Sunday, May 31, 2020

UFC on ESPN 9 Woodley vs Burns Aftermath: Burns Usman's Woodley, Favorites take L's

Tough night of beats for my picks. Elliott and Smolka both dropped submissions to relatively unknown guys with much shorter UFC resumes.

Roosevelt Roberts vs Brok Weaver:
Roosevelt showed some danger in his straight right hand which gave Weaver trouble early on at points in the fight, and Roosevelt displayed a real linear precisision in his use of punches and back control to get the finish. His tall frame combined with punching (both jab and cross) at length + grappling acumen makes him a tough nut to crack for guys at lightweight.

Ivanov edged out the first round against Augusto, but Sakai started chopping with the kicks and more effective forward pressure in the 2nd round, but Ivanov scored a takedown into half-guard with about 30 seconds left and ended the round on top. Debatable as to how to score the round pending your preference for takedowns vs forward pressure and overall strike variety (Sakai landed a heavy body kick and leg kicks throughout). A super obvious fence grab was observed but not penalized in the 3rd round, which was a close round overall with Ivanov looking the more weary of the two, in an overall close fight both in terms of strike count by round and with Ivanov doing more of the stalking forward in the 3rd round. I thought Ivanov deserved the nod, but neither fighter was egregiously treated by the awarding of a split decision for Augusto.

Dern hit a pull through/armpit grip kneebar which is a favorite submission of mine against Cifers. Cifers actually was picking Dern apart similar to Dern's last fight where she lost a fight on the feet when she wasn't able to drag her opponent to the mat. Cifers laneded some heavy shots against the catch but came forward to eagerly in the clinch and got uchimata'd but in doing so actually got top position and didn't have to stay on the ground with Dern, but took the bait and the proceeded to defend a leg entry which she had plenty of time and space to counter and clear.

Main event: Woodley vs Burns
I came into this fight thinking Woodley due to either champ burnout or not preparing to retain the belt caused his performance against Usman, but Burns showed that Woodley's reflexes and ability to narrowly evade punches then counter with his monster right hand has faded. Much like a Roy Jones Jr. there's an intelligible delay in his ability to clip guys and play the margins just enough to evade and counter. Woodley isn't one to lead and so he's forced to let Burns use a full variety of strikes (both punch combinations and kicks). 53 seconds into the first round Burns was mounted on Woodley and that was as telling as inidicator for the fight as there was going to be. I don't doubt that Woodley can still beat other welterweights but the blue print for beating him has been revealed by Burns and Usman.

Elliott vs Royval
I love watching Tim Elliott fight, man. He comes forward, throws kicks and punches at odd angles, he was working a crucifix style merkle to great effect, then throw in a half nelson style turnover to almost take the back and/or pass the guard from attacking his opponent's turtle defense. Sadly, he got caught in the second round by a head-arm triangle. Elliott got to a crucifix then switched to a palm to palm grip arm in guillotine but lost it and gave up mount in the process then while defending the back gave up the head-arm triangle.

Smolka vs Kenney
Kenney is that guy who gets paired up with a more known UFC fighter and if you haven't done your homework you find yourself on the wrong end of the pick. Smolka has some good kick catches but his looping punches missed (he did some good body work punching) and one he was tagged, Kenney latched on a high elbow guillotine from which he finished without even solidifying mount. Impressive finishing instincts.

Roosevelt Roberts vs Brok Weaver

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