I kinda just wished Bellator folded these two cards together because Friday night is basically just worth tuning in for Mitrione (coming off get wrestled-f*cked by Bader) facing the always dangerous but also incredibly hit or miss Kharitonov. Must see TV because I find both guys normally fun to watch.
Dantas is lower down on the card and that's frankly about it.
I've been watching LFA friday nights when there's no Bellator on, and the rest of this card feels like an LFA card. Not a read, but just a fact.
Saturday, we get a follow-up Bellator card with an MVP vs Daley fight, that I honestly don't know will be fireworks. I've seen both guys put on atrocious fights are talking a big gay and hyping it up, and both guys have fought laughably boring "stand-up" affairs with little to no risk taking at times. I think, predictably, MVP's length will give Daley trouble, and a frustrated Daley can put on laughable performances at times. Saturday night we get snoozer 3/4 of the time these days Kongo vs Minakov which I'm interested to see if Kongo can force him into this over/under clinch along the fence and throw knees for 3 1/2 minutes of each round gameplan.
CroCop faces Big Country who's already throwing shade his way for being a known steroid cheat (never served his UFC suspension) and hasn't been tested in 11 previous fights.
Ah, joy.
Sunday, we get a semi-early ESPN card, which part of me may be rethinking my disdain for moving to ESPN because with this streaming service, anything that gets it on before those 10pm start times is welcome.
The real story is not Velasquez finally returning to face a very dangerous puncher off a lay off (he did that and lost his belt to Cigano, but rather the entrance of Kron Gracie into the UFC. I'm a fan of both Kron and Neiman's grappling skills for MMA as they both hunt for the finish, use old school get to the clinch, get to the mat, and work to finish JiuJitsu. I am curious how Kron will do with 5 min rounds (as opposed to how much better he looked with the 10 min first round format in Japan. He's fought 5 min rounds before, but he's also not faced the cage. We've seen guys come over like Aoki and others struggle with the cage. I have no doubt Kron has prepared in a cage with the scrap pack, and in all honesty, any time a grappling centric style is on display, I'm happy, but we've seen plenty of guys not translate it as effectively with the common denominator wrestling pedigree of the UFC. Hoping for an awesome fight. I can see Caceres fighting an ugly disengaging fight with a lot of probing kicks and the like and Kron plodding around trying to clinch from standing and Caceres taking 2 rounds. I hoooooope I'm wrong AF.
Felder vs James Vick: Felder should hand Vick another stoppage loss. Coming off a stoppage loss to Gaethje (a ton of guys have) and now facing a more measured approach from Felder who likes to fall in love with his Thai styling mid fight and admire his work and finesse will give Vick more of a chance to stay in this fight, but Felder overall has fought the stiffer competition with a win over Oliveira, though interestingly, Felder lost to Trinaldo and Vick beat him. Fun fact.
With Vick picking up wins over solid guys but faltering when facing guys like Gaethje & Dariush.
Barbarena vs Luque, Fili vs Jury, Rivera vs Sterling, Lentz vs Holtzman, Barao vs someone who's 1-3 in his 4 UFC fights.
A bunch of fun scraps, unfortunately, a lot of these ESPN cards starting out stylistically look like sloppy kickboxing match-ups (even that Australia card last weekend). So, we'll see. What's a grappler laid up from ACL/Meniscus surgery to do?
Dantas is lower down on the card and that's frankly about it.
I've been watching LFA friday nights when there's no Bellator on, and the rest of this card feels like an LFA card. Not a read, but just a fact.
Saturday, we get a follow-up Bellator card with an MVP vs Daley fight, that I honestly don't know will be fireworks. I've seen both guys put on atrocious fights are talking a big gay and hyping it up, and both guys have fought laughably boring "stand-up" affairs with little to no risk taking at times. I think, predictably, MVP's length will give Daley trouble, and a frustrated Daley can put on laughable performances at times. Saturday night we get snoozer 3/4 of the time these days Kongo vs Minakov which I'm interested to see if Kongo can force him into this over/under clinch along the fence and throw knees for 3 1/2 minutes of each round gameplan.
CroCop faces Big Country who's already throwing shade his way for being a known steroid cheat (never served his UFC suspension) and hasn't been tested in 11 previous fights.
Ah, joy.
Sunday, we get a semi-early ESPN card, which part of me may be rethinking my disdain for moving to ESPN because with this streaming service, anything that gets it on before those 10pm start times is welcome.
The real story is not Velasquez finally returning to face a very dangerous puncher off a lay off (he did that and lost his belt to Cigano, but rather the entrance of Kron Gracie into the UFC. I'm a fan of both Kron and Neiman's grappling skills for MMA as they both hunt for the finish, use old school get to the clinch, get to the mat, and work to finish JiuJitsu. I am curious how Kron will do with 5 min rounds (as opposed to how much better he looked with the 10 min first round format in Japan. He's fought 5 min rounds before, but he's also not faced the cage. We've seen guys come over like Aoki and others struggle with the cage. I have no doubt Kron has prepared in a cage with the scrap pack, and in all honesty, any time a grappling centric style is on display, I'm happy, but we've seen plenty of guys not translate it as effectively with the common denominator wrestling pedigree of the UFC. Hoping for an awesome fight. I can see Caceres fighting an ugly disengaging fight with a lot of probing kicks and the like and Kron plodding around trying to clinch from standing and Caceres taking 2 rounds. I hoooooope I'm wrong AF.
Felder vs James Vick: Felder should hand Vick another stoppage loss. Coming off a stoppage loss to Gaethje (a ton of guys have) and now facing a more measured approach from Felder who likes to fall in love with his Thai styling mid fight and admire his work and finesse will give Vick more of a chance to stay in this fight, but Felder overall has fought the stiffer competition with a win over Oliveira, though interestingly, Felder lost to Trinaldo and Vick beat him. Fun fact.
With Vick picking up wins over solid guys but faltering when facing guys like Gaethje & Dariush.
Barbarena vs Luque, Fili vs Jury, Rivera vs Sterling, Lentz vs Holtzman, Barao vs someone who's 1-3 in his 4 UFC fights.
A bunch of fun scraps, unfortunately, a lot of these ESPN cards starting out stylistically look like sloppy kickboxing match-ups (even that Australia card last weekend). So, we'll see. What's a grappler laid up from ACL/Meniscus surgery to do?
No comments:
Post a Comment