Noche UFC: Lopes vs Silva - Sep 13 ??

[wandshogun09]

Off we go to San Antonio, Texas for our yearly Mexican themed show…

ESPN MAIN CARD
Diego Lopes vs Jean Silva 

Rob Font vs David Martinez 

Jared Gordon vs Rafa Garcia 

Kelvin Gastelum vs Dustin Stoltzfus 

Alexander Hernandez vs Carlos Diego Ferreira 

Santiago Luna vs Quang Le 

ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS
Jose Medina vs Dusko Todorovic 

Claudio Puelles vs Joaquim Silva 

Tatiana Suarez vs Amanda Lemos 

Jesus Aguilar vs Luis Gurule 

Zach Reese vs Sedriques Dumas 

Alessandro Costa vs Alden Coria 

Alice Pereira vs Montserrat Rendon

Rodrigo Sezinando vs Daniil Donchenko - TUF Welterweight Final 

 

Pretty much the definition of a ‘one match show’ if ever you’ve seen one right there. Maybe that’s slightly harsh, there are a couple of OK fights on the undercard but there’s no question that the main event is doing all the heavy lifting here. What a drop off from last year’s Noche card at the Sphere. I know that was also a numbered event, hence the two title fights, but still, what’s even the point of these Noche cards if they’re not gonna put the effort in?

 

 

Diego Lopes vs Jean Silva is our main event and, fuck it, it’s this card’s ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** purely for the fact it’s a stupidly fun matchup on paper and there’s nothing really jumping off the page at me from the undercard. I usually try to highlight something lower down the card but they haven’t given me much to work with here. This is the good stuff though. I know you can’t guarantee anything in MMA and I realise I’m probably jinxing it now but I honestly can’t see any way this isn’t total chaos for however long it lasts. It’s definitely got barnburner potential but it also feels like a fight that could easily be done and dusted on the very first exchange. No fucking idea what happens here.

We last saw Lopes at UFC 314 in April, losing a decision to Alexander Volkanovski in the main event. That was Lopes’ big opportunity. He’d burst into the UFC back in 2023 as a short notice replacement and lost his debut against Movsar Evloev on points. But he put in such a valiant effort in defeat and it was such an entertaining fight that Lopes’ stock went up regardless. After that he went on a tear blitzing through Gavin Tucker, Pat Sabatini and Sodiq Yusuff and taking decisions off Dan Ige and Brian Ortega. That set him up for the big fight with Volk. A PPV headliner against one of the all time greats and it was for the vacant Featherweight title. It’s gotta be said though, Volk completely outclassed him. No shame in that for Lopes, of course. But it’s gonna be interesting to see how he comes back from that. He’d been on a strong run of wins prior to that but that loss to Volk felt very much like a case of Lopes hitting his ceiling hard. Again, no shame there. If it takes a Volkanovski to make you hit your ceiling, you’re still one of the top guys in the division. But I did feel like that fight showed the gap in levels. Especially when you factor in that Volk, while far from washed up, is in the twilight of his career now at 36 years old. I don’t think Lopes is the type to be mindfucked by a loss like that though. I think he’ll be wanting to bounce back in style here. He’s got his work cut out though, this is no easy rebound fight.

Jean Silva has been one of the most exciting signings the UFC have made over the last year or so. One of those fighters who seemed to come out of nowhere. He made his UFC debut on the prelims of an Apex card in January 2024 and bashed up Westin Wilson with ease. Not a meaningful win by any stretch, it was a complete squash and Wilson’s a bum, but Silva still managed to make an impression simply by walking really slowly to the Octagon. Seriously, it took him about three days. From there he rattled off impressive KO/TKO stoppage wins over Charles Jourdain, Drew Dober and Melsik Baghdasaryan, taking him to 4-0 in the UFC in just over a year. He caught on quick with fans as well. Seemed to gain a following almost overnight very early into his UFC run. And this was at the same time the Fighting Nerds were really starting to gain momentum as a standout team in MMA. It’s funny how things work out because now he’s basically the last man standing out of the Fighting Nerds after Borralho, Ruffy and Prates all got derailed this year. Mean Jean’s flying the flag solo and trying to get the Nerds back on track. He’s coming into this fight off a memorable win as well.

He fought on the undercard of Volk vs Lopes in April and absolutely terrorised Bryce Mitchell to the point Bryce has since fled the Featherweight division and scurried off down to Bantamweight. Silva really did a number on him. Wound him up a treat in the build up, even going as far as bringing a globe to the press conference to rile up the Flat Earth believing wally. Had Bryce seeing “legions of demons” in his sleep and all sorts. Then in the fight itself he goes and chokes Bryce unconscious. Just completely rinsed him mentally and physically. No wonder he’s fucked off to 135. On a serious note, all the pre-fight shenanigans aside, it was a very impressive performance from Silva. I remember the predictions going into that fight were fairly split just because Silva’s grappling was kind of untested. But the people who were picking Silva were fancying a KO, me included. If Bryce was gonna win it was likely gonna be via grappling. Nobody was calling Silva by sub.

It’s not the fight I expected them to make next, to be honest. I really thought we might see Lopes vs Yair Rodriguez just because they apparently have some beef and they got into a heated exchange at the 314 press conference. It would’ve been an ideal Noche card headliner as well. But here we are with the Silva fight and I’m not complaining one bit. It’s a risky one for Lopes coming off a loss. But Silva’s coming in with some buzz and momentum so I guess if Lopes can derail him, he’s right back on track. And if Silva wins, well Lopes is currently ranked #2 in the division. Silva’s at #10 as I type this. So he’s got a lot to gain from a rankings perspective. If he beats Lopes it catapults him right into that Top 3-4 spot. Not a clue how this goes. Usually I have some inkling or gut feeling but nothing here. We’ve seen in the past that Lopes can be mega explosive and dangerous early but he hasn’t shown that in his last few fights. And Silva’s a maniac so fuck knows what he’s gonna do? Could see Lopes trying to be more measured here but I can’t see that lasting long once they start tagging each other. Hope I’m not putting a jinx on it but I’ve got a really good feeling about this one.

 

Rob Font vs David Martinez isn’t the strongest co-main but it could be a good fight. In fairness, this was supposed to be Font against Raul Rosas Jr, which still wouldn’t have been a huge fight but might’ve been a bit of a cool veteran vs rookie clash. I guess this is the same thing really but Rosas just had a bit more hype on him than Martinez does. Martinez might actually be the better fighter though. We’ll see how he does here. He’s 27 years old and 12-1 with 10 by KO/TKO. He made his UFC debut back in March on the Mexico City card and that’s all I’ve seen of him so far. But he dealt with Saimon Oliveira in a round and I recall him looking good the short time he was in there. This is obviously a significant step up though. Font’s 38 now which is pretty much an OAP for Bantamweight. I was close to writing him off as old and on his last legs for a while but he’s kind of shat on that theory in his last couple of fights by beating the much younger and fresher Kyler Phillips and Jean Matsumoto. The Matsumoto fight last time was a lot of fun as well. Still some ammo left in Font’s tank yet it seems. Big opportunity for Martinez here. The pro Mexican crowd in San Antonio is likely gonna be with him but it’s a tough task. Especially considering he’s stepped in relatively late to replace Rosas. He was on the card anyway so he’ll have been training, but he’s gone from a scheduled prelim fight with Quang Le to now a co-main against Rob Font. Quite a jump.

 

Jared Gordon vs Rafa Garcia is whatever. Might be decent but can’t pretend I’m that fussed. Gordon’s someone I was completely indifferent to for years until that Paddy Pimblett fight where they robbed him. Now I kind of have a soft spot for him just because of that and it’s nice to see whenever he gets a win. He’s 37 now, and at 21-7-0-1, he’s not going on a sudden run at the gold or anything. But he’s coming off a first round TKO over Thiago Moises in May whatever that’s worth. Garcia’s 31 years old and 16-4. Nothing hugely of note about his UFC run. Him beating an ancient Clay Guida in 2023 is his best win. He did get a decision over shitarse Vinc Pichel last time out though, so he’s alright with me. Can’t stand that prick. Yeah, neither here nor there on this really. 

 

Kelvin Gastelum vs Dustin Stoltzfus. Don’t care. I’m at that point now with Gastelum where I just can’t be arsed. It’s mad that he’s still only 33 yet he genuinely feels like a washed up relic these days. I get that he started young but he’s been around forever and it seems like he’s been stagnant and floundering at the same level for ages now. Gone are the days when he was sparking out Bisping and having a FOTY contender with Adesanya. Now his fights just come and go and little of note happens. Says it all that the main talking points now when he fights are always centred around whether he’ll make weight or not. People legitimately seem more invested in that than his actual fights now. He’s coming into this one off a loss and lacklustre showing against Joe Pyfer at UFC 316 in June. That was only a couple of months ago and already I barely remember it. And Stoltzfus has been on the roster since 2020. Bet you can’t name one of his opponents without cheating though. He’s one of them. Just another making up the numbers ham and egger. He’s 16-7, has gone 3-6 in the UFC and he’s coming off a decision loss to Nursulton Ruziboev in May.

 

Alexander Hernandez vs Carlos Diego Ferreira is one of the better fights on the card for me outside the main event. Not amazing or anything but could be entertaining enough. Never warmed to Hernandez myself. I believe I might have mentioned that once or twice on here over the years. He has his moments though. Never gonna amount to anything more than what he is, decent undercard fodder, but if I’m gonna say anything positive about him then I can’t recall being bored by him much. He’s 17-8 now and actually on a three fight winning streak. Just clobbered Chase Hooper in a round at UFC 319 in August. Ferreira’s gotta be on his last legs at 40 but I’ve always quite liked him for some reason. He’s 19-6 and lost to Grant Dawson last time out in January. But he’d battered and finished Michael Johnson and Mateusz Rebecki in back-to-back fights before that. Hopefully he finds that form again here.

 

Santiago Luna vs Quang Le. Not a single clue. Never seen or heard of this Luna lad but looking him up he’s Mexican, only 21 years old and he’s undefeated at 6-0, all finishes. Don’t recognise any of the names on his record but it’s early days for him so that’s to be expected. Quang ‘Bang’ Le’s Vietnamese, 33 years old and has a record of 9-2 with 6 finishes. He fought a fair bit in LFA before making his UFC debut last year. He’s gone 1-2 since and comes into this fight off a submission win over Gaston Bolanos in May. Going in blind on this one but I’ll give it a bash to see how Luna looks.

 

Jose Medina vs Dusko Todorovic is a nothing fight. Medina’s Bolivian, 34 years old and 11-5 with 10 finishes. I saw his name and picture and had an instant vague memory of him being shite. Looked him up and see he lost on DWCS but then got signed regardless for some reason. Can’t even be arsed to check but guessing maybe he jumped in on short notice or something. Anyway, he’s gone 0-2 in the UFC and was last seen getting smashed about by Ateba Gautier on the Mexico card in March. Todorovic is Serbian, 31 years old and 12-6. He’s had a shitty UFC run himself (3-6) and he’s on a three fight losing skid coming into this fight. Yeah. Might be a ‘loser leaves town’ situation here.

 

Claudio Puelles vs Joaquim Silva might be alright. Hopes aren’t particularly high but we’ll see. Puelles hasn’t fought since February 2024 for some reason. He’s Peruvian, 29 years old and 12-4 with 9 inside the distance. If you remember him at all, it’s probably as ‘that kneebar guy’. In his 12 career wins, 4 came via kneebar. And he pulled off back-to-back kneebar finishes over Chris Gruetzemacher and Clay Guida in the UFC a few years back.

Problem is he’s been exposed as a bit of a one trick pony at this point. He lost his last couple of fights against Dan Hooker and Fares Ziam. My memories of those fights are hazy but I seem to recall him just spamming leg lock attempts en route to Hooker battering him. And then looking one-dimensional again in defeat against Ziam. Not sure what he’s been doing for the last 18 months or so but my instant thought seeing his name and face there was ‘oh it’s the kneebar guy’ and that’s it. Brazil’s Silva is 36 years old and 13-5. Nothing outstanding about his record and he’s also coming off a year-plus layoff and a loss. My main memory of him though is the time he badly rocked Arman Tsarukyan in their fight in 2023. It was only a brief moment but it was a shaky moment for Tsarukyan. Of course he went on to crush Silva but it was a moment. Not sure what to expect here. Neither are going anywhere really.

 

Tatiana Suarez vs Amanda Lemos isn’t filling me with excitement but I’m hoping Suarez can get back in the win column at least. She’s fresh off losing to Zhang Weili in their title fight in Sydney back in February. I feel foolish now but I was actually predicting Suarez to become champ there. Just had a gut feeling that her wrestling was gonna be Zhang’s kryptonite but Zhang was having absolutely none of it and put on a bit of a clinic. Tough loss for Suarez and she’s had a career full of setbacks with injuries and health issues. At 34 years old, she doesn’t have bags of time now. But it’s not all doom and gloom. It was her first loss. And I guess the good news for Suarez is, Zhang’s vacated the Strawweight belt now to move up and challenge Shevchenko for the Flyweight strap. That might just have opened the door back up for Suarez to have one more chance at it. If she can get past Lemos here, I don’t think Dern or Jandiroba are unwinnable fights for her. She’s gotta get the win here to even be in with a shout of that though. Lemos is no spring chicken either. She’s 38 years old and 15-4-1 now. Coming off a decision win over Iasmin Lucindo in a rotten fight in March. Hoping Suarez steamrolls her. With Zhang moving up, the Strawweight division is wide open and it needs all the help it can get. And there’s better fights to make and more upside in Suarez in the title mix than Lemos.

 

Jesus Aguilar vs Luis Gurule. Feel like a broken record but not a clue on this. I’m slightly more optimistic for this fight than some of the others though just because it’s Flyweight so at least it should probably be fast paced. Aguilar’s Mexican, 29 years old and 11-3 with 8 not making it to the scorecards. He got fed to Tatsuro Taira in his UFC debut a couple of years ago but he’s had his moments since. The standout being his 17 second highlight reel one punch KO over Shannon Ross on the excellent UFC 290 card. He’s coming off a points loss to Rafael Estevam here though. Gurule’s 31 and has a record of 10-1 with 6 finishes. Made his UFC debut in April and got stopped by Ode Osbourne at the Apex. Don’t think I saw that fight.

 

Zach Reese vs Sedriques Dumas then. Man, why are we still doing this? Why is this woman beating scumbag Dumas still on the roster and getting fights? He adds nothing, it’s a bad look having him around and to top it all off, he’s shit. He’s 10-3 overall, 3-3 in the UFC, doesn’t have one finish in his three UFC wins and he was finished in all three of his UFC losses. I’ve talked about his criminal rap sheet before, his multiple mugshots are easy to find and he’s got a history of domestic violence. He’s a cunt. And he’s not changing his ways either. This was as recent as May…

Absolute shitbag. We last saw him getting stopped in a round by Michal Oleksiejczuk in April and I was quietly hoping they’d just cut ties after that. Then they tried putting him on the UFC 317 card in June but had to pull him from the card because he still had to have his fucking ankle monitor on. Can’t make it up. What’s the benefit of keeping him around? Surely that would be it and they’d get rid, right? No, here we are again. Dana loves his fellow woman beaters. Needless to say I’m rooting for Reese here. Barely remember the bloke but he’s the babyface by default here. He’s 9-2 with 7 finishes and he’s coming off a points win over Dusko Todorovic in May. Hopefully he wallops this cretin and they finally bin him.

 

Alessandro Costa vs Alden Coria. Never heard of Coria so Tapology it is. Apparently he’s 27 years old, 10-3 with 8 finishes and he’s fought mostly in LFA and Fury FC. That’s about all I can find on him. Costa’s fought a few times in the UFC and I vaguely remember enjoying watching him. He’s 29 and has a 14-4 record but hasn’t fought since May 2024 when he got the TKO finish over Kevin Borjas. He also stopped Jimmy Flick and went the distance in a losing effort against Steve Erceg in what I remember being a good fight.

 

Alice Pereira vs Montserrat Rendon. Yes, Alice Pereira. Alice. Not Alex. She’s no relation to ‘Poatan’ either as far as I know. Quite an age gap here. Pereira is just 19 years old, Rendon’s 36. Not a lot of info out there on Pereira other than she’s Brazilian and undefeated at 5-0 with 4 finishes. Rendon’s Mexican, 6-1 with zero finishes to her name and she’s gone 1-1 in the UFC. Last seen at the Apex losing a decision to Dariya Zhelezniakova back in March 2024.

 

Rodrigo Sezinando vs Daniil Donchenko is the big TUF Welterweight final apparently. Remember when TUF finales felt important? Now they’re jerking the curtain. No idea who these two are. Never watched a single second of TUF and haven’t in years. I’ve reached the point now where I genuinely can’t even remember the last TUF I saw anything of. Scratching my head trying to remember and coming up with nothing. Anyway…Sezinando is Brazilian, 8-1 with 7 finishes. Donchenko is Ukrainian, 11-2 with 9 finishes. Both on four fight win streaks. That’s your lot.

 

 

Kelvin Gastelum fight week!

Edited September 7, 2025 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

Bit of a comedown off the back of The Sphere. Still, that main event is dynamite. Main card only deal for me with the Canelo/Crawford show the same night.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah Canelo vs Crawford being the same night is probably a factor in why they didn’t bother loading this one up. Even though I don’t think they’re clashing head to head time-wise, the attention is gonna be mostly on that fight this weekend anyway. 

[wandshogun09]

What’s he playing at?

[jimufctna24]

Slacky has done one of his lengthy technical breakdowns on Silva for anyone who fancies a read - Jean Silva - The Thoughtful Striking of a Madman — The Fight Primer

I'm out of touch with MMA outside of the top fighters, but I do like the idea of The Fighting Nerds, or at least how Slack describes them.

Quote

 

The Fighting Nerds provided some welcome excitement last year. Just as we were entering another period of “cage wrestlers are ruining the sport” discourse, a team of strikers from Brazil tore through multiple UFC divisions at the same time. It was helped along by the fact that the four Fighting Nerds stars could have been designed by Jamie Hewlett. They were a rag-tag assortment of oddballs, with only the vaguest of suggestions at any sort of team style. 

Carlos Prates was a gangly, hard drinking, chain smoker.  Caio Borralho, the brains of the team, patched together from Demian Maia and Lyoto Machida instructionals. Mauricio Ruffy, a man who made a point of looking away as he landed counter punches. And finally, Jean Silva, an unwavering juggernaut whose only weakness seemed to be a love for combat that might move him to break down in tears in the middle of a bout. Prates lost to Garry, Borralho to Imavov, and Ruffy to Saint-Denis. Now Jean Silva is the last man standing.

 

 

 

[wandshogun09]

Like I was saying…

On 9/7/2025 at 9:07 PM, wandshogun09 said:

Kelvin Gastelum fight week!

 

[Dai]

Unless my ChatGPT is missing something, Gastelum hasnt actually missed weight since 2016, and this is the first time at Middleweight. Could be a case of, as you said in your preview, that Gastelum's career seems to have been frozen around that time and for a lot of years hes been just 'there', but hes not actually been that bad by the looks of it. 5lbs isnt even a weight cut miss in my eyes, thats just not even trying to cut.

[wandshogun09]

16 hours ago, Dai said:

Unless my ChatGPT is missing something, Gastelum hasnt actually missed weight since 2016

I thought this had to be wrong so I checked. Somehow it’s correct! Mind blown. The 2016 one was when he was meant to fight Donald Cerrone at MSG, the fight ended up getting scrapped because Gastelum didn’t even attempt to weigh in. Obviously he had a few bad weight misses before that, the one against Tyron Woodley being the worst. He came in 10lbs over the Welterweight limit that time. But nothing official since 2016. Until now. 

I was confused why I’ve had it in my head that he’s missed weight more often and more recently. But looking more into it, there has been a few other incidents. He was fined after the weigh in for the Darren Till fight (at Middleweight) in 2019 because of some shadiness when he was on the scales. Then the Daniel Rodriguez fight in Saudi Arabia in June last year was supposed to be at Welterweight but had to be changed to Middleweight because Gastelum couldn’t make 170. Yeah, not technically a weight miss but it’s just another issue in an overall series of them.

Even if he ends up making weight, there almost always seems to be something with him and the weight during fight week. And that’s probably why it feels like he’s missed weight more times than he has. Also doesn’t help that when he does miss weight, he bloody goes for it. 10lbs over for the Woodley fight, now he’s in a higher weight class and still comes in 5lbs over. He’s been taking the piss for over a decade now. And speaking of taking the piss, I had to chuckle at Stoltzfus posting this…

Edited September 13, 2025 by wandshogun09

[wandshogun09]

Usual fight day graphics. Didn’t realise it was a fairly early start time. 8pm prelims. Might actually watch some of this live before Canelo vs Crawford. Jean Silva’s sorted that silly hair out as well…

[Kfogg1991]

I am very excited for this one 

Even if it is a joke of a noche UFC card with just 6 mexican fighters on it it is stacked 

I'm going Jean Silva by finish in the main event.

This leads nicely into the boxing aswell which I know nothing about anyone on it bar the main event fighter names but never seen them before.

It's a big historic night for combat sports kids 

[Dai]

Unbelievably the Gastelum fight is still going ahead and with just a 35‰ fine. Sets all sorts of bad precedents, and can see why Gastelum just said fuck it and stayed hugely overweight. 

[Dai]

Belting main event, with a great finish. Top stuff by Lopes, and that ground and pound in R1 was nasty. Lopes doesnt even come out of it looking that bad I dont think, as it was a super exciting fight, and he showed toughness to survive that first round, and still looked dangerous in R2. Good stuff.

Cant remember much else, thinking about it. Gutted that Gastelum won, as I dont like seeing the overweight guys still getting the win. Not that I really remember the fight, but my thinking at the time was that Font sort of cruised and never really pushed it, when he was clearly second best.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah Lopes vs Silva was barmy. One of my favourite fights so far this year. Exactly the kind of bonkers cartoon scrap that you’d have imagined it to be when the fight was first announced.

Nutty fight with a bunch of twists and turns. One of those fights where you never know what’s coming next and you’re scared to blink in case you miss something. The ebbs and flows were wild. Lopes had a huge first round after he secured that big takedown, really did some damage and put a beating on Silva from the mount. Seeing him just rain down those brutal elbows from mount, with half the round still to go, I was sure it wasn’t making it to round two. Silva somehow survived, which was a minor miracle. Then immediately cracked Lopes with the front kick to the chin. The old Anderson Silva-Vitor Belfort special. Second round was looking like a complete turnaround as well. Silva was putting it on him, seemed like he couldn’t miss in the striking and he was connecting with some vicious strikes to the point I thought it was a matter of time until he closed the show. He looked so sharp and Lopes didn’t seem to have any answers on the feet. Then all of a sudden…

He catches Silva coming in with that spinning elbow and it’s a wrap. Madness. Even more wild because Silva had been having success with his own spinning elbow before that. Then got ended with his own weapon. Kind of frustrating to watch because Silva got so reckless at the end there and that was his downfall. It was the last minute of a round he was doing really well in, he’d done a hell of a job of turning things in his favour after a disaster of a first round. He still had three rounds to go to find his openings. But he went balls out for the finish in that last 30 seconds of the round, when he didn’t really need to, and he paid the price big time. That was the kind of thing you do in the fifth round when you’re down on the cards anyway, you need a finish and you might as well just go for it. Not at the end of the second. Regardless, great bounce back win for Lopes coming off that loss to Volk last time. Exactly the kind of win and performance he needed.

Not sure what’s next though. Seen a comment from Volk where he’s thrown a Lopes rematch into the mix of possibilities along with Evloev, Murphy and Sterling. But I’ve got very little interest in that. This was a strong win for Lopes but I saw nothing here that would suggest a rematch with Volk goes any differently. Plus Volk’s got a limited number of fights left at this stage. I don’t really wanna see one wasted on rushing into a pointless rematch. I personally wouldn’t mind seeing Lopes vs Yair now. It’d mean Lopes fighting down in ranking slightly but it’s a great fight and they have beef that needs settling. But the more logical move for me would be to do Volk vs Murphy for the title and Evloev vs Lopes 2 in a number one contenders fight.

As for Mean Jean, man, fuck knows? You can basically throw him in with anyone and you’re gonna get something stupidly fun out of it. Actually, maybe Silva vs Yair is the fight to make. Failing that, Silva vs Emmett or Allen maybe? Or let him beat up the shell of Brian Ortega? That’s just the Featherweight options as well. He could well decide to make the full time move up to Lightweight or just bounce between the two weight classes. Throwing a punch at Lopes after the fight was cunty but we’re so far removed from the days when Paul Daley got sacked for doing the same thing now, in 2025 Silva probably got one of those famous undisclosed backstage bonuses for it. 

David Martinez got the biggest win of his career yet over Rob Font in the co-main. Wasn’t sure Martinez was ready for the step up yet, especially with him having his opponent switched and being bumped up from the prelims to the co-main against a veteran like Font on short notice. Thought he looked good though. Wasn’t an amazing fight but he showed enough, especially under the less than ideal circumstances, that I’ll be looking out for his next fight. Fair play to Font as well for accepting the late opponent change. He didn’t have a lot to gain from this really but he gave Martinez a chance regardless. The ending was mad with nobody hearing the buzzer because the crowd was so loud. Must’ve been deafening in there because both Dan Miragliotta and Martinez didn’t hear it and Martinez got in a whole bunch of shots after the horn as a result.

I enjoyed the Rafa Garcia vs Jared Gordon fight more than I thought I would. I don’t usually associate Gordon with entertaining fights but he’s been better to watch since that Pimblett robbery. I think the judges screwing him over there lit a match under the arse to go for it more and try to avoid decisions. It came back to bite him here though and Garcia messed him up at the end with those nasty elbows.

Wasn’t sure how seriously to take it but Belal Muhammad tweeted that Gordon was hit by a car the day before the fight and that’s why he had the big kneepad on. Like I say, I was taking it with a pinch of salt because Belal tweets weird stuff sometimes but Gordon himself just tweeted this.

Absolutely mental. Seen people giving him shit saying stuff along the lines of ‘Fuck this guy, he should’ve pulled out. What about people who bet on him not knowing he was injured?’ As if peoples betting should be his priority. He’s there to feed his family and pay his bills. Fuck your acca.

Gastelum vs Stoltzfus was OK. Wasn’t pretty and both looked quite one-note and a bit limited but they both went for it. Gastelum should’ve got the finish really the amount of times he was tagging Stoltzfus and he had him wobbled a few times. Plus he came in heavy! Stoltzfus showed toughness. But yeah I’m with you @Dai, balls to Fat Kelvin.

Disappointed to see Alexander Hernandez not only beat Carlos Diego Ferreira but brutally knock him out. The referee was fucking awful here. What was he playing at?

Jeff Rexroad there. Just waiting for the ink to dry on the death certificate, right mate? Just pissing about watching a clearly unconscious man eat more unnecessary punches while his head gets dribbled like a basketball off the canvas. Never seen this ref before. Hopefully never again. Anyone else hear Cruz when they were showing the replays of the stoppage? Everyone else is rightly focused on the referee jumping in way too late and Cruz goes “I wish I was given that opportunity to stand back up”. Yes he’s still banging on about the stoppage in the Cejudo fight from five bastard years ago! We were in lockdown when that fight happened. It’s been so long now that the comment probably went over a lot of people’s heads. What a weirdo.

Santiago Luna vs Quang Le was a great way to start to the main card. Quick, action packed and back and forth the short time it lasted. Luna looks exciting based off the two minutes or so we got here. Typical Mexican scrapper. Got put on his arse with a flash knockdown in the opening exchange, said ‘fuck this’ and just swarmed on Le. Looking forward to seeing more. Bantamweight is full of potential bangers for him.

Suarez vs Lemos was arse. Suarez got the win officially but it wasn’t the kind of performance that fills you with confidence in her going forward. To think I picked her to dethrone Zhang Weili in February. That prediction is aging terribly. I was hoping Suarez would win because I thought she’d be able to win convincingly against Lemos and she’d be more interesting in the title picture now Zhang’s moved up. Based on this performance though, I don’t know. And she’s nearly 35 already. Ship’s probably sailed, although in a Zhangless Strawweight division, potential title fights with Jandiroba or Dern don’t seem like impossible tasks.

The Zach Reese vs Sedriques Dumas fight was a laugh. Didn’t even last a minute and consisted of Reese kicking Dumas in the bollocks and that was that. Good. Only bad thing about this is the No Contest means Dumas is gonna get another fight in the UFC. Aside from that, it was very satisfying seeing him whacked in the spuds and even better that it happened in the first minute keeping Dumas’ time on my screen to a minimum.

Alden Coria had a successful debut and looked good on the whole but it was a shame Costa had the toe injury because it was shaping up to be a good little competitive fight before that. Costa wasn’t right after that and it didn’t take long for Coria to put him away once he was injured.

That Montserrat Rendon vs Alice Pereira fight was awful. With Pereira only being 19 it’d be harsh and a bit silly to write her off completely but she looked terrible here. She’s got a shit ton of work to do and it seemed clear watching this that the UFC signed her way too early. She could’ve done with three, four, even five years more seasoning on the smaller shows and she’d still only be 24 then. But yeah, rotten fight. I’m not even joking when I say the highlight of this for me was during Pereira’s walkout when Dominick Cruz started confidently talking about “her brother Alex Pereira” before the others quietly mumbled “it’s not her brother”. Jesus Dom. Would a little bit of homework kill you?

The TUF final was a really exciting short scrap. Had no idea who either of them were but gave it a chance purely because the prelims started at 8pm. It was short, sweet and violent though. Bit like Mrs Wand. Can tell that Donchenko lad’s gonna be fun to follow. Probably won’t go too far given how wild he is but in less than five minutes here he made me go from not giving a shite to looking forward to seeing his next fight. Job done. Cool that he stuck his neck out and spent his post-fight interview campaigning for his teammate to get a UFC contract. But saying “I don’t even wanna be paid, just give this guy a contract” was a fucking goofy way to get the message across. Don’t EVER say you don’t want paying. Christ. Don’t tempt Dana and his cronies like that.

Edited September 15, 2025 by wandshogun09

[wandshogun09]

Oh yeah, could’ve done without this.

On Noche UFC of all cards. A theme that, when they started doing these shows, was described as “a love letter to Mexican fight fans” and there they are eulogising a prick who hated immigrants, thought Mexicans shouldn’t have rights and wanted them out of America. Sums up how tone deaf and shitty the UFC are.