UFC Shanghai: Walker vs Zhang - Aug 23 ??

[Kfogg1991]

Yeah this seriously is a strong card.

I'm pretty bummed I can't watch this live but I'm working our festival and going for breakfast shortly before setup so might get to see the first fight or two but I'll avoid the tinternet till I've watched.

Ortega looks like a extra from the walking dead just stop please.

[Egg Shen]

I always get the impression Brian Ortega barely trains and just scrapes by on natural talent these days. Given that harsh weight cut i've got Aljo finishing him inside the distance seeings that its over 5 rounds.

...and Zhang to knock Walker out in hilarious fashion, round 1.

[Dai]

On 8/22/2025 at 9:17 AM, Dai said:

Will have a significant weight advantage over Sterling, will probably look right as rain next time we see him, and hasnt had to pay a fine. Could actually work to his advantage.

Well I got that completely wrong! He looked abysmal, and the fight was atrocious. Embarrassing stuff. 

 

Thought the main card of this was shit, littered with crap/passive performances throughout. 

Main event was pretty good, and Zhang got exposed pretty badly here. Didn't even have his super threat in R1 either. Completely neutralised by Walker. Solid performance from Johnny, and the opener was fun, but that's about it. Was very disappointed to see the Sergei fight too, just super cautious now which isnt fun. 

[Kfogg1991]

I watched the co main and wow was it bad, you know it's bad when neither come off well from it. 

Main event Jesus Johnny walker got the memo about it being to keep his job.

Still not watched the prelims yet thanks to the festival wiping me out 

[wandshogun09]

A week late but some thoughts on this.

Johnny Walker chose a hell of a time to get back in the win column, didn’t he? Completely fucked the UFC’s plans to showcase Zhang Mingyang in front of a home crowd. Walker looked good, did what he needed to do and got the finish. But I can’t help feeling like maybe it was just more a case of Zhang not being as good as his first few UFC wins suggested. No doubt he’s a heavy hitter but wins over no hopers Brendson Ribeiro, Ozzy Diaz and then feasting on the corpse of Anthony Smith really didn’t mean much. I had my doubts going in, think I said as much in the opening post. But I still favoured him to win just because my confidence in Walker’s ability to not run towards his own demise and get sparked like a wally was shot a long time ago. Fair’s fair, Walker got it done. But it feels like Zhang got exposed here. He looked crap, to be honest. Got a feeling we might see a Walker vs Jamahal Hill rematch next, which I wouldn’t be in love with but it seems kind of logical now.

Walker leaving SBG to go and train under Erik Nicksick is probably for the best but it feels too little, too late now. SBG never seemed like the right fit for him to me though. With the benefit of hindsight, SBG and John Kavanagh might be the biggest one hit wonders ever as a MMA gym. Aside from McGregor, they really haven’t had any success at all.

Aljo vs Ortega was shite wasn’t it? Ortega genuinely looks washed up to me. The fact he ballses up his weight cut almost every fight now obviously doesn’t help but I’m not sure it’s all down to that. It’s probably a combination of things but the bad weight cuts, laziness and lack of work ethic combined with him simply not evolving or adding to his game in all these years plus him taking a few really bad beatings in his career. It’s the perfect storm for what we see now. Dogshit performances like this. He’s relied on his chin and toughness his whole career and I think it’s caught up with him now. He just looks spent. Even as the fight was starting, when he should’ve been fresh, he looked bollocksed. What’s frustrating about it though is this was a prime opportunity for Aljo to have a bit of a showcase win. Ortega was offering very little but Sterling seemed content to just coast. He was winning comfortably so I can’t fault him really. But it doesn’t help his argument to get in the title shot conversation when he’s fighting a half asleep zombie out there and wins by doing the bare minimum to win each round and just outwork him. It’s a weird one. Aljo didn’t look bad but it felt like he could’ve really put a stamp on this fight and made a statement. And he just didn’t. I think a combination of Aljo not being a big puncher plus Ortega still having a chin plus Aljo probably not fancying a grappling battle, it meant a finish was always unlikely. Shame though because this could’ve been really good, even with a shopworn Ortega, if they played to their strengths and mostly grappled.

Sergei Pavlovich vs Waldo Cortes Acosta was straight arse. I never expect much out of Waldo but I was hoping for a return to form for big Sergei here and he’d uncork a bomb. He still looks a bit headfucked from that Aspinall loss to me though. It’s like his confidence was completely shot by that loss and he’s very slowly building it back up. Glad he won all the same because it’s preferable to the alternative of Waldo winning and becoming an actual possibility as a title challenger. The horror. But this Sergei resembles very little of the Sergei we saw vaporise Blaydes. Hopefully he gets his swagger back because it’s desperate out there at Heavyweight these days.

My ‘one to watch’ Su Mudaerji vs Kevin Borjas didn’t catch fire like I thought it might but it was a solid performance from Mudaerji overall. Nice win for him. Didn’t hate the fight but it wasn’t the chaos I expected sadly. It happens.

Taiyilake Nueraji got the ‘win’ officially in his UFC debut but not without controversy. What was he playing at with that blatant illegal knee? Felt really bad for Kiefer Crosbie. He’d been quite vocal going into the fight about SBG (them again) basically hanging him out to dry, this was supposed to be his fresh start and he gets blasted with a dirty knee like that? I kind of liked that Marc Goddard had two points deducted from Nueraji but really it should’ve been a straight DQ. The damage was already done and Crosbie got finished shortly after. Shitty situation all around. Hopefully they’ll give Crosbie another shot. I think they will. Even as cunty as the UFC are these days, I don’t think even they would cut him loose after this bullshit. Looking forward to seeing more of Nueraji, I just hope he reads the rule book next time.

Charles Johnson derailing Lone’er Kavanagh wasn’t really expected but I don’t think it’s anywhere near the upset or surprise some made it out as. Despite the iffy looking win/loss record, Johnson’s no bum. He’s crafty, he’s experienced, he’s not easy to land big shots on and he never seems to get discouraged mentally in a fight so he’s always dangerous right to the end. He’s not a guy to sleep on. He’s one of those guys who can be a banana skin for almost anyone on a good night. Fuck, he just knocked out Joshua Van only last year and Van’s now about to fight Pantoja for the strap. Kavanagh was/is a very solid prospect but I read he was the clear betting favourite going into this fight and I think a lot of people were overlooking Johnson based on Kavanagh having the shiny unbeaten record and Johnson having 7 losses already. But Johnson’s been in there with a much higher level of opposition overall than Kavanagh had. I thought Kavanagh looked really good early on here, a right handful, but Johnson just kept chipping away, Kavanagh seemed to fade and then…

Shocking lack of defence from Kavanagh there and it cost him big time. Pulling back like that with your hands down by your knees isn’t gonna cut it against a veteran like Johnson. It’s not all doom and gloom. Kavanagh’s still only 26 and this was his first setback. As always it’s gonna depend on how he responds to this loss now but he’s got time and I definitely think there’s better to come. He’s got work to do though and he should learn from this. Not the end of the world. I’ve been saying it for a while but I hope they start putting Johnson on main cards more now. Very rare he’s involved in anything dull and he’s also a rare case of a Flyweight who can actually pull a knockout shot out of nowhere occasionally. Looking at the rankings I could see Johnson possibly getting Steve Erceg next. But personally I’d love to see him against Tim Elliott.

Really enjoyed the Rongzhu vs Austin Hubbard fight. I didn’t really expect to but Rongzhu is starting to make a habit of having these fun scraps now. Nobody really talks about him because he’s usually always buried down the prelims but he’s an entertaining fighter to watch. Don’t see him getting too far up the ladder but he’s a guy whose fights I’m definitely gonna start making a point to watch. His last one with Kody Steele was bags of fun as well. Put some respect on Wrong Shoe’s name.

Kyle Daukaus returned to the UFC with a bang…

What’s happened to Michel Pereira? It’s not like I ever expected him to be champ or anything but he was on a nice winning streak for a bit there and it’s gone off the rails suddenly and spectacularly. Now he’s on a three fight losing skid and just got smoked in 43 seconds. Disaster for him. Not sure what or how much to read into this where Daukaus is concerned. I don’t see him making any real waves in the Middleweight division myself. But this was a sweet way to make a UFC return. Be interesting to see who he’s paired up with next.

Yi Zha steamrolled shitarse Westin Wilson quick time. 37 seconds was all he needed. Slumped him like Mike Tyson did to Marvis Frazier back in the 80s.

Surely that’s Wilson gone now. Bloke’s awful. The hammiest and eggiest of ham and eggers. Even by today’s standards where the threshold for what constitutes ‘UFC level’ has never been lower, Wilson stands out as looking out of his depth on the roster. Woeful, no defence here and Zha rightly made him pay the price early. Looked like someone sent a supply teacher out there. Get him gone. This doesn’t tell us anything about Yi Zha, it was a gimme to give the Chinese crowd something to be happy about. But he dealt with this scrub the way anyone with something about them should. Hopefully we see him against an actual real live opponent next.

Uran Satybaldiev scored a nice quick and rare Ezekiel choke finish over Nurgozhay in the Fight Pass curtain jerker.

Shades of old Alexey Oleynik. Don’t see it often anymore and I guess that’s because it has a pretty low success rate and only really works when the opponent is caught by surprise. Still, it’s always cool when you do see it. Don’t think I saw Satybaldiev’s debut and I was expecting a slow moving plodder here just looking at them both. Short and sweet though. 


Very much a mixed bag. Actually a decent undercard overall but the Pavlovich vs Waldo and Aljo vs Ortega fights really sucked the life out of it. Paris up next. I’m probably gonna be banging up a bunch of event threads over the next few days-a week. Had shit going on and fell behind on that but should have the Paris, Noche, Perth and 320 threads up this week.

Edited August 30, 2025 by wandshogun09