Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted April 17 Paid Members Posted April 17 (edited) Back at the UFC warehouse… PARAMOUNT+ MAIN CARD Aljamain Sterling vs Youssef Zalal Norma Dumont vs Joselyne Edwards Rafa Garcia vs Alexander Hernandez Davey Grant vs Juan Adrian Luna Martinetti Montel Jackson vs Raoni Barcelos Marcus Buchecha vs Ryan Spann PARAMOUNT+ PRELIMS Rodolfo Vieira vs Eric McConico Jr Jackson McVey vs Sedriques Dumas Mayra Bueno Silva vs Michelle Montague Jafel Filho vs Cody Durden Francis Marshall vs Lucas Brennan Max Griffin vs Victor Valenzuela Talita Alencar vs Julia Polastri   Standard Apex stuff really, isn’t it? Right down to the minimum effort, bare bones poster. I really like the Aljo vs Zalal main event though. Very relevant in the Featherweight rankings as well, not that rankings mean fuck all. But Aljo currently sits at #5 and Zalal’s nipping at his heels at #7. Might not be a barnburner, or I don’t know, maybe it will be. Who would’ve ever thought Aljo vs Evloev back in 2024 would be as fun as it was? I rate Zalal as well so I’m happy he’s getting a headline spot against a name and former champ. The way fans turned on Zalal after that lacklustre fight against Calvin Kattar was bullshit as well. Saw people pushing the narrative that he’s a boring fighter, which is complete and utter bollocks. Going into that fight Zalal had finished three fights in a row since returning to the UFC. And after the Kattar fight, he steamrolled Josh Emmett in 90 seconds. That Kattar fight was not typical of him at all. In his first UFC stint, he also went the distance with Ilia Topuria back in 2020, which was Topuria’s UFC debut. He’s fucking good and has been for a while. Big test against Sterling here and I’m really interested to see how it plays out. Not much to the rest of the card. Norma Dumont and her bum are back. Fight’s probably gonna be dull as usual though. Davey Grant has been an absolute scrapper over the years and has seemed like one of the soundest fighters in the sport since way back when he was on TUF, but he’s 40 now and it looks like the wars are catching up to him. The guy he’s fighting needs a short, snappy nickname pronto as well. Buchecha has been awful to watch in the UFC so far, I don’t expect that to change against Spann. And scumbag Dumas is still inexplicably around. Why? Get him gone.  Norma Dumont fight week! Edited April 21 by wandshogun09 Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted April 25 Author Paid Members Posted April 25 Zero buzz but this is tonight… Actually really looking forward to the main event. Always kind of weird seeing a former champ like Sterling slumming it at the Apex but whatever. Think this is a really interesting fight. I’ve become a fan of Zalal and I’d love to see him get the win tonight. I think he’s fun to watch and he always seems really positive and happy outside the cage which is quite refreshing in a sport almost full of grumps. Plus, him emerging as a legit contender in the Featherweight division would only be a good thing. Never hurts to have a fresh face in the mix. This is his biggest test yet by far for me though. He’s on an 8 fight win streak, 5-0 since returning to the UFC, but I think it’s fair to say Aljo is a step up from anyone he’s beat on that run. Even at 36, while Aljo’s definitely not at his absolute peak, I don’t feel like he’s washed up or on the decline to any significant degree. This might not be the most exciting fight to watch but I’m interested to see how Zalal deals with a tricky veteran like Sterling. Quote
Zebra Kid Mark Posted April 25 Posted April 25 This is one of the best Apex main events I can remember in a long time. I love Sterling so I am hoping he wins this, Sterling must be so hard to deal with, he's good looking, great talker, great fighter, trained by Dana's mate (Serra), yet the UFC treat him so badly. I don't get it. Quote
Dai Posted April 30 Posted April 30 Sterling sort of sums up the modern UFC, I was thinking during his piss easy grapple win. He's a former champ, but chuck him on an Apex card and there's no star power at all when you watch him. Just another good fighter in a sea full of them. Makes no difference whether he's in the UFC or not, which means absolutely no bargaining when discussing contracts. The UFCs plan to make themselves the brand and not the fighters is personified by Sterling at the Apex. I bet kfogg loved this show, the results were right up his alley. Â Can't remember anything about this one. Sterling completely dominated, and then the rest happened. The only gif I can think of Wand to do is Normas face when she lost the decision. Otherwise I'm at a loss! Quote
Paid Members Carbomb Posted May 1 Paid Members Posted May 1 Trust me, Dai - any gif Wand does of Norma won't be of her face. Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted May 2 Author Paid Members Posted May 2 (edited) An absolute nothing show, wasn’t it? One of them where if you skipped the lot of it, you missed nothing of note. Thirteen fight card, only two finishes. I’m usually the first to say decisions don’t necessarily equal bad fights but in this case, it was a proper slog. Even with a lot of it on x2 speed. Aljo did what Aljo does in the main event. He looked good, he mostly dominated and he was obviously the clear winner when it was all said and done. But it wasn’t very exciting to watch. That’s as much on Zalal though and, aside from some guillotine attempts that went nowhere and a good third (I think?) round, he just didn’t really have an answer for Aljo’s grappling and ability to control him. Shame really. You always knew it was a step up for Zalal and it was never gonna be easy. But I hoped he’d at least be more competitive than he was here. Sterling’s pushing hard for the title shot now. I don’t blame him, he’s gonna be 37 in July, I get the urgency. But he’s been around long enough to know that fights like this aren’t likely to get you a title shot unless the matchmakers literally have no other options. Not saying that’s right but it’s how it is. There’s a reason they booked Evloev vs Murphy instead of giving either of them the title shot they’d both earned. And it’s because, fairly or unfairly, they’ve got the stigma of being boring fighters and putting them against each other just meant one of them had to lose and the matchmakers reduce that problem by half. Sterling’s in a similar boat. He’s ranked #4 now, it wouldn’t be outrageous if he got a title shot, less deserving fighters have. But Evloev should be next up, in my opinion, and he did beat Aljo not too long ago as well. Aljo should be second in line behind him now though. He probably isn’t. I still reckon they’re gonna try to insinuate Jean Silva into the mix. Aljo definitely deserves it more than him but would anyone really be surprised if Mean Jean skips the line now? On 4/30/2026 at 9:24 PM, Dai said: The only gif I can think of Wand to do is Normas face when she lost the decision. Otherwise I'm at a loss! Ha! I’ll admit I barely watched Edwards vs Dumont because it was never gonna be any good. But skimming through it, I found it hilarious that Norma did the shocked face when the decision was announced. She can’t have been confident she won that. She fought so negatively from the bits I did see that, even if it was close (and it didn’t really look it), you can’t feel confident the judges are gonna give you the nod after a nothing happening performance like that. She snapped out of the outrage pretty quick though. After she does that face you see her look off to the side and I’m guessing her corner basically let her know she absolutely did lose. She dropped the act then. Shambles though. Think she was ranked #3 before this and she was on a bit of a win streak. As weak as the opposition was, she was close to a title shot. That’s up in smoke now at the hands of Joselyne Edwards of all people. That’s the Top 5 at Bantamweight now. Fuck me it’s looking grim. Let’s break it down. Pena is gonna be 37 soon, has barely been active in recent years, is shit and still living off the fumes of that Nunes upset in 2021. Five years ago, FFS. Pennington is already 37 and hasn’t even fought since 2024. Joselyne Edwards is 30, on a win streak but mostly over scrubs and just beat Dumont here. Dumont obviously just lost. And Ketlen Vieira lost to Dumont in her last fight. And even the champ Kayla Harrison…she’s 35, recovering from a neck injury, kills herself to make the weight and recently said that she’s done cutting to 135 after this Nunes fight, whenever that is. She’s saying they’re either gonna have to revive 145 or she’s done. Don’t blame her. But yeah, if Kayla beats Nunes and ends up retiring, they might as well just bin the women’s Bantamweight division. It’s absolutely dead. 23 hours ago, Carbomb said: Trust me, Dai - any gif Wand does of Norma won't be of her face. Don’t know what you mean. Her lovely face is clearly in this gif here. Think it’s crystal clear at this point that Buchecha needs to find another line of work. All BJJ accolades aside, he is dogshit in MMA. Lost to Martin Buday and looked awful in his debut, went to an eye poke draw against Kennedy Nzechukwu in his next fight and looked awful, and now… …he gets chinned by Ryan Spann and, you guessed it, looks awful. Pull the plug man. He’s just not cut out for this game is he? What else? Davey Grant had a pretty good scrap with that Marty Jannetty bloke. Prelims looked pretty wank. Skimmed through them all and the only thing of note was Jackson McVey hopefully driving the final nail in the coffin of Sedriques Dumas time on the roster. Surely that’s finally it now. He’s gone 3-5-0-1 in the UFC, was finished in all five losses, hasn’t won since 2024, is coming off back-to-back submission losses and is an absolute bum on top of being a woman beating, house invading piece of shit. Why they’ve persisted with him as long as they have baffles me. Zero redeeming qualities whatsoever. Edited May 2 by wandshogun09 Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted May 2 Paid Members Posted May 2 I don't know if this is a joke or not? Â Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted May 2 Author Paid Members Posted May 2 I hope that’s bollocks. And that Kevin twat who runs that account gets a lot of shit wrong so I’m hoping this turns out to be another case of that. At this point though, I wouldn’t be as shocked as I probably should be if they give him another chance. Genuinely think they might only be keeping him around because they’ve seen the calls to cut him from fans on social media. The UFC/Dana seem to actively hate the fanbase now so they might keep Dumas on just to spite us 🤣 Quote
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