UFC Vegas: Burns vs Brady - Sep 7 🇺🇸

[wandshogun09]

More Apex for you. But as these cards go, this is better than most…

ESPN MAIN CARD
Gilbert Burns vs Sean Brady 

Jessica Andrade vs Natalia Silva 

Kyle Nelson vs Steve Garcia 

Matt Schnell vs Cody Durden

Trevor Peek vs Yanal Ashmouz

ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS
Rong Zhu vs Chris Padilla

Isaac Dulgarian vs Brendon Marotte

Andre Lima vs Felipe Dos Santos

Gabriel Santos vs Yi Zha

Jaqueline Amorim vs Vanessa Demopoulos 

Andre Petroski vs Dylan Budka

Zygimantas Ramaska vs Nathan Fletcher

 

 

Alright, the bout order could do with a shuffle. Swap a couple of fights around and bump a couple of the prelims up and I think you can make a very solid main card out of that lot. Some absolute shite on there too, as there always is. But in general, this is better than your average Apex effort. As always, I’ll update this post as the bout order gets finalised and all the pullouts, cancellations and substitutions start. You know it’s coming. 

 

Gilbert Burns vs Sean Brady sits atop this one. Decent fight. Not in love with it, I’m not that fussed about Brady. But for an Apex card, this is a pretty strong main event. Burns is ranked #6 and Brady’s ranked #8 as I’m typing this. They’re both up there but I think it’s gonna be a while before either can realistically claim a title shot. Burns is coming off a couple of losses and Brady’s not the most exciting to watch. Plus the top of the Welterweight division looks fairly straightforward at the moment in terms of what the next matchups should be. I think we’ll be getting Belal vs Shavkat for the belt next and I’ve got a feeling we’ll be seeing Leon Edwards vs Ian Garry and Kamaru Usman vs Jack Della Maddalena. It’ll surely be some combination of that lot anyway. But still, this is a solid fight and a significant one for both. Burns needs to snap this little losing streak and get back in the win column. And for Brady this’ll be his first main event and the biggest win of his career so far if he can pull it off.

Burns is 38 now, he’s running out of time. If he can get back on track here, this will surely be his last run at that elusive UFC gold. I like Burns. Very good fighter, seems a good guy and he’ll fight literally anyone. Welterweight has been a frustrating division at times with some of the top guys not being active enough or not fighting each other but Burns has been game to fight anyone and everyone over the years. He lost his title fight against Usman in 2021 and immediately took an awkward opponent in Wonderboy as his rebound. He jumped in with Khamzat when none of the bigger names seemed to want to. He lost to Belal and then dived straight back in against Maddalena next time out. He doesn’t give a fuck. Looking back, as admirable and refreshing as it is, it’s probably been to his detriment at times. If he’d been more selective and careful with who he fought, he’d probably have at least had another crack at the belt by now. He’s one of those guys I’d love to see get the belt before it’s all said and done. Even if it’s just for one defence and that’s it. It’s looking very unlikely now though. Pushing 40 and the title picture looks pretty cluttered now. A lot of circumstances would have to fall just right and a lot of luck would be needed for Burns to slip in and snatch the strap. Not gonna happen but I hope he wins this fight at least.

I’ve never really got into Brady’s fights. He’s not terrible, I just don’t particularly enjoy watching him fight. He’s 31 years old out of Philly and has a record of 16-1 and 8 finishes. The one loss being when he got stopped by Belal in late 2022. He’s since bounced back with a submission win over Kelvin Gastelum in December last year. His only other kind of notable wins are over Michael Chiesa and, erm, Jake Matthews? Court McGee? Yeah, not exactly a Goldberg in 98 streak, is it? Just really unsure about Brady. One of the big problems with him as well is inactivity. That Belal loss was almost 2 years ago now and he’s only fought once since. Seems he’s quite injury prone. And when he does fight, from what I remember, there’s not much in the way of striking and he doesn’t seem to have a lot of power. He’s a bit of a one trick pony grappler. The loss to Belal hasn’t aged too badly in itself considering what Belal’s gone on to do. But the fact he got walked down, beat up and stopped on the feet by Belal isn’t a good look. Belal’s obviously a very good fighter, he’s the champ. But the bloke can’t finish his dinner yet he finished Brady.

What do you reckon then? If you’ve read all that you’ve probably guessed I’m rooting for Burns 100% here. Probably would’ve been anyway, there aren’t many fighters at 170 who I’d cheer for over Burns. But I’m also just so indifferent on Brady and I’ve got zero interest in him getting into the title mix and facing more big names. Although Burns is obviously at the back end of his career now and has limited time left, I’d much rather see him win this one, knock Brady back down the rankings a bit and go on a run at one last title shot. As I said, this is way better than your standard Apex headliner. I’m hoping Burns can drag Brady into a more watchable and entertaining fight but we’ll see. As long as he wins, I’ll be happy enough.

 

Jessica Andrade vs Natalia Silva is ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** here. Like the sound of this. Big fan of Andrade. She’s one of my favourite female fighters of all time, to be honest. Womens MMA isn’t always the most exciting thing to watch and, outside of a handful of really great fighters, there’s a lot of dead wood lower down the rankings and a lot of fights that resemble light sparring matches. Andrade pretty much always brings it though. A tiny woman who actually has knockout power, can grapple, can slam you on your head, can take a dig, throws a nasty body shot. She’s ace. And this is the big step up for Silva. A fighter I’ve also become a fan of. She’s worked her way up to a #8 ranking now, Andrade’s currently at #6. So this is a big opportunity for Silva. She’s on the right trajectory, going up in the rankings and she’s up against a former UFC champion. Good stuff.

Yeah, Andrade’s class. She was one of that first wave of female fighters who came into the UFC in 2013 when Dana finally relented and let women into the Octagon. Granted, it was only because he had a raging boner for Ronda Rousey but, regardless, the doors were opened for fighters like Andrade to get their chance on the big stage. She was only 21 years old when she made her UFC debut and I’ve been a fan since very early into her UFC stint. Mad to think she’s still only 32. Looking back over her record, she’s got some strong wins that have aged nicely. She beat Raquel Pennington (now Bantamweight champ), subbed Larissa Pacheco (went on to beat Kayla Harrison in PFL), beat Claudia Gadelha back when Gadelha was in the title mix, sparked Karolina Kowalkiewicz and slam KO’d Rose Namajunas to win the title. Add to that wins over Joanne Wood, Tecia Torres, Katlyn Chookagian, Amanda Lemos etc. Beat Angela Hill in a really fun forgotten scrap. Went the distance with prime Joanna Jedrzejczyk when she was champ and outclassing everyone. And even now, she’s had her ups and downs, had setbacks at both Strawweight and Flyweight, but she’s coming into this fight off back-to-back wins over Mackenzie Dern and Marina Rodriguez. She’s not unbeatable and she does have her flaws but, looking at her losses in recent years, you’re not really beating Andrade unless you’re a champ or a top contender. So this should give us an idea where Natalia Silva sits on the pecking order at the moment…

Hello!

Silva’s 27 years old with a record of 17-5-1 with 12 finishes and she’s coming into this fight riding an 11 fight winning streak. Her last loss was against Marina Rodriguez in a promotion called Thunder Fight in Brazil back in December 2017. She had a very dodgy start to her career, going 6-5-1 in her first 12 fights. She’d have only been about 18 when she made her MMA debut though and she’s clearly got over that initial hump now. She actually signed with the UFC in about 2020 but never made her Octagon debut until mid 2022. She looked like she hadn’t missed a day in her debut, schooling Jasmine Jasudavicius on the feet. She then stopped Tereza Bleda with a brutal spinning back kick to the gob, finished Victoria Leonardo in a round and took a decision off Andrea Lee. She looked good in all these wins but the opposition wasn’t the best so it was hard to properly rate her performances. In February she got a step up against Viviane Araujo and won comfortably on points. Araujo isn’t great but she did go 5 rounds with Alexa Grasso not too long ago so it was a good win for Silva. This Andrade fight is undeniably her toughest test yet though because even if you beat Andrade, chances are you’re gonna have to weather a storm and take some punishment first. The moment of truth for Silva. If she wins this fight, she’ll probably find herself in a 5 round fight with a title shot at stake.

 

Kyle Nelson vs Steve Garcia is a sneakily fun scrap actually. The only negative here is it was originally supposed to be Nelson against Calvin Kattar, which obviously would’ve been a big fight for Nelson, but Kattar’s out. I really like this matchup though. Both are entertaining, aggressive fighters who have only gone under the radar due to mostly being stuck on Fight Nights and prelims pretty much their whole careers. Nelson’s 16-5-1 with 10 finishes. He’s on a 3 fight win streak and got a first round TKO over Bill Algeo in his last fight in March. And Garcia’s 16-5 with 13 knockouts. He’s really become an undercard favourite of mine over the last year or two. Since dropping back to Featherweight in late 2022 he’s gone 4-0 with 4 finishes and he’s coming off a 90 second stoppage over Seung Woo Choi in July. I hope this stays on the main card because they deserve it. Wouldn’t be at all shocked if these two bag the FOTN bonus.

 

Matt Schnell vs Cody Durden is a late card change. Schnell was all set to fight Alessandro Costa but Costa withdrew on fight week. In steps Durden on just a few days notice. Good replacement. I’ve said a few times on here that Durden seems a bit of a prick and I don’t like him but one thing I’ll say about him, he’s very rarely involved in dull fights. He’s 16-6-1 now and he’s had some decent wins over the likes of Charles Johnson and Jake Hadley but he’s coming off a couple of losses here. He got subbed by Tagir Ulanbekov in December and then in July this year he got stopped by Bruno Gustavo Silva in a cracking fight. Jumping in here as a last minute fill in is certainly a gamble but I guess it also earns him some brownie points with the matchmakers as well. Schnell’s also coming off some losses and the last one against Steve Erceg in March was brutal. Big left hook connected and he hit the deck hard with his head bouncing off the canvas. He badly needs to make something happen here. He had that submission win in the mental bloodbath against Su Mudaerji a couple of years ago but that’s been his only win in some time.

 

Trevor Peek vs Yanal Ashmouz could be all kinds of fun actually. It’s not gonna be pretty. Don’t go in expecting some high level, technical MMA chess match but this does have the potential to be a hilarious slobberknocker. Peek’s 9-2-0-1 with 8 knockouts. He’s not very good, to be totally honest. He looks and fights like he just stepped out of a time machine from a UFC undercard in 2005. Wings punches and hammerfists like an absolute lunatic and he’ll never amount to anything in this day and age. But he’s definitely not boring. His slugfest with Chepe Mariscal from last year is always worth a watch if you want to just be swept up in the chaos of a mad brawl. He’s since won a decision off Mohammad Yahya and lost a decision to Charlie Campbell in another fun scrap. And Ashmouz…

That’s his UFC debut from the London card in March 2023, pretty much in its entirety. Absolutely steamrolled poor Sam Patterson in just over a minute. He then lost on points to Chris Duncan in the July but has been out of action for over a year since. He’s 7-1 now with 6 wins coming inside the distance. Haven’t seen enough of him really but the Patterson fight showed what he’s capable of and I think Peek’s nutcase style will bring that out of him. For all Peek’s flaws as a fighter, and there’s a bunch, you almost have to fight fire with fire against him, to keep him off you if nothing else. Should be a laugh this.

 

Rong Zhu vs Chris Padilla. Not a clue on this. Zhu did fight a few times in the UFC a few years back but went 1-2 and was let go after a submission loss to Ignacio Bahamondes in 2022. He’s since gone away and won 4 fights in a row, finishing 3 of them and won the Road To UFC tournament in February. He’s only 24 years old and now 25-5 with 21 finishes. Not too shabby that. Padilla’s 28 with a 14-6 record and 12 finishes. He previously fought for RFA, KOTC, Brave and Bellator before stepping in on about a week’s notice for his UFC debut in April and subbing James Llontop in a round.

 

Isaac Dulgarian vs Brendon Marotte might be worth a look, if for no other reason than to see how Dulgarian responds to his first loss. He went 6-0, all finishes, at the start of his career and crushed Francis Marshall in a round in his UFC debut last summer. The matchmakers didn’t waste any time and threw him straight in with fellow prospect Christian Rodriguez in March, and Dulgarian lost a split decision. It was an excellent fight but there was a lot of debate about the judging. Looking back at the thread, I had Dulgarian edging it but it was one of those that came down to how you scored one close, tricky round. Marotte’s 8-2 with 5 finishes but he’s coming off getting wrecked in 20 seconds in his UFC debut by Terrance McKinney. They’re certainly not doing him any favours throwing him back in there with Dulgarian but we’ll see how it goes.

 

Andre Lima vs Felipe Dos Santos is one of the better fights on the card for me. Think Lima’s got some potential. He’s 25 years old and undefeated at 9-0 with 5 knockouts. You might remember him as the guy who was bitten by his opponent in his UFC debut in March. Fucking vile stuff. Lima looks good though. In that fight and in his points win over Mitch Raposo in June. He did miss weight for that fight though, hopefully that was a one-off. Dos Santos is 23 years old and has a record of 8-1-0-1 with 5 finishes. His only loss was his UFC debut last September, where he stepped in on short notice and lost a decision against Manel Kape. I remember him giving a good account of himself in defeat though and he came back and won a decision off Victor Altamirano in his next fight on the Mexico City card in February. I like the sound of this. Haven’t seen a lot of either but what I have seen I’ve liked.

 

Gabriel Santos vs Yi Zha. Don’t know. Santos is a weird one for me. He’s 10-2 and has gone 0-2 in the UFC so far but that really doesn’t do him justice, in my opinion. If you just look at the record in black and white, he looks like a flop. But his two UFC losses have been a decision against Lerone Murphy (on short notice) in a fight he arguably won. And then he got knocked out in the second round by David Onama after giving him all kinds of issues in the first round. He’s better than the 0-2 would lead you to believe if you didn’t actually see those fights. But he’s also been on the shelf for over a year now so fuck knows? China’s Yi Zha is 25-4 with 19 finishes and is currently on a 3 fight winning streak. He won the Road To UFC tournament earlier this year.

 

Jaqueline Amorim vs Vanessa Demopoulos. Not much to see here but could be inoffensive enough. Amorim’s a submission specialist, former LFA champ and came into the UFC undefeated last year. She lost her debut to Sam Hughes though, which was a bit of a surprise. She’s since got back on track with a TKO over Montserrat Conejo and a first round submission over Cory McKenna. Can’t remember much about Demopoulos but she’s 35 with a record of 11-5 and she’s not much cop from what I recall. She’s coming off a couple of points wins over Kanako Murata and Emily Ducote.

 

Andre Petroski vs Dylan Budka is whatever. Not arsed. Petroski’s 11-3 and just beat Josh Fremd by decision on the Denver Fight Night in July. That snapped a two fight losing skid. He’s alright, I guess. But he took a decision off Gerald Meerschaert last year so bollocks to him. Barely even remember this Budka jabroni. He’s 24 years old, 7-3 and got stopped by Cesar Almeida in his UFC debut back in April. Just making up the numbers stuff this.

 

Zygimantas Ramaska vs Nathan Fletcher. Not a single clue on this. These two were supposed to fight on the Cannonier vs Borralho card at the end of August but got postponed and pushed back a week for some reason. Think these two were on the latest season of TUF. Going solely off their Sherdog fighter profiles here because I know fuck all about either of them. Ramaska’s Lithuanian, 27 years old and has a 9-2 record with all 9 wins being finishes. Fletcher is a British fighter out of Liverpool, 26 years old and he’s 8-1 with 7 finishes. He’s fought his entire career in Cage Warriors and beat Caolan Loughran on the amateurs back in 2018. I’ll give it a chance.

 

 

I guess it’ll do.

Edited Friday at 12:38 PM by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

OSP like a 205lb Andrei Arlovski, he'll be on the roster for another 4-5 years yet.

[Egg Shen]

 

[wandshogun09]

Didn’t realise there was an early start for this card. Fight Pass prelims kick off at 9pm. 

[Dai]

Peek/Asmouz was a decent scrap. Asmouz did really well to withstand the intensity of Peek. Schnell/Durden was a great scrap too, and a fantastic finish. R1 had some great exchanges too. Garcia/Nelson was contraversial. That elbow to the back of the head clearly affected Nelson, and it was the beginning of the end of the fight. Something surely doesnt sit right when the loser has a massive welt on the back of their head.

This card had a lot of momentum, but I didnt really get into the last two main fights. Found both a bit dull and repetitive. Thats surely the most Andrade has been dominated in a fight (not that she was in any real danger at any point). She was a few steps behind for the entire fight, and was completley outclassed.

Dominic Cruz at the start of the main event; "They are both so good at grappling that theyre not going to waste their energy going for takedowns...." and as soon as he finished the sentence Burns does a blast double takedown. Good ol Dom! Was starting to check out of the fight toward the end. It wasnt bad, but it was just very forgetable. Burns needed to pull the trigger and take a few more risks during the fight, I thought. Played it abit too safe, but that seems to happen to some veterans at the later point in their career when they dont mind taking a loss as long as they dont take too much significant damage.