UFC 323: Merab vs Yan 2 - Dec 6 🇺🇸

[wandshogun09]

Last PPV of the year…

PPV MAIN CARD
Merab Dvalishvili©️vs Petr Yan - Bantamweight Title 

Alexandre Pantoja©️vs Joshua Van - Flyweight Title

Brandon Moreno vs Tatsuro Taira 

Henry Cejudo vs Payton Talbott 

Jan Blachowicz vs Bogdan Guskov 

ESPN PRELIMS
Grant Dawson vs Manuel Torres 

Terrance McKinney vs Chris Duncan

Maycee Barber vs Karine Silva 

Fares Ziam vs Nazim Sadykhov

ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS
Marvin Vettori vs Brunno Ferreira 

Edson Barboza vs Jalin Turner

Ibo Aslan vs Iwo Baraniewski

Mansur Abdul-Malik vs Antonio Trocoli 

Muhammad Naimov vs Mairon Santos 

 

 

I really like it. It’s not as stacked as the 322 card at MSG but few are. I love the two title fights here and there are a few fights on the undercard I think will bring the heat. It’ll be interesting to see what they’ve got in store for 2026. They haven’t announced anything past December yet, which is unusual considering we’re already in November now. They’re obviously holding stuff back until the Paramount deal kicks in next year. So essentially this’ll be the last PPV for the UFC in America, unless they do a one-off here or there. The ESPN deal will be over and it’s all going on Paramount from January.

 

 

Merab Dvalishvili vs Petr Yan 2 tops the bill. Our last title fight of 2025, a rematch of their one-way traffic fight in 2023 and it’s Merab’s fourth title defence this year! Insane. I don’t really know what to think about the fight itself though, just because of how lopsided that first fight was. But apparently there were injuries on both sides going into that one so maybe we’ll get a different look this time? Maybe. Regardless, it’ll do. With how active a champion Merab is and how dominant he’s been of late, it’s inevitable that there’s gonna have to be a few re-runs. And that’s what we’re seeing now, he’s starting to lap the division and having to beat some of these guys twice. And although the first fight being so one-sided hurts the buzz for this rematch a bit, when you look at the current Bantamweight rankings you can see why the matchmakers went with Yan here. Of the top four, Merab’s already soundly beaten three of them (Umar, O’Malley, Sandhagen) this year alone. Below the top four you’ve got fresh opponents like Song, Figgy and Zahabi but Figgy’s coming off a really lacklustre performance and the other two don’t feel title shot ready. Yan rematch it is.

So yeah, they met back in March 2023 as the headliner of a Fight Night in Vegas. It was Merab’s first five rounder, his first UFC main event and, although Yan was coming off a couple of losses, he wasn’t far removed from that run as champion when he was being talked about as legitimately one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the sport. And even though he was coming off losses, they were split decisions to Aljo and O’Malley which were both hotly debated at the time. I definitely remember thinking he edged the O’Malley fight anyway. This felt like a great fight and a serious test for Merab going in. Wrong. Merab ended up just drowning him with constant pressure, superior work rate and seemingly endless stamina. It wasn’t any fun to watch. I remember it being dull as fuck actually. But it was one of them where you couldn’t help but admire the ridiculous pace Merab was able to maintain over 25 minutes. Yan actually defended 38 takedown attempts in the fight, which is very impressive and pretty nuts in itself. Problem is, Merab made 49 attempts. He was just that relentless. You can defend all the takedowns you want against Merab, he’s not gonna get discouraged and he’s absolutely not gonna fuck off.

There’s been a lot of talk that Yan had a hand injury going into the fight. Yan himself confirmed it on Helwani’s show recently…

“If you just look at the stats you can see that I only used my right hand three or four times. I couldn’t punch with my right hand. I also couldn’t use it to defend the wrestling. Those are just facts. When you compare it to my other fights, that’s the hand I use most.” - Petr Yan

His manager also said there was something wrong with his right shoulder and his left leg. Who knows? Fighters go into fights banged up all the time so I don’t disbelieve it. It does sometimes smack of excuse making but if he really was carrying multiple injuries going into that first fight, it might explain to some extent why it was quite as one-sided as it was. The thing is, Merab’s hand was apparently all fucked up as well. Look at this shit…

Sherman Klump shit. Nasty. The fact he was able to dominate Yan over five rounds the way he did despite that injury is madness. Clearly we never got the best versions of either in that first fight but even though Yan can tell himself the loss was mostly down to his injuries last time, deep down it must be disheartening to know that Merab also had a badly jacked up hand and still managed to get 50-45s across the board on him. 

Merab’s something else. I don’t think there’s ever been a more fitting nickname for a fighter than ‘The Machine’ for Merab. He’s one of those fighters where they’re not the biggest puncher, not the best striker, not some killer submission artist but they have a work ethic that’s second to nobody. No fighter is unbeatable. Merab himself lost a few times earlier in his career. But to beat this current version of Merab, you’re pretty much gonna have to knock him out or catch him in a submission. You’re not outworking this little bastard. You’re just not. He’s 21-4 now, on a 14 fight winning streak and is on a run of wins that goes Aldo, Yan, Cejudo, O’Malley, Umar, O’Malley, Sandhagen. And not one of those fights was particularly close. The Umar one was very competitive and close early, it was a great fight to watch, but Merab ended up outlasting him and taking over to such a degree that the result was in zero doubt by the time the decision was being announced. The others were all whitewashes.

Merab’s become an unlikely favourite of mine in recent years. His fighting style isn’t the best to watch but it’s one that’s very impressive in its own unique way. He’s a great character, I love his rags to riches backstory, I love that he’s so active and he’s a Ray Longo guy, which adds bonus points. I also appreciate that he knows what his weight class is and seems content to stay there. These days it’s become the expectation that champions must move up after a couple of defences and fight the champ in the division above. It’s cool when a fighter does do that and it can add to their legacy but it shouldn’t be a standard obligation for every champ. There’s something to be said for a fighter just staying in their division and racking up a load of title defences and seeing off multiple challengers. That’s why the likes of Anderson Silva, Georges St Pierre and Demetrious Johnson’s reigns are remembered so fondly. Their title runs were truly special. I’m not sure they’d be remembered quite the same if they’d have constantly been bouncing between weight classes and losing fights in the middle of their streaks to the champs above. Merab feels like a bit of a throwback in that sense.

Like I said above, it wasn’t that long ago that Petr Yan was being talked about as one of the best fighters in the game regardless of weight class. In his first nine fights in the UFC, the only blemish was the DQ in the first Aljo fight. When he beat Sandhagen in late 2021, he looked every bit the elite fighter people were bigging him up as. Then he went on a three fight losing streak and lost a lot of that aura. But again, two of those losses were debatable split decisions against Aljo in the rematch and then O’Malley. The third loss was the one that harmed his stock the most. And that was Merab. Yan had some time out after that loss to address his injuries. He came back in early 2024 and he’s won three fights since. He beat Song Yadong, Deiveson Figueiredo and Marcus McGhee, all by decision, all entertaining fights. The Figgy fight in Macau was tremendous. And I thought Yan looked really sharp against McGhee last time out as well.

“I’ve been waiting for this chance and I’m ready to fight in December. I believe it’s going to be a great fight. Last time I was compromised, I was at 50%. This time it will be different.” - Petr Yan

I’m having flashbacks to O’Malley putting all his stock in losing the first Merab fight being down to injuries and poor lifestyle choices here. Then he went into the rematch and got submitted. Not saying Yan’s injuries weren’t a factor at all the first time but to lose that clearly? It’s gotta be more than just that. Especially when Merab was injured as well. Feels a bit weird Yan getting a title shot off a win over McGhee but what can you do? They’ve gotta keep finding challengers for Merab.

Here we go then. One thing of note here, if Merab wins this fight he’ll break the record for most successful UFC title defences in one calendar year with four. He’ll also break the record for most successful title defences in Bantamweight history. So he’s going for history here. Again, building legacy isn’t just about jumping up in weight and ‘Superfights’. This is legacy building stuff from Merab right here and I’d actually say what he’s doing is more difficult than the ‘champ champ’ thing. Turning back contender after contender, over an extended period of time, in probably the deepest weight class in the sport, is more impressive to me than, say, Conor McGregor being granted a shot at a second belt against Eddie Alvarez and winning that one fight. If Merab wins this fight he’s got Fighter Of The Year sewn up, hasn’t he? It’s not like last year when you had people debating whether it should be Topuria or Pereira (it was Topuria). Who else would even be in the running in 2025 who you could make a serious argument for over Merab? Four title defences in one year, at this level, is mental. And the way he’s been beating these guys makes it even more of a slam dunk. Yan has the opportunity to put a stop to that and it would be a massive accomplishment if he’s able to break Merab’s stranglehold on the 135 division. But I just don’t see it. At all. And Yan’s a fantastic fighter. I wouldn’t write him off against anyone else in the division. But I just don’t see him coping with Merab here. It’s Merab’s year.

 

Alexandre Pantoja vs Joshua Van is a banger co-main event. Wanna feel old? I read somewhere that Van is gonna be the first fighter born in the 2000s to challenge for UFC gold. We’re officially all old fossils. Love this fight but it’s not one I thought I’d be typing about yet. If you’d told me at the start of this year that we’d be seeing Van fight for the title in 2025, I would’ve laughed at you. And I’ve been as high on Van as anyone. I’ve been singing his praises on here since very early into his UFC career. Given his age and relative big fight inexperience though, I just didn’t think he’d be in the title mix for a good while yet. If ever. And what can you say about Pantoja? He’s kind of like the Flyweight Merab in some ways. An absolute beast in his weight class but he knows that’s his weight class. He seems happy to stay in his lane and just keep collecting title defences. He’s running the Flyweight division like a boss.

Pantoja’s 35 years old now with a 30-5 record. For a Flyweight, he’s had a great innings. There was a point when it seemed like he was never gonna quite get his day in the sun and would never touch UFC gold. Just because it was the Figgy and Moreno show and the UFC didn’t seem to be in much of a hurry to put Pantoja into the mix for whatever reason. I never really understood why because he’s always been pretty entertaining to watch. I get that he’s not some amazing talker but were Figgy or Moreno? After consecutive wins over Manel Kape, Brandon Royval and Alex Perez, Pantoja finally got his big opportunity in 2023 and he took full advantage of it. He beat Moreno in one of the best fights of the year, took the title and hasn’t let go since. He’s followed up by successfully defending the strap against Royval in a rematch, Steve Erceg in a brilliant fight in Rio, then submitted Kai Asakura and Kai Kara-France in his last two outings. He’s on quite a run. It can’t last forever and, at 35, he’s obviously closer to the end of his career than the start. But he’s shown no signs of slowing down in his recent fights and, if anything, he’s been finding finishes more lately.

Joshua Van just turned 24 in October. He’s 15-2 with 9 of his wins coming inside the distance and he’s currently riding a five fight winning streak. He only made his UFC debut in mid 2023 and he’s already fought nine times on the big stage. Very active fighter. To the point there were some concerns that he might be fighting too much so early in his career. I remember wondering on here myself after one of his fights if he might burn himself out young like Tyson Griffin did years ago. But that aside, he’s looked great for the most part. He did get knocked out by Charles Johnson last summer, which raises some doubts about where his ceiling is. But it’s worth remembering he’s still young and a loss like that early on isn’t the death sentence it might be for some fighters. Especially one as active as Van. It says it all that he got stopped by Johnson just last year yet, because he’s fought five times since and gone 5-0, that loss has mostly been forgotten very quickly. Van’s been showing improvements since that loss, particularly in his defensive wrestling in the Rei Tsuruya fight, and he looked a right handful in his TKO win over Bruno Silva. His big break came in June though.

Van, ranked #10 at the time, stepped in on about two weeks notice to fight #1 ranked Brandon Royval. A massive step up in rankings, a quick turnaround and short notice. It was a gamble for Van but the ‘risk vs reward’ scale was tipped heavily in the ‘reward’ direction for him. He jumped on the opportunity and beat Royval in a FOTY contender. At that point it was a no brainer who the next challenger for Pantoja would be. Pantoja beat Kara-France that same night and Van was straight in for the post-fight face-off. 

“When I was 24, I was working in a restaurant cleaning dishes. This guy is 24 and will fight for the belt. He’s a very good challenge for me. I think he’s the biggest challenge I have in my whole career. A young kid with so much motivation. This kid, with his spirit, he look so young. He’s not afraid of anything. That’s so cool seeing that in him. He doesn’t have a lot of wars like I did in the past. He didn’t cut weight, like, 35 times. He comes with amazing victories. What a fight, man, what a fight.” - Alexandre Pantoja

I was sold on this fight the moment that Royval fight ended. Whether it’s too soon for Van or what, I’m in. I do suspect it’s coming a year or two premature for Van. I feel like he could’ve done with a bit more seasoning and letting Pantoja get a year older and rack up more miles on the clock would’ve only benefitted Van further. But you have to jump on these moments when they pop up. Who knows? Maybe it’s Van’s time. Maybe he’ll rise to the occasion. It’s one thing that fighting so often will have really helped him with. While I think some of the concerns about him taking a bunch of back-to-back fights at such a young age were valid, the fact he’s already had so much cage time means he’s gonna feel more at home in there than most 24 year olds would. He’s not gonna be swallowed up by the occasion. He might well get outclassed by Pantoja on skills but I don’t see him folding under the pressure of the big opportunity. He’s young enough that, if he loses, it’s not the end of the world and he’ll have time to bounce back. If he wins though? Massive.

 

Brandon Moreno vs Tatsuro Taira is a cracking piece of matchmaking. Potential show stealer written all over this. Could’ve easily had this headline a Fight Night card on its own over five rounds. Makes sense throwing it on here though just in case someone drops out of the Pantoja vs Van title fight. Obviously we all hope it’s not necessary but it’s always good to have backup options just in case. Really like this fight. Moreno’s kind of cooled off a tad lately for me though. There was a spell when he was having wars left and right with Figgy and Pantoja but his last couple of wins over Amir Albazi and Steve Erceg were a bit flat. The Erceg fight especially was a disappointment. That sounded like a possible FOTY contender going in but it just wasn’t to be. I put a lot of that on Erceg though, he looked completely headfucked coming off a couple of losses and Moreno just banked the rounds for an easy decision. I don’t think Taira is gonna be so straightforward. He’s 25 years old, 17-1 and coming off a sweet submission win over Hyun Sung Park in August. Park was unbeaten going in and Taira just schooled him. Taira looks good. Despite the loss to Royval last year I still feel like he might be Japan’s best hope of winning UFC gold. If he can beat Moreno here he’s gonna find himself in that title shot conversation in 2026.

 

Henry Cejudo vs Payton Talbott is a proper weird one to me. I don’t hate it, it’s just weird. It genuinely feels like they put a load of names on a wall and just chucked darts at it to make this one. Random. Two guys at completely opposite points in their careers. Talbott’s 27 years old, 10-1 and still seems like he’s kind of just getting started in the UFC. Cejudo on the other hand, he’s 38 years old, coming off three losses and has been saying this is gonna be his last fight.

If you’re getting Deja Vu then, no, you’re not an imagining it. Cejudo has given us this same song and dance before. A few times. I’ve lost track now, to be honest, of just how many times he’s said he’s retiring. It’s kind of sad really that we all seem to see Cejudo as a bit of a clown. He’s an Olympic gold medalist, for fuck’s sake. Plus a two-division UFC champion with wins over Demetrious Johnson, Dominick Cruz and TJ Dillashaw. He should have ‘final boss’ aura yet he’s such a little goofy, Lego headed cheese ball that nobody really takes him seriously. And constantly teasing retirement but still sticking around doesn’t help his credibility. He’s coming off that odd fight with Song Yadong in February which ended by technical decision due to an eye poke. I can actually understand why he didn’t wanna go out on that note, to be fair. I don’t think anyone believes he’s retiring though. Even the UFC. If the matchmakers really thought this was it, I doubt they’d risk him beating a young up and comer like Talbott and then just riding off into the sunset. Maybe they’re confident Talbott wins but I’m not so sure. He’s got some skills and he could certainly give Cejudo some problems on the feet. But he’s also shown weakness in the wrestling and now he’s in with an Olympic gold medalist wrestler? Granted, Cejudo isn’t the force he was. Even his wrestling seems to have declined a bit with age. He’s just not as athletic or explosive as he was years ago. But still, I’m not sure he can’t still just ragdoll a guy like Talbott here. It’s actually quite an interesting matchup in that sense. I don’t have a clue how this one goes but it’s probably gonna be fun to watch.

 

Jan Blachowicz vs Bogdan Guskov is currently scheduled to kick off the main card and it’s not grabbing me. Not feeling this one at all. I like Jan, seems a cool bloke, but he just doesn’t have it anymore. He’ll be 43 years old in February and in his last five fights he’s gone 1-3-1 with the only ‘win’ being the one where Rakic blew his own knee out. You have to go back to 2021 to find him legitimately beating someone and even that was Adesanya coming up from Middleweight. He’s only a couple of fights removed from those split decisions against Pereira and Ankalaev, but I don’t know. He hasn’t looked at the races for years to me. We last saw him losing a dull decision against Carlos Ulberg on the London card in March. Uzbekistan’s Guskov is a decade younger at 33 and has a record of 18-3 with a 100% finish rate. Sounds good on paper but his best wins are over Ryan Spann and Nikita Krylov. Not convinced by him but he’s on a four fight win streak and might win this one just on account of being younger and fresher. Love to see Big Jan turn the clock back, and maybe he’ll win, it’s not like I rate Guskov really. But it feels like this has been set up as a bit of an ‘out with the old, in with the new’ thing.

 

Grant Dawson vs Manuel Torres is alright. Nothing amazing but it’s a solid fight for the undercard. Two guys who’ve been doing pretty well for themselves in the Lightweight division but to little fanfare. With Dawson I think it’s just a style thing. He’s not the most fan friendly of fighters to watch. He’s no bum though. He’s actually ranked (just about) at #14 currently but his grappling heavy style has kind of kept him in the same stagnant position for what feels like an eternity now. He was on a strong run of wins at one point a couple of years ago but then had that fight where he got chinned in 30 seconds by Bobby Green and that was that. It gave the matchmakers the perfect excuse to knock him down the pecking order several steps. He’s built himself back up, he’s 23-2-1 now and coming off three straight wins over Joe Solecki, Rafa Garcia and Carlos Diego Ferreira. But I just think he’s gonna stay in the same spot forever. Torres is coming off a first round TKO win over Drew Dober on the Mexico City card in March. Aside from the loss to Ignacio Bahamondes at the Sphere last year, he’d been on a nice run of finishes before that. Can see Dawson’s grappling being too much for Torres here but we’ll see.

 

Terrance McKinney vs Chris Duncan sounds like chaos. It’s a pretty safe bet at this point to just go ahead and assume McKinney’s fights are ending violently. Either for or against him. In 24 career fights, he’s never seen the judges scorecards. Not once. He hasn’t had it all his own way, he’s 17-7, but either he’s doing the finishing or he’s getting finished. Fuck, he’s only gone past the first round four times! Madness. He’s coming into this fight off a 55 second submission over Slava Claus in June. As for Duncan…

That’s how his last fight looked. Him and Mateusz Rebecki went to war at the Apex in August and Duncan walked away with a decision win. One of the best fights of 2025 and it was absolutely wasted on the Apex. Duncan’s Scottish, 32 years old and 14-2 with 10 finishes. He’s on a nice little run of form actually. Before that Rebecki fight he’d submitted Bolaji Oki and Jordan Vucenic. In the UFC he’s gone 5-1 overall and is now on a three fight streak. Not bad at all. I’d like to see him win this one as well. As exciting as McKinney can be, he seems a bit of a bellend on social media. Can’t say I’m confident either way though. It’s one of those fights where I feel like Duncan is the better fighter but McKinney’s got that thing where he’s so dangerous early and I don’t trust Duncan not to walk onto something devastating.

 

Maycee Barber vs Karine Silva. Don’t hold your breath on this actually happening or anything. Barber has had an absolute mare of late. She hasn’t fought since March 2024 when she beat Katlyn Cerminara. Since then she’s had two big fight cancellations. First she was scheduled to face Rose Namajunas in the headliner of the Denver card last July. Barber pulled out due to health issues. Then in May this year, she was booked to main event at the Apex against Erin Blanchfield. This time she missed weight, got fined 20% and the fight was agreed at a Catchweight. Then on the night of the fight, just seconds before the walkout, she had a seizure backstage and the fight had to be scrapped at literally the last minute. Unbelievable.

It might sound harsh the way I’ve put it and hopefully whatever health problems she’s been dealing with aren’t too serious and she’s got them sorted out. But it’s hard to have much confidence in her going forward because of all this. She’s still only 27 and she’s shown flashes of potential but until this is properly addressed it seems like it’s gonna keep coming up and it’s gonna hold her back. Hopefully she’s dealt with whatever it was and put it behind her. Silva I’m not sure about. She’s 31 years old with a fairly decent 19-5 record but I don’t know. She got off to a pretty good start in the UFC but then she lost to 38 year old Viviane Araujo last year and any bit of hope I might’ve had for her kind of evaporated at that point. She came back with a win over Dione Barbosa in August but I’m not sure about her.

 

Fares Ziam vs Nazim Sadykhov is probably gonna go under the radar so I’m giving it the ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** spotlight here. Serious high hopes for this. Two young, exciting fighters, both coming in with momentum and looking to stand out on a big card. Big fan of this matchup. Ziam’s French, 28 years old, has a record of 17-4 with 10 finishes and is currently on a five fight winning streak. He was kind of just there on the roster for a while but he finally got everyone’s attention with his brutal knee KO over Matt Frevola on the Paris card last year. He then followed that up with a points win over Mike Davis in a bloodbath in Saudi Arabia in February. That was a really good fight as well. Sadykhov’s 31 years old, Russian born but fights out of New York under Ray Longo and he’s 11-1-1 with 10 wins inside the distance.

His last fight against Nikolas Motta on the Azerbaijan card in June was absolutely wild. It got nowhere near the attention or love it deserved in my opinion. Easily one of the best fights of 2025. I’d found Sadykhov fun to watch in his previous fights but I didn’t have especially high expectations for the Motta fight really. It was barmy though. Just wall to wall mayhem. Motta gave him hell in the first round but Sadykhov managed to weather the storm and come back to stop him in the second round. They got FOTN and POTN bonuses for that fight and rightly so. A real barnburner. If you somehow missed it, get it watched. You’re welcome. Can’t see any way this Ziam fight isn’t action packed. I’m not expecting it to surpass or even match the Motta craziness, it’d be unfair. But it’s gonna be good. The ingredients for a dud just aren’t there. Shame this fight wasn’t put on 322 at MSG really. Sadykhov fighting at the Garden would’ve made sense but this’ll do.

 

Marvin Vettori vs Brunno Ferreira could be fun. Vettori can be decent to watch when he’s at the right level. He’s not a title contender and we’ve seen him come up short more than once when he’s stepped up against an Adesanya or Whittaker or whoever. But he’s capable of some good scraps with the right opponent. I loved his fight with Paulo Costa years ago, I vaguely remember the Jack Hermansson fight being enjoyable and I recall liking the Jared Cannonier fight. Even his last fight against Brendan Allen in July was better than I expected. He badly needs a win now though. He’s gone 1-4 in his last 5 and is coming off three straight losses. Not good. Ferreira’s kind of similar. Never gonna make a ripple in the title mix but he brings it and he’s usually good for a lively fight on the prelims. He’s 14-2 with all his wins coming by knockout or submission. Should be decent. Both are kind of dopey meathead brawlers so it’s got potential to be very entertaining.

 

Edson Barboza vs Jalin Turner. I don’t know. Not a bad fight by any stretch but it’s definitely one that feels like it would’ve been much better a few years ago. I don’t know where either is at now. Barboza’s gonna turn 40 in January and he’s coming off a couple of losses. We last saw him in August, losing a decision and looking pretty washed up against Drakkar Klose. Even just looking at him in the pic there, what’s going on with that eye? And Turner actually retired after his quick submission loss against Ignacio Bahamondes in March. At just 30 years old it felt premature and a bit out of the blue but I remember seeing him talk about it after and he was quite emotional and said he needed to step away for his mental health. Now he’s back just eight months later? If he’s in a better place mentally now that’s great but I hope he’s back for the right reasons and not just because he needs the money. He’s lost four of his last five fights and, if his head’s not right, him only being 30 is irrelevant. Yeah, I hate to put a bit of a negative spin on this because it could be a really good fight. But between Barboza looking a bit knackered and Turner dipping in and out of retirement, I’m really not sure what we’re getting out of these two.

 

Ibo Aslan vs Iwo Baraniewski. Not a clue. Ibo vs Iwo. I’ve seen Aslan in his few UFC fights. Nothing remarkable. He’s Turkish, 29 years old, 14-3 overall and 2-2 so far in the UFC. He’s coming off back-to-back losses to Ion Cutelaba and Billy Elekana. Baraniewski is making his Octagon debut here. He’s Polish, 27 years old with a record of 6-0, all first round finishes. He fought on DWCS in September and scored a 20 second KO over a Mahamed Aly. He didn’t float like a butterfly or sting like a bee by the sounds of it.

 

Mansur Abdul-Malik vs Antonio Trocoli. Might be enjoyable. Haven’t watched a whole lot of either. Abdul-Malik’s 28 years old and 8-0-1 with a 100% finishing rate. He made his UFC debut late last year and got off to a good start, scoring stoppage wins over Dusko Todorovic and Nick Klein. His last fight ended in controversy though. He fought Cody Brundage on the Atlanta card in June, the fight was shite from what I remember, then there was a clash of heads in the third round and Brundage couldn’t continue. On the night, they went to the scorecards and the fight was declared a technical decision win for Abdul-Malik. Apparently it’s been overturned to a majority draw since. Trocoli turns 35 the day of this show. He’s 12-5 with 8 finishes and has gone 0-2 in the UFC so far. He got knocked out by Shara Bullet in his debut, then got subbed in the first round by Tresean Gore in his next fight.

 

Muhammad Naimov vs Mairon Santos is whatever. Not a bad fight but I’m not particularly arsed about it. Naimov’s had a pretty decent stint in the UFC so far, although I’m still salty that he got that win over Nathaniel Wood after committing multiple fouls. That’s his best win and he cheated like fuck for it. He’s 13-3 now, got subbed by Felipe Lima last year but has won decisions over Kaan Ofli and Bogdan Grad this year. Santos is 25 years old and 16-1 with 8 by KO/TKO. He won TUF last year, whatever that’s worth these days, and he’s coming off a decision win over Sodiq Yusuff in May.

 

That’s that then. 2025 is a wrap. Another year in the books. There is an Apex card on Dec 13th, I’ll put a bare bones thread up for that soon. But this is my last full event preview of the year. Been a weird one, hopefully there’s big things to come in 2026 because, although there has been highlights, it feels like the UFC has really been lacking something this year. And it’s shown on here. I’ve never known the MMA section be as dead as it’s been the last few months. The MSG show and this one are very strong cards to end the year on though. I suspect there’ll be a whole bunch of big fights announced to launch the Paramount kickoff as soon as they can reveal them. It’s a weird time where you know they must have some big stuff in the chamber but they can’t really promote Paramount fights while they’re still technically on ESPN.

Anyway, it’s early but seeing as it’s the December card, Merry Christmas you lot 🎄

Edited December 1, 2025 by wandshogun09

[wandshogun09]

Fight week.

[wandshogun09]

Right. It’s fight day and there’s still zero activity in here so not sure if anyone’s even gonna read this but here goes. Decided to revisit the first Merab vs Yan fight before the rematch tonight. I don’t remember it being much fun to watch and it was complete one-way traffic from what I recall, but sod it.

I actually remember being really excited about this going in. Merab hadn’t yet established his dominance over the Bantamweight division and, despite coming off back-to-back losses, Yan was still considered among the best fighters in the sport and wasn’t far removed from being champion himself. Not to mention the two losses were both debatable split decisions against Aljamain Sterling and Sean O’Malley. Nobody had decisively beaten Yan in the UFC at this point. Merab was coming off the biggest win of his career over Jose Aldo but it was an awful fight and in his fight before that he had to come back from being badly hurt by Marlon Moraes before finishing the fight himself. Plus Merab had never headlined a UFC card and had never gone 5 rounds. So this was kind of Merab’s first true ultimate test. The Aldo one was big of course, but 5 rounds in a main event here was the next level. As crazy as it sounds in 2025, we never really knew how Merab’s gas tank would hold up over 5 rounds back in early 2023. But boy, we got our answer soon enough.

Petr Yan vs Merab Dvalishvili

UFC Fight Night: Yan vs Dvalishvili

March 11th 2023

Las Vegas, Nevada

I think we pointed it out at the time but the fact that the UFC’s graphics department put ‘7 fight win streak’ above Yan’s head on the poster, when he’d actually lost 3 of his last 4 going into this fight, is hilarious to me. Aside from that, I like the poster, but it’s quite a glaring error isn’t it? Just shows that even when they’re not so lazy with the design, they still can’t be arsed to at least fact check. It’s actually kind of weird now looking at this with 2025 eyes, but Yan was considered the A-Side here, as you see by him getting top billing on the poster, and they said on commentary that Merab was the betting underdog as well. How things change.

Anyway, this is a Fight Night in Vegas but it’s actually not at the Apex thank fuck. It was in a place called The Theater (or Theatre if you’re not American and you can actually spell properly) at Virgin Hotel. Commentary crew is Brendan Fitzgerald, Paul Felder and Daniel Cormier. There was a little bit of bad blood going in, I’m guessing mostly stemming from Yan’s history with Merab’s teammate and buddy Aljo. There was a bit of needle at the weigh-in staredown with Yan sort of shoving/chopping Merab on the neck. Which leads to this awkward no glove touch moment at the start of the fight…

Round 1: Takes Merab all of about 10 seconds to shoot his first takedown attempt. It goes nowhere but it’s Merab basically laying his cards on the table seconds in and saying ‘OK, here’s my gameplan, I can do this shit all night, do something about it dickhead’. Merab just doesn’t stop moving. Nice leg kick from Yan and Merab answers by going after a single leg takedown, doesn’t get it and comes up throwing hands. Merab’s already thrown that right a few times, which we now know was all kinds of jacked up. Merab trying another single leg and Yan shows incredible balance defending it on one leg. Nice right from Merab and another couple of hard leg kicks from Yan. Merab pushing him against the fence and lands a glancing elbow on the break. Yan actually shoots a takedown in the last minute, that decision immediately backfires and he spends the rest of the round in Merab's front facelock. Merab 10-9.

Aljo Sterling, Ray Longo and Matt Serra in Merab’s corner here. You don’t see Serra corner guys these days. This has to be one of the last times he worked the corner. 

Round 2: Merab again with an early takedown attempt but Yan pops back up. I’m not sure how much effort or commitment there is on some of these takedowns from Merab. Seems like some are serious attempts and others are more to just keep Yan on the defensive and make him have to react. Merab with a hard elbow back on the feet. Yan with another leg kick. Don’t think Yan’s thrown his right hand at all yet, which backs up his claims of an injury. Merab now landing some hard calf kicks and one kind of stops Yan in his tracks for a second. He definitely felt that. Merab more effective in the striking here than I remembered. Whether that’s partly down to Yan worrying about the takedowns, Yan’s injuries or a mix of both, Merab’s more than holding his own on the feet here. He’s throwing more elbows in close, obviously to avoid throwing that messed up hand unless he absolutely has to. Yan with a straight left but…

Just relentless. Yan does a good job getting back up but Merab’s on the legs again within seconds. Fuck me. Has to be a nightmare to fight a guy like that. Honestly think I’d rather just get knocked out or submitted. What a miserable, frustrating and torturous way to lose a fight this is. But wait…

Yan’s on top. Yan’s actually on top! It’s fleeting though. To the surprise of nobody, he’s unable to hold Merab down for more than a few seconds and they’re back on the feet with just over a minute left on the clock. Yan with a sweet left to the body but Merab doesn’t even seem to register it and keeps marching forward. Merab with another brief takedown, and the commentators tell us he’s landed 14 takedowns in less than 10 minutes. Yan again is able to get up but Merab’s just giving him no time or space to breathe. Merab tries a throw in the last few seconds and Yan winds up on top again but the round is over. Merab 10-9.

Round 3: Same story. The constant pressure and relentlessness from Merab is impressive but this is really repetitive to watch at this point. Each round just feels like an exact copy of the last. Yan just can’t create any space to get anything going, Merab’s stuck to him like glue.

“He might be the real nightmare of the division.” - Paul Felder

You can almost hear it specifically dawning on the commentators in real time that Merab is gonna be an absolute bastard to beat with this kind of approach. Last couple of minutes mirror how the rest of the fight has gone so far. Merab just spamming takedown attempts, Yan mostly defending them, then Merab just spamming more takedown attempts. It’s not exciting to watch but it’s certainly effective in stifling any opportunity for Yan to get any offence going himself. He’s constantly having to defend a takedown or get ready to clinch so he can’t get anything meaningful off in the striking. All the time the minutes are passing and the clock is ticking down. Another Merab 10-9 in the books.

Round 4: More of the same. Yan’s fighting a very good fight defensively, he’s stopped so many takedowns at this stage in the fight that I’ve lost track. And even when he has been taken down, he’s managed to avoid any significant damage and pop back up to his feet. The problem is, like I said, he just can’t get anything done offensively. And if the only thing happening in each round is Merab initiating the grappling and Yan defending, well Merab’s dictating the fight. It might be different if Yan was able to damage Merab in the process of stuffing the takedowns or hurting him in the clinch or something. But he’s not. So Merab’s cruising to a landslide here just on workrate and pressure. Deep into the fourth round now and it’s really looking hopeless for Yan. He obviously needs a finish at this point but with Merab’s style plus Yan’s right hand compromised, it’s just not happening is it? No point even going over what actually happened in the round, same story as the first three. Merab 10-9.

Round 5: Yep. Rinse and repeat. Merab repeatedly shooting in and he doesn’t even care if he doesn’t complete the takedown. He just keeps doing it. There’s a point here when Yan literally has a look of complete bewilderment on his face. This isn’t what he signed up for.

Should’ve known though. Merab’s previous fight against Aldo was kind of a condensed version of this. And although that was a three rounder, it was also in Utah at high altitude and Merab didn’t even seem to be breathing heavy at the end. We all should’ve known there and then that this was next level cardio we were witnessing.

“I don’t know who can stay with this pace. Especially over five rounds. If he can do this for twenty five minutes straight that’s crazy.” - Daniel Cormier

Into the last 30 seconds or so and Merab’s just pouring it on. Right at that crucial time in the fight where Yan surely knows he’s been clean sweeped on the scorecards and he needs to throw caution to the wind, Merab still gives him zero opportunity to do anything by just swarming him with volume. Yan looks completely bamboozled as the final seconds tick away. And that’s yet another Merab 10-9.

No mystery who won this one. To the point it almost feels redundant even bothering to read the scorecards. It’s as clear cut a 50-45 sweep as you’re ever gonna see.

Winner - Merab Dvalishvili by unanimous decision.

Yep. Think I mentioned it in the opening post but, despite coming off a couple of losses at the time of this fight, this was the loss that really harmed Yan’s stock and aura. The other two were close and debatable. This was a complete and utter washout. Even with Yan successfully defending so many takedowns, I vividly remember thinking at the time that there’d be no point ever even doing a rematch, it was that one-sided. Fast forward two and a half years and here we are! But I will say, I don’t think any of us had the context back then of the injuries on both sides. We really didn’t get the best versions of either of them in March 2023. Which is pretty scary considering how clearly Merab was still able to win.

Seems like a really stupid question to ask how you think the rematch goes so I won’t bother. I don’t think anyone’s gonna be picking Yan to win and genuinely believing it. Anyone predicting a Yan win is either operating on wishful thinking or they’re one of those fans who’s always picking the underdog so that when one finally wins they can brag about being the only one who called it. There’s really nothing to base picking Yan on. Even allowing for the injuries last time, Merab was all banged up himself and it was still so one-sided that I think chalking it all up to Yan being injured is disingenuous. I think the safe bet here is Merab by decision. I think if Yan is gonna pull this off somehow, he’s gonna have to finish Merab. Not impossible. Anyone can be finished, Merab himself has been finished. But it’s not likely is it? And it’s worth remembering that, as good as Yan is, he hasn’t finished anyone since the Aldo fight in 2020. The chances of him catching Merab in the brief windows of opportunity he’ll get here are slim to none surely. I just hope it’s a better fight to watch than the first one. I’m pretty sure Merab wins but I’m hoping that an injury free Yan can at least bring the fight more and an injury free Merab can open up more. To be fair to Merab, he’s been more entertaining to watch in his more recent fights. I don’t know whether it’s a skill thing, him being so active and staying sharp, reinforced confidence of being the champ or what, maybe a bit of all the above. But he’s even looked more dangerous and aggressive in his last couple of fights. Obviously he subbed O’Malley in June but he also hurt Sandhagen on the feet in their fight in October as well. It’s crazy but it actually seems like he’s still adding to his game at 35 years old.

One thing I will throw in, and maybe it’s nothing or maybe there’s something to it. This fight tonight is not just Merab’s fourth title defence in 2025 but it’s also his third title defence in the last six months! I’ve seen a fair few of the more knowledgeable fans on social media (they’re still out there) and some journalists bring this up and it might be worth thinking about. At what point is Merab maybe asking too much of himself? Not so much the fights themselves because, let’s face it, it’s not like he’s taking much damage in there. But the back-to-back gruelling training camps and, most importantly, all those weight cuts. If anyone can do it, it’s probably Merab. And he’s managed just fine so far. There’s no real reason to assume that this particular camp/weight cut will be the breaking point. But there’s a limit to everything. He looked pretty fucking rough this week at the press conference and stuff. Cutting down to 135 four times in one year (five times in 15 months!) while training for five round fights against the elite of probably the best division in the sport, it’s asking a lot. Interestingly, I saw one of Merab’s coaches John Wood saying the other day that “in two or three more fights, we’re gonna start having those conversations” about Merab moving up to 145. I’ve never seen Merab show much interest in moving up before and the timing of Wood saying that this week does make me wonder if Merab’s starting to struggle more with the cut to 135 now.

Fuck it, I still think Merab wins. And I hope he does. It’d be cool to see him make history tonight becoming the first fighter to successfully defend a UFC belt four times in a calendar year, not to mention breaking the Bantamweight title defence record in the process. I’m a big fan of Yan as a fighter, he’s great to watch when he’s on form. But I wanna see Merab keep breaking records for a bit longer.

Edited December 6, 2025 by wandshogun09

[Carbomb]

Based on that review, it really does seem like Merab gets the win again. 

That said, I don't think it's necessarily a simple calculation of "Yan was injured, but so was Merab" - the nature of the injury matters as much as the fact they were injured. If, for some reason, it turns out that that injured hand had deprived Yan of his biggest weapon against a style like Merab's, then the fact he has it back now could make for interesting viewing.

I'm not saying that that is the case, or that there is any reason to suspect this match won't go the way it did the first time. But, as with anything, there are always variables in play. As aforementioned, Yan's injury is now healed. Merab is pushing himself to previously-untested limits. And both fighters have evolved since they last fought; the way Yan lost must have been eating at him all this time, so there's no way he'll have stood still during Merab's rise to the belt. The way he lost, I would not be surprised to find out if Yan has been obsessively poring over Merab's tapes, and been laser-focussed on a gameplan to beat him.

Obviously, Merab hasn't stood still either, so it may come to nothing. But this is the appeal of not having an instant rematch: when sufficient time has passed, and both fighters have clearly developed, a rematch becomes interesting.

[Bruce85]

That was some card! So much to talk about after that one. 
 

Yan looked phenomenal in there, really impressed with his performance, I don’t like Yan (can’t remember why) but I had him winning comfortably. He was doing damage, stuffing the take downs, getting take downs of his own, reversing Merab, just an all round outstanding performance.  The shots to the body, especially that kick in the 4th, really bothered Merab. A late contender for fight of the year! I wouldn’t mind running this back and doing the trilogy next. 
 

I assume DC is friends with Merab cos his commentary was so biased, if you were just listening to him and not watching the fight you’d have throught Merab was winning easily. You know it’s bad when Rogan is the voice of reason! 
 

What a devastating way for Pantojas run to come to and end, that was fucking nasty! Assumed it was his elbow but apparently it was a dislocated shoulder. I watched one reply then closed my eyes for the others, that was gross. Hope it isn’t as bad as it looks and he can come back at full health. A title changing hands like that is a bit disappointing and doesn't really elevate Van but not his fault. Could see them doing Van vs Taria early next year as neither took any damage. 
 

I really like Moreno and was sad to see him lose, he’s not that old but has a lot of miles on the clock, is he on the slide? With that said, I think that was an early stoppage. The punches Taria was landing weren’t flush big punches and Moreno was trying to build his base and get up. I dunno, just seemed a bit early but he was in a bad position so might not have changed the outcome. 
 

I thought Mark Smith had a poor night overall. The stoppage, warning Moreno to keep working when he had the triangle locked in, telling Barber it was a glancing blow from the up kick even though it was a pretty flush connection, and not deducting a point after the up kick even though that was the second one that landed. 
 

Talbot vs Lego head was a great fight! Talbot really looks like he improves after every fight and this was the best he’s looked. Really fun fight, Cejudos clearly lost a step but thought he still looked alright in there. Talbot still looked hitable though, think he needs to tighten up the defence. I know he’s cringy and annoying but I’ve had a soft spot for Cejudo since the second fight with DJ as I won a couple hundred quid on him so was nice to see the retirement package they did for him. Love him or hate him, he’s been in some great fights over the years. 
 

Jan vs Bogdan was a fun fight, thought Jan did well to come back and win the 3rd after nearly getting put out in the second. I’m not sure Bogdan did enough to get a 10-8 in the second but no complaints with it either. 
 

The prelims delivered too, Duncan vs McKinny was a great one rounder. It was like to kids spamming the punch button on the PlayStation with no regards to the stamina bars! 
 

Good to see Barber back with a win after her health issues, hopefully she can stay healthy and put a run together for a title shot. 
 

This would be a great card to end the year on but I assume we have another Apex card to look forward to before the years end. 

[Bruce85]

Double post wanker but just seen a stat that none of the current male champions have a single title defence. Surely that’s never happened before?

[jimufctna24]

39 minutes ago, Bruce85 said:

Double post wanker but just seen a stat that none of the current male champions have a single title defence. Surely that’s never happened before?

Throughout 2004.

For example, the only Champions they had after UFC 46 in January were Belfort and Penn, who had won gold at that event. Meanwhile, the Lightweight, Middleweight, and Heavyweight belts were all vacant.

 

[Dai]

Was it really a dislocated shoulder!? Looked like his entire elbow popped/snapped.

Was anyone predicting that Yan performance? I know Wands write up showed he was still in a good place, but I don't think anyone would have predicted that he would out class Merab to that extent. A complete shocker. 

Definately an early stoppage in the Moreno fight, but only slightly. Moreno was shockingly outclassed here. Wonder if it's all down to father time. Will be interesting to see his next fight. 

Lego Head looked tiny compared to Talbot. Very good scrap though. 

[Carbomb]

Whilst I prefer Merab to Yan, it's probably best for the division that Yan won - some fresh competition, and a trilogy that actually feels organic, rather than the UFC just forcing it. 

Only downside to it is that it means O'Malley is now back in the title mix.

[Tamura]

1 hour ago, Dai said:

Definately an early stoppage in the Moreno fight, but only slightly.

Mark Smith must have had a bet on.

[Kfogg1991]

This was a great card and delivered two shocking/unexpected title changes I don't think anyone expected especially the merab fight I was convinced he was holding that belt for a long time.

I did say I thought van was going to shock the world but what a devastating way for it to go that arm replay is sickening.

I sort of agree about Moreno being stopped abit early but he wasn't blocking or defending and very unlikely for it to get better for him so it's one of those I guess.

Turner absolutely killing barboza was shocking 

Vetori being in a exciting fun fight for the first time in way too long.

Jan going to a draw with the walking thumb with both nearly getting the finish.

Triple c got spanked by Paton getting him the 10th spot ranking aswell is pretty good too.

All in all extremely enjoyable and one to rewatch.

Bring on the start of next year absolute filth 

[wandshogun09]

Had a nightmare week. I’ll be glad when Christmas is over 🤣

Insane performance by Petr Yan in the main event. Don’t think anyone saw that coming. Least of all Merab himself. Unbelievable. Never would’ve called it, especially winning wide on points. Yan by stoppage would’ve been less shocking to me. Winning round upon round the way he did was something I couldn’t see the possibility of at all. Just shows once again how stupidly difficult MMA is to predict. There probably were some people out there picking Yan because there always is. But I don’t know if anyone genuinely believed it. There wasn’t much to actually base a Yan prediction on looking at the first fight, Yan’s recent performances which were good but not spectacular and Merab’s form this year going into this rematch. Everything seemed to be trending towards another lopsided Merab win but Yan clearly left no stone unturned in camp for this one. He looked awesome. The best performance of his career at a time when many, me included, thought his peak had probably already been and gone. Saw a stat that Yan is the first fighter in UFC history to recover from a three fight losing streak and regain the title.

I do wonder if Merab’s mad schedule played a part though. Not making excuses but four title defences in a year, and three in the last six months, is nuts. Fighting four times in a year in itself is doable, but four consecutive scheduled five rounders at the elite level in a shark tank like Bantamweight, it’s not recommended. Not only the fights themselves but the endless training camps. Everyone’s got a limit. This was obviously more than just that. I’m not taking anything away from Yan. It certainly wouldn’t be the only reason Merab lost. For it to be that drastically different to the first fight, maybe it was a factor to some degree, as well as Yan not being hampered by the injuries this time.

And that was the result. 

Crazy performance from Yan. Kind of sad that Merab’s run is over just because I wanted to see him keep breaking records and I liked that he was an active champ. But you can’t hate on a performance like this. The kind of showing that instantly catapults a fighter into the Fighter Of The Year conversation. Just this win on its own puts Yan firmly in that mix for me. It was that good and it was who he did it to. Merab would’ve been the nailed on Fighter Of The Year for me had he won this fight. Wouldn’t even have been a debate. This obviously changes things though. Merab still had a hell of a 2025 but ending it on a one-way traffic loss like this knocks him off that spot for me. Not sure there is a concrete front runner now. The top candidates like Yan, Makhachev, Topuria etc pretty much all only had one really stellar win/performance this year. Shevchenko had a strong year wins-wise but her fights were boring to watch. Khamzat only fought once, won the title but it was dull. Topuria sparked Charles to win a second division’s belt but that was his only fight this year. Yeah, it’s probably between Yan and Makhachev.

One thing I don’t like though, Yan’s already letting his twatty side resurface since Saturday. Saw bits where he was saying something like Merab should have to fight a few more times to earn a rematch now like he had to. Conveniently ignoring the fact that the reason he had to win a bunch of fights to get back to this point was because he had that losing streak. Merab’s coming off a dominant run where he pretty much cleared out 135 and just lost the title. Not even saying I necessarily want an immediate rematch myself but to act like Merab should have to go to the back of the queue now is bollocks. But then I saw another quote from Yan saying Merab does deserve a rematch so fuck knows? He’s giving mixed messages. I reckon Yan’s gonna push for the O’Malley rematch though if O’Malley beats Song Yadong at 324 next month.

Really unfortunate ending to the Van vs Pantoja fight. Fuck’s sake. One of those shitty results that’s bittersweet for both the winner and loser. Van would’ve obviously preferred to win in a more satisfying manner and, while Pantoja can at least take some solace in the fact he wasn’t actually decisively beaten, his great title reign coming to an end like that is so shit. And I know it only lasted seconds but you could tell just from those initial exchanges we were in for a hell of a fight. I feel like we might’ve been robbed of a late FOTY contender here, which only makes the whole situation even shitter.

Here we are though. And fair’s fair, Van’s actions caused the chain of events that led to the injury. It’s not like some freak accident like someone’s knee just blowing out for no reason. This happened as a direct result of what Van was doing and Pantoja’s reactions to it. I’ve seen people saying it should’ve been a No Contest but I disagree. As anti-climatic and disappointing as the ending was, that’s how it goes sometimes. There was no foul and Van did nothing illegal. It’s just the way the cookie crumbles. Also seen people giving Van shit for celebrating like he just knocked Pantoja out but cut the kid some slack. He’s 24 years old and was nowhere near even being in the title mix at the start of the year. Excuse him for being happy that he just became one of the youngest UFC champions ever. I imagine given his run as champ and the way this fight ended, Pantoja will get an immediate title shot on his return against whoever the champ is. He’ll probably be out for a bit now though and knowing how active Van likes to be, I can’t see him just waiting for Pantoja to heal up. Most likely we’ll see Van vs Taira in the meantime, which is a cool fight in its own right, and Pantoja will get the winner later in the year.

I do wonder though if this is gonna mark the end of Pantoja at his absolute peak. He’s already 35 and he’s had some hard, gruelling fights in his career. Even if he hadn’t gotten hurt here and even if he beat Van, as a 35 year old Flyweight his prime is surely on borrowed time anyway. But an injury like this at this stage in a fighter’s career is always a worry.

On 12/9/2025 at 10:37 AM, Dai said:

Was it really a dislocated shoulder!? Looked like his entire elbow popped/snapped.

It was 100% the elbow. It’s since been confirmed by Pantoja’s team that it was the elbow and that there was no injury to the shoulder.

Don’t know where the shoulder thing even started. Makes zero sense to anyone with functioning eyeballs. Don’t have to be a doctor to understand which part of the body got royally fucked up here…

Don’t know if anyone saw it as well but Dominick Cruz was yet again waffling absolute bollocks on Twitter, saying the fight should’ve been left to continue despite Pantoja’s arm being mangled. Because “it should be up to the fighter if they want to continue”. Just more evidence that Cruz is nowhere near as smart as he thinks he is. Might be the dumbest thing he’s said since he claimed Conor McGregor was deliberately letting Khabib smash his face in to “tire him out”. Anytime Cruz complains about a stoppage, you know it’s his way of letting the world know he’s still salty about the time (five fucking years ago!) he was stopped by Cejudo and he thought Keith Peterson jumped in too soon. He seriously needs some counselling for that. It’s actually weird at this point.

Was enjoying the Taira vs Moreno fight. Some nice grappling exchanges, although Taira was clearly getting the better of it. I agree with Bruce though, I felt like the stoppage was a tad too soon. Wasn’t the worst stoppage ever or anything and Moreno was clearly in a shitty spot. I just thought the ref was slightly too quick to jump in. Didn’t give Moreno much of a chance to work out of it really. Wouldn’t be at all surprised if we get a Van vs Taira title next after the way things played out on this card. Think it’s obvious Pantoja is most likely gonna be out a while so Van making a defence in the meantime makes sense. Actually saw Dana say something about possibly doing that in Japan if they do go in that direction. That’d be the first time they’d have been to Japan in donkeys years wouldn’t it? Without being arsed to check I can’t even remember when the last time they went to Japan was. Moreno’s already booked to headline the Mexico card in February against Asu Almabayev. 

Talbott vs Cejudo was fun but it was a bit too one-sided for some of the praise I’ve seen. Cejudo gave it his all and he’s tough as shit but you could just see he doesn’t have it anymore. Talbott battered him. I remember Talbott struggling with the wrestling in at least one of his UFC fights so I thought this might actually be a fight Cejudo could still do well in, even at this stage of his career. But to see Talbott not only avoid being taken down but him actually taking Cejudo down was a shocker to me. I wasn’t sure who was gonna win going in so Talbott winning wasn’t mind blowing or anything. But I never thought he’d be scoring inside trips and shit on Cejudo in a million years.

Big name win for Talbott and he definitely seems to have stepped his game up in his couple of fights since that loss to Raoni Barcelos. Still the right side of 30 as well. Hope they don’t rush him now though because he just beat a ranked guy/former champ. There’s no rush and if they let him build gradually he could be a player for a while potentially. Could see them throwing him at someone like Chito or Bautista now but I don’t know. Wouldn’t mind seeing him against Rob Font. A tough test against a veteran but it’s also another guy pushing 40 who’s seen better days.

As for Cejudo, I never buy into fighter retirements anymore and especially from someone like Cejudo who’s retired and unretired a few times already. But I don’t know, watching him after the loss here, it seemed like the penny might’ve actually finally dropped this time for him that it’s time to step away. Definitely a top tier Flyweight/Bantamweight but he squandered so much of his physical prime by just not being active enough in his early 30s. Like taking 3 years off after the Dominick Cruz win, why? It’s something I think he probably regrets now because MMA doesn’t stand still, especially at the lower weights. And getting smacked about and taken down by a young prospect like Talbott here only hammered home the point that the game has passed him by now. Seeing him literally on his knees after the fight grovelling for Dana’s approval and begging for a bonus was sad to see.

Blachowicz vs Guskov was the fight on the main card that I was least arsed about by far but it was alright, to be fair. Most watchable fight I’ve seen out of Blachowicz in a while and maybe that’s telling in itself as this was a step down. Clearly on borrowed time though. I don’t particularly rate Guskov, he’s not awful but he’s a very mediocre 205er in my opinion. So Big Jan only managing a draw with him and getting beat up at points wasn’t a great look. Decent enough fight though.

Was pleasantly surprised that Manuel Torres put Grant Dawson away early. It was clear going in that he was a dangerous finisher but I really thought Dawson was most likely gonna just outgrapple him to a dull decision.

Wrong. No doubt Torres will be on the Mexico card February now. And considering Dawson was ranked #13 or #14, you’d think Torres should get someone around the Top 10 next. Problem is, looking at the names at 155, I can’t see any of them being interested in Torres. He’s more risk than reward.

Duncan vs McKinney did exactly what it said on the tin. Short, wild, twists and turns then a dramatic finish. All done and dusted in 2:30. Was happy Duncan came out on top. It wasn’t looking good in the first minute or so but he weathered the storm and came back. The quick elbow from the clinch that he dropped McKinney with just before the submission was sweet. Saw someone post on Twitter that McKinney’s never received a bonus in his UFC career, which is madness to me. I’m not even a great fan of him, seems a bit of a knob, but one thing he isn’t is boring. Never been to a decision and his UFC run has just been endless chaos every single time.

The Maycee Barber fight was nothing to write home about but it was nice to see her come back with a win after a nightmare last 18 months or so. But yeah, that stuff from Mark Smith regarding Silva’s dodgy upkicks was bollocks. Especially the one that got her right on the chin and visibly rocked her and he called it a “glancing blow”. Plus it shouldn’t matter if it was glancing or not, the point was it was illegal because Barber was on the ground when it connected. End of story. Should’ve been a straight point deduction, especially with it being the second time Silva did it. But no. Don’t even think he warned Silva did he? I can’t remember. Not that warnings mean shit anyway. Regardless, Barber came out with the win in the end.

Ziam vs Sadykhov wasn’t the barnburner I was hoping for and expecting but that’s because Ziam just took over and made it nowhere near as competitive as I thought it would be. The crowd booing because he was grappling can piss off. He dominated the whole first round, was pretty much doing the same in the second and then put him away with nasty elbows right at the end of the round…

I was a bit surprised just how one-sided this was, thought it’d be a back and forth show stealer but fair play Ziam proved himself to be simply the better fighter. I know Sadykhov was protesting the stoppage and I saw Aljo saying it was early on social media but he would do as Sadykhov’s teammate. The argument is ‘the ref should’ve let him see out the round’ because there was only a few seconds left but he looked fucked and in that situation the ref is gonna be watching the fighters not how much time is left on the clock. It’s harsh on Sadykhov in that if he just could’ve survived a few more seconds he’d have had that minute to try to recover before the third. But that’s the way it goes sometimes. How many seconds are left on the clock shouldn’t factor in to a referee’s decision to stop or not stop a fight. He can’t be looking up at the time while fight ending and potentially dangerous strikes are landing.

Brunno Ferreira vs Marvin Vettori wasn’t the goofy fun brawl I was expecting. Found it quite flat and lacklustre really. Not sure what Vettori’s got left, to be honest. He’s only 32 but he’s already been in a few dogfights, already challenged for the title and failed, hasn’t ever really evolved or improved and he was dropping hints about retiring not that long ago. Just feel like he’s half checked out at this point and his lack of urgency in this fight backed that up to me.

Jalin Turner put a beating on Edson Barboza in the couple of minutes it lasted and I’ve gotta say, this one made me really think it’s over for Barboza. It’s not like he was ever gonna be UFC champion, he hit his limit about a decade ago when he stepped up against the likes of Khabib, Ferguson and Gaethje and got beat up. But up until maybe the last 18 months or so, I felt like he was still looking decent. Now he’s coming off three straight losses, he looked washed up in his points loss to Drakkar Klose over the summer and now gets blitzed in half a round by a Jalin Turner who just retired earlier this year.

Rough. I saw all the usual posts this week that you always see on Barboza fight weeks. Lots of talk of how incredible his physique still is etc. Yeah, he can undoubtedly still get himself in phenomenal shape. But when the cage door shuts, he just looks like a completely spent force these days. I mentioned in the opening post about his eye, that doesn’t look good and makes me wonder what’s going on with it or how much vision he’s actually got on that side. Then you factor in he turns 40 next month. I’d like to see him call it a day. It’s only gonna get worse from here. Felt bad for him, he was trying right to the end, the mind is still strong but his body seems to have given up. As for Turner, I don’t really know what to make of it. He’s still only 30 but, like I said, he jacked MMA in back in March due to his mental health. Actually retired. Hopefully whatever he was dealing with back then is no longer an issue. He looked good here the short time it lasted but I don’t know how much of that was him and how much was Barboza just being done. Hopefully it works out for Turner and Barboza hangs ‘em up.

Iwo Baraniewski vs Ibo Aslan was 90 seconds of pure mayhem. Didn’t seem to be a single thought going on behind either of their eyes, just caveman brawling until one fell down.

Well, they both fell down at different points in the chaos but Aslan stayed down after that. Fun! Wasn’t technically pretty and there was zero defence on display from either but it was a rollercoaster while it lasted. The exchanges reminded me a little bit of that mad Wanderlei Silva vs Brian Stann fight way back.

Mansur Abdul-Malik pissed through Antonio Trocoli with little bother. Subbed him in just over a minute but Rogan still managed to get all horny over his muscles in that short time. Seriously, this is all Rogan is now isn’t it? Just a soundboard of the same old lines. The Thai steel cups rant, the verbal jizzing over muscly physiques, then every time there’s a finish it’s just “WOW….WOW….WOW…WOOOOW” over and over again. Completely going through the motions. The colour commentary version of faking an orgasm.


Overall yeah, as anti-climatic and deflating as the ending to the co-main was, a really strong show to end the year on. Yeah there’s an Apex card still to go but I’m not even counting that. This was the farewell to the ESPN deal and the PPV era for me. Crazy thing is now, we’re actually probably gonna have to pay more PPVs a year than the Yanks do now. Even if it’s just one or two a year like they usually whack on Box Office, that’s one or two more than the US will get with it all being on Paramount.

Edited December 13, 2025 by wandshogun09