UFC Rio: Oliveira vs Gamrot - Oct 11 ??

[wandshogun09]

It’s on…

Apparently, Santiago Ponzinibbio’s out of the Vicente Luque fight now as well. Seen stuff about Joel Alvarez stepping in against Luque, which sounds like bad news for Luque to me, assuming Alvarez is in shape. 

Edited September 23, 2025 by wandshogun09

[wandshogun09]

Apparently it was a knee injury that took Fiziev out. Same knee he fucked up before which caused him to miss a big chunk of time. Not good that. 

[wandshogun09]

No buzz whatsoever for this but it’s not a bad little card, to be fair.

The Valter Walker vs Mohammed Usman fight got scratched at the eleventh hour, apparently due to Usman getting flagged by drug test from what I’ve read. No great loss to the card, if anything losing a Heavyweight fight probably improves this one!

Really interested in the main event, even though it’s probably not gonna be the sure-fire barnburner the original Oliveira vs Fiziev fight was. Really hoping Oliveira comes through with a win tonight and we can finally get that Max Holloway rematch on that I’ve been banging on about. Charles himself was talking about wanting that fight the other day. So watch Gamrot go and fuck it all up now. Wouldn’t be shocked if that happens either. Gamrot’s no joke. Not sure how this goes, might actually be leaning towards Gamrot actually. Hope I’m wrong. Got a gut feeling Figgy might lose tonight as well. He’s older, smaller, coming off an injury etc. Just got a bad feeling he might look his age in there tonight. Again, hope I’m wrong. 

[thevestofdeanambrose]

Thanks for the write up as always Wand! Helps me with my accumulators haha! Had a nice 4-fold come in on this event last night! Pinto, Alvarez, Figgy and Charles. Figueiredo was a ridiculous price!

[wandshogun09]

Don’t think I’ve ever been so late posting my thoughts on a card that the next card has already happened by the time I get around to it. But here we are. Enjoyable show this, I thought.

Chuffed to see Charles Oliveira get the decisive win in the main event. Must admit I’d talked myself into fearing he’d lose this one by fight week. His seeming reluctance to accept Gamrot as a replacement initially when Fiziev pulled out wasn’t filling me with confidence and it’s not like Gamrot’s some bum either. Everyone’s the expert after the fact and the take now seems to be that Gamrot never stood a chance. But this had banana skin written all over it going in. As much as I was looking forward to that original Oliveira vs Fiziev fight, I feel like this was a better actual win for Oliveira. Oliveira got off to a bit of a slow start but turned it up towards the end of the first round and had Gamrot tapping by the second round. Really strong performance. I think I touched on it in the opening post but maybe facing a grappler who doesn’t have big punching power was exactly what Charles needed coming off that Topuria loss. I ended up picking Gamrot in the poll but couldn’t really be happier to be wrong. First time Gamrot’s ever been finished in a 30 fight career as well!

The post-fight celebration was one of the best we’ve seen in years. They mentioned it on the commentary but it was very reminiscent of the time Jose Aldo ran into the crowd to celebrate with the fans after the first Chad Mendes fight, also in Rio, back in 2012. Felt special. And seeing the reactions to Charles at home, all fight week really not just after he won, it really hammered home what a lost opportunity it’s been not having him fighting in Brazil more over the last few years. I said in the opening post, last time he fought in front of a Brazilian crowd was 2019 when he beat Jared Gordon, for fuck’s sake. That was right before his climb to the title. The fact they never had him defend the title there at least once while he was champion is baffling in hindsight. Imagine that mad Gaethje one round shootout in front of a wild Brazilian crowd? Hopefully now they’re going on Paramount and the PPV days are essentially over, it’ll free them up to put big fights and big names in a wider variety of countries. A big fight won’t need to be in Vegas on a US time zone necessarily anymore so hopefully we see more of Charles in Brazil before he’s done fighting.

What makes me even more happy than Charles winning in itself, is that it makes that Max Holloway rematch I’ve been incessantly banging on about much more likely.

All signs seem to be pointing in this direction now. They’d be mad not to book it. Easiest job ever for the matchmakers. Charles specifically name dropped Max in his post-fight interview, Max has said he’s up for it, it’s two of the most consistently entertaining and popular fighters on the roster, they have history. How do you not make that fight next? I’ve never been a big fan of the bullshit gimmicky BMF belt but I’m even happy for that to be on the line in this case just because it guarantees we get a five rounder out of it. Not that I necessarily think they’d need 25 minutes but just in case. It’s the perfect fight.

One thing I’m not on board with though, is everyone pushing for this fight to be on the White House card. Even Charles is campaigning for that.

Almost every MMA based social media account seemed to run with this and fans jumped all over it going ‘Max vs Charles 2 at the White House is the way to go’ but I’m not having it. That White House card isn’t until June next year. Do we really wanna wait eight bastard months for this fight? Fans always moan when fighters aren’t active enough but then wanna shelve a fight like this just so they can do it at Trump’s birthday bash in eight months time? Fuck that. Thankfully Max has come out and said he doesn’t wanna wait that long, he’s almost cleared medically from the hand injury and he’s looking to get back in there around February or March. That’s more like it. Get the fight on at the first realistic opportunity. Make the fight while it’s there to be made. I don’t want this one slipping away.

Thought Figgy vs Jackson was awful to watch. I was happy to see Figgy win but there was just nothing to this. Zero spark or excitement. And this was Jackson’s big opportunity to shine after years of toiling away in mediocrity on the undercards and nobody giving a fuck or knowing anything about him. This was his big chance and he absolutely blew it. In theory he had almost everything going in his favour for this fight. Younger, bigger, fresher, longer reach etc. The only thing not in his favour was that the fight was on Figgy’s turf in Brazil. But even that, he had the opportunity to go in and beat Figgy on home soil, which would’ve been big for him. Instead he decides to just stand around looking at Figgy and doing sod all for massive chunks of the fight. He might’ve lost anyway even if he did go for it, but he basically handed Figgy the win here.

It’s one of those things where you look at it on paper and see Jackson’s got these physical advantages but if a fighter doesn’t know how to fight long and maximise those advantages, they’re worthless. There just wasn’t enough output at all from him. You know he’s watched this back 50 times over the last week and he’ll have been kicking himself. An opportunity squandered. And I doubt the matchmakers will give him another one. It took him 7 years on the roster to get this fight. At 33, I can’t see him getting another chance like this. Shat the bed. And it’s not like we can gauge much about Figgy’s performance either. Jackson didn’t push the pace or put any pressure on so who knows? Figgy faced no real resistance here and still didn’t look amazing. Saw some people comparing it to how Pitbull looks these days and I can see it. He’s clearly lost several steps from the heyday at Flyweight. But I don’t know what Jackson was thinking here. How do you expect to win a fight by not fighting? You’re not gonna beat Figgy, even an old Figgy, with this kind of bare minimum, timid approach. Not sure what’s next for Figgy. I still think he came back too early here, maybe that’s partly why he looked lacklustre. No doubt he only took this fight because it was in Brazil. If not for that, I think he’d have taken a bit longer to sit out and heal up the knee. We’ll see. Hopefully they give him a decent name. I’d have said O’Malley but it looks like O’Malley is fighting Song Yadong next.

Joel Alvarez put a beatdown on Vicente Luque in predictably depressing fashion. This always just felt like bad news for Luque to me from the second it was announced. Two things I never usually like to speculate on when it comes to fighting are 1) saying a fighter is ‘looking for a way out’ because I wouldn’t get in there and I’m not qualified to judge people that do. And 2) I never like to speculate that one fighter is ‘carrying’ the other for whatever reason. It’s usually bollocks anyway but I’m not into conspiracy theories. But…I kind of feel like a little bit of both might’ve been at play here. Firstly, it was a weird fight in general. What was up with the ref? Alvarez hit Luque with a perfectly legal punch in the first round, Luque thought he got poked in the eye and the ref just gave him time to recover. From a legal strike. Luque still looked game in the first round, then Alvarez beats the absolute piss out of him in the second round. And this is where the ‘looking for a way out’ thing comes in. I hate talking like that but there’s no other way to read it. Shooting in for lazy, half hearted takedowns almost felt like him conceding defeat in itself. He got beat on the whole second round and the ref just stood there letting him take the punishment. Then even in the corner before the third round, Henri Hooft outright asks him “can you still fight?” And Luque clearly says “I don’t know”. At that point, you’ve gotta pull the plug. Especially with a guy who had a fucking brain haemorrhage a few years ago. But Hooft just sent him back out for another round. Genuinely think Luque had enough and wanted to quit but both the ref and his own corner wouldn’t let him. And that’s not even a knock on Luque. He just physically doesn’t have it anymore. It’s sad.

On my second point, I never usually believe one fighter is ‘carrying’ the other. But I did get the feeling watching the third round here that Alvarez kind of took pity on Luque. He battered him in that second round then just sat on him the whole third. Could’ve just been a case of him being tired from using too much energy in the second but it honestly seemed like he felt bad for Luque towards the end. First time he’s ever won a fight by decision but it shouldn’t have got to that point. The ref could’ve easily stepped in at a few different points in the second round and Hooft absolutely should’ve pulled him out in the corner before the third. I don’t wanna see any more of this but you know they’ll wheel Luque out for more abuse in a few months time.

I like this Mario Pinto. A young Heavyweight who actually shows some legit potential in his skills and he seems to have a bit of personality and can talk. That’s a rare thing these days. Also could have that dual fanbase thing going for him being British/Portugese. Not gonna get carried away, Jhonata Diniz isn’t exactly some earth shattering win. But Pinto showed some stuff here which makes me think he might be a few notches above your average Heavyweight ham and egger. He showed huge knockout power in his UFC debut but here he showed a different side of his game. Wasn’t a barnburner but he looked pretty solid in the grappling and found the finish with the ground and pound. Could’ve heard a fucking pin drop from the crowd at the finish. They weren’t happy. Just the fact Pinto can actually grapple a bit instantly puts him above a lot of these big slugs. Still only 27 as well, so practically a toddler for HW. He’s only gonna get better. Like I said, I’m gonna manage my expectations. It’s a fool’s game putting faith in any Heavyweight really. But I’m cautiously optimistic.

Liked his post-fight interview switching from fluent Portuguese to fake broken English with a Portuguese accent to suddenly going with his full on London accent ? translator was there for no reason. Even Bisping looked like he didn’t know what was going on. The Brazilian fans did not like Pinto. I listened to some of Pinto’s comments to the media after the show and he said they were saying some mad stuff to him on his walkout and stuff. And of course, unlike a most fighters not from Brazil, being Portugese he understood every word.

Nice first round finish for Kaan Ofli in the main card opener. Especially after how it started with Ramos having him in trouble with the leg lock attempts. Ofli turning it around to get the submission himself was pretty sweet. Didn’t go down well with the Brazilian crowd but I enjoyed it.

Vitor Petrino got the job done in style in the end in his second Heavyweight fight. Took him a while but when the KO came, Christ…

Some knockout that. Still not sure about Petrino though. Obviously he looks the part physically and he’s clearly got fight ending power when he connects. But the fact it took him until the third round to get a fat mechanic out of there is concerning. Petersen’s shite. And Petrino didn’t look great before that third round demolition. It’s mostly been brushed aside or overlooked because of how the fight ended but it was probably 1-1 going into that last round. I dunno. I’m not convinced he’s gonna amount to much at Heavyweight and he still hasn’t got rid of that stench of the loss to washed up Anthony Smith for me. But I’m happy enough to see him just mop up against some of the no hoper blobs in the bottom half of the division until someone half decent exposes him again.

Really liked the Bia Mesquita debut. Don’t know what to expect from her going forward, she’s 34 already so a late starter for MMA. But it’s not like women’s 135 is stacked so her BJJ might take her quite far anyway. Not too much you can take from this fight in particular because Alekseeva is pretty shit. But a good introduction and she improves to 6-0 with none making it to the scorecards.

Good stuff. In a division like Bantamweight where almost every fight seems to go the distance, throwing a finisher into the mix is always welcome. Perfect card for her to make her UFC debut on as well.

Julia Polastri bashed up Karolina Kowalkiewicz. Drawn out beating then the third round finish. I didn’t enjoy it. Really hoping Kowalkiewicz calls it a day now. She just turned 40, this was her third loss on the bounce and she got stopped by strikes which doesn’t usually happen to her. Going into this fight, the only time she’d been finished by strikes was against Jessica Andrade back in 2018. This loss just felt like the nail in the coffin to me. Nothing good comes from carrying on. Sad to see her getting booed as well. I get they were in Brazil and she was fighting a Brazilian but how do you boo Karolina? Polastri looks alright though, in fairness. Don’t see her going on a run at the title or anything but she’s aggressive and pretty entertaining to watch by today’s Strawweight standards.

Was happy to see Luan Lacerda finish Saimon Oliveira in the Fight Pass curtain jerker. Oliveira coming in EIGHT POUNDS over the weight limit was an absolute piss take, always nice to see a fighter lose after pulling that shit. Decent little fight as well.

Last thing, it was nice to see Jose Aldo get one last walk out and to solidify his retirement in front of a home crowd in Rio. Really cool little moment that I never expected to see.

I saw so many comments about this along the lines of ‘Didn’t we just do this? How many times is he gonna retire? Waste of time’ etc etc. Miserable fucks. For one, this wasn’t him ‘retiring again’, they didn’t claim it was. It was just one last chance for him to say goodbye to his Brazilian fans. In an ideal world his last fight would’ve been at home but it didn’t work out that way and this was the next best thing. Two, how grumpy a shite do you have to be to begrudge one of the absolute all time greats this moment? And it was only a Fight Night. What valuable and precious time did this rob us of? Another women’s Bantamweight fight? A clash of DWCS newcomers? Get out. I hope they do more of this kind of thing. Only with fighters of a certain status that warrant it, of course. As fans it’s nice when a fighter gets to have that moment to lay the gloves down and say farewell in the cage immediately after a fight. But I think this might be better in certain cases. In this case, Aldo had a few months to sit with his decision to retire, then come back to Brazil and have that moment in the cage, when he’s not all beat up and exhausted after a fight, with his wife and daughter there with him. Really nice moment.

???

Edited October 19, 2025 by wandshogun09