Noche UFC: Silva vs Delgado - Sep 12 🇺🇸🇲🇽

[wandshogun09]

Back with our yearly September Mexican themed event that’s never actually in Mexico. Glendale, Arizona hosts this one…

PARAMOUNT+ MAIN CARD
Jean Silva vs Jose Delgado 

Brandon Moreno vs Joseph Morales 

Tommy McMillen vs Marwan Rahiki

Manon Fiorot vs Alexa Grasso 

Waldo Cortes Acosta vs Curtis Blaydes 

David Martinez vs Dan Ige 

PARAMOUNT+ PRELIMS
Tim Elliott vs Edgar Chairez 

Ignacio Bahamondes vs Muslim Salikhov

Yousri Belgaroui vs Djorden Santos 

Drakkar Klose vs Tommy Gantt

Rafa Garcia vs Rongzhu 

Jessie Rosas vs Sean King

JJ Aldrich vs Regina Tarin

 

 

Is it just me or is this one of the best looking Fight Night cards we’ve had in a while? Maybe not names-wise, although I don’t think it’s bad in that sense either, but just in terms of fights that look like they have a high chance of delivering something exciting, this looks pretty fucking sweet to me. I’m interested in every fight on the main card to some degree. Can’t even remember the last time I could say that about a non numbered event. And even some of the prelims look tasty. I’ve completely lost track lately of fight announcements and didn’t expect much at all when I looked this card up to do this thread. Pleasantly surprised.

 

Jean Silva vs Jose Delgado is our main event. Wasn’t the original plan. This was supposed to be Silva against Yair Rodriguez. The fight only got announced in early August and within just a few weeks it was off. Really frustrating but it comes as no surprise with Yair at this point. The bloke’s spent a big chunk of his career dropping out of fights. Delgado isn’t ideal as a replacement from a name perspective. He’s still relatively new in the UFC and definitely hasn’t established himself as any kind of card headliner. But he’s an exciting fighter and, as far as actual fight quality goes, I genuinely think this could be just as good as the Yair fight would’ve been. If not better. It’s a huge opportunity for Delgado as well. He’s only just about in the media rankings in the #15 spot and he’s not in the meta rankings at all. Silva’s at #6 on both. So if Delgado can come in and pull off the win here, it’ll be massive for him. He’s gotta get past this maniac first though…

Brazil’s Jean Silva’s been one of the best additions to the roster for me over the last few years. Easily one of the most entertaining fighters to ever come off DWCS. He’s 29 years old with a record of 17-3 and 15 of his wins not making it to the scorecards. He beat Kevin Vallejos on points on DWCS back in 2023, which is a fight I really need to go back and watch. Then he went 5-0, all finishes, in his first five UFC fights. With notable wins over Charles Jourdain, Drew Dober and a ninja choke submission over Bryce Mitchell. He had his first setback in the UFC on last year’s Noche card, a second round stoppage loss against Diego Lopes. But it was a batshit fun fight, a real back and forth dogfight and Silva came close to putting Diego to bed before getting a bit too over-aggressive and running into a spinning elbow. It was a wild one. One of my favourite fights of 2025. But a loss for Silva all the same. He rebounded at UFC 324 in January with a points win over Arnold Allen in another very enjoyable fight.

This cracked me up. Who the fuck does that in a fight? I really liked that fight. Allen’s a weirdo in his own right but a different kind of weirdo. He was doing some odd shite at the weigh in face-off, apparently ‘casting a spell’ on Silva. Neither of them are the full ticket. But on the night, Silva came through with the win. Shame he never got to fight Yair here really. Would’ve probably been a good time to catch him coming off a layoff and it’d be a decent name to put on Mean Jean’s record. Oh well. Like I say, Delgado is the type who’s gonna bring it so I don’t think we actually lose anything in terms of the fight itself.

Yeah, Delgado’s stepping in on short notice here. He’s American born, from Arizona, but obviously of Mexican descent. He’s 28 years old and he’s 12-2 with 10 coming inside the distance. He came into the UFC on a five fight winning streak in early 2025 and quickly rattled off a couple of first round knockouts over Connor Matthews and Hyder Amil. The Amil win was particularly impressive because Amil was undefeated going in, was starting to get some hype and Delgado just wrecked him in 26 seconds. That win turned some heads and it’s definitely when I really started to take notice of him. But then he fought Nathaniel Wood in October, missed weight and then lost on points. If I remember right, I actually had Delgado edging that decision but it was a close, competitive one and it was a bit of a banger as I recall. Delgado has since won a couple of decisions over Andre Fili and Austin Bashi. Again, both fun fights. The jury’s still out really. He had a hot start in the UFC but, despite always being in entertaining fights, him going tooth and nail with an older Fili and a so-so Bashi makes me question how far he can go. But who knows? Maybe he’s one of those fighters who rises to the occasion when the pressure is on. Either way, I think we’re in for some chaos here.

Very much looking forward to this one. Like I said, I’m not sure where Delgado’s ceiling is and this is undoubtedly his toughest test yet on paper. But at the same time, Silva’s not without flaws himself and he’s the type of fighter who will happily put himself in harm’s way to make something happen. I have to favour Silva. He’s fought better opposition and he’s beat better opposition. But when you get two fighters like this who just love a scrap, crazy things can happen in there and I wouldn’t completely count Delgado out. He’s a live underdog for me. Should be a cracker though regardless. Just feels like one of those pairings that can’t miss. It’s a matchup that’s probably gonna get criticised on social media because Delgado has been chucked into the headline spot earlier than anyone expected but sod it. The circumstances with ‘Sick Note’ Yair dropping out forced their hand and I’m not gonna moan about Delgado getting the call. It’s a fan friendly fight and if Delgado was gonna get an unlikely opportunity like this, I guess it makes sense to do it on the Noche card.

 

Brandon Moreno vs Joseph Morales isn’t the best co-main but I don’t hate it. Moreno still has some name value on the Mexico and Mexico themed cards. Although I think it is dwindling at this point. He’s still only 32 but Christ he’s had a tough shift. We’re a long way removed from his peak of 2019-23ish when he won the title and had that four fight series with Figgy. I’ll always have a soft spot for Moreno. Seems a good egg and his first fight with Figgy is still probably the greatest Flyweight fight ever, in my opinion. But he’s 23-10-2 now, has lost four of his last six fights and he’s coming into this one off back-to-back losses to Tatsuro Taira and Lone’er Kavanagh. Kind of tells the story itself that. The younger generation of Flyweights are taking over and, as great as Moreno was for a period, he’s being left behind now. Taira stopped him, Kavanagh beat him soundly over five rounds and looked about three times faster than him. Even though he’s also managed some decent wins over the last few years, he just hasn’t looked right to me since that Figgy series ended. Morales is the same age as Moreno but with much less miles on the clock. He’s 14-2 with 10 finishes, won TUF last summer and subbed Matt Schnell in a round in his last fight in November. Can’t say I’m massively familiar with him, think I saw the Schnell fight and that’s it. But this is one of those fights where it’s both a step down on paper for the veteran but also kind of feels like a bit of ‘out with the old, in with the new’ matchmaking. Not sure how good Morales actually is but if Moreno loses again here, against a guy hardly anyone knows, it’s really not looking good for him.

 

Tommy McMillen vs Marwan Rahiki. I had no idea this fight was booked until looking up the card to do this thread. Easy choice as ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** for me this. I’ve seen a bit of complaining that they’re throwing two young, undefeated prospects against each other so early, rather than building both up. I do get that criticism to an extent, of course, but at this point I just wanna see fun fights. I don’t trust the UFC to ‘build guys up’ anyway these days and it rarely works out even with the best intentions. Fuck it. I’m in.

McMillen is 28 years old, he’s a teammate and protege of Sean O’Malley and he’s 11-0 with 10 finishes. He got a points win on DWCS last September and has gone 2-0 in the UFC so far this year. Made his debut on an Apex card in April, stopping ham and egger Manolo Zecchini in a round. Then on the Oklahoma City card in July, he put Alberto Montes away with a third round TKO. Both really fun fights. I’ve said a few times that I don’t really like when the UFC start trying to force the ‘this guy’s a superstar’ narrative and there’s definitely been some of that with McMillen. Bisping in particular has been a bit OTT with it. There are certain fighters that come into the UFC and you can just tell they’re one of the gaffer’s favourites. And whenever it happens, it feels like the commentators are almost reading from a script in their fights and have been told to give it the old hard sell. It’s annoying. But it’s not McMillen’s fault and, to be fair, if he keeps delivering wild scraps like his first two then he’ll get a following anyway without the need to manufacture anything. There’s definitely holes in his game though. He’s very hittable, for one. It’s part of what makes his fights exciting but it does feel like it’s gonna blow up in his face at some point.

‘Freaky’ Rahiki is Moroccan but fights out of Australia. He’s 24 years old and 9-0 with a 100% finish rate. He got a TKO finish on DWCS last October which got him in the door. He made his first Octagon appearance at the Apex in March and beat the absolute dogshit out of Harry Hardwick, breaking his jaw in the process and forcing the doctor to stop the fight between rounds. He was supposed to fight Jack Jenkins on the Perth card in May but Jenkins dropped out and Rahiki ended up facing last minute replacement Ollie Schmid instead. Not ideal and we’ve seen late replacements can be risky but Rahiki casually smashed him inside the first round. Schmid was clearly outmatched and can’t have been fully prepared but Rahiki handled him how any legit prospect should. Yeah, this should be a lively one. Someone’s gonna taste defeat for the first time, which will be a shame really that one of them’s gonna get derailed so early. I do get some of the negative response to this choice of matchmaking. But there’s so much dead content now from the UFC and so many lacklustre cards, so much shite on the roster, I can’t be arsed with the ‘save fights for later’ mentality. Give me good fights now. And these two are young enough where a loss at this stage won’t be the end of the world.

 

Manon Fiorot vs Alexa Grasso. Ah man, as a fan of Grasso, I don’t really like this for her. I get why the fight has been made. They’re #2 and #3 in the Flyweight rankings. Fiorot challenged for the title last year, Grasso was actually champion not too long ago. Both are coming off a stoppage win after losses. It’s perfectly logical matchmaking. But my gut feeling is that Fiorot is all wrong for Grasso. Fiorot’s 36 now, so a bit long in the tooth, but I still feel like she can be a force at 125. Not the most exciting fighter to watch but she’s big for the weight class, strong and physical. She’s 13-2 and was on a 7 fight streak including wins over Rose Namajunas and Erin Blanchfield before being outclassed by Valentina Shevchenko in their title fight last year. Fiorot bounced back in style though, knocking out Jasmine Jasudavicius in just over a minute on the Vancouver card back in October. Fiorot had become a bit of a decision machine in the UFC so I wasn’t expecting her to just steamroll Jasudavicius like that. As for Grasso, she’s coming in fresh off one of the craziest finishes you’ll ever see…

That’s what she did to Maycee Barber in their rematch on the Seattle card in March. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a finishing sequence to a fight quite like that. Barber was basically already out from the punch but Grasso was on the choke so fast I don’t think she even realised it. Grasso sunk the choke in, the fight got stopped, then it got really weird and uncomfortable.

After briefly trying to grapple the referee in her zombie state, Barber then rolled to her back and just lay there with her eyes popping out of her head for what felt like 10 minutes but was probably actually only about 30 seconds. Still, it was barmy. Haven’t seen or heard anything from Barber since and, given her health issues in the past, hopefully she’s alright. All that said, it was a win Grasso badly needed. After she shocked the world by taking the title off Shevchenko in 2023, it all went a bit wonky for her for a while there. She had a draw and a one sided loss to Shev in their second and third fights and then lost clearly against Natalia Silva. That Barber win, and especially how decisive and impactful it was, couldn’t have came at a more urgent time. I remember seeing all sorts of talk about Grasso being “back” after that win and stuff about her challenging for the belt again. Kind of understandable that fans get carried away after a finish like that but I’m not convinced. As much as I like Grasso, I’m not sure that win translates to her problems being behind her now. I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of her fighting Shevchenko a fourth time at some point. They are tied at 1-1-1 in their trilogy. But I’m not convinced she gets there. Got a bad feeling Fiorot puts her back in the loss column here sadly.

 

Waldo Cortes Acosta vs Curtis Blaydes isn’t doing much for me really but as Heavyweight fights go I don’t hate it. We’ve had much worse. Still reckon this has high stinker potential but I’ll give it a chance. I still don’t particularly rate Waldo all that highly. I get that he had that little win streak at the back end of last year and he was active. Cool. It just wasn’t enough for me to forget the series of absolutely awful fights he had early in his UFC run. Also got pretty sick of fans jumping on the bandwagon and suddenly talking like Waldo was some killer and future champ based off wins over Ante Delija, Shamil Gaziev and a completely checked out Derrick Lewis. Conveniently forgetting that just last August, Waldo lost a plodding decision against Sergei Pavlovich and looked like shit in the process. He’s far from the worst Heavyweight on the roster but he’s definitely no world beater either. Thankfully, Alexander Volkov reminded everyone of that when he beat Waldo in another dud in May.

Blaydes is coming in off that brutal war with Josh Hokit on the Miami card in April. I’m not on board with the talk that it was “THE greatest Heavyweight fight ever” and all that bollocks. A lot of MMA fans either have short memories or they just make statements like that without doing their homework. Just parroting whatever Rogan’s latest take is. But it was a stupidly entertaining fight, I can’t deny it. Definitely one of the best Heavyweight fights we’ve seen in years. Blaydes lost though and, while he didn’t get finished, he took a lot of punishment in that 15 minutes. And at 35 and after nearly 30 fights, including being on the bad end of some devastating knockouts, you wonder what Blaydes even has left. I’d love to see him win this fight. Blaydes seems like one of the few genuinely good guys left on the roster. But he was already inconsistent and not in the best form going into that Hokit fight, he’d already been knocked out a few times, having a slobberknocker like that at this stage in his career was the last thing he needed and I suspect it might’ve just sapped whatever he had left.

 

David Martinez vs Dan Ige opens up the main card. Solid fight. Can’t really go far wrong with the Bantamweights. Martinez is Mexican born and trained, 28 years old and 14-1 with 10 knockouts. He’s currently riding a 10 fight streak and has been quietly sneaking up the rankings. He’s either #7 or #8 now depending on which rankings you’re looking at and he’s taken decisions off Rob Font and Chito Vera in his last two fights. Martinez looks decent but there’s been little to no fanfare around him even with those Font and Chito wins. I remember the Chito fight last time was pretty frustrating to watch with Chito doing his usual can’t be arsed, taking big chunks of rounds off bit. And Martinez wasn’t forced to do anything so just coasted to a points win. I’m hoping Ige can make more of a fight of it and he really needs to but I’m not convinced. He just turned 35, he’s 19-11 and he’s gone 2-5 in his last 7. He’s had some good wins over the years over Edson Barboza, Nate Landwehr and Andre Fili. But he’s struggling now. We last saw him getting stopped by the spinning back kick of Melquizael Costa on the Houston card in February. He desperately needs to make something happen. He’s dropping to 135 for the first time here as well, at 35, which definitely feels like a desperation move. Desperate Dan. It’s pretty clear the matchmakers are looking at him as a stepping stone for Martinez here.

 

Tim Elliott vs Edgar Chairez. I like this. Neither are really going anywhere in the Flyweight division and Elliott especially is surely on borrowed time now as a 39 year old Flyweight. He turns 40 in December. He’s 21-14-1 but he’s certainly had his moments over the years and when he’s ’on’ he can be a tough night’s work for a lot of guys. He won TUF with the prize being a title shot and actually gave Demetrious Johnson a decent fight back in 2016. And even as recently as last year, he scored back-to-back submissions over Sumudaerji and Kai Asakura. Mexico’s Chairez is the much younger man at 30 and he’s 14-6-0-1 with all but one of his wins ending inside the distance. He’s pretty consistently entertaining to watch and his only UFC losses have been his debut against Tatsuro Taira and Joshua Van on the Sphere card. He’s coming into this fight off three straight wins and just subbed Bruno Silva in a round last time out.

 

Ignacio Bahamondes vs Muslim Salikhov is another potential banger. A fight with no stakes whatsoever but it’s perfect prelim filler. Bahamondes is from Chile, 29 years old and has a record of 17-7 with 13 finishes. Never gonna be a contender in the UFC but he’s definitely capable of some fantastic fights at the right level. He was on a nice little three fight streak not too long ago with consecutive finishes of Christos Giagos, Manuel Torres and Jalin Turner but he’s hit a wall recently and dropped decisions to Rafael Fiziev and Tofiq Musayev in his last two fights. The Musayev fight last time was an absolute bloodbath as well. Really good fight. Russia’s Salikhov can’t have many fights left. He’s 42 years old now, 22-6 and, if his Wikipedia page is accurate, also has 199 Kickboxing fights under his belt! He’s still been getting it done in the UFC to a certain level and had back-to-back awesome KO wins in 2024/25. A spinning wheel kick finish against Song Kenan and then a vicious one punch kill shot against Carlos Leal last July. He got chinned himself in just over a minute by Uros Medic in his last fight though.

 

Yousri Belgaroui vs Djorden Santos will be worth a look. This was scheduled to be Kelvin Gastelum against Belgaroui originally but Gastelum called in sick a few weeks out. Belgaroui has been a pleasant surprise to me. He’s quickly become one of my favourite new faces in the UFC since his debut late last year. He’s Dutch, 34 years old and 10-3 with 8 knockouts. Also had a 30 plus fight Kickboxing career and fought both Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira in that game. He lost 1-2 in a trilogy against Pereira. Made the switch to MMA in 2021 and now trains with Pereira and Glover Teixeira. He’s already becoming a bit of a spoiler and hype train derailer in the UFC. His debut in October was against Azamat Bekoev, who had a bit of buzz about him going in. Belgaroui stopped him. Then Mansur Abdul-Malik, who was undefeated when Belgaroui faced him in March and was being hyped by the commentators to the point you could tell they expected him to win.

Didn’t go to plan. Belgaroui was having none of it. Not sure what his level is but it was an encouraging performance. The fear with Kickboxers making the transition to MMA is naturally always how are they gonna deal with grappling. But Belgaroui showed some pretty decent takedown defence against Malik. Not enough for me to think he’s got that completely covered but it was enough to show he’s definitely been putting the graft in to close that gap. I like him so far. Santos stepped in replacing Gastelum. He’s 29 years old and 11-3 with 7 finishes. He’s gone 1-2 in the UFC and he’s clearly outgunned on paper here. But from what I’ve seen he’s a tough guy. He’d never been finished before Baisangur Susurkaev got him with the late sub last time out. Before that he won a bit of a dogfight against Danny Barlow that pretty much nobody seemed to see. He’s a scrapper. Although I feel like his willingness to scrap is gonna be his downfall here.

 

Drakkar Klose vs Tommy Gantt. Not much of an opinion on this. Nothing negative to say but it doesn’t really move me either. Klose is 38 years old now, 16-3-1 and coming off a decision win over a shot to bits Edson Barboza on the DDP vs Khamzat undercard last August. He got stopped by Joel Alvarez before that and was on a little four fight win streak before that. A year layoff at 38 though? Seems like he’s winding down. Gantt is 33 and undefeated at 12-0 with 11 finishes. He made his UFC debut at the Apex in May, putting Artur Minev away with ground and pound in the second round. I don’t think I saw that actually. That was the card that was the same night as Rousey vs Carano on Netflix so I literally just skimmed through that one. Doesn’t seem right to call a 33 year old a ‘prospect’ but I’m kind of intrigued.

 

Rafa Garcia vs Rongzhu is another fight that could be a sleeper. Garcia’s 32 years old, 18-4 with 10 finishes and on a three fight winning streak beating Vinc Pichel, Jared Gordon and Alexander Hernandez. I can’t remember the Hernandez one but that Gordon fight was a bit of an unexpected gem. Two tough veterans just throwing down until Garcia found the late finish. And Rongzhu has been making a bit of a habit of putting on belters that no-one sees on the prelims. He’s 26 years old, 28-6 with 22 finishes and has won his last three fights. The Kody Steele and Austin Hubbard fights were real hidden gems, especially the Steele fight, and then he walloped Victor Martinez in just over a minute in his last fight in May. If you haven’t watched him before, give Wrong Shoe a chance.

 

Jessie Rosas vs Sean King got added to the card just a week out from show time and both are making their UFC debuts. Rosas is the older brother of Raul Rosas Jr. He’s 23 years old and 8-1 with 6 finishes. He actually won his last fight by fifth round submission back in June. He was briefly scheduled to debut at the Apex in August but pulled out and was surprisingly released by the UFC outright, which is a bit odd. Of course, within a matter of just weeks, now they need Mexicans for this card and he’s back. The UFC in 2026 for you. King’s 22 years old with a perfect record of 6-0 and 4 finishes. Not a lot else out there on him.

 

JJ Aldrich vs Regina Tarin kicks off the prelim stream. Neither here nor there on this really but Tarin might have some potential. She’s still only 21 so plenty of time and she’s undefeated at 8-0 with 6 finishes. She made her UFC debut on the Mexico City card in February and beat Ernesta Kareckaite on points in a bit of a sloppy but very entertaining fight. I saw Tarin get some criticism after the fight but it’s worth remembering she stepped in on stupidly short notice for that one, think it was literally a matter of a few days. So that wasn’t exactly her at her best. Interested to see how she does with a full training camp here. Aldrich turns 34 just after this fight, she’s 15-7 and coming off a couple of decision wins over Andrea Lee and Jamey-Lyn Horth. She’s actually been on the UFC roster since 2016. Ten bastard years. Yet I can’t remember shit about her and I must’ve seen a bunch of her fights over the last decade. Hopefully Tarin shines here. The women’s game badly needs new blood.

 

Viva Mexic…Glendale, Arizona. 

Edited September 12 by wandshogun09

[Bruce85]

That is a pretty tasty card!

[wandshogun09]

Poor Grasso…

[Egg Shen]

Christ, I put Grasso on my betslip.

[wandshogun09]

Didn’t realise it was an earlier start time for this. 7pm prelims kickoff…

Going with Silva, Moreno, Rahiki, Fiorot, Waldo and Martinez on the main card but really hope I’m wrong on a couple of them. Nice set of fights on this one. Shame we haven’t talked about it more really. I’m leaning towards Silva in the main event mostly because of his experience against better opposition, Delgado’s a bit untested in comparison. But I could certainly see a scenario where he capitalises on Jean’s recklessness and gets the better of him with cleaner striking. Going Jean by stoppage in a bit of a banger though. Co-main, I’m really unsure of him at this point because he’s looking pretty past it but I’m going Moreno on points in the hopes he’s not that washed up yet. Rahiki vs McMillen, fuck knows? Haven’t seen a ton of either yet but I’ve seen enough that I’m expecting a fun fight. Going with a Rahiki KO/TKO just because McMillen fights a bit wild and neglects his defence. I think Rahiki is sharp enough and fast enough to jump on those openings but we’ll see. There’s been a bit of argey bargey between them on fight week but it mostly seems forced and a bit fake to me.

Looking forward to the fight regardless. Thinking Fiorot by decision over Grasso unfortunately. And not just because of her muscles. I think there’s a good chance she shuts Grasso down and makes it a bit of a slog to watch. This is one of the fights I really hope I’m wrong on though. I’d love to see Grasso pull off a win here and keep the momentum going from that mad Maycee Barber finish last time. Also hope I’m wrong on Blaydes vs Waldo but I reckon Waldo wins. I think Blaydes was already approaching shopworn territory and I fear that Hokit fight last time out might’ve emptied his tank completely. And I’m fancying Martinez to outpoint Ige in the main card opener. I don’t think Martinez is some world beater or can’t miss future contender but he’s decent and they’ve matched him up smartly so far. I think this is gonna be another example of that. Ige has had some rough results of late and him cutting down to Bantamweight for the first time at 35 years old doesn’t sound like the best idea. 

[Egg Shen]

I don't think anything is forced with McMillen, I genuinely just think he's abit of an idiot.

[wandshogun09]

Think I’m gonna have to root for Delgado now…

[wandshogun09]

Did anyone watch this? I said in the opening post that I thought this looked like potentially one of the best Fight Night cards of the year. I think it mostly delivered. That Seattle card in March was the benchmark for me, but I honestly thought this surpassed it overall. Depends what you like, I suppose. There were a couple of fights dragging this one down a bit whereas that Seattle card was pretty much all at least decent. But I felt like the better fights on this were way better than the best stuff on the Seattle show. This one had three or four seriously fantastic fights and, in my opinion, a genuine FOTY contender as well. Loved this show.

Jean Silva continues to be an absolute weirdo but it’s weirdness you can’t turn away from. What’s he on? Walks out crying, starts barking, then back to crying and standing there for ages singing to his entrance song while they were trying to check his mouthpiece and gloves etc. Once the cage door shuts though, it’s undeniable he’s got skills, even if he doesn’t exactly do things the conventional way. Thought this was a really good fight to end a night mostly full of them. On a lot of cards this would easily be your FOTN, here it was probably second or maybe even third. But I enjoyed it a lot. Thought Delgado gave a really good account of himself considering the jump in levels and the short notice. He was looking a bit of a handful early and I did start to think he might be able to just pick him apart with cleaner striking. Especially because Silva wasn’t really throwing anything and seemed to be struggling to get in striking range. Delgado started well with the knockdown and definitely won the first round. Silva came back strong in the second round just by being his relentless bulldog self. Worked much better than him playing the cautious game in round one. Then the third round…

All over. By this point Silva seemed to have his range and timing figured out and Delgado was on the retreat. The finish was a beauty. Dropped him, jumped on him and ended it with a one armed rear naked choke kind of using his chin to secure it on the other side. The post-fight scenes were odd. No shock where Silva’s concerned. But that bit when he jumped the fence and was frantically ripping his gloves off and barking, then aggressively handed them to Hunter Campbell, Hunter looked legit scared for a minute there. His life flashed before his eyes in that moment.

Like I said, such a weirdo. And unlike most MMA ‘crazies’, I don’t think it’s an act with Jean. If it is and he’s that good of an actor then he’s wasted on MMA. I don’t think any of it is fake with him. Proper Diego Sanchez vibes. Not sure what’s next. My initial thought was maybe they try to rebook that Yair Rodriguez fight that was supposed to happen here. But I don’t know how long Yair’s gonna be out and, even if it’s not long, you can’t really rely on him to show up anyway. Looking at the rankings, Aljamain Sterling and Lerone Murphy are the two guys above him who would be fresh fights and they’re not currently booked. But I kind of feel like they might match them two against each other so I don’t know where that would leave Silva. You never know with him. He might just take a fight at 155 or something. I’d like to see him stay in one weight class for a bit though and see how far he can go.

Moreno vs Morales was whatever. I was still coming down from McMillen vs Rahiki when this was on and I can’t say I paid it much attention. Didn’t look like anything special but Moreno got the win and he really had to win this one given Morales complete lack of status in the division. I know he won TUF but what does that even mean in 2026? I still think Moreno is on a fairly significant slide though. He’s not completely shot but I don’t think he’s that far off it becoming really sad to watch now. Mad talking like this about a guy who’s only 32 but it’s been almost 10 years since he made his UFC debut and he’s crammed a lot of hard battles into that decade.

Tommy McMillen vs Marwan Rahiki was insanity. I don’t know about anyone else but I think this was legitimately a FOTY contender. I thought there’d at least be some talk about this fight in here by now. If you guys missed it, I’d highly recommend getting on it. Wasn’t pretty at times but fuck me it was wildly entertaining and edge of the seat stuff throughout. I thought McMillen might fight a more tactical fight when he immediately went to his wrestling early in the first round but that didn’t last long. They both landed some good stuff the rest of that round. That second round might be Round Of The Year though. Jesus.

It was worse than this. The gif doesn’t do it justice. How McMillen weathered the storm I don’t know. Obviously has an insane chin. He ate some horrible shots here, head snapped back the lot, then ate more while still badly rocked, and still somehow survived. And not only did he survive that round, he came back and ended the round on top going for the D’Arce choke. Definitely lost the round but he answered some serious questions in this round on his chin, cardio and heart. Because he really had no right to be making round three after that arse kicking. Then in the third…

Fuck me. Credit to Rahiki for surviving that, especially at that point in the fight when he seemed gassed. But it led to McMillen controlling a lot of the last round on the ground. Rahiki defended well off his back, despite getting caught in bad spots over and over. His grappling defence looked a lot better than his striking defence. Both of them were basically all offence, no defence on the feet. It made for a stupidly fun fight but it’s something both are gonna need to tighten up. In the end, McMillen just seemed to have more in the gas tank. He was absolutely relentless. And also he had the grappling to fall back on, which made a big difference at crucial times here. Definitely a McMillen win. Absolutely barmy stuff.

Yeah I loved this fight. Two young, fearless, undefeated guys and they went out there and fought like it. They fought like they didn’t know how to lose. Sometimes when you get two unbeaten fighters facing off, they’re both so concerned with protecting that perfect record that it becomes a bit of a nothing happening snoozer. Not with these two. Looking forward to seeing much more of them. I want to dislike McMillen, he seems like such a goofy twat. But if he’s gonna keep fighting like this then I can’t help but have a soft spot. Can’t be doing with all the “gangsta” talk though.

Alexa Grasso surprised me. I rate her and usually enjoy watching her but I really had a bad feeling about this one. I felt like Fiorot would probably be able to get her ‘clinch and do nothing’ thing going and basically out strength Grasso. But Grasso came out strong right from the off and I think it wasn’t what Fiorot was expecting. She did a great job putting Fiorot on the back foot early on and her striking looked on point. I did think Fiorot came back into it in the third round and I had her winning that round but by then she was already 0-2 down and needed a finish. I probably sound overly critical because this was a good performance from Grasso and there’s reason to be positive. But I do wonder how this would’ve played out as a five rounder. Fiorot was getting back in it by the third and I’m not sure Grasso could’ve maintained that pace she had in the first couple of rounds over 25 minutes. But whatever. Chuffed with this result. Not sure what they do with her next though. She’s at #2 now on both sets of rankings, with only Valentina Shevchenko and Natalia Silva above her. But obviously we’ve got this Silva vs Wang Cong mess for the vacant title to sort out first, and then you have to assume Shev’s gonna get an immediate title shot on her return. Grasso is either gonna have to sit out ages or fight down in rank.

Blaydes vs Waldo was wank. Didn’t expect any more from it though really. I was just happy Blaydes got the win. Bollocks to Waldo. I’m glad that brief hype train he was building late last year/early this year has been derailed and people now remember that actually he was always quite shit. Nice to see Blaydes back in the win column though, even though it was an awful fight and even though his career is going nowhere. 

Martinez vs Ige didn’t do much for me. Another solid win for Martinez and it wasn’t a bad performance by any stretch. But I don’t know. There’s just something missing there for me as he’s stepped up in levels. And this was a 35 year old Ige making his first cut down to Bantamweight. I don’t wanna be too harsh on Martinez, he won this one clearly, but if he’s gonna go on to be anything special, you’d expect him to shine more in fights like this. Similar thing with his last fight against Chito as well. Chito had never looked more checked out and disinterested yet Martinez seemed content to do pretty much the bare minimum to just coast to a decision.

Elliott vs Chairez was another banger. Up until this point in the night, I had this as FOTN, but obviously that changed when McMillen and Rahiki got out there. Cracking fight this was though. It was looking bad for Elliott for most of the first round. That first big right hand from Chairez looked like it had him buzzed for a minute but Elliott recovered well enough to the point he dropped Chairez towards the end and he finished that round strong. He still probably lost that first round but his toughness and experience pulled him through and I thought he came back to win the last two rounds. Brilliant fight. If you skipped it, get it watched. On this forum especially, I think people will appreciate Elliott’s tweet here from Saturday.

That was just hours before his fight 🤣 Tim tackling the important issues. On a serious note, Elliott’s not the most consistent and he’ll always fall short against the top guys but his longevity fighting at this level is crazy really, especially considering the division he’s in. He’s gonna turn 40 in December and he’s still fighting like this as a Flyweight? One of the real unsung guys on the roster for me.

Really enjoyed Bahamondes vs Salikhov. Wasn’t fought at a blistering pace but there were some really good striking exchanges in this one as you’d expect. Salikhov just seemed to really struggle with getting in range and getting past Bahamondes limbs. Salikhov is just a hard old bastard. He took some nasty shots in this one and just kept coming forward. Cormier actually raised a worthwhile point for a change, talking about Salikhov hurting his right arm. It definitely looked like he did and there were big chunks of the fight when he barely even threw it. Decent win for Bahamondes. Didn’t even realise this was his Welterweight debut either.

Yousri Belgaroui claimed another victim. This time it was Djorden Santos in the first round. It was always gonna be a squash this. And Santos stepped in on short notice replacing fatty Gastelum. Fair play to Santos for jumping in. Belgaroui just smashed him though.

The least impressive of his three UFC wins so far just because of who the opponent was but that wasn’t Belgaroui’s fault. And if there is something to take from this win, Santos was a durable opponent if nothing else. He’d only ever been finished once before this and that was against Baisangur Susurkaev by submission. And it took Susurkaev until the third round to get Santos out of there. He’d never been put away by strikes before and Belgaroui goes and blows the doors off him in a round. Good stuff. Really like Belgaroui.

Tommy Gantt had a strong showing and stays undefeated. Can’t get too carried away because Klose is no spring chicken and was coming off a layoff. But Gantt did what he needed to do and capped it off with a sweet reverse triangle…

Not sure what to think of the post-fight handbags. My first thought was that Gantt came off as a dick for getting in Klose’s face after he’d already finished him. But then I remembered that Klose has seemed a bit of a prick for years so when Gantt said it was a receipt for Klose talking shite at the weigh in, it tracked and Gantt gets a pass IMO. Cormier leaving the commentary booth to corner Gantt was ridiculous. If it’s happened in the UFC before then I can’t remember it. Seeing his big fat head and him in the suit in the corner was weird.

Rongzhu vs Rafa Garcia was, yet again, another really fun fight. I’ve been bigging Rongzhu up on here for a while as a real highlight of the prelims on any card he appears on and I’ll continue to. He comes to scrap every time. And Garcia was game and made a dogfight of it, so it was really entertaining to watch. Rongzhu just proved the better striker in the end. Get on the Rongzhu bandwagon if you’ve never watched him. I’d recommend typing his name in on Fight Pass and binging his last few fights as well. Never gonna make a dent in the rankings but he’s always worth a watch.

Sean King had about as perfect a UFC debut as you could possibly wish for. Unless I’m forgetting something obvious, we haven’t had a proper slam KO in quite a while, have we? And this was both beautiful and scary at the same time…

Christ almighty. Love the way he held the arm on the way down so Rosas couldn’t even post to break his fall even a little bit. Vicious little sod. 36 seconds is all it took. Instantly reminded me of Frank Shamrock murdering Igor Zinoviev with a brutal slam way back in the late 90s. Although Shamrock did it even quicker. Don’t know if we’ve posted it on here before but Zinoviev actually went on to become Jeffrey Epstein’s bodyguard later. So that KO has aged like Salma Hayek. But yeah, incredible introduction to the big stage for King. And on the other end, a disastrous debut for Rosas.

Thought Regina Tarin looked good again in the prelim opener. Didn’t get the finish which, considering the opponent was bang average JJ Aldrich, not a blow away performance. But it’s worth remembering Tarin is still only 21 and a work in progress. The main thing for me is the effort is there. She really goes for it and makes her fights entertaining, which you sadly can’t say about a lot of the current crop of women fighters on the roster.

Edited 17 hours ago by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

I missed it but McMillen is turning into one of the bigger young stars in the sport, I see him all over social media. His style ain't built to last but we should enjoy it whilst he's here.

[wandshogun09]

You’ve gotta watch that fight Egg. Seriously. One of the best of the year easily for me.

On a side note, it’s not a flattering comparison but I can’t look at McMillen without seeing serial killer Richard Ramirez…

[Dai]

McMillen/Rahiki was a cracker, and its always great to see fighters have to be separated at the end of rounds and actually fight like they dont like each other during them too. A fairly average R3 and the fact Rahiki was gassed by the end of R2 knocks it down a few levels from being a genuine FOTY contender for me.

 

Edit: Grassos performance was superb too. Those first couple of minutes in R1 essentially won her the fight. When you look at the pic you posted earlier in the thread of Fiorot being absolutely jacked, then it makes Grassos gameplan of hyper aggression in the first few mjnutes even more risky, but it worked a treat

Edited 2 hours ago by Dai

[wandshogun09]

10 minutes ago, Dai said:

McMillen/Rahiki was a cracker, and its always great to see fighters have to be separated at the end of rounds and actually fight like they dont like each other during them too. A fairly average R3 and the fact Rahiki was gassed by the end of R2 knocks it down a few levels from being a genuine FOTY contender for me.

Nah I thought him gassing was understandable because he absolutely emptied the tank trying to put McMillen away. Some of the best fights in MMA history saw guys gassing horribly. That doesn’t disqualify it for me at all. Plus, it has to be a contender at least. I’m struggling to think of many fights this year that were better or more entertaining.

Fair point that the third round was a comedown but nothing was gonna match that bonkers round two. 

Edited 2 hours ago by wandshogun09