Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted October 13, 2024 Paid Members Posted October 13, 2024 (edited) Big Bantamweight trouble in little China… ESPN MAIN CARD Petr Yan vs Deiveson Figueiredo Yan Xiaonan vs Tabatha Ricci Song Kenan vs Muslim Salikhov Wang Cong vs Gabriella Fernandes Volkan Oezdemir vs Carlos Ulberg Ozzy Diaz vs Zhang Mingyang ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS Su Young You vs Baergeng Jieleyisi - Road To UFC Bantamweight Final Kiru Singh Sahota vs Dong Hun Choi - Road To UFC Flyweight Final Feng Xiaocan vs Shi Ming - Road To UFC Strawweight Final Carlos Hernandez vs Nyamjargal Tumendemberel Lone’er Kavanagh vs Jose Ochoa Xiao Long vs Quang Le Maheshate Hayisaer vs Nikolas Motta First off, I really like that poster. Simple but cool. As for the card, it’s not the strongest but I’m all over Yan vs Figgy and there are a few little gems scattered throughout the rest of the card. It’ll do as a stopgap between 309 and 310. And at least it’s not the Apex, at least there’ll be a real crowd. Also worth remembering there’s a mega early start time for this with it being in China. Apparently the prelims will start at 8am UK time, with the main card kicking off at 11am! So if you’re watching live, Yan and Figgy should be bringing the violence by around 1pm. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon, is it? Petr Yan vs Deiveson Figueiredo is a proper banger. It’s one I’ve been talking about wanting to see for a while and I’m buzzing it’s not only happening, it’s headlining over 5 rounds. Perfect. You go back a couple of years ago and this would’ve been a champion vs champion ‘Superfight’ when they were both holding the gold at Bantamweight and Flyweight respectively. Now in 2024, it’s a little bit different but no less of a fantastic fight. Ever since Figgy bit the bullet and decided to move up to 135, this was one of the fights I was dying to see. The fact it’s 5 rounds and in front of an actual crowd is a lovely bonus. Then add in that there are potential high stakes in the title race. As I type this, Yan is ranked #3 at Bantamweight and Figgy’s just behind him at #5 currently. Then when you look at the Top 5 and see O’Malley and Sandhagen are both coming off clear cut losses, I’d say it’s pretty safe to assume that the winner of Yan vs Figgy is most likely gonna be next in line for a title shot after Merab vs Umar plays out. The Bantamweight title picture has never looked more clear or straightforward. Petr Yan’s on the road to redemption at this point. He’s rebuilding after a shaky patch. He was the King Of 135 just a few years ago and was being talked about as one of the pound-for-pound top fighters in the game. That talk was probably a bit premature but he certainly looked the part on his way up the ladder and he looked like a machine in his wins over the likes of Urijah Faber, Jose Aldo and Cory Sandhagen. It all went wrong when he had that weird two fight series against Aljo Sterling. That wally brained illegal knee Yan threw, causing him to lose his title by DQ, seemed like a curse which threw his career out of whack. He lost narrow decisions to Aljo (the rematch) and O’Malley, then got dominated by Merab early last year. To see a fighter as skilled as Yan go on a three fight losing skid just shows how tough a division Bantamweight really is. And it didn’t help that Yan then missed the rest of 2023 with injuries. Or maybe the time out was a blessing in disguise? He returned in March this year and beat Song Yadong on points in a really enjoyable fight. Figgy’s gone 3-0 since moving up to Bantamweight at the end of last year, with wins over Rob Font, Cody Garbrandt and Chito Vera. Not too shabby at all that. Especially as his first few fights in a new weight class. I think someone else on here was saying after the Chito win in August that they’re not convinced by Bantamweight Figgy and I kind of agree. I don’t know what it is. As impressive as those three wins are, I’m never confident picking him at 135 like I was at Flyweight. He looks noticeably undersized against established 135ers and, at nearly 37 years old, it’s just got the feel of him leaving the move up in weight a tad too late. But still, so far, so good. Can’t argue with the results. And say what you want about him being small for the division… His punching power seems to have carried up with him. That was notable as well because Chito had never been knocked down before that, in a 30+ fight career. Figgy still looks good. I’m just not sure where his ceiling is at 135 and approaching his late 30s. Especially factoring in that he had a bunch of hard, gruelling fights at 125, specifically the four fight series of wars with Brandon Moreno. I’d love to see Figgy win UFC gold in a second division but I can’t see it happening myself. I’m not sure he gets past Yan here. And even if he does, if/when he comes up against bigger, naturally stronger, younger maulers like Merab and Umar, I think he’d be in a world of shit. How do we see this going then? Honestly, I don’t have an early feeling on who wins. I just love the matchup. I could see it being a bit methodical and cagey in the early rounds. I’m not expecting bell-to-bell chaos the whole time. Yan’s got a tendency to start slow and get stronger as he settles into the fight and Figgy’s been more selective with his bursts of aggression in recent fights. I think they’ll both be wary of possibly needing to keep some ammo in the chamber in case it goes into the later rounds. But it’s gonna be absolutely engrossing to watch and they’ve both got the kind of striking and nasty streaks to go with it that I could see it catching fire at any moment. I’m guessing the crowd will be more pro-Yan because he’s actually got some Chinese heritage but fuck knows? Figgy’s got a swagger and fighting style that makes him easy to like and popular pretty much wherever he goes. Legitimately can’t wait for this. Like I said it’s got some stakes to it but it’s not the biggest fight on the calendar. But as a fight fan, some pairings just do it for you, don’t they? It’s not on the same level as stuff like Topuria vs Volk or Holloway, Fury vs Usyk or Beterbiev vs Bivol but this is genuinely just below that lot as one of my favourite and most anticipated fights of the year. Yan Xiaonan vs Tabatha Ricci is a bit of a weak co-main, in my opinion. Not a big fan of it but whatever. Not the worst fight. Big opportunity for Ricci. She’s just got in the Top 10 at Strawweight and Yan’s at #2 and just lost her title shot against the champ Zhang Weili at UFC 300. So needless to say, if Ricci can get a win out of this she’ll shoot right up the rankings and could put herself in the conversation for a crack at the belt. That Yan vs Zhang fight at 300 was a weird one. It was a one sided decision win for Zhang but, really, Yan was lucky to see the final buzzer. There’s a strong case to be made that Zhang should’ve got TKO and submission finishes at different points in the fight but the ref let it go. The sub in particular, Yan was only saved by the round ending and when Zhang let go of the choke Yan was clearly unconscious. She got battered. Gonna be a tough loss to bounce back from and fighting at home in China could either be a good thing or just added pressure. It’s certainly a winnable fight though. Never been overly impressed with Ricci and I’m not even sure she should’ve got the decision over Angela Hill last time out. Not expecting much from this, hopefully it’s a pleasant surprise. Song Kenan vs Muslim Salikhov isn’t doing much for me. Song’s 22-8 and coming off a decision win over Ricky Glenn at UFC 305 in August. He’s one of those guys who’s been on the roster for ages but hasn’t done anything memorable or of note. He fought and lost to Ian Garry last year but, aside from that, I couldn’t name one fight he’s had in almost a decade in the UFC without checking. I do kind of like Salikhov but at 40 years old and after a 200+ fight combat sports career, he appears to be on his last legs at this point. As many fights as he’s had, if nothing else he was always durable. But even that’s fading now, he’s been knocked out in 2 of his last 3 losses. He did manage a split decision win over Santiago Ponzinibbio in July but it wasn’t a great showing from either really. Wang Cong vs Gabriella Fernandes has my attention and it’s got sod all to do with Fernandes. She’s 9-3 overall, 1-2 in the UFC and she’s done very little and been forgettable while doing it. My interest here is purely to see Cong back in there. She made her UFC debut back in August and I didn’t take a lot of notice going in really. She pretty much stole fight week though. She rocked up to the weigh ins in full on Joker gimmick and then viciously sparked Victoria Leonardo a minute into the first round. OK, it was a ham and egg sandwich she beat but, as first impressions go, it was a UFC debut that certainly stuck in my memory. She’s 32 years old now and 6-0 in MMA. So not that young and she’s inexperienced as far as MMA goes. But we’ll see. She’s definitely got something about her though. A bit of character and personality and she certainly looks dangerous in the cage. She does have a Kickboxing win over Valentina Shevchenko in 2015 as well. Granted that’s so long ago now it’s pretty much irrelevant but, still, it can’t hurt that she’s already got a bit of history and a built-in backstory with the current UFC champion in her division. If she gets a couple more eye catching wins, don’t be surprised if she gets the old Alex Pereira treatment like when he got fast-tracked to a shot at Adesanya because of their history. Volkan Oezdemir vs Carlos Ulberg is a rare fun Light Heavyweight fight. I mean it could well turn out shit like a good old chunk of 205 fights do, but I like the sound of it and it definitely has decent slugfest potential. We last saw Oezdemir on the Saudi Arabia card in June. He joined the constantly growing list of names who have separated Johnny Walker from consciousness in both brutal and hilarious fashion… For a while there it was starting to feel like that ‘No Time’ nickname was false advertising but this was more like the old Oezdemir. He’s finished his last couple of fights in the first round now, in fairness. No world beater but he’s more watchable than a lot of the division these days. To be honest, I was half expecting him to be paired off with a bigger name after that Walker KO. Maybe a Jan Blachowicz or Jiri Prochazka. This could still be a fun one but it feels like a step sideways more than actual progress. Ulberg was briefly booked against both Jamahal Hill and Anthony Smith at UFC 303 in June but that card got absolutely ravaged by pullouts and Ulberg was just one of them. He’s 10-1 with 8 finishes and smoked Alonzo Menifield in just 12 seconds in his last fight in May. I never wanna be too optimistic about 205 fights because that just feels like you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. But this could be an explosive one if they’re both up for it. Ozzy Diaz vs Zhang Mingyang. Dunno. Not sure why this is on the main card, other than Mingyang being Chinese, but we’ll go with it. Diaz is making his UFC debut here, he’s 33 years old and he’s 9-2, all finishes. He fought on DWCS in 2022 but got stopped by Joe Pyfer. He’s since got a couple of KO/TKO wins of his own in LFA. Mingyang is 26 with a record of 17-6 with all 17 wins coming inside the distance. Mingyang made his UFC debut in February, knocking out Brendson Ribeiro in less than 2 minutes. Yeah, I guess that’s why this is on the main card. Mingyang being a home fighter plus they’ve both got 100% finish rates. Su Young You vs Baergeng Jieleyisi. The Bantamweight finals of Road To UFC. You is South Korean, 28 years old and 13-3-0-2 with 8 inside the distance. Baergeng’s Chinese, also 28 and has a record of 18-5 with 14 finishes, 10 by submission. Kiru Singh Sahota vs Dong Hun Choi is the Flyweight final and probably the standout to me of the three Road To UFC finals on this card. Sahota is British Sikh and, I think, only the second Sikh to fight in the UFC. Could be wrong on that. Definitely the first British Sikh in the UFC anyway. He’s 29 years old, fights out of Manchester and has a 12-2 record with 8 finishes. And South Korean Choi is 25 years old and undefeated at 8-0 with 3 by knockout. Still know next to nothing about these two but just the fact Sahota’s a UK fighter and Choi’s unbeaten makes it a little bit more interesting than the other finals. To me anyway. At least there’s something there. Feng Xiaocan vs Shi Ming is the all Chinese Strawweight finals of Road To UFC. Feng’s only 22 years old and has a 10-2 record with 5 finishes. She’s coming into this fight on an 8 fight winning streak. Shi Ming goes by the nickname ‘Bunny Bomb’ for some reason. She’s 29 years old and 16-5 with 7 finishes. Carlos Hernandez vs Nyamjargal Tumendemberel. No clue. I’ve seen Hernandez, he’s 9-4 and has fought in the UFC a few times now. But I mostly remember him for being fed to the likes of Tatsuro Taira and Rei Tsuruya to build them up. He’s fallen into that role now. This Nyamjargal Tumendemberel chap though? Never heard of him. And if you heard a name like that, you’d probably remember it, wouldn’t you? He’s Mongolian, 26 years old and undefeated at 8-0 with 7 finishes. On paper, knowing how they’ve been booking Hernandez, you’d assume the matchmakers must see something in Tumendemberel and are using Hernandez as cannon fodder here. We’ll see though. Lone’er Kavanagh vs Jose Ochoa is ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** this time. Can’t remember the last time, if ever, that I highlighted a fight where both fighters were making their UFC debuts but here we are. I’ve heard a lot of good things about Kavanagh. He’s been one of the most talked about UK prospects over the last couple of years and at 25 years old and a perfect 7-0, he couldn’t have got off to a better start in his career. In August he got his opportunity on DWCS and to say he made the most of it would be an understatement. He ironed out An Tuan Ho with a horrible left hook for the first round knockout and left Dana White’s jaw in his lap at cageside. I haven’t seen as much of DWCS as I’d like but I did catch this. Hell of a KO and between that, the post-fight celebration and Dana’s reaction, you knew with zero doubts that he had that UFC contract locked up. Dana probably had the pen and paper ready before Kavanagh had even got down the Octagon steps. “That was vicious. One of the nastiest knockouts we’ve ever seen on this show. And we’ve seen some shit on this show! That kid (Ho) is no slouch either. It’s not like you saw this vicious knockout against a can who was thrown in there against someone on the rise. That was a real fight with two real guys. I’m excited to see what Kavanagh does in the UFC.” - Dana White Kavanagh’s already talking a big game as well. He’s saying his plan is to become UFC Flyweight champion “within two years”. Whether that’s delusional or justified confidence, I guess we’ll find out in time. But regardless, it’s always good to get a fresh face in the mix. Especially in a division like Flyweight which has produced a lot of great fights but the top end has been a bit Groundhog Day for a while. Jose Ochoa is Peruvian, 23 years old and also yet to taste defeat. He’s 7-0-0-1 with all 7 wins being finishes. The only ‘blemish’ being a No Contest due to an illegal knee in 2021. He’s won a couple of fights since but hasn’t been that active. He’ll have been on the shelf just over a year by the time this fight rolls around. So it’s a clash of unbeaten young prospects but Kavanagh is definitely the one with momentum coming in. Looking forward to it. Xiao Long vs Quang Le. Don’t know enough about either. Long’s 26 years old with a 26-9 record. He made his UFC debut on the Saudi card in June in another Road To UFC fight and lost a split decision to Chang Ho Lee. Vague memories of that being pure shite actually. Quang Le’s Vietnamese, 32 years old and 8-1 with 5 finishes. His UFC debut came on just a few days notice in August. He stepped in last minute against Chris Gutierrez and lost on points. Don’t think I even saw it. Maheshate Hayisaer vs Nikolas Motta. Again, just filling a slot but might be alright. I remember Maheshate’s UFC debut in Singapore a couple of years ago, he one punch KO’d Steve Garcia and completely faceplanted him in the first round. It was the perfect debut really but it hasn’t panned out for him since. He lost his next two fights before finally clawing a split decision win back over Gabriel Benitez in April. He’s still only 24 though so maybe he can turn things around yet. Motta’s wildly inconsistent. He’s 14-5 and in his last three fights he’s suffered a first round KO loss, got a No Contest, then beat Tom Nolan by first round TKO, which is Nolan’s only loss to date. Motta was supposed to fight Ludovit Klein recently but had to withdraw. Fuck knows with this. Macau ??? Edited November 22, 2024 by wandshogun09 Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted October 14, 2024 Paid Members Posted October 14, 2024 Yeah, shout on Lone'er Kavanagh wand. One of the better UK prospects in a while, he was dusting folk over in Cage Warriors before he got that Contenders Series call. Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted November 19, 2024 Author Paid Members Posted November 19, 2024 Just days away now. This is gonna be good. Perfect palate cleanser after the Paul vs Tyson and Jones vs Stipe debacles last weekend. Remember the early start time as well. These two should be hitting the cage by around 1pm Saturday afternoon. Quote
Zebra Kid Mark Posted November 20, 2024 Posted November 20, 2024 On 10/13/2024 at 6:24 PM, wandshogun09 said: I think someone else on here was saying after the Chito win in August that they’re not convinced by Bantamweight Figgy and I kind of agree. I believe that was me who said that about Figgy. I just don't buy him at Bantamweight yet and that is why I have gone with Yan in the vote. After Figgy vs Chito, I was calling for Figgy vs Sandhagen next but in the UFC Saudi Arabia thread you said you would prefer to see Figgy vs Yan so it's nice that one of us has their wish. I might be in the minority here but this is a pure Heel vs Heel match up for me. Everytime these 2 have fought in the UFC, I have always wanted the other person to win. Whether it was Yan vs Faber, O Malley, Sterling, Merab and Sandhagen or Figgy vs Benavidez, Moreno x 4, Font, Chito and sorry but even Garbrandt. I have never wanted either Yan or Figgy to win. On this occasion I will be cheering for Figgy, I just can't warm to Yan. Ulberg vs Oezdemir is one of the only other fights on this card that stands out. I do not want to tempt fate but I think this will be an exciting 1 round banger. Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted November 20, 2024 Author Paid Members Posted November 20, 2024 5 hours ago, Zebra Kid Mark said: After Figgy vs Chito, I was calling for Figgy vs Sandhagen next but in the UFC Saudi Arabia thread you said you would prefer to see Figgy vs Yan so it's nice that one of us has their wish. Yeah Figgy vs Sandhagen would be a banger. I hope we see that somewhere down the line. If Figgy loses to Yan, maybe that could be next but I’m hoping for Sandhagen vs O’Malley at some point as well. If Yan loses on Saturday, I wanna see Yan vs Chito. Just to complete that triangle of Yan vs Chito vs Figgy I’ve been banging on about. The matchmakers really can’t miss with that lot in the top half of the rankings at 135. 5 hours ago, Zebra Kid Mark said: I might be in the minority here but this is a pure Heel vs Heel match up for me. Everytime these 2 have fought in the UFC, I have always wanted the other person to win. Whether it was Yan vs Faber, O Malley, Sterling, Merab and Sandhagen or Figgy vs Benavidez, Moreno x 4, Font, Chito and sorry but even Garbrandt. I have never wanted either Yan or Figgy to win. On this occasion I will be cheering for Figgy, I just can't warm to Yan. Definitely with you on Yan. He’s one of my favourite fighters to watch when he’s on his game but he’s always seemed a dickhead to me. I love watching him but rarely root for him. I like Figgy though. I was 50/50 in his rivalry with Moreno, never really pulled for one over the other there. But I was definitely on Team Fig for the Benavidez, Font and Garbrandt fights. The Chito one was, again, just a case of me wanting to see the fight and being happy it was happening. I didn’t really have a dog in that race. So I’ll be rooting for Figgy here but really, I just hope they have a great fight and it lives up to the way I’ve imagined it in my head. When you really look back at 2024, with 6 or so weeks left of the year, we really haven’t had a lot of obvious FOTY contenders, have we? Most years there’s one or two that really stand out. We’ve had some great moments and individual performances, but FOTY contenders? Not that many. I’d love for Yan and Figgy to go out and snatch that. I’ll say this as well, I’m starting to think if Figgy wins this fight he’s getting the next title shot. Merab doesn’t seem keen at all on fighting Umar next so if Figgy beats Yan, taking him to 4-0 at Bantamweight, he’s probably got a stronger case than Umar at that point. Even though I think Merab vs Umar is the better and more interesting fight. We’ll see. Dana seems to want the Umar fight so I can see him refusing to budge on that and it’s not like Merab’s got top star leverage like a Jones or McGregor might have to pick and choose opponents. A lot is probably gonna depend on how Yan vs Figgy goes. If Figgy wins, I think he’s gonna have to win big to get Dana to change his mind and put him in. If he eeks out a close decision, I think Dana’s gonna go all in on Merab vs Umar. Quote
Dai Posted November 20, 2024 Posted November 20, 2024 Cody Garbrant over Figgy!? Seems insanity to me. As Wand said, Yan really did seem like he was going to be the real deal a few years back. He was starting to build that invincible aura that very few fighters seem to get. Just all went a bit pair shaped for him. Still picking him to win this one. Aldo these days is seemingly proving that father time isnt a big a factor in the lighter weight divisions as it was a decade ago, so late 30s probably isnt a huge factor in this one. Still think Yan has too much for Figgy, but it will be close. Quote
deathrey Posted November 20, 2024 Posted November 20, 2024 Kiru is actually from Huddersfield though he trains in Manchester now. We used to train together many moons ago, he's a really nice guy and I really hope this works out for him, he's been trying to get in to the UFC for as long as I've known him and that's been over 12 years. His younger brother Pav is also a very talented fighter but a total prick. You are correct @wandshogun09 he is only the second Sikh to compete in the UFC, the first being Arjan Singh Bhullar. Quote
Paid Members Carbomb Posted November 20, 2024 Paid Members Posted November 20, 2024 I'm guessing KB Bhullar isn't Sikh then? Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted November 20, 2024 Author Paid Members Posted November 20, 2024 9 minutes ago, Carbomb said: I'm guessing KB Bhullar isn't Sikh then? I don’t know actually, forgot about him. I was thinking of Arjan myself when I made the opening post. I’m not sure. Maybe not the most reliable source but I just googled ‘Sikh UFC fighters’ and it only came up with Arjan and Kiru. You might be right though. Puja Tomar became the first Indian woman to fight in the UFC as well back in June. Thanks for the insight @deathrey Quote
deathrey Posted November 20, 2024 Posted November 20, 2024 KB Bhullar is Punjabi in heritage (though he is Canadian) but I've never seen him claim Sikhi, and he doesn't use Singh so I'm going to say he's not Sikh Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted November 22, 2024 Author Paid Members Posted November 22, 2024 Early start in the morning… Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted November 23, 2024 Paid Members Posted November 23, 2024 Love a Ricci weigh-in photo. Cherry picking the 5-6 fights I like the look off on this and it's makes a really solid main card of fights. Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted November 27, 2024 Author Paid Members Posted November 27, 2024 (edited) Did anyone watch this? I ended up watching all of it, most of it live on Saturday morning, in the end. Really good show with a bunch of big finishes and a banger main event. Thought Yan vs Figgy was fantastic. 2024 has been a bit short on obvious FOTY contenders but this was definitely one of the best fights of the year for me. It was a bit too one-sided to really take it to that next level but I loved this fight myself. Really delivered on my expectations. In the end I had Yan winning quite clearly. Lost track now of which rounds I scored to who but I think I had it 4-1 for Yan. I saw people complaining about the 50-45 scorecards and I get that, with a fight this good, such wide cards feel a bit off. But although Figgy did have his moments, I did feel like Yan edged nearly every round. Figgy again showed that his power has followed him to 135, dropping Yan at one point. You could see as the fight went on that Yan felt Figgy’s power and didn’t like it. But Yan looked sharp here overall. Best he’s looked since the Sandhagen fight for me. To the surprise of nobody, Merab’s pushing to rematch Yan now. I’ve really soured on Merab since he won the title. I get the argument that Umar’s only got one high level win but fuck me. With how lopsided and relatively recent Merab’s win over Yan was, who really wants to see a rematch of that over the fascinating clash of Merab vs Umar? As soon as Merab won the title he was trying to fight everyone but Umar. The fact he initially wanted to rematch Sean O’Malley after he’d already just beat him comfortably just felt so weak. Now he wants to go over old ground with Yan. Another guy he’s dominated already. Had Figgy beat Yan here, fair enough. He’d have legitimately had a stronger case than Umar for me. That would’ve been 4 straight wins at 135 and he’d be a fresh fight for Merab. Yan’s a bit of a different story though. I feel like he could do with one more big win. If it wasn’t for the whole Jones-Aspinall saga, I think Merab’s blatant ducking of Umar would be getting more attention. Not sure what the next move is. Guess it depends who Merab ends up facing next, then the rest of the division’s matchmaking can fall into place. If it was up to me though, I think I’d go with Merab vs Umar for the strap and I’d do O’Malley vs Yan 2 and Figgy vs Sandhagen. Then further down the rankings, maybe Chito Vera vs Song Yadong 2 and the WEC dream match of Jose Aldo vs Dominick Cruz. You can mix and match that lot and you can’t really go wrong but they would be my choices. Yan Xiaonan easily beat Tabatha Ricci. Wasn’t even close. Thought Ricci was shite here. I’ve found her boring to watch for a while but she’s been getting wins out of it up to now. Yan Xiaonan kind of schooled her here though. Not a lot to say about it. I didn’t expect a great fight and it wasn’t a great fight. Good performance from Yan. Her calling for the rematch with Zhang Weili didn’t do anything for me whatsoever though. I’ve got pretty much zero interest in that. I was surprised to see mostly positive reactions to the idea of Zhang vs Yan 2. I don’t get it. Zhang won clearly as recently as April at UFC 300. She won by decision but arguably should’ve won by TKO and submission at different points in the fight. It wasn’t close or in any way controversial. One win over Tabatha Ricci isn’t enough to get another crack at the gold, in my opinion. I’d rather see Zhang vs Jandiroba next. Muslim Salikhov and his spinning shit KO was one of the highlights of the card and a finish that’ll surely be on everyone’s shortlist for Knockout Of The Year. A 40 year old, 200+ fight veteran pulling out a KO like that. Nice to see Salikhov get a win and finish like that. I like him, he’s been an undercard favourite of mine for a while, but I’ve felt like he’s been on the way out over his last few fights. I still think he’s on borrowed time but this was a hell of a knockout all the same. Had to have busted Song’s jaw surely. It was right on the money. Gabriella Fernandes dropping and submitting Wang Cong was the surprise of the card. Maybe it shouldn’t be a huge shock because we didn’t know much about Cong at all going in. But if Cong was gonna slip on a banana skin, I don’t think anyone expected it would be this early in her UFC career and against someone like Fernandes. It’s mad how much of an upset this felt considering Cong had only won one fight in the UFC previously. Just goes to show what a gimmick and a one punch KO in your debut can do. Shame really. If she could’ve kept the ball rolling and kept winning, she probably would’ve been fast-tracked to a title shot just because Flyweight doesn’t have the most exciting title picture and Cong had that win over Shevchenko from their Kickboxing days. That’s out now though. Big win for Fernandes though and, listening to her post-fight interview and the shite she’s been dealing with losing her Dad and sister, it’s impossible not to feel good about her winning. Ulberg vs Oezdemir was surprisingly a bit flat, I thought. Not a terrible fight or anything and it was a decent performance from Ulberg against a dangerous opponent. But it was far from the fireworks display I think most expected when the fight was announced. Oh well. I did like Ulberg’s callout of Khalil Rountree though. Feels like a logical next matchup for both. Ulberg’s earned a step up and Rountree’s gonna have to build himself back up after that Pereira beating. Wouldn’t be surprised to see that fight on the Sydney card in February. Zhang Mingyang opened up the main card the right way. I questioned why this was on the main card at first but both having 100% finish rates kind of answered that. And as it turned out, Mingyang scoring a big finish for the home crowd was the perfect note to start with. Just stepped in with the elbow and wiped Ozzy Diaz out. Beautiful finish. I’m a sucker for fighters using standing elbow strikes and this one was on the money. Liking what I’ve seen of Mingyang so far in the UFC. He’s probably gonna get found out sooner than later but he’s a fun addition to a 205 division that isn’t exactly heaving with fun fighters these days. Dong Hun Choi smoked Kiru Sahota in the Road To UFC Flyweight final. Wasn’t pretty with the winging loopy punches but it got the job done. Just got Sahota early and, although they weren’t technically pretty punches, swinging like that obviously pays off if you land, and he connected hard with Sahota’s chin. No coming back from that. The biggest talking point outside the main event, by far, was Shi Ming nearly decapitating Feng Xiaocan with an absolutely BRUTAL headkick… Honestly one of the scariest knockouts in UFC history. The way Xiaocan fell, the way she went completely stiff, the way she was down for what felt like forever and the cameras were avoiding her as they stayed on a visibly concerned Shi Ming. Even as someone who’s spent an unhealthy portion of my life watching people get knocked out, this was uncomfortable to watch. Then when they went to a break, returned and Xiaocan was still down and not being shown, it actually crossed my mind that we might’ve just witnessed something tragic. Thankfully it seems Xiaocan was OK after a trip to the hospital but it was scary stuff for a while there. Can’t remember the last time I saw a fighter have to be carried out on a stretcher after a KO. We’ve seen it with leg injuries and stuff but from a blow to the head, I’m struggling to remember one like this. You’d never look at Shi Ming and think she was capable of that, would you? Talk about a wolf in sheep’s clothing. She looked so tiny in there as well, looked like she didn’t belong even at Strawweight. Last thing I expected was a KO like that out of her. She’s gonna be hard to route against going forward. Seems very likeable and despite pulling this KO off, she’s probably gonna be the underdog in most fights just due to her size. She seemed genuinely upset that she’d hurt her opponent in the post-fight interview as well. Crazy that they said her parents didn’t even know she was fighting MMA ? there’s no way that’s still the case now after this. Lone’er Kavanagh had a successful UFC debut and he looked good but, I’ve gotta say, I was almost just as impressed by Jose Ochoa. Maybe that’s because all the buzz going in was for Kavanagh but I really liked Ochoa as well. I had Kavanagh winning a pretty clear decision in the end but Ochoa was always in it and competitive. I’m looking forward to seeing both again, to be honest. Both look like solid additions to the Flyweight division. Even the first couple of early prelims Xiao Long vs Quang Le and Nikolas Motta vs Maheshate were more enjoyable than I thought. I had no expectations for those fights and probably would’ve skipped them but I was up early anyway and whacked the show on. Couple of pretty fun fights to kick the show off and Long got the big finish in his fight. Yeah, very entertaining show in general that. Maybe the best Fight Night of the year, if there’s been a better one then it’s not jumping out in my memory. Edited November 27, 2024 by wandshogun09 Quote
Paid Members Carbomb Posted November 27, 2024 Paid Members Posted November 27, 2024 Dammit, missed this. Not surprised that Shi Ming would have been more visibly concerned than most, being a doctor. It is crazy that she lives this double life. Merab's behaviour is annoying, but I think it might be understandable: after how long it took the UFC to even give him a title shot, just because of his style, he probably wants the chance to build up a streak before facing the biggest threat in the division, because it would take him forever to get a rematch if he lost the belt to Umar on his first defence. Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted November 28, 2024 Author Paid Members Posted November 28, 2024 I definitely see your point. I just really don’t like champions picking and choosing who ‘deserves’ a shot at the title. I know it’s always gonna go on but it’s not the way it should be, in my opinion. It’s the blatantness of it with Merab as well. Umar wanted the fight in January so it would be before Ramadan, Merab said that was too soon but he’d been calling for the O’Malley rematch to be in Nov/Dec not long before. So he’d be up for the quick turnaround if it’s O’Malley but for Umar it’s too soon. Now he’s trying to fight Yan again. It’s not a good look. It’s never a good look for a champion to be calling out guys he’s already beat in dominant fashion. Quote
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