Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted February 26 Paid Members Posted February 26 (edited) Back at the Apexā¦ PARAMOUNT+ MAIN CARD Josh Emmett vs Kevin VallejosĀ Amanda Lemos vs Gillian RobertsonĀ Andre Fili vs Jose Delgado Harry Hardwick vs Marwan RahikiĀ Ion Cutelaba vs Oumar Sy Charles Johnson vs Bruno SilvaĀ PARAMOUNT+ PRELIMS Chris Curtis vs Myktybek Orolbai Vitor Petrino vs Steven AsplundĀ Elijah Smith vs Su Young You Bolaji Oki vs Manoel Sousa Brad Tavares vs Eryk Anders Bia Mesquita vs Montserrat Rendon Luan Lacerda vs Hecher Sosa PieraĀ Rodriguez vs Sam HughesĀ Ā Ā You know what? For an Apex card, Iām actually feeling quite positive about this one. We saw with the last Apex card in February, theyāve made a few little changes and expanded it a bit to get more fans in and itās definitely for the better. Theyāre obviously gonna persist with the Apex whether we like it or not. If itās gonna stick around, at least having more of a crowd in there will make the shows there more watchable. This card is decent as well. Emmett vs Vallejos is a solid headliner. Old guard vs new blood and a nice step up for Vallejos coming off his stoppage win over Giga Chikadze in December. And Emmettās in a bit of a āmust winā situation here. Tough veteran whoās mixed with some of the best but heās 41 years old, 1-4 in his last five and coming off getting steamrolled in 90 seconds by Youssef Zalal last time out. Elsewhere on the card, Charles Johnson is always worth a watch. Heās trying to rebound off a TKO loss against Alex Perez at UFC 324 in January. Steven Asplund is the Heavyweight who was 500lbs or something and lost loads of weight. Was fun to watch in his UFC debut. An entertaining Heavyweight in 2026? Madness! Myktybek Orolbai is a madman. Fili vs Delgado sounds like your show stealer. Bia Mesquita is undefeated, a BJJ specialist and looked really good in her UFC debut. And at the other end of the spectrum, Harry Hardwick had one of the worst UFC debuts in recent memory on the Paris card in September. Heās done well to even get a second fight after that shambles, to be honest. Needs to redeem himself here. Ā So yeah, not bad at all really. One to settle in with on Sunday afternoon, I think.Ā Edited March 14 by wandshogun09 Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted March 12 Paid Members Posted March 12 Big fan of Steven Asplund, the big ol' lump has won me over already. Not many of these media day interviews are worth your time, this one is decent though and it makes me want to root for the guy.Ā Really interested in Hardwick/Rahiki too. Harry Hardwick took about as much backlash that I can remember a UFC debutant taking last time out, I actually felt abit sorry for him They appear to have thrown him in with an Australian finishing machine this time around though. I wanna see it. Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted March 12 Author Paid Members Posted March 12 Yeah Asplund has been very likeable so far. Also helps that heās been going back and forth with that shitbag Josh Hokit. Heād be the babyface by default opposite that wanker but Asplund is easy to root for in his own right.Ā Quote
Bruce85 Posted March 12 Posted March 12 Asplund seems like a good guy, really enjoyed his interview and last fight. Will definitely be tuning in to watch his fight. Also interested in how Hardwick fairs, I donāt know much about his opponent but if he has decent legs kicks it could be a rough one for Harry! Ā Ā Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted March 13 Paid Members Posted March 13 17 hours ago, wandshogun09 said: Yeah Asplund has been very likeable so far. Also helps that heās been going back and forth with that shitbag Josh Hokit. Heād be the babyface by default opposite that wanker but Asplund is easy to root for in his own right.Ā Yeah Asplund gets the game. He doesn't force it though. Could be a good fight down the line. Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted March 14 Author Paid Members Posted March 14 Fight day. Funny old card really. I like the main event a lot. Emmett should never shave though. Looks like a worm without the beard. Curtis vs Orolbai and Petrino vs Asplund being on the prelims of an Apex card is weird. Bout orders have been really strange lately. Sure I heard itās something to do with Paramount and CBS choosing when certain fights they want air though so itās gonna keep happening. Actually some decent fights on this one though. Fili vs Delgado, a second look at Bia Mesquita, Harry Hardwick trying to avenge that rotten debut.Ā Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted March 15 Paid Members Posted March 15 Yeah, I think the whole main card/prelim thing is all to cock at the moment cause of the CBS thing. At the presser they said Asplund was opening the main card but they obviously meant opening the CBS broadcast. Prob best to not other think it. Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted March 16 Paid Members Posted March 16 Harry Hardwick having an all timer painful UFC run Ā Quote
Bruce85 Posted March 16 Posted March 16 1 hour ago, Egg Shen said: Harry Hardwick having an all timer painful UFC run Ā I just came on here to post about this! That jaw is disgusting! Hell of a fight though, I think that loss did more for his stock than a dull points win would have done. I can see them giving him one more fight at least now.Ā Ā Rest of the card was okay, I was a bit hungover when I watched it and canāt remember much but enjoyed it at that time. Shame Asplund lost but I enjoyed the fight and want to see him again.Ā Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted March 28 Author Paid Members Posted March 28 Way late with this. Had a bunch of shit going on and never got to properly catch up on the last couple of cards until now. Was pleasantly surprised by this one though. Honestly think this was the best UFC card to watch, top to bottom, so far this year. I know thatās not exactly saying much but I really liked it. Kevin Vallejos absolutely destroyed Josh Emmett and put him out inside a round. Couldnāt have done it any better. Shut down anything and everything Emmett tried, then shut his lights out.Ā He was looking like a solid prospect anyway going into the fight and he definitely looked like the real deal here. I do think some of the reaction and jizzing over Vallejosā performance has been slightly overblown though. He looked fantastic, not taking anything away from that, but Iāve seen people talking like this proved heās a future champion and all sorts and thatās a bit much for me. It was a very impressive performance but you have to take into account that Emmett was not on good form coming into this one, he was 1-4 in his last five, had just been subbed in 90 seconds by Youssef Zalal in his last fight and heās 41 years old. I like the enthusiasm and positivity about Vallejos but you have to put wins like this in perspective. Keep seeing people compare Vallejos to Ilia Topuria and, while I can see some of the similarities, itās way early for that talk for me. Even saw people pointing out that Topuria didnāt finish Emmett but Vallejos was able to smoke him in a round. Yeah that looks great on paper but Topuria fought Emmett three years ago and Emmett wasnāt looking completely spent back then. All that said, I donāt wanna put a negative spin on Vallejos. He could only face the Josh Emmett he was given and he handled him the way any true prospect should. I do think heās got a bright future. Still only 24 years old and he looks sharp, dialled in and confident. Only has that one loss against Jean Silva on DWCS as well, so that could be a story to revisit if they cross paths again. Whatever happens, heās an exciting addition to the Featherweight division. Not sure who you give him next. Heās at #10 in the rankings now but I wouldnāt mind them letting him bash up another fading name like Ortega or something. Iād say give him Yair Rodriguez but Yair never seems to want to fight up and comers. He seems to be one of those fighters who thinks he just deserves endless title shots so I canāt see him going for a fight with someone like Vallejos. Actually, maybe Vallejos against the winner of that Arnold Allen vs Melquizael Costa fight is the move. Gillian Robertson vs Amanda Lemos felt weak as piss as a co-main, even for the Apex, but even that fight I didnāt really mind. Wasnāt a barnburner but I didnāt expect it to be. They were constantly working though. Robertsonās grappling was too much for Lemos to overcome but Lemos kept trying until the end and it made for an alright fight, in my opinion. Robertson has been racking up wins to little fanfare for a while now but she canāt be far off a title shot at this point. Sheās at #5 in the rankings coming off this win. Can see her fighting Virna Jandiroba (#3) or maybe the winner of the upcoming Tatiana Suarez vs Loopy Godinez fight at UFC 327. If she wins one of them, that could be her ticket to the title shot. Although I suspect weāll be seeing Zhang Weili return to Strawweight to take her belt back off Mackenzie Dern next though. Not much to say about Delgado vs Fili other than it was a very enjoyable fight. You knew it was gonna be a good fight and it was. Nothing more, nothing less. Didnāt catch fire into FOTY territory or anything and itās not a fight youāre gonna be rewatching anytime soon. But it was very much a satisfying way to spend 15 minutes. Nice win for Delgado over a veteran and it was nice to hear him give Fili his props in the post-fight interview. Filiās had some fun fights over the years on undercards but heās a bit of an unsung name in that regard. Marwan Rahiki vs Harry Hardwick was a belter. Bit of a beatdown in Rahikiās favour in the end and I thought he looked like someone to keep an eye on. But Hardwick fought his arse off here and definitely redeemed himself a bit for that rotten showing in his debut. Still saw idiots giving him shit for āquittingā between rounds but the ladās jaw was broken, for fuckās sake. Christ. Thought he have a good account of himself in a losing effort. He landed some good shots himself and didnāt go away easily. But Rahiki was on point here and Iām really looking forward to seeing more of him. You donāt think of Ion Cutelaba as a submission guy so him putting Oumar Sy away with a first round guillotine was a bit different. Not a good look for Sy. At one point he was being talked about as a real prospect for France. His first loss coming against mediocre Alonzo Menifield a while back was a red flag, getting subbed in a round by Cutelaba has pretty much killed his hopes of making any real waves stone dead now. Charles Johnson got back to winning ways in the main card opener. Happy to see that but wasnāt sure about the decision. I wasnāt watching closely and scoring it properly but it felt like he was a bit fortunate to get the nod over Silva to me. Looked a decent fight though. Prelims had their moments too. Although Orolbai vs Curtis wasnāt as entertaining as Iād hoped. Orolbai just dominated. Seen Curtis has been bellyaching since, acting like Orolbai ādidnāt wanna fightā. Tough shit. Orolbai has shown more than once that heās not shy about getting into a war or bleeding buckets if necessary. Just so happened here that he was able to school Curtis with his grappling alone. Why would he do anything else or put himself in danger when he was able to repeatedly take Curtis down pretty much exactly the same way over and over again? Thatās on Curtis for having no answers or idea how to counter it. Disappointed Steve Asplund lost but it was a good fight. Petrino just proved a bit too much for him in the end. Good old scrap though. Tough bastard. Letās face it, heās never gonna be in the title mix, even in a shallow pool like the current Heavyweight division. But heās a scrapper, he goes for it and puts on fun fights. Guys like that are few and far between these days at Heavyweight so Iām rooting for him regardless. The good thing is, there are plenty of absolute shitarse bums in the division so Iām sure heāll be able to win enough to stick around for a while yet. He just wonāt excel at that upper mid-top level. First time seeing him butĀ Manoel Sousa had a great debut, scoring a big highlight reel knockout over Bolaji Oki in the third round. Couldnāt ask for a better finish to your introduction on the big stage. Good fight as well. Iāll definitely be keeping an eye out for his next one. Really liked the performance and sub from Elijah Smith in his fight. He looked really good. Loved the sneaky uppercut in close as well. Bia Mesquita ran straight through Montserrat Rendon with ease as well for the quick submission. Sheās been beating bottom rung opposition so far but with her grappling she looks like she might be a real problem for a lot of the Bantamweight division. Itās a weak division anyway so you donāt necessarily have to be great to do well. Fuck, Ailin Perez is being talked about as a contender. Julianna Pena was champ, FFS. I genuinely think Mesquita could probably beat a bunch of the Top 10 already. Yeah, actually a cracking card that was. Much better on the night than it looked on paper going in. Quote
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