UFC 302: Makhachev vs Poirier - Jun 1 ??

[wandshogun09]

Wasn’t much of a show. Couple of bright spots, literally just a couple, but that main event stopped it being a total waste of time. Undercard was a right slog for the most part though. So many decisions. Which, I’m usually the first to say decisions don’t necessarily equal boring fights. This card had some snoozers though. Some you’d have expected and some that were surprisingly shit. On a card with 12 fights, 9 of them went the distance and 6 or 7 of them were cack.

 

Tremendous main event. The end result was the one I think most of us were hoping against but also the one we predicted and expected. There’s nothing for Dustin to be ashamed of though. He fought out of his skin last night, did better than most expected (including me) and proved that, even at 35, he still belonged in there with the elite of the sport. He didn’t look a million miles away from pulling it off either. There were points like when he hit that switch and came up teeing off with the body shots…I started to believe he might do it. It’s gotta be tough to accept. This was his third crack at UFC gold and in all 3 attempts he’s had his moments, against 3 of the greatest Lightweights in MMA history. He had that guillotine on Khabib, he had Oliveira badly hurt early in their fight and here he gave Makhachev a hell of a fight. I actually feel like he’s done slightly better with each attempt but the belt has remained just out of his reach. It’s a shame.

Makhachev proved himself again here as one of the best fighters in the world though. Honestly don’t know what more he has to do to win fans around. Despite what some say, he’s anything but boring and hasn’t been for some time now. He’s had 7 finishes in his last 8 fights and the one he didn’t finish was the 5 round epic with Volk the first time. He’s not ducking anyone, he’s facing whoever the UFC throws at him, took the short notice rematch with Volk when many champs wouldn’t have fancied risking it etc. He was dragged into a hard scrap here by one of the most dangerous guys in the history of the division who was leaving it all out there in probably his last fight. Makhachev had to dig a bit deeper than he probably expected, handled himself just fine in the boxing exchanges in close quarters, got cut open, had to make some adjustments in the grappling and he still found the finish in the last round.

Great fight. I felt like Poirier rose to the occasion here. I wasn’t sure he had a performance like this left in him at such a high level. Especially when he’d been so vocal going into the fight about retiring. But as well as he fought, I felt like Makhachev one-upped him at almost every turn for the majority of the fight.  

It’s looking like the Tsarukyan rematch is gonna be next. Makhachev’s saying he’s not that interested in it but he’ll do it if that’s what’s next. Compare that to the attitude of Jon Jones who won’t even entertain the idea of fighting the current interim champ Tom Aspinall. I hope it is Makhachev vs Tsarukyan 2 next. The first fight was great and they’ve both improved and matured a lot as fighters since then. Seeing talk again of Makhachev moving up to 170 and facing Leon Edwards but I’d prefer to see him stick around at 155 and add a few more defences to his legacy first. Obviously if the weight cut is getting too much then fair enough, but I’m not a fan of guys hopping between weight classes much unless it’s a permanent move. Makhachev is also saying he wants to fight in America more and specifically mentioned the MSG card as one he’d like to get on. A double header of Jones vs Miocic (if we must) and Makhachev vs Tsarukyan 2 at MSG wouldn’t upset me.

Is this it for Dustin then? Everything he was saying going in certainly pointed in that direction. And even the fact that he had his daughter there, I don’t think he’s done that before. It makes me think he wanted her there either to see him finally win the title or just to be in attendance for his final fight before he hangs up the gloves for good. 

If this was it, what a fucking career. I think there’s a very strong case for him going down as the greatest fighter in UFC history to never win the strap. He’s had some of the most incredible fights I’ve ever seen, he’s beat some of the best fighters and biggest names in his weight range and he’s done it in arguably the toughest division in the game. Then you add in extra stuff like how he’s carried himself. He’s never had any controversy as far as I can remember. Never missed weight, never an issue with drug testing, never been a dirty fighter and has always shown respect when he’s been treated with respect. Yeah, he’s had his moments and beefs but it’s the fight game. Always makes me laugh how whenever he’s had a go back at a McGregor or Chandler or whoever, his haters (and seriously, what the fuck kind of MMA fan hates Dustin Poirier?) love to jump on with the ‘fake nice guy’ shit. As if nice guys aren’t allowed to ever get angry or pissed off. He’s a class act but it’s well known he’s got a mean streak and doesn’t take shit without giving it back. On the whole though, he might not have ever been the actual recognised undisputed champion but he’s certainly carried himself like one.

If it’s over, it’s a bittersweet feeling. On the one hand, MMA will be a poorer sport without him and I’ll definitely miss watching him fight. There’s a handful of fighters in MMA who you could pretty much always count on to deliver an exciting fight. And Dustin’s in that bracket along with Lawler, Gaethje, Holloway etc. Honestly, I’m looking back through his record now and I legitimately can’t remember any of his fights that I’ve seen being anything less than at least ‘good’, many were much better than that and a few were all time classics. He genuinely might be one of a very small handful of fighters who can lay claim to actually never having a boring fight. Even my beloved Wanderlei Silva and Shogun Rua had a few rotters (Wandy vs Tito/Chael and Shogun’s last few fights). 

But I actually hope he does call it a day now. He basically said at the post-fight press conference, something like, ‘If I’m not fighting for the title, what am I fighting for?’ He said he’s set financially, which is good to hear and I hope he’s right. And he doesn’t wanna climb back up the mountain again to get yet another title shot. It’s actually refreshing to see he’s thinking clearly and sees for himself that it’s probably over. He could fight on, but why? Going out at the top level is way better than hanging on way past the point of it getting sad to watch. Sadly most fighters either don’t know or recognise when to stop or they can’t afford to. It seems like neither of those things are an issue for Poirier. So it’s time. There’s always more fights you can make. A fourth go with McGregor, a trilogy decider with Gaethje etc. But it doesn’t sound like wants to fight again unless he’s having one more run at the belt. And it seems like he’s mentally closed the door on that now. He’s had a ton of fights, a lot of wars, taken a lot of damage and he’s 35 years old now. He’s smart enough to recognise that, while he’s still competing at a very high level now, the decline is likely just around the corner if he carries on. Hopefully he goes and just enjoys retirement now with his wife and daughter. 

Strickland vs Costa was dogshit. Just a big pile of old wank for about 24 of the 25 minutes it lasted. Strickland waited until right at the end to actually try, with 15 seconds left in the fight, so no doubt his fans are gonna latch onto that and still claim he’s some blood and guts, war having badass. But there was so little happening in this fight that there’s really not much to talk about as far as the actual fight itself goes. Those scorecards though! Christ almighty. Even as much of a Strickland loather as I am, I absolutely had him winning this fight. How the one judge not only scored it for Costa, but had it 49-46 for him?! Baffling but who’s even legitimately surprised anymore? Had to laugh at Strickland post-fight going “it was a boring fight, sorry guys” as if he’s not a boring bastard in 90% of his fights. Then blaming it on Costa! It takes two to tango and Strickland showed in those last 15 seconds that he was capable of more if he actually decided to do more than just walk forward in his meerkat stance spamming the life out of teep kicks. The commentary, Rogan especially, were so far up Strickland’s bum hole in this fight they could probably tell him what he had for breakfast, lunch and dinner on Saturday. Just non-stop ring munching. And speaking of lickarses…

Ugh. He’s fully taken over Colby Covington as Trump’s lead bum cleaner now. Saw Strickland calling for the title shot after the fight. Highly doubt that happens. Right or wrong, I think we’re getting DDP vs Adesanya next. And I reckon the winner of Whittaker vs Chimaev later this month will be next after that. But, as much as I hate to say it and as much as I don’t wanna see it, if it’s between Strickland and Izzy, I can definitely see Strickland’s argument. He dominated Izzy and Izzy hasn’t fought since. He’s done literally nothing since that loss while Strickland’s at least beat Costa (admittedly in a rotten fight) and lost a close decision to the current champion. I don’t think he deserves the next shot either but he still deserves it more than Adesanya. I think they’ll go with the Whittaker vs Chimaev winner anyway. Especially if Khamzat wins. You know Dana’s dying to get that belt on him. Although that brings its own issues because I’m not sure Khamzat can even fight in the US.

Kevin Holland provided one of the only highlights on the entire card outside the main event. What a chaotic 90 seconds that was. Oleksiejczuk was looking so dangerous in the opening minute, as he usually does. And when he dropped Holland with that big loopy left I thought he might be about to bag his biggest win to date. Then 30 seconds later…

Fuck! Didn’t look like Oleksiejczuk tapped but it was over regardless. Obviously. His arm was dangling and in bits. Nice finish for Holland. Gave me flashbacks to the old Big Nog days when he’d get knocked down and appear to be fucked, only to pull an armbar or triangle out of his arse. 

Niko Price vs Alex Morono was surprisingly crap. Really wasn’t expecting this to be a dud. Was happy to see Price get a W but it had to be the dullest fight I’ve ever seen out of him. It’s funny but when they fucked the Heavyweight fight off to the prelims and bumped this up to the main card, I thought it would probably turn out well because who wants to see a Heavyweight plodfest in the middle of a PPV? And Price vs Morono would at least be entertaining, right? Wrong. Turned out these two shat the bed and Jailton vs Romanov was actually a short and sweet enjoyable squash. Got a feeling both Price and Moreno will be strictly on Apex duties from here on out.

Randy Brown vs Elizeu Zaleski Dos Santos was an alright main card opener. I don’t mind either fighter but it did feel weak kicking off a PPV. Bit too much of a Fight Nighty feel to it for me. Solid win for Brown, I guess. Zaleski is an ageing gatekeeper but he can be a tricky test on a good night. He’s basically the new Francisco Trinaldo, or Gleison Tibau if you wanna go back even further. Had Brown taking the first and third rounds and he did well to get through that rough second round and turn it around with the choke in the last few seconds. Nothing special but an OK fight.

Oh yeah…

? This becoming a thing now on what feels like every other UFC PPV is weird as fuck to me. I get that Dana feels some sense of loyalty to him or whatever because Trump backed Zuffa in their shaky early years when they took over the UFC in 2001. I get it. But Christ. If he’s gonna be in attendance, whatever. If you’re gonna show him on camera during the broadcast, fine if you insist. But do we have to see him and Dana making their grand entrance like they’re the fucking Road Warriors in 1986 or some shit? Walking out like they’re actual fighters to ‘American Bad Ass’ by Kid Rock. It’s so cringey it makes my teeth itch. Seriously, how many times did they show the orange goblin on screen during that main card last night? 

Roman Kopylov fight was a letdown. Had it as my ‘one to watch’ and everything but it just fell flat. There were brief moments when they were striking that showed how exciting a fight this could’ve been but I can’t even blame Kopylov for taking the path of least resistance and milking the takedowns because Cesar Almeida is all striking with no grappling. Kopylov fought the smart fight and coming off that loss to ‘Fluffy’ Hernandez, he just needed to secure the win. The thing that made it dull to watch was that Kopylov doesn’t have a great ground game either. He was obviously better in that area than Almeida, but he only really had enough grappling to get the takedown. Beyond that, he just lacked the ability to close the show once they were actually on the ground. Seen a lot of moaning about Kopylov’s tactics here but, while I expected a fun standup fight, it just turned out to be one of those clashes of styles that never meshed well. Despite Kopylov scoring the early knockdown, I think something in those striking exchanges might’ve spooked him and he wisely went the wrestling route. Wasn’t pretty but a win’s a win and Kopylov needed one.

Jailton Almeida mercifully made short work of Fatty Romanov.

Thank fuck. No-one needed 15 minutes of this so I was happy it was done and dusted quick. Jailton needed this. Wasn’t a great win because Romanov has seemed to just stop giving a shit about anything but McDonald’s and KFC drive throughs over the last 18 months or so. But coming off that Blaydes loss and the horrible fight with Lewis before that, Jailton badly needed something like this. The trajectory he was on wasn’t looking good. Unfortunately I think we know where his ceiling is now though. He’ll piss through this level of opposition but he’s gonna struggle against enough of the top guys that he’s never really gonna go any higher. If it was up to me, I’d make Jailton vs Ciryl Gane now for the Paris headliner in September. That seems like the logical move and Jailton did mention wanting to fight in France in his post-fight interview. He pretty much called out Gane without actually naming him. But I doubt Gane goes for it because he seems to think he should get another title shot next and, given Gane’s suspect grappling, Almeida’s a terrible style matchup for him. I can see why Almeida would want that fight, on paper Gane is the highest ranked most winnable fight there is for him.

Wasn’t a fan of the Dawson vs Solecki or Matthews vs Rowe fights. Just never did it for me at all. I was hoping Dawson and Solecki might make for a fun grappling match but, aside from the guillotine attempt right at the start of the fight, not a lot happened. Dawson seemed more than content to just hold top position and wait for the time to run out. Matthews vs Rowe was better but I just never fully got into it and neither guy is going anywhere.

Bassil Hafez vs Mickey Gall was a way more competitive and entertaining fight than I expected going in. Just based on Hafez’s showing against Jack Della Maddalena last year, I thought he’d have no real bother with Gall. And especially with Gall coming off a long layoff. Was a good scrap.

Honestly, even in defeat, the gif there doesn’t show it but this might’ve been the best I’ve seen Gall in the UFC. He was on a 3 fight losing streak, coming off a bad knockout loss and then 2 years away. And considering Gall got stopped by a washed up Diego Sanchez as far back as 5 years ago, I’d pretty much written him off and assumed he was only on the card at all because he’s from New Jersey. He looked well up for it though and it was probably the highlight of the entire undercard for me. Hafez definitely won, although I don’t really know what to make of it. I didn’t expect him to have so much trouble with Gall. Maybe that Maddalena fight flattered him a bit, he was a late replacement so maybe it was a case of the element of surprise throwing Maddalena off more than anything. Whatever. Enjoyed this fight much more than I thought I would.

Ailin Perez fight was shit as expected. Kept reading bits about her and Joselyne Edwards having ‘beef’ going in and I vaguely recall hearing about it at the time. Think they had some kind of altercation at the UFC PI a while back. Still didn’t give a bollocks about this though. Both shite and Perez…if you’re gonna make your whole gimmick shaking your arse, at least learn to twerk.

Amateur. Honestly thought Rogan and Cormier were tugging one off under the commentary desk at points during and after this fight.

Thought Andre Lima beat Mitch Raposo pretty comfortably in the Fight Pass opener but once again, the dodgy judging reared its head. Well, one judge in particular. Fucking Dave Tirelli again. The same judge who scored Costa winning the Strickland fight 49-46 in the co-main. Somehow he also had Raposo winning this one 29-28. It wasn’t quite as bad a card as 49-46 Costa but, still, Jesus wept. One shitty card is bad enough, to have two that glaringly bad on the same night? He should never judge again and should probably pop to Specsavers or quit smoking crack or whatever. Because judging fights isn’t working out for him. Luckily the other two judges got it right and Lima rightly got the win. Shame he missed weight though, hopefully that’s not an issue going forward because I think he’s got some potential. 


Yeah, all in all, not a good card that. The only real bright spots on the undercard were Kevin Holland’s armbar and the Hafez vs Gall fight. The rest ranged from OK to so-so to downright awful. Thankfully Islam and Dustin delivered in the main event.

Wasn’t enough for 302 to be considered a great card or anything but it saved it from being a total flop. Great fight topping off a bit of a nothing happening card. Oh well, plenty left to sink the teeth into this month with 303, the Saudi card etc still to come in June. 

[textonly]

Nowhere else to moan about it, so I'll just put it here, but the Trump/UFC thing is just so awful at the moment. It genuinely makes the show so much less enjoyable, seeing all these fighters preen before him as if he's emperor, making the sport feel like a three-hour party political broadcast. It's gross and it feels like all the worst aspects of MMA culture are being amplified at the moment. It's a huge bummer. Whatever brilliance the likes of Holloway/Gaethje may offer, there's just no way in the world I could actually recommend anyone watch UFC at the moment. I'd be mortified.

[Bruce85]

5 hours ago, textonly said:

Nowhere else to moan about it, so I'll just put it here, but the Trump/UFC thing is just so awful at the moment. It genuinely makes the show so much less enjoyable, seeing all these fighters preen before him as if he's emperor, making the sport feel like a three-hour party political broadcast. It's gross and it feels like all the worst aspects of MMA culture are being amplified at the moment. It's a huge bummer. Whatever brilliance the likes of Holloway/Gaethje may offer, there's just no way in the world I could actually recommend anyone watch UFC at the moment. I'd be mortified.

I had my girlfriend round Sunday morning and she watched the show with me and it was her first time watching the UFC. After the dull fights, the gross arm break and Trump being all over it I’m not sure she will watch another, although she instantly took a dislike to Strickland so maybe she will fit in around here lol. 
 

The main event did deliver and was a good fight and much closer than expected. He didn’t win but Dustin gave a really good account of himself and if that is his last fight he can be proud of that. Islam looked really good and anyone who says he’s boring should get in the bin!

[Kfogg1991]

WOW this one was a tough slog to get through.

I was so drunk for the main event it was a phenomenal back and forth with dustin doing so much better than the Khabib fight.
The co-main was a massive disappointment HOW DID ONE JUDGE SCORE IT FOR COSTA 

Kevin holland snapped a mans arm like a twiglet.....

The fight of the night was MICKEY GALL on the fight pass prelims.

Onto the khamzat vs Whittaker fight-night into ufc 303 Michael Chandler vs ..........who knows right now 

[wandshogun09]

11 hours ago, Bruce85 said:

I had my girlfriend round Sunday morning and she watched the show with me and it was her first time watching the UFC. After the dull fights, the gross arm break and Trump being all over it I’m not sure she will watch another, although she instantly took a dislike to Strickland so maybe she will fit in around here lol. 

What a horrid introduction to MMA for her, main event aside. On the bold bit though…

[WeeAl]

A stinker of a show, redeemed only by a really entertaining main event. Dustin gave a hell of a performance in an uphill battle, but he was just dealing with the best, Islam, who kept plugging away until he found a way. The finishing takedown with the ankle pick was an unfortunate thing of beauty. Absolutely wanted Dustin to do it here, and he had his moments. He completely took it to Makhachev on the feet from the 2nd round onwards whenever he would ward off a takedown. Makhachev was able to give as good as he got though.

This kind of felt like Islam's version of Adesanya's fight with Gastelum. We know you can lead from the front, but when you've taken each other to the edge, will you find that extra gear in the 5th round to stand clear above your opponent? Well, he did. 

I hope this is it for Dustin now. We all know how MMA retirements go, but the only better way he could ever go out was to win here. He gave as good of an account of himself here as he could, in his third crack at it. It wasn't to be. At 35 already, he's been over his own personal mountain top and it's likely to be diminishing returns from here on out. Get out at the top of the game DP. Do that, and he'd be one of the few real winners. 

The rest of the card was mostly as much fun as being dragged to a christening with a hangover. That co-main event, I feel anyway, could have been such a different fight had Costa found a way to stand fucking still for even one round of the first three. For him to win here he was always going to have to make it a dog fight at some point in time and he didn't do it. Rely on your power and your chin and know that Strickland wouldn't have been able to live with it - but run the risk of gassing out. As it was he got tired as fuck anyway, whilst playing into Strickland's terribly tepid and boring feint, feint, feint, feint, push kick, feint, feint, feint, jab game. A howler of a fight. 

 

Edited June 4 by WeeAl

[wandshogun09]

Dustin’s homecoming…