Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted March 14, 2025 Paid Members Posted March 14, 2025 (edited) Off to London with this lot… ESPN MAIN CARD Leon Edwards vs Sean Brady Jan Blachowicz vs Carlos Ulberg Kevin Holland vs Gunnar Nelson Molly McCann vs Alexia Thainara Jordan Vucenic vs Chris Duncan Nathaniel Wood vs Morgan Charriere ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS Jai Herbert vs Chris Padilla Lone’er Kavanagh vs Felipe Dos Santos Marcin Tybura vs Mick Parkin Andrey Pulyaev vs Christian Leroy Duncan Shauna Bannon vs Puja Tomar Caolan Loughran vs Nathan Fletcher Guram Kutateladze vs Kaue Fernandes Remember when these UK cards used to generate buzz on here and some of us would actually buy tickets? I know a big part of it is that we’re all getting older, can’t be arsed and would rather watch at home now. But this one isn’t quite hitting the spot for me. It’s not even a bad card on the whole. There’s a couple of fights I really like on there. But I can see the main event being a snoozer with Leon losing, which obviously isn’t ideal for a UK show. Oh well. Let’s see how it goes. The good news is this’ll be on nice and early for us. According to Marcel Dorff, the prelims kick off at 5pm UK time, with the main card starting at 8pm. That always helps. Leon Edwards vs Sean Brady is our O2 headliner then. Logical enough matchup and not a bad fight but I can’t say I’m that into it really. The original main event was Edwards against Jack Della Maddalena, and just stylistically I preferred that, but plans changed. Number one contender Shavkat is injured so Maddalena got pulled from the London card to challenge Belal Muhammad for the title at UFC 315 coming up in May. That’s left us with this Edwards vs Brady fight. Decent enough and it’s actually the fight I was expecting them to make initially before they announced Edwards vs Maddalena. I was looking forward to that just because they’re both strikers. Now it’s a completely different ball game and Leon’s up against another wrestler again. Not ideal coming off how his last fight went but we’ll see how it plays out. The last time we saw Leon Edwards was UFC 304 in Manchester last July, where he lost the Welterweight title to Belal Muhammad. I was surprised with how that fight went. Obviously their first fight in 2021 had the controversial eyepoke ending but Leon was picking him apart and pretty much dominating before that. And given what Leon had gone on to do since - ending the reign of Usman, becoming champ, schooling Covington etc - I thought Belal would be a tougher fight than Covington but I definitely expected Leon to get the win. In the end, Belal put in the performance of his career and took the decision and the strap. I haven’t rewatched it but I think I had Belal winning fairly clearly. Although it wasn’t quite the one-sided domination I see it talked up as now. Edwards definitely had some success and won a couple of rounds as I recall. But he fell into that trap again, like he’s been guilty of for much of his career, where he just slipped into a pattern of conceding ground and backing up under pressure and being taken down at crucial moments. It cost him big and I’m sure he knows it’s an issue. It’s plagued him in so many fights, even some of his biggest wins he gave rounds away like that. The problem is, at 33 years old and 27 fights into his career, can he even change that now? He’s probably too set in his ways at this stage in the game. And of all the matchups for him to try and rebound in, this might just be the worst one for him style-wise. Philly’s Sean Brady is far from the most exciting fighter to watch but, so far, what he’s doing is mostly working for him and getting results. He’s 17-1 now with the only loss being against Belal. So on paper, that loss hasn’t aged badly given that Belal’s now champion. But really, although the loss itself isn’t anything to be ashamed of, the way he lost with Belal walking him down and stopping him on the feet wasn’t a good look. He’s since bounced back with a submission win over Kelvin Gastelum and in his last fight in September he won a 5 round decision over Gilbert Burns. The doubts are still there on his striking though and it’s definitely the weakest area of his game. So in theory, Leon being a striker should be a serious threat to him. But on the flipside, I think Brady’s wrestling is gonna be a big problem for Leon. How do we see this going? I’d love to see Leon come back with a really impressive showing and get a win on home soil. But I hate to say it, I don’t like this matchup for him. For someone like Leon who’s already susceptible to being put on the back foot and giving up ground, and then couple that with a tunnel vision grappler like Brady, it just feels like a recipe for bad news for Edwards to me. He’s obviously the way better striker but, even then, just the threat of Brady’s takedown alone could force Leon into his shell again. I don’t know. Like I said, I hope Leon can get the win but the style Brady brings is one that will be tricky for him and the timing of it coming off the Belal loss just heightens that for me as well. I think Belal kind of laid out a blueprint that Brady can follow here. It won’t be pretty to watch but I think it will be effective. Really hope I’m wrong but I’ve got a bad feeling about this one. Jan Blachowicz vs Carlos Ulberg is co-main and a bit of a weird fight to me. Just really not sure what to expect out of Big Jan. He’s 42 years old now and we haven’t seen him since that split decision loss to Alex Pereira back in July 2023. Before that was the draw with Ankalaev. Before that he had that ‘win’ over Rakic but it ended in anti-climax when Rakic blew his knee out. Before that he got subbed by Glover Teixeira. You have to go all the way back to March 2021 and the Adesanya fight to find Blachowicz getting a clean win. He’s a former champ and a tough guy but to have a 20 month layoff at 40-odd years old is obviously far from ideal. Think it was a shoulder injury that forced him out. None of it seems to have deterred him though. He sounds motivated to come back and end his career on a high note. “I beat Ulberg. Then I take a title shot against Ankalaev. I beat Ankalaev and then rematch against Alex Pereira. I defend the belt against Pereira. This is the perfect scenario for me. Then I can go to the mountains again.” - Jan Blachowicz Sounds like a plan. But at 42 and coming off shoulder surgery? It’s gonna be an uphill battle. Then again, the Light Heavyweight division is so weak and shallow these days, who even knows anymore? I’d say the odds don’t favour it though. Ulberg’s the much younger and fresher man at 34 years old and 11-1 as well. He hasn’t fought as high a level of competition as Blachowicz but he’s been active in Jan’s absence and he’s on a 7 fight winning streak. He’s coming into this fight off a points win over Volkan Oezdemir on the Macau card in November. I thought that was a surprisingly dull fight, hopefully this one’s better. Really not sure what we’re getting out of Blachowicz here though. And it’s one of them bittersweet matchups where I don’t wanna see Blachowicz come back off a layoff and lose, but at the same time we’re moaning about 205 needing new blood and what does a 42 year old bloke derailing rising contenders do for the future of the division? Kevin Holland vs Gunnar Nelson is another odd one to me but I don’t hate it. Like the Blachowicz situation, Gunnar’s another guy we haven’t seen in ages but in his case I don’t even think it’s injury related. Since 2019 he’s barely fought and it seems to be through choice. I think he’s happy doing his own thing these days and just likes to dip in every now and then for a quick payday then bounce. We last saw him at UFC 286 in London in March 2023, where he just casually popped in and armbarred Bryan Barberena in a round then disappeared again. Two years later and here we are. There’s always questions on him coming off these long spells of inactivity but, if he’s on form, this could be another good matchup for him. I think it’s common knowledge by now that Kevin Holland’s kryptonite is really good grapplers. I’m a bit surprised they’re throwing him straight in with another one here after he just got subbed by Reinier De Ridder in January. Don’t know what to make of Holland. I might be wrong but I get the impression he’s half checked out of MMA anyway and matching him up against strong grapplers isn’t helping. Gunnar being out of action so long at 36 is the only thing giving me any doubts on this one. But really, if he’s had a good training camp and he’s kept his skills relatively sharp, he still probably wins this. Holland’s lost 4 of his last 5 and seems to unravel quick these days when things start going wrong. I just don’t have any confidence in him at this point. Molly McCann vs Alexia Thainara is a late switch. McCann was supposed to face Istela Nunes here. Which, call me cynical, was another blatant attempt by the matchmakers to get Molly an easy win. Nunes was coming off four straight losses and a nearly two year layoff. But she’s out and this actually might be a tougher fight. Brazil’s Thainara steps in on just over a week’s notice. I don’t know anything about her but a quick look on Sherdog tells me she’s 27 years old, 11-1, on a 9 fight winning streak and is coming off a win on DWCS in September. Granted, most of her opposition were unknowns but it’s still better than the original opponent Nunes and her 4 fight losing slump and extended spell of inactivity. And 6 of Thainara’s 7 finishes were by submission as well, which we know has been an issue for McCann in the past. The ol’ Meatball is coming off a loss to Bruna Brasil on the Manchester card in July. That was another fight I think was designed to get Molly a win and she still lost. Same thing happened with the Julija Stoliarenko fight as well. Think it’s time people accept that she’s just not very good. Remember that dopey talk about a Paddy/Molly main and co-main selling out Anfield? How’s that looking? Jordan Vucenic vs Chris Duncan is a nice little England vs Scotland clash. Looking forward to seeing Vucenic back in there. He’s a former Cage Warriors champion, 29 years old, 13-3 record, went 1-1 with Paul Hughes etc. He made his UFC debut back in August but it was under far from ideal circumstances. He stepped in as a late replacement on just a week’s notice against Guram Kutateladze. That would’ve been a tough enough assignment even with a full camp so he was really up against it with the short notice. It was a cracking fight all the same and Vucenic looked great early on, but Kutateladze finished stronger and took the decision. Duncan’s 31 years old and 12-2 with 9 finishes. He’s had mixed results in the UFC so far but he’s coming off a sweet first round guillotine submission over Bolaji Oki on the Paris card in September. Could be a good one this. Nathaniel Wood vs Morgan Charriere is ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** and is currently scheduled to kick off the main card. Love this fight. Two former Cage Warriors champions. England vs France. Just feels like perfect matchmaking. Such a fun fight. If I could’ve chosen each guy’s next opponent myself, this probably would’ve been the fight I’d have made. It’s a home game for Wood. London’s own. He’s 31 years old now, with a record of 20-6 and 13 finishes. He’s had his ups and downs in the UFC but is pretty much always in entertaining fights. And since moving up to Featherweight a couple of years ago I think it’s clear 145 is the right weight class for him. He talked at the time about really struggling with the cut to 135. Since moving up he’s gone 4-1 and the lone defeat was to Muhammad Naimov, who was a cheating little shit in that fight. Everything from groin strikes to glove grabbing to fence grabbing from Naimov in that one. Wood rebounded by putting a beating on Daniel Pineda on the Manchester card in July. Fun fighter, seems a decent guy from bits I’ve seen and if you know of his story with his daughter’s health issues, it’s impossible not to root for Wood. France’s Charriere is 29 years old and has a 20-10-1 record with 15 of his wins coming inside the distance. Like Wood, just a really cool fighter to watch. Obviously doesn’t have the best win/loss ratio but he’s quickly became a bit of an undercard favourite of mine since signing with the UFC in 2023. He’s 2-1 so far in the Octagon but the loss was a split decision against Chepe Mariscal in an excellent fight. He then fought at home on the Paris card in September, knocking out Gabriel Miranda with a left hook early in the second round. Can’t go wrong with this. Just a quality fan friendly fight. So glad this fight isn’t getting wasted at the Apex. It deserves a crowd and the O2 should be lively for the hometown fighter. Jai Herbert vs Chris Padilla could be a bit of a sleeper actually. Herbert’s from Wolverhampton, 36 years old and 13-5-1 with 10 finishes. He’s another former Cage Warriors champ but he’s probably mostly remembered for dropping Ilia Topuria with a headkick in their 2022 fight. Unfortunately for Herbert, that’s where the positives ended for him in that one and Topuria sparked him out cold shortly after. Still, it looks great on his highlight reel given what Topuria’s gone on to accomplish. Herbert’s nothing amazing but he’s pretty much a pure striker and from the limited footage I’ve seen of Padilla, he’s got some nasty strikes himself. He did that to Rongzhu in his last fight back in September. Nasty. I do love a good elbow. That one forced a doctor stoppage because, obviously, Rongzhu couldn’t see shit after that. Before that was his UFC debut where he subbed James Llontop. Not earth shattering wins but it’s early days for him in the UFC yet. He’s 29 years old and 15-6 with 13 not making it to the judges scorecards. He’d previously fought in King Of The Cage, Brave and Bellator before inking his UFC deal. Lone’er Kavanagh vs Felipe Dos Santos will be worth a look. Kavanagh’s another London boy, 25 years old and undefeated at 8-0 with 5 finishes. I’ve sadly lost track of the UK scene over the last few years but even I was aware of Kavanagh and he was being talked about as one of, if not the best UK prospect in MMA for a bit. He got his shot at DWCS last August and brutally knocked out his opponent, which had Dana jizzing his pants cageside. He then made his UFC debut on the Macau card in November and beat Jose Ochoa on points in a decent fight but not a blow away performance. Definitely looking forward to seeing him again. It was a good showing but I think there’s a lot better to come. There needs to be as well because Kavanagh was talking a big game before his debut, going on about planning to become Flyweight champion “within two years”. I like the confidence but he’s gotta back it up now. Santos is 24 years old and 8-2-0-1. I’m hazy on him but I do remember he made his UFC debut on short notice and jumped right in with Manel Kape. He lost a decision but I recall it being a good fight and Dos Santos certainly didn’t embarrass himself. Since then he’s won a decision off Victor Altamirano and lost a decision to Andre Lima. It’s a fight I think Kavanagh wins if he’s what he’s being cracked up to be but Dos Santos isn’t a pushover from what I remember of him. Marcin Tybura vs Mick Parkin isn’t filling me with excitement. The Heavyweights very rarely do. It’s kind of interesting though, in that it’s Parkin’s first proper step up. Tybura’s no title threat, never has been, but he’s no bum either. He’s a solid gatekeeper but basically loses to anyone of real substance. He did beat Arlovski years ago and he went 5 rounds in a losing effort against Werdum. There’s much worse in the division. But he’s also 39 years old now. He battered Jhonata Diniz to a bloody pulp last time out but Diniz is shite so that doesn’t tell us much really. That’s how Parkin’s last fight ended. He walloped Lukasz Brzeski in about 3 minutes at UFC 304 in Manchester last July. It was the first time he hadn’t bored me shitless though. I feel like I’m always harsh on Parkin. I want to like him. He’s a young UK Heavyweight at 29 years old, undefeated at 10-0, mates with Aspinall etc. But Christ, his UFC fights before this Brzeski KO were absolutely rotten. I kept hearing he was this killer prospect but the fights were awful and, although he was winning, he was going the distance with schlubs like Jamal Pogues, Caio Machado and Mohammed Usman. For that reason, I’m still not sold. It’s gonna take more than stopping Brzeski to change that. We’ll see how he does against Tybura here. Andrey Pulyaev vs Christian Leroy Duncan. Don’t know. Never seen this Pulyaev bloke. Looking him up, he’s Russian, 27 years old and 9-2 with 7 finishes. He’s on a 5 fight winning streak and coming off a points win on DWCS last August. Trains under Alexander Shlemenko. That’s about all I can find on him. CLD’s gonna be the crowd favourite being a UK fighter. He’s 10-2 with 9 finishes and lost a decision to Gregory Rodrigues last time out at UFC 304 in Manchester. Before that he’d scored back-to-back TKO finishes over Denis Tiuliulin and Claudio Ribeiro. Nothing else to really say about this. Might be a good fight but I’m just not familiar enough with Pulyaev. CLD’s obviously a striker but I’m not sure what Pulyaev’s strengths are. Shauna Bannon vs Puja Tomar. I’ll go through the routine. Both are 31 years old. Bannon’s Irish and 6-1 with just 2 finishes. Tomar’s the first Indian woman to ever fight in the UFC and she’s 9-4 with 6 stoppages. Expecting the grand total of nothing from this. The only reason I might end up watching this is because the card’s gonna be on early and I’ll most likely whack the prelims on live. My hopes aren’t high though. Bannon’s been terrible to watch in the UFC so far. Genuinely terrible. She lost her debut fight against Bruna Brasil then beat Alice Ardelean in her next fight on the Manchester show. Both decisions, both abysmal fights to watch. Tomar won her UFC debut back in June, taking a split decision off Rayanne Dos Santos. Barely remember it. Caolan Loughran vs Nathan Fletcher. Dunno. Ireland’s Loughran is 28 years old and 9-2 with 7 finishes. Yet another former Cage Warriors champion. He’s had a few fights in the UFC now, going 1-2, I know I saw all of them but nothing much sticks out in the memory. He’s coming off a decision loss against Jake Hadley at UFC 304 in Manchester. Fletcher’s from Liverpool, 27 years old and has a record of 9-1 with 8 inside the distance, 7 by submission. He made his UFC debut back in September and got subbed by Zygimantas Ramaska. Don’t recall even seeing that one. Yeah, fuck knows? Guram Kutateladze vs Kaue Fernandes is currently in the opening prelim spot down on Fight Pass. Bit harsh on Kutateladze that. Especially considering he beat Jordan Vucenic in his last fight and Vucenic’s on the main card here. I get Vucenic is a UK fighter so it makes sense to feature him but, still, Kutateladze slumming it in the curtain jerker? Might be a case of the matchmakers having no faith in him anymore though, considering he’s been plagued by injuries for much of his UFC stint. Good fighter though. Fernandes is 9-2 and trains out of the once great Nova Uniao camp in Brazil. Can’t remember much of him. He lost his debut against Marc Diakiese but bounced back in his last fight in August with a first round TKO over Mohammed Yahya. That was a bit of a squash match as I recall. Come on Leon. Sort yourself out. Edited March 21, 2025 by wandshogun09 Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted March 15, 2025 Paid Members Posted March 15, 2025 I think the buzz thing goes in waves. This is a fine card but the charisma vacuum of Leon Edwards isn't helping matters. It felt everyone genuinely got on board with Leon after the 2nd & 3rd Usman fights "headshot dead" and all that shit, it was fun but that just masked the fact that Leon is as dull as dishwater 90% of the time. Going and losing his title without so much as a whimper hasn't helped either. Brady's gonna whoop him. If Tom Aspinall was headlinging over here I think we'd be getting a much different type of buzz going in. Quote
Kfogg1991 Posted March 15, 2025 Posted March 15, 2025 The absolute abundance of hype and fanfare for Leon IMO is his own doing from so badly and getting dominated the entire five rounds losing the belt in the main event of our first ppv in the UK for years but he chose to completely disappear and go with take time to recouporate and heel fully but even in the final run before it he's not given reason to support or believe in him. That's my opinion with it apologies if it took time to get there sleep deprived thanks to having to communicate with agents in the states. Anyway this is only a week away just this..... show tonight then we're up. Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted March 15, 2025 Author Paid Members Posted March 15, 2025 Leon’s never really been one for doing loads of interviews or podcasts or even social media though. It’s to his detriment promotion-wise but some fighters just don’t take to it. I don’t think he’s necessarily gone off the grid because of the Belal loss specifically. He’s just one of those fighters you don’t hear from when he doesn’t have a fight coming up. Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted March 16, 2025 Paid Members Posted March 16, 2025 Yeah, that's true. Just felt like he had a full on lighting in a bottle moment in that 2nd Usman fight. Everything was perfect. Fighting arguably the GOAT of the division, the comeback, the headkick, the corner speech, the catchphrase. It was pure movie stuff and everyone latched on. I think since though you have had two bland but dominating title defences followed by that horrible loss to Belal. Just feels to me like people have realised why they didn't like Leon in the first place, that Usman fight was a one off. Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted March 20, 2025 Paid Members Posted March 20, 2025 Get your UFC London warm up on with Cage Warriors on Friday night... Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted March 20, 2025 Paid Members Posted March 20, 2025 Morgan Charriere dropping his own fight trailers Quote
NeverYield Posted March 21, 2025 Posted March 21, 2025 I liked that ? Never heard of the guy and now I wanna watch his fight. Quote
Paid Members Carbomb Posted March 21, 2025 Paid Members Posted March 21, 2025 That is indeed some great work. But when you've lost a third of all your matches, it takes a lot to really promote yourself. In fairness, looking at his record, it's impressive that he's only ever been finished once, and has never been knocked out or TKOed. His PR team should really focus on that, make a big deal out of the fact that anyone who faces him is, win or lose, in for a very long night. Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted March 21, 2025 Author Paid Members Posted March 21, 2025 Yeah I think it was Egg who said a while back that Charriere has a bit of an influencer type following in France so that’ll be why his self promoting game is on point. I don’t like what I’m hearing from Leon this week. He seems to be chalking the Belal loss up to them fighting at 5am or whatever it was but that excuse doesn’t wash because as bullshit as it was from the UFC making all the fighters on that Manchester card fight at silly o’clock to accommodate the US viewers getting to watch at prime time, Leon knew about that well in advance. It wasn’t ideal but he had plenty of time to adjust his training and sparring to acclimatise himself to being ready and sharp at that time. He’s also saying he took Belal lightly. I do actually think there’s something to that based on how he was talking going into that fight. I remember one quote in particular where the media asked him if he was concerned about Belal’s wrestling and he just said something like “He’s not Khabib, he’s not Islam. He’s just Belal”, laughing when he said it. Just really dismissive. I think he thought because he’d just beat Usman and Covington, he had the wrestling covered but Belal attacked the wrestling way better and more relentlessly than those guys and we saw what happened. Now this week, him Brady did their face-off outside the O2 and Leon’s been on about how much smaller Brady was than he expected and thinking he’d have a strength advantage as a result. Could be just a throwaway comment and he’s just fucking about but if he’s genuinely taking confidence in having a height advantage then I think he might be in for a shock here. Height means fuck all when you’re being taken down and dragged about. No way he’s gonna be physically stronger than Brady. Probably reading more into all this than necessary but it feels like he’s learned nothing from the Belal loss and he’s dismissing Brady the same way. The way he’s talking about the Belal loss makes me think he’s not addressing the issues he has as well. I was already fancying a Brady win, Leon’s gave me no reason to change my mind this week. Hope I’m wrong but he’s not giving off great vibes to me. Brady 50-45 in a snoozer. Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted March 21, 2025 Paid Members Posted March 21, 2025 30 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said: Yeah I think it was Egg who said a while back that Charriere has a bit of an influencer type following in France so that’ll be why his self promoting game is on point. yeah, Charriere was a bit of a celebrity in France before he even made it to the UFC. @Carbombknocking the win/loss record is a bit off too, his 3 defeats in the last 5 years have been to Chepe Mariscal, Paul Hughes & Jordan Vucenic, and all 3 were split/majority decisions Charriere is the real deal. Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted March 21, 2025 Paid Members Posted March 21, 2025 33 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said: Brady 50-45 in a snoozer. This is how i see it going. I think any kind of belief that Leon is coming back rejuvinated will evaporate before the end of round 1. It's a horrendous fight to come too after that Belal loss. Really looking forward to this now though, I can't see the card not delivering outside of that main event. I've cleared my schedule so should be able to watch it live or a few hours after it's started. Quote
Paid Members Carbomb Posted March 21, 2025 Paid Members Posted March 21, 2025 17 minutes ago, Egg Shen said: yeah, Charriere was a bit of a celebrity in France before he even made it to the UFC. @Carbombknocking the win/loss record is a bit off too, his 3 defeats in the last 5 years have been to Chepe Mariscal, Paul Hughes & Jordan Vucenic, and all 3 were split/majority decisions Charriere is the real deal. That's fair, although I'd like to clarify I was talking purely from a PR perspective, not regarding his quality as a fighter. Lord knows if we went purely off the numbers, nobody would rate RDA or Dustin Poirier highly. I do appreciate fighters who've clawed their way to the top, taking losses and evolving, more highly than undefeated "geniuses". Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted March 22, 2025 Paid Members Posted March 22, 2025 We rollllllllllliin' Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted March 22, 2025 Author Paid Members Posted March 22, 2025 Looking forward to this more now it’s almost here. Quote
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