Monday, June 8, 2020

UFC 250 Monday Morning Hangover

A night of not the fights going the way I expected, truth be told.

We all knew Nunes was going to batter her largely outclassed opponent so no surprises there. Nunes never really put on the heat to get the finish. Perhaps she wagered on a decision win on herself and carried Spencer? The betting lines for Nunes by decision were +333 so the money was good if she decided to pull a Jon Jones and carry a fight to decision like he did with Smith when he spent 2 rounds on top of his opponent and literally doing not much more than peppering him with short shots. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but when a fighter as thoroughly outclassed as Spencer was doesn't get put away it seems odd. Minus a single jab that Nunes walked into, Nunes barely took any meaningful strikes at any point in the fight. Who else is there? Nunes seems content to spend time with her wife and their baby and chill whilst a new challenger rises.

Aljamain Sterling: man. Talk about winning in exactly the way you need to so that you're the guy after the vacant belt fight takes place (or to take the place of someone who pulls out due to injury. I'm honestly not wildly excited about Petr Yan vs Aldo, but am excited to watch Aljamain fight anyone in the division.

Sandhagen nearly got put out by that first RNC squeeze, then never seemed to recover the composure to escape the second. It's wild how he'd looked against all previous UFC opposition then blinked and had Aljamain on his back. I'd like to see him face the loser of Aldo vs Yan. Garbrandt will probably say he won't face him coming off of a loss to Aljamain, so Sandhagen is in that odd position of having lost to Aljamain but has a win over Assuncao so facing Assuncao who is coming off the loss to Garbrandt doesn't make sense. Sandhagen hadn't lost in 3 years coming into this fight, so I hope it serves as a retooling stop before he fights for the belt in 2-3 fights.

Magny picked up a win over Martin but as big a Magny fan as I am, it was razor thin. The smaller cage I think definitely had him spend more time clinching against the cage and less time at range than is normally the case, as I've seen Magny blow out guys with better UFC resumes than Martin. Martin now has the all-time welterweight win record in the UFC but isn't in that top 5 range that will get him a title shot, which is wild when you think about it.

O'Malley did what he needed to do to stamp him as certified in the UFC, no longer busting up new UFC signees but rather putting away a dangerous veteran striker. Wineland initially avoided the kicks that I had thought were the bigger threat, but as soon as Wineland froze on the centerline, O'Malley stiff Ko'd him with one shot. I can see that O'Malley wants to utilize the hype to ply his wares for more money, but just as soon as the UFC hype train can spotlight you, it can send you to the nether regions of obscurity. I'm all for guys knowing their worth, but in the realm of fighters having been out of work for months on end, and the backlog of fighters waiting to fight, I question the intelligence of now being the time to hit up the UFC for a deal re-negotiation.

Caceres busted up Hooper who showed his plunge head forward first striking style to increasing inability to tie up his opponent. Caceres is crafty and has taken much more experienced fighters to decision. I hope this fight was a canary in the coal mine for Hooper to realize his striking has to get shored up lest he fall to the wayside like Brian Ortega when he's unable to tie up his opponent and drag them to the mat.

Heinisch looks huge in this weight class. His striking looked much improved from his DWCS fight I saw and the fact that its' backed up by a controlling, aggressive wrestling game when he wants to use it suggests a solid repertoire of skills for the middleweight division.

Perez showed with his 2nd leg kick TKO win the guys really has a tool set. His punches are still a bed wide and his combination structure is unvaried, but with a chopping leg kick game, and solid scrambling ability, he has the skillset to take apart the stick and move striking game of other featherweights as evidenced by his 2 wins via leg kick.

Herbert Burns put away a very tough and skilled veteran Evan Dunham suggesting that while not as BJJ accomlished as Gilbert Burns, Herbert has the versatility of dangerous striking and grappling necessary to be successful in MMA. 

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