UFC 313: Pereira vs Ankalaev - Mar 8 ??

[Dai]

Could be a case of they did ask those fighters first, which seems probable, and they both said (wisely) "Fuck that", so had to go with an outside of the card replacement.

[Egg Shen]

On 2/27/2025 at 11:14 PM, Zebra Kid Mark said:

I'm a bit let down by the replacement.

Fiziev already lost to Justin when both were coming out of full fight camps.

Fiziev hasn't won a fight since and hasn't had a full training camp, nothing there makes me think the result will be any different to their first fight. 

I know it's a week out and they were desperate, but I would have rather have seen a fresh match up and seen Bobby Green or Jalin Turner (both already on the card) get that spot and then bring in Fiziev to replace whoever stepped up to the co main event.

Fiziev has opened as the favorite too. They must be thinking that Holloway KO has completely finished Gaethje.

 

[wandshogun09]

Updated the opening post and the poll for Gaethje vs Fiziev 2. If you voted before you’ll have to vote again. Here’s how the card is looking one week out.

Hopefully that’s the last of the changes now but don’t hold your breath or anything.

On 2/27/2025 at 11:14 PM, Zebra Kid Mark said:

I know it's a week out and they were desperate, but I would have rather have seen a fresh match up and seen Bobby Green or Jalin Turner (both already on the card) get that spot and then bring in Fiziev to replace whoever stepped up to the co main event.

Yeah it’s all down to the lack of time they had to play with. From what Gaethje’s saying there were a few names thrown around but Fiziev’s the only one who took the chance. 

Poirier responded to this and said he never said no and he actually reached out to the matchmakers about stepping in. Him and Gaethje had a respectful back and forth on it. If I had my way, Gaethje vs Poirier 3 is the fight I’d have chosen just because they’re 1-1 and I wanna see the trilogy settled. But on 2 weeks notice? Even if Dustin was up for it, he’s been vocal about his next fight being his last so having zero camp wouldn’t have been ideal. And the recent talk has been that he’d asked for his last fight to be in New Orleans so he can finish up in his home state. And it sounds like the UFC are working on that. So I’m guessing they put the kibosh on Poirier jumping in here because they’re planning that New Orleans card around him retiring.

As for the others, Tsarukyan was a weight issue, I think. He says he agreed to it but asked for a Catchweight of 160lbs and the UFC were having none of it. If true that’s harsh considering the short notice but I can believe it because they’re probably still salty about Tsarukyan dropping out of the Makhachev fight in January. Oliveira’s never really been one to jump in on short notice and the weight cut was almost certainly a factor as well. Plus, he’s already beat Gaethje so it probably wasn’t that appealing for him. If Moicano turned it down like Gaethje suggests, I don’t blame him. He’s jumped in a couple of times on short notice and got beat down. But it does make me laugh if he said no behind closed doors considering how he was publicly offering to step in and saying “2 weeks is good, I’ll be ready if they call”.

In the end, given the short notice, I think Gaethje vs Fiziev 2 is about as good a substitute as they could’ve gotten. Like any time these situations crop up and someone pulls out of a big fight, you always get fans and even some media just casually going ‘they should slot this guy in there’ or ‘throw that guy in’ as if the fighters don’t have a say in it or don’t have lives outside of fighting like anyone else. Like they’re within making weight range all year round and just checking their phone every 5 minutes, on call incase they need to just drop everything at a moment’s notice to ‘save’ a fight on a random card they weren’t training to be on. It’s unrealistic though. It’s cool when it does happen but they’re still people with their own shit going on like the rest of us. They could be sick, have family commitments, have personal stuff going on and so on.

Yeah, I’ve rambled and this wasn’t all aimed at you specifically Zebra. It just makes me laugh the way these situations get talked about like it’s a Hasbro figure fed when we were 7 or something. Like ‘Oh, Macho Man’s arm has broken off? Never mind I’ll use Bret Hart for this match instead’. 

Edited March 1, 2025 by wandshogun09

[Dai]

On 3/1/2025 at 7:18 AM, Egg Shen said:

Fiziev has opened as the favorite too. They must be thinking that Holloway KO has completely finished Gaethje.

 

As an update, Fiziev's odds are actually shortening. I genuinely cant see how he opened as a favourate, and how people are actually still betting on him more than Gaethje. He took this fight on a weeks notice, and hasnt fought in ages. Makes no sense to me, other than the issue youve brought up that people are just putting an insane amount of stock into that Max KO. Just seeing Gaethje, will a full fight camp, being a 7/5 underdog just doesnt compute to me.

[wandshogun09]

This clip of Gaethje immediately after the Holloway KO has been doing the rounds. Don’t think this was shown on the live feed and obviously the focus was mostly on Max celebrating but…fuck me…

Not saying that should make him the underdog. We already knew it was a brutal KO before this clip surfaced. Seeing the footage really hammers it home though. That really is the kind of knockout that can completely kill a fighter’s durability (Rashad Evans vs Chuck Liddell is another example that springs to mind) and send them on a downward spiral. Not saying that will happen here, the reasons given above to cast doubt on Fiziev are also totally valid. He’s been out about 18 months, coming off a bad knee injury and stepping in on short notice. To be honest, given all the circumstances, I don’t know who the fuck should be favoured in this one. You’d think Gaethje having a full camp gives him the edge, and it probably should, but who knows? To suffer a knockout like that, after already having a career full of slobberknockers, and at 36…I don’t know. And although they’re both predominantly strikers, Fiziev’s style isn’t quite the same as the original opponent Dan Hooker’s either. I’m still leaning towards a Gaethje win but there’s so many variables to this one it really feels like pretty much anything could happen.

Edit - oh and while I’m here, that account tagging Gaethje in that right at the start of his fight week is a right shithouse cunty move, isn’t it? 

Edited March 5, 2025 by wandshogun09

[wandshogun09]

Righty then. As has become my ritual, I’ve had to revisit the first Gaethje vs Fiziev fight ahead of tomorrow night’s rematch. Had to be done. I haven’t watched this back since it happened but I do remember loving it at the time. Think I even had it on my shortlist for FOTY.

They fought at UFC 286 in London back in March 2023. It was co-main event under the big Leon Edwards vs Kamaru Usman trilogy decider and I remember there being some real buzz when it was announced. But also some doubts about Gaethje because he was coming off the loss to Charles Oliveira at the time. It was his second failed attempt to win UFC gold and, although it was a typically wild Gaethje fight and he had his moments, he ultimately got stopped in the first round. Then combine that with the fact that Fiziev was kind of the new fresh face on the rise at the time and coming in with momentum and on a winning streak. I think the general feeling was that Fiziev might just be catching Gaethje at the right time. But it promised to be a banger regardless.

Justin Gaethje vs Rafael Fiziev

UFC 286: Edwards vs Usman 3

March 18th 2023

London, England

I forgot about the £20 note style poster for this event ? this was at the O2 like almost every UK card over the last decade has been. Still don’t get why they didn’t do this in Birmingham with it being Leon’s first title defence but whatever. Commentators for this are Jon Anik, Daniel Cormier and Michael Bisping. Referee is Marc Goddard and even he’s letting out a little wry smile as the fight is about to start. Don’t usually see any emotion out of Goddard but even he’s looking forward to this one.

Round 1: Fiziev’s coming out looking fired up right away. Within the first 20 or so seconds alone he must’ve switched stances four times already and you can see he’s looking to blast with those kicks. But before he can really get one off, Gaethje beats him to it and reminds him he’s not the only one with nasty kicks…

Fiziev looks so much faster than Gaethje in these early exchanges though. That wasn’t really a surprise, I think most expected that to be the case going in. But he looks so fast and sharp here that it looks like it’s gonna be a long and possibly bad night for Gaethje. Crowd’s well into it, oohing and aahing watching them both swing for the fences and narrowly miss so far. It’s got a proper edge of the seat feeling to it because everyone knows how lethal these two can be early on when they’re fresh. Fiziev with some hard body kicks and a quick knee in close. He’s mixing it up to the body and head and throwing in combinations. He looks an absolute terror here early and, while there’s never any retreat from Gaethje, there are a few moments where he’s got a bit of a deer in the headlights expression on his face as the strikes just barely whizz past his head. Fiziev with a nice uppercut now. Gaethje actually makes a bit of an attempt at a takedown! You don’t see that often but Fiziev stuffs it. Fiziev’s still putting the pressure on in the last seconds of the round and hits a beautiful knee to the body which makes a sickening sound as it connects. Gaethje tries to respond the only way he knows how, with pure aggression, but doesn’t really land anything and that’s the first round in the books. Fiziev 10-9. Fantastic round from him, that was.

Round 2: Fiziev’s coming right out the gate with the kicks and knees again. Fiziev spinning backfist misses and he gets poked in the eye, forcing a brief time-out. Gaethje throws a headkick but doesn’t land clean. By about the middle of the round they’re both exchanging and it’s awesome to watch. Fiziev’s still looking dangerous but Gaethje’s starting to get through with some hard shots in close now. Fiziev’s eyes are both bloody and his pace has noticeably slowed. Hard body kick from Fiziev and Gaethje answers with a couple of wild punches that don’t find the target. Pretty close round, to be honest. And up until about halfway through I was still liking what I was seeing from Fiziev. But Gaethje found his way into it as the round went on, did some damage and took over a bit. Gaethje 10-9.

Round 3: Fuck me. We’re no more than 20 seconds into the round and Fiziev absolutely cracks Gaethje right on the chin. You don’t see how clean it was in real time but the replays later show it in all its glory…

Fair play to Gaethje for eating that one because, as you can see, it was flush on the jaw. Both swinging with reckless abandon again here and barely missing. These are shots that would knock out a rhinoceros if they landed. They keep colliding and ending up in these brief clinches and Gaethje’s doing some damage there with uppercuts in close. Pretty much every time it happens you see him tie up Fiziev’s arm with his left and fire off the right uppercut. Fiziev’s landed some knees in there as well but Gaethje’s punches seem to be having more success in close quarters. Fiziev’s right eye is a mess now. Big overhand right from Gaethje and an uppercut. He’s definitely pulled ahead at this point and even the way Fiziev’s throwing his kicks now, they’ve got nowhere near the same venom on them as they did earlier. Gaethje’s actually jabbing a bit here, which is rare for him, and it’s working and busting up Fiziev’s face even more. These Gaethje uppercuts in close are money! There’s a spell towards the end of this round where he lands about three in a row from those same clinch positions. Then they separate and he wallops him with this beast…

Knocked a whole bunch of blood, sweat and snot straight into the 5th row with that bastard. Fiziev’s obviously got a chin on him under that beard though because he’s somehow still on his feet. And right when I say that, with seconds to go, Gaethje finally hits a takedown. He couldn’t knock him down but he finally took him down. You could see Fiziev wasn’t gonna just accept it, he was already fighting his way back to his feet as the buzzer went to end the round and the fight. And that’s clearly a Gaethje round. Don’t think it was enough for a 10-8 but I wouldn’t argue if you did score it that way. Gaethje 10-9 for me. So I’ve got him winning the fight 29-28.

Winner - Justin Gaethje by majority decision.

Yep. Right man won. Although by ‘majority’ rather than ‘unanimous’ decision. That’s because one judge had it a draw with Fiziev taking the first two rounds and Gaethje getting a 10-8 in the third. I disagree but, honestly, not an outrageous scorecard. Like I said, 10-8 Gaethje in the third is totally justifiable. And that second round really was like half the round for Fiziev and then half the round for Gaethje. I leaned towards Gaethje for finishing stronger and appearing to cause more damage but it was a close round. Closer fight as a whole than it’s made out to be as well really.

These are the lasting images that have been most associated with this fight since it happened. So of course, over time it’s became remembered as a bit of a one-sided arse kicking. Nothing of the sort though. Fiziev was looking genuinely outstanding for the first half of the fight, then Gaethje started racking up the damage as it went on. I definitely feel like Gaethje was the rightful winner but it was a close one. One of those where if it was scored under Pride rules, Gaethje would’ve been a clearer winner with the fight scored as a whole. But round by round, I had Gaethje winning but I can see how you might score it a draw. Then again, if it was under Pride rules then the first round would’ve been 10 minutes and the way Fiziev was looking early, I’m not sure Gaethje would’ve withstood much more of that. He needed that break between the first and second rounds. Another factor that I think maybe gets overlooked a bit is the eyepoke in the second round. The general feeling now seems to be that Fiziev simply faded and there probably was some of that. But if you look at when he started looking a bit slower and more beatable in this fight, it all seems to start with the eyepoke.

Rematch then. Two years almost to the day since the first fight. 

Watching this first fight back, it was even better than I remembered. If you get time before tomorrow night’s card, I’d recommend giving it another look. If you’ve never seen it then definitely get on it. Incredible fight. As for how it goes, yeah, I’d lean towards Gaethje winning because he really should win considering he’s the one who’s coming in with a full training camp and Fiziev’s been on the shelf recovering from the knee injury for the last 18 months. But really, fuck knows with this. We just don’t know how Fiziev’s gonna look. For him to jump in with a guy like Gaethje on 2 weeks notice, he must’ve been feeling good in the gym and sparring and stuff. He knows all too well the damage Gaethje can do so I doubt he took the decision lightly. He must fancy it. And if he’s anywhere near as fast as he was before the layoff, he’s always gonna be a threat. Especially early in the fight. Plus, we don’t know what that Holloway KO might’ve done to Gaethje. Physically and/or mentally. Knowing how much of a nutcase he is, I doubt he’ll have been spooked too much by it but you never know. It was a horrible knockout though and you always wonder about a guy coming back after one of them. There’s pretty much no way this isn’t at least entertaining. I’ve got a feeling it doesn’t make it to the scorecards this time either way but we’ll see.

Edited March 7, 2025 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

I was surprised to see Fiziev open as the favorite in this fight and hopped on the Gaethje line, but the closer i've got I can envision Fiziev stopping Gaethje and it being a case of Gaethje's chin being completely gone. I hope not, but I think that's how it goes.

Still favouring Ankalaev to win the title. Just feels like a trap fight for Pereira and one of those fights that will balls up a lot of plans. 

[Zebra Kid Mark]

I really really really want Pereira to win but I have a bad feeling he won't. I am nervous for this fight.

I feel like Pereira has one route to victory and Ankalaev is going to try his best to wrestle in this fight, I know he hasn't shown off much wrestling in the past but he's Dagastani and he surely knows it's the only way he can win.

I think he is going to scare Pereira with some take downs and catch him with a high kick whilst his guard is down.

The co main could go either way, how finished is Justin? How ready is Fiziev on 2 weeks notice? I know I slated this match last week but we know it's going to be fun and it is up in the air.

The rest of the card isn't very PPV worthy, it's a bit like non Apex fight night card in my opinion.

[Dai]

Think I may have a decent sized bet on Gaethje, after reading the Wand write up. If Fiziev faded in the original fight, then I'm banking on him fading in a fight on two weeks notice and not fighting for 18 months. I'm putting far more stock into that than the Gaethje KO by Max. Isn't there some thought process in that a big KO, despite looking super brutal, is actually somewhat 'better' than a five round consistent beatdown/war? There's examples for both I guess, like the previously mentioned Chuck KO by Rashad, or the five round pounding Cain gave JDS. 

I'm willing to bet on Gaethje not being as shot as people expect, and will be able to withstand the first few rounds and then take over in the second half. 

[Egg Shen]

3 hours ago, Zebra Kid Mark said:

 

The rest of the card isn't very PPV worthy, it's a bit like non Apex fight night card in my opinion.

Yeah, it doesn't leap out. I've done my usual preview listening this week though and i'm up for a fair bit of it. Turner/Bahamondes, Blaydes/Kuniev & Van/Tsuruya in particular.

[wandshogun09]

Fight day…

[wandshogun09]

According to Marcel Dorff, both Curtis Blaydes vs Rizvan Kuniev and Chris Gutierrez vs John Castaneda are off.

No idea why but anyone else find it weird how this is so common now? Long time fans will remember the days when if you made it to fight week it was very rare any fights would get cancelled. And if you made it to the weigh ins, fights were a lock. Seems like these days pretty much every card you’ll get at least one fight drop off the week of the show, sometimes even the day of like these two. 

[Egg Shen]

I almost posted yesterday that it was weird that'd got through a fight week with no pullouts.

Castaneda now has 2 fights pulled on fight day in consecutive weeks

[Dai]

This show lived or died by the two main fights, and it was much more the dying side for my money.

Whilst it was a really impressive performance, Ankalaev's victory was a dull one. The fight never got out of second gear, and when it was very obvious Pereira was losing the fight, it was very disappointing to see no urgency in the last round. A fight that will be instantly forgotten.

Gaethje/Fiziev wasnt up to much either, I thought. OK, but again not the fireworks that we all hoped for. I genuinely thought this was a five rounder when I saw the measured pace of round 1, so was shocked to see it was only a 3 rounder. Another fight which never got out of the low gears.

A couple of nice finishes by the men (especially that triangle), and a womens match that was a stinker, even in 8x speed. Was it David who would refuse to watch any womens MMA match? Im not at that point yet, but my patience is definately way thinner than what it used to be, specifically for anyone but the top top of the divisions. I think I was time skipping this one after 2 minutes.

[wandshogun09]

Not the result any of us wanted but Magomed Ankalaev got it done.

Pereira’s reign as champ is over and in pretty dull fashion. The reaction I’ve read to this all seems to be criticising Ankalaev for that but the fact is Pereira didn’t pull the trigger enough himself either. I actually think there’s a case to score this fight for Pereira. I had Ankalaev winning but it wasn’t like he dominated. I’d have to watch it back and I don’t really fancy doing that yet, but I felt like it all came down to how you scored the third round. And I thought that round was really close. So I wouldn’t argue if you had either Ankalaev or Pereira by a round. Felt like Ankalaev levelled up though and Pereira kind of went into his shell a bit at crucial times. Biggest surprise for me was that Ankalaev actually stuck to a sound gameplan and executed it without doing something goofy. He always had the potential to be a banana skin for Pereira but I never had faith that he’d be able to get through the whole fight without stupidly putting himself in harm’s way and getting cracked. Fair play though, he fought well. Yeah it wasn’t much good to watch but what did people think Ankalaev would do? Pretty much the only way Ankalaev was gonna win was to fight something like this. If he’d just stood and swung like an idiot, yeah it’d have been more exciting to watch, but he’d most likely have been slept. He fought the way he needed to fight to get the win and it worked. I’m as unhappy with the result as most are but what can you do? Can’t criticise a fighter for maximising their chances of victory.

Bleak times ahead though. Sounds like they’re gonna go straight into Ankalaev vs Pereira 2 now. Can’t say I’m exactly buzzing for that but what else is there? 205’s a nothing happening division these days. They’re gonna make the immediate rematch and pin all their hopes on Pereira taking the belt back. If Ankalaev goes 2-0 though, the Light Heavyweight division is genuinely gonna be about as interesting to me as women’s Bantamweight. Best we can hope for then is what, Ankalaev vs Jiri Prochazka? Only good thing about Pereira losing here is it kills Jon Jones hopes of that easy payday against Pereira. Now he’s only really left with two choices. 1) Man up and take the Aspinall fight or 2) retire. So that’s that then. We know what he’s gonna do. See ya, Jon. Good fucking riddance.

It wasn’t a patch on their first fight but I enjoyed Gaethje vs Fiziev 2 myself. I think you’ve kind of gotta cut Fiziev some slack considering he was stepping in on 2 weeks notice and who he was stepping in against. He definitely faded a bit here and, oddly enough, it seemed like he almost gassed himself out trying to batter Gaethje’s body with kicks. Like the first fight, Gaethje’s uppercut was on the money again here…

Over the 6 total rounds they’ve now fought, Gaethje just can’t seem to miss Fiziev’s jaw with that punch. Very solid performance for Gaethje and, really, the ideal way to bounce back after that devastating Holloway KO. In hindsight, this might’ve all worked out perfectly for Gaethje. Had the original Dan Hooker fight went ahead with both coming in on full camps, you have to assume that was gonna be an absolute dogfight and it was scheduled for 5 rounds as well. That might’ve been the last thing Gaethje needed after the Holloway fight. With Hooker out and Fiziev jumping in for a 3 rounder, it was probably a better fit for Gaethje anyway. He got 3 good rounds in, got the win and took relatively little damage compared to how his fights usually go. So it was probably just what the doctor ordered. Not sure what’s next. Guess they just go ahead and rebook the Hooker fight? I’ve read a few suggestions of Gaethje getting a shot at Makhachev but I don’t know. It’d be a fresh fight but he’s just one fight removed from that Holloway loss. Plus I think they’re gonna announce Makhachev vs Topuria soon anyway.

Ignacio Bahamondes is quality and a highlight of any card he appears on. Really happy to see him pick up the win in style here with the first round submission. Going from a KO win at the Sphere to now subbing Jalin Turner with a triangle off his back, he’s cool as fuck to watch. He’s entered the rankings with this win as well so it’ll be interesting to see who he gets paired up with next. Sadly I don’t think he goes much further, that Top 15 at Lightweight is full of tough matchups. But it’s nice to see him with a number next to his name and hopefully he proves me wrong and can have success against some of those names. Saw Turner retired after which kind of surprised me but watching an interview with him after, it seems like it’s something he’s been considering for a good while now so it wasn’t some knee jerk reaction in the heat of the moment after losing. He was quite emotional talking about it and was saying he needed to step away for his mental health. Hopefully things work out for him. Actually good to see a fighter recognise they need to get out for themselves rather than stick around way too long and just soak up damage fight after fight.

Amanda Lemos vs Iasmin Lucindo was fucking rotten. I gave it a chance because Lemos has shown some power in the past and Lucindo is too young to write off and I still liked her from that unexpected banger she had against Yazmin Jauregui in both of their UFC debut. But man, this was shite. Touching on @Dai’s point, I think the state of women’s MMA has actually regressed over the last few years. I used to defend it because it was still so new compared to the men’s game and had some catching up to do. But not only do I not think it’s improved in the 12 years since Ronda Rousey brought the women into the Octagon, I genuinely think the overall skill level across the board has probably gotten worse. There’s a handful of genuinely talented fighters but, on the whole, those divisions are a slog these days. Just the dregs. A combination of a lot of the actual good fighters or marketable personalities losing, leaving, ageing out etc and the UFC relying heavily on DWCS newbies, there’s just nothing to sink your teeth into. You could say that about a lot of the men’s divisions as well, to be fair. But there’s just so little going on in the women’s game now that Julianna Pena is accepted as a star. That’s how low the bar has dropped.

Mauricio Ruffy kicked off (literally) the main card with what’s surely gonna be a frontrunner for Knockout Of The Year when 2025 is wrapping up.

Jesus wept. Actually, forget just this year, that’s gotta be on the list of best knockouts in UFC history right there. Shades of Edson Barboza vs Terry Etim way back. Ruffy’s so fun to watch. Understandably people are getting excited after this KO but I’m not sure where his ceiling is. As awesome as this finish was, I’m not sure there isn’t also an element of Green being on the way out. I favoured Ruffy going in but I genuinely thought Green might be able to test him. But he just got blown away quick here. And that’s two rough losses on the bounce for him now. At 38 years old and after 50+ fights, this did have a bit of a final nail in the coffin feel to it for me. Not sure Green comes back from that. He probably will fight again but I think we might look back on this as the true beginning of the end for him. Brutal stuff. As for Ruffy, it’s onwards and upwards. They’ll probably try to fast-track him and surely he’ll get a ranked opponent after this. Him and Bahamondes could be a corker. Maybe even Benoit Saint Denis or Fiziev. It feels a bit soon for him but I don’t see them taking it slow with Ruffy coming off a KO like this. I think they’re a bit desperate for new stars at the moment, for the reasons I touched on above, and they probably see big potential in Ruffy so I see a big fight for him next. Maybe even a headliner on a non-Apex Fight Night or something.

Thought Joshua Van looked class, pretty much shut Rei Tsuruya down at every turn. Wasn’t anywhere near as good a fight as I expected or hoped it would be but that’s because Van just never let Tsuruya get going at all. Tsuruya’s still young enough that I think he could have a bright future but he was way too one-note here with the spamming takedown attempts and Van did a great job mostly defending them.

Have it. Honestly don’t remember Van having such solid defensive wrestling but it looked on point here. Again, Van’s only 23 himself so he’s obviously improving at a fast pace. Not the best of fights to watch unfortunately. Weird one because it was easily Van’s least entertaining fight to watch since he came to the UFC but it was probably his best overall performance to date. Not sure who Van should fight next but it wouldn’t surprise me if he gets a ranked opponent. Him and Kai Asakura would be fun but I don’t wanna see either lose.

Was happy to see Brunno Ferreira pick up a win and a finish. I like him anyway, definitely one of the more watchable fighters at the mid/lower level of 185 these days. But it was even more satisfying seeing him come out on top here after Petrosyan’s repeated bollock kicks. Another triangle finish as well. You don’t really see many of them anymore. Wasn’t a great fight but it was the result I wanted so it’ll do.

Carlos Leal and Alex Morono had a mad little one round slugfest. I always laugh at Morono looking so generic and like the CAF template on the old UFC games and here he was coming out to ‘Face The Pain’ on his walkout! You couldn’t make it up. This was fun while it lasted though, then Leal smashed him about for the stoppage late in the round. I quite like Leal. I remember enjoying his debut against Fakhretdinov a few months ago and Fakhretdinov isn’t exactly known for having entertaining fights. Now this wild one round shootout. Don’t see him making any waves in the rankings or anything but he’s gonna be worth tuning in to watch if his first two UFC fights are anything to go by.

Gotta say, I thought Mairon Santos lost to Francis Marshall. Can’t even say I’m shocked the decision went to Santos because at this point I think half the judges in MMA are crackheads and you almost expect at least one dodgy decision on every card these days. Still, I felt fairly confident Marshall had just derailed Santos before the verdict was read. But no. Santos somehow got his hand raised.

 

Bit of a mixed bag that one. 314 looks incredible though. Well, until half the fights inevitably drop off during fight week.