UFC 305: Du Plessis vs Adesanya - Aug 17 ??

[wandshogun09]

Back ‘Down Under’. The Octagon heads to Perth for this one. Probably gonna be a long read…

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Dricus Du Plessis©️vs Israel Adesanya - Middleweight Title

Kai Kara-France vs Steve Erceg 

Mateusz Gamrot vs Dan Hooker 

Tai Tuivasa vs Jairzinho Rozenstruik 

Li Jingliang vs Carlos Prates  

ESPN PRELIMS
Junior Tafa vs Valter Walker

Josh Culibao vs Ricardo Ramos 

Casey O’Neill vs Luana Santos

Jack Jenkins vs Herbert Burns  

ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS 
Tom Nolan vs Alex Reyes

Song Kenan vs Ricky Glenn  

Stewart Nicoll vs Jesus Aguilar 

 

I’m not in love with this. It’s not a bad card. The main event should be interesting and it’s a big fight, although I’m already kind of dreading the build up. And there are some alright fights scattered throughout the undercard. But it just feels like something is missing to me. I really like the KKF vs Erceg fight but I think if you whack a 5 round co-main event of, say, Alexander Volkanovski vs Charles Oliveira on there…then it completely changes the look of this card overall. Oh well. This isn’t the final, confirmed bout order either by the way. I’ll edit as usual as the card takes shape. 

 

Dricus Du Plessis vs Israel Adesanya is your Perth headliner. Big fight, probably the biggest the UFC can make at Middleweight at the moment. But I’ve got to say, I’m not in love with the idea of Adesanya outright getting another title shot in his next fight after losing the strap. I kind of got it when he got the immediate rematch against Alex Pereira last year because Izzy had been a dominant champion going into that first fight and was probably winning the fight up until he got stopped in the last round. OK. But this time? Coming off a lopsided decision loss to fucking Sean Strickland of all people?! Nah. I think he should’ve had to beat at least one top contender to earn another crack. That Strickland loss was almost a year ago now as well. But you know the score. Adesanya’s one of the UFC’s biggest stars and they obviously wanna capitalise on the natural rivalry that’s been building between him and DDP. Prepare yourself for an ugly build up. They did a press conference when this card was announced, I didn’t watch it but saw quotes and snippets and it seems like the whole build up is gonna be centred around who’s ‘more African’ and so on.

These two have been on a collision course for over a year now. Obviously, Adesanya was Middleweight champ from 2019-22 initially and had been an active champion, successfully defending the belt 5 times before losing it to Alex Pereira and then regaining it in April 2023. In the history of the division, he’d pretty much have to be considered the second greatest Middleweight of all time behind the legendary Anderson Silva. In 2020 though, a new face from South Africa entered the Octagon. Du Plessis was 14-2 when he made his UFC debut and was a two weight champ in the EFC promotion in South Africa.

Almost as soon as Du Plessis got in the door, the seeds were first planted for the rivalry with Izzy. In his UFC debut in October 2020, he scored a first round knockout over Markus Perez. Adesanya was champion at the time and on top of his game and Du Plessis was already name dropping him post-fight when talking to the media.

”I said it before, if you don’t have a mission to be the greatest of all time, you shouldn’t be here. I wanna be the greatest to ever do this sport. And who’s at the top of the pile? Whoever has that belt. It’s nothing personal against Adesanya, I’m not calling him out per se, I’m calling out the guy who has the belt. Right now I’m chasing that Top 20 and, whoever the UFC gives me next, I’ll go through them and I’ll go through whoever I need to go through to get that belt, as soon as possible.” - Dricus Du Plessis

Pretty standard stuff there, nothing major. But that was immediately after his debut fight. He wasn’t fucking around. I’ve went back and watched his interviews from early on in his UFC career rather than just reading quotes in text and, just the way he’s talking, you can see and hear the self belief and confidence there. He was making his intentions known from the day he arrived. From there he won his next 4 fights, taking him to 5-0 with 4 finishes in the UFC. But while he’d been entertaining to watch, his style was a bit reckless and goofy and his best wins in the UFC were over a fading Darren Till and an ageing Derek Brunson.

Around the time of the Brunson win is when things started really picking up. It was March 2023 and, at that time, that spell of having three African UFC champs (Ngannou, Izzy, Usman) had come to an end. Ngannou had just left the UFC, Usman had lost to Edwards and Izzy hadn’t yet won the belt back from Pereira. At this time, there were no African champs in the UFC and DDP was asked if he was sad that none of the belts were currently in Africa…

“Did those belts ever go to Africa? As far as I know, they came to America and New Zealand. I’M gonna take a belt to Africa. I’M the African fighting in the UFC. Myself and Cameron Saaiman. We breathe African air, we wake up in Africa every day, we train in Africa, we’re African born, we’re African raised, we still reside in Africa, we train out of Africa. That’s an African champion and that’s who I’ll be.” - Dricus Du Plessis

Of course, this ruffled some feathers. I’m sure all three - Adesanya, Usman and Ngannou - commented at the time that they didn’t like his comments but obviously, Izzy being in the same division as him, he was the most vocal. I can’t be arsed with any of it myself. I remember we talked about it on here at the time and I think there’s definitely an element of Adesanya not liking some of the home truths. The fact is, he is African but he probably does spend most of his time NZ/Aus. DDP wasn’t lying in what he said. But still, he knew what he was doing by saying it and it’s just opened up a can of worms that invites all kinds of nasty shit that we don’t really need to see in a build up to a professional MMA fight. Du Plessis did clear it up, a bit, in a later interview…

“I’ve never said the words ‘more African’ in my life. I didn’t say they were not African. I stated facts. I am the only one in title contention ever to be born in Africa, live in Africa and train there every single day. That was my statement. I’m sticking with that because that is the fact. I never said the words ‘I’m more African’. I never said that they were not Africans or that they were fake Africans. I never said that in my life, I simply stated the facts. He’s referred to himself as a Kiwi, he’s referred to himself as Chinese, he’s referred to himself as Nigerian. At the end of the day, he’s born in Africa. He is African. But he does not reside here and that is the fact. That is what makes me and him different.” - Dricus Du Plessis

I mean, I get it. Technically what he’s saying is right. But if he wasn’t trying to insinuate he’s ’more African’, why would he bring it up in the first place? He was asked for his thoughts on the UFC going from having three African champions to none, there’s a couple of ways he could’ve answered that and he chose to have a dig. I don’t really like Adesanya but however you chop it up, and as much as DDP says he didn’t say ‘more African’ or whatever, how can you look at his comments as anything other than him having a bit of a pop at those guys? Whether what he’s saying is factually correct or not isn’t the issue, his intent was clearly to take a bit of a shot at Adesanya. I don’t think he was arsed about Ngannou or Usman, they were just collateral damage. But he wanted to get under Izzy’s skin and it worked. As a fan it’s fucking tiresome though and I hope it doesn’t dominate the build up as much as I’m dreading it will.

Anyway, that was all just after the Brunson fight. And when DDP’s next fight was announced as being against Robert Whittaker at UFC 290 in July last year, I fully expected him to hit his ceiling hard and get outclassed and chinned by Whittaker. So I didn’t think the needle between him and Adesanya was ultimately gonna matter. Like I said, as fun as I’d found DDP to watch at this point, I just thought he was a bit too wild and sloppy and I thought Whittaker was definitely a step too far for him.

To the surprise of most, and definitely me, Du Plessis battered Bobby Knuckles to a second round TKO. This was the turning point for me. Up until then, he was just an exciting but goofy fighter to me. Him doing that to Whittaker was a right shock but he stepped up and put in the best performance of his career that night. It was a huge card going in and it turned out to be one of the best in UFC history. And DDP’s surprise thumping of former champ Whittaker was a big talking point coming out of the show. Not just for the performance itself but also the post-fight drama…

Yep. Adesanya was in attendance and they had their little face-off in the cage. It wasn’t pretty. Adesanya dragged it down by repeatedly calling Du Plessis the ‘N word’ and babbling on about Africa. Very little was said about the actual fight it was all just racial slurs and a sarcastic “my African brother”. Just an awkward moment. Looking at it again just now, it really seemed like Adesanya saying the ‘N word’ over and over in DDP’s face was him trying to get DDP to say it back to make him the arsehole but thankfully DDP didn’t.

I remember the plan at that time was to do Adesanya vs Du Plessis at UFC 293 in September, which would be in Sydney. It seemed like the perfect card to host that fight…other than the fact it would require a very quick turnaround for Du Plessis. He’d literally just fought Whittaker in July so expecting him to turn right back around, stay in camp and fly around the world to Australia just 8 weeks later was far from ideal. Especially as his first crack at the title. It felt like the UFC were stacking the odds in Izzy’s favour there. As it turned out, DDP had an injury anyway and wasn’t gonna be good to go in September. So Adesanya decided to take a tick over title defence against Strickland. And we know what happened there.

?

Still can’t believe that actually happened. And it’s gotta be said, Izzy looked pretty shite if we’re being honest. This wasn’t some controversial decision. He was dropped early, never got back in the fight and was outworked and soundly beaten. The funny thing was, going into that Strickland fight Adesanya was saying something about giving the winner of Khamzat Chimaev vs Paulo Costa (which never even ended up happening but was scheduled for 294 in October at this time) the next title shot. Clearly just to spite Du Plessis and deny him his title shot but it was also quite telling that he seemed to be completely overlooking Strickland. That came back to bite him on the arse obviously. Adesanya hasn’t fought since. So by the time this DDP fight finally rolls around, he’ll have been out of action 11 months. And again, he’s done absolutely fuck all to earn yet another title shot in his next fight after losing it in a one way traffic decision.

Du Plessis put us all out of our misery at UFC 297 in January. He put a merciful end to the short reign of Strickland, beating him on points in a close fight. Can’t even remember how I scored that one now, it wasn’t exactly a convincing win for DDP but I was happy with the result all the same! The strap was off Strickland. That’s all that mattered. The decision was debated and Strickland’s wallybrained fans were crying about it for days and coming up with all kinds of mad conspiracy theories about why their man was ‘robbed’. The usual bollocks. Dana was saying he had Strickland winning as well and I still don’t think he’d forgiven Du Plessis yet for not ‘sucking it up’ and fighting Izzy in September on a quick turnaround. But you know what he’s like. Du Plessis vs Adesanya is the biggest fight at 185 and that overrides everything. It was gonna be next no matter what.

I was saying for months that I felt like DDP vs Izzy was gonna be the UFC 300 headliner. That was the one I kept coming back to when we were all speculating what the main event was gonna be. I still think it was the plan and Izzy kind of confirmed it with this childish comment…

“It would have been nice if old Du Pussy would have been like ‘Yeah, let’s fight’, but again, ‘Aw, my pussy hurts’. So he didn’t wanna fight at UFC 300. It’s all good. It’s whatever. He said something like ‘I guess he didn’t wanna fight me - the King of Africa - on home soil.’ N***a, you didn’t wanna fight ME on home soil (at 293 in Sydney) so shut the fuck up.” - Israel Adesanya

Anyone else find Adesanya absolutely insufferable the more you hear him speak? Also, his whole beef with Du Plessis is about being African yet he’s said himself right there that he classes Sydney as “home soil”. Just can’t be doing with him. As for DDP, he seems to be loving life as UFC champion and it sounds like he’s more motivated than ever to win this fight and leave Perth with the gold still intact.

“It’s been great. It’s been everything that I expected, everything that I hoped for, and better. And training-wise, once I got that belt, I got a fire under me. A lot of people might think once you win that belt, you lose some of that hunger. I always said it, becoming UFC champion is not my end goal. Not at all. There’s a new hunger. There’s that championship hunger because now I’m defending my throne, and I’ll do anything to defend that throne.”

“In training, the team, everybody’s stepped it up because now they’re going up against the world champion. Everybody wants to land a shot on the world champion. If you can give the world champ a hard time, you’re not far off getting that big shot. My team’s amazing. The coaches, everybody’s stepped it up. Everybody realised, we are now world champions and we should behave as such when it comes to training. Just another level.”

“I’m fighting against arguably one of the greatest Middleweights ever. And I have to go out there and prove that I am that guy. That’s what this fight is going to mean to me. It’s going to mean ‘I told you I belong here.’ This fight is going to mean that Dricus Du Plessis is now in the conversation of being one of the greatest Middleweights ever.” - Dricus Du Plessis

It’s a fight that’s got a lot of people talking. Not just fans and media. Other fighters have been fairly vocal. For what it’s worth, Alex Pereira is backing and rooting for his old rival Adesanya to win. Robert Whittaker, who’s probably the most qualified man on the roster to give his two cents having fought both, is leaning towards DDP. Then there’s Adesanya’s City Kickboxing teammate Dan Hooker saying Izzy’s been packing on size in his time away and is walking around at about 230lbs these days! Take that for what it’s worth. Not sure being bigger is gonna play to Izzy’s strengths but we’ll see. Then there’s Themba Gorimbo who just seems put off by all the talk about who’s more African, he’s been quoted as saying it’s uncomfortable and “does nothing for Africa other than divide”. It feels like a fight that everyone’s got an opinion on. And the fight itself, I’m definitely looking forward to. It’ll be interesting to see how Izzy looks coming off that Strickland loss and the time off. More than anything physical, he just looked mentally out of ideas in that fight, which was odd. I feel like he’s got the tools in his locker to potentially make DDP look a bit silly here but then it might be a case where DDP is just hungrier at this stage in both their careers. He’s younger, fresher, he’s just hit that top level and all those big fights and paydays are in front of him. Whereas Adesanya’s been there and done that. And truth be told, Izzy’s not looked great in most of his fights over the last few years. He was mostly winning but there seemed to be a steady decline in his actual performances to me. He fought well in the Pereira fights but I think that’s probably because of who he was in there with, the threat Pereira posed and the extra motivation for Izzy to finally beat him. Maybe this ‘Battle for Africa’ will provide Izzy with the motivation he needs here but my early feeling is I think DDP might just be catching Adesanya at the right time.

 

Kai Kara-France vs Steve Erceg ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** here. New Zealand vs Australia. Not the strongest co-main event names-wise but this is a cracking fight. I’m not sure if it’s a 3 rounder or 5 but I wouldn’t hate this being given 5 rounds at all. It’s not the most stacked card but this is definitely the fight that stands out most for me as the likely show stealer.

We haven’t seen Kai Kara-France since last June, when he lost a bit of an iffy decision to Amir Albazi in their Apex main event. I remember that being a good fight but, while I’d stop short of calling it a ‘robbery’, I do recall thinking Kai was unlucky to not get the decision. Despite coming off 2 losses and the year of inactivity, he’s still ranked #4 at Flyweight as I type this. So it’s not gonna take too much for him to get back in the mix. Couple of strong wins and he could be right back in business. Especially now it’s Pantoja holding the belt. Kai is 0-2 against Brandon Moreno so he was unlikely to get a title shot while Moreno was champion. But while Erceg is still lower ranked, he has just fought for the title and ran the champ close, so a win here would go a long way to re-establishing KKF as a potential title challenger.

Steve Erceg is a guy none of us were that familiar with until fairly recently. He’s just turned 28, has a record of 12-2 and he came into the UFC just over a year ago with little to no fanfare. He’d fought exclusively on the Australian circuit before the UFC came calling and nothing really stood out about his record or previous opponents. He won a couple of decisions over David Dvorak and Alessandro Costa in his first two UFC fights. I remember really liking the Costa fight but, still, nothing particularly mind blowing about him. In March this year though, he scored a beauty of a left hook KO against Matt Schnell, the kind of knockout that gets you noticed. And it worked. With the champ Pantoja a bit short on interesting contenders, it pretty much came down to Muhammad Mokaev or Erceg. They both fought on that same card in March. Erceg got that big KO win over Schnell but Mokaev went to a dull decision against Alex Perez. That was that. I think that was clearly the deciding factor. The matchmakers got some criticism from fans who thought Mokaev was more deserving, and obviously Mokaev himself wasn’t too pleased. But I think it was just a case of them having these two possible contenders and just throwing them on the same card and whoever won more impressively would get the title shot. I don’t think it was anything more complicated than that.

It went down at UFC 301 in May. Erceg took the opportunity on a quick turnaround and had to go to Pantoja’s backyard in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I think a lot of fans and media didn’t really know what to expect. Erceg had looked good to this point but Pantoja was obviously the more proven and tested of the two. He was experienced, durable, a killer grappler first and foremost but also pretty well rounded and he’d already beat the likes of Moreno x3, Royval x2, Perez, Kape and Schnell, as well as going the distance in a great fight with Figgy. He was as tried and tested as it gets in the Flyweight division. And he was the champ, defending on his home turf. To say it was gonna be a big ask for Erceg would be an understatement. But if he was supposed to be cannon fodder, he didn’t get the memo.

He went 5 gruelling rounds with Pantoja, took the fight to him and gave him all he could handle. It was a tremendous fight, one of the best so far this year for me. But ultimately Pantoja edged a close decision and retained the title. It was one of those fights though, where the loser didn’t seem like a loser at the end. Erceg absolutely came out of that fight with higher stock than he went in with. In the end, it kind of all came down to one big mistake Erceg made. I had them 2-2 going into the last round, I think most had it scored like that. But Erceg’s decision to shoot for a takedown, at a crucial point in the 5th and final round, ended up costing him big time. There’s no guarantee he’d have won if not for that, but it turned out to be a massive error and one that I’m sure has kept him awake at night over the 3 months since. The positive to take from it is, he’s not even 30 yet and only has 14 pro fights to his name. If we’re being honest, the title shot probably came a few fights too early for him anyway. Yet he still fought that well, against a great fighter in Pantoja, and the title was within his reach. He’s still fairly young, time is on his side and it feels like he only needs to tighten up a few things and make some minor adjustments and he could be holding that UFC gold before too long. Before that Pantoja fight, we never knew that but even in defeat he showed he’s clearly on that level. Despite still only being ranked #9. A win here over a top ranked fighter could see Erceg right back in another title fight by the end of 2024/early 2025. Not sure how this goes and KKF’s layoff makes it harder to call, but I’d like to see Erceg get it done and get back in the mix. As big a Pantoja fan as I am, it was hard not to feel bad for Erceg the way he lost that one. Whatever happens, this should be a really fun fight.

 

Mateusz Gamrot vs Dan Hooker, purely as a matchup, is a good fight. I feel like Gamrot should be getting something closer to the title mix at this point though. No disrespect to Hooker but he’s ranked #11 and hasn’t fought in over a year. Gamrot’s ranked #5 and his name was being thrown around as a potential challenger for Islam Makhachev recently. Obviously that’s not happening now, all signs are pointing towards Arman Tsarukyan getting the title shot in October and Tsarukyan was the UFC’s first choice even before Dustin Poirier got the shot in June. I guess Gamrot just wanted to get a fight in. Both of these two were briefly linked to possible matchups against Charles Oliveira recently, and that’s a fight that I feel would’ve made sense for Gamrot. But here we are. Like I say, I don’t hate the fight at all. Should be good.

Poland’s Gamrot is 33 years old now and has a record of 24-2-0-1 with 13 finishes. He was a two-weight champion in KSW at both Featherweight and Lightweight before making his UFC debut in 2020. Since then he’s looked pretty solid, although there’s asterisks next to a couple of his fights for me. In his UFC debut he dropped a split decision against Guram Kutateladze, that I felt Gamrot won. It was a great fight but I thought Gamrot was hard done by with the judging. Then in 2022, Gamrot won a controversial decision over Tsarukyan that I definitely had Tsarukyan winning. So I guess it evened itself out in the end. He had that points loss to Beneil Dariush but since then he’s gone 3-0 over Jalin Turner and the Rafaels - Fiziev and Dos Anjos. Even then though, the Turner fight was another split decision, that I also recall being a bit dodgy, and the Fiziev fight ended due to injury when Fiziev’s knee went out on him. So yeah, not much of Gamrot’s UFC run has been straightforward. The RDA win last time out in March was fine, no controversy there, but RDA’s also 39 years old now. I don’t know. Gamrot’s obviously a skilled fighter but it always feels like there’s just an ingredient missing for me. He’ll wrestle guys to death and gets in good positions but, at the higher levels at least, there doesn’t seem to be any real consequences or threat once he’s got them where he wants them.

Hooker’s gone a bit mad with the ink since we last saw him. He last fought at UFC 290 in July 2023 where he had that banger against Jalin Turner. Hooker won via split decision, many had Turner winning, can’t remember how I scored it. All I remember is it was one of the best fights of last year. Seriously, it kind of got lost in the shuffle on such a great card with so much going on but it was a fantastic scrap. Hooker was supposed to fight Bobby Green in a 5 rounder after that, on that Texas Fight Night in December, but an injury took him out. He’s been out a whole year. He’s said that the UFC and his own management didn’t want him to fight on this card for some reason. Not sure why that would be? But he was pushing hard for it. Apparently the UFC wanted him to wait and either be in a Fight Night main event against Dariush or headline the Paris card against Benoit Saint-Denis but he was adamant he wanted to fight in Perth. He hasn’t fought in New Zealand since 2020 or Australia since 2019, so he’s been itching to get back there. And to be fair, unless there’s a legit reason like an injury or health issue, I can’t see why the matchmakers or Hooker‘s team would be against it. He’s been out long enough, it’s understandable he wants back in there. It’s a tough task ahead of him though. Coming straight back against a machine like Gamrot, there were much more favourable matchups he could’ve taken.

 

Tai Tuivasa vs Jairzinho Rozenstruik I’m neither here nor there on really. I feel like a proper stuck record when it comes to the Heavyweights but it really is usually a case of - if it goes past the first round it’s probably gonna be fucking wank. I think this could be a fun one round slobberknocker but you just never know with the big lads. They both last fought in March and both in Apex headliners. Tuivasa got submitted by Marcin Tybura in a round, taking him to an abysmal 0-4 in his last 4 fights, and he was finished in all 4 of them. Rozenstruik stopped Shamil Gaziev in 4 rounds of one of the worst fights of the year when Gaziev was too knackered to come out for the 5th round. They’re both pretty much solely ‘stand and bangers’ with no grappling so you’d expect this to stay on the feet. Hopefully one clips the other early and it’s short and sweet. I find both quite likeable so I’m hoping they don’t shit the bed here and they at least produce something watchable. But yeah, anything longer than a round and it’s probably gonna descend into a right mess.

 

Li Jingliang vs Carlos Prates. They found ‘The Leech’! Don’t know where Jingliang’s been but we haven’t seen him since that mad UFC 279 card in September 2022. If you remember, that was the show that was supposed to be headlined by Khamzat Chimaev vs Nate Diaz but Khamzat missed weight badly and caused the whole card to be shuffled. Jingliang had been scheduled to face Tony Ferguson that night but the card shakeup left him paired off against Daniel Rodriguez in the end. He wound up losing a split decision but from what I recall most had him winning.

Almost a full 2 years later, he’s back. I don’t mind Jingliang but I do find it quite amusing how nobody really seemed to give much of a shite about him until he rocked up to a press conference in a sharp suit that time. It’s amazing what will impress MMA fans. The matchmakers aren’t really doing him any favours here. I like what we’ve seen of Prates so far. He turns 31 the very day of this show and he’s got a record of 19-6 with 17 of his wins not making it to the judges scorecards. He won on DWCS last summer and he’s gone 2-0 in the UFC so far this year. He knocked out Trevin Giles in his debut in February, then completely folded Charles Radtke with a brutal knee to the body in his next fight in June. Both were at the Apex though so it’ll be nice to see him getting the full big card experience here.

 

Junior Tafa vs Valter Walker is happening. Maybe. You know the Tafas. No doubt Junior will drop out with the shits on fight week and brother Justin will replace him again. They love a switcheroo, the Tafa brothers. Junior stepped in for Justin last time out in February. Justin withdrew the day before the show so Junior jumped in against Marcos Rogerio De Lima…and got stopped by leg kicks. He looked bad overall in that fight but that’s why stepping in on less than 24 hours notice isn’t a good idea! Valter Walker can piss off though. I was actually looking forward to his UFC debut just because he’s Johnny Walker’s brother and I was hoping for similar weirdness. Instead, him and Lukasz Brzeski went out and had perhaps THE worst fight of 2024 to date. He was undefeated coming in and from the clips I’d seen he did look like he might be entertaining in a weird way like his brother. It was fucking terrible stuff though. Unless I’m up watching the prelims live, I might just give this fight a miss. His debut was that bad, I think I’m ‘one and done’ with him.

 

Josh Culibao vs Ricardo Ramos is fine undercard filler. Probably be an enjoyable fight. Aussie Culibao is 11-3-1 and coming off back-to-back points losses but his fight with Danny Silva in March was a lot of fun. And to be fair, he only lost a razor thin split decision that night and his previous loss was to Lerone Murphy. No shame there. Brazil’s Ramos is 28 and has been subbed by Charles Jourdain and Julian Erosa in his last two outings. Not ideal. He’s not great but he’s had his moments. Most memorable being his couple of spinning elbow stoppages over Aiemann Zahabi and Danny Chavez. Like I said, nothing earth shattering but solid enough prelim filler.

 

Casey O’Neill vs Luana Santos wasn’t the original plan. O’Neill was all set to fight Tereza Bleda here but Bleda’s out. This is no better, no worse. It’s just there really. O’Neill is Scottish/Aussie, 26 years old and has a 9-2 record. At one point she was being talked up as a decent prospect and she did go 9-0 initially. But I’ve never particularly rated her. Her best wins are Antonina Shevchenko and Roxanne Modafferi. And the Modafferi decision was highly questionable, as I recall. Since then she’s lost on points to Jennifer Maia and then her last fight in December she got armbarred by Ariane Lipski. Santos steps in on about 3 weeks notice…

…I approve.

She’s 24 years old and has a record of 8-1 with 5 finishes. I was a bit critical of her first couple of UFC performances. She stopped Juliana Miller in a round but looked very sloppy, then she missed weight and beat Stephanie Egger by decision in a snoozer. I wasn’t sold and basically wrote her off. I might’ve been harsh though, to be fair. I read she had some health problems and an issue with her thyroid which was the main reason she missed weight. She just fought on the Denver card in mid July and I thought she looked a lot better in her submission win over Mariya Agapova. We’ll see. Jury’s still out for me until she starts facing better competition but maybe she’s better than I initially thought.

 

Jack Jenkins vs Herbert Burns could be fun. Was supposed to be Jenkins against Gavin Tucker. Tucker’s out, Burns is in on around 3 week’s notice and it might be a better fight than the original for me. I’m not that fussed about Burns. He got off to a solid start and he does have a first round finish over Nate Landwehr on his record. But he’s been stopped in his last 3 fights in a row now by Daniel Pineda, Bill Algeo and Julio Arce. And it wasn’t just that he lost, he seemed to completely unravel once he knew it wasn’t gonna be easy. He’s got some skills but it’s like he hasn’t really got the stomach for a hard scrap. Front runner syndrome. I think it’s clear at this point that, when it comes to the Burns family, Gilbert got the MMA genes. Jenkins is the main reason I’m looking forward to this…

Spice up your life!

I’ve enjoyed the fights I’ve seen out of Jenkins so far. He’s from Melbourne, 31 years old and 12-3 with 8 finishes. He had a couple of entertaining points wins over Don Shainis and Jamall Emmers that I vaguely recall being decent. He was unfortunate to get injured in his last fight though. He fought Chepe Mariscal at UFC 293 in Sydney last September and it was another good fight while it lasted. But Jenkins got taken down in the second round, dislocated his elbow on the landing and that was that. He’s been on the shelf almost a year since. This could be a nice bounce back for him. He might have to weather an early storm but, based on old Herbert’s last few fights, I feel like if Jenkins can get through that he should outlast him and take over.

 

Tom Nolan vs Alex Reyes might actually be worth tuning in early for. I’ve liked the little I’ve seen of Nolan. And he’s Australian so it’s nice to see him getting a spot on this card. He’s 24 years old, 7-1 with 5 knockouts and has gone 1-1 in the UFC so far. Couldn’t have had a much worse UFC debut, he got put on his arse and stopped in about a minute by Nikolas Motta back in January. He bounced back in style in May though, with his own first round TKO.

A crushing knee to the body just completely took Victor Martinez out. Even if Nolan hadn’t followed up with the punches, I highly doubt Martinez was gonna be able to continue. He was done. Nolan’s got flaws. He got dropped again by Martinez before coming through with that finish. But he’s definitely exciting to watch. I said last time that there’s something about him that reminds me of Carlos Condit when I watch him fight. High praise I know, and I’m not saying he’ll be as successful as Condit was, but in that last fight anyway, there were shades of Condit for me. Reyes is the older brother of Light Heavyweight Dominick Reyes. He’s 37 years old with a record of 13-4, all finishes. He’s actually been on the UFC’s books since 2017 but he’s only fought twice in all that time for some reason. He got knocked out in a round in his debut by Mike Perry in September 2017. Then he never fought for six years and came back last September only to get finished in a round again by Charlie Campbell. Definitely feels like they’re trying to set Nolan up with a showcase win to make the Aussie crowd happy. We’ll see if it plays out like that but, honestly, Nolan should be winning this one given Reyes’ age, form and lack of activity.

 

Song Kenan vs Ricky Glenn is just another making up the numbers prelim. Both guys have been on the roster years and their fights basically come and go without anyone even noticing. Song’s 34 years old and has a record of 20-8 with 17 finishes. He’s been in the UFC since 2017 but hasn’t beaten anyone of note in that time. The most significant fight he’s been involved in would be the Ian Garry fight last year and Garry stopped him in the third round. He comes into this fight off a decision loss to Kevin Jousset in December. Glenn’s 35 with a 22-8-2 record and he’s been in the UFC since 2016. He’s got wins over Philipe Nover (remember him? The ‘next GSP’ from TUF?), Gavin Tucker and Dennis Bermudez but they were years ago. He also took Grant Dawson to a draw in 2021. But his last two fights he’s been put away by Christos Giagos and Drew Dober in the first round.

 

Stewart Nicoll vs Jesus Aguilar is currently set to kick off the Fight Pass prelims. Never seen or heard of Nicoll before, this’ll be his UFC debut. He’s from Brisbane, Australia though so she should get strong crowd support here. He’s 29 years old and undefeated at 8-0 with 7 of his wins coming inside the distance, 5 of them in the first round. I don’t recognise any of the names on his record but he’s off to as good a start as he could’ve hoped for. Aguilar’s Mexican, 28 years old and 10-2 with 7 finishes. He got subbed in a round in his UFC debut by Tatsuro Taira but has responded with back-to-back wins. He beat Mateus Mendonca by split decision on home soil on the Mexico City card in February. Before that he absolutely sparked Shannon Ross with a 17 second one punch KO at UFC 290 last July. Might be a lively one this. Crowd will probably be hot with an Aussie in the first fight of the night and I think Aguilar should make for a good scrap with him.

 

G’Day…

Edited August 16 by wandshogun09

[Carbomb]

3 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

Around the time of the Brunson win is when things started really picking up. It was March 2023 and, at that time, that spell of having three African UFC champs (Ngannou, Izzy, Usman) had come to an end. Ngannou had just left the UFC, Usman had lost to Edwards and Izzy hadn’t yet won the belt back from Pereira. At this time, there were no African champs in the UFC and DDP was asked if he was sad that none of the belts were currently in Africa…

“Did those belts ever go to Africa? As far as I know, they came to America and New Zealand. I’M gonna take a belt to Africa. I’m the African fighting in the UFC. Myself and Cameron Saaiman. WE breathe African air, we wake up in Africa every day, we train in Africa, we’re African born, we’re African raised, we still reside in Africa, we train out of Africa. That’s an African champion and that’s who I’ll be.” - Dricus Du Plessis

Of course, this ruffled some feathers. I’m sure all three - Adesanya, Usman and Ngannou - commented at the time that they didn’t like his comments but obviously, Izzy being in the same division as him, he was the most vocal. I can’t be arsed with any of it myself. I remember we talked about it on here at the time and I think there’s definitely an element of Adesanya not liking some of the home truths. The fact is, he is African but he probably does spend most of his time NZ/Aus. DDP wasn’t lying in what he said. But still, he knew what he was doing by saying it and it’s just opened up a can of worms that invites all kinds of nasty shit that we don’t really need to see in a build up to a professional MMA fight. Du Plessis did clear it up, a bit, in a later interview…

“I’ve never said the words ‘more African’ in my life. I didn’t say they were not African. I stated facts. I am the only one in title contention ever to be born in Africa, live in Africa and train there every single day. That was my statement. I’m sticking with that because that is the fact. I never said the words ‘I’m more African’. I never said that they were not Africans or that they were fake Africans. I never said that in my life, I simply stated the facts. He’s referred to himself as a Kiwi, he’s referred to himself as Chinese, he’s referred to himself as Nigerian. At the end of the day, he’s born in Africa. He is African. But he does not reside here and that is the fact. That is what makes me and him different.” - Dricus Du Plessis

I mean, I get it. Technically what he’s saying is right. But if he wasn’t trying to insinuate he’s ’more African’, why would he bring it up in the first place? He was asked for his thoughts on the UFC going from having three African champions to none, there’s a couple of ways he could’ve answered that and he chose to have a dig. I don’t really like Adesanya but however you chop it up, and as much as DDP says he didn’t say ‘more African’ or whatever, how can you look at his comments as anything other than him having a bit of a pop at those guys? Whether what he’s saying is factually correct or not isn’t the issue, his intent was clearly to take a bit of a shot at Adesanya. I don’t think he was arsed about Ngannou or Usman, they were just collateral damage. But he wanted to get under Izzy’s skin and it worked. As a fan it’s fucking tiresome though and I hope it doesn’t dominate the build up as much as I’m dreading it will.

Truth be told, I read it as him wanting to prove that Africa is legit as a place for producing world-level fighters, that you don't have to move to different continents to get elite-level training, hence the "live in Africa and train there every single day".

But he's put it very clumsily, not to mention he's clearly not carefully considered the optics of a white Saffa saying this to three black African champions. That was always going to rub them up the wrong way.

That said, I don't mind him pissing off Adesanya, who is an Andrew Tate fan and therefore a massive dickhead.

3 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

Song Kenan vs Ricky Glenn Hatton

 

[wandshogun09]

1 hour ago, Carbomb said:

Truth be told, I read it as him wanting to prove that Africa is legit as a place for producing world-level fighters, that you don't have to move to different continents to get elite-level training, hence the "live in Africa and train there every single day".

But he's put it very clumsily, not to mention he's clearly not carefully considered the optics of a white Saffa saying this to three black African champions. That was always going to rub them up the wrong way.

This probably sums it up. He probably did mean it that way but it came out sounding like a dig. Once it was out there was no going back and you know how Adesanya is. He was always gonna jump all over it.

I did end up watching the recent press conference thing earlier. There is obviously some of this Africa talk in there but it’s not as bad as I expected, in fairness. It doesn’t dominate the whole thing anyway. 

 

[TibBo]

DDP was asked "Does it bum you out there's not as much gold potentially going back (to Africa) the next time they (UFC) go (to do an event), or do you see this as an opportunity? Now you do get to be the guy if and when they (UFC) show up to Africa (to do another event)?"

To which DDP replies " I mean, did those belts ever go to Africa?  As far as I know it came to America and New Zealand.  I'm going to take a belt to Africa."

They aren't talking about the other African fighters.  He was literally asked about a belt physically being based-in/going-to Africa, and none of the other guys are based there.  He never said anything about being 'More African' than them or whatever.

In all fairness it was a woefully worded question in the first place, and I'm not sure if language barriers played a part in that, but I definitely didn't interpret in the way other folks seemed to.

[wandshogun09]

Sure. I’ve included the quotes already and he clearly didn’t specifically say that. But of course he was talking about the other African fighters. Of course he was. Why else would he specifically mention that the belts came to the US and New Zealand? Of course he had Izzy in mind when he said that. He definitely never said “more African” and I doubt he meant anything like that in a literal sense but he was probably having a dig about Adesanya claiming Africa but training and living in New Zealand or whatever. I think the wording from both the guy asking the question and DDP was a bit wonky. 

I don’t even know if I’m wording this right and I’m bored of it already ?

[wandshogun09]

Fight week then. This one’s come around quick, hasn’t it? Got to say I’m not feeling any kind of buzz yet. I know as the week goes on that will increase a bit but for a fight that was rumoured to be the planned UFC 300 headliner at one point, it all feels a bit flat at the minute.

Izzy’s looking in good nick, for what it’s worth…

Hoping DDP chins him though, to be honest. Adesanya reclaiming the belt now would be about the most boring outcome of any big fight on the schedule. He’s pretty much fought everyone already apart from Khamzat and I’m not sure Khamzat ever gets there the way things are going. Just feels like if Izzy wins this fight, there’s nothing really interesting after that. At least a Du Plessis title reign feels fresh. Plus Izzy’s a prick. 

[Egg Shen]

Yeah, this rolled around real quick. It really felt like the initial buzz for a Du Plessis/Adesyana fight fell off really quickly, but im sure the presser and whatnot will ramp it back up. Izzy will have something up his sleeve i'm sure, meaning some cheesy ass material.

Card doesn't leap off the page on first glance, especially for a PPV, but I have hopes it's gonna deliver.

[wandshogun09]

Custom shorts as is becoming, erm, custom now on PPVs…

[wandshogun09]

Haven’t watched the press conference yet but caught this on Twitter…

? 

Also saw a clip of Izzy literally in tears at one point. Not sure how much to read into that but it doesn’t seem like a great thing for him being so overly emotional going into this fight. Got to hand it to DDP, to be honest. He seems to have a real knack for pushing just the right buttons and saying just the right things to really get under his opponents skin. He had Strickland pretty much crying and threatening to stab him during the build up to their fight, sure he got Till all wound up as well. The only one he didn’t seem to bother doing that shit to was Whittaker because why would you? Pretty sure I’ve seen DDP say he basically matches the opponent’s energy. If they’re respectful he’ll be respectful, if they’re a dick he’ll be a dick.

[Kfogg1991]

First of all 9am press conferences are the best lol however yeah I said the same thing izzy showed so much emotion and ending up in tears which don't get me wrong I cry constantly but it's never gone well for any fighter when they are deep and emotionally charged I have been going with ddp for the win going into this but I'm alot more confident after seeing that presser izzy has been exposed with weakness and that the unbeatable figure he was for so long is beatable he doesn't hold the belt long if he does win and I'm desperate for a Strickland rematch.

Pretty excited for it now though wasn't really bothered until this morning now I'm all in for it. Second ppv in two weeks is mental though.

[Zebra Kid Mark]

After seeing that press conference I think DDP has the edge. I have never seen Izzy rattled like that.

I like Izzy a lot and usually always root for him as he has been good for the sport and been a great champion, but I think I am split 50/50 on who I want to win. DDP has a very crowd friendly exciting style and I wouldn't mind seeing him in more title main events.

[wandshogun09]

Nearly there…

[Kfogg1991]

I have said the exact same thing too my mates ddp has this won izzy getting so emotional and crying on stage shows how his head is and that sort of thing going into the fight ends badly I want ddp to win anyway just because I'm desperate for the rematch with Sean and if izzy does win he's losing it to Sean again it just works better izzy suffering the loss and moving aside out the title picture.

I've not had a main card so tense throughout the entire thing in bloody ages. Every single fight the guy I want to win Is most likely going to lose I'm not convinced it will happen the entire card hopefully I'll get one how I want but it's a tough night in the office for these main card fighters.

Only a few hours to go hopefully this will deliver better than the last touch wood. Enjoy all that are watching 

[wandshogun09]

My (probably wrong) picks for tonight.

[Dai]

Thought this was a fun show. Enjoyed everything but the Tuivasa fight.

Thought the main event was a great watch. Very equally matched, and good action throughout. I thought DDP was gassed going into R4, but he seemed to get a second wind. I think I had Izzy winning the fight before the stoppage, but it was very tight 

Izzy easily gave his back up I think in R2, which I thought was dangerous at the time, and he did the same thing for the end of the fight too. Very risky way to try and get to your feet. Overall a very enjoyable fight.