UFC 327: Prochazka vs Ulberg - Apr 11 🇺🇸🌴

[wandshogun09]

Left this later than planned but this is fast approaching now. Get your thongs out. We’re heading back to Miami…

PARAMOUNT+ MAIN CARD
Jiri Prochazka vs Carlos Ulberg - Vacant Light Heavyweight Title 

Azamat Murzakanov vs Paulo Costa 

Curtis Blaydes vs Josh Hokit 

Dominick Reyes vs Johnny Walker 

Cub Swanson vs Nate Landwehr

PARAMOUNT+ PRELIMS
Patricio Pitbull vs Aaron Pico 

Kevin Holland vs Randy Brown 

Mateusz Gamrot vs Esteban Ribovics 

Tatiana Suarez vs Loopy Godinez 

FIGHT PASS PRELIMS
MarQuel Mederos vs Chris Padilla

Kelvin Gastelum vs Vicente Luque 

Charles Radtke vs Francisco Prado 

 

This is more like it! I’ve seen fans talking about this card like it’s mega stacked or something and I’m not really feeling that. But it’s definitely a deeper overall card than we usually get these days for a numbered show. My hesitance to jizz all over it might be partly because I’m pretty lukewarm on the main event though, I’m just a bit indifferent to Ulberg. But the card as a whole? Yeah, there’s plenty to like about it. We’re only a week out now so hopefully not too many changes or last minute dropouts. But you know the drill, I’ll update this post when they do happen. You know it’s coming. 

 

 

Jiri Prochazka vs Carlos Ulberg tops this one and will crown a new Light Heavyweight champion. Alex Pereira vacated the belt to move up to Heavyweight so here we are. Never ideal when a title just gets relinquished like that, kind of dilutes the importance of the strap for a bit. But what can you do? This isn’t a bad fight at all but I’m not feeling it really. Love Jiri, he’s one of the only good things the 205 division has going for it these days. But Ulberg, I don’t know, I’m just indifferent to him. Maybe he’ll rise to the occasion here but I haven’t been blown away by him up to this point. Hopefully Jiri can drag him into something wild and we see how he responds.

Huge fan of Jiri Prochazka. What fight fan wouldn’t be? He’s pure entertainment. Like a Street Fighter character come to life. Seems like a good guy outside the cage, his heart seems to be in the right place, but he’s a strange cat as well. Weird in a good way. A loveable nutcase. And in the cage, there’s never a dull moment. He had quite a run in Japan where he was the RIZIN Light Heavyweight champion. In the UFC he’s fought eight times and he bagged a POTN or FOTN bonus in six of them. Former UFC Light Heavyweight champ, had that crazy war with Glover Teixeira to win the thing, scored that brutal spinning elbow KO against Dominick Reyes, bashed up Jamahal Hill. Yeah he went 0-2 against Pereira but those fights felt like real throwbacks to the glory days of LHW. In his last fight in October he chinned Khalil Rountree in the third round of another nutty scrap.

At a time when the 205 division is mostly dull as dishwater, Jiri’s a breath of fresh air. It’s a shame really that he didn’t come around 20 or so years sooner. Imagine dropping him into one of those Pride Grand Prix tournaments with the likes of Wanderlei Silva, Shogun, Rampage, Overeem, Liddell etc? 205 was THE division back then. Jiri would’ve fit right in with that lot and made the division even more fun than it was. He’s came along in an era when 205 is a shadow of itself but I’m grateful we’ve got him. Imagine the division without him? With the Hill and Rountree wins he’s legitimately got himself right back in the title mix on merit. It’s coming at quite a time in Jiri’s life as well…

Yep. He’s pregnant! Is there anything he can’t do? Nah seriously, Jiri’s gonna be a Dad and the baby is supposed to be due right around the time of this fight. Like days apart. I’d have been pulling for Jiri in this fight anyway but what a beautiful moment that would be if he regains the gold and becomes a father in a matter of days. Imagine Jiri being your Dad? If this was anyone else I’d question whether the distractions might be too much while prepping for a big title fight. With Jiri though, I doubt it’s gonna be a big factor. He’s always dialled in for any fight and this one’s gonna be no different.

“I already chose the way I like to hunt Ulberg, because he don’t like the pressure. He don’t like to be hunted. This is what I say to myself. I need to be the one who catches this guy. There is no other way to fight him. He is fast, good kickboxer, he likes to jump a lot, be light on the legs. He don’t like to wrestle, he don’t like to be on the ground. So pressure, pressure. That’s it.” - Jiri Prochazka

”Pressure, pressure.” So basically like any Jiri fight. He’s a fighter I’ve never felt really has a strict gameplan. He seems to just go in there and whatever happens happens and he just flows with it. At 32-5-1 with 31 finishes, 28 by knockout, I think it’s safe to say whatever Jiri’s doing, it’s been mostly very successful and effective. We’ll see how it goes this time.

Ulberg is a bit of a wild card for me. Despite being on the UFC roster for five years now, he’s still a bit of an unknown commodity. I don’t know what it is but I never come away from his fights feeling like I learned much new about him. He’s from New Zealand, trains out of City Kickboxing alongside Volk, Adesanya etc and he’s 13-1 with 9 of his wins not making it to the judges scorecards. All sounds good on paper but I don’t know. I’ve never been 100% sold on him. The one blemish on his record is a knockout loss in his UFC debut against Kennedy Nzechukwu back in 2021. I remember Ulberg was winning that fight and then Nzechukwu rallied and scored the come from behind KO. It’s been five years since then so it’s probably unfair to hold that against Ulberg but it’s always one of the first things I think of with him. It doesn’t help that he hasn’t really had many big or particularly impressive wins since either. He’s been gradually stepping up his opposition in his last few fights but lacklustre decisions over Volkan Oezdemir and a 40-something year old Jan Blachowicz didn’t set the world alight. He did knock Dominick Reyes out in a round last time out on the Perth card in September. But title shot worthy? I don’t know. He’s ranked high by default because the division is so shallow. I get why he’s in this spot. But he’s still yet to shine in a fight against a legit top guy. Maybe this will be that time. But he’s also 35 already as well. I think a lot of people think he’s a young rising contender but he’s older than Jiri.

Here we go then. No surprises I’m fully backing Jiri here. I’d love to see him get that belt back. And let’s face it, the division needs it. Even though there’s not exactly a line of interesting or compelling challengers for him after this, Jiri as champ is better for 205 than the alternative. I’m just really unsure about Ulberg though. Maybe he’s better than he’s shown so far and he’s the type who will up his game when he faces better competition. But there’s nothing about him so far that makes me see him as anything special. Jiri’s way more battle tested and way more experienced. He’s got almost three times the amount of fights Ulberg has. And Ulberg has never gone longer than three rounds. Jiri’s only done it once but that was the war with Glover and he got the finish in the last round to win the title. Nothing against Ulberg but I want him to eat canvas in this one. Jiri for champ. Fuck MAGA, it’s MLHWGA. Make Light Heavyweight Great Again.

 

Azamat Murzakanov vs Paulo Costa is now the co-main event thanks to the Van vs Taira fight getting pushed back to 328. Costa just continues to somehow manage to fall upwards despite himself, doesn’t he? Him in a co-main on a numbered show in 2026? That’s if he makes it through fight week though because I’m always half expecting some bullshit with Costa. A last minute pullout or him coming in a stone overweight or something. He’s had his moments over the years and had a couple of fun fights but I’m at the point where I’d be quite happy if Murzakanov just steamrolls him here and kind of puts him out to pasture. Costa’s coming off a points win over Roman Kopylov in July but had lost back-to-back fights against Robert Whittaker and Sean Strickland before that. The Strickland one being arguably the worst fight of 2024. Costa’s also moving up to Light Heavyweight here. Not sure if it’s a permanent move or what but he’s been floundering aimlessly for years now.

Murzakanov knocked out Aleksandar Rakic in about three minutes on the Aspinall vs Gane undercard back in October. Rakic isn’t exactly on top form these days but I remember thinking it was a solid win for Murzakanov just because of how much bigger Rakic looked on the night. Murzakanov showed his punching power in that one, the shot he finished it with was such a short one it didn’t look like much but Rakic hit the deck quick. Murzakanov is a bit of a weird one. Undefeated at 16-0 now, 13 finishes, 12 by knockout, 6-0 in the UFC. But he’s also 36 years old, he actually turns 37 the day after this fight. So hardly some young prospect. He needs to get a move on but it’s been a bit of a slow burn with him. The Rakic fight was a step in the right direction and he’s quietly creeped up to #6 in the rankings. But now he’s facing Costa who’s moving up to 205 here so not even in the rankings. It’s an odd one. At least it’s a name opponent for Murzakanov, I guess, but it doesn’t really do anything for him in terms of progress in the division, other than just getting him another win over a fading name. Although now it’s co-main it’s progress for Murzakanov in that sense. He’s heading in the right general direction, slowly, but he’s at least moving now. 

 

Curtis Blaydes vs Josh Hokit. Right then. I think we’re all on the same page here. If there are any Hokit supporters on here, out yourself now so I can put you on ignore, yeah? Bloke’s an absolute weapon. One of those fighters like Strickland and Covington who in reality probably has the personality and charisma of a house brick so has to force a desperate ‘edgy’ character and say controversial and outright bigoted shite to get attention. Pathetic. And the thing is, as much as I begrudge admitting it, he actually hasn’t looked bad in the cage so far. It’s all been low level stuff, a couple of first round stoppage wins over Max Gimenis and Denzel Freeman, but he looks fairly quick for a Heavyweight, has decent power and he’s unbeaten at 8-0 and still only 28 years old. For how absolutely shit the Heavyweight division is these days, he’s not looked bad so far. Just a shame he’s a proper dickhead. This is a huge step up for him. Going from a couple of ‘who are theys?’ like Gimenis and Freeman to Curtis Blaydes is a massive jump in levels. Blaydes is no world beater but he’s mixed with some of the best Heavyweights of the last decade, like Ngannou and Aspinall, and has wins over the likes of Mark Hunt, Alistair Overeem, Junior Dos Santos and Alexander Volkov. On a good day, he can cause a lot of guys problems. Strong wrestler, knockout power, vicious ground and pound if he gets on top. The thing that’s really held him back has been inconsistency. He’ll have a few good fights then get chinned, rinse and repeat. He’s coming into this fight off a split decision win over Rizvan Kuniev in a stinker on the Azerbaijan card last June. Doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence but I’m really hoping this is one of his good days and he smashes Hokit to bits. I get that the division needs new blood and a Blaydes win mightn’t be the best outcome for the future of HW…sod it. Don’t care. Come on, Curtis. You can do it. Don’t fuck this up. 

 

Dominick Reyes vs Johnny Walker. Man, I don’t know. Who the fuck knows with this one? You’ve got Reyes who went from getting robbed against Jon Jones, which kick-started a horrendous four fight losing streak, to miraculously reviving his career by going on a three fight winning streak, to somehow clawing it back to the point he was one win away from a title shot…only to get chinned in a round by Carlos Ulberg in Perth. Now he’s gotta fight on the undercard while Ulberg gets the title fight he would’ve had if he won that fight. Proper Jim Bowen ‘let’s see what you could’ve won’ vibes. And Walker? You never know what’s gonna happen but one thing you can count on, when he gets knocked out he does it in style. I’ll give him that. Nobody gets turned into a big floppy human noodle quite like Walker when he takes one on the chin. He had a disastrous 2024 but he got back on track in 2025 by stopping Zhang Mingyang, in China of all places, on the Shanghai card last August. Not a clue how this goes. Feels like any and all kinds of scenarios are on the table. Both are dangerous on the offence but vulnerable defensively. Good chance of it ending inside a round, I reckon, just no idea who’s gonna come out on top.

 

Cub Swanson vs Nate Landwehr is the new main card opener after the card shuffle and it’s the easy and obvious choice for ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** this time. Even with a fairly deep card like this, it stands out as the likely show stealer. On top of that, I think it’s Swanson’s retirement fight. There have been conflicting reports going back to his last fight in December 2024 when he knocked out Billy Quarantillo. He said at the time that he was “leaning towards retiring” but that the “right fight” could tempt him back. Well here we are. And what a fight it is. More recently, Cub’s management team confirmed on Instagram that this Landwehr fight would be his “final walk to the Octagon”.

End of an era. Maybe I’m forgetting someone obvious but is Cub the last man standing of the WEC lot? Cruz officially retired early last year, Aldo called it a day after the Zahabi loss. Who else was left? Cub’s 42 now and hasn’t been nearly as active over the last few years. He’s been gradually slipping into retirement for a while now. But it’ll be nice for him to properly get his farewell moment. What a warrior. So many great fights over the years. The ‘Korean Superboy’ FOTY contender in late 2016 is the one people are gonna remember most. Just a crazy battle. I need to revisit that one actually. But he had a belter against Dustin Poirier in London in 2013 that’s oddly been kind of forgotten. He had some corkers against Dennis Siver, Jeremy Stephens, stopped Charles Oliveira and Ross Pearson, even dragged a dogfight out of Kron Gracie in 2019. And while results have been mixed over his last bunch of fights, even an older Swanson was able to score sweet stoppages over the likes of Daniel Pineda, Darren Elkins and the one punch finish over Billy Quarantillo in his last fight. Sounds like he’s in a good position to walk away as well…

“I’ve always watched the story of how people made it and how people didn’t make it and how people made it and lost it all. One thing a lot of people told me that have made it was, man, ride it until you can’t. It takes a lot to be able to get to the top of the mountain and you need to take advantage when you get there. I’ve been very smart with my money but also I’ve been smart with my body and taken care of myself after some freak injuries that kind of made me change my ways. That’s kind of helped me to have longevity in this sport and that’s something I’m really proud of.” - Cub Swanson

Bless ‘em. Really hope he’ll be one of those rare fighters who gets to have a positive ending to his story. Always seemed like one of the good eggs in MMA. When the cage door shuts though, he’s always been a scrapper and I don’t think that’s gonna change for his last fight. I don’t think he can change it. It’s wired into his DNA. And he’ll have to be up for one last war here because his opponent definitely will be.

“I got a highlight reel like Evel Knievel, I got swagger like Elvis Presley and I’ll be damned if I ain’t handsome!” - Nate Landwehr

This nutcase is gonna bring it every time. Nate The Train is a maniac. Usually I’d be fully rooting for him in any fight but I can’t go against Cub in his last fight. I’m staying out of it. I can’t pick a side. I just hope they both have fun. Nate’s a gem. One of those fighters you can count on to just go balls out and bleed buckets to get a win or he’ll get ironed out trying. The man who delivered the immortal line - and I quote - “If I don’t lose, I’m probably gonna win”. He actually said that shit. If you’ve somehow never seen him fight, give his barnburner with David Onama from August 2022 a look. You’ll thank me later. He’s never gonna be a contender but fuck me he’s entertaining. He’s 37 years old now, 18-7 and coming off back-to-back knockout losses against Cub’s old mate ‘Superboy’ Choi and Morgan Charriere. He really can’t afford to take a third loss on the bounce here, obviously, especially against a retiring 42 year old. That’s never a good look. Guess I’m just gonna remain neutral and sit back and enjoy the mayhem.

 

Patricio Pitbull vs Aaron Pico is about as Bellator as it gets isn’t it? I chuckled when I saw the fight announcement. Something about Paramount forking out $7.7 billion for the rights to the UFC, only for the matchmakers to turn around and book the most Bellator fight imaginable just tickles me. It’s gonna be almost surreal seeing these two fight each other and it not be in Bellator. Two of the fighters who were pretty much synonymous with that promotion for years. Could be fun. Think it’s blatantly obvious that Pitbull is past his best these days. One of Bellator’s best back in the day but he’s gonna be 39 this year and this’ll be his 46th pro fight. So a bunch of miles on the clock. He’s 37-8 now. Finally got out of that PFL red tape and signed with the UFC, made his Octagon debut last April and lost on points to Yair Rodriguez. He bounced back in July with a points win over Dan Ige. A good win but not a great fight to watch. He was supposed to fight Losene Keita on the Paris card in September but Keita missed weight by 3lbs and Pitbull wasn’t having it and refused to fight. Don’t blame him. At this late stage in his career, bollocks to letting opponents get an unfair advantage.

That’s how Pico’s UFC debut went back in August. Knocked spark out by the spinning elbow of Lerone Murphy. Disaster. Pico was actually supposed to debut against Movsar Evloev in July, which would’ve been a ridiculously tough matchup for his debut, but Evloev pulled out injured. The Murphy fight got cobbled together pretty last minute as co-main for UFC 319. Big opportunity for Pico, a win would’ve immediately shot him straight into the title mix at Featherweight. Wasn’t to be. It’s the same story that haunted Pico in Bellator. Looks like an absolute handful but every now and then he runs into a fight where his aggression backfires and he gets iced in brutal fashion. It’s actually pretty frustrating because he appears to have the tools to be a real player but he can’t seem to control his aggression when he gets on the attack. It makes for exciting fights and I hope he’ll be able to drag something out of Pitbull here that’s been lacking in his last few fights. But I think Pico’s ceiling on his potential is always gonna be lower than it could be because he seemingly loses all defensive ability and composure once the red mist descends.

 

Kevin Holland vs Randy Brown is alright but I’m not gonna pretend I’m that arsed about it. Not a bad fight by any means and in this day and age I could easily see this headlining a Fight Night. So for its position on the card, it’s a very solid prelim. But yeah, not too fussed myself. I’ve just never been as into Holland as a lot of fans seem to be, I guess. When he’s on he can be good to watch. But he’s very hit and miss for me and there’s been a few fights where he seems more bothered about talking and taunting and showing off than actually winning the fight. He’s coming off a couple of losses here to Daniel Rodriguez and Mike Malott, so you’d hope we’ll get serious Kevin Holland here. Randy Brown’s a guy I actually used to think might have potential but it never really panned out. He’s had some good wins, not like his UFC run has been a total failure or anything. He scored one of the best one punch knockouts of last year against Nicolas Dalby. Big, rangey. He’s not someone you can overlook. But he’s also 35 now and coming off a TKO loss to Gabriel Bonfim in their Apex headliner back in November. We’ll see. Not expecting much from this really but could be better than I’ve made it sound, to be fair.

 

Mateusz Gamrot vs Esteban Ribovics. Not sure what to think about this. Could be good but I’ve became a big fan of Ribovics and I’ve got a bad feeling Gamrot’s just gonna wrestle the arse off him for a decision win, so I’m not exactly looking forward to it. Ribovics has been so much fun to watch since signing with the UFC. Seriously, pretty much every fight. He’s Argentinian, turns 30 at the end of April, has a record of 15-2 with 12 inside the distance and has been pretty much non-stop entertainment in the UFC. He had what I considered the FOTY in 2024 against Daniel Zellhuber at the Sphere yet for some reason was then stuck in the Apex in his next two fights. Dropped a split decision to Nasrat Haqparast last March in the FOTN, then beat Elves Brener in legitimately one of the best under the radar fights of 2025 in August. That one didn’t get the love it deserved, in my opinion, partly because Chris Duncan and Mateusz Rebecki went out straight after and had another FOTY contender. But yeah, Ribovics is ace. So he finally gets back in front of a proper crowd on a big card, and they give him Gamrot? Of all the fun strikers they could’ve put Ribovics against, they give him a wrestler? Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like Gamrot isn’t capable of having exciting fights, the Hooker fight was quality. But with Gamrot coming off that Charles Oliveira loss, he’s probably gonna be looking to just wrestle Ribovics into oblivion here. Hopefully Ribovics has answers for it and we get a good scrap out of it. 

 

Tatiana Suarez vs Loopy Godinez is an OK fight. Nothing special. I’d have probably been more into this if it happened a couple of years ago. Suarez’s last few fights have left me cold and kind of made me feel like she’s on her last legs. Feel harsh even saying that considering what she’s been through. The woman beat cancer, for fuck’s sake. Then as if that wasn’t enough, overcame a bad knee injury and massive layoff and came back. She’s tough as fuck, no doubt. I believed in her to the point I was actually picking her to take the belt off Zhang Weili early last year. That obviously didn’t work out. But her performance in that fight and then even in her win over Amanda Lemos last time out, I don’t know, her body has been through a lot and she’s 35 now. She just looks like she’s on the way out to me. Mexico’s Godinez is 32 with a 14-5 record and beat Julia Polastri and Jessica Andrade in her last two fights. Andrade looks about done herself though so not sure what that win even means at this stage in the game. I quite like Loopy but I’m not convinced she’s ever gonna get over the hump. She’s been a bit hot and cold. She’ll have fights where she looks like a future title contender and then others where she’ll look flat as fuck. And for all my doubts on Suarez, Loopy’s strengths seem to lie in her wrestling and Suarez is obviously the more accomplished wrestler of the two. So on paper at least, this might be a good stylistic matchup for Suarez.

 

MarQuel Mederos vs Chris Padilla is one of the few fights on the card where I’m really not very familiar with either fighter. I know I’ve seen both before but my memory is fuzzy on both. Mederos is 29 years old with a record of 11-1, six by KO/TKO. He’s gone 3-0 in the UFC so far but it’s all been lower level prelim stuff so a lot of people probably never saw it or, like me, saw it and barely remember it. He’s beat Landon Quinones, Austin Hubbard and Mark Choinski in the UFC so far, all by decision. Yeah, me neither. I recall Padilla a little bit more. He’s 30, 17-6 with 14 finishes and he’s gone 4-0 in the UFC, with three not making it to the scorecards. He’s coming off a stoppage over Ismael Bonfim in November, beat Jai Herbert on points before that and forced a doctor stoppage against Rongzhu before that. That’s the one I remember most. The Rongzhu one. I recall Padilla whacking him with a beautiful elbow and Rongzhu’s eye blew up like a balloon. So yeah, even this, I barely remember these guys but they’re both unbeaten in the UFC so far and someone’s gonna have to take that first Octagon L. Not too shabby.

 

Kelvin Gastelum vs Vicente Luque being so far down on the card is a bit weird but whatever. Not like these two are on fire at the moment. And fuck trying to make sense of UFC bout orders anymore. Especially since the Paramount deal kicked in. Anyway, almost sick of typing about Gastelum at this point. What is there even to say about him anymore? He’s still only 34 somehow, yet it legit feels like he’s been on the UFC roster for at least 20 years. He’s fallen out of the rankings and is long past being relevant in either the Middleweight or Welterweight divisions really. And all people talk about when he fights these days is whether he’ll make weight or not. He missed weight by 5lbs for the Dustin Stoltzfus fight last time out in September. Won the fight but who cares? 5lbs is taking the piss. I’m just at the stage where I can’t even be arsed with him. And Luque? I’ve been saying it every time he fights over the last few years, to the point you’re probably sick of it, but I’ve felt uncomfortable watching him fight ever since he had that brain bleed after the Geoff Neal fight in 2022. He hasn’t looked right since to me, he’s coming into this fight off back-to-back losses to Kevin Holland and Joel Alvarez, and now he’s moving up in weight to 185. I don’t like it. On the one hand, you might think he’ll be less vulnerable at 185 because he’s not cutting as much weight. Of course I get that. But he’s also gonna be fighting bigger men who hit harder. And the first fight they give him up at 185 is Gastelum, who’s probably gonna come in at 192lbs or something. Great. If Gastelum comes in heavy here, Luque’s team better not let the fight go ahead because what the fuck?

 

Charles Radtke vs Francisco Prado just got casually chucked onto the card about two weeks out. Radtke’s a bit of a heel as I recall. Can’t even remember details just remember him being a bit of a dick. He’s 35 years old, has an 11-5 record with 8 finishes and he’s gone 4-2 in the UFC. He’s been put away by Carlos Prates and Mike Malott but he’s coming into this fight off a third round submission over Daniel Frunza on an Apex card in November. I remember mostly enjoying what I’ve seen of Prado, despite the really shit win/loss ratio. He’s Argentinian, 23 years old and 12-4 with a 100% finish rate. But he’s also 1-4 in the UFC and currently on a three fight losing streak. Shite. I think he’s one of those fighters who’s kind of in no man’s land when it comes to weight classes. I think he’s too small to be effective at 170 but he’s too stocky for the cut to 155. He fought at Lightweight early in his UFC run and struggled. Then moved up to Welterweight and he just looks too undersized. It’s a bit of a shame because he has shown qualities in some fights, the Zellhuber fight was great from what I remember, but he’s a guy who probably would’ve benefited from a 160lb division. His frame isn’t cut out for 155 or 170, in my opinion. And it’s showed in his losses. Hope he wins this one.

 

And that, my friends, is 327.

Edited April 7 by wandshogun09

[jimufctna24]

1 hour ago, wandshogun09 said:

Patricio Pitbull vs Aaron Pico is about as Bellator as it gets isn’t it? I chuckled when I saw the fight announcement. Something about Paramount forking out $7.7 billion for the rights to the UFC, only for the matchmakers to turn around and book the most Bellator fight imaginable just tickles me. It’s gonna be almost surreal seeing these two fight each other and it not be in Bellator. Two of the fighters who were pretty much synonymous with that promotion for years. Could be fun. Think it’s blatantly obvious that Pitbull is past his best these days. One of Bellator’s best back in the day but he’s gonna be 39 this year and this’ll be his 46th pro fight. So a bunch of miles on the clock. He’s 37-8 now. Finally got out of that PFL red tape and signed with the UFC, made his Octagon debut last April and lost on points to Yair Rodriguez. He bounced back in July with a points win over Dan Ige. A good win but not a great fight to watch. He was supposed to fight Losene Keita on the Paris card in September but Keita missed weight by 3lbs and Pitbull wasn’t having it and refused to fight. Don’t blame him. At this late stage in his career, bollocks to letting opponents get an unfair advantage.

I know I posed in the PFL thread that the PFL is in some ways Bellator under a different name, but some of these recent UFC undercards have a whiff of Coker's Bellator too. 

Fortune, Pico, Gibson Jr, Musayev, Amosov, etc. 

Edited April 3 by jimufctna24

[Egg Shen]

Yeah, there's probably more Bellator fighters in the UFC now than anyone realises. Look forward to that though, I still think Pico could end up putting it all together one day 😄

[jimufctna24]

16 hours ago, Egg Shen said:

I still think Pico could end up putting it all together one day 😄

Drawing from my memories of watching Pico's Bellator fights, he's clearly very gifted, but his main weaknesses are his chin + striking defence. 

[wandshogun09]

Yeah he looks like a killer offensively but it seems like his head goes when he starts having success in the striking and it’s like he goes into kill mode and forgets the other guy can still hit back and his defence disappears. People talk about the Lerone Murphy loss now as if he “just got caught” but as I recall he got tagged coming in a few times before the finishing elbow landed. The warning signs were there but he was so tunnel vision on attacking that he left himself wide open. He’s always gonna be exciting to watch but I’m not sure they can train that out of him. 

[wandshogun09]

Oh for fuck’s sake.

[wandshogun09]

Triple post but whatever. Van vs Taira has been postponed, it’s now gonna be co-main under Khamzat vs Strickland at UFC 328 next month. At least it’s still happening but this card has taken a big hit. Murzakanov vs Costa is now co-main for this one. Swanson’s swansong (see what I did there?) has been bumped up to kick off the main card.

That’s the latest order six days out. The fact they’re now relying on Mr Reliable Paulo Costa as co-headliner isn’t ideal but hopefully everyone makes it through fight week with no major drama or controversy and what’s there now stays intact. I’ve updated the poll so if you voted before you’ll have to vote again. 

[Egg Shen]

Ahh, that sucks. At least it's still happening. 

Solid card.

[Zebra Kid Mark]

Very solid card, it's let down by a very weak Co main and a Heavyweight bout of Blaydes vs Hokit that I have very little interest in. Aside from that it looks great.

I never watch the Early Pre-lims as they aren't on TNT so I am a bit sad I won't be able to see Gastelum vs Luque, despite their flaws, they are usually in pretty decent fights. I would much rather the Suarez vs Godinez fight swapping places with the Gastelum/Luque fight.

[Egg Shen]

To quote the great Mick Hennessey, what the fuck is going on?

 

[Dai]

Bizarre one, this. They've got 4 Fight Night headliners in the 4 prelim fights. Then i assume the UFC are figuring that Kelvin will miss weight so have chucked him on the early prelims. Then you have a couple of weak as piss top 2 fights.

 

These are the days where UFC will mostly chuck on weak undercards and have a decent main, so this is the polar opposite of that.

Edited April 8 by Dai

[Egg Shen]

There's no PPV to sell these days, the cards will probably always look a bit wonky compared to what they used too. 

[wandshogun09]

Card graphic, start times, main card weigh in face-offs…

I’ve gone with Jiri, Murzakanov and Blaydes in the poll for the top three fights but I admit it’s as much wishful thinking as anything because I don’t have a strong feeling or a ton of confidence in my picks there. 

With the main event and co-main, I think it’s hard to gauge how good both Ulberg and Murzakanov actually are. I wouldn’t be blown away if Ulberg boxed Jiri up for the points or even a stoppage, but I also could see Ulberg having that success and then Jiri still ends him in spectacular fashion with a lightning bolt from his arse at 4:59 of the fifth. You just never know with Jiri but Ulberg’s a bit of an unknown quantity for me, despite him being on the roster for years, and it makes this a bit of a difficult one to call. Settled on Jiri by KO and I am leaning that way, but it’s partly just what I want to see happen. 

Murzakanov vs Costa, my gut feeling is Murzakanov by KO because it’s what he does and Costa has seemed to have a nonchalant attitude to his career and be half checked out of it for a while now. But then I look at that face-off and, man, I didn’t think there’d be that much of a size difference. I know that doesn’t mean everything but it still matters a fair bit, especially when it’s probably gonna come down to a slugfest and a battle of power and durability. I always knew Murzakanov was a smaller, stockier 205er. I knew he’d be the smaller man here. But still, look at that face-off and you’d never think Costa was the one coming up from Middleweight. Gonna stick with Murzakanov by stoppage but I’m really not sure. It’s not like Costa’s chinny either. He’s only ever been stopped by Izzy and he’s been in with some hitters.

Fuck knows with Blaydes vs Hokit right? Like the top two fights, we just don’t know how good or bad Hokit is yet. We haven’t seen much of him and what we have seen has been against low level jabronis. I’m picking Blaydes here, probably by decision, mostly based on his experience, level of opposition and a significant size advantage. But this is the one I’m most unsure about because Blaydes is inconsistent and flaky as fuck at the best of times. And it’s not even like his wrestling is a guaranteed get out of jail card in this one because Hokit has a very solid wrestling background himself from what I’ve heard and read. I hope Blaydes wins though. He always seems like a good egg and Hokit is a proper helmet. Sick of seeing him all over the timeline this week. Genuinely don’t get how any adult could find his schtick funny or entertaining in the slightest. Without being arsed to check, I think Blaydes weighed in about 28lbs heavier than Hokit last night. If he loses this fight it’s really not looking good for him. 

Reyes vs Walker…OK, the coin flips continue. How do you even begin to pick a winner here? 🤣 Two big fuckers, both aggressive and powerful and dangerous on the offence. Both leave themselves wide open and are vulnerable and lacking defensively. I know I’m jinxing it now but I’ll be surprised if this one makes it past the first round. Ahh, I’ll go with Reyes by KO with Walker’s unconscious body flailing about in typically cartoonish fashion.

Again, no strong hunch on Swanson vs Landwehr here. I don’t really mind who wins this one though. It’s one of those fights where you can’t pick a side and just sit back and enjoy the madness. Can’t go wrong with this one. I’ve been predicting based on who I’d prefer to win so far so, if I’m forced to choose here, it would be nice to see a Cub win in his last fight so I’ll go with that.

Feel like a proper fence sitter struggling to fully commit to any of these predictions but it’s one of them cards, isn’t it? All five fights are hard calls on paper going in, I think. A couple of them might end up one-sided and this post will look stupid by tomorrow but, right now, I’m pretty much 50/50 on that whole main card. Prelims are tidy as well. Got a feeling Pico rebounds with a KO win here. Pitbull’s been looking a bit more his age lately and is noticeably slower than he was in his pomp. I can see a notoriously fast starter like Pico giving him hell early. Sadly I reckon Gamrot is gonna overwhelm Ribovics with his grappling but hopefully Ribovics can make a good scrap of it. One of the most consistently exciting fighters on the roster. Can see Loopy beating Suarez as well but that’s more my shot confidence in Suarez these days. In theory, they’re both wrestlers but Suarez is way more accomplished so it should be a good style matchup for Suarez. No real feelings on the other prelims.

Edited April 11 by wandshogun09

[Bruce85]

Good grief that Blaydes v Hokit fight was something else. Cannot stand Hokits nonsense but he backed it up in there, what a fight! Don’t think it’s as good as Big Foot v Mark Hunt but very close. 
 

As much as I can’t stand Hokit, if he goes out and smashes Derick Lewis like that I’d definitely chuck him straight in a title fight. 

[Kfogg1991]

This card makes it feel amazing to be a fan 

 

That finish on the main event will be in highlight packages forever 

COSTA knocking out the 16-0 dude 

Then the greatest heavyweight fight ever 

Cub getting a two minute spanking knockout for his last fight 

Unfortunately Dom Vs walker shat the bed