UFC 306: O’Malley vs Dvalishvili - Sep 14 ????

[NeverYield]

Same as that mate, I'm invested in this one. Might have to have a late night. I'm awake 5am everyday anyway out of habit, it's the sitting up past 10-11 o clock at night in the first place that does me in. 

[BigJag]

9 hours ago, Egg Shen said:

got myself into the Embedded series and watched the weigh in's this morning, really up for this one!

I caught a little bit of Embedded yesterday. Ortega has been doing some DBZ type training in a pressurised chamber. Was that at the PI?

 

 

Edited September 14, 2024 by BigJag

[wandshogun09]

I haven’t watched anything of the build up yet. I’m terrible for this these days. If I get chance when the kids go to bed I might just blast through Embedded and the weigh in or something.

Here’s the usual fight day bollocks…

???

Edited September 14, 2024 by wandshogun09

[Kfogg1991]

Now we're here I am honestly pumped for this show.....not necessarily this card but after months of being drip fed information about the show and everything to expect I don't believe dana would build this up too the monumental level it is set and not deliver and this truly be the greatest event for everyone both there lucky enough to be in the venue but we are getting something special watching at home and that by itself just feels different compared to any other ppv day.

I've purposefully avoided everything about the sphere I've not googled or looked on YouTube I seriously want it to be special and something we/I will never forget.

Not having the usual number and ufc ppv group tonight just me and 2 really close diehard ufc fans which I'm excited for ontop to experience with them.

 

Bevs chilled packed in the fridge

Only a few hours to go 

[d-d-d-dAz]

Honestly, I'm not entirely sure the screen added anything. The entrance everyone is sharing is pretty cool, but I don't think it was the all encompassing, immersice mega experience Dana suggested.

 

[BigJag]

A flat screen will definitely struggle to convey the wrap around experience of The Sphere.The visuals in the video above must have been impressive for a live audience. The Sphere Twitter page has a few more videos from a camera that attempts to recreate the experience for those that weren't there.

There's also some external camera videos, showing Fighter introductions and replays.

Looks like they didn't have the actual fights on the Sphere walls.

[300]

Did you think they were going to show the fights for free on the side of the Sphere!?

[BigJag]

I did wonder if they may show them on the internal walls. I didn't expect any fight footage on the external walls.

Slowly working my way through the pre-lims. Fights have been decent and the atmosphere seems to be energetic. The set up is very theatre like. One massive video wall/ceiling, Cage in front. 

 

The fight kit design for this show show is spectacular. 

Looking forward to the main show.

[Bus Surfer]

Crikey! The Machine probably could have gone another 5 rounds easy. 

Fair play to Merab, O'Malley looked checked out from round 2 and despite the effective teeps late into the 5th, it was a comprehensive. What were those 48-47 score cards? Weird fight with the Merab/Welch bits, the kissing and walking away spot and Herb Dean's relentless calls for 'work'. 

Umar/Merab will be interesting. 

Thoroughly.enjoyable main card. That Robovics/Zellhubber fight was insanity and will be up there at the end.of the year.

Diego Lopez looked a beast again and Ortega continues his run of being too tough for his own good and taking a beating. Poor bugger. MMA weight cutting is a young man's game. Lopez looked huge compared to Ortega and you'd never think T City was the one moving up in weight after this.

Osborne/Rodriguez was super entertaining.also.

The overall show and presentation did look good, and I'm sure it looked even better in the arena, but I don't think it lived up to what Dana was selling the last few months. Just stick the ring girls in some crazy get ups in future and I'll be good. 

Edit - Rewatching a few bits back after and I may have been a little understated on how good it all looked. It hammers home how cookie cutter UFC events are presented on the whole. Under TKO, I'd take some Bash at the Beach Surf boards and some Halloween Havoc inspired Pumpkins down the road. 

Edited September 15, 2024 by Bus Surfer

[Egg Shen]

Yep, big fan of the ring girl setup

[wandshogun09]

Sorry this’ll probably be a long read.

I really liked the presentation of this show myself. Yeah, it wasn’t what Dana hyped it up as but you have to take everything he says with a big old barrel of salt. I’m a sucker for the big show atmosphere and pageantry and all the bells and whistles and that’s been sorely missing from the UFC for years and years now. So this was a welcome change of pace for me. It was nothing earth shattering and promotions like KSW and Oktagon have had a slicker and flashier looking presentation than the standard UFC shows for a while and of course the Japanese used to go to town on that stuff. But it’s nice to see the UFC put a bit of actual effort in for a change. There’s been a real cookie cutter, assembly line feel to the UFC shows for so long I think fans have become numb to it. I thought this was a really cool show visually though.

When the prelims started I thought the set up looked good but I was slightly underwhelmed because they didn’t use the massive 160,000 square foot main wall for anything other than a bunch of different coloured lights, and just having 2 big standard screens they’d usually use for showing the fights instead.

Like I said, looked cool enough but seemed pointless holding an event at the Sphere just to have standard screens and using the main wall as nothing more than a massive lighting effect. As the show went on though, they properly used the whole thing to maximum effect. They saved most of it for the main card but, while it added little to nothing of actual substance to the card itself, I loved a lot of what they did.

Like really, what more could people have expected? It wasn’t like it was ever gonna change the action in the cage. It was always gonna be just a visual thing. Dana was saying going in that it was gonna be a one-off and he doubled down on that after the show. I don’t know. I can see them going back at some point, especially if they’ve got Turki involved again. But for what it was, I liked what they did with this show. Anything that sets the look and feel of a big card apart from the endless Fight Nights and Apex shite is a good thing in my book.

Anyway…

The Suga Show has officially been cancelled. Merab dominated him almost to a shutout. When talk of the fight first started up last year, I fancied Merab to beat O’Malley but as time went on and the fight got signed and got closer, I let the doubts creep in a bit. I still ended up picking Merab but I was less confident about it by the time fight week rolled around. Turned out to be almost exactly as I originally pictured it though. Had Merab winning the first 4 rounds comfortably. O’Malley had a better 5th but it was way too late then. He needed a KO and it just never came. Over the last week or so I saw so many people confidently predicting O’Malley would just spark Merab that I started wondering if I was missing something. But the fact is, we’d never seen O’Malley have to deal with the style Merab has, the relentless clinching and wrestling and the pace he puts on opponents. I wasn’t counting O’Malley out by any means but I didn’t really get why so many seemed so sure he was just gonna thump Merab. Really weird fight with some odd moments but, while it wasn’t some action packed FOTY contender, I did find it weirdly entertaining.

Gotta throw out some love for Ray Longo while I’m here. He gets credit but I don’t think he gets enough of it sometimes. One of the best coaches in the game by far. That’s four UFC champions he’s had now. Matt Serra, Chris Weidman, Aljamain Sterling and now Merab Dvalishvili. The fact Serra and Weidman took the gold from two of the greatest fighters in MMA history in GSP and Anderson Silva makes it even more impressive. But four champs out of one camp isn’t common these days when there are so many high profile gyms and coaches. I remember seeing Longo singing Merab’s praises way back when Merab was losing to Ricky Simon on the prelims and stuff. He always fully backed him and believed in him. And he couldn’t speak highly enough of him as a man outside the cage either. Love Longo. He’s never been one to have a massive group of name fighters in his camp but the guys he has he seems to form really tight bonds and loyalty with. It’s great to see him have this kind of success and longevity coaching champions.

As for what’s next. I think it’s pretty straightforward and clear cut.

Seems obvious that Merab vs Umar is the plan now. The fact that they made a point of mentioning Umar in the post-fight interview and showing him on camera tells you it’s the fight the UFC is targeting next. Merab seemed oddly noncommittal to it though. Rogan asked him about Umar and he started banging on about how much he loves Dana White? ? Bit weird. He also named dropped Figgy as his ideal first challenger at the post-fight press conference. I wanna see Merab vs Umar though. That’s a fascinating matchup when you think about their styles. As soon as the main event finished it just seemed obvious to me that the next top fights at 135 should be Merab vs Umar, O’Malley vs Sandhagen and Figgy vs Yan. I’d love to see all of those fights. Aldo’s gotta fit in somewhere if he beats Mario Bautista at 307 as well but those 3 fights seem like the logical ones to make now, in my opinion.

Shevchenko reclaims the Flyweight throne but it was the shittest fight of their trilogy by far. I can’t fault Shev too much though. It was bare minimum stuff and it wasn’t any fun to watch but she did what she needed to do to secure the win. And given that specific errors cost her big time in the first two fights, I can’t say I begrudge her for fighting a more risk averse style this time.

Job done. To be honest, the way she fought here was how I expected her to approach their second fight last year. When you look back at those first two fights, the majority of Shev’s success came when she adopted a pretty much one-note wrestling attack. She’s clearly physically stronger than Grasso and Grasso’s defensive wrestling is a weakness so the takedowns were always there. It seemed like she went back and studied the fuck out of those fights and just eliminated everything that didn’t work and went all in on just doing what worked and more of it. And that was the wrestling. And as much as I like Grasso, I thought this was really poor stuff from her. She must’ve known Shevchenko was gonna be looking to take her down but, if anything, it seemed like she’d regressed there rather than tighten up. After two really competitive fights, this time it seemed like Grasso really had nothing for Shevchenko. No answers for the wrestling at all and, other than the guillotine attempt in whichever round that was, I don’t remember any bright spots in the fight for her. The stats were shocking as well. Can’t remember the numbers exactly but it was some embarrassingly low amount of strikes landed by Grasso over the 5 rounds.

I said going in that if Shevchenko won this time and brought the scoreline with Grasso to 1-1-1, they’d probably go straight into a 4th fight early next year. I can’t see that happening now though. Not with how one sided and dull this fight was. And you know Dana would’ve hated a fight like this, he said as much to the media after. So I think we’ll be moving on from the Shev-Grasso saga, at least for the time being. Looks like it’ll be Manon Fiorot next for Shevchenko. I’m mildly interested to see how that one plays out but I expect another snoozer there.

Diego Lopes star continues to rise. It wasn’t the FOTY contender barnburner it sounded like on paper but that’s because Lopes just made it a bit too one sided. But it was still a good scrap and a strong performance again from Lopes. It’s been no secret over the years that Brian Ortega is insanely tough and once again he had to show that here. For the fight to start like this…

…and Ortega to somehow weather that storm and manage to survive the 15 minutes and go the distance was madness. If almost anyone else at 145 gets caught cold like that right out the gate by a whirlwind like Lopes, they’re getting finished. But for Ortega’s faults, you can never question his toughness and heart. It’s a shame his skillset hasn’t really evolved to where he doesn’t need to rely on his chin though. Because once that goes, and it will, we could be looking at a Tony Ferguson style decline. When they rebooked this fight after the June attempt fell apart I was hoping it’d be 5 rounds. But Ortega took a beating here that made me glad it was only a 3 rounder.

Lopes is getting up there in the Featherweight pecking order now. We won’t know exactly where he sits until they update the rankings in a few days but Ortega was #3 going in so he’s gotta be around there. And that would leave only Topuria, Volkanovski and Holloway above him! It’s mad when you think, he lost his UFC debut against Movsar Evloev last year and now here we are just over a year later and he’s managed to leave Evloev in the dust despite losing to him. And it’s justified. Evloev’s only fought once since beating Lopes but Lopes has stayed active and racked up 5 straight wins. He’s a breath of fresh air in the division and, while I had doubts about his ceiling, I’m at the point now where I just think ‘fuck it’, throw him in with the sharks and see how he does. With Topuria and Holloway paired off, maybe they do Lopes vs Volk now? Dana said that Lopes is usually friendly and happy but was angrily screaming at him in the Octagon about title shots post-fight. Fuck knows. Depending on what Volk does next or what the timetable for his return is, I wouldn’t be at all against Lopes getting a crack at the title next either. Imagine Lopes vs Topuria? Imagine Lopes vs Holloway? Fuck me. I hadn’t really allowed myself to think about those potential fights until now just because it seemed too soon for Lopes. But at this point, he’s gotta fight one of the Top 3 next. Amazing how quickly he’s been able to rise through the ranks.

Ribovics vs Zellhuber was fucking fantastic and ended up stealing the show. Well deserving of the FOTN bonus and I’m glad they both got to shine on a card like this that had a lot of eyes on it. I said in the opening post they’re both really exciting fighters that just hadn’t had much exposure yet. This was the type of fight, in the type of setting, that should’ve gained both a lot of fans and should hopefully earn them both another solid fight and/or card placement next time out.

Absolutely loved this fight. Felt like the first two rounds were mega close and, I’ll be honest, I got swept up in the action and completely lost track of the scoring. The third round saw Ribovics really pull ahead though and that might just be the round of the year when 2024 is all said and done. Crazy fight. Can’t say enough how much I enjoyed it and it’s gonna place very high on my FOTY list when we start talking about that in December. They’re both young enough that I could see them crossing paths again somewhere down the road as well. In fact, I’d be surprised if they don’t.

Ronaldo Rodriguez vs Ode Osbourne was a fun main card opener. I was critical and a bit baffled it got such high billing but I enjoyed the fight right enough. Right from the off the tone was set when Osbourne scored a heavy knockdown just seconds into the first round. Rodriguez proved to be a tough little prick though because he survived that and the subsequent triangle and came back to win a decision. Great way to kick off the PPV.

Norma Dumont bagged another win and, to be fair, that’s 5 in a row now and she hasn’t missed weight in a while. Progress! Also, for once, she didn’t bore me. Granted, Irene Aldana’s face falling apart had a lot to do with that but I thought Dumont also fought with a bit more urgency and aggression as well for a change. The story coming out of the fight is all about Aldana though. Because Jesus. Fucking. Christ!

As long as I’ve been a MMA fan, I’ve always said Marvin Eastman’s horrific axe wound looking cut from the Vitor Belfort fight in 2003 was the worst cut in UFC history. There’s been others that have came close - Robocop Rodrigues (vs Chidi Njokuani) and Diego Sanchez (vs BJ Penn) spring to mind. But nothing knocked Eastman’s gruesome gash off the top spot of the MMA gore list. Until now. I think this might be worse. There’s more than one bad cut there for a start. But the main one…fuck! There’s a video going around on Twitter (I won’t share it here) of Aldana getting the cut looked at by medics and they’re prodding and poking and moving the flesh about. I don’t ever really get legit squeamish about stuff like that, I’ve become desensitised to it from 30 years of watching people get punched in the face. But this even turned my stomach a bit. Feel bad for Aldana. Like I said in the opening post, she’s one of the only fighters in the division who’s worth watching and puts on entertaining fights. But the sport’s not been too kind to her. She was already coming off that war with Karol Rosa here and at 36 years old, I’m not sure how many fights she had left in her. Now this? That kind of damage is gonna be hard to come back from. It’s obviously gonna take significant time to heal up but then on top of that, is it even fucking worth it? I can’t imagine Aldana’s on much of a contract. She clearly loves to fight but, man, it’s not worth getting disfigured, especially when the money isn’t life changing or setting you up for life. Dumont’s probably knocking on the door of a title shot at this point. Aldana was ranked #5, I think. So I wouldn’t be shocked if she winds up getting whoever the champ is after this Pennington vs Pena dud plays out at 307 in a few weeks.

Ignacio Bahamondes knockout of Manuel Torres was a thing of fucking beauty! Turned out to be the only knockout on the card so at least he made it a good one.

Lovely stuff. The counter itself plus him clearly already anticipating any return fire and ducking under. Just a perfect finish. Even more impressive when you consider that Torres was in top form himself coming in and had gone 6-0 with 6 first round finishes in his previous fights. For that reason, this was the best win to date for Bahamondes in my opinion. The finish itself plus stopping a guy who had momentum and is a dangerous finisher in his own right. Not sure what’s next or what makes sense for Bahamondes now but I’d love to see a Bahamondes vs Ribovics fight! Based on their performances on this card alone, how good would that shit be?

Ketlen Souza decking and choking out Yazmin Jauregui in a round saddened me. I’ve liked Jauregui since her UFC debut, where I went in blind not knowing her or Iasmin Lucindo and they went out and had a banger. She’s been fun to watch but the knock on her is she’s got a habit of leaving herself vulnerable in fights. She’s too much of a scrapper for her own good and her willingness to get involved in a firefight had already backfired badly when she got blitzed in 20 seconds by Denise Gomes last year. She bounced back after that but here we are again…

? At one point, given her age when she signed with the UFC, her exciting style and her being undefeated at the time, I genuinely thought Jauregui might have the potential to become a contender in the future. I don’t know if she’s ever gonna get over the hump now though. She’s only 25, hardly on the scrapheap or anything so I don’t wanna be all doom and gloom. But I just don’t see her changing much. Real good win for Souza though and fair play to her. She got her knee mangled by Karine Silva in her UFC debut and she’s returned with 2 wins this year.

Joshua Van vs Edgar Chairez was a corker as expected. And like with the third round of Ribovics vs Zellhuber, the second round of this fight was one of the best rounds of the year easy for me. What a rollercoaster. Van absolutely battering Chairez only for Chairez to turn things around in the blink of an eye with that spinning backfist!

He had Van proper stunned there for a second but Van was able to get through it. Chuffed to see Van back in the win column here. It wasn’t easy, his legs took a beating early, he got dropped in the first round and he got momentarily frozen in time by that backfist in the second, but he still got the job done. I was a bit worried about him taking such a quick turnaround on short notice after that KO loss to Charles Johnson in July. Still rather he’d have taken longer to recover from that but I was happy to see him back to winning ways all the same. And he looked really good for the bulk of the fight. He’s still only 22. He’s got time. I’d hate to see him just keep diving into these late notice fights recklessly and ending up being damaged goods by the time he’s 25 or something. He’s got potential but there’s a risk he could burn out quick if he’s not smart about it. Such an entertaining fighter to watch though. Endless fun fights you can chuck him in at 125. Or even 135 down the road.

Happy to see Raul Rosas Jr pick up another win in the Fight Pass opener. Didn’t look amazing or anything but I think people are a bit harsh on him sometimes. When I think back to what I was like at 19, and he’s out there on a card like this and winning, fair play to the lad. He’s obviously got a lot of work to do and he’s far, far from being the finished product. But I like him and this was a solid win over an experienced and durable guy in Aoriqileng. Didn’t like the sound of him calling for a Top 15 opponent though. I like the confidence but I just feel like he needs more seasoning. Hopefully his team/the matchmakers feel the same. In 2024, there’s more than enough lower level guys for him to get some cage time against before he steps up against ranked opposition. CHIWIWIS and all that, whatever it means.

 

Yeah. I enjoyed that a lot. It’s a shame the main and co-main events weren’t more exciting and competitive fights but on the whole I thought it was a really good show. Only 2 finishes but most of the fights were entertaining regardless and you had Ribovics vs Zellhuber which should be on everyone’s FOTY shortlist. Had to laugh at all the bellyaching from ‘MMA fans’ in the feedback I saw on the main and co-main. Yeah they weren’t the best fights but grappling is part of the game. Why cry about it when there’s plenty of Boxing and Muay Thai content out there if you just want striking?

Edited September 15, 2024 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

Up until the main/co-main this show was abit of an all-timer in terms of quality. Enjoyed the main event though as well, it felt like an old school fight playing out in the most modern of settings. Got my predictions so wrong for both fights though.

 

[Egg Shen]

10 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

But nothing knocked Eastman’s gruesome gash off the top spot of the MMA gore list.

Marvin Eastman has always been the goto name when discussing bad cuts in MMA, but I think it's long since surpassed in terms of gruesomeness.

Eastman's cut is the "Peter Shilton's save against Brazil" of cuts, to some it will never be topped. Poor Marvin, he had about 50 fights and that's all anyone remembers about him.

[Bruce85]

I also enjoyed the main event, although he never got going it felt like O’Malley always had the possibility to land something whick kept the fight interesting enough but it certainly wasn’t a great fight. Fair play to Merab he kept going and was relentless. 
 

The co-main on the other hand, jeez that was a slog to watch, certainly hope we don’t get a 4th fight!

 

Would love to see Lopez get the next title shot or maybe a fight with Volk. That combo in the first surely puts most other fighters out, Ortega has a hell of a chin on him! 
 

Good, but not great show but echo the comments about the setup, was so refreshing to see them change the production up.

[Egg Shen]

It's a shame O'Malley found something that worked during round 5, the teep kick to the gut was a game changer, had O'Malley realised that earlier I think he may have cruised it. Kicks were obviously not a part of the gameplan due to the takedown threat, not throwing them didn't make any different though, he probably should have sold out earlier and taken some chances.