d-d-d-dAz Posted March 22, 2025 Posted March 22, 2025 My first live MMA show since I packed in working in it. It was a bit of a slog, but I didn't not enjoy it. I was a lot more into the fights than the people around me (corporate comp tickets), and I slipped right back into my fight nerd personality. Though, I've lost my ability to score fights. Historically I was very good by and large, but I had Gunnar and Jan both winning. Molly wasn't at the races at all, and I was disappointed the Nathaniel Wood fight didn't really get going the way I thought it might. The one thing that jumped out to me was how little the production/presentation has moved on. It looks and feels EXACTLY the same as it has for at least a decade. They're still playing nu-metal FFS. Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted March 23, 2025 Author Paid Members Posted March 23, 2025 (edited) Well that was pretty shite, wasn’t it? Can see why Daz would’ve enjoyed it more because it’s a different experience being there live, especially when you’ve had a break from it. I’d have probably felt the same if I was in attendance. But it didn’t come across well watching at home and was a chore to sit through mostly. Just dead. There were a couple of moments and a couple of decent fights but it was mostly dull as fuck to watch. Shame. We shit on the UFC and the matchmakers for that all the time but, on paper, there were some fights you’d really have expected more from on this card. The main event was always likely to look how it looked but the undercard looked pretty sweet and it just never clicked for the most part. It happens. To Daz’s point though, it definitely doesn’t help that the production has remained the same forever. I feel like a lot of that’s on Dana’s say so as well. I remember when he used to do those post-show media scrums and now and then he’d be asked about doing different cool stuff production-wise and journalists would be mentioning Pride’s setups and entrances and stuff and letting guys do some imaginative things for their walkouts. Dana would always just say something like ‘No I prefer the no nonsense approach. Just a shot of the guy coming through the tunnel, through the curtain and down to the Octagon. You don’t need anything else’. Great. So because it’s what he personally likes and prefers, we all have to cater to one man’s tastes. There has obviously been the occasional time they’ve done something a bit different or let certain guys do something for their walkout but, mostly, it’s been cookie cutter shit forever. It’s why I was more positive about the Sphere card than most. Yeah, it added nothing to the actual in-cage aspect of the show but at least it was something different. The rest of the time you could switch a UFC card on and you genuinely can’t distinguish a PPV from a Fight Night. Anyway… Sean Brady absolutely and thoroughly dogwalked Leon Edwards in the main event. This fight felt like bad news for Leon from the second it was announced to me and I fully expected a Brady domination. He ended up dominating and being the first to finish Leon in his career. Just a disaster for Edwards and I’m really not sure how he rebounds from a loss like this. The most utterly miserable night at the office for him. Thought Brady even looked a bit better on the feet than he usually does as well, although that was probably as much to do with Edwards being even more gun-shy than usual because he was worried about the takedowns as anything else. Leon just couldn’t get anything going. All fight week I was thinking Brady by shutout decision. As the rounds went on though, it started to feel inevitable that he was gonna find the submission. Actually thought Brady might get him with the Kimura when he was going for that. Leon survived it but it felt like it was just a matter of time. Finally got him with the guillotine. The reaction to this on social media has been typically shite. The usual from fairweather twats who were suddenly Edwards fans the day after he won the title, now they’re on Belal and Brady’s dicks but they’ll turn on them as well when they lose. Fickle fucks. I get the criticism of Edwards totally, and he did himself no favours with his dismissive attitude to both the Belal loss and Brady as an opponent this week. But now you’ve got twats completely retconning his career, calling the Usman headkick “a fluke” and saying Leon was the worst champion in UFC history and all sorts of cobblers. As if Nicco Montano, Julianna Pena and Sean Strickland don’t exist! Shit off. This was always gonna be a ridiculously tough fight for Edwards. I don’t know why people seem shocked it played out the way it did. But with that said, I don’t know where Leon goes from here. Brady was the nightmare matchup for Leon, especially as a rebound fight off the Belal loss. Couldn’t have created a tougher set of circumstances for him to try to get back on track. I don’t see him ever getting back in the title race now. He’ll still beat some ranked guys but the blueprint is out there on him and Belal, Brady and Shavkat all being at the top of the division is worst case scenario stuff for him. It was nice that he got that moment and held the title, but that’s gone and never coming back now. Maybe they do Edwards vs Ian Garry next? That’s one that was brewing for a bit and at this point I think the matchmakers might just be in the mindset of cutting their losses with Leon and trying to build Garry up with a win over him. Not sure I’d be confident either way on who’d win that one but I can see them making it. Not sure what’s gonna happen with the title picture. We’ve got Belal vs Maddalena for the belt coming up in May. After that you’d assume it’ll be Shavkat getting a crack at the winner. But who knows at this point? Shavkat’s been pretty injury prone recently and it wasn’t like he looked amazing in the Garry fight last time out. Brady isn’t gonna set the world alight in PPV buys and hype, obviously, but I wouldn’t be against him getting the next shot after this performance. If Shavkat’s not ready for the winner of Belal vs JDM then I think Brady’s the clear next in line regardless. But I wouldn’t be outraged at him jumping ahead of Shavkat anyway now, to be honest. If we end up with Belal vs Brady 2 for the strap later this year, yeah, it’s gonna feel like one of the weakest, unsexiest PPV title fights ever but I’d actually be very interested to see how that rematch would go at this point. Ulberg vs Blachowicz came and went. Wasn’t that into it but did think Jan looked decent considering the layoff, his age and the surgeries and so on. By the end I felt like he’d probably got the decision but it went to Ulberg. Seen a lot of people disagreeing with the decision and, like I said, I thought Jan was about to get his hand raised myself. I can’t say I was paying close enough attention to the fight to score it properly one way or the other though really. By that point in the night, I felt like I’d sat through about 15 hours straight of this card. Kevin Holland vs Gunnar Nelson was the fight I probably enjoyed most overall on the card. Gunnar being out of action so long was the one thing giving me doubts on him winning but, in general, I was fairly confident he was gonna sub Holland here. Wrong. You never know what you’re getting with Holland. There were moments here where Gunnar was getting his grappling going and I thought Holland was just gonna wilt like he has in some fights in the past. But I think he had just enough success here early that it spurred him on to fight through those moments. It made for a better fight to watch than I expected and Holland came out the other side with the points win. This tickled me. Most emotion I think I’ve ever seen on Gunnar’s face actually! We probably won’t see him again until he randomly pops up on a London card in 2027. It’s just how he does things these days, isn’t it? I do wonder though, if he’d stayed active these last couple of years, how this fight might’ve gone differently. We’ll never know but these big gaps between fights aren’t the best. Although I’m not sure Gunnar’s even that arsed. Alexia Thainara’s UFC debut was a memorable one! Coming in on about a week’s notice, subbing Molly McCann in a round and then doing this… Diabolical work ? Seriously, just watching her dancing about on her entrance, I was starting to think she was gonna gas herself out before the fight even started. What was she on? Most energetic person I think I’ve ever seen. Not much to say about the actual fight itself, been saying it forever, despite them constantly hyping her up and trying to feed her wins, Molly’s actually just pretty shite. There’s no getting around it or dressing it up. She’s not very good. The fact her original opponent Istela Nunes was on a 4 fight losing skid and coming off a massive layoff speaks volumes about the matchmakers confidence in Molly. But Nunes dropped out and Thainara, even on short notice, turned out to be too good for the old ‘Meatball’. This actually felt overdue to me. It’s not like she’d been taking bad beatings but her career’s been going nowhere for ages now. The manufactured ‘buzz’ around her was all based on the friendship with Paddy and those back-to-back spinning elbow finishes a few years ago. But like I said at the time, as cool as those finishes were, they were against Luana Carolina and Hannah Goldy, who were both absolute bottom rung ham and eggers. People talking about her co-maining a packed Anfield based on that was always crackers to me. Since then, even when they’ve tried to feed her gimmes, she’s mostly lost. Nice that she got that little moment to lay the gloves down in the cage and say farewell. I know it probably doesn’t seem like it but I genuinely don’t wish her any ill will. It’s always been the silly talk and hype around her that I hated but that wasn’t her fault. I don’t begrudge any fighter getting that sendoff moment. Although it felt a bit much with everyone banging on like she was some legend and stuff. Get to fuck with that. Stipe’s retirement got less fanfare than this, FFS. Chris Duncan looked decent subbing Jordan Vucenic. A much welcome finish on a card lacking them. Sad to see Vucenic lose another one though. He had that great fight with Kutateladze in his debut, lost on points but he’d taken it on short notice. This though, he was coming off a full training camp and still got dropped and submitted. 0-2 in the UFC now. Shame. I like him but it’s not looking good. He shot for maybe THE single most telegraphed double leg I think I’ve ever seen at one point as well. Like, he was miles away. Don’t know what he was thinking but it was proper amateur hour stuff. He was starting to do better on the feet as well which made that rotten takedown attempt all the more confusing. What was with Duncan saying “I’m the only Scottish fighter who’s exciting” as well? Paul Craig catching strays? Wood vs Charriere was nowhere near the fight I envisioned in my head. Wasn’t awful or anything but it felt like there were extra gears both could’ve tapped into but didn’t for whatever reason. Flashes of real quality from Wood though. Especially in that first round. He was looking sharp, seemed twice as fast as Charriere and looked like he couldn’t miss with his jab. It petered out though as it went on. Still a solid performance from Wood but the fight on the whole was a bit flat, which was really disappointing. By that point in the card we’d sat through 7 prelims, 6 of them went the distance and none of them were particularly good fights. As the main card was getting underway I thought ‘well if nothing else, at least Wood vs Charriere will be a banger’. Turned out just to be…alright. Oh well. Glad to hear Wood’s changing his nickname though. Don’t get the point of nicknames like ‘The Prospect’, you’re gonna have to switch that up at some stage and Wood being 31 now and 27 fights into his career, it’s definitely time to get rid of that moniker. Can’t be bothered to go into all the prelims. I watched the lot but there’s just so little to talk about with most of it. Few quick observations… Thought Lone’er Kavanagh looked good again. Wasn’t mind blowing but he’s young and still developing. He wasn’t rattled at all by getting all bloody either, which is always a good sign. Got to admit though, I struggle to take him seriously when he’s rocking the AJ Soprano from Season 1 barnet… Get it sorted mate. Tybura vs Parkin was arse as expected. Looked like two fat toddlers squabbling over the last rusk. Just an uncoordinated mess of a fight. And I’m not even sure I agreed with the decision. Wasn’t like I was scoring it properly and the kids and my nieces were running riot in the living room at this point so I might be off. But I was expecting Parkin to get the nod at the end. Tybura’s apparently a free agent now as well. Shitshow. They’ll probably re-sign him but there’s a very real possibility that he’s just handed Parkin his first loss and now he’s gonna bounce. This is the kind of sloppy shit that probably wouldn’t have happened under the Fertittas. Their eye seems less on the ball these days than ever. Shauna Bannon’s comeback finish was actually pretty cool. It was a nothing fight which I’d almost definitely have skipped if it hadn’t been for the early start and the fact I was watching live. Good stuff though. How Puja Tomar didn’t close the show after that headkick is nuts. Then to get locked in the armbar? How Tomar managed to somehow find a defeat in the jaws of victory here, I don’t have a clue. First time I’ve been able to say something positive about Bannon though. She’s clearly tough. Kaue Fernandes beat Guram Kutateladze comfortably in the Fight Pass opener. As a fan of Kutateladze this was really disappointing. The fact Kutateladze had an all star team with both Ilia Topuria and Khamzat Chimaev in his corner and then went out and got smacked about for 15 minutes just rubbed salt in the wound. Although Fernandes not being able to find the finish despite Kutateladze being one-legged for a big chunk of the fight wasn’t a great look either. Sounds like last week’s Vettori vs Dolidze 2 card at the Apex was actually better to watch than this! Might have to go back and watch some of that later as a bit of a palate cleanser. This one didn’t do it for me. Great performance from Brady in the main, enjoyable Holland vs Gunnar fight and we’re finally done with the stupid pretence that Molly McCann is good. That’s about where the positives end. Oh and this… That was probably the highlight of the whole card for me. And I’m being serious. Onto Mexico next week. Surely Moreno vs Erceg won’t let us down? Edited March 23, 2025 by wandshogun09 Quote
NeverYield Posted March 23, 2025 Posted March 23, 2025 Gunnar Nelson is an exceptionally strong individual I like Leon Edwards, brilliant striker and martial artist, certainly hope he comes back from this although it will be a hard road, he's just a likeable guy and very capable when he's on job, but I do wonder if some of the 'he doesn't have that dog in him' criticisms are fair. Brady just wrapped him up like a present, asserted dominance from the start of the fight and just didn't let up, that's a serious tattoo he's got aswell on his midsection, is it supposed to be Milo of Croton applying a headlock to a tiger? ? Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted March 23, 2025 Author Paid Members Posted March 23, 2025 (edited) 22 minutes ago, NeverYield said: Brady just wrapped him up like a present, asserted dominance from the start of the fight and just didn't let up, that's a serious tattoo he's got aswell on his midsection, is it supposed to be Milo of Croton applying a headlock to a tiger? ? It’s quite an image. I remember when he fought Michael Chiesa a few years ago, there was a bit of talk before the fight of their tattoos. Chiesa’s on the left here… Felt like a bit of foreshadowing and would’ve been funny if Brady won that fight by guillotine but he had to settle for a unanimous decision. Brady’s probably got the best ink on the roster easy though for me. Maybe not so much that one but the work he’s had done on his back and arms is pretty cool. Edited March 23, 2025 by wandshogun09 Quote
NeverYield Posted March 23, 2025 Posted March 23, 2025 Very cool artwork definitely, just going off that even though I don't know too much about him you can see he has some interest in mythology and physical culture Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted March 24, 2025 Paid Members Posted March 24, 2025 (edited) Flat night wasn't it. Just one of those shows where you waiting for highlights and a bit of momentum and it never came. Predictable result in the main event, Leon should never have taken that fight. Coming off such a draining demoralising loss, Brady is not the kind of guy to bounce back against. Had a feeling this was gonna suck for the fans in attendance and that proved right, fans piling out during round 3 apparently, not a good look. Edited March 24, 2025 by Egg Shen Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted March 24, 2025 Author Paid Members Posted March 24, 2025 6 hours ago, Egg Shen said: Leon should never have taken that fight. He’d have got absolutely crucified if he turned the Brady fight down but, yeah, it would’ve been a smart career move. I think he’d have had a bit of justification for turning it down as well given that Brady wasn’t the original opponent and was a completely different style than Maddalena. It’s a shame that Maddalena fight never happened. Obviously can’t blame Maddalena for jumping on the opportunity of a title shot but it would’ve been interesting to see how Edwards would’ve looked against a striker and it probably would’ve been a more entertaining fight to actually watch, which is definitely what this card needed. Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted March 24, 2025 Paid Members Posted March 24, 2025 Yeah, Leon probably wasn't in a positition to be picking and choosing and when you are in that headline spot you just take what they give you but it was a horrendous style matchup for him. Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted March 25, 2025 Paid Members Posted March 25, 2025 If theres ever a twitter thread to sum up a UFC its this one, there's plenty of knuckleheads in there but the overall is reaction is fairly unanimous. I can't recall a reaction this negative to a UFC event. Weird times. Quote
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