Tuesday, July 24, 2018

Watched Dana White's Contender Series to see Nick Newell

It's a joke that this guy had to fight on the Contender Series to get a UFC shot at a contract, but that's a separate discussion.


Mike Davis vs Sodiq Yusuf
Yo. Best single round I've seen in a fight in ages. Ferocious punches, kicks, a takedown, a strangle attempt with a guillotine....legs buckled with kicks....man. Prob the best round I've seen in a fight in quite awhile. Better than most of that Hamburg card this past weekend all put together.
Yusuf landing some crunching leg kicks and the heavier punches in the first round.

Second round, Yusuf still with the heavier kicks, but doing a lot of backpedalling, and Davis walking him down, though eating leg kicks for it.

Third round: Yusuf buckles Davis' leg, then chooses to dance and pot shot, and shuck and jive rather than finish a man who's basically on one leg for an entire round. Sad. Showboating rather than finishing a man on one leg is.......regrettable.
Yusuf wins a decision.
Bummer to see him with Lloyd Irvin in his corner, but the guy who famously once gave Dominic Cruz a belt in the cage to grab some spotlight now literally turned away from the camera and made an effort to not even be seen on camera.  Lloyd Irvin has been predictably laying very, very low with all the #metoo going on, because the last thing he needs is that spreading to JiuJitsu and shutting down his network of schools after barely holding it together with the Keenan/JT exodus that happened with the scope of the allegations that surfaced and other.....cases (both unresolved and resolved). Wow, it's only been 5 years. Criticism never sleeps. I won't rehash it here because this post was supposed to be about Nick Newell finally getting a shot at a UFC contract, but use the internet to read and decide for yourself.

Birchler vs Crute
Crute got a standing TKO with about 18 seconds left in the first round. He looks a bit undersized for LHW, and frankly, underpowered, but we'll see how the Aussie does from here on out.

Newell vs Munoz
Newell gave up some takedowns, and Munoz managed to land some stiff punches at times throughout. It wasn't a barnstormer level performance for either guy. As the fight wore on, the commentary became about how Munoz had a 20 month layoff, and the show and the narratives feel (predictably) more scripted than even the company man UFC commentary on PPV's.
Munoz won the fight 30-27 and now Dana can justify retroactively why he never brought Newell over to the UFC. 

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