UFC 315: Muhammad vs Maddalena - May 10 ??

[Bruce85]

1 hour ago, Egg Shen said:

Same here!

For me I think it’s the implications that the main event has makes it really interesting. We get so many ufc apex events which the results have no impact that it’s refreshing to have title fight that’s result will determine the number one contenders for 2 divisions. 

[Egg Shen]

Yes Jack!!!

Who saw a fight like that coming? Tremendous.

[Zebra Kid Mark]

Quite a weak PPV that had an amazing main event that made it all right.

The Aldo fight was tense and exciting in the last round, outside this fight and the main, I didn't love the card. It's a shame to see Aldo retire (again) on a loss and a weight miss, it kind of tarnish's his legacy. He should have stayed retired or been way more picky with who his opponents were. 
He should have been fighting the Cub Swansons, Dominik Cruzs or Cody Garbrandts of the division. It's an absolute waste to see his hall of fame career end this way. I blame both the UFC and him for what fights he took, he could have said no to them.

Back to the main event, what an absolute dog fight, I did not think Belal had it in him to fight in an exciting fight like that and I definitely did not envisage a JDM win. I assumed it was going to be a Belal 'pushing up against the fence' type of victory. I do feel sorry for Belal though, he's going to be looking at needing a 4 or 5 fight win streak before he even gets a sniff at another title shot. My respect for him goes up but I am glad the belt is off him.

JDM was great and it seems stupid to talk his future down but I do see him as a transitional champion of some sorts. I think Shavkat or Islam take the title from him next. 

The future of the welterweight division seems a lot more exciting and up in the air (in a good way) than it did last week.

It's hard to predict the next fight for any of the below

Shavkat
Islam
Sean Brady
Ian Garry
Leon's redemption
Belal's redemtion
The winner of Usman/Buckley

If I were the UFC, I would much rather Islam stay put in the Lightweight division as the Welterweight division has plenty of talent.

 

[Egg Shen]

If the pre-fight chatter is to be believed, we are probably getting JDM/Islam next.

[Dai]

This would have been an acceptable Fight Night, but I thought it was a crap PPV. The main event was a good scrap, and about 2 and a half minutes of the Aldo fight was exciting, but the rest of the main card was all really average, completley unmemorable stuff.

Very enjoyable main event. Did Belal even go for a takedown or clinch in the first two rounds? Dont think he did from memory, which sounds like the most stupid of gameplans you could pick, and it cost him his title.

[Egg Shen]

I think Belal may have fallen victim of his own success and believed he'd walk through JDM on the feet. "Canelo hands" and all that shite.

He's also under a bit of pressure to be exciting, that probably played into it. It did end up with him having by far the most exciting fight of his career, but it cost him his belt.

[Kfogg1991]

Jesus Christ this card is the perfect example of a card that was weak on paper but really delivered and turned out to be exciting. Bar the co main event.

The main event was fantastic bellal made a dreadful mistake by throwing away his normal game plan to prove he's exciting, jacks head movement and constant movement ended up giving Bellal so many problems with added fantastic takedown defence aswell just unbelievable, I gave JDM 4 rounds to 1 but I don't hate 3-2 which some scored. And next will be against Islam which must piss Ian Garry off eliminating his next opportunity.

Co main was missable and pretty boring.

José Aldo looked depressing in that third round as soon as he stopped dead and looked at the time left my heart sunk, I did score the same with giving Aldo 1 round......it's the right time to retire imo.

Benoit absolutely ripped through a guy coming on two days notice and back to the company for the first time since 2019 and had nothing at all for Saint Denis at all unfortunately.

Something that really terrified me was the Silva knockout he was out cold for 6+ minutes then getting taken out on a spinal board with the replays looking like he cracked his skull.

 

The fact Dana white didn't show at the post presser was a fucking wanker move by him aswell.

Bring on 316

[wandshogun09]

On 5/10/2025 at 11:01 AM, wandshogun09 said:

I reckon Belal wins. 

 

On 5/10/2025 at 11:01 AM, wandshogun09 said:

Really fancying a Fiorot title win as well

JDM vs Belal was a hell of a fight. Bit too clear for me in Maddalena’s favour to put it in that category of truly great fights but it was some scrap. Definitely the best fight Belal’s ever had, and probably will ever have. So impressed by Maddalena here. I think there was clearly an element of Belal wanting to prove a point by standing more with JDM but I also think it was evident that JDM’s levelled up and really grafted his bollocks off tighten up his grappling since that Gilbert Burns fight just over a year ago. Working extensively with Craig Jones can’t hurt either. Whatever he’s been doing, it’s clearly paying off. And not just his defensive grappling itself, it obviously also helps that he has the striking to really make Belal pay whenever he either chose to stand or failed on a takedown attempt. Fantastic performance and I really wasn’t sure he had it in him.

Wasn’t sure we’d ever see Maddalena with UFC gold and I definitely didn’t see it happening this soon. It’s mad when you look back. He went from fighting mid level guys to a big step up against Burns. Then got thrown into a title fight after a year on the shelf, just through circumstances. And he’s grabbed the opportunity with both hands.

He really did a fucking job on Belal. Pissed myself at Maddalena’s cornerman between rounds telling Jack “Keep pinging the cunt” ? He definitely followed that advice. Belal got pinged into oblivion.

Interesting times ahead at 170. Only thing is I’m not a huge fan of the way it’s effected the matchmaking going forward. Don’t get me wrong, I’m in no way gonna complain about the Maddalena vs Islam Makhachev fight we’re almost certainly getting next or the Ilia Topuria vs Charles Oliveira fight they just announced for International Fight Week. Great, great fights. But when you know that, if Belal won on Saturday night, we would’ve been gearing up for Makhachev vs Topuria now? That was the one I really wanted to see. I keep seeing people go ‘we’ll see Islam vs Ilia somewhere down the line’. But what if we just don’t? I’ve been watching this shit too long to buy into the old ‘Don’t worry, that fight will always be there. They’ll make it somewhere down the road’. There’s no ‘always’. There’s a window to these things and I feel like Makhachev vs Topuria might just slip away now. Makhachev’s already had to vacate the Lightweight belt, say he beats Maddalena and becomes Welterweight champ, I just don’t see him going back down to 155 at that point. Fuck knows but I hope it happens eventually. As I type this they’re currently going back and forth on Twitter, with Topuria saying Makhachev’s ducking him and all that. Hopefully the grudge grows to a point that fight has to be made. For now though, it’s Maddalena vs Makhachev.

Shevchenko vs Fiorot went about as I thought as far as watchability goes. Never went in expecting a great fight and they didn’t surpass those expectations. I was way off in thinking Fiorot was gonna be a problem for Shev though. I really thought her physical strength and takedown defence would be a real issue for Shev but Shev was able to do her thing and I felt she won fairly comfortably. Fiorot had her moments but I don’t think there’s an argument for her winning. Back to business as usual at Flyweight. Shevchenko’s gonna be coasting to these dull decision wins into her 50s at this rate. Almost feels like the Grasso series was just a blip now. I’d imagine it’ll be Natalia Silva for Shevchenko next but now seems like as good a time as any for Zhang Weili to come up and challenge Shevchenko before they both get too old for it to be worth a shite. It’d be a shame to make Silva wait but I’d like to see them make Shev vs Zhang before it’s too late.

Zahabi vs Aldo turned out to be an entertaining fight but what I was dreading came true. Jose Aldo’s career comes to a bit of a depressing end, in a fight nobody asked for, against a 37 year old guy who’s decent but not really going anywhere.

I guess it’s too much to ask that these guys get a happy end to their career. Very rarely does a great fighter get to go out on a fairytale farewell like Robbie Lawler did in 2023. And even he’s back in the testing pool and will probably ruin his perfect send off at some point. There were little flashes of the old Aldo…

This took me back to Wandy and Shogun kicking heads off in the Pride days. Zahabi showed toughness and grit he’s never had to show before in that moment and he got through it and came out with the points win. I’ve seen cries of robbery and I do think you can make a case for Aldo winning. But I didn’t have a problem with Zahabi getting the nod either, other than just the disappointment of Aldo losing to a guy he’d have outclassed in his prime. I guess that’s kind of the point though. If you start losing to fighters you’d have battered at your peak, that’s usually a good indicator that you’ve probably outstayed your welcome. Then you add in the weight miss and, yeah, it all just painted a picture of a guy being a shadow of himself. It was a good fight but one that really shouldn’t have been that competitive if Aldo was anywhere near his best. For that reason, I was actually kind of relieved to see him take the gloves off when the fight was over. Like always with MMA retirements, who knows if it’ll stick? He’s already kind of left the door slightly open but I thought these tweets seemed as close to ‘final’ as he’s ever been…

The bit about cutting weight and thinking “I don’t need to do this anymore” especially. Seems like he’s come to terms with there being life after fighting and he’s finally in a place where he’s good with it. There’s always the chance that once he’s rested and healed up and feeling good again, he’ll convince himself he’s not done yet. But I hope he is. I still feel like his last few fights were the wrong ones and he should’ve been fighting the Cruz’s  Cejudos and Pitbulls of the world instead of Martinez, Bautista and Zahabi. I get that Aldo ultimately said yes to those fights but he’s never been one to turn down fights that are offered to him. The confusion for me is why were the UFC even offering him those fights? I don’t get it and I never will. I’ve been saying they were wasting the limited time he had left in the sport and now it’s turned out they literally wasted his last 3 fights because he’s retired. They weren’t the fights fans wanted to see and they didn’t even make sense from the boring ‘business’ perspective. But that’s what we got and now it’s over. Whatever. In a fucked up way, maybe this is better. If Aldo lost to another big name like Cruz or Cejudo he’d probably keep fighting way past his time. Losing to Bautista and Zahabi might have been the wake up call that made him realise he just isn’t that same guy anymore.

Natalia Silva put on a bit of a clinic against Alexa Grasso. She had Grasso running into counters the whole fight. Schooled her. Sad to see as a Grasso fan but I like Silva too so this was always gonna be bittersweet either way. Tough break for Grasso and it really shows how fleeting success can be in MMA and how quickly it can all go up in smoke. Couple of fights ago she was the Flyweight champion and on top of the world having upset Shevchenko. Now she’s coming off back-to-back one-sided losses where she looked like she had pretty much nothing for the opponent.

Sweet Chin Music! 

Just looked at the updated rankings and Silva’s moved to #1 now. She’s surely getting the next crack at Shevchenko’s gold. We’ve got that Blanchfield vs Barber fight coming up at the end of the month but I can’t see that being a great fight and I think whoever wins that one is gonna need a spectacular performance to make a strong case for the title shot. Shevchenko vs Silva could be decent. I certainly think it’d be better to watch than Shevchenko vs Fiorot was anyway. I suspect Shevchenko would go back to a takedown heavy approach against Silva and probably wins that way but who knows, maybe Silva’s speed and striking would give an ageing Shev problems?

Saint Denis vs Prepolec was a lively main card opener. Perfect way to start the PPV really. Nice to see Saint Denis get back in the win column. He needed this badly after his last couple of losses, especially the beatdown from Moicano last time. Gotta say though, while he looked a handful here and his aggression is always gonna be a lot to deal with for his opponents. His lack of defence in the striking again reared its head here. He got away with it this time, probably because he was against Prepolec on short notice. Had that original fight with Joel Alvarez gone ahead, I’m not sure we’d be looking at Saint Denis coming off a win right now. I reckon Alvarez might’ve caught him with something. Maybe they rebook that one now. I wouldn’t hate it.

Mike Malott does nothing for me. Think I said in the opening post I kind of gave up on him a while back. But fair’s fair, him and Radtke had a short and sweet shootout which the crowd was invested in with Malott being Canadian and Radtke heeling it up. Then Malott walloped him with the left hook and finished him on the ground…

Proper video game ground and pound that. Radtke’s head was bouncing all over the shop. Still don’t particularly rate Malott though.

Jasmine Jasudavicius breezing through Jessica Andrade wasn’t how I expected that fight to go. Thought this was gonna be a tough test and I really wasn’t sure she was up to it. She made this look easy though, taking Andrade down and subbing her in less than 3 minutes. Good stuff. Seeing a lot of positivity towards Jasudavicius and fair enough, this was a big win for her and in front of a home crowd. Not sure quite what to make of it or how to rate the win though because looking at Andrade here and thinking back to her loss against Natalia Silva in September, she really hasn’t looked at the races in her last couple of fights. Although she’s only 33, she’s been at it a while and I’m wondering if it’s catching up to her now and we’re about to see a sharp decline. She’s never been mega consistent and she’s been on losing streaks before and came out of it. But I don’t know if I’ve ever seen her look quite as flat and detached as she has lately. Like I said though, great win for Jasmine over a former champ. She’s jumped up to #6 in the rankings off the back of this win and in a division which isn’t full of fresh challengers for Shevchenko, she genuinely might be just one big win away from a title shot now.

Only half watched Bukauskas vs Cutelaba but it didn’t look like the kind of firefight I expected from what I saw. Wasn’t scoring it properly but every time I did pay attention it seemed like Cutelaba was getting the better of it. Decision went to Bukauskas which, like I said, I wasn’t scoring closely so whatever. Seen a lot of criticising of the judging though. Two of the scorecards going 30-27 either way as well, that’s usually a sure sign of some wonky scoring. Cormier shoehorning pro wrestling references into his commentary gets a bit annoying at times but him calling this the ‘Montreal Screwjob’ later on did get a little chuckle out of me.

Marc-Andre Barriault scored one of the scarier knockouts in recent memory against Bruno Silva.

Horrible elbows to the temple in close just slumped him and it looked worrying for a while there. Especially seeing him stretchered out. Obviously it’s his call but I’d like to see Silva call it a day. He’s 23-13, has lost 7 of his last 8 fights and now this. He’s also gonna be 36 in July. It’s not gonna get any better from here, only worse. Hopefully he’s OK and hopefully this knockout convinces him to get out for his own good.

If you skipped the prelims, and I’m guessing a lot did, check out the Daniel Santos vs Jeong Yeong Lee fight if you get chance. Exciting little scrap in front of a load of empty chairs. Lee’s been fun to watch in the UFC but results haven’t been going his way lately. And Santos rarely shows up. Nice to see him actually make it to the cage this time.

Bekzat Almakhan kicked off the prelims in style, stopping Brad Katona in about a minute. Just smoked him. Timed it perfectly as Katona ducked in to shoot for a takedown…

Lovely stuff. Katona had never been finished before this either which makes it even more impressive. Looking forward to seeing more of Almakhan. He got a tough assignment in his debut last year, coming up against Umar Nurmagomedov his first night in, then he had a year plus layoff immediately after. Now that’s out the way, hopefully he can stay active now. Yet more depth to the Bantamweight division! 



Yeah, not a great show but had a couple of moments lower down the card and the main event, although one-sided, was entertaining enough to just about save it from being a straight dud. 316 doesn’t look much cop either but after that we’re on a nice little stretch of 317 (Topuria vs Oliveira), 318 (Poirier vs Holloway 3) and 319 (DDP vs Khamzat). Roll on the summer! 

Edited May 15, 2025 by wandshogun09