UFC Vegas: Royval vs Taira - Oct 12 🇺🇸

[wandshogun09]

We never stray from the Apex for long…

ESPN MAIN CARD
Brandon Royval vs Tatsuro Taira

Brad Tavares vs Jun Yong Park 

Grant Dawson vs Rafa Garcia 

Cory McKenna vs Julia Polastri  

Daniel Rodriguez vs Alex Morono 

Abdul Razak Alhassan vs Josh Fremd 

ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS
Chidi Njokuani vs Jared Gooden 

Terrance McKinney vs TBA

CJ Vergara vs Ramazonbek Temirov

Jonathan Pearce vs Pat Sabatini 

Niko Price vs Themba Gorimbo 

Chris Barnett vs Junior Tafa 

Dan Argueta vs Cody Haddon

Clayton Carpenter vs Lucas Rocha 

 

Same old Apex stuff, although that main event is significantly better than the slop we’re usually fed. Couple of bits and bobs on the undercard I don’t mind but this is mostly a one match show, isn’t it? That’s the bout order as I type this, according to Marcel Dorff. I’ll edit as we go.

 

Brandon Royval vs Tatsuro Taira is a quality main event. Love this fight. Shame it’s not gonna be in front of a proper crowd but whatever. I’m always torn when they actually put a good headliner in the Apex. On the one hand, we always moan about the low quality main events that are usually on these cards so at least it’s not two Heavyweight slugs or dull Middleweights or something. On the other hand, it’s always ‘fuck the Apex’ with me. It’s obvious at this point that it’s not going anywhere. Dana’s gone from occasionally talking about wanting to move away from it and get these cards “back on the road” to recently saying they’re spending millions of dollars on expanding the thing. So they’re gonna persist with it whether we like it or not. We’re stuck with it.

Royval’s in a bit of a weird spot now. He’s ranked #1 and just beat Brandon Moreno in their rematch on the Mexico City card in February. Easily the biggest win of Royval’s career to date and he avenged the loss (via injury) in their first meeting. The only problem is, he’s already 0-2 down to the current champ Alexandre Pantoja, their last fight was only December and it was one sided. Even for a division like 125 that’s basically been built on endless rematches, the chances of him getting another shot are very slim for the time being. As long as Pantoja wears the strap, Royval’s gonna have his work cut out trying to get another title shot.

“I will be very happy if I can fight my title shot against Pantoja in Japan and then be first Japanese champion.” - Tatsuro Taira

Can he do it? It’s mad to think really that there’s never been a Japanese UFC champion considering they pretty much started this shit. Huge opportunity for Taira here. After a fairly quiet start to his UFC career, it’s all happening quite quickly all of a sudden. He’s only 24 years old, undefeated at 16-0 with 12 finishes and he’s only gonna improve with each training camp going forward. His first 5 fights in the UFC were on the prelims, 4 of them on the Fight Pass stream. The common theory I saw for that was that they were probably putting him on early so the Japanese viewers could watch him live at a reasonable hour. Maybe. Either way, he’s at a point now where he’s definitely outgrown Fight Pass. He went from jerking the curtain to the main event in his last fight, headlining against Alex Perez at the Apex in June. It was a significant step up and a fight where I thought we’d get some questions answered on Taira. Didn’t exactly work out like that.

It was a total anti-climax as Perez’s knee just buckled while Taira had the standing body triangle in the second round. Never seen anything quite like it, to be honest. But in fairness to Taira, it wasn’t some fluke thing. As unfortunate as the injury was, it was Taira’s techniques and the way he was applying pressure, leaning back and throwing his body into different positions which forced the injury. It’s a shame though because I remember Perez winning the first round and I was really interested to see how Taira might do if the fight went into the 4th and 5th rounds. Can’t fault Taira but we never really learned anything new apart from if he gets your back, good luck getting the fucker off you.

Interesting times in the Flyweight division. Like I said, Taira going from the Fight Pass prelims straight to being a Top 5 contender is a bit sudden and I’m not sure he’s ready for this. We’re about to find out though. And even if he loses, he’s still young enough to bounce back and use it as a learning experience. I’m intrigued to see how this is gonna play out though. If Royval’s able to keep it mostly on the feet, he’s gonna have a big advantage. The grappling could be very interesting, although I’d favour Taira in that area. Then there’s the x-factor of this being Taira’s first 5 rounder and it’s coming against his toughest opponent and biggest test yet. Great, great fight.

 

Brad Tavares vs Jun Yong Park is back on and it’s ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** now. This was originally supposed to go down in July but got scrapped after the weigh in when Park wasn’t medically cleared for some reason. This has the potential to be a really fun fight actually. Tavares is no spring chicken now. He’s coming up on 37 and he’s had a whole bunch of gruelling fights and rough losses. He usually comes to scrap though. It’s crazy to think how long he’s been on the roster. I first saw him on the Chuck vs Tito season of TUF back in 2010 and over the years he’s fought the likes of Nate Marquardt, Tim Boetsch and even Phil Baroni. He’s never been a contender but he’s been in with some of the best and even went the distance with Israel Adesanya and Yoel Romero. He’s struggling now though. He’s 20-9, has lost 3 of his last 4 and just got bashed up by Gregory Rodrigues in February.

The ‘Iron Turtle’ is back! 🐢

Always quite liked Park. He’s from South Korea, 33 years old and has a record of 17-6 with 11 finishes. No world beater but in general I’ve found him entertaining to watch and that goes a long way in a division like Middleweight that isn’t exactly bursting at the seams with exciting fights or fighters. He’s coming into this fight off a split decision loss to Andre Muniz in December, in what turned out to be a rare dull fight from the Turtle. Pretty sure I had it as my ‘one to watch’ but it was shite as I recall. Hopefully this is a return to form. Tavares is the ideal type of opponent for Park to have a silly slobberknocker with so I’m optimistic.

 

Grant Dawson vs Rafa Garcia is inoffensive enough but it’s not doing much for me really. Dawson’s got a respectable 21-2-1 record and was on a solid unbeaten run for a while before Bobby Green put an end to that by chinning him in 30 seconds last October. Dawson’s not the most exciting fighter to watch and not a shit talker so it’s not like he had built a ton of momentum anyway but there was starting to be some talk of him maybe being a bit of a darkhorse at 155. That all completely evaporated after the loss to Green though. He bounced back with a decision win over Joe Solecki at UFC 302 in June but it was a bit of a snoozer with Dawson content to just hold top position and take the points. Garcia I’m hazy on. He’s 15-3 and hasn’t fought since April 2023, taking a decision off what feels like an ancient Clay Guida at this point. My only real memory of Garcia is him bleeding like 80s Ric Flair in one of his previous fights. A proper gusher it was but I can’t remember, nor be arsed to check, which fight it was. Not expecting much out of this. Probably another less than spectacular Dawson win.

 

Cory McKenna vs Julia Polastri is a late card switch. McKenna was booked against Polyana Viana but Viana withdrew for some reason. Don’t really know anything about Polastri but she’s jumping in on a couple of weeks notice. She’s Brazilian, 26 years old and 12-4 with 7 finishes. She made her UFC debut on the prelims of one of the Apex cards I think we all skipped back in June, and lost on points to Josefine Knutsson. As for McKenna…

Hello. Must admit, I wasn’t familiar with McKenna’s game. I’m rooting for her and not just because of that picture. She’s Welsh but trains out of Team Alpha Male, she's 25 years old and 8-3 with 4 finishes. Fought in Cage Warriors before getting in the UFC via DWCS in 2020. She’s gone 3-2 in the Octagon since and she’s coming off getting subbed in a round by Jaqueline Amorim in March. Hoping she wins this. It’s a shame Viana dropped out really because her lack of ground game would’ve made her a very winnable fight for McKenna. I don’t know enough about Polastri to predict it one way or the other.

 

Daniel Rodriguez vs Alex Morono is whatever. Can’t say I’m too fussed. Not a terrible fight but I’m just not arsed about either of them. Kind of hoping D-Rod can claw a win out of this though and stop the rot. It’s been a rough couple of years. He beat Li Jingliang back in 2022 in what many felt was a bit of a controversial decision. He’s more than paid for that though, going 0-3 in his last 3. He got D’Arce choked by Neil Magny, headkicked in a round by Ian Garry, then in June he lost a decision to a Kelvin Gastelum who took the absolute piss by seemingly deliberately missing weight. Morono’s a guy I’ve joked about in the past for looking like the most generic, bland bastard on the planet. The blank CAW template you used to get on Smackdown games. He’s a tough guy but he’s always seemed to me like a guy who’s been plucked from the prelims of a Fight Night card in 2002. He’s coming off a loss in a surprisingly boring fight against Niko Price in June.

 

Abdul Razak Alhassan vs Josh Fremd might be alright. Alhassan’s never gonna go any higher, he’s 39 now with a 12-6-0-1 record. But not everyone’s gonna be a title contender. What he is, is a finisher and a KO artist. All 12 of his wins came by knockout, 11 of them inside a round and 7 of them in less than a minute! He’s not a high level, well rounded fighter but he’s a devastating puncher in that lower-mid level at 185. His last fight ended in controversy though. He got Cody Brundage hurt within seconds and was busting him up with a series of elbows on the ground. Unfortunately, some of them hit the back of the head and that was it. Brundage couldn’t continue and the fight was ruled a No Contest. Fremd’s 11-6 with 8 finishes and coming off a couple of losses to Roman Kopylov and Andre Petroski. No real memories of him, nothing jumping out, but I’m hoping Alhassan’s aggression makes this at least watchable and preferably short.

 

Chidi Njokuani vs Jared Gooden is OK undercard fodder. Quite like Chidi but he’s had a right mixed bag of results since arriving in the UFC in 2022. He couldn’t have asked for a much better start. In his debut he ironed out Marc-Andre Barriault in just 16 seconds, then followed up with a first round elbow KO over Dusko Todorovic. He lost 3 fights on the bounce after that though and only just snapped the losing streak in March with a split decision win over Rhys McKee. He did have that mental scrap with Gregory Rodrigues in there as well where he put a massive hole in Robocop’s forehead but Chidi somehow lost that one. Gooden’s a bit of a ham and egger. He’s 23-9 and hasn’t really done anything of note. He submitted Wellington Turman in his last fight in December and, in fairness, I do remember that being surprisingly more enjoyable than I expected.

 

CJ Vergara vs Ramazonbek Temirov might be worth a look. Vergara’s 12-5-1 and has had a forgettable run in the UFC with the exception of that absolutely barmy back and forth banger with Daniel Lacerda last year. Seriously, one of the best undercard fights/hidden gems of the last few years. If you never saw it and want some fun random fights to watch, give that one a go. Not much else to say about Vergara though. Whenever they’ve thrown him in with a prospect like Taira or Almabayev, he’s been caught lacking. We’ll see how Temirov stacks up. He’s from Uzbekistan, 27 years old and has a record of 15-2-1 with 9 finishes. I don’t recognise any of the names on his record but, for what it’s worth, he’s on a 9 fight winning streak, his last couple were in Rizin but he’ll have been inactive for over a year by the time this fight rolls around.

 

Jonathan Pearce vs Pat Sabatini is, again, just filler. I feel like a broken record but these cards are just full of these kind of fights aren’t they. Not bad matchups but a lot of fights that are just kind of there. There’s not a ton to talk about but I’ll go through the motions. Pearce is 14-6 and has some decent wins over the likes of Darren Elkins and Christian Rodriguez but he’s coming off back-to-back losses here against Joanderson Brito and David Onama. Sabatini’s similar. He’s 18-5 and was on a 6 fight win streak before surprisingly getting TKO’d in a minute by Damon Jackson a couple of years back. He submitted Lucas Almeida in his next fight but then got wrecked quick by Diego Lopes on the MSG card last November and hasn’t been seen since. Both decent enough fighters here but they’re both kind of floundering at the moment.

 

Niko Price vs Themba Gorimbo is a fight I’m torn on. Price has been a lower card favourite of mine for a few years now. He’s one of those fighters who you knew was never gonna make a splash in the rankings or the title picture or anything but I’ve always been happy to see his name on a card and he’s brightened up many an undercard over the years. The only time I’ve rooted against him before was when he fought Robbie Lawler in Lawler’s retirement fight last year. We saw how that ended, Niko got obliterated and I felt bad for him. He came back in June and beat Alex Morono in a rare lacklustre fight. But he really needed that win so I was happy enough for him. I might have to go against him again here though. Anyone who saw that video of Gorimbo and The Rock last year knows his story. Impossible to not wanna see him do well. Sadly, I haven’t been convinced his ceiling is that high and at 33 years old already and 13-4 he’s not got bags of time. But he’s on a 3 fight win streak now and he’s at least got some funds and resources to have proper training camps now. I know The Rock putting that video out there was beneficial for his image as well so I’m always a tad sceptical of the motivation behind that stuff but, even still, Gorimbo’s story is such an inspiring and feel-good one and whatever he can squeeze out of the rest of his career, I’m fully invested in it.

 

Chris Barnett vs Junior Tafa has been chucked together. Was originally gonna be Barnett against Waldo Cortes Acosta which was a fight I wasn’t expecting to be good but I was actually invested just because I love Barnett and can’t stand Waldo. He’s out though and Tafa’s in. I’m not as invested in this, I’m more indifferent to Tafa, but on the plus side it’s a more straightforward and winnable matchup for Barnett so I’m good with it.

‘Beastboy’ Barnett returns! Love the bloke. Just a big fat ball of fun. Every time you see him he seems to be having the time of his life. His happiness, in a sport where probably 80% of the people involved are horrible miserable fucks, is infectious. He hasn’t fought since 2022, and even then he missed weight. At Heavyweight!! He knocked out Jake Collier that night but, for whatever reason, he’s been out of action since. Think he had a couple of fights booked over the last year or so but they went tits up. He’s never gonna amount to much, he’ll probably never sniff a ranking or put 3 consecutive wins together but if he can just show up every now and then and knock a fool out, I’m happy. He might be better to go the grappling route this time though. It’s common knowledge at this point that the Tafa brothers have no grappling and Junior’s coming fresh off getting heel hooked in a round by Valter Walker. Barnett’s never subbed anyone but with his amount of fights he must have a better ground game than Tafa.

 

Dan Argueta vs Cody Haddon. Don’t know. Argueta’s had possibly the strangest start to a UFC run ever. He came into the UFC undefeated, now he’s 9-2-0-2. He lost a decision to Damon Jackson in his UFC debut, then won a fight, then had back-to-back No Contests somehow. Then his last fight in April he got submitted by Octagon newcomer Jean Matsumoto with literally one second left in the round! Just a disastrous stretch. Haddon’s making his debut here. He’s Aussie, 26 years old and 7-1 with 7 finishes. Noticed he has a decision loss against Steve Erceg on his record from 2021. He’s since won 5 in a row and got a first round submission on DWCS back in April. Sounds alright. Shocking ‘tache though.

 

Clayton Carpenter vs Lucas Rocha might actually be a sneaky potential show stealer. I’ve seen very little of Carpenter and nothing of Rocha but, on paper, it sounds like a fight that should probably have gotten higher billing than opening the Fight Pass bit. Carpenter’s 28 years old and undefeated at 7-0 with 5 finishes. He beat Edgar Chairez on DWCS in 2022 and then submitted Juancamilo Ronderos in a round in his UFC debut. That was February 2023 though. Not sure why he’s been off the grid since, most likely injured. Looked back at the thread for that card to refresh my memory and I seemed impressed with what I saw the short time it lasted. Brazil’s Rocha is making his UFC debut. He’s 24 years old, already 17-1 with 14 finishes and is on a 6 fight winning streak. He was signed a while back, I think, and his debut’s been delayed a couple of times. Looking at his Tapology page, he was briefly scheduled to fight Joshua Van in April but fell out. Hopefully he makes it this time.

 

 

That’s all folks.

Edited 22 hours ago by wandshogun09