win. But I’ve gotta admit, as much as I love the bloke, the whole post-fight bit just felt like he couldn’t be bothered. Usually his post-fight interviews are the highlight of his fight week, more than the fights themselves a lot of times. Here he was just completely rehashing bits of past interviews. Even he seemed underwhelmed by this shit.

On 5/13/2024 at 1:36 PM, Kfogg1991 said:

Obviously I'm overjoyed the BLACK BEAST got another knockout win against a guy everyone said was going to beat him and is a style that derick can't hang with.

Eh?

I mentioned in the opening post that Nascimento has a style that you could see causing Lewis problems. And that’s because he does. Certainly wasn’t a case of everyone saying Nascimento wins.

Not sure who Lewis fights next. You look at the rankings and he’s literally fought pretty much everyone already. He’s ranked #10 now and of the guys above him he’s already fought Spivac, Tybura, Almeida, Volkov, Blaydes, Gane and Pavlovich. The only ones he hasn’t fought are Jones, Aspinall and Miocic. And he’s not gonna be fighting any of them. So it’s either fight down in the rankings or a rematch. The UFC just announced they’re going back to Paris in September. It’d be a rematch I’d have almost zero interest in but it wouldn’t shock me if they went with Gane vs Lewis 2 in Paris. Just because Gane’s ducked Aspinall multiple times and Lewis has already fought everyone. There aren’t many options for either.

Buckley vs Ruziboev was an alright fight, nothing special, but it was boosted big time by the crowd being so into it and supporting their hometown guy in Buckley. It wasn’t a bad fight but if it was in pretty much any other city it would’ve been looked at as a bit lacklustre. The bubble’s burst already for Ruziboev for me. This wasn’t a good performance from him. I’m sure he’ll still have his moments but he just didn’t do enough here. On the feet he spent too much time standing around. And on the ground, Buckley spent most of his time on top leaving himself wide open for a triangle or armbar and, while Ruziboev threw a few attempts up, he’ll be kicking himself watching the fight back that he wasn’t able to capitalise on Buckley’s iffy defence. Fair play to Buckley though. He was going for the kill and certainly had the big moments of the fight. He rightfully got the decision.

Didn’t expect to see Randy Orton pop up!

Buckley calling out Conor after though? I get why guys do it but if it’s not a realistic fight then it’s just a waste of mic time. That post-fight interview is a fighter’s opportunity to call their next move. Doesn’t even have to be shit talking or a “cutting a promo” on someone or disrespectful. Just throw a realistic name out there. An opponent you’d like either because it’s a fun matchup or good for you style-wise or you want their spot in the rankings. If not a specific name, maybe campaign to get on a certain card that’s upcoming or something. Calling out the biggest name in the sport when you’re a middle of the pack guy and Conor has so many more appealing options, it’s just a waste of an opportunity on Buckley’s part. If he wanted to get ‘the rub’ off Conor’s name, he should’ve just called someone out to fight on the McGregor vs Chandler card next month or something. This was pointless. McGregor vs Buckley is obviously not happening. Him and Cormier have been going back and forth on Twitter since Saturday night. That’s all it’s achieved. Bickering with retired fighters.

Carlos Ulberg blitzing Alonzo Menifield in 12 seconds wasn’t really how I saw that one going. I mean, they both have high finishing rates so it’s not a massive surprise it didn’t go the distance but I never expected it to be that quick. Merciful really. In general both 205 and Heavyweights fights are cack if they go longer than about a round and a half. So this was fine with me.

Carlos Diego Ferreira put a colossal beatdown on Mateusz Rebecki. It was a rough first round and Rebecki looked a handful and even dropped him towards the end of the round. Then Ferreira just came back and brutalised him en route to the late TKO stoppage.

Poor prick. 

Hell of a win for Ferreira this. I touched on it in the opening post but this really felt like a case of the matchmakers thinking they were ‘feeding’ Ferreira to Rebecki. Ferreira at 39 years old and not being that active recently gets thrown in with a guy who was 19-1 and on a 16 fight winning streak? Ferreira wasn’t having it though. Battered him. Nothing against Rebecki and I’m sure there’ll be much better to come for him. But I’ve always enjoyed watching Ferreira and it was cool to see him get a win here in a fight that, on paper, he probably had no business winning.

Woodson vs Caceres was a close one. I had them 1-1 after 2 rounds and thought the third was close. To be honest, I had Caceres edging it but didn’t have a massive problem with Woodson getting the nod. I think Caceres had the fight sewn up until the last 90 seconds or so and, while I still had him winning, that last minute flurry is almost certainly what nicked it for Woodson. Decent fight, not as good as I hoped but decent. Liked Woodson’s callout of Bryce Mitchell after the fight. Wouldn’t mind seeing that.

Well we got to see more of Robelis Despaigne. He’s shit. Just another crap Heavyweight who’s lethal in the first 30 seconds then total dogshit after that. There was always a high possibility of it considering how late he got into MMA and the fact that he’s from a pure striking background and likely had zero ground game. Still, to get found out by fucking Waldo Cortes-Acosta of all people, and in a dud of a fight. Not good. No doubt Despaigne will KO other Heavyweights. There’s enough bad HWs knocking about and he’s dangerous enough early that he’s most likely gonna have some more highlight reel finishes yet. But the excitement (well, hope) I had after his debut has evaporated now. If he was gonna go on a streak of any real significance, this is a fight he needed to be winning. If you can’t beat ‘Salsa Boy’, you’re going nowhere.

Chase Hooper vs Slava Claus was never gonna be boring and, with the contrasting styles, there was always a chance one would completely dominate where they’re strong and the other is weak. Hooper absolutely bossed this though.

It was only one tap, but it was a tap. Not sure what all the protesting was about after the fact. It was cut and dry. Really strong showing for Chase. Reminded me of Joe Lauzon when he was on the rise.

Not sure what Bisping was banging on about at the end though. “Chase Hooper is a contender” and “this was a tough stylistic matchup for him and he dominated”. I get they’ve gotta hype him up but this was far from a bad style matchup for Chase. If anything, it was probably the best matchup for him because of Slav’s almost nonexistent grappling. Providing he could secure the takedown, this was always gonna be his fight to lose. He just had to avoid Slav’s boxing. But even then, he dropped Slav early! That was a surprise. He’s definitely improving and maturing as a fighter. I was ready to write him off not too long ago so fair play to him. But it’s way, way too early to be talking about him as a “contender” after wins over Nick Fiore, Jordan Leavitt and Slava Claus. Calm down.

Man, Esteban Ribovics Cro Copped the shit out of Terrance McKinney. 37 seconds is all it took…

Cool to see Ribovics get a highlight reel finish like this. I said I’d enjoyed his first couple of UFC fights but he went 1-1 and both went the distance. Exciting fighter but this was the kind of performance and finish that will obviously get him more noticed. And McKinney, fucking hell. Disaster for him. But win or lose, you can just never blink in his fights. 22 fights into his career and he’s NEVER gone the distance. And 18 of those fights haven’t got out of the first round. Insane. There mightn’t be another fighter in the game who embodies the phrase ‘live by the sword, die by the sword’ as much as McKinney.

Wasn’t a fan of the Tabatha Ricci vs Tecia Pennington fight. Wasn’t expecting much from it though, to be fair. Neither have been known to have really exciting fights and then you add in that Tecia was coming off 2 years out, my expectations weren’t exactly high. With that said, I felt Ricci was very lucky to get the decision here. I had Tecia winning myself.

Trey Waters vs Billy Goff was an unexpected banger and the FOTN. Seriously, if you skipped this card (and I wouldn’t blame you), at least watch this. One of my favourite fights so far this year but it’s gonna go under the radar because it was on the prelims of a Fight Night. Like I said in the opening post, I wasn’t familiar enough with either man to say much about the matchup going in, positive or negative. Loved this though. What a scrap. And just like that, I’ll be taking notice and I’ll actually give a shite the next time I see either of their names on a card.

Christ ? Absolute dogfight. The right man won. I had Waters winning on the cards for sure. But Goff refused to go away and, despite the height and range advantage for Waters, Goff just stayed in his face the whole time.

Charles Johnson vs Jake Hadley was a really good fight like you’d expect if you’ve ever seen these guys fight before. This really should’ve been on the main card. Especially with Johnson being from St Louis! Would’ve been the perfect main card opener. I don’t know what the matchmakers have against Johnson. He’s never in bad fights, gave a good account of himself against Mokaev, had a corker with Azat Maksum last time. Yet 6 of his last 7 UFC fights coming into this one were at the Apex in front of empty chairs. He finally gets in front of a crowd, his hometown crowd at that, and they bury his fight on the Fight Pass stream? Maybe the matchmakers just don’t like the ‘skullet’ hairdo. It is shocking.

This was a strong performance from Johnson. Looked really sharp and you could tell he was buzzing to be fighting at home. I’ve never warmed to Hadley and I don’t see him ever really going on a proper run, just can’t seem to string the wins together. But he’s the kind of fighter who’s gonna make for an entertaining fight with pretty much anyone. This was good stuff and the crowd being so into it, cheering everything Johnson did and booing Hadley, it just made it that bit more fun to watch. Nice win for Johnson. Wouldn’t mind seeing him get a ranked opponent next, Tim Elliott maybe? I just hope they don’t relegate him back to the Apex. He’s better than that. He deserves to be fighting in front of crowds. Hadley’s already on about fighting on the Manchester card. Makes sense. Mokaev still had a pop at him for losing. I know they’re on completely different trajectories at the minute but I still wanna see Mokaev vs Hadley at some point. Maybe if Mokaev gets a title shot and loses, that can be his bounce back fight? Fun domestic fight for a UK card and there’s been too much shit talk on both sides for it to never happen.

Happy again to see Veronica Hardy get another win. That’s 3-0 for her now since returning last year from that massive layoff. It was only JJ Aldrich, not an amazing win and I’m still not convinced Hardy goes too far in the division. But I never really rated her skills at all early in her career before the layoff, she’s definitely improved since then. And to be fair, she’s still only 28 and I’ve heard and read she never really had proper training camps until her last few fights. I’d like to see her prove me wrong and keep going from strength to strength, I’m a fan of her and Dan. Hey, maybe she’ll get higher billing than the Fight Pass opener next time! 


So yeah, pretty enjoyable night of fights in the end. I know we’re like a stuck record now but it really is time to knock the Apex on the head. I don’t think it’s gonna happen, despite what Dana said. But we can hope. A show like this, which didn’t look much good on paper, was significantly improved by being in front of an actual crowd who were invested. I’m not sure you get the same kind of scrap out of, say, Trey Waters vs Billy Goff in the soulless UFC warehouse. And the fact that the show reportedly did so well ($2.4M gate) tells you there’s really no legitimate argument for not having these shows on the road in front of actual ticket buying fans rather than a smattering of media and a select few people who were gifted tickets at the Apex, people who are either there to do a job and people who aren’t really fussed. It’s dead. No atmosphere whatsoever. Sack it off. Yesterday. 

Edited May 17, 2024 by wandshogun09