UFC Vegas: Vettori vs Dolidze 2 - Mar 15 ??

[wandshogun09]

Back at the Apex this week. Get the sick bucket…

ESPN MAIN CARD
Marvin Vettori vs Roman Dolidze 

Elizeu Zaleski Dos Santos vs Chidi Njokuani 

Alexander Hernandez vs Kurt Holobaugh 

Da’Mon Blackshear vs Cody Gibson 

Diyar Nurgozhay vs Brendson Ribeiro

Kevin Vallejos vs Seung Woo Choi

ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS 
Waldo Cortes Acosta vs Ryan Spann 

Su Young You vs AJ Cunningham

Josias Musasa vs Carlos Vera

Sam Hughes vs Stephanie Luciano  

Andre Lima vs Daniel Barez 

Josiane Nunes vs Priscila Cachoeira 

Yuneisy Duben vs Carli Judice 

 

Deary me. Last year there was an Apex card that was so shite (Tybura vs Spivac 2 in August) that I didn’t even bother with it, which was the first time I’d ever completely skipped a UFC card since I became a fan. This actually might be the second. Seems like these real bottom of the barrel cards are becoming even more frequent and it’s just jarring. It’s been at that point for a while now where these cards are genuinely a chore and I’ve found myself fast forwarding through more of it than ever. I’ll see if I can be arsed with this but, chances are, I’ll probably watch a couple of fights at most and sack the rest off.

 

 

Marvin Vettori vs Roman Dolidze 2 headlines. Not the worst fight but it’s a rematch absolutely nobody asked for. They fought at UFC 286 in London in March 2023 and I remember very little about it. Vettori won on points. Looking back at the thread for that show now, I seemed to kind of enjoy the fight at the time but it wasn’t really a glowing review either. Maybe I’ll do my rewatch and review thing before Saturday, maybe I won’t. I’ll see if I can be arsed. Like I said, I might not even bother watching this fight, much less rewatching the first one. We’ll see.

‘Not So Marvellous’ Marvin is back. Don’t know what he’s been doing but we haven’t seen him since his decision loss to Jared Cannonier in their Apex main event back in June 2023. Well, he did get into a little scuffle with Brendan Allen at a casino after a PFL show at some point last year but that obviously doesn’t go on the record. To be fair to Marvin, he’s no great shakes but he has had a couple of pretty fun fights over the years. The Cannonier one was entertaining as I recall, I loved the Paulo Costa fight from 2021 and the Jack Hermansson fight was another good one if I’m remembering right. It’s not a Wanderlei Silva type resume but it’s three more good scraps than most of these mediocre Middleweights have ever had. Pretty sure Vettori’s been hinting at being near retirement recently. Which, at 31, seems a tad surprising but better to get out early than too late, I suppose.

Dolidze’s a fighter I was kind of starting to get into at one point a couple of years back but my enthusiasm has fizzled out. He had that little spell where he beat Kyle Daukaus, Phil Hawes and Jack Hermansson and he looked a bit of a handful in those fights. I particularly liked him using leg locks to soften up or set up his striking stoppages in the Hawes and Hermansson fights. The back-to-back losses to Vettori in London and then Nassourdine Imavov derailed that though and I remember the Imavov fight being complete arse. Since then he’s beat a washed up Anthony Smith up at 205 then got a corner stoppage over the always inconsistent Kevin Holland in his last fight in October.

Eh. I don’t know what to think about this. As I say, nobody was calling for these two to run it back. And if Vettori really is contemplating retirement, why go over old ground? Especially against guys he already has a win over. I don’t get it really but it’s 2025 matchmaking and I’m often scratching my head at this shit. Just checked the UFC’s website and Vettori’s still somehow ranked #8, despite coming off a loss and being out nearly two years. It’s quite telling about the state of the Middleweight division these days. Dolidze’s ranked #12 so this is obviously his ticket into the Top 10. Yeah, can’t say I’m really feeling this one but I might give it a watch. The fact that I’m saying I might watch it when I used to automatically watch everything says it all though. That Apex apathy is a real thing and it will drive away even the most addicted fans.

 

Elizeu Zaleski Dos Santos vs Chidi Njokuani isn’t the strongest co-main, even by Apex standards, but it could be a solid fight. Dos Santos is 38 years old now so no spring chicken. I’ll always have a bit of a soft spot for him though, just for that (mostly forgotten now) spinning kick stoppage over Sean Strickland years ago. He’s 25-8-1 and has had some decent wins over the years. He’s gone off the boil a bit more recently but he’s coming into this one off a quick TKO over UFC newbie Zach Scroggin in November. Njokuani’s only slightly younger at 36 and has a record of 24-10-0-1. He’s going nowhere but he’s had his moments in the UFC. He’s coming off a couple of decision wins over Rhys McKee and Jared Gooden. It’s alright but it’s a fight that probably would’ve been a bit of a sleeper a few years ago, not really sure anymore.

 

Alexander Hernandez vs Kurt Holobaugh. Meh. It’s not a terrible matchup on paper but, like pretty much every fight on this card, I just don’t give a bollocks. Hernandez is 32 years old, 15-8 and has gone 2-4 in his last 6 fights. Gone are the days when he was knocking out Beneil Dariush and being looked at as a potential hot prospect. He won his last fight against Austin Hubbard by split decision in October but lost back-to-back fights before that. Holobaugh is 38 with a 21-8-0-1 record and beat Kaynan Kruschewsky in his last fight. There’s just nothing to talk about here.

 

Da’Mon Blackshear vs Cody Gibson. Again, I’ve got sod all to work with here. This card is just full of nondescript ham and eggers. Blackshear’s 30 years old and 15-7-1. To be fair, he did manage to pull off a submission via twister in 2023. Only the third fighter in UFC history to win by twister. That’s where the talking points end though. He’s 1-2 since. Subbed Cody Stamann in his last fight. Gibson’s 37 and 21-10. He’s coming off a couple of wins over Brian Kelleher and Chad Anheliger and this is his second UFC stint. I remember basically nothing of any of it.

 

Diyar Nurgozhay vs Brendson Ribeiro might be one of the very few fights on the card that could be worth a look. Nurgozhay is making his UFC debut here. He’s from Kazakhstan, he’s 27 years old and he’s undefeated at 10-0 with 8 inside the distance. He’s already gone 5 rounds on an Eagle FC show and he won his last fight by headkick KO on DWCS in October. Ribeiro’s 28 with a 16-7-0-1 record. He won a split decision over Caio Machado last time out that I only saw snippets of and it looked shit. But he seems willing to get into a scrap from bits I remember so he could be a good showcase opponent for Nurgozhay here.

 

Kevin Vallejos vs Seung Woo Choi kicks off the main card. Although you can’t really distinguish the main card from the prelims on these cards anyway so what the fuck does it matter? Going through the motions, Vallejos is debuting here. He’s Argentinian, 23 years old and 14-1 with 12 finishes. Looking at his record, I see he went the distance with Jean Silva on DWCS back in 2023. He’s since won three in a row, finishing all three opponents, and got a first round TKO on his second crack at DWCS in September. South Korea’s Choi is 32 years old with a dodgy 11-7 record and is 1-4 in his last 5. He was last seen getting smashed about by Steve Garcia in July.

 

Waldo Cortes Acosta vs Ryan Spann is just, ugh. You know how you can just tell when you see a fight like Poirier vs Gaethje announced that’s it’s gonna be a banger before it even happens because the ingredients for a bad fight aren’t there? Well fights like this are the polar opposite of that. Some fights you see listed on a card and you instantly know it’s gonna be rotten. This is one of them. Acosta’s 12-1 and coming off three straight wins. If that’s not evidence that the Heavyweight division is on its arse then I don’t know what is. He derailed the hype train of Robelis Despaigne last time out in a dogshit dud of a fight. Spann’s 22-10 and subbed the shell of Ovince Saint Preux in his last fight. Before that he’d lost three on the bounce. Yeah, nowt to see here.

 

Su Young You vs AJ Cunningham. More ham and egg sandwiches. You’s 29 years old with a record of 14-3-0-2. He was on that Road To UFC thing and won the Bantamweight finals on the Macau card in November. I know for a fact I watched that whole card because it was on in the morning over here. So I definitely saw You’s fight. Couldn’t tell you a single thing about it though. Cunningham’s 30 and 11-4 with 8 finishes. Only seen his UFC debut and he got absolutely crushed by Ludovit Klein inside a round.

 

Josias Musasa vs Carlos Vera. Not a clue. Octagon debut for Musasa. Never heard of him but Sherdog tells me he’s Congolese, 26 years old and unbeaten at 8-0 with 7 by knockout, 6 in the first round. His nickname is ‘The KO Wizard’ apparently. He went to a split decision in his win on DWCS in September though. Vera’s from Ecuador, 37 years old and 11-4. He made his UFC debut last year and lost to Rinya Nakamura in a complete one way traffic decision.

 

Sam Hughes vs Stephanie Luciano. I don’t think I’ve ever repeated myself as much when I say, once again, no idea about this and no fucks given. Hughes is 32 years old, 9-6 and won a split decision over Viktoriia Dudakova in her last fight. Luciano is 25 years old, 6-1-1 and made her UFC debut in August, taking a points win over Talita Alencar. Never saw it, that was the card I skipped last year and there’s a decent chance I skip this one. Even if I do watch it, can’t see me sitting through this fight.

 

Andre Lima vs Daniel Barez is legitimately one of the best fights on the card for me. Easy. So of course, it’s slumming it third from bottom on the prelims. Of course it is. Lima’s only just turned 26 and he’s undefeated at 10-0. You might remember him as the guy who got bitten by his opponent in his UFC debut last year. He’s gone 3-0 so far in the UFC and I think he’s got some potential. Barez is Spanish, 36 years old and 17-6 with 13 finishes. He’s gone 1-1 in the UFC so far but I’ve found him fun to watch both times.

 

Josiane Nunes vs Priscila Cachoeira. Fuck’s sake. Why Cachoeira is still on the roster completely baffles me. She’s 12-6, coming off back-to-back losses, has a losing UFC record, she’s a dirty fighter, has issues making weight and she’s just shite in general. And she’s 36 years old. She’s not gonna get better. What she is now, that’s it. She got bludgeoned by Jasmine Jasudavicius in her last fight in about as one-sided a beatdown as you’ll see. Seriously, Jasudavicius probably got two 10-8 rounds before finishing her in the third. I was sure that would be the last we’d see of shitehawk Cachoeira but here we are. Hopefully Nunes chins her. She’s not much good and she’s a hobbit but she’s got a bit of a dig on her from what I remember.

 

Yuneisy Duben vs Carli Judice is the curtain jerker and ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** here. Yeah, you can tell I’m struggling with this card. There wasn’t much to choose from and it’s not like my expectations are even high for the fight itself. But I’m highlighting it purely for Duben’s UFC debut. She’s Venezuelan, 28 years old and 6-0-0-1 with the only ‘blemish’ being a No Contest in her pro debut.

That’s how her fight on DWCS ended back in September. Christ! Just over a minute into the fight, she flattened her opponent with an overhand right Chuck Liddell would be proud of. Dana lost it at the KO and you could hear him saying to Duben after the fight “You might as well go and sit in the back. You’re in!” It was a no brainer that she’d got the UFC contract locked up after that knockout. Quite a story as well.

“The biggest upset in the history of the Contender Series. Mick Maynard was telling us that he was going through his text chain with her and her people, she almost didn’t come. She has no money. She doesn’t have a dollar to her name right now. Her per diem got messed up and all this stuff, so the staff had to go grocery shopping for her, and then she comes in and does that. Let me tell you what, she ain’t broke now.” - Dana White

Apparently got a bonus on top of the UFC contract. Good stuff. Although Dana pretending he gives a fuck about these fighters financial problems is hilarious when you consider they’re currently dealing with the whole class action lawsuit due to years of underpaying fighters. But whatever. Hopefully Duben can make the most of this opportunity and make some dough. Can’t remember Judice but she’s 26 years old, has a 3-2 record and she’s coming off back-to-back decision losses. You know the matchmakers have set this up hoping Duben shines but we’ll see. I’ve only seen that KO from DWCS so no idea how good Duben actually is.

 

Things that are more enjoyable than the Apex…

Edited March 13, 2025 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

[Carbomb]

An appropriately UKFF response.

[wandshogun09]

Me immediately after hitting send on that opening post…

[Egg Shen]

You know its bad when wand. doesn't post the pre-fight graphic

[wandshogun09]

Couldn’t even be arsed ? no spoilers here but I already saw a couple of results anyway. Apparently this actually turned out to be a fun card if my mentions on Twitter are anything to go by. The other day I tweeted a picture of a dog shitting this card out (I’m 39 FFS) and sarcastically said I couldn’t wait for these fights. Well, the bootlicking mutants with -100 followers found it and have been in my mentions calling me a “casual” and saying I missed a load of “bangers”. 

[Dai]

Yeah this one was actually alright. I actually watched the prelims and there was some good stuff on there, including a few nice women's KOs. The main event has been wiped from my memory already though, which sums up how good that was.