UFC Kansas City: Garry vs Prates - Apr 26 ??

[wandshogun09]

Next stop, Kansas City…

ESPN MAIN CARD
Ian Garry vs Carlos Prates 

Anthony Smith vs Zhang Mingyang 

Giga Chikadze vs David Onama 

Michel Pereira vs Abus Magomedov 

Randy Brown vs Nicolas Dalby 

Ikram Aliskerov vs Andre Muniz 

ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS
Matt Schnell vs Jimmy Flick

Gage Young vs Evan Elder 

Chris Gutierrez vs John Castaneda 

Da’Mon Blackshear vs Alateng Heili

Malcolm Wellmaker vs Cameron Saaiman 

Jaqueline Amorim vs Polyana Viana 

Timmy Cuamba vs Roberto Romero 

Chelsea Chandler vs Joselyne Edwards 

 

Yep. An Irish man vs a Brazilian in Kansas City, Missouri. Seems proper random but whatever. Like the look of this. Undercard is very average, some alright stuff on there, but that main event makes up for it and it’s a bit of a bonus because this card was supposed to be headlined by Hill vs Rountree initially. Garry vs Prates is definitely an upgrade, I reckon. ‘Lionheart’ Smith’s farewell fight in the co-main as well. If he’s a man of his word anyway. As usual I’ll update as and when the card inevitably starts to implode and fights fall apart.

 

So yeah, Ian Garry vs Carlos Prates is a quality main event and it wasn’t even the original plan. This card was supposed to be headlined by Jamahal Hill vs Khalil Rountree but Hill pulled out with an injury. I didn’t hate that fight but this is a significant improvement in my opinion. The only possible negative spin you can put on it is that it’s been thrown together so late in the day so we’re probably not getting the best versions of both. The announcement of Garry vs Prates as the new main event was made at the start of April, so just a few weeks notice. Prates had been training to fight Geoff Neal at UFC 314 already, so he’ll be sharp and in shape. Garry though? Who knows what he was doing when the call came? He must fancy it though. Big fight for Prates as well. He’s ranked #13 at the moment and Garry’s #7. So a win here would catapult Prates right up the ladder in the Welterweight title picture.

Ian Garry’s been a bit of a polarising, Marmite character but you’ve got to give credit where it’s due. This is the second fight in a row now where he’s stepped up on short notice to take a tough fight against a dangerous opponent. We just saw him step in against Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC 310 in December when Belal Muhammad got hurt. Wasn’t like guys were lining up to face Shavkat before that, even with a full camp, so Garry jumping in on short notice was ballsy. He wound up losing on points but he gave Shavkat his toughest fight yet and even gave him a scare with a choke in the last round. He certainly made Shavkat look more human than he had in previous fights and he was the first man Shavkat hadn’t been able to finish in an 18 fight career. It was one of those losses where Garry’s stock still kind of rose in defeat. It was the first loss of Garry’s career, against another undefeated fighter, and it was on short notice. Not the end of the world. Now he’s stepping in again on just a few week’s notice against a guy who’s been on a streak.

“I’m excited. Why? The UFC go, ‘Ah, we need someone. Who do we call?’ You call me. Why? Because I’m a real fighter who wants to fight the best in the world. I’m gonna show everybody how good I am. I’m gonna go out there on April 26th against Carlos Prates and I’m gonna prove that there’s levels to this. That I am better. Nobody will expect what I’m gonna do to him. I’m gonna absolutely manhandle and outclass him. There’s gonna be nothing that he can do. I’m gonna put this guy to sleep, I’m gonna leave him unconscious and I’m gonna go and fight for the belt. That’s my plan.” - Ian Garry

Garry’s also been talking about feeling disrespected that he never got the call to fight Belal at UFC 315 in Montreal in a few weeks. His argument being that Jack Della Maddalena didn’t deserve the shot because he’s been out for a year. I get it. Garry’s definitely been more active. But he is also coming off that loss to Shavkat. Whatever the circumstances, the short notice etc, I’m never on board with a fighter getting a title shot off a loss, unless it’s a long reigning champ or something. And even then, it’s case by case.

Carlos Prates had a hell of a 2024. He only made his UFC debut in the February, by the end of the year he’d gone 4-0 in the UFC with four knockouts and four POTN bonuses for his efforts. Not bad at all. And in his last fight in November, he ironed out perennial gatekeeper Neil Magny in their Apex main event with a nasty temple shot. The fact he made his debut in February and was already headlining a card by November tells you that the UFC big wigs must think highly of him. We haven’t seen him really put to the test yet and there are definitely questions to be asked. I thought Magny might be able to ask some of those questions but it never worked out like that. Maybe Garry will be that guy. It’s certainly a big step up in levels for Prates so we’ll see.

Really like this fight. And despite the lack of time between the fight being announced and the fight itself meaning there wasn’t much time for any kind of build up, there has been a bit of needle. Well, Garry’s been talking a bit of shit about Prates. There’s a video going around of him watching old footage of one of Prates fights earlier in his career where he appears to fold and signal to the ref he’s done and the ref waves it off. Of course Garry was all over that and calling him a quitter. Didn’t go down too well with Prates, as you’d imagine.

“We are here training while Ian Garry is on the internet talking shit. You have a lot of free time. I’m here training. On the 26th, I’ll punch him in the mouth, then he’ll keep saying he didn’t have time to train, he was on the internet talking shit. Asshole.” - Carlos Prates

Ha. Interesting one this. Prates is on a hot streak and has momentum but Garry’s been mixing at a bit of a higher level. But then there’s the question of the lack of training camp for him. At least Prates was in camp for that Geoff Neal fight which fell apart. I suspect Garry must’ve been sparring and not too far off weight when this opportunity popped up though, or I doubt he’d have taken the fight. Another cool little story is the streak the Fighting Nerds (Prates, Caio Borralho, Jean Silva, Mauricio Ruffy) are on as a whole. Apparently they’re 19-0 as a team in the UFC now. Can Ian Garry put a stop to that?

 

Anthony Smith vs Zhang Mingyang is co-main and this is supposedly Smith’s retirement fight. His big farewell. You know the score. Take any MMA retirement with, not just a pinch, great big fuck off quantities of salt. But if he sticks to his word, it’s definitely about time. It’s been time for a while, truth be told. Knowing it’s his swansong, the choice of opponent here might seem a bit random and odd. I don’t hate it though.

Smith’s 36 years old now, which isn’t ancient or anything, but this’ll also be fight number 60 for old ‘Lionheart’. He’s definitely got some miles on him. He’s had an up and down career. Notable wins over Hector Lombard, Rashad Evans, Shogun Rua, Volkan Oezdemir and Alexander Gustafsson. Quite impressive at first glance but Rashad and Shogun were on their last legs by the time Smith got them and Gus was pretty much done himself. Not Smith’s fault, he could obviously only fight the versions of those guys that they were at the time, but it’s just a fact that most of his best wins don’t really hold up to scrutiny. He did make it to a title shot and went the distance with Jon Jones so there’s that. He’s looked pretty knackered in his last bunch of fights though. He’s gone 2-5 in his last 7, took a bad beating off Khalil Rountree and is now coming off back-to-back losses to Roman Dolidze and Dominick Reyes. He hasn’t looked right for a while so it’s good to see he seems to have recognised he should call it a day. Like I said, whether it sticks or not remains to be seen but he’s making the right noises for now.

“I was very shocked with the matchup, for sure. That wasn’t a bad thing, I just wasn’t expecting that one. But once I kind of looked into him a little bit and sat on it, it makes a lot of sense why they would go in that direction. It’s probably going to be a highlight one way or the other and that gives the matchmakers an opportunity to let me have fun and figure out where he’s at. They know that I want a fight that’s going to be really exciting, not some boring, scrape one out to finish my career.” - Anthony Smith

Don’t know a ton about Mingyang but he’s looked dangerous in the limited footage I have seen. He’s 26 years old and 18-6 with all 18 of his wins coming inside the distance. He won the Road To UFC tournament in 2022, scoring an absolutely brutal KO in the finals. And in the UFC he’s gone 2-0 with first round knockouts over Brendson Ribeiro and Ozzy Diaz. He’s looked a handful but he’s definitely been operating on a much lower level than the guys Smith’s been in with over the years. Win or lose, hopefully Smith gets what he wants out of this fight and gets to go out on his terms. I know he’s been through some shit recently. He lost a close friend before the Reyes fight in December and it was clear his head wasn’t in the game that fight week. He missed weight and was even quoted as saying he “didn’t wanna be there”. He said his friend who died wanted him to stop fighting soon so I’m guessing that’s been a big part of Smith’s decision to finally hang the gloves up. Usually I’d want Smith to go out on a win but I genuinely think he’s the type who will never stop if he’s winning. Maybe the ideal scenario would be for this to be a FOTN wild scrap, with Mingyang coming out on top and Smith going out on his shield and getting his in-cage retirement moment post-fight.

 

Giga Chikadze vs David Onama is ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** here but I’ve got to admit, as solid as this card looks on paper, there isn’t really a fight on the undercard that jumps off the page for me. Bunch of decent fights but nothing amazing. The main event is doing the heavy lifting on this card. To be honest, I’ve highlighted this fight purely because I love watching Onama. He’s a Kansas City guy as well so he should get the kind of love from the crowd he deserves here. 

Think he’s great to watch and usually one of the best things about pretty much any card he appears on. I always bring it up when either of them fight but if you never saw Onama’s fight with Nate Landwehr from August 2022, you need to fix that immediately. Onama lost but it was an absolute barnstormer. Since then he’s gone 3-0 and he’s coming into this fight off a points win over Roberto Romero on the MSG card in November. Chikadze’s dropped right off a cliff though so I don’t really know what to expect out of him. When he beat Edson Barboza in 2021, he seemed to be making waves and he was calling out all the top names at 145. Then he got battered by Calvin Kattar and he’s barely fought since. He lost to Arnold Allen in his last fight on the Manchester card in July.

 

Michel Pereira vs Abus Magomedov could be fun. Best case scenario here is probably that this goes no longer than a round or two tops and they both just come out all guns blazing. That’s where you get the best out of these two. I’ve still never fully forgiven Abus for fading horribly after one round against Strickland and losing the fight that would ultimately lead to Strickland winning the title off Izzy. So I’ve got no confidence in his cardio. Even though he subbed Brunno Ferreira late in a fairly enjoyable fight last time out. And Pereira’s gonna be out for redemption here. He got completely dominated by Fluffy Hernandez in his last fight in October. He was on a bit of a tear going into that fight and Fluffy totally derailed him. That could result in a more cautious Pereira here but I’m hoping he just doubles down on the wackiness and goes full on Eddy Gordo off Tekken. The ingredients for a wildly entertaining fight are definitely there with these two. Whether it actually plays out like that, we’ll have to wait and see.

 

Randy Brown vs Nicolas Dalby is a decent fight but isn’t exactly setting my world on fire. Both have had their moments on undercards over the years and they’re both usually watchable. I don’t dislike the fight but I’m kind of indifferent to it. Brown’s 34 years old now with a record of 19-6 and 12 finishes. He was on a nice little three fight win streak until recently, then dropped a split decision to Bryan Battle in a surprisingly dull affair in December. Dalby’s 40 years old and 23-5-1-2. He was on a four fight win streak and was also derailed by a split decision loss, his was against Rinat Fakhretdinov on the Saudi card back in June. Like I said, not a bad fight. Just feels like they’re both treading water now and going nowhere.

 

Ikram Aliskerov vs Andre Muniz is currently set to kick off the main card. Third attempt at this fucker. They were first booked against each other on an Apex card last June, Muniz withdrew with a broken foot. Then it was rebooked for the Adesanya vs Imavov card in Saudi Arabia in February this year, and it fell to bits again because Muniz and his team had visa issues. Sort yourself out, Muniz. If it goes tits up again here, they need to just move on and book Aliskerov against someone who’s actually gonna show up. It’s an alright fight if it happens. Can’t say I’m too fussed but it’s OK. Aliskerov’s 15-2 now and coming off that first round stoppage loss to Robert Whittaker last June. And to be fair, his only other loss is against Khamzat. No shame there. I don’t see him as anything special but he’s looked dangerous when he hasn’t been in there with the elite of the division. Muniz last fought in December 2023, winning a dull decision over Jun Yong Park. His most notable win is obviously the armbar submission over Jacare Souza, where he snapped Jacare’s arm, but that was back in 2021 and he hasn’t looked too clever in his more recent fights.

 

Matt Schnell vs Jimmy Flick is a weird one. Not like either are ever gonna make a splash in the Flyweight title picture but it’s got potential to be a fun fight. It’s weird though in that Schnell actually retired in the cage after his last fight. He got submitted by Cody Durden as recently as September, retired in the cage, did the whole ‘laying the gloves down on the canvas’ thing and everything. Now here we are. By February, this fight was announced. Short retirement. Schnell did actually come out and say it was as simple as he’s got one more fight on his UFC contract so he’s just fulfilling that. OK. Does kind of make you think he’s not entirely serious about retiring though. If you’re retired, you’re retired, right? The only reason you’d wanna fulfil that last fight on the contract is so that you’re free to go elsewhere. So no doubt we’ll be seeing him in BKFC or something in the near future. But yeah, not a bad little fight this if they’re both coming in up for it. Schnell’s on a three fight losing skid but his war with Su Mudaerji a few years ago is one of my favourites in Flyweight history. Flick’s game but he’s also in dodgy form at 1-3 in his last 4. Both their backs are against the wall here and I think it could make for a really entertaining fight.

 

Gage Young vs Evan Elder then. It’s no ‘Bang-Kuntz’ or ‘Arce-Burns’ but ‘Young-Elder’ has a ring to it, I guess ? They’ve got a sense of humour those UFC matchmakers, eh? What are they like? This is a late switch. Elder was supposed to welcome Ahmad Hassanzada to the Octagon. That’s off, in steps Young on a week’s notice. Looking him up, he’s actually a hometown boy from Kansas City, so the crowd should be into this if nothing else. He’s 24 years old and 9-2 with 7 inside the distance. Apparently he lost on DWCS in September but he’s since scored a TKO in his last fight in December. Elder’s 28 years old and 9-2 with 6 finishes. He’s fought in the UFC a few times but hasn’t been the most active. He got a submission win over Darrius Flowers in his last fight in July.

 

Chris Gutierrez vs John Castaneda was originally meant to go down at UFC 313 in March but Castaneda pulled out at the last minute with an illness of some sort. To be fair, I’m pretty sure that fight was thrown together very late in the day so it’s probably worked out better that it got rescheduled for a later date here. They’re both 33 years old. Gutierrez is 21-6-2 and coming off a points win over some fucker named Quang Le in August. Castaneda’s coming off a points loss against Daniel Marcos last June. No real opinion on the fight itself, to be honest. Could be good but it’s kind of just there.

 

Da’Mon Blackshear vs Alateng Heili is another fight which is just making up the numbers and filling a slot. Don’t love it, don’t hate it, don’t really have any feelings on it. Blackshear’s 30 years old, 16-7-1 and 2-2 in his last 4 fights. He is coming off back-to-back submissions over the Codys - Stamann and Gibson. He also is part of UFC history, believe it or not. He’s only the third fighter to ever win by twister in the UFC. Korean Zombie and Bryce Mitchell being the first and second…

Team Twister there. That’s almost certainly gonna be the peak of Blackshear’s career when it’s all said and done though. Nothing against the guy, I just don’t see him going far. This is a quick turnaround for him actually. He just subbed Gibson in March. Barely remember Alateng Heili. He’s 33 years old, 17-9-2 and took a decision off Kleydson Rodrigues in his last fight in May 2024. Genuinely nothing else to even really say about him. He’s been on the roster since 2019 but there’s just nothing about his run that’s been memorable.

 

Malcolm Wellmaker vs Cameron Saaiman could turn out to be a bit of a sleeper buried down on the prelims. Never seen Wellmaker but he’s undefeated at 8-0 with 6 of his wins not making it to the scorecards. Scored a quick first round knockout on DWCS back in August. Sounds like he could potentially be a bit of a prospect, although he’s 30 years old already so maybe a bit of a late starter. South Africa’s Saaiman definitely came in as a prospect a few years ago. He’s still only 24 now but, after going 9-0 at the start of his career, he’s now tasted defeat and has gone 0-2 in his last couple of fights. Back-to-back losses to Christian Rodriguez and Payton Talbott fucked him up and he’s been off the grid now since March 2024. Assuming he’s stayed in the gym, at his age I don’t think that time off is necessarily a bad thing. In theory he’s had time to reset and just focus on improving. And a young developing fighter like that can make gains rapidly. So I’m looking forward to seeing how he looks here. Now he’s in the opposite position where he’s fighting against an unbeaten guy and looking to ruin his perfect record. Interesting one.

 

Jaqueline Amorim vs Polyana Viana is a nothing fight really but not terrible. Brazil vs Brazil. Feel like I know exactly how this is gonna end though. Viana’s losses usually come via grappling…and Amorim’s very much a grappling specialist. She’s 9-1 with the first loss being in her UFC debut in 2023. A points loss to Sam Hughes, which was a bit of a surprise. She’s bounced back in style though with three wins and three finishes over Montserrat Conejo, Cory McKenna and Vanessa Demopoulos. I do remember some controversy in that Demopoulos win last time out though.

Dodgy as fuck that, right? Yet, from what I remember, the blatant glove grabbing there was just casually glossed over by the commentators as if it didn’t matter. I think Amorim was gonna win regardless but, still, that’s a bad foul. Anyway, yeah, I think poor Polyana’s gonna be another victim of Amorim’s submission game here. She’s 13-7 and from what I remember, pretty much all her losses were either by submission or ground and pound or just being outgrappled. This feels like one of the worst style matchups they could’ve put her in, don’t see it ending well for her. Sad times.

 

Timmy Cuamba vs Roberto Romero. Not a clue and I’ve definitely seen both. Really hazy on Cuamba. He’s 26 years old and 8-3 with 4 finishes. Made his UFC debut last February and he’s gone 0-2 since with decision losses to Bolaji Oki and Lucas Almeida. No real memories of him. Romero’s Mexican, 25 years old and 8-4-1 with 5 finishes. He debuted at UFC 309 at MSG in November and lost on points against David Onama in what I vaguely recall being a very enjoyable fight. That could’ve been down to Onama though because he seems allergic to bad fights. So we’ll see how Romero looks without Onama as the dance partner.

 

Chelsea Chandler vs Joselyne Edwards. Nothing. No feelings whatsoever. No fucks to give. Quickly going through the motions here. Chandler’s 31 years old out of Stockton, California (209!). She trains out of Cesar Gracie’s so she is actually part of whatever’s left of that old Diaz team. She’s 6-3 overall and she’s gone 2-2 in the UFC with losses to Norma Dumont and Yana Santos. Literally all I remember of Chandler is her turning her back and legging it from Dumont in their fight. As for Edwards, she’s from Panama, 29 years old with a 14-6 record. Nothing of note looking at her list of wins and losses but she’s coming off a face crank sub over Tamires Vidal in her last fight whatever that’s worth.

 

 

Polyana Viana fight week…

Edited April 26, 2025 by wandshogun09

[wandshogun09]

Here’s a cheerful post.

Just read that Ahmad Hassanzada, who was supposed to make his UFC debut against Evan Elder on this card, was actually pulled from the fight because he was arrested. 

It gets worse. Apparently he was done for six counts of sexual acts against children. There’s an article on MMAJunkie. MMA really is the gift that keeps giving isn’t it? Just cunts upon cunts. The UFC have released him, which is obviously the right move. Although it’s easy to take a tough stance on a nobody like this. Shame they don’t keep the same energy and cut ties with other (bigger name) sex offenders and abusers on the roster. Still, good riddance. 

[Carbomb]

Fucking hell. That's horrendous. Though I think the last time a fighter was done for being a paedo was Abel Trujillo. Most MMA wrong'uns at least keep their noncery to adult women, I guess. Even Dana White wouldn't hold on to McG if he was beasting kids.

[Egg Shen]

fuck! I saw that fight had been changed but had no idea why.

 

[wandshogun09]

Fight day then. Not in love with this card but it’s alright. The main event’s carrying it but, even then, I’m not sure what to expect from it. It’s not like Garry’s been having barnburners left and right, is it? Maybe Prates can bring the aggression out of him but I can see Garry trying to just play it safe and shut Prates down. For all Garry’s big talk about smashing Prates up, putting him out cold etc, I’m not sure I buy it. He could definitely do with making a statement like that coming off the Shavkat loss. If he goes out and derails Prates in style tonight he’s right back in the mix. But I don’t know. Not sure how much further Prates can go either. And how will he do if this one goes into the later rounds? It’s an interesting one but I’m leaning towards Garry getting the win, probably on points.

Got a feeling Mingyang’s gonna steamroll Anthony Smith in his swansong as well. Not that I rate Mingyang that highly, I don’t know much about him, but he’s dangerous early and my confidence in Smith is shot enough where I have major doubts he stands up to that early barrage. 

[Egg Shen]

I give myself until Tuesday to catch up on fights, if not I sack it off and catch up on the news. That's what happened here, after Benn/Eubank and skimming the KSW show, I was pretty much done for the week. 

Sounded like a mixed bag, anyone see it?

[Dai]

Yeah I watched it. Was a decent watch. 

Wand was spot on with the Smith prediction, he got absolutely mauled by Zhang. Was a really impressive performance from him. And he does look a real problem for those first few minutes. Not sure you learn a whole lot when he's against Anthony Smith though. 

 

Main event wasn't up to much. Garry was in complete control for the first three rounds and then fell off a cliff cardio wise in R4. That is alarming, as Garry was completely in control for the first three rounds and wasn't getting pushed at all. Not an impressive win, and if there was another 2 minutes I think he would have been stopped. 

 

There was an amazing Max/Gaethje esque KO on the ubdercard, and some other decent things there. Peireria shat the bed in his performance though, was awful. I found it curious though that Pereira actually did a memorable entrance, the first person probably since Izzy did the Taker one, and the director purposefully cut away from it, and went to a long shot of the crowd so you missed the majority of the dancing. Just found it curious as to why they decided to do that. 

[wandshogun09]

Definitely a mixed bag this. Nothing earth shattering from the top few fights but some solid performances and a few genuinely outstanding finishes.

Garry vs Prates wasn’t the best and it almost felt like both came out of it less than they went in. Prates kind of got exposed here for me. Not that he’s a bad fighter or anything. He’s still dangerous and he’ll still be having his moments and scoring big knockouts down the road. But the first few rounds of this he looked completely lost to me and it pretty much showed that Prates ceiling isn’t as high as many hoped it would be. And I thought Garry was having a very strong showing until the end of the fourth round. It was weird because, if anything, going in you’d have thought if anyone might fade late it’d be Prates. Not sure what happened but it was almost like Garry came in fully expecting to have this done and dusted in three rounds. Honestly thought Prates had him in that last round. And he probably should’ve got him out of there. Garry was doing a decent job of tangling him up and running down the clock but Prates will have been kicking himself for letting Garry off the hook at the end. 

Garry’s been confirmed as the official backup for UFC 315 next week if either Belal or Maddalena drop out. Hopefully he’s not needed but at least there’s a Plan B, I guess. Oh and I know the story of the Fighting Nerds being 19-0 in the UFC was a talking point going into this fight but I read that was a bollocks stat anyway. They’ve been very selective with who they counted as a team member and apparently conveniently left out Mayra Bueno Silva and Bruna Brasil who both have losses in the UFC. Either way, Prates losing here fucked up their undefeated claim regardless. 

Almost feel bad saying it but Zhang Mingyang battering Anthony Smith really felt like just a formality by fight week, didn’t it? Don’t know if I’m alone in that but Smith hasn’t looked right for ages to me. Not that he was ever really elite but, despite the odd win here and there, he’s looked washed up for at least 2-3 years in my opinion. Sounds harsh but watching him walking to the cage, he just didn’t look like he was going into a fight at all. He almost looked like he was enjoying the moment too much. Like it was more about that final walkout than what would come after. And what would come after wasn’t pretty…

Mingyang wasn’t fucking about and he didn’t give a single shite about a feel-good moment. He hit Smith with some nice elbows on the feet, split him open with one of them and then, despite the ‘Lionheart’ nickname, Smith just went into his shell and Mingyang put him away with the ground and pound for the first round stoppage.

Don’t know what this was about. Smith bickering with some gobshite at cageside apparently. Nothing against Smith and I don’t begrudge any fighter getting that farewell moment in the cage. But them keep calling him a “legend” was a bit much. And I generally like Felder but his ‘I’m not happy with this result’ tone and vibes when interviewing Mingyang was annoying. I know Smith’s part of the broadcast team and friends with these guys but at least try to be professional. Mingyang had a job to do and he did it well. Don’t blame him because your boy, once again, turtled up and took a beating. Hopefully this retirement sticks because it’s clear Smith hasn’t got it in him anymore and it’s only gonna get worse if he carries on. As for Mingyang, fuck knows? Hard to rate a win over 2025 Anthony Smith but if nothing else he’s a Light Heavyweight who’s watchable. Not many of them these days. 

Onama vs Chikadze was disappointing. Chikadze’s been hit and miss for a while now so I wasn’t exactly confident we’d get a barnburner here but I expected better than what we got. First time I’ve been bored by an Onama fight. As usual, seen a bunch of talk like Onama’s some bad dullard now but this wasn’t typical of his fighting style at all. Just goes to show how fickle most of the fan base is. You could have 10 straight wars but you’re always just one lacklustre split decision away from being called a pussy and a bitch by fat wankers who’ve never been near a gym. There’ll be better fights from Onama again. Chikadze though, I’m not sure. He just hasn’t looked at the races to me since that beating he took off Calvin Kattar a couple of years ago. 

Abus Magomedov beating Michel Pereira was crap and a really poor performance from Pereira. Not even much else to say about the fight itself. Didn’t enjoy it. Shite.

On 4/30/2025 at 8:57 AM, Dai said:

I found it curious though that Pereira actually did a memorable entrance, the first person probably since Izzy did the Taker one, and the director purposefully cut away from it, and went to a long shot of the crowd so you missed the majority of the dancing. Just found it curious as to why they decided to do that. 

Yeah, this is just a case of the UFC wanting ‘the brand’ to be the star and not the fighters themselves. No doubt they’d probably make the occasional exception for a bigger ‘star’ and let them do something different for their walkout. But gone are the days when you’d see Akihiro Gono cutting shapes and wearing wacky costumes for his entrances. They don’t seem to want any kind of individuality from fighters now. It’s all about the three letters ‘U-F-C’. It’s why the Octagon canvas is covered in sponsors, the replays are brought to you by sponsors but fighters can’t have anything on their cookie cutter shorts other than Venum and their surname. I read something the other day that they’re thinking of having fighters come out to some in-house generic shit music in the future instead of letting them choose their own walkout songs and use licensed music. Actual entrance songs like it’s WWE or something. Maybe I’ve got that wrong but it wouldn’t even shock me at this point. They seem determined to strip all the fun out of MMA.

Randy Brown vs Nicolas Dalby was a lot of fun. I’ve enjoyed watching both at times in the past but wasn’t really expecting much out of this for whatever reason. They really went for it though. Fair play. The first round was wild enough with Brown smashing Dalby’s nose and then Dalby dropping Brown. Then the second round…

Easily one of the best knockouts of the year so far. Don’t know what got into these two. Haven’t seen a slobberknocker like this out of either of them before. Seems like there was a bit of needle going in as well, which I didn’t know about. Dalby’s taking the loss in good spirits…

? He’s in a tough spot now though. He’s 40 years old, 0-2 in his last couple and now he’s just been viciously put out and finished for the first time in his career. Laura Sanko screaming that Brown deserves a number next to his name was a bit much for me. As fun as this fight was, you shouldn’t get a ranking spot just because you scored a cool KO over another unranked guy who’s also 40. You need to beat a ranked opponent. And that’s what this win should earn him. A fight against someone in that Top 15 at Welterweight. He name-dropped Prates and I wouldn’t be against that. Either MVP or Geoff Neal would work as well. 

Ikram Aliskerov making short work of Andre Muniz was a nice way to kick off the main card. Nothing even against Muniz I just can’t really be arsed with him. And while I don’t rate Aliskerov that highly, these are fights he should be winning. Think he’s a decent mid-level player at 185. Never gonna touch UFC gold but he’s not terrible and he hasn’t bored me yet so he’s better than a fair old chunk of the division.

Really enjoyed the Matt Schnell vs Jimmy Flick fight. I mentioned in the opening post that it was a bit of a weird one with Schnell seemingly having one foot in retirement already. But this was a well matched fight and if it does turn out to be his last, at least he went out on a win and in a fun scrap. 

Malcolm Wellmaker’s debut probably stole the show for me. Genuinely thought Cameron Saaiman had some real potential, and maybe he still does, but this was his third loss on the trot now after initially going 9-0 at the start of his career. Not good. He’s still young but, man, he’s got his work cut out now. He didn’t just lose here, Wellmaker absolutely wiped him out in brutal fashion in just two minutes…

Wellmaker improves to 9-0 with 7 inside the distance and he’s still the right side of 30. It’s early days, obviously, and we didn’t get to see enough of him here to really base too much of an opinion on. But as first impressions go, this was a big one. Interested to see how far he can go. Since Saturday he’s said he’s been able to quit his job. I’ve seen a few negative comments about that, saying it’s risky etc. But he’s still fairly young and if he can afford to stop working now and focus all his energy on maximising his potential in MMA and seeing how far he can take this thing, I can’t blame him. 

Jaqueline Amorim predictably had her way with Polyana Viana. If you’ve watched either before you kind of knew how this one was likely to go. Viana’s had issues with grapplers in the past and grappling is definitely Amorim’s bread and butter. Not even making this up, my wife walked in at this exact moment…

Typical. Anything I’d have said at that point would’ve just sounded like the old ‘I only buy Playboy magazine for the articles’ type defence. So I just admitted defeat and sheepishly put my pants back on. In all seriousness, this was a squash match. Wouldn’t be surprised if Viana’s gone now. 

Tim Cuamba had a nice flying knee finish over Roberto Romero on the Fight Pass bit as well. Was only half paying attention to that fight but that soon woke me up.

 

Not bad. Main and co-main left me a bit cold but I enjoyed a lot of the undercard more than I thought I would, to be fair. 

Edited May 1, 2025 by wandshogun09