UFC Vegas: Burns vs Morales - May 17 ??

[wandshogun09]

Apex…

ESPN MAIN CARD
Gilbert Burns vs Michael Morales 

Paul Craig vs Rodolfo Bellato

Sodiq Yusuff vs Mairon Santos 

Dustin Stoltzfus vs Nursulton Ruziboev 

Julian Erosa vs Melquizael Costa 

ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS
Gabe Green vs Matheus Camilo

Jared Gordon vs Thiago Moises 

Connor Matthews vs Yadier Del Valle

Luana Santos vs Tainara Lisboa

Denise Gomes vs Elise Reed

Hyun Sung Park vs Carlos Hernandez 

Tecia Pennington vs Luana Pinheiro

…Yep. Apex.

Edited May 16, 2025 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

Perfect 

[wandshogun09]

I am DONE with it. No more Apex previews from here on out. It was quite refreshing to just whack the card in there, plop a Paulie at the bottom and hit send. 

For anyone who missed the convo recently…

On 3/31/2025 at 9:44 PM, wandshogun09 said:

Despite the Apex sucking the life out of things for some time now, it really didn’t start becoming a chore until quite recently. I do actually enjoy doing the opening posts in general but these Apex shows now, more and more often I’m finding myself typing about fighters I don’t know anything about in fights I don’t care about and, let’s face it, it’s not even like the threads for the Apex cards even generate much conversation. 

I’ll probably still end up watching the vast majority of it because I’m a sick individual like that. So if there’s something of note that happens, there’ll still be a thread to discuss it in. I’m just done doing full previews of Apex cack. The UFC themselves clearly don’t give a shite about these cards so why should we? 

I was split between just doing one big rolling thread like the ‘This Week’s Boxing’ thread or still doing separate threads for each Apex card but just sacking off the previews. I decided on the latter. Thought it was probably better to keep separate threads for each show. So we still get the polls and stuff if anyone’s arsed to vote. Plus, depending on when or if you get around to watching, you won’t be running into spoilers from the last Apex card etc.

Actually don’t think this particular card is that bad by Apex standards. But like most Apex cards, there just aren’t many talking points. 

[Zebra Kid Mark]

Great call on having separate threads for each card. 

The main event isn't a bad one at all for Apex standards. It's a main event in the apex and it's not headlined by the middleweight or heavyweight division! I can't remember the last time a welterweight bout headlined an Apex card.

I can't see anything past a Morales win here, he has racked up quite a few wins over UFC regulars in Neil Magny, Jake Matthews, Max Griffin and Trevin Giles. Neil Magny was a big step up and I would say Burns is just a smidge more of a step up. 

Paul Craig is coming in on 3 losses in a row, I saw on Twitter he said in an interview that if he loses this one, he expects to be cut. His record is 1-5 in his last 6 fights!

[Kfogg1991]

I throw my hands up now and admit I couldn't be more wrong when I said the bar was set last year and they're going to raise it yet again.

It is absolutely unfathomable how badly they've dropped the ball and significantly lost steam which I didn't feel was possible following how hot and exciting everything felt.

There's only been one big feel/loaded ppv which was UFC 314 and the fight night's are flat out laughable bar bits here and there. Surely it's got to get better soon it has too pull shit around quicktime it's not even in the same league IMO.

 

Not a chance I'll watch live this one is custom made for downloading to watch Sunday morning when I've got to be in work doing sound for our house band keep me occupied for ten minutes or so haha 

[Egg Shen]

Here's a random bit on info you may have missed...

https://www.tapology.com/fightcenter/fighters/243204-matheus-camilo

 

 

[Bruce85]

Apart from the Yusuff/Santos fight that was a really enjoyable show. I wasn’t planning on watching the prelims but when Bisping said they had all been finishes I went back and watched them first. 
 

Morales looked like a beast in there, just blew through Burns like he was nothing! He looked absolutely massive in there, I think he could go far! 
 

Wasn’t until I came on here that I realised the Craig fight didn’t happen! 

[wandshogun09]

Barely paid any attention to this. Proper skim through job earlier in the week for me. Didn’t look bad at all from what I saw of it, I just never got around to it until about Wednesday and by then I’d seen the results. So whatever tiny, minuscule amount of interest I still have in Apex cards at this point, seeing spoilers pretty much took that away as well.

Michael Morales looked good in the short time the main event lasted. Not sure how much to read into it though. Morales has had potential since signing with the UFC but it wasn’t like he was knocking anyone’s socks off in his recent fights before this. Even the Magny win, it was a first round finish and I barely remember it. But blasting Burns away in a round is impressive. I’m just undecided whether I think this was more a case of Morales being one of those guys who raises his game against better opposition, or was it more a matter of Father Time catching up to Burns and him not taking shots as well as he once did? Guess it’s fair to say it’s a bit of both. I remember Burns looking really flat against Sean Brady in his fight prior to this as well. Yeah Brady’s proven to be very good but Burns gave Khamzat his first proper test a few years ago. I think it’s evident that he’s not that guy anymore. Still, Morales did what he was supposed to do and he did it in style. Still only just about to turn 26 as well so it’s possible that there’s improvements and better performances to come from him.

Fair play to him for calling out Ian Garry and I would like to see how Morales stacks up against one of the other younger guys on the rise. But I’d think it’s very unlikely that fight happens next. Honestly wouldn’t be surprised if they do Morales vs Leon Edwards now. The UFC/matchmakers have probably given up on Leon and, with how bad he looked against Brady, I could see them fancying Morales being able to get a big win there. We’ll see but, looking at the current rankings, Morales is at #8 now and Leon or maybe Belal stand out to me as opponents I could see for Morales next. Seems like the new blood are properly taking out the old guard now at 170 and I could see Morales vs Leon or Belal being booked as a continuation of that.

Mairon Santos vs Sodiq Yusuff looked a bit of a nothing fight. I like Sodiq but he really seems to have fallen by the wayside at this point. Shame. Seems a good guy but he’s floundering big time now. 

Melquizael Costa vs Julian Erosa was a cracker. Probably would’ve been my ‘one to watch’ if I’d done a proper opening post and they rightly got FOTN. Think Costa’s noticeably improved in recent fights. Not that I’m expecting a run at UFC gold or anything but he’s definitely stepped it up a bit in his last few fights.

Prelims were choc-full of finishes. Like I said, I was skimming but I was happy to see Jared Gordon get the big first round knockout over Thiago Moises. Gordon’s been a bit of a decision merchant over his UFC career but his last couple of wins were early finishes now. I’ll always bring up the fact he got robbed in the Paddy Pimblett fight as well. Maybe that bullshit is why he’s been finding finishes more lately. Poor prick understandably has zero trust in the judges. 

Not much else to say. Better than your average Apex show from what I saw. Oh and we got this pic out of it…