UFC Abu Dhabi: Sandhagen vs Nurmagomedov - Aug 3 ??

[Zebra Kid Mark]

That was a very enjoyable show. 
 

Despite wanting him to lose, Umar proved that he is the real deal, it was a close fight but he had the edge in almost every round. This could have been a 10 round fight and I don’t think the result would have been any different. Who ever wins between Merab and O’Malley has their hands full. 
Umar going from ranked 10 to possibly ranked 2 is similar to O’Malley vs Yan a few years back. 
 

Chito/Figgy went exactly how everyone in this thread bar me predicted. There was an obvious size advantage but Chito just couldn’t capitalise on it. He has zero urgency in 3 round fights and he paid for it. I’m still not sold with Figgy at bantamweight, he’s just too small but he proved me wrong last night against a very big bantamweight. 
Bantamweight is such a fun division. Figgy vs Corey next. 

Shara bullet has the most exciting fight style to come out of Dagestan.

Poor Tony. He looked terrible here. Chiesa didn’t look too great either to be honest. I know it was short but until Chiesa took him down he looked scared to trade with a completely shot to bits Tony.

 

[wandshogun09]

Thought Umar looked great in the main event.

Like Zebra says above, just felt like he was a getting the better of just about every round. Sandhagen didn’t even perform badly, Umar just stayed a step ahead. Loved the grappling in this. Given the year layoff, I thought Sandhagen fought well and would’ve beat most 135ers on that kind of form. Umar really rose to the occasion here though and proved he’s legit. I just hope now that he can stay healthy and active because that’s the one thing that’s held him back and stalled his progress up to now. This was obviously his biggest win to date by far. It’d be a shame if he’s unable to capitalise on it and keep the momentum going.

On 8/4/2024 at 11:23 AM, Zebra Kid Mark said:

Umar going from ranked 10 to possibly ranked 2 is similar to O’Malley vs Yan a few years back. 

Very similar. It was a massive step up for him and he passed the test, proved he belongs and shut some doubters up. Like O’Malley beating Yan, a win over Sandhagen makes you undeniable. I saw Merab commented saying something like Umar’s getting special treatment and pushed because he’s Khabib’s cousin. What do people want exactly? Before Saturday night the criticism of Umar was that he ‘hadn't beat anyone’ and had a bit of a padded record. They throw him in with the #2 ranked guy, he wins and looks good doing it and now it’s preferential treatment? That’s a fight that could be very interesting though, isn’t it? Merab vs Umar. And if Merab beats O’Malley and becomes champ next month, we could be seeing that next year.

Shara Bullet fight was fun. It was perfect matchmaking really. Both just love to strike. The closer to the fight we got, I had a strong feeling Oleksiejczuk was gonna clobber him but in fairness to Shara he’s got a chin on him under that red beard. Oleksiejczuk was tagging him a fair bit and Shara soaked it up and still outstruck him. He’s got an entertaining style to watch against the right opponents but his ceiling definitely isn’t high. His defensive wrestling had looked sketchy before but seeing him getting taken down by a grapplephobe like Oleksiejczuk here wasn’t a good look. You know what else wasn’t a good look? Shara calling out NICK DIAZ in his post-fight interview. Get the fuck out.

Enjoyed Figgy vs Chito a lot. It never fully caught fire to become the all out war I was hoping for but I think it was a combination of Chito’s tendency to hold back too much at times plus Figgy picking his shots more and being a bit more methodical than he was in his younger days. Still a good fight, just fought at a slightly slower pace than I expected. The size difference when they were both in the cage was more clear than I anticipated but it didn’t seem to matter because Figgy was able to dictate the fight and force Chito to go into his shell at times. And if there was any doubt that Figgy’s power would carry up to Bantamweight…

Figgy becomes the first man to knock Chito down! I liked the body shots from him as well. Good stuff. One thing I’ll say in defence of Chito, I do wonder if this was a bit too quick of a turnaround for him after that bad drawn out beating he took from O’Malley in March. I know 5 months is usually a reasonable amount of time between fights but from a battering like that? I don’t know. As hard a hitter as Figgy is, Chito getting dropped for the first time in his career, by a smaller man, kind of adds to that theory as well. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad this fight happened. It’s one I wanted to see for a while. But maybe Chito should take a break.

On 8/4/2024 at 11:23 AM, Zebra Kid Mark said:

I’m still not sold with Figgy at bantamweight

Yeah, me neither to be honest. I’m a big fan of him and he’s done well to go 3-0 up in weight so late in his career. But I get the feeling this win over Chito is about as high as he goes at 135. Hope I’m wrong but I think the size is gonna become an issue at the very top level of the division. Grapplers like Merab and Umar likely overwhelm him and even in the striking, I think naturally bigger and better strikers like Aldo and O’Malley would give him major problems. Still, what’s the alternative? He’s a bit undersized at Bantamweight but I think the weight cut to Flyweight was clearly getting too much for him so he’s kind of in no man’s land.

On 8/4/2024 at 11:23 AM, Zebra Kid Mark said:

Figgy vs Corey next. 

I’d be up for that but I really wanna see Figgy vs Petr Yan now. Think Yan’s due back around November so maybe they whack that fight on the MSG card. Or better yet, let them headline a Fight Night and give them 5 rounds. That’s something I’d like to see from Figgy, how he does over 5 rounds at 135. I’d give Sandhagen either Aldo (if he wins this pointless Bautista fight) or the loser of O’Malley vs Merab.

Chiesa vs Ferguson went about as we all expected but at least it was mercifully short and relatively painless compared to most of Fergie’s losses on this depressing shit streak. Chiesa didn’t look great himself but we’re at the point now where it doesn’t take ‘great’ to beat Ferguson. The man’s shot to bits. Ferguson going back up to 170 just reeked of desperation and in the end he still got subbed in a round. It’s over. It’s been over for about 4 years. Eight bastard losses in a row!

The post-fight bit was as sad as the fight itself in a way. When they came back from the break and Ferguson had his gloves off, it got my hopes up. And when he got on the mic, at first it seemed like he was gonna finally retire. The long pause before he spoke made it seem like he was emotional and getting ready to call it a day. And from what he was saying - “I don’t wanna retire but I don’t wanna fight anywhere else but the UFC” - I think it’s obvious he’d been told this was his last chance. Then in typical Tony fashion it went all weird with him giving a completely noncommittal answer and only putting one glove on the canvas. Since Saturday night he already seems to have decided he’s definitely fighting again. With hindsight, that long pause before he spoke seems less about being emotional and more a case of him listening to the crowd reaction and mistaking them trying to give him a nice sendoff for wanting to see him carry on. At this point I’m convinced he’s never gonna stop. He’s another Bigfoot Silva. The fact the UFC kept him around this long is a disgrace, in my opinion. What was the end game? Was it just to keep him long enough to feed him to Paddy? What would’ve happened if he won this fight? Would that have reset the slump in the UFC’s eyes and he’d have been given another 8 chances? Fully expecting him to be getting diced up in BKFC by Mike Perry by the end of the year.

Solid performance from Mackenzie Dern over Loopy Godinez. Decent fight and a much needed win for Dern after a couple of rough losses. Loopy’s a strong grappler herself but whenever they were grappling, obviously Dern pulled rank on her. On the feet Dern was landing and overall she definitely did enough to take the decision. Still some bad habits in the striking from Dern though and I didn’t really see any evidence that she’s addressed those issues since Andrade chinned her. Not sure what’s next for Dern. Looking at the Strawweight rankings, there’s one fresh, interesting fight that jumps out and that’s Tatiana Suarez. But I could see Suarez getting the next shot at Zhang Weili’s gold so I’m not sure how likely that is. The rest above Dern in the rankings are all rematches. If it was up to me I’d do Zhang vs Jandiroba for the title and Suarez vs Dern.

Joel Alvarez put a right old beating on Elves Brener. Best Alvarez has looked in a while and it was after a year layoff which is even more impressive. Brener’s tough as shit, anyone who saw his fight with Kutateladze last year knows that. He was game and never stopped trying. But Alvarez took him apart pretty much and got the finish.

Again, the fact it took Alvarez until deep into the third to put Brener away is a testament to Brener’s toughness and heart. But Alvarez just looked a level above throughout in this one.

Azamat Murzakanov is growing on me. I was vague on him going in, mostly because he hasn’t been very active, but based on this showing he’s my kind of fighter.

Poor Menifield. He got fucking flattened there and the couple of follow ups on the ground were brutal. I liked what I saw here from Murzakanov though. Felt like a bit of a throwback fighter, sort of in the mould of a Tim Boetsch or something. Just a stocky, kind of chubby but strong ball of violence. If time machines were a thing, I feel like there’s a midcard classic to be had between Murzakanov and Fabio Maldonado. He’s 35 already so way too long in the tooth for the prospect tag. What he is now in terms of his skill set is basically what he’s gonna be for the remainder of his career. But he’s 14-0 so it’s been working for him up to now. Sod it, I’d throw him at a ranked opponent next. At 35 he hasn’t got time to piss about. Give him Johnny Walker or Dominick Reyes.

Kaue Fernandes had no bother with Mohammad Yahya. I couldn’t remember if I saw Yahya’s debut but I thought he looked pretty shit and out of his depth here. The lad looked terrified. Standing straight up, chin up high and just eating leg kicks until he couldn’t take any more. Easy one round demolition job for Fernandes.

The Heavyweight fight Gaziev vs Mayes, I got about 3 minutes in and it was looking exactly as awful as I’d imagined so I chose then to go and make something to eat and get a drink. Doesn’t sound like I missed anything.

Really enjoyed the Guram Kutateladze vs Jordan Vucenic fight. First time actually seeing Vucenic fight and I thought he looked fantastic in the first round. Really sharp in the striking, mixing up his attacks and even dropped Kutateladze. Whether it was the short notice, an adrenaline dump or Kutateladze just warming into the fight though, Vucenic fizzled out a bit. Kutateladze did well to come back from that opening round, get himself back in the fight and go on to win the decision. This was class…

Don’t recall seeing that before. Beautiful. Really good fight. Shame to see Vucenic come up short in his debut but part of me was happy to see Kutateladze come through adversity and get a win. He’s a quality fighter but he’s had a bit of a strange run in the UFC so far and he really needed a win and performance like this. I expect we’ll see better from Vucenic in the future. This was a tough assignment for his debut, especially on short notice, and he looked great in that first round. Looking forward to seeing both their next fights.

Sam Hughes vs Viktoriia Dudakova…nothing. I gave this no attention. We can probably forget any talk of Dudakova as any kind of prospect though. An undefeated fighter losing her ‘O’ to an 8-6 ham and egger doesn’t exactly bode well for the future, does it? Don’t care that it was a split decision or if some had Dudakova winning, a legit prospect wouldn’t be losing or even having a close fight at this kind of level.

Happy to see Jai Herbert get back in the win column. It’s been a while. Didn’t watch the fight closely, it was mostly background noise while my daughter was waffling the head off me. Jai looked alright from what I caught though. I usually enjoy watching him but sadly I think when it’s all done and dusted the peak of his UFC career will be that he once knocked Ilia Topuria down with a headkick (before Topuria came back and ironed him out).

Was only half watching the Sedriques Dumas fight. I would’ve skipped it had the card not started so early. Looked as shite as ever though. I wouldn’t usually wish anyone out of a job but Denis Tiuliulin needs sacking. That should be an unwritten rule. You lose to a bum like Dumas, you’re gone. Oh and once again fuck Dumas for his post-fight interview. “I ain’t no woman beater” - two seconds later - “that was in the past!” So which is it? Hopefully they feed him to someone good next time and he gets sparked into oblivion.

 

Really enjoyable card all in all and just shows that having a lot of decisions on a card doesn’t necessarily mean it’s boring. Prelims were shite apart from Murzakanov vs Menifield and Kutateladze vs Vucenic. But the main card was quality. 

Edited August 6 by wandshogun09