UFC Seattle: Cejudo vs Song - Feb 22 ??

[wandshogun09]

A break from the Apex! We’re off to Seattle…

ESPN MAIN CARD
Henry Cejudo vs Song Yadong 

Brendan Allen vs Anthony Hernandez 

Rob Font vs Jean Matsumoto

Jean Silva vs Melsik Baghdasaryan 

Alonzo Menifield vs Julius Walker

ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS
Ion Cutelaba vs Ibo Aslan

Andre Fili vs Melquizael Costa 

Nick Klein vs Mansur Abdul-Malik

Ricky Simon vs Javid Basharat

Austin Vanderford vs Nikolay Veretennikov

Nursulton Ruziboev vs Eric McConico Jr

Modestas Bukauskas vs Rafael Cerqueira 

 

 

Righty. First off, just got to say, this card has been absolutely fucking battered to within an inch of its life by injuries and withdrawals. At one point this card had a Dominick Cruz vs Rob Font co-main event, which was gonna be Cruz’s swansong. Just having that fight added to this lineup makes the card look so much better. That went tits up, Cruz fell out due to a shoulder injury and decided to just pull the plug and retire. Losing that fight was the big one. OK. Then consider that we also had Edson Barboza vs Steve Garcia, which might’ve been my ‘one to watch’ had it stayed intact. Barboza’s out. Curtis Blaydes was on the card, he’s been moved to 313. Couple of other fights fell apart as well. Just shagged this card of its depth. The fact it’s still as solid as it is now is a bit of a miracle really. Hopefully the stuff that’s on there now stays together for the next week because this card really can’t be losing any more fights.

 

 

Henry Cejudo vs Song Yadong is a cracking main event. Can’t go wrong with Bantamweight. I know I say it all the time but I say it for good reason. Best division in the sport these days for me. You can mix and match almost any of the Top 15 and you’re likely to get at least a good fight out of it, if not something even better. This isn’t one I really saw coming. Cejudo’s ranked #7 and Song’s ranked #8, so it makes sense from a rankings perspective. But they both seem to be at completely different points in their careers. Song’s still young and on the rise. And Cejudo has either retired or teased retirement after every fight the last few years. I like the matchup though.

Like him or not, Cejudo is still a big name in the division. He’s lost his last couple of fights, hasn’t won a fight in almost 5 years and he’s barely even fought in that time. But beating him still means something. I guess a lot of it is the prestige that comes with him being an Olympic gold medalist. But even in MMA, he’s also a former UFC champion at both Bantamweight and Flyweight and has wins over the likes of Dominick Cruz, TJ Dillashaw and Demetrious Johnson. I know he’s a fucking goof and a cringeball and he’s got Lego hair but you simply can’t shit on that resume. I think his antics and the silly bollocks he comes out with causes some people to forget that he was legitimately one of the best fighters in the lighter weight classes for a few years there. The question now is, what does he have left?

This picture is from just after his last fight. He got dominated by Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 298 back in February 2024. It was actually a very entertaining fight and Cejudo had a few moments but Merab ultimately overwhelmed him like he’s doing to everyone else at the moment. Obviously it’s a loss that hasn’t aged badly given what Merab’s gone on to accomplish since. But it did kind of feel like a bit of a nail in the coffin moment for Cejudo’s career, at least as an elite level fighter anyway. 

Cejudo had flat out said in multiple interviews going into that Merab fight that it was “all or nothing” for him and that he would “100 percent” retire if he lost. Him taking the gloves off in the cage after the fight seemed to confirm it. Then within days of the fight, he completely backpedaled and said he wouldn’t be retiring after all. Just no point believing anything he says anymore. I think UFC management are just as sick of it as well. They never gave Cejudo his little in-cage farewell interview after the Merab loss, despite them usually doing that when the gloves come off. Dana was asked why by the media and he just grumbled “he already retired once”. Of course Dana’s a wanker and that comment initially just got dismissed as him being grumpy but he was proven right when Cejudo did his little U-turn and unretired again just days later.

Song Yadong is 27 years old, so 11 years younger than Cejudo, and has a record of 21-8-1-1 with 12 of his wins coming inside the distance. He’s been with Team Alpha Male for most of his career and I remember Urijah Faber hyping him up way back as the next big thing. With how young and how promising he looked back then, he seemed like he’d be China’s best hope of a male UFC champion. But it’s kind of fizzled out. He’s very good, don’t get me wrong, but a few losses started creeping in and it seems like he hit his ceiling when he came up against Cory Sandhagen a couple of years ago. He bounced back with a couple of solid wins but then lost to Petr Yan last time out. That was last March at UFC 299 and we haven’t seen him since. Not sure why he’s been out so long but he was briefly scheduled to fight Umar Nurmagomedov at one point late last year but picked up an injury. Hopefully he makes it another week for this fight because 1) it’s a fun one and 2) this card really can’t afford to take any more hits.

Good stuff. Not sure how it goes but it’s a quality Fight Night main event. Like I said, big age difference between them and, at 38, Cejudo’s surely gonna be retiring for real soon. There’s gonna come a time in the not too distant future when he won’t be able to just retire and then unretire willy nilly anymore, Father Time will intervene and the choice will be taken out of his hands. Another loss here would certainly speed up that process. But I’m not sure how good Song actually is. He’s had some decent wins over the years but he’s never beat anyone on Cejudo’s level. The two big step ups he had previously were Sandhagen and Yan, he lost to both. And his two best wins are probably Marlon Moraes and Chito Vera. But he caught Moraes smack bang in the middle of a horrible slump and the Chito fight was back in 2020 and I seem to recall some debate about the decision. If he can notch a win over Cejudo here, even with Cejudo’s age and inactivity over the last few years aside, it’ll be the biggest win of Song’s career to date without question. For Cejudo, yeah he’s lost his last couple but they were a close decision against Aljo in a title fight and then the Merab loss. These are losses at the absolute top level. As good as Song is, on paper this is a step down for Cejudo. So if he loses again here, it’s gonna tell us a bit more about where he’s at in his career and it’ll be a more damaging loss in that sense. We’ll see. I reckon we’ll get a good fight out of it either way. Cejudo’s back is against the wall a bit and he’s got something to prove, and Song’s looking for that big breakthrough signature win to push him to that next level.

 

Brendan Allen vs Anthony Hernandez 2 is a fine co-main. Yep, 2. This is a rematch. I didn’t realise but they actually had a 5 rounder in LFA back in 2018! Hernandez won that night and became LFA champ. Might have to seek that out on Fight Pass before this rematch. I know I rag on Middleweight and that’s because it’s mostly shite. This is a good piece of matchmaking though. Allen’s currently ranked #9 in the division and he was on a decent winning streak until his last fight. He’d won 7 in a row and was coming off back-to-back main event wins over Paul Craig and Chris Curtis. It’s not the deepest pool of talent at 185 and I never saw Allen troubling the title picture but he was building some momentum. Then he ran into Nassourdine Imavov on the Paris card in September and shat the bed. He lost a decision in a mess of a fight and his own performance was cack. What a way to piss away the win streak.

‘Fluffy’ Hernandez is where my interest lies in this one. Easily one of the most entertaining fighters to watch at 185 at the moment. He’s ranked #12 as I type this so this is his ticket into the Top 10. He’s 31 years old with a 13-2-0-1 record. He had his ups and downs earlier in his career but it seems he’s found his groove now. He’s won his last 6 fights in a row and finished 5 of them. That win streak includes submitting BJJ world champion Rodolfo Vieira, derailing and submitting Roman Kopylov and in his last fight in October he absolutely wrecked Michel Pereira in their 5 round main event. That was probably the most impressive performance Fluffy’s had in the UFC yet. Pereira had a lot of momentum and confidence going into that fight and Hernandez completely broke him. Dominated for 4 rounds then put him away in the 5th. Total one way traffic. If he can continue that or level up from that performance here, I think Allen’s in a world of trouble.

 

Rob Font vs Jean Matsumoto has been thrown together a week out from the show and will be at a Catchweight of 140lbs. It wasn’t the original plan. As I touched on above, Font was all set to be the co-main against Dominick Cruz in Cruz’s retirement fight. That would’ve been a big boost to this card and, actually, if it had gone ahead, I feel like it should’ve headlined this card. Cruz deserved to go out in a main event. Wasn’t to be though. Cruz got shagged dry by the injury bug again and decided enough was enough and called it a day on his career. That’s left us with a completely different kind of fight here. Fair play to Font. He’s gone from facing arguably the GOAT in his division at the end of his career when he’d have been a winnable fight and a big scalp…to facing a younger, unheralded, undefeated up and comer. Matsumoto is just 25 years old and 16-0 with 9 of his wins not needing judges. I don’t know a lot about him but he’s 2-0 in the UFC so far with wins over Dan Argueta and Brad Katona. He was scheduled to fight Chris Gutierrez at UFC 313 in March but Cruz dropping off this card forced a scramble and here we are. With all the pullouts on this card, I guess they were just trying to salvage anything they could. Obviously a big opportunity for Matsumoto. But yeah, risky for Font. At 37 years old, to be taking on a young undefeated prospect like this? The risk vs reward factor here compared to the original Cruz fight is insane.

 

Jean Silva vs Melsik Baghdasaryan is ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** this time and, I’ll be honest, it’s got very little to do with Baghdasaryan. He’s not a bad fighter but I can’t say a ton sticks out in my memory about him. He’s Armenian, 33 years old and 8-2 with 5 knockouts. Also has a 9-2 Kickboxing record and he’s 3-0 in Boxing. He’s been on the shelf since July 2023 for some reason though. He beat Tucker Lutz by decision on a Holly Holm undercard at the Apex last time out. Jeez. No wonder I barely remember him.

‘Mean’ Jean is the reason I’ve highlighted this. He only made his UFC debut last January but he’s already gone 3-0 with 3 finishes and he’s instantly established himself as a fan favourite. I’ve said it before but watching him he reminds me a lot of a young Wanderlei Silva. I wouldn’t be surprised if they traced his bloodline back and it came out him and Wandy are from the same branch of the Silva family tree. Either way, he’s been fantastic to watch so far. And in his last two fights especially, he’s looked a right handful. He bashed up Charles Jourdain at UFC 303 in June, then stepped in on short notice up in weight against Drew Dober in July and made a right mess of him to the point the doctor stopped it. Coming off dicing up Dober like that, Baghdasaryan actually feels like a bit of a step backwards. But given Baghdasaryan’s striking background, he should make for an exciting fight with Silva if nothing else. It should be fireworks for however long it lasts.

 

Alonzo Menifield vs Julius Walker came together late in the day. Menifield was supposed to face Oumar Sy on the London card in March but that fell to bits and he got moved to this show. Think Menifield’s reached that stage in his career now where he’s just going through the motions. He’s 37 years old, 15-5-1 and coming off back-to-back brutal knockout losses. What’s the end game here? He’s not gonna be a contender and I doubt he’s on great money. Now he’s in with Walker who’s 25 years old, 6-0 with a 100% finish rate and he’s making his UFC debut. Feels very much like the matchmakers setting Menifield up as a lamb to the slaughter here but we’ll see what happens. Menifield seems a decent guy but I don’t like the sound of this for him. He got his lights switched off violently against Ulberg and Murzakanov in his last two fights. Now he’s being paired up with this guy who’s 6-0 with 6 finishes and only one of them made it out of the first round? And for what it’s worth, although this fight was cobbled together late, Walker was actually scheduled to fight on this date anyway for a promotion called Synergy FC. So he was already training and cutting weight to peak for this specific date. He’s not your typical short notice fill-in.

 

Ion Cutelaba vs Ibo Aslan sounds like pure bedlam to me. No way this isn’t just a brainless slobberknocker. We all know that’s how Cutelaba rolls. There’s not a single thought going on behind those beady eyes, is there? Bloke paints himself green for weigh ins, for fuck’s sake. He’s not wired right. He lives for a slugfest though and from the little I’ve seen of Aslan, he seems to be cut from similar cloth. Cutelaba’s Moldovan, 31 years old and 18-10-1-1 with 15 finishes. Aslan’s Turkish, 28 years old and 14-1 with 14 knockouts. He’s 2-0 in the UFC so far. In his debut he avenged his only career loss by knocking out Anton Turkalj in the third round. Then in October, he absolutely smoked Rafael Cerqueira in just 51 seconds. Don’t blink during this fight. Chances are it’s gonna be a wild one.

 

Andre Fili vs Melquizael Costa should be a fun one. They’re both going nowhere but whatever. Purely as a matchup, there’s always room for fun filler fights and this is one I like the sound of. Fili’s pretty much never involved in anything dull, win or lose. He’s 34 years old now, 24-11-0-1 and 3-3 in his last 6. Gone are the days when he was looked at as a young prospect. But he’s kind of found his niche as a guy you can rely on to liven up the prelims. He’s coming into this one off a split decision win over Cub Swanson at UFC 303 in June. Costa’s 28 and has a 21-7 record with 14 finishes. He’s had a real mixed bag of results in the UFC and some rough losses but he’s coming off a submission win over Shayilan Nuerdanbieke in his last fight. So yeah, one of these two is gonna snap that win one/lose one streak and they’re gonna win two in a row! Watch it be a draw now.

 

Nick Klein vs Mansur Abdul-Malik. This should be worth checking out actually. Don’t know Klein, this’ll be his UFC debut, but he’s 29 years old and 6-1 with 5 finishes. He’s won his last 3 fights by submission and is coming off a 37 second sub on DWCS in October. Abdul-Malik caught my attention in his debut back in November, where he crushed Dusko Todorovic in less than 3 minutes. I remember him looking impressive so I’m looking forward to seeing him back in there. He’s 27 years old and undefeated at 7-0 with 7 finishes and 6 of his fights ending in the first round.

 

Ricky Simon vs Javid Basharat is alright. Decent enough fight. Simon’s fallen right off in form lately though. It’s mad to think but when he submitted Jack Shore in 2022, it really seemed like Simon was becoming a bit of a darkhorse at 135. That was Shore’s first loss and Simon looked a bit of a beast that night. Who’d have guessed that Simon would go on a 3 fight losing streak after that? Needless to say, he’s in desperate need of a win here, just to stop the rot if nothing else. Basharat’s no pushover. Not the most exciting fighter to watch and I soured on him big time after the Victor Henry fight, where he ended the fight by blasting Henry in the bollocks then had the audacity to call him a quitter. Karma came back to him in his next fight though and he suffered the first loss of his career against Aiemann Zahabi. That was last March and he’s been inactive since for whatever reason. Hopefully Simon claws a win back here. For his own sake, plus sod Basharat.

 

Austin Vanderford vs Nikolay Veretennikov was added to the card just a few days out for some reason. Catchweight of 175lbs. Random. Both Vanderford’s signing and them rushing this fight onto this card at almost the last minute. Whatever. It’s how they roll these days. UFC debut time for Mr Paige VanZant!

Bless ‘em but if ever there was a MMA equivalent of the ‘Marvelous’ Marc Mero and Sable dynamic from 1998, this was it for me for a while. Not so much now because Paige has been off the MMA grid since parting ways with the UFC back in 2020. But make no mistake, Austin’s the B-Side in his own relationship. Like I said, this whole thing feels random. It’s not like Austin’s been on some crazy tear where you’d be expecting this signing. He’s 34 years old, 12-2 and has lost 2 of his last 3 fights. I’ll be honest, I’m no expert on his career. By the time he was doing his thing in Bellator, I’d mostly tapped out following the promotion. But I caught a couple of his fights and was never blown away. His best win was over Fabian Edwards but then he got chinned by Gegard Mousasi in his next fight. He’s coming into this fight off a first round TKO on a LFA card in October. Veretennikov’s from Kazakhstan, 35 years old with a record of 12-5 and 10 finishes. He made his UFC debut in August, losing a split decision to Danny Barlow. That was the card I completely skipped so fuck knows? Yeah, weird one for me this.

 

Nursulton Ruziboev vs Eric McConico Jr. Not a clue. I’ve seen Ruziboev, he’s fought in the UFC three times now. Not sure what to think about him though. He’s one of those fighters who’s squeezed in a load of fights and has a good amount of experience at a relatively young age but the level of opposition is mostly a mystery. He’s 31 years old and 34-9-2-2 but fuck knows who any of his first 40-odd opponents were. In the UFC he got a couple of quick finishes against Brunno Ferreira and Sedriques Dumas, then he got his step up against Joaquin Buckley in May and lost clearly. He didn’t look too clever in that one from what I remember. I’m sure he’ll still have his moments against a certain level of opposition, but judging by that Buckley fight, his ceiling isn’t that high. Where this McConico guy sits in levels, fuck knows? Never seen him before but apparently he’s 34 years old, has a record of 9-2-1, is on a 5 fight win streak and won his last fight in July by submission. That’s about the extent of what I can find on him. Even his pic there, you can just about see a bit of someone else’s arm in it ? it’s from a photo where he’s someone else’s cornerman. There’s really not a lot of info on him.

 

Modestas Bukauskas vs Rafael Cerqueira kicks off the night. Never been too fussed about Bukauskas but he seems a decent guy. Lithuanian born, lives and trains here in sunny England. He’s a former Cage Warriors champion, has a 16-6 record and is coming off a submission win over Marcin Prachnio at UFC 304 in Manchester last July. Can’t give much of an opinion on Cerqueira. I’ve seen the grand total of 51 seconds of footage of him. That was his UFC debut in October, where he got chinned quick by Ibo Aslan. In fairness, he was unbeaten prior to that. He’s 11-1 now with 10 finishes. Inoffensive enough curtain jerker.

 

 

No more injuries or fight cancellations for the next week, please…

Edited February 19, 2025 by wandshogun09

[wandshogun09]

Proper random but they’ve signed Paige VanZant’s fella and chucked him on this card in a Catchweight fight on a few days notice for some reason.

 

[Egg Shen]

That is a weird one, I thought Vanderford was on his way out of the game.

[Carbomb]

They've brought him in to do business as he leaves

EDIT: Looking at his record, his division, and his age, I'm surprised he's on his way out. For a MW, 34 isn't awful, and he's only got two losses to his name. He's been in Bellator for a huge chunk of his career, so it's not like he's a scrub either. Maybe this is one of those things where life throws a spanner in the works, and he decides to change direction. A run in the UFC might change his mind.

Edited February 19, 2025 by Carbomb
Andy Mutch

[wandshogun09]

Taking a look at the first Brendan Allen vs Fluffy Hernandez fight from LFA a whole 7 years ago. I’m sure I knew of them fighting each other, I’d have seen it on one of their records when doing an opening post preview or whatever. But I know I’ve never actually watched the fight before.

This was for the vacant LFA Middleweight belt and both were just young pups in their careers. Allen was only 22 years old and had an 8-2 record. He’d already had one crack at LFA gold by this point, going 5 rounds in a losing effort against Eryk Anders. Hernandez was 24, undefeated at 5-0 and had yet to see a second round. His longest fight so far was 3:30. So on paper, Allen would appear to have a slight edge just by having a few more fights under his belt and having gone 5 rounds already.

Oh and the reason the title was vacant here is because the previous two champs had been signed by the UFC as soon as they won the thing and then had to relinquish it. And spoiler…it happens again after this fight. And again after that. And again after that. In fact, the same thing happened with the first SIX Middleweight champions in LFA and I don’t think they’ve ever had a champ at 185 who’s actually defended the belt. The ultimate feeder promotion.

Brendan Allen vs Anthony Hernandez - Vacant LFA Middleweight Title

LFA 32: Allen vs Hernandez

January 26th 2018

Lake Charles, Louisiana 

Live from the Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino! Still better than the Apex. To be honest, it makes a refreshing change to be reviewing a fight from a different promotion for once. And usually I’ve already seen the first fight when I’m doing these posts so it’s nice to look back at a fight I haven’t seen before the rematch. Commentators for this one are Ron Kruck and Pat Miletich. Referee is some fucker named Bobby Wombacher.

This ring announcer cracks me up reading out the sponsors. 

“Brought to you by Inca Kola, the golden cola. Drink an ice cold Inca Kola to UNLEASH your inner warrior. That’s Inca with a C, Kola with a K…USA!” 

? Looks well happy with himself, he does.

One thing I like here, LFA include ‘leg reach’ as part of the Tale Of The Tape along with the usual arm reach, height, weight, age and all that shite. I’ve never really thought of why the UFC don’t do this but you’d think it’d be standard for all MMA promotions really, wouldn’t you? Considering leg reach is just as important as arm reach in MMA.

Anyway, this one’s about to get underway…

Round 1: They meet in the middle and right away, literally a few seconds into the fight, Allen throws a left high kick that doesn’t look like it lands fully but it’s enough to knock Hernandez back on his heels for a second…

Allen uses the opportunity to jump on a takedown and he’s straight in mount. Fuck me. We’re less than 30 seconds in. Disastrous start for Fluffy this. He does a great job using the fence to push off and get out of danger though and he’s on top of Allen now. There’s some fun grappling and scrambles going on here with both trading positions. You can see the rawness and relative inexperience from both on display here at times. They’re both a bit reckless and over-aggressive in trying to make something happen and they’re constantly losing position. It’s making for fun viewing though. About halfway through the round and Allen is going from the back to mount. They’re all over the place. Now Hernandez gets on top. Allen’s going for a Kimura from the bottom but overcommits and Hernandez spins for an armbar…

He doesn’t get it though and Allen not only escapes, he ends the round on Fluffy’s back again! That’s the first round done and dusted. Genuinely not sure who I’d give that round to. Miletich’s scorecard has it 10-10 even and, you know what, I’m not against that. It was a ridiculously close and difficult one to score and if ever a round looked like a 10-10, this was it. I’ll go with that. Nobody really had a clear advantage over the other. 10-10 sounds about right to me. Great first round.

Round 2: They pick up right where they left off. This time it’s Hernandez who initiates the grappling but Allen answers with an omaplata. Hernandez on top now pouring it on. So many twists and turns and reversals of position it’s hard to keep track. This is such a frantic paced, gruelling fight. But by about the midway point of this round it seems like Hernandez is finally putting a bit of distance between them and pulling ahead. He’s managed to stay on top for a bit and Allen looks like he’s getting tired and a bit demoralised now. Unlike the first round, this wasn’t close. The first couple of minutes it was looking like it was gonna be a repeat of the back and forth first round but then Hernandez really took over and Allen seemed to wilt a bit. Hernandez 10-9.

Round 3: Allen comes out and tries to grapple right out the gate but Hernandez shuts him down and ends up on top again. Not good for Allen. After the way that second round went, this is worst case scenario stuff for him. He’s going for a kneebar now though, Hernandez gets out of it and Allen tries a fucking headkick from a sitting position…

Shades of Benson Henderson against Frankie Edgar. Another leg lock attempt by Allen goes nowhere and Fluffy’s back on top. Miletich sounds a bit frustrated that Allen keeps going for submissions instead of trying to just get on top and use ground and pound. He’s probably got a point. The subs haven’t worked up to now and they’re only gonna get more difficult to pull off the longer the fight goes with all the sweat and exhaustion. Hernandez is relentless. He’s all over Allen, giving him no time or space to breathe and constantly chipping away at him with punches. Allen’s still trying but this is just miserable for him. The round ends and he gets up and goes back to his corner with all the speed and enthusiasm of me getting out of bed for work on a Monday morning when it’s -6 outside. He looks broken. Just hating life. Hernandez 10-9.

We’re heading into the fourth round. The ‘championship rounds’. And any questions or doubts there may have been about Hernandez’s cardio and him never going longer than a round are redundant now. We’re deep into the fight, he’s clearly the fresher of the two and his pace hasn’t really slowed down at all from the first round to now.

Round 4: OK, this time Allen comes out looking to strike. And Hernandez immediately responds with heavier artillery, has Allen on the retreat and covering up, then Hernandez gets the takedown. Fuck me. Whatever Allen tries to do here just isn’t working. He starts going for the leg again but this time he doesn’t bother trying for the sub and just uses it to get on top. It works. He’s got the mount and it’s the first bit of hope for him in a while. Miletich is frustrated with Fluffy’s tendency to keep ending up on bottom in mount…

“That’s the thing that’s freaking me out. As good as Hernandez has been on the ground, he’s giving up the mount…I’m just gonna say it…like a hooker on rent day. I mean, he shouldn’t be giving up position that easily. It’s ridiculous. It’s unacceptable. And he’s very good on the ground, he’s shown it!” - Pat Miletich

“Like a hooker on rent day”. That’s one way of putting it. It’s clearly just an inexperience thing with Hernandez where he gets overexcited to go for the kill and loses position. It’s understandable considering he’d finished all his previous opponents in a round. He’s used to getting the finish whenever he goes for it. So here, with Allen proving good enough to not get finished, Hernandez is ending up in bad spots sometimes as a result. Definitely a few lessons being learned on the job here for Fluffy.

Allen’s on top again here and actually maintains control for a bit this time but he looks knackered. He gets mount again and Hernandez literally just sits up and rolls over into top position. Christ. Allen looks done. They’re slipping and sliding all over the gaff and Hernandez ends the round in side control. Another Hernandez 10-9.

Round 5: Fluffy comes out with a spinning back kick to the body but it’s a bit slow and lazy and doesn’t really land. Allen’s trying to answer with something, anything, and he comes at Hernandez with an elbow but eats some return fire…

Allen trying to strike back but Hernandez ties him up in a clinch against the cage and drags him to the mat. He’s on Allen’s back again now and trying to work a choke but he doesn’t have the hooks in, just zero control over Allen’s body, and it goes nowhere. Now Hernandez gets mount but, like pretty much every time one of them’s had a dominant position in this fight, it’s fleeting. Hernandez is firmly in control though. After that mega competitive opening round, he’s completely run away with this fight. Nice elbow from the top by Hernandez.

Another takedown by Hernandez with about 20 seconds left on the clock and that’s gonna be a wrap. Allen’s not gonna pull a miracle out of his arse at this point. It’s over. And it’s Hernandez with another 10-9. So I’ve got him winning the fight clearly, 50-46 for me. They go to Miletich’s scorecard and he’s got it the same.

Winner - Anthony Hernandez by unanimous decision.

He got the LFA belt and was also awarded his BJJ black-belt after. What a night. And he actually said about Allen in his post-fight interview - “We’ll probably meet again in the UFC”. Called it 7 years in advance!

But yeah, no mystery who won. There was only gonna be one way to score this fight. If they’d somehow given this to Allen it would’ve been the worst robbery in the history of robberies. First round was a corker, after that it was Fluffy dragging Allen into deeper and deeper waters and drowning him. It wasn’t pretty at times but, for a one-sided fight between two young greenhorns, I really enjoyed watching this.

They’ve both improved since 2018, although I do think Hernandez has improved more. And reading a bit of background on their first fight, apparently Hernandez came in with hand and rib injuries. And he still dominated. So that doesn’t bode well for Allen in the rematch. We’ll see. But I was favouring Hernandez anyway, after watching this first fight I’m even more convinced he wins. They both talked about the first fight recently and I found this from Allen interesting…

“I was like, ‘Who is Anthony Hernandez?’ No-one had heard of him. There wasn’t much tape, and all the tape was old, so it was hard to say. I thought I was just going to walk through him. Looking back, I was surprised by how immature I was.”

“I just mentally quit on myself. I didn’t want to be there no more. I slipped twice on the canvas when he was hurt and I just got so frustrated. I remember being super immature. So those are the holes I’m looking to fix.” - Brendan Allen

You can’t hold too much against him considering he was only 22 at the time of that first fight. But him admitting he mentally quit in the fight is telling and I’m not sure that’s as simple as just “fixing a hole”. Also, in digging around online about this 2018 fight I found out he actually retired briefly after this loss. Obviously he’s got over that hump and had some success in the UFC since. But if he can be broken once, you have to think that instinct to look for a way out when it gets really rough is always gonna be in there. And Hernandez has only gotten better at breaking opponents. We saw him literally do the same thing to Michel Pereira last time out. Dominated him the first four rounds, finished him in the fifth.

Hernandez also talked a bit about what the first fight meant to him and his thoughts on tonight’s rematch…

“That fight was my dad’s last fight seeing me before he passed. It was fucking really good to reassure him that my grappling was better because my dad was a wrestler. I personally do not like wrestling, I wanted to be a striker. But it reassured my dad so it was good for my heart.”

“I think we’re going to meet each other in the middle and fucking get it. He’s got something to prove and I didn’t like the fact that he headkicked me last time. I want to fuck him up for that shit. I think it’s going to be a war.” - Anthony Hernandez

Rematch then.

Things are a bit different now. They’re not wet behind the ears anymore. Allen’s 29, Hernandez is 31. They’ve knocked about and had their ups and downs and now they’re both ranked UFC fighters. Allen’s at #9 and Hernandez is at #12. But honestly, I might be wrong on this, as far as the fight itself goes, I’m not sure that much has changed when it comes to how they match up. I think Hernandez is still gonna have the edge in the grappling but I think he’s the better striker as well, which he didn’t get to show that much in 2018. Knowing now that he went into that fight with hand and rib injuries, it makes sense why he went with pretty much a solely grappling approach. I can see him mixing it up more tonight and if the Fluffy who absolutely schooled Pereira in October shows up, I think Allen’s in for another rough night. As far as I know this rematch is 3 rounds, so maybe Hernandez won’t have enough time to play with where he can force a stoppage. But I think he wins regardless. Hopefully it’s a fun fight. 

Edited February 22, 2025 by wandshogun09

[wandshogun09]

Fight card, start times, face-offs…

[Carbomb]

I was under the impression Basharat is British. Why have they given him the Some Fucker Flag?

[wandshogun09]

12 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

I was under the impression Basharat is British. Why have they given him the Some Fucker Flag?

Afghan born but him and Farid moved to London as kids. It’s stupid though yeah. Dana’s all about freedom of speech and keeps actual fucking rapists and nazis on the roster but how dare you have the audacity to rep the flag of the country you were born in. 

[Bruce85]

That was a really enjoyable show until the absolute shit show ending. Cejudo came across like a right whinny prick, I think he just wanted out of there. 

[Carbomb]

Another derailment by Rob Font. Man's a menace.

[Kfogg1991]

Agreed what a insane show 

 

Apart from the end I agree I think cejudo used it as a out because his legs were shredded and he knew two more rounds was unattainable. He thought it would go to no contest though so got the loss anyway and tarnished his name doing so 

 

[Dai]

There's a few on here who always talk about the morons on Twitter, with their stupid points of view. Thankfully Im not on there, so avoid it, but its sad to see that its seemingly worked its way into this thread about Cejudo 'wanting out of there', and wanting an 'out'. Some of the stupid stuff you usually see there but thankfully dont here very often. Of course, its an awful take considering it was as clear as day a nasty eye poke. You can level alot of things at Lego Head, but you have to give him the benefit of the doubt here. The only reason he 'moaned', and I use that term very loosely, is because his corner were absolute arseholes who just kept ignoring him when he said it, and would have more than happy thrown him out for R4 with blurred vision to get KO'd.

I think theres definately discussion to be had around starting R4 just to end it. Was that the correct thing to do?

 

It was an OK fight up to that point, but nothing great. The rest of the main card was an enjoyable one too. Solid show.

[Bruce85]

I actually don’t mind Cejudo (mostly because I bet on him to bet DJ in their second fight and won a bit of money) and was happy to see him back, and there is no denying that it was a legit eye poke(s). But it was  his actions after that left me question about did he want to carry on with the fight. Sitting against the fence jerring the fans, constantly saying really loudly that he couldn’t see (we know the doctor is going to stop the fight if you say that), and asking for a point to be taken away. 
 

We have seen bad eye pokes and his wasn’t shut, didn’t appear to be watering or swollen, he didn’t seem to be in excruciating pain like others have (that’s not to say it wasn’t painful) but it poses the question could he have carried on if he’d really wanted too? Only Cejudo knows the answer to that but when it went to the score cards he looked genuinely shocked that he didn’t get the decision. For me, it looked like he thought he was ahead on the score cards but he was starting to slow down and the eye poke was an opportunity to maybe win the fight but who knows. Either way I have no desire to see them run it back. 
 

Agreed that it was a really strange decision by the ref to start round 4 to instantly call it off, no idea what the official rules are around that but I can’t recall ever seeing a situation like that before. 

[Egg Shen]

I think Cejudo played the game and lost here. I think he was aware that if he got to the end of the round then got pulled out he thought he might win the Technical Decision on the cards. If he'd been pulled out after the poke I think it would have just been a straight NC. 

The eye poke itself was nasty, Cejudo appeared to bleeding from his left eyeball. He may have been able to continue, but I think more he saw as a way to win without having to go 2 more rounds with a compromised eye.

Really good card other than that, and a great crowd. Sack off the Apex and just hit the untapped markets, they are craving it.

Oh, and Jean Sliva is the man.

[wandshogun09]

Finally all caught up on this. Had a bit of a full on week.

Yep, Cejudo vs Song was a right wet fart of an ending to an otherwise cracking show. Fight wasn’t blowing me away through the three rounds it lasted but it was OK. Then it happened…

Absolutely no question, clear as day, that was a pretty rough eyepoke. We’ve definitely seen worse, Cejudo could at least open the eye but who knows how it was effecting him? He’s posted pics of the eye since and you can see it’s all red. The poke itself looked bad enough to where I could see how it could potentially cause a fighter to not be able to continue. But…that whole thing after the poke was a bit odd. Obviously Cejudo was well within his rights to take the full 5 minutes to recover but to take the maximum time only to then start playing to the crowd and stuff towards the end…

Shit like that doesn’t do you any favours, does it? ? Benefit of the doubt and all that but that doesn’t look like a man who’s in agony and/or concerned about his vision. I’m not gonna go all Twitter Twat and call him a quitter or a bitch or something but stuff like this is what invites people to question if he could’ve carried on or if he was actually playing a game that backfired. And Cejudo’s one of the few I could actually see trying to pull that shit. It’s not a question of courage for me, maybe he genuinely was confident he was ahead on the scorecards and fancied his chances winning a technical decision. Or maybe he thought he was OK to carry on but then it felt worse when he started fighting again. Fuck knows? But we’ve seen loads of fighters over the years get taken out by fouls they couldn’t recover from and the fight was stopped. They very rarely sit there smiling and waving at the crowd as the last seconds of their 5 minutes recovery time tick away. And him walking around after the third round ended, loudly and repeatedly saying “I CAN’T SEE, I CAN’T FUCKING SEE” is pretty much a guaranteed way to get the fight stopped. Not even criticising him for that if he was legitimately worried about his eye. But I do wonder if, after the eyepoke, he just wanted to make it to the end of the third round so they could go to the scorecards because he thought he was up on points.

My main issue though, is that a point wasn’t even taken from Song. That’s ridiculous. Whether Cejudo could continue or not, that eyepoke clearly negatively affected the flow of the fight for him. Refs have the power to deduct points for situations exactly like this yet they hardly ever actually enforce it. And looking at the scorecards…

If Jason Herzog had deducted a point from Song, as he should have, officially this fight would’ve been scored a majority draw. So not a win for Cejudo but he would have avoided the loss. The obvious answer seems to be to just do the rematch in a few months. Not that I’m that arsed about seeing it again but Song seems up for the rematch and Cejudo’s campaigning for it. Dana seems dead against it though, so yeah, it’s most likely not happening. I think it’s clear Dana’s not Cejudo’s biggest fan so he’ll probably say no just to spite him.

Fluffy Hernandez goes 2-0 over Brendan Allen and it didn’t look too dissimilar to their first fight to me. They’ve both improved since 2018 but the thing that seemingly hasn’t changed is that Hernandez still has the edge in the grappling. Allen had some moments here and there but just like he couldn’t get Hernandez off him in LFA back in 2018, he still couldn’t here in the UFC in 2025. I thought it being a 3 rounder this time might slightly improve Allen’s chances but it wasn’t to be. Some good grappling from both though. Decent fight. Not sure why Allen was shaking his head at the decision. He can’t feel like he won that fight. I saw a quote from him post-fight saying “Just ain’t the guy I thought I was”. So he’s probably watched it back since and accepted he lost. Gonna be interesting to see who they match Hernandez up with now. He’s moved up to #9 in the rankings and I think the obvious choices have to be Jared Cannonier or Caio Borralho.

Enjoyed the shit out of the Rob Font vs Jean Matsumoto fight. Great fight. Especially considering it was cobbled together late in the day when the original Font vs Dominick Cruz fight went down the drain. Both were training for different opponents but it turned out they were a hell of a match for each other. Really close as well. I’d have to watch it back but I wasn’t confident which way it was going when the decision was being read out. Font took a split decision in the end but it was the kind of loss that shouldn’t damage Matsumoto. It was his first loss and it was a fantastic fight against an established and tough veteran, and there’s probably a case to be made he should’ve won. He’ll only get better from this. And fair play to Font, as a 37 year old in that shark tank of a division, to still be going strong like this against a young undefeated prospect. It was a risky fight for him to take and he came out with the W. Loved this fight. Easily the FOTN for me. Honestly, when it was over I was wishing we had 5 rounds of this instead of Cejudo vs Song. ‘Bald Font’ might be a new mythical fighter.

Jean Silva did his thing and continues to be awesome. Just so much fun to watch. They both started a bit cautiously here but towards the end of the first round they both seemed to flip the switch and upped the aggression. Unfortunately for Baghdasaryan, he got the shitty end of that deal.

Nasty finish. Loved the way Silva changed it up and went to the body with those elbows. I don’t know if it was Silva having mercy on Baghdasaryan and saving him more head trauma like the commentators were implying. I wouldn’t say those elbows to the ribcage were very pleasant either. But it was quite a finish. They’ve definitely got something with Silva. He might not end up being a contender or anything, too early to tell and we need to see more tests, but at the very least he’s gonna be one of those popular, ‘must see’ type fighters. And now more than ever, the roster is crying out for those types of fighters. Even in the early bit here when not much was happening, Silva’s got that thing like Yoel Romero had where you’re on the edge of your seat because you know something brutal is coming, you just don’t know when. But when it happens it’s gonna happen fast and it’ll be devastating so you’re almost scared to blink.

Silva and Hitler’s number one fan Bryce Mitchell have been having digs at each other lately and following Silva’s win on this card on Saturday, they’ve already booked him vs Bryce for UFC 314 in April. Hope Silva waffles him but we’ll see. It’s one of those ‘tests’ I wanna see Silva in though. Be interesting to see how he deals with Bryce’s grappling.

Alonzo Menifield vs Julius Walker was entertaining in spells but mostly degenerated into a sloppy mess. Not even sure I agree with Menifield getting the nod either, and I definitely thought the judge who scored it 30-27 Menifield must’ve been on the rum or something. Gotta be honest, this fight getting FOTN over Font vs Matsumoto is bollocks to me but I guess it shouldn’t be surprising really. Dana’s always gonna favour a goofy brawl over a banger that actually showcases all aspects of MMA, including grappling. Just swing arm punches until you gas horribly and you’re getting that bonus.

Nice couple of first round submissions for Ion Cutelaba and Melquizael Costa. Both fun fights while they lasted. Wouldn’t have ever predicted in a million years that Cutelaba vs Aslan would end by submission! It was turning into the wild slugfest you’d expect at the start but, for once in his meathead life, Cutelaba actually used his noggin, switched things up and got the sub.

Mansur Abdul-Malik might be someone to keep an eye on. Stays unbeaten and gets another finish. 2-0 in the UFC. Not sure how far he can go. He was in some trouble early here and I’m not sure how good Nick Klein is so I don’t know what to take away from that. But shit like that happens in fights, it’s how you handle and respond to it that matters. And Abdul-Malik showed heart and recovery powers that you either have or you don’t. That’s the stuff you can’t teach. And he came back and answered by finishing Klein in the second round. Good stuff.

Ricky Simon delivered one of the best one shot knockouts you’ll see all year…

Had Basharat doing the Undertaker eyes and all sorts. Just absolutely obliterated him with a peach of a punch square on the chin. I’ve made no secret I’m no fan of Javid. He turned heel for me in the fallout of the Victor Henry fight. But hopefully he’s alright because this was a scary KO. Not just the punch itself but his head bouncing off the canvas too. Horrid. Nice to see Simon get a win like that though after a rough run of results in his previous few fights. He needed to snap that losing streak and he did it in style here. He was looking good before the KO as well.

For all my piss taking about Mr VanZant, it was nice to see Austin Vanderford pick up a win and get a finish in his UFC debut. Still don’t really get why they randomly threw this fight together last minute and rushed it onto this card but it worked out alright for Austin. Veretennikov came off as a massive prick though going after Vanderford after the stoppage. If you’ve got a problem with the stoppage fine, but the ref makes that call, that’s not on Vanderford. Won’t be surprised if he’s gone after that carry on. He knew it was well. His face said it all when the winner was being announced. He messed up. Thought Vanderford came off well in the post-fight interview, apart from mentioning that Power Slap crap. What the bollocks is going on with his barnet though? Buzz cut on the top, fucking perm at the back?

Nursulton Ruziboev didn’t have much bother with Eric McConico. Not a lot going on in the first round but Ruziboev was walking him down the whole round. Then it was all over as soon as Ruziboev opened up and attacked early in the second round. Think Ruzi’s kind of found his level in the UFC already. We saw him look very average when he stepped up against Buckley last year but he’ll wallop these ham and eggers all day.

Modestas Bukauskas kicked the night off with a bang! I went into this with pretty much zero expectations but it was short and sweet and ended in highlight reel fashion. Pretty much the perfect way to start a card off.

Just wrecked him. Got to think Cerqueira isn’t gonna be long for the UFC roster. That’s two trips to the Octagon and two quick first round knockout losses. Not looking good. If it wasn’t such a quick turnaround I’d say Bukauskas would be a natural fit for the London card but it’s only a few weeks away.



Yeah, a really fun show all in all, marred a bit by the anti-climax of an ending to the main event.