Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted October 6, 2024 Paid Members Posted October 6, 2024 (edited) Back in Bret Hart Country… ESPN MAIN CARD Brandon Moreno vs Amir Albazi Erin Blanchfield vs Rose Namajunas Caio Machado vs Brendson Ribeiro Ariane Da Silva vs Jasmine Jasudavicius Marc-Andre Barriault vs Dustin Stoltzfus Mike Malott vs Trevin Giles ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS Aiemann Zahabi vs Pedro Munhoz Charles Jourdain vs Victor Henry Jack Shore vs Youssef Zalal Alexandr Romanov vs Rodrigo Nascimento Serhiy Sidey vs Garrett Armfield Chad Anheliger vs Cody Gibson Jamey-Lyn Horth vs Ivana Petrovic Right, first off, the state of that bout order. They’ll surely change it but this is the current order going off how Marcel Dorff has it. No idea how Machado vs Ribeiro is on the main card when they don’t have one UFC win between them and you’ve got potential bangers, featuring Canadians, on the prelims like Zahabi vs Munhoz and Jourdain vs Henry. Even Malott or Jasudavicius would be a better main card fit than that. Whatever. Says it all about the UFC’s lack of Canadian stars these days though when you look at a card like this. They’ve been able to fill up the undercard with a lot of Canadian fighters but none of them worthy of the top spots on this card. It’s a decent set of fights, to be fair. They just need to sort out the wonky bout order. Brandon Moreno vs Amir Albazi seems like a bit of a weird choice of headliner for a card in Canada but I guess they really don’t have any Canadian options at the moment. Gone are the days of GSP packing 60,000 people into a stadium. This is a cracking fight all the same though. They were actually supposed to main event the Mexico City card in February but Albazi got taken out by an injury/health issues. I’m glad to see it’s back on. The timing of it makes sense as well because they’re both highly ranked (Moreno’s at #2, Albazi’s at #3) but both are kind of in limbo currently with Moreno coming off losses and Albazi’s returning from a layoff. Interesting one. Yeah, Moreno’s had a bit of a rough spell lately. Wasn’t that long ago he was on top of the world as Flyweight champion. Now he’s coming off back-to-back losses. And not just that, he really didn’t look good in his last loss to Brandon Royval in Mexico. It was a close fight on the cards, wasn’t like Moreno got battered or completely outclassed or anything. But he just looked off. There seemed to be no real plan, he just went out there winging punches like a goof. Considering when they had their first fight in 2020, most of Moreno’s success came from grappling, it was odd to see him just neglect that part of his game in the rematch. Honestly, despite how close the fight was, it was the worst I’d seen Moreno look in a long time. Don’t know if it was a case of all the wars finally catching up to him or what. He’s still only 30 but he’s been in a bunch of hard scraps. His previous fight before Royval was that FOTY contender barnburner against Pantoja. And that gruelling four fight series with Figgy will have unquestionably shortened his prime as well. Maybe he was just burnt out. In March he posted on Instagram that he was taking a break due to feeling mentally and physically exhausted. It sounded like a good idea but he can’t have taken much of a break because by September this fight was being announced. Straight back in with a top contender, straight back in another 5 round main event, straight back in the deep end. Amir Albazi turns 31 just a few days before this fight. He was born in Iraq, moved to the UK at some point but trains out of Xtreme Couture in Vegas these days. He has a solid record of 17-1 with 14 finishes and hasn’t lost yet in the UFC. He quietly racked up wins over Malcolm Gordon, Zhalgas Zhumagulov, Francisco Figueiredo and Alessandro Costa before getting his big breakthrough opportunity in June 2023 when he was matched up with Kai Kara-France in a 5 rounder headliner at the Apex. His biggest test by far yet. Albazi won and it was a good fight but it was a bit of a controversial decision from what I remember. Pretty sure I had KKF winning. So when Albazi was originally booked against Moreno for the Mexico show in February, I was looking forward to seeing how it would go. Unfortunately, Albazi had to withdraw from that fight with Moreno. He suffered a neck injury and I remember seeing that reported at the time. What I didn’t know though, was he also had to have heart surgery after being diagnosed with tachycardia. He said that, according to his doctor, he was “one hit away from being paralysed”. Terrifying. He had the surgery and says he’s 100% healthy now and going under the knife saved his career and probably his life. Big fight in the Flyweight division and for both men individually. Both are coming back from setbacks and challenges but with their high rankings the winner of this could easily see themselves in a #1 contender position. Especially if Albazi wins. Not sure what’s going on with Pantoja at the moment. It’s all gone a bit quiet and I think that’s because there isn’t a really obvious next challenger for him at the moment. He’s already beat Moreno and Royval more than once. By the time this fight goes down we’ll have seen Tatsuro Taira vs Brandon Royval so maybe Taira emerges as another option with a win there. If Albazi wins this fight though, he puts himself in a strong position. If Moreno wins, fuck knows? He’s 0-2 down to Pantoja already (0-3 if you count their TUF fight) so he might be in a situation now where he’s gonna have to wait for someone else to become champ before he gets another crack at it. Either that or do something spectacular like Max Holloway’s KO over Gaethje or something, but that’s not likely. Hopefully these two have a great fight either way. Erin Blanchfield vs Rose Namajunas was originally announced as the main event for this card but got demoted down to co-main when Moreno vs Albazi got made. The right move, obviously. Apparently it’s still 5 rounds though, I’m guessing because that’s how it was when the bout agreements were signed. Decent fight. Not in love with it but it’s not a bad fight. They’re both ranked in the Top 5 at Flyweight so there are potential stakes to it. I think moreso for Rose if she wins though. She’s the bigger name, the former champ and she’s coming off a couple of wins. Blanchfield lost to Manon Fiorot last time out and she’s got a bit of work to do. Plus time is a bit more of the essence with Rose. She’s 32 now, not old by any stretch but there’s certainly less time left for her to make another run than 25 year old Blanchfield. I’m still not fully convinced by Flyweight Rose and she’s only beat mid level opposition at 125lbs like Amanda Ribas and Tracy Cortez. But I think she’s looked a bit better with each fight since moving up in weight. I think Fiorot is next in line to challenge Shevchenko for the gold but a win for Namajunas here could put her in a position where she’s next up after that. And if Blanchfield wins it’ll be the biggest win of her career and would be the perfect rebound after the loss and bad performance in her last fight. Caio Machado vs Brendson Ribeiro. Again, not a clue why this is on the main card. Maybe that will change but, as of now, according to Marcel Dorff it’s there and it’s baffling to me. They’ve both fought in the UFC twice each, both have gone a miserable 0-2. Not one win in the UFC between them and it’s on the main card? I’ll go through the motions. Both Brazilian, both got in off DWCS. Machado’s 30 years old and 8-3-1 with 6 finishes. He’s dropped decisions to Mick Parkin and Don’Tale Mayes so far in the UFC. Ribeiro’s 28 with a record of 15-7-0-1 with all 15 wins coming inside the distance. He got ironed out by Zhang Mingyang in his UFC debut then lost on points to Magomed Gadzhiyasulov in his last fight. It’s pure prelim stuff this. No business on the main card of anything. Ariane Da Silva vs Jasmine Jasudavicius is just there really but there’s a Canadian involved so I don’t mind this being on the main card. Yes, Da Silva is the former Ariane Lipski. She got married quite recently, I think. She’s 30 years old and 17-9 with 10 finishes. She’s never been a contender but she’s had a couple of submission wins that stand out in my memory. The gruesome kneebar on Luana Carolina a few years ago and the armbar against Casey O’Neill more recently. Jasudavicius is gonna be the crowd favourite here. She’s not great, to be honest, but she comes to scrap. I’ll give her that. She’s 35 now and 11-3 with only 4 finishes. She’s coming off a points win over Fatima Kline in July. I kind of like Jasmine just because she bashed up Priscila Cachoeira in January, who’s a cheating bastard and one of the dirtiest fighters in UFC history. Can’t say I’m arsed about this but it’s inoffensive enough. Marc-Andre Barriault vs Dustin Stoltzfus is whatever. Makes sense sticking Barriault on the main card in Canada but, aside from that, it’s not grabbing me. Barriault’s a Quebecer (like Jacques and Pierre!) with a record of 16-8-0-1 and 11 finishes. He was a two-weight champion in the TKO promotion in Canada but he’s pretty much found his level in the UFC now. He’s had a couple of alright wins and he’s game for a scrap but he’s coming into this fight off back-to-back losses. And never mind back-to-back, his last fight was a face-to-canvas loss… That’s how we last saw Barriault. Poor bastard got faceplanted by Joe Pyfer in about 90 seconds at UFC 303 in June. Rough. I’d like to see him bounce back with a win here, especially with it being in Canada. Losing a third straight on home turf would be brutal. I think this is one he can win though. Stoltzfus isn’t much good. He’s 15-6, has lost 5 of his last 7 fights and was stopped in 4 of them. Honestly, my only memories of Stoltzfus are him getting his arse kicked. He just got his face spinning elbowed into crumbs by Brunno Ferreira in June so he should be ripe for the picking here. Definitely has the feel of the matchmakers trying to throw Barriault a bone. Mike Malott vs Trevin Giles isn’t setting the world alight but Malott’s coming off his first UFC loss so of course they’ve cooled off on the push and scaled his opposition back a bit. We last saw him on the last Canada card, UFC 297 in Toronto. And well… It didn’t end well. He took the ‘Neil Magny Test’ like so many others have, and he failed. He flunked it. It was a weird one because, from what I remember, Malott was well on his way to winning and then Magny rallied and stopped him with just 15 seconds left in the fight. All respect to Magny for derailing another one but this wasn’t a good sign for Malott. He faded late, failed to finish or at the very least just coast to a decision and then got stopped himself. It was his first real step up in the UFC and it ended in disaster. His only wins prior to this were over subpar opponents. I don’t know. I’m not convinced. Although, this very much feels like a fight that was designed to get Malott back in the win column. Giles is 16-6 and has been finished by Gabriel Bonfim and Carlos Prates in his last two outings. He had a couple of OK wins earlier in his career but it’s not going well lately. I expect Malott will win this one but to be honest I’m not exactly confident about it. Aiemann Zahabi vs Pedro Munhoz is easily one of the best fights on the card. Munhoz is 38 years old now and at first glance this might look like one of those young vs old matchups. Until you realise Zahabi turns 37 himself a couple of weeks after this fight. I guess it’s just a combination of Zahabi having a lot less fights and Munhoz being on the roster so long that makes them seem further apart in age. Zahabi definitely has less miles on him though. He’s 11-2 and on a 4 fight winning streak but it’s taken him over 3 years to do those 4 fights. He’s not the most active. He’s got some skills though and he did hand Javid Basharat his first loss last time out in March. Munhoz is 20-9-0-2 and it’s been a tough couple of years for him. He’s been losing more than winning but, in fairness, look at the schedule he’s had. He’s fought a who’s who of the lighter weight classes. From Sterling to Edgar to Aldo to Cruz to O’Malley. Of course he lost to that lot but he does have wins over Rob Font and Cody Garbrandt. He’s coming into this fight off a couple of decision losses to Chito Vera and Kyler Phillips. He’s been winding down for years but he’s also been mixing at a higher level than Zahabi has. At this stage Zahabi should probably be winning but I don’t know how good he actually is and on paper it’s a step down for Munhoz so who knows? I like this fight. Charles Jourdain vs Victor Henry is a belter and one of the front runners to steal the show and bag FOTN, I reckon. Love this matchmaking. Never knew it was happening until now but it’s instantly one of my favourite fights on the card along with the main event. There’s no real stakes to it, neither are getting a sniff of a title shot or probably even a Top 10 ranking in a division as deep as Bantamweight. But this sounds like such a fun fight to me. And in front of a home crowd for Jourdain, even better! So glad this isn’t being wasted at the soulless Apex. Jourdain’s still only 28 and he came into the UFC in 2019 as a bit of a hot prospect. That’s out the window now, he’s 15-8-1 and wildly inconsistent in terms of wins and losses. Usually always entertaining to watch though. He got battered by Jean Silva in his last fight in June so he’ll be motivated to rebound in style here, especially at home. Henry’s 37, has a 24-6-0-1 record and trains under Josh Barnett. I’ve been rooting for him just because of the Barnett connection but I’ve enjoyed his fights as well. He’s coming off a TKO win over fellow veteran Rani Yahya back in April. Yeah, these two are going nowhere really but I’m a big fan of the matchup itself. Jack Shore vs Youssef Zalal is a late addition, a high quality one, and now ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** on this card. Not sure if it’s been in the works for a while or what but it only got announced around 3 weeks out. You’d hope they’d verbally agreed to fight earlier than that so they’d have had a bit more prep time but who knows? Really like this fight. Shore’s such a good fighter but he’s hit a bit of a rough patch in his career lately. After initially going 16-0, he’s now gone 1-2 in his last 3 fights. He suffered his first defeat when he got subbed by Ricky Simon in 2022, bounced back with a submission win over Makwan Amirkhani in 2023, then in May this year he fought Joanderson Brito on the Brazil PPV and… It was unfortunate for Shore that it got stopped by the doctor for that cut. Shore’s old man posted pics from the hospital that show the actual cut itself wasn’t even that bad but looked worse than it was because the blood was flowing down the shin. With that said though, Brito was giving him problems anyway and looked well on his way to victory. But still, tough break for Shore. Hoping he can rebound here but Zalal’s a hard fight at the best of times. He’s 15-5-1 and just recently returned to the UFC after a less than stellar first stint a few years back. Although one of the losses was to Ilia Topuria in Topuria’s debut, so no shame there, and Zalal did go the distance with him. He’s now on a 5 fight winning streak and coming off back-to-back submission wins over Billy Quarantillo and Jarno Errens this year. Cracking fight this. Alexandr Romanov vs Rodrigo Nascimento. Sigh. Shitty lower level Heavyweight bollocks. I was becoming a bit of a fan of Romanov early in his UFC run, based purely on his love of suplexing these big slugs all over the Octagon. It’s not like I ever saw a run at the title in his future or anything, but the suplexes were fun and he provided a bit of relief in a mostly awful division. Seems like that party’s over though. Now he’s just another fat fuck. Seems like after the Tybura loss in 2022, he just stopped caring. If you remember, that was around the time he was actually getting himself in decent shape, after the Tybura loss he turned up for his next fight a flabby mess again and has looked like he can’t be arsed ever since. He got fed to Jailton Almeida in his last fight in June and Jailton just squashed him in 2 minutes. Nascimento’s going nowhere as well. He’s 11-2-0-1 and coming off getting chinned by Derrick Lewis in May. He had a few wins before that but his best win was over an old Ilir Latifi who was on his way out of the UFC and I think he retired. He hasn’t fought since anyway. Serhiy Sidey vs Garrett Armfield might be worth checking in on. Haven’t seen much of either but I really enjoyed Sidey’s UFC debut back in January. He fought Ramon Taveras in a rematch of their DWCS fight last year. Sidey won the first fight on DWCS but it was a controversial early stoppage. So when they were both ready to make their UFC debuts, the matchmakers decided to just run it back and do the rematch. I remember I had it as FOTN but they gave it to DDP vs Strickland. It was a hell of a scrap and a close one but Taveras walked away with the split decision win. So a loss for Sidey in his debut but it was such a fun scrap and so close that his stock still probably went up. So I’m looking forward to seeing him back in there. Canadian as well so he’ll have the crowd support. Armfield’s 10-4 with 8 finishes and has fought in the UFC a few times now with very mixed results. He’s coming off a submission loss to Brady Hiestand back in June. Be nice to see Sidey pick up his first UFC win here on home soil. Chad Anheliger vs Cody Gibson. Yeah just no feelings or opinions on this whatsoever. Anheliger’s Canadian so there’s that. He’s 37 years old, 13-7 and beat Charalampos Grigoriou on points in his last fight in March, whatever that’s worth. He lost back-to-back fights before that though. Gibson’s also 37 and has a record of 20-10. He’s coming off a submission win over a washed up Brian Kelleher in July. Just nothing to talk about here. Nice that Anheliger’s getting to fight at home, I guess. Probably a career highlight for him in itself. Jamey-Lyn Horth vs Ivana Petrovic. Not arsed in the slightest. Horth’s another Canadian, 34 years old and 6-1 with 5 finishes. She suffered her first loss last time out, dropping a decision to Veronica Hardy in December last year. Petrovic is Norwegian/Croatian, 30 years old with a 7-1 record. Former Flyweight champ in the Ares promotion, lost her UFC debut but bounced back with a submission win over Liang Na in April. Jam-up ??? Edited November 2, 2024 by wandshogun09 Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted October 11, 2024 Author Paid Members Posted October 11, 2024 Late addition to this card and I had to make a few changes to the opening post for this one. Banger. Not sure why a fight between a Welshman and a Moroccan has been chucked on a random card in Canada just 3 weeks before show time but I love the matchup itself. Shore’s trying to get back on track after a rough spell and Zalal’s the guy who went the distance with Ilia Topuria in Topuria’s UFC debut, was let go after some losses but has came back strong and subbed two opponents already since returning to the UFC this year. I changed this to my ‘one to watch’ (not that it matters) and also took Lewis vs Diniz out of the poll and added Shore vs Zalal instead just because it’s a better and more interesting fight to predict. Shame it’s so far down the card but it should be an excellent fight. Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted October 31, 2024 Author Paid Members Posted October 31, 2024 This one’s almost here. It’s snuck up with zero discussion but it’s actually a decent card and in front of a crowd so better than your average Fight Night. Didn’t think they’d bother with custom shorts for a Fight Night but they’ve done these for Moreno. Feels like a bit of a must win fight for him this. The scores were close against Royval in Mexico but he looked pretty bad overall in that one. If he loses this fight, I genuinely don’t know where he goes from there. Feel like he’d be too small for 135 but he’d have his work cut out getting back in the convo at Flyweight for me. Or maybe not. The UFC and matchmakers seem to love him so maybe he’s always gonna be one of those ‘win one fight, get another title shot’ types. Tough one to call though. Not sure what we’re getting out of Moreno and we don’t really know how good Albazi is yet either. Hopefully it’s a good fight either way. Quote
Kfogg1991 Posted October 31, 2024 Posted October 31, 2024 It's absolutely criminal that Derick Lewis is under the co main after main eventing for the past year and half if not longer but he's on it that's what matters. What's the times for this one as I'm working Saturday for a drum and bass night hopefully I'll be able to watch abit throughout the night trying to go to a happy place with that music. Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted October 31, 2024 Author Paid Members Posted October 31, 2024 2 minutes ago, Kfogg1991 said: What's the times for this one as I'm working Saturday for a drum and bass night hopefully I'll be able to watch abit throughout the night trying to go to a happy place with that music. Prelims start at 9pm, main card from midnight. That’s according to Marcel Dorff anyway. Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted November 1, 2024 Author Paid Members Posted November 1, 2024 I know I make everything about the Sopranos but why have they got the fighters doing face-offs like it’s one of Tony and Johnny Sack’s secret meet ups? “It’s undignified!” Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted November 2, 2024 Author Paid Members Posted November 2, 2024 (edited) It’s fight day and we’ve lost a fight. Typical. Derrick Lewis has pulled out with a medical issue so his fight with Jhonata Diniz has been scrapped. The Ariane Da Silva vs Jasmine Jasudavicius fight has been bumped up to the main card. Love Lewis but hasn’t this happened a couple of times now? These mysterious medical issues at the last minute? He did an interview this week where he was saying he got a great deal when he signed his latest contract, and that it was thanks to Francis Ngannou’s negotiating of his PFL deal meaning Lewis had another option there and that’s what drove his price up. He said that with the amount they’re paying him now, he feels like they’ve been actively trying to space his fights out so they’re not paying him big coin regularly. But then they book him a fight and stuff like this happens. And it sounds bad but my first thought is he’s had a dodgy takeaway and got the shits or something. If it was almost anyone else that thought wouldn’t enter my head a few days/hours out from the fight but Lewis is so unbothered by the whole fight week process it actually sounds like something he’d do. Edited November 2, 2024 by wandshogun09 Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted November 2, 2024 Paid Members Posted November 2, 2024 new rules remember: Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted November 2, 2024 Paid Members Posted November 2, 2024 (edited) look at this for a transformation, Caio Machado dropped almost 50lb to make his 205lb debut tonight, fair fucks. Edited November 2, 2024 by Egg Shen Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted November 2, 2024 Author Paid Members Posted November 2, 2024 Gone Albazi, Namajunas and Shore in the poll. Not sure on any of them though. Haven’t got much confidence in Moreno after his last fight but then Albazi’s coming off the layoff/neck surgery. Think Rose is clearly more skilled overall than Blanchfield but then again her defensive wrestling isn’t the best and that’s Blanchfield’s strength. And Shore vs Zalal, fuck knows? That feels like a bit of a coin flip. Quote
Dai Posted November 2, 2024 Posted November 2, 2024 Liking the look of this one! Do we think we will actually see any noticeable differences with the rules? Particularly with the 12-6, will it be happening in a bunch of fights possibly? Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted November 2, 2024 Paid Members Posted November 2, 2024 i'm not so sure about the 12-6 rule, people not being allowed to do the one hand on the canvas bullshit is the more interesting one for me. Quote
Dai Posted November 3, 2024 Posted November 3, 2024 Thought nearly all of the main card was awful on this one. Just shows that even with a live crowd it doesn't guarantee fighters to bring the intensity. So many of the fights had a fighter who played it extremely safe. You could just imagine Dana's blood boiling during most of this main card. Both the main and co main were crap too. Had to put the women's match into fast foward after abiut 3 minutes, not just because it was rubbish but because of Pat Barry's constant noise being in the background. Can't really moan about the main event considering what he's been through, but putting him in a main event on his first show back was clearly a disaster looking at it now. Quote
Zebra Kid Mark Posted November 4, 2024 Posted November 4, 2024 I enjoyed the main event, I like Brandon Moreno a lot so maybe the only reason I enjoyed it was because I love seeing him dominate. I thought he looked flawless and his take down defence and ability to get back up is incredible. He's in a weird spot now though, he's ranked number 2, he's lost to the champ twice, he's lost to the number 1 ranked guy in his fight before this one (Royval). The champ is fighting a newcomer in his next fight, Royval just beat another top contender so on paper Royval is more deserving however, he too got dominated by the champ so no one is dying to see that rematch. It's a division full of great exciting guys but they have all fought each other and after Abasi's loss, no one is on a huge winning streak. The UFC does a terrible job of building up other contenders to look like stars. Does Moreno now have to fight down the rankings? Is Royval going to get the winner of Pantoja and Asakura? I zoned out of the co main event so I can't really comment on the scoring, the commentators sounded surprised that the bookies had it for Blanchfield but I had no opinion on it. Stoltzfus had a good knockout but as Dai said, the rest of the card was pretty boring but was watchable due to the live crowd. If this was in the Apex I would have only bothered with the last 2 fights. Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted November 4, 2024 Paid Members Posted November 4, 2024 Yeah shoddy card in general, and a few fights where it felt really low level (especially Machado/Ribiero & Romanov/Nascimento). Highlights were easily Moreno, Jourdain and Zalal. Quote
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