This Coming Weekend in MMA....Bellator 200 London & UFC Till vs Thompson Liverpool

Coming off that admittedly surprisingly entertaining UFC in Chile card (no thanks to Usman and Maia) we get both a milestone Bellator card (200.....wow, here we are guys) and a UFC in the UK with Till fighting Wonderboy, amongst others.

Friday night we get several key Bellator match-ups and a title fight:
Mousasi vs Carvalho
Mousasi gets a title shot after not so impressively debuting in Bellator. He got the job done...but that's about all you can take away from it. Carvalho is a big, impressive, truly middlweight sized fighter and despite Mousasi having fought in several weight classes across his storied MMA career, the sport has evolved...and I think this is a tougher fight for him than a number of pundits are forecasting.

Roy Nelson vs Someone (CroCop is injured)
Michael Page vs Caveman Rickels
Rickels is tough...but that will just get him CTE level damage in this fight. Page is too long, his attack too varied, and hits too hard and often to lose this fight. Tough way to get paid being Rickels in this fight.
Linton Vassel vs Phil Davis
Vassel has beaten everyone in Bellator save Bader, King Mo, and Emmanuel Newton....i.e: the Bellator championship belt holder level guys. Phil Davis is also that tier as the fight he lost to Bader was very close scoring-wise. Tough night for Vassel here as Phil will take him down and pound on him for at least 2 of 3 rounds.
The undercard also has Anastasia Yankova (flyweight) who will hopefully bounce on over to the UFC eventually.

Sunday - early in the day we get a UFC in the UK (Liverpool to be exact) with the likes of:
Darren Till vs Wonderboy Thompson in a real test for the Till who has leapfrogged up the pecking order with his win over Cerrone. I'm honestly only interested in this scrap and the Claudio da Silva fight. The rest of the card is all prelim fodder. Likely to be some entertaining scraps, but I just watched 5 hours of prelim worthy fights from Chile this past weekend. I probably won't tune in for this one and spend my Sunday midday watching TBH. Anyhow....
Neil Magny vs Craig White (who despite it being his debut finished his previous 5 opponents in Cage Warriors in the UK)
Surging Claudio Henrique da Silva faces Nordine Taleb
Tom Breese returns from ACL surgery.

Invicta Ring Boy Elias Theodoru features on the early portion of the event. 

UFC Chile: Thoughts and Reflections

Overall, a solid night of fights. I was there from 630pm sitting in front of the TV until Maia made it through a 5 round fight he didn't win.

At any rate, some great scraps throughout TBH, on a card I had admittedly been dismissive of in the lead-up. Moreno vs Pantoja was a pleasant stand and bang bloodbath/rematch. Prazeres fought an at times boring split decision win over Cummings. Cannoneir probably got the big ole affirmative on his thoughts on moving down to middleweight with that uppercut from Reyes. The women's division got a good, solid scrap in the form of KBG Lee and her multi-pronged muay thai and takedown attack. The fight pass portion even had a kneebar hail mary in a fight Puelles was nearly knocked out of multiple times under his opponent's ground and pound and striking on the feet.

Welterweight is all kinds of interesting as Usman will hopefully face the winner of Till vs Thompson, and the winner of RDA vs Covington faces Woodley at some point to unify the belt(s). Just like that, we've got 5 guys, all of which could probably be champ, in a stand-off with two fights book to delineate some sort of order of operations. 4 hours in at 1030pm, with the main card one fight in, I was admittedly a bit tired from seeing fights and commercials, but hey, it was a solid card with kneebars, Barzola put on an impressive workrate grappling finish to defeat Davis, Saenz faced Briones in a battle of two veterans plying their wares, Laprise got one punch KO'd by Luque.....the card had it all: submissions. slams out of submissions, KO's.....not bad. Not bad at all. Excited to see KGB Lee back in action soon, and Macedo has fights she can win in the division as well, but might want to drop down a weight class as she looked to get out-beasted by KGB in the clinch at various points. 

Tonight: RISE Invitational 8pm EST

I’ll be making my way to Manhattan to see the card live, can’t wait. I know/train with/have trained with 11 guys on the card. 

Gonna be a sold night:

Some Random NoGi Matches to Peruse

Had some time to peruse some NoGi matches on youtube, and brush off my spectacles of preference for my current grappling projects on the mat and personal development to avail myself to what's going on out there. Trends develop over time and ebb and flow and it's important to resist the file-drawer effect or tunnel vision et cetera.

Came across Vieira thanks to the BJJ Scout breakdown of his crucifix position, and he applies it here from a couple places not unheard of but definitely his ability to get there is varied, leading to what Terra contests is an RNC finish from standing/the back.



Miyao hammers at Mantovani's guard for the better part of 5 minutes to eventually get a near back take and lose the position but then utilizes a reverse arm drag to get a sweep with 20 seconds left and score. Miyao also nearly hits a pass I first saw Leo Vieira (not saying it's specific to him, but first time I specifically recall seeing it was in that match) throw at Rafa in their ADCC match (which Rafa later won by submission).

Eldar scores a takedown from a scramble with a whizzer/uchimata then stays on top. Jonnatas forces a scramble from a leg lock entry but avoids the chain takedowns of Jonnatas to get by on 2 points.

 

Polaris 7 add’l match announced

Considerable step up for Williams. Curious as to if Imanari has fallen off enough to lose to the newer generation of UK talent. 

UFC 224: Nunes vs Pennington - Post Event Reflections

I've never been big on Lineker, but he finally has polished his striking enough to be the right amount of wild and the right amount of stalking. He pieced up his opponent and got the finish despite the same concerning ability to end up on bottom and frankly, doesn't seem much able to get up from there unless he's allowed. Big problem in that division as guys like Dillashaw and Cruz have both amazing stand-up and amazingly honed and crafted takedown games. His stand-up while good for besting lower and mid-tier opposition is far too predictable and one dimensional to best the likes of Cruz and Dillashaw and my guess, also Rivera because Rivera keeps his punches and hooks tighter and more compact and has a takedown game to boot. Stylistically, I just don't see Lineker ever winning the strap due to lack of work on his takedown game or defense up until this point.

Belfort had his farewell speech well memorized because he repeated it (likely due to that front/snap/karate/crane/whatever) kick. The guy is by all metrics a legend of the sport due to longevity, titles, strength of resume, ability to polarize, rivalries....everything. Man. Guy faced over 10 former world champs from either Pride or the UFC. Ridiculous. He'll prob ply his wares against some other fading legends, and y'know what? I'll watch. He's a legend. He gets to say when he's done. He also gets to make money the best way he knows how for a bit longer.

Machida still has it. Still dangerous. Still mobile. Still fading in the chin department. Not sure he can bang with the top 3 of MW which is a murderer's row of Romero, Rockhold, and Whitaker, but we'll see what unfolds if he pieces together another few wins. I want him to get a second title at MW but with Romero or Whitaker holding the strap, it's tough man.

I thought Jacare won the fight. Minus getting dropped in the second round, he landed far more heavy right hands and kicks, and Gastelum for all his bouncing and moving honestly didn't hurt Jacare. Fatigue, visually, probably swayed judges to give Gastelum rounds that I think based on scoring were actually Jacare's. Jacare completely dominated the first round, landed heavier shots in the second, and the third round was close. Once again, I don't see Gastelum piecing up or avoiding being taken down by big guys like Whitaker and Romero. IN fact I think likely doesn't win more than a round or 2 at best against them. Jacare had the old adrenaline dump do him in but he still bests all but the very best and brightest in the division.

Pennington's coach is a &*^%ing bum and a clown and doesn't care about his fighter. She said I'm done after taking knees to the face and having her nose crushed and he sent her back in to take punishment in a fight she was in no position to win. Leave that camp and leave that coach and go elsewhere. Being tough is admirable but not enough on it's own to win fights. Watching her fruitlessly look for those leg grabs as takedowns and the advice between rounds was atrocious. Leave that camp.

Amanda Cooper was looking nice and sharp but dropped the lead hand and got tagged with a big right hand......from a woman who was almost in the next weight class up. Mackenzie did herself no favors showing up 7 lbs overweight with a clear "I didn't really bother to even try to make the weight because my opponent will take the fight because of how high profile it is." Fans are fickle. A clear I didn't even bother to try as the sport is seen as increasingly professional as opposed to it's thunderdome human cockfighting days got Dern rightfully roasted on the internet with memes once it was revealed for yet another time failing to make weight as a professional. She'd missed the weight prior to her UFC debut despite a regular fighting schedule and somehow always making weight et cetera in JiuJitsu and growing up as an athlete. Call it whatever you want but showing up 7 lbs overweight and refusing to just admit the truth, that you were obviously laughably overweight a week or 2 ago, just shows a lack of respect, or even full out disrespect for your opponent and the sport in general.

Prelims -

I'm still waiting for Elizeu to get a further up main card slot. The guy is a real dark horse in his division. His striking is dangerous. He's aggressive. Has been through some tough fights. He's resilient. His time is coming.

Ramos got to the back and made the finish look easy. The face crank/RNC in MMA is real.

Oleinik hits the no arm ezekiel/facing the guy from bottom half-guard that has been a bit in vogue in bigger man Jiu-Jitsu. Guys is 56-11 with a ton of submission wins. Always dangerous, and is dangerous even from traditionally not dangerous positions like bottom half-guard. Guys who don't watch tape of him prior to fighting him truly are doing so at their own peril. The guy throws up submissions and has a ton of neck crank and other style submissions across over 50 fights. That is a huge experience gap for the HW division. Also a dark horse in his division.

Pennington should leave her camp/Pennington's coach ignored her saying it was over

Watching her coach tell her to go for it after she said "I'm done" and her nose was crushed was heartbreaking. A corner exists to protect a fighter from their own pride and heart and give them a way out of an unwinnable fight. Nothing that had transpired in the 4 rounds suggested Pennington might pull out the W. Sending her back in to then have to look for a way out (when she gave up the back and covered up) was a disservice to her, her health, and the remainder of her career. A fighter known for being tough, who says it's over, should be allowed to do just that. Sending her back out to take additional punishment is gross misconduct. I lack the words to articulate my disdain for this type of coaching. It's a tough sport. I get it. I had 5 fights and prepared for a bunch of others that fell through. I remember not remembering where my car was when I would leave work in the afternoon on a regular basis. Full knee reconstruction. Torn oblique. It is a grueling sport when you prepare fully and completely. Watching her coach send her back in and ignore her correctly deciding that it was over was incredibly hard to watch. In the midst of the fight she was asking her coach to throw in the towel so she didn't have to turn to the ref and wave it off. This is WHY THE CORNER EXISTS. Throwing in the towel was ADDED TO THE UFC because there were times when a fighter could not tap or the corner couldn't see what was going on and the early UFC's the referee was not allowed to stop a fight otherwise. John McCarthy has talked about this at length in discussing the early days of the UFC.

Disappointing to see a fighter outmatched, out classed and sent back in to take more punishment.

MMA's most respectable attribute is that you can submit to untenable positions. Arm going to break? Going to lose consciousness? Submit. Admit defeat. Bend the knee. Anyone wanting to see a fighter go out on their shield just wants to see human pain and suffering. Blood sport. Dog/cock fighting for the same of sadism.