UFC Houston: Strickland vs Hernandez - Feb 21 🇺🇸

[wandshogun09]

Houston we have a problem. I regret to inform you that Sean Strickland is still around…

PARAMOUNT+ MAIN CARD
Sean Strickland vs Anthony Hernandez 

Geoff Neal vs Uros Medic

Dan Ige vs Melquizael Costa 

Serghei Spivac vs Ante Delija 

Jacobe Smith vs Josiah Harrell 

Michel Pereira vs Zach Reese 

PARAMOUNT+ PRELIMS
Chidi Njokuani vs Carlos Leal 

Ode Osbourne vs Alibi Idiris 

Alden Coria vs Luis Gurule 

Nora Cornolle vs Joselyne Edwards 

Ramiz Brahimaj vs Punahele Soriano 

Phil Rowe vs Jean-Paul Lebosnoyani 

Yadier Del Valle vs Jordan Leavitt 

Carli Judice vs Juliana Miller 

 

 

Not a great card, not a bad one. Has its good and bad points like most cards and any time Strickland is in a main event the chances of a dud go up. But I’ll give this a chance. It’s in front of a proper crowd and there are a few fights I’m very into on there. It’ll do. I’ll update this post with any changes, pullouts and stuff as we go. Hopefully there won’t be much of that now with just a week to go.
 

 

Sean Strickland vs Anthony Hernandez is our Houston headliner. Strickland hasn’t fought in a full year and I was quietly hoping the boring wanker would just go away. Nope. The prospect of another 25 minutes of this prick doing his meerkat stance, jab/teep bollocks while his brain dead fanbase pretends he’s Robbie Lawler isn’t exactly filling me with excitement. Hopefully ‘Fluffy’ ends him and takes him out of the title race once and for all. I’d have been rooting for Hernandez anyway, then I saw Strickland had posted this shit when this fight was announced…

God I wish I was as edgy and badass as him. Also, not that it should matter but Hernandez is an American citizen. Mexican heritage, of course, but he was born, raised, lives and trains in California. Seriously, if you’re a fan of Strickland, you need to take a long hard look in the mirror and evaluate where you went wrong in life. We’ve seen him joke about fighters who died, joke about rape, he’s said and tweeted a bunch of homophobic and racist shit over the years, brought fighters families into his pathetic trash talk. If you’re a fan of that, you’re a worthless sad cunt as well. There are literally no redeeming qualities where Prickland’s concerned for me. Zero. Awful to watch fight, awful to listen to, awful on social media, awful in life full-stop. Genuinely wish he’d just fuck off. It’s funny but with the UFC recently releasing Jailton Almeida, I saw loads of fans going “YAY! Entertainment first! They need to cut all these boring fighters”. OK. They should be fine with getting rid of Strickland then. Or are people still pretending he’s fun to watch in 2026? We last saw him at UFC 312 in Sydney last February, losing to Dricus Du Plessis for the second time. Shit fight to watch but the result made it worthwhile. Before that he beat Paulo Costa in one of the worst fights of 2024. Cut him.

‘Fluffy’ Hernandez is anything but boring. And on a serious note, I’m glad he’s getting a push now. He’s been threatening to break through into the title mix at Middleweight for a while but in recent fights it feels like he’s really stepped it up a couple of notches. He’s 15-2-0-1 now with 12 of his wins coming inside the distance and he’s on an eight fight winning streak. A streak that includes a submission win over BJJ world champion black-belt Rodolfo Vieira, finishes over Edmen Shahbazyan and Roman Kopylov, a complete domination ending with a fifth round TKO over Michel Pereira, an easy points win over Brendan Allen and in his last fight in August it was another domination and a fourth round submission over Roman Dolidze.

Crushed him. It was clear after that he was ready for a step up against a top guy. He was supposed to headline the Vancouver card in October against Reinier De Ridder but unfortunately picked up an injury and had to withdraw. Shame because his replacement Brendan Allen (who Fluffy’s already beat twice) ended up getting the upset win over De Ridder that night. With the benefit of hindsight, knowing that De Ridder was probably burnt out and overtrained after a hectic schedule, if Allen was able to overwhelm him that night I have no doubt Hernandez would’ve been able to do the same if not worse. And when De Ridder vs Hernandez was originally booked, a lot of the talk at the time was that the winner might get the next title shot. Had the injury not taken ‘Fluffy’ out, he might actually be gearing up to fight for the belt right now instead of pissing about with this bag of wank.

Here we go then. There are potentially high stakes to this one. There shouldn’t be for Strickland considering he just challenged for the title in his last fight and came out with a lopsided loss. Then he sat out a whole year. He shouldn’t really even be in the convo for a bit. But you know how the UFC operates. They love rewarding these shitbags. He’s still ranked #3 as well somehow, despite the inactivity and being 1-2 in his last three fights. Hernandez is at #4 currently. So they’re up there. Only Du Plessis and Nassourdine Imavov are above them. Imavov is the front runner to challenge Khamzat for the gold next but there doesn’t seem to be any noise or movement on when that fight might happen. Surprise, surprise, Khamzat’s just chilling on the sidelines again. If Hernandez wins this fight though, and especially if he gets a finish, I’d argue he’s probably got a stronger argument for the next crack at Khamzat than Imavov does. We’ll see what happens but, more than anything, I just hope Strickland continues to plummet into a downward spiral now. A Strickland win here does nothing good for the Middleweight division.

 

Geoff Neal vs Uros Medic is alright. Isn’t doing a great deal for me but does have the potential to be a wild one if they’re both up for it. Neal’s a guy I actually thought had some real upside at one stage but for whatever reason it’s never quite panned out for him. He beat Belal Muhammad early in his UFC run and that obviously aged pretty well as Belal rose up the ranks and became champ and stuff. He also beat Mike Perry, Vicente Luque and Santiago Ponzinibbio along the way but there were always losses sprinkled in there. I remember him having his moments against Shavkat before ultimately getting strangled as well. On a good night, he’s a lot to handle. His last fight wasn’t one of his good nights though. He got sent into another dimension by the spinning elbow of Carlos Prates at UFC 319 back in August. Nasty finish that kind of got forgotten due to Lerone Murphy going out and doing the very same thing to Aaron Pico in the very next fight on the card. Neal’s in a tough spot now. He’s gone 1-3 in his last four, was finished in all three losses and the only ‘win’ was over an old Rafael Dos Anjos who blew out his knee 90 seconds in. At 35 years old, it’s not looking great for Neal. As for Medic, he’s 32 years old and 12-3, all finishes. Can’t say I remember that much about him but he’s coming off a quick first round TKO over Muslim Salikhov in November and stopped Gilbert Urbina in a minute in his previous fight.

 

Dan Ige vs Melquizael Costa immediately jumped off the page to me as the obvious ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** this time. Absolutely love this pairing and had no idea it was even booked until now. And it’s just a week away! Sweet. Can’t go wrong with this and I love that they’re giving Costa a much deserved step up and putting him in front of a crowd. He’s been on a tear lately but they stuck him in the Apex his last couple of fights. This is a big opportunity for him against a pretty established name in the Featherweight division. I’m all for it.

‘50K’ Ige has been knocking around for a while now. Made his MMA debut in 2014, made his UFC debut in 2018. And in that time he’s shared the Octagon with the likes of Edson Barboza, Calvin Kattar, Korean Zombie, Josh Emmett, Movsar Evloev, Nate Landwehr, Bryce Mitchell, Diego Lopes and Lerone Murphy among others. Mixed results and he lost to a lot of the better names there but he’s got that experience against a high level of competition and he never got finished by any of that lot. He’s battle tested. He’s got some power in his hands as well. Hence why his nickname used to be ‘Dynamite’. His knockout wins over Damon Jackson and Andre Fili especially were brutal. He’s been struggling of late though. He’s gone 2-4 in his last six fights and dropped a decision to an ageing Patricio Pitbull last time out in July. No shame losing to Pitbull but it was a Pitbull who’s clearly several years past his prime. Not a great sign. He’s 34 years old now with a record of 19-10. I think he’s a better fighter than that win/loss ratio suggests but, still, 34 is no spring chicken in those lighter weight classes.

Costa’s the younger man at 29 and he’s actually had more fights than Ige, although not mixing with as high a level of opposition overall. He’s 25-7 with 16 finishes and, for me, has been one of the unsung exciting fighters on the roster in recent years. Not sure how far he can take it but at the very least he’s a guy I feel should be getting more love just for being an entertaining fighter to watch. He got stopped by Steve Garcia at the end of 2023 and he’s been on a hot streak ever since. He’s gone 5-0 since that loss, including a first round submission over Andre Fili, points wins over Christian Rodriguez and Julian Erosa, and in his last fight…

He did that to Morgan Charriere. That was in December, on the last card of 2025 at the Apex. A left high kick KO Cro Cop would be proud of, at just over a minute into the fight, and that was a wrap. And Charriere is decent. Purely as a selfish fan I was actually kind of disappointed Costa slept him so quick because I was fully expecting a FOTN winning banger. But they don’t get paid overtime and Costa never came to play and shut his lights off early. I just looked back at the thread for that card and I actually named Ige as a guy I’d like to see Costa get a chance against. Here we are. Like I said, I’m not sure where Costa’s ceiling is. I’m not expecting him to go too far. But he’s definitely shown over the last 18 months or so that he deserves the opportunity at least. This is his ticket into the rankings if he can get the win but I wouldn’t count Ige out yet. Should be a fun one.

 

Serghei Spivac vs Ante Delija. Ugh. Heavyweights. We’ve talked about the decline of the division a fair bit on here lately and I see a fight like this listed and, it’s not even the worst they can make in the division, but I just can’t remember a time when I gave less of a shit about the big lads. I’ll go through the motions. Spivac’s young by Heavyweight standards, he just turned 31, and he’s 17-6 with 15 finishes. There’s worse in the division but, even still, he’s going nowhere. He’s 1-3 in his last four and is coming off a decision loss against Waldo Cortes Acosta in June that I don’t even remember. I either skipped it or I’ve mentally blocked it out as a survival mechanism. Because I imagine it was terrible. Croatia’s Delija is 35 years old and 26-7 with 19 finishes. He’s not bad. Has some names on his record and was actually meant to debut in the UFC years ago but it turned out he still had an active contract with PFL. He finally made it to the UFC in September and knocked out Marcin Tybura in a round on the Paris card. He followed that up with an absolute mess of a fight against Waldo where he poked Waldo in the eye, finished him immediately after, they went to a replay, saw the eye poke and restarted the fight, then Waldo knocked him out! Just a shambles all round. Hopefully he gets back on track here but my expectations are basically in the toilet when it comes to the Heavies these days.

 

Jacobe Smith vs Josiah Harrell has been thrown together on short notice, just a week out from the show, but I’m intrigued. Smith was all set to face Seok Hyeon Ko on this card but that fell apart. In steps Harrell on a week’s notice. These two are both undefeated, both 11-0, someone’s O has to go! Smith came into the UFC early last year with some hype. He’s an amateur wrestling standout from Oklahoma and I remember Daniel Cormier bigging him up a lot before his debut. He stopped Preston Parsons in no time and the hype seemed warranted. He then took on Niko Price in June and won by second round submission. Sounds great on paper but I remember thinking his performance raised some questions and he looked pretty tired after just one round. He got the finish so all’s well that ends well, but it’s something he might have to address. Although in fairness, I seem to recall that fight being chucked together on short notice as well. Josiah Harrell’s UFC debut is the real story of this one though…

He trains under Matt Brown and was actually supposed to make his debut back in July 2023. He was booked to face Jack Della Maddalena on short notice but was pulled from the fight at the last minute when the fight week medicals revealed a “brain abnormality”. Turned out he had a disease called Moyamoya which increases the risk of having a stroke. I vaguely remember this story at the time. It’s mad to think, if he hadn’t signed up for that short notice fight against Maddalena, he’d have carried on fighting on regional shows where the medicals are less in depth, or pretty much nonexistent, and who knows what could have happened? Even though that Maddalena fight never went ahead, those scans almost certainly saved Harrell’s life in the long run. He had surgery in 2024 and was eventually given the all clear to fight again, with “no restrictions”. But what a scary situation.

“Just doing the math and the probability that me being in combat sports my whole life and dealing with football and understanding how close I was to death for, who knows, probably pretty much my whole life, around anything that raises blood pressure. Sex, alcohol, drugs, anything that put me unconscious. I’ve been unconscious in football. Anything that put me unconscious was an increased stroke probability. Any time that I had stress or anything. Pretty much my whole life I should’ve had a stroke or two while I was sleeping. It’s just hard for me not to look up and go, ‘Thank you’.” - Josiah Harrell

He returned to the cage in March 2025 after nearly two years on the shelf and he’s gone 4-0 since with three finishes. Notable in that win streak was his first round submission over Melvin Guillard in May, although Guillard was obviously way past it by that point. Harrell’s last fight was as recently as mid January on a LFA card, and he won via corner stoppage. Now he finally gets to make his UFC debut. What a story. Hard not to root for him after learning all that. They’re not exactly doing him any favours with the matchmaking here, throwing him straight in with another unbeaten prospect on a week’s notice right out the gate. But I’m much more invested in this fight now than I thought I’d be when I first saw it listed. Could’ve easily been my ‘one to watch’ to be honest.

 

Michel Pereira vs Zach Reese. I’m neither here nor there on this really. Pereira’s stock has plummeted after his last few fights. I never saw him as a world beater but it wasn’t that long ago he was considered a legit highlight of any card he appeared on by most fans. And in fairness, he was on quite a streak for a while there and looked like he might be a force since moving up to 185. He won eight fights in a row before getting badly derailed by ‘Fluffy’ Hernandez in October 2024. After that, he then lost a decision in a crap fight against nothing happening Abus Magomedov. Then in his last fight in Shanghai in August, he got sparked in just 43 seconds by Kyle Daukaus. Disaster. Just shows how quick things can go wrong in this sport. Going into that ‘Fluffy’ fight, I remember the consensus opinion seemed to be that it’d be a fun competitive fight, not the bad arse kicking it turned out to be. Christ, looking back at the thread now, we all (well, the four of us that voted) picked Pereira to beat Hernandez in the poll. Sounds mad now but that was the feeling back then. I barely remember Zach Reese but he’s from Houston apparently so that explains him getting this opportunity. My only memory is him getting knocked out by Azamat Bekoev but he’s 10-2-0-1 with UFC wins over Julian Marquez and Dusko Todorovic. Had a No Contest with shitbag Sedriques Dumas but that was because he blasted Dumas in the bollocks and he couldn’t continue. Worth it. Subbed Jackson McVey last time out. Pereira badly needs to turn things around here. This is a step down on paper, if he loses again, it’s hard to see how he bounces back.

 

Chidi Njokuani vs Carlos Leal is alright prelim fodder. Njokuani has been floating around for donkeys years now, 37 years old and a near 40 fight veteran. He’s 25-11-0-1 and has had his moments over the years but he’s always been middle of the pack, a Fight Night type fighter at best. Nothing wrong with that, not everyone can be a world champion. But he’s surely coming to the end of his career at this point. He got subbed in the first round by Jake Matthews last time out but was on a little three fight win streak prior to that. Leal’s 31 years old with a record of 22-7 and 13 finishes. Not a lot to say really. He lost a decision in his UFC debut against Rinat Fakhretdinov that many felt he won, then stopped Alex Morono in a round, then in his last fight in July he got absolutely clobbered by Muslim Salikhov just 42 seconds into the fight. Probably should be beating Chidi at this stage but fuck knows? Especially coming off that Salikhov KO. That was a bad one.

 

Ode Osbourne vs Alibi Idiris. Dunno. Seen a lot of Osbourne’s fights. He’s been on the roster forever. He’s one of those fighters who I watch and often think he looks decent, but his record doesn’t reflect that at all. He’s 13-9-0-1 and has gone 2-5 in his last seven. He beat Charles Johnson in that stretch though and, even as recently as his last fight in August, he went the distance with Steve Erceg in a fight many felt Osbourne got ‘robbed’ in. I disagreed with that talk but it was close. I don’t know. Osbourne’s just floundering, very much a journeyman, but I still think he has the skills to potentially derail rookies coming up. He’s a decent early litmus test for guys climbing the ladder. Kazakhstan’s Idiris is 31 years old and 10-1 with six of his wins not making it to the scorecards. All I know about him is he was on TUF last year and made it to the finals, but got subbed by Joseph Morales in the finale. I only know that because it was on the DDP vs Khamzat undercard though.

 

Alden Coria vs Luis Gurule. Haven’t seen enough of either of these two to really give much insight but it might be worth a look. I vaguely recall thinking Coria looked good in his UFC debut. He fought Alessandro Costa on the Noche card in September and stopped him in the third round. He’s 27 years old and 11-3-0-1 with 9 finishes. He’s a Texas boy as well so the crowd should be into this. Gurule is 32 with a record of 10-2 and 6 finishes. Made his UFC debut on an Apex card last April and suffered a second round TKO at the hands of Ode Osbourne. He followed that by losing a decision to Jesus Aguilar in September. So 0-2 so far in the UFC. His nickname is ‘Grim’ and that’s how things are looking for him.

 

Nora Cornolle vs Joselyne Edwards 2. Epic rematch alert! I will not be rewatching and reviewing their first fight in here if that’s OK with you. I just about remember their first fight and I’m not watching it again because life’s too short. They fought on the Gane vs Spivac undercard in Paris back in September 2023. Cornolle got the decision and from what I recall it was considered a bad decision and a case of ‘hometown’ biased judging at the time. If I’m remembering right, even the French crowd were booing at the decision, which speaks volumes when a crowd boos their home fighter. Both have piss-arsed about since, doing nothing much of note. Although Edwards did chin Priscila Cachoeira last time out, which I did enjoy. Whatever. The rematch is on. We had to get this settled, didn’t we? Don’t think I could have coped if they didn’t run it back.

 

Ramiz Brahimaj vs Punahele Soriano could be a solid little scrap actually. Used to love watching Soriano. Genuinely thought he might be a bit of a prospect at one point. Those days are definitely long gone but he had some vicious knockouts early in his run and was undefeated so I kind of bought into him. He’s 12-4 now and has had a few setbacks but he’s won his last three in a row whatever that’s worth. Walloped Uros Medic in 30 seconds last January but followed that up with an uncharacteristically dull win over Nikolay Veretennikov in October. Brahimaj is a New Yorker but fights out of Dallas, so kind of a home game for him. He’s 13-5 with a 100% finish rate and has stopped Mickey Gall, Billy Goff and Austin Vanderford in his last three.

 

Phil Rowe vs Jean-Paul Lebosnoyani is another fight I don’t really have a clue about. Gone are the days when I knew every fighter on the card and could reel off records, recent opponents, stats and stuff. Rowe is from Brooklyn, 35 years old and 11-6 with all his wins coming inside the distance. He’s been in the UFC since 2021 but the best he’s managed has been wins over Niko Price and Ange Loosa. He comes into this fight off a decision loss to Seok Hyeon Ko in November. Lebosnoyani is making his first Octagon appearance here. He’s 27 years old, 9-2 with 8 finishes, he’s on a four fight win streak and coming off a one minute headkick knockout win on DWCS in September.

 

Yadier Del Valle vs Jordan Leavitt might be decent. Interested to see Del Valle again, this time hopefully in a fight that isn’t dodgy. If you recall, Del Valle fought Isaac Dulgarian on an Apex card back in November, in a fight that ended up getting the UFC embroiled in a betting scandal. Del Valle submitted Dulgarian in the first round but it all felt fishy, from the suspicious movement of the betting lines before the fight, to the way the fight itself played out with Dulgarian, usually a strong grappler, falling victim to the rear naked choke all too easily. No surprises Dulgarian was swiftly let go by the UFC but there was zero evidence to suggest any involvement or wrongdoing on Del Valle’s side. So here we are. Now that’s out of the way, Del Valle is Cuban, 29 years old and undefeated at 10-0 with 6 finishes. Leavitt’s been around a while. He’s 30 years old, 12-3, fought Paddy Pimblett etc. He’s coming off a submission win over Kurt Holobaugh last May but has had very mixed results in the UFC. He’s pretty much just a grappler though so should play to Del Valle’s strengths.

 

Carli Judice vs Juliana Miller should be a squash in Judice’s favour from the (admittedly limited) footage I’ve seen of both. Judice is 26 years old and 5-2 with all her wins coming via KO/TKO. Not an amazing record and she does have those two losses against Ernesta Kareckaite and Gabriella Fernandes, neither of which are great themselves. But she’s looked good in her two fights since signing with the UFC. In her debut she put Yuneisy Duben away with a nasty headkick in the first round. Then in her last fight on the Holloway vs Poirier 3 undercard in July…

Brutal. Just folded Nicolle Caliari with a crushing knee to the body in the third round of their fight. You just don’t see finishes like that in women’s MMA. The women’s side of the sport needs more of that. Much more. So I’ll be rooting for Judice to make a run. She must have flaws to lose to the women she lost to so it’s not like I’m expecting it, but Christ, the women’s game needs excitement from somewhere. And Miller, on paper at least, should be cannon fodder. She’s 29 years old, 4-3 and has looked pretty terrible in her UFC fights from what I remember. She’s coming off a win here but she’s awful if I’m remembering correctly. If Judice loses to her, forget I said anything, at that point there’s no hope. But I’m hoping for another spectacular finish here.

 

Strickland fight week.

Edited February 19 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

I'd assumed this was an Apex show for whatever reason, delighted to see it isn't😃

[Bruce85]

Not a bad card, which should hopefully feel more energetic with a live crowd but Christ I can’t stand Strickland. Some fighters I can’t stand but I want to watch them to see them get beat, but I don’t even want to see Strickland even if hers getting KOd. He’s just so unlikeable and dull to watch. Hopefully Fluffy sparks him out in 15 seconds. 

[wandshogun09]

4 hours ago, Egg Shen said:

I'd assumed this was an Apex show for whatever reason, delighted to see it isn't😃

It’s the Strickland factor isn’t it? The dullard basically is the Apex in (sub)human form. 

3 hours ago, Bruce85 said:

Hopefully Fluffy sparks him out in 15 seconds. 

I’d love to see that but sadly it’s highly unlikely. Fluffy’s striking isn’t the best, he’s not known as a heavy hitter and Strickland, as much of a knob as he is, isn’t that easy to land clean on at the best of times.

The more I’m thinking about this fight, the more I’m fearing the worst and leaning towards Strickland winning on points in a bit of a stinker. He’s rotten to watch but his strengths mostly lie in his defence and for that reason I’m wondering whether Fluffy will even be able to get his game going. Like I said, he’s not a great striker. And while his grappling is really good, Strickland isn’t easy to take down and he’s even harder to keep down. We saw that in the DDP fights. I hope I’m just being glass half empty and Fluffy proves me wrong but I’m getting a bad feeling about this one. 

Edited February 15 by wandshogun09

[wandshogun09]

Apparently Sean Strickland went on one of his ‘hilarious’ little rants again. I didn’t listen to it because I’m a 40 year old adult man with a wife and kids and a job and working brain cells and why would I? But it’s all over my social media and it seems he was having a pop at gays again. Seriously, he needs to just come out of the closet. I’m convinced that’s what that homophobic part of his whole schtick is all about. He talks about and is bothered about gay and trans stuff way too much. Why’s he so invested and obsessed? It’s 2026 Sean, no-one cares if you like a bit of willy. 

[Egg Shen]

Maybe him and Dan Hooker could get together?

[wandshogun09]

21 hours ago, Egg Shen said:

Maybe him and Dan Hooker could get together?

Saw that stuff. Bit mad isn’t it?

As much as it pains me, I picked Strickland in the poll. Really, really hope I’m wrong but I’ve got a bad feeling about it. 

Edited February 21 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

Ive picked against Hernandez in the past and been very wrong, so ive gone with him.

[Dai]

An absolute disaster of a performance from Fluffy in this one. From about 30 seconds into R2, when it was clear it was just going to be the exact same Strickland fight we have seen a million times before, I was just shaking my head in disbelief and wondering why Fluffy even bothered having a training camp/developing tactics, and also why he bothered paying three people to be in his corner when there seemed to be literally no gameplan at all. Super depressing. Strickland did what he always does, and wasnt taken out of his comfort zone at all. Solid finish, though, to be fair.

Rest of the main card was OK to be fair. Pereira's days of being a fan favourite and one to look forward to watching seem well and truly done. He looked crap. Disgustingly late finish in the Smith fight. Probably the worst late stoppage Ive seen in many a year. There have been a few bad ones where the fighter is clearly out and have taken one extra punch, but this one wasnt a split second reaction difference, it was at least 5 seconds of his head getting pounded that shouldnt have happened. Took me back to the really bad stoppage of King Mo against Larkin in Strikeforce, when the female ref (Kim Wimslow?) just allowed King Mo to smash Larkins head for about 10 extra shots than necessary (a challenge here for you Wand to see if you can gif that one up, even though its going way back!). 

 

Couple of decent looking KOs toward the end of the show too. The spinning back kick of Costa probably sounds more impressive if you were to read the report, because whilst good, it wasnt that good in my opinion. The Medic one looked like he had landed a Cro Cop headkick based on the way Neal landed, but that too didnt look that impressive when they showed the replays.

[Carbomb]

Strickland won? 

 

[Bruce85]

15 hours ago, Carbomb said:

Strickland won? 

 

I accidentally saw the result so not a chance I’m going back to watch this card now. 

[wandshogun09]

Rotten result in the main event. The closer it got the more I felt like Strickland was probably gonna win. Would’ve been chuffed to be proven wrong but sadly my gut feeling was correct.

Tell you what, for someone who constantly bashes gay people, Strickland has got a bit of a fruity walk on him hasn’t he?

On a serious note, yeah, had a bad feeling Strickland was gonna get it done. I didn’t expect him to get the finish though. Fluffy looked dire. My fear with Fluffy going in was that he’s a strong grappler but doesn’t have great takedowns, and Strickland has always been a bastard to take down and especially to hold down. For that reason, I thought Fluffy would most likely be forced to stand a lot more than he probably would like to. But I expected Strickland to just take a points win in a dull 25 minute jab/teep fest. Fluffy actually getting stopped by Strickland was a terrible look for him. It’s gonna sound like a hater just not wanting to give Strickland credit but Fluffy really had an awful showing here. Didn’t even try to cut the cage off and just kept plodding forward into jabs all night. He had no answers and didn’t have the variety in his game or the striking skills to change things up when his usual ‘just march forward and pressure’ approach didn’t work. I’ll admit I bought into the hype on Fluffy during his win streak, and he’s still a good fighter. But a lot of those wins were against guys who make a lot of silly mistakes and Fluffy was able to capitalise. For all his faults and as much as he’s a boring prick, Strickland doesn’t make a ton of mistakes. There was nothing there for Fluffy to jump on. He just wandered around getting jabbed until he finally got hurt with that knee to the body which led to the finish.

Vomit.

The worst thing about this is all the pathetic little Strickland arse lickers have came back out of hibernation to talk about what a ‘badass’ he is and how he’s the nightmare opponent for Khamzat and all this shit. They’ve been in hiding since he got shown up in the DDP rematch last year, now they’re out in force again. Even saw Cormier laying it on thick talking about if “this version of Strickland” shows up against Khamzat it’s gonna be a difficult fight for Khamzat. And how it didn’t seem like Strickland was fully “locked in” against DDP. But the “version” of Strickland who beat Adesanya was a beast and all that. So basically, it’s the old McGregor bollocks. When he wins, well that was the real version of him. When he loses, it’s because he wasn’t motivated or “locked in”. Piss off. Maybe his style is just more suited to beat someone like Fluffy than it is to beat someone like DDP? Just like berks still talk about how the “version” of McGregor who beat Eddie Alvarez would’ve beat Khabib. No dickhead. They look better against one than they do against the other because they’re different fucking opponents! Jesus Christ. The fact a former world champion like Cormier is just giving these lazy arse, nothing takes makes it even worse.

The big thing coming out of this show though, was that either the UFC or Paramount cut Strickland’s microphone while he was talking to the media after the show. He started going on about Fluffy’s coach Jim West supposedly grooming Aspen Ladd and they pulled the plug on him. The thing is, he’d been calling Khamzat “goat fucker” just before this and they let him run with that. But he starts talking about someone allegedly grooming and they cut the mic. I get why. Him throwing accusations like that around, even if they’re true, just opens the UFC and Paramount up to potential legal issues. But I think it’s quite telling that they don’t give a shit when he’s ranting about gay people, trans, racist shit and all manner of stuff that’s got nothing to do with MMA. They only step in when he ventures onto something that could get them sued. Says it all. Dana was also asked about Strickland’s rant earlier in the week and he tried to blame it all on the media. ‘You guys ask him dumb questions, what do you expect?’ Something like that. Like Strickland ever needs to be provoked or cajoled into saying stupid shit. Typical bullshit from Dana. How about Sean Strickland takes accountability for the bile that comes out of Sean Strickland’s mouth?

Anyway, fuck Prickland.

On 2/22/2026 at 11:28 PM, Dai said:

The spinning back kick of Costa probably sounds more impressive if you were to read the report, because whilst good, it wasnt that good in my opinion. The Medic one looked like he had landed a Cro Cop headkick based on the way Neal landed, but that too didnt look that impressive when they showed the replays.

Man, you’re a hard man to please 🤣 the Medic KO wasn’t a ‘Semtex’ Daley haymaker or anything but it was a nasty knockout all the same. One of those punches that doesn’t look like there’s a ton of power behind it but it was one of those temple shots that just switch the lights out. The way Neal fell and his head bounced off the canvas was horrible. Snot flying out of his face, the lot…

Hard to see where Neal goes from here though. 35 years old, 1-4 in his last five, he suffered that disgusting spinning elbow KO against Carlos Prates last time out, now this? Coming off that brutal loss against Prates, I guess it’s fair to assume that Neal probably went out a bit easier here against Medic as a result of that. His durability can’t be what it used to be. Don’t know what’s next for Medic. Can’t see him getting that Leon Edwards fight he called for but you never know. The matchmakers might just see Leon as a completely lost cause at this point, maybe they’ll do it.

And the Melquizael Costa spin kick finish was clean as fuck. OK, it didn’t have the same brutality and shock factor of Edson Barboza murdering Terry Etim and Ige didn’t go clean out but it was still a sweet finish.

To be honest, I was surprised it didn’t knock Ige spark out. Not only did it land right on the jaw, Ige also ducked into it. Ige has a rock chin on him. And that’s what makes this more impressive to me. You look back at some of the names Ige has been in with over the years and he’d never been finished before. Costa being the first to put a dent in that chin is a nice feather in his cap. Costa’s entered the Featherweight rankings at #13 off the back of this win. I liked his callout of Diego Lopes, would be a cool fight to watch, but I really can’t see it happening. Lopes is still at #2. I wouldn’t have a problem with that fight being made myself but it’s not gonna happen is it? A more realistic fight for Costa would be Pitbull (#12) or Ortega (#10) but even then it looks like Ortega is moving up to 155. The Pitbull fight might be the logical move. A name but an ageing one. Wouldn’t even be shocked if it headlined a Fight Night.

Spivac vs Delija was pure shite. Heavyweights in stinking the card up shocker. I’m honestly at the point where I wouldn’t care if they just binned the whole shitshow of a division. As much as I like Tom Aspinall, there aren’t even really any fights I’m that fussed about seeing with him anymore in this wasteland of a division. I’d love to see him put the Gane mess right but, aside from that, what else is there? There’s nothing to get excited about at Heavyweight these days. Sod all. Jones won’t fight Aspinall, Ngannou can’t fight Aspinall and Jones and Ngannou can’t fight each other. Just chuck the whole thing away. But yeah, thought these two were pretty rotten. This is three cards in a row now where the Heavyweights have shat things up. From Tuivasa vs Teixeira in Sydney to Kuniev vs Almeida at the Apex to Spivac vs Delija in Houston. It’s just toilet.

Yeah, that Jacobe Smith stoppage was a bad one. I was enjoying the fight the short time it lasted and the way Smith reversed Harrell to land in side control was a thing of beauty. But that stoppage. Christ…

For one, yeah, Kerry Hatley was woefully out of position and late getting in there. Harrell ate at least half a dozen extra punches he didn’t need to eat. Bad reffing and it was even harder to watch in this particular case because it was a big part of the story going in that Harrell had a brain disease not that long ago and here he is taking unnecessary punishment despite clearly already being out. But I don’t feel like Smith is getting enough shit for his part in it either. Look at that gif again. Yeah the ref is late getting hands on them but even when he does, Smith continues to punch a couple more times. The commentators seemed quite happy to blame 100% of it on the ref but Smith carried on even after he got in there and Hatley had to forcefully shove him away. Nobody can convince me Smith didn’t know Harrell was done already. He’s on top looking right at him and the ref’s put his hands on him (eventually) yet he still throws more shots? Cunt move. No excuse for that and I’ll be rooting against Smith going forward.

On 2/22/2026 at 11:28 PM, Dai said:

Took me back to the really bad stoppage of King Mo against Larkin in Strikeforce, when the female ref (Kim Wimslow?) just allowed King Mo to smash Larkins head for about 10 extra shots than necessary (a challenge here for you Wand to see if you can gif that one up, even though its going way back!). 

You’ve got a good memory.

If it’s on Fight Pass, I can gif it. I watched this fight at the time and vaguely recalled it happening in a King Mo fight but I couldn’t have told you it was Larkin on the receiving end. And yeah, Kim Winslow was terrible. I genuinely thought she was gonna get someone killed back then. She seemed to have at least one howler on every card she worked at the time.

The Michel Pereira fight did nothing for me. By about halfway through I’d lost interest and it was just background noise but from what I did see, Pereira might’ve been lucky to even get the decision. Like I say, I wasn’t watching properly so it’s not like I was scoring it, but it looked like it might be close and Reese might’ve got it. No. So it’s stopped the rot for now for Pereira, snapped that three fight losing skid, but he’s floundering at this point.

I’ve got absolutely fuck all to say about the prelims. And I watched them all. Just a big load of nothingness. Eight fights, seven of them went the distance and none of them were much good. Instantly forgettable set of prelims. 

Hopefully Mexico is better.

Edited February 26 by wandshogun09

[jimufctna24]

8 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

Just like berks still talk about how the “version” of McGregor who beat Eddie Alvarez would’ve beat Khabib. No dickhead. They look better against one than they do against the other because they’re different fucking opponents! Jesus Christ.

I've seen this "theory" crop up a few times on Twitter over the years. 

I don't want to bash Eddie Alvarez, who was a bloody good fighter, but not only was he not as good as Khabib, he was a completely different style of fighter.

I watched the Khabib vs McGregor fight back when the muted version was uploaded to YouTube a while back, and came to the conclusion that Khabib was simply all wrong for McGrgeor (freakishly durable, superb cage wrestler, awesome ground game, etc). Any version of McGregor, including the 2016 version, was almost certainly in for a bad night against Khabib. 

[Dai]

Forgot about the snot flying out! Disgusting. Thanks for the gif too, I can almost hear the thuds of Mo's gloves on Larkins head. Can only remember it as I think it was almost peak Strikeforce. A genuine alternative, which is something thats definitely missing today. Youre right about them giving Smith a free pass, it was very strange the way they reacted by putting it all on the ref when its clear he was only pissed off because he clearly stopped it but Smith laid in a few extra shots.