Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted May 15 Paid Members Posted May 15 (edited) We return to the UFC shed… PARAMOUNT+ MAIN CARD Belal Muhammad vs Gabriel Bonfim Brendan Allen vs Edmen Shahbazyan Fares Ziam vs Tom Nolan Bryce Mitchell vs Santiago Luna Iwo Baraniewski vs Junior Tafa PARAMOUNT+ PRELIMS Matt Schnell vs Alessandro Costa Marcus McGhee vs John Yannis Bruno Silva vs Edgar Chairez Chelsea Chandler vs Priscila Cachoeira Joanderson Brito vs Jordan Leavitt Yuneisy Duben vs Jeisla Chaves Ketlen Souza vs Ariane Carnelossi   Nothing much to this really but there are some interesting fights on there and some individual fighters I like watching. It’ll do. We’ve had worse. Not into the Belal vs Bonfim headliner though. It’s not a terrible piece of matchmaking but I’m not expecting much from the fight itself. Allen vs Shahbazyan is OK. Silva vs Chairez and Ziam vs Nolan could be fun action fights actually. I quite enjoy watching Joanderson Brito and Marcus McGhee. Big comedown for McGhee here though. Fought Petr Yan in his last fight, now he’s in with this Yannis jabroni on the prelims of an Apex card. Iwo Baraniewski is the guy who won a mad 90 second slugfest in his debut, then chinned Austen Lane in 28 seconds on the London card in March. Don’t blink when he fights. Vaguely remember Imanol Rodriguez looking good in his debut. My pick of the bunch is Bryce Mitchell vs Victor Henry though. Really like that fight. I remember a few months back Josh Barnett was all over Twitter, saying Bryce was ducking Henry. I don’t know if that was the case but I can see why he wouldn’t be keen because Henry is a good fighter but not a big name. The old risk vs reward thing. Seems like Barnett campaigning for his guy and putting pressure on Bryce worked in the end though because here we are.  Yeah, I guess it’s not bad by Apex standards. Edited June 6 by wandshogun09 Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted May 29 Author Paid Members Posted May 29 On 5/15/2026 at 9:29 PM, wandshogun09 said: My pick of the bunch is Bryce Mitchell vs Victor Henry though… And it’s off. Typical. And for all Josh Barnett’s talking before the fight was signed, about Bryce ducking Henry, it’s Henry who’s out. Bryce now fights Santiago Luna. Nice opportunity for Luna though so early into his UFC run. He’s 8-0 but has only fought twice in the UFC so far, at a fairly low level. Looked pretty good from what I remember but this is a step up. Quote
Zebra Kid Mark Posted May 31 Posted May 31 This is one of the strongest Apex cards in a long, long time. A former champion fighting in the Apex....how far back do we have to go since that happened last? It surely must have been during the covid era right? Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted June 1 Author Paid Members Posted June 1 16 hours ago, Zebra Kid Mark said: A former champion fighting in the Apex....how far back do we have to go since that happened last? It surely must have been during the covid era right? It’s more recent than you’d think. Most recent one was Aljo Sterling in late April, heading against Youssef Zalal. I went back a bit and the last one before that was Brandon Moreno against Amir Albazi in November 2024. I didn’t go back any further than that though but, yeah, it’s not really a common occurrence. Quote
Zebra Kid Mark Posted June 1 Posted June 1 (edited) Oh of course! I forgot the Aljo fight was at the Apex. I've done some more thinking and my first guess would be a Jessica Andrade fight. So I looked it up and I can see she fought in the Apex in September 2024, just a few months before Moreno. It's uncommon but maybe it's not as rare as I first thought. My second guess was Code Garbrandt seeing as how much his stock has fallen, surprisingly the last time he fought as the Apex was May 2021 but a lot more shows were at the Apex in 2021 so I don't think that counts as Post Covid Era Edited June 1 by Zebra Kid Mark Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted June 6 Author Paid Members Posted June 6 This just got underway… I’ve given this card zero thought. Had a lot going on and still haven’t fully caught up on the Allen vs Costa or Macau cards yet. This isn’t too bad for an Apex show though. Probably favour Belal in the main, never been fully sold on Bonfim. But Belal is long in the tooth now and Bonfim isn’t a pushover. Fuck knows but I’m thinking Belal on points. Allen should beat Shahbazyan but it’s not like Allen’s the most consistent or reliable. Ziam vs Nolan, Schnell vs Costa and Silva vs Chairez could all be fun. Bryce vs Luna is an interesting one, Luna’s undefeated and looks good but it’s a big step up for him on paper. Iwo should chin Tafa, I reckon. McGhee is decent to watch. Yeah, it’s alright. Feel like Belal vs Bonfim has high snoozer potential though so that’s probably partly why there’s such little enthusiasm for this show. We’ll see. Quote
Dai Posted June 6 Posted June 6 Hope everything is OK, @wandshogun09! I had noticed the lack of report in the Allen fight thread (dont think youve missed one in years), and the lack of activity recently in general, so hope things are at least getting better now for you. Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted June 7 Paid Members Posted June 7 Yeah, all the best @wandshogun09hope you're doing well mate. Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted June 7 Author Paid Members Posted June 7 Ah thanks fellas. Lost a close mate recently and my head’s been proper shot for a week or so since, trying to wrap my head around it. Quote
jimufctna24 Posted June 7 Posted June 7 1 hour ago, wandshogun09 said: Ah thanks fellas. Lost a close mate recently and my head’s been proper shot for a week or so since, trying to wrap my head around it. My condolences. PMs open if you would like a chat. Quote
Paid Members Carbomb Posted June 7 Paid Members Posted June 7 Truly sorry to hear that, @wandshogun09. Hope you're holding up OK. Quote
Dai Posted June 8 Posted June 8 Echo what the others are saying. Sorry to hear that, thats awful stuff. The PMs are open here too.  Was an OK show this. Belal looked older, smaller, slower and less powerful than Bonfim. Basically, mother nature is a bitch, and its caught up with Belal. Just outclassed everywhere, and Belal looked past it. That said, I believe Belal could still give a few in the top 15 a hard night, especially those that dont have the wrestling aspect down. Bonfim looked impressive here (to me), but this was not an 'Impressive to Dana' win, unfortunately. He was more than happy just to play the low risk game, and ride out an easy decision. At no point did it look like he was even trying for the win, which you know is the fast track to piss off Dana. You do have to play the game when theres only one game in town, so from a risk/reward point of view, then maybe pushing it a bit harder and trying to get a memorable stoppage would have been worth the gamble. Now, Im not sure he will have the big jump up the rankings because of the method of victory. Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.