#i only fully realized how bad it was after talking to juni about it

[hexesandroses]

I am going to express an opinion that might upset some people and before I do I want to say that I have not played v5.1-5.2 yet (I'm not loving genshin atm). Now that I got that out of the way:

But Capitano is not as interesting of a character as I assumed he'd be. When his rank was first revealed, I assumed he would be one of the more fascinating harbingers that we have - naturally, as he's the first of them. But all we have so far is Capitano being kind; chivalrous; helpful; considerate. And don't get me wrong - that's not bad at all. In fact, it's interesting because how did someone as good as Capitano wind up working with people like Dottore? My issue is that there's literally nothing else to Capitano other than his goodness. This, combined with the usual Khaenri'ahn angst, is all he is. There is no complexity to him unless you start desperately reaching for it. Among all the Khaenri'ahn characters we've met so far, Capitano is the odd one out because he lacks depth. He's likeable, he's charming, but he failed to keep my attention because I cannot analyze him like I analyze other genshin characters. And before you say "that's because we still don't know him well"- we don't know Dain or Dottore thoroughly either, yet they're two of my favorite characters in the game because they have so much depth that you can pick up on in literally any scene they're in. Capitano, unfortunately, feels shallow to me, which is sad because I really, truly wanted to love him.

[raj-veerapen]

Final Confessional

Mentions: Xavier, Juni, Celeste, Emma, Frankie

“Raj, I’m surprised to see you. You’ve been a hard one to track down,” the producer smiled as 

“Well I heard that you ambushed Emmie at the food table, and I figured that since I’d come when I’m not hangry. From what I can tell and from what the host has said, you’ve already edited me enough as a villain that I don’t need to give you more material by not being able to think through my answers because I’m too hungry to focus.” 

“Well we had to do something, you and Xavier are leaving after the ball tonight,” the producer pointed out as Raj sat down in the chair. “Are you looking forward to going home?” 

“I really am,” he said, shrugging, “if I knew how this was all going to go before I left, I don’t think that I would have come on the show. The money that I was able to raise for charity really wasn’t worth the time that I spent here, having you all paint me badly, and being away from my daughter for so long. It just really wasn’t worth it for me.” 

“Really? Even with the people that you met along the way?” 

“I feel like Juni, there’s a good chance that we would have run into each other at some point, and that we’d always end up friends. Along with a lot of the other people here like Celeste and Emma,” Raj said after thinking a moment, “the downside is I don’t think that I would have met Xavier and Frankie, and so they are the only two people that have made me not fully regret being here.” 

“Wow. Harsh,” the producer said, grimacing a little, “You know, you did just say that you didn’t want to give us more ammunition for how we have been editing you, I’m not sure that you realize that you’re giving us just that,” they continued as Raj rolled his eyes. “So let’s move on to happier topics: like you and Xavier. We didn’t get to see a lot of your relationship, it seemed like a lot of it happened in the love shack or out past where our mics and cameras reached.” 

“Yes, that was intentional,” Raj pointed out, figuring that had been obvious. 

“Well do you want to elaborate on it now?” the producer asked, trying to lead Raj into talking more. 

“No,” he shrugged, “what Xavier and I have is special, but there is also a reason that we kept things off camera. When I came on this show, it was for charity. And while I wasn’t vocal about that, and I still don’t even feel like I should have to say it, that was what I came here for. And while I did find love, and it caught me by surprise, there’s things that I am just not comfortable sharing with the world, and things that I think that they don’t need to see. And my relationship is at the top of that list.” 

“Raj, you’re on a reality show about finding love,” the producer deadpanned, and Raj could tell that they were doing everything in their power not to facepalm. 

“And I’m also leaving later, so I don’t see the point in me playing nice so that you can get a soundbite that you can Frankenstitch into something else later. I’m just really ready to be done and go home.” 

“Well in that case, I have one last question for you,” the producer said, “You haven’t really seen the show, but you clearly have critiques for how we edited you. What’s something that you think that people tend to get wrong about you?”

Raj paused for a moment before sighing, “I’m an introvert, and I don’t like really talking to people, and I’ve had a hard time trusting people for years. And a lot of that comes from the way that people treat me, this show included. Convicts get a bad reputation, and while there are some who deserve it, there are also some who are good people who happen to have done a bad thing. Or made a mistake. Or got criminalized for something that is bullshit. So as a whole, I think that people need to give others more grace and understanding. Stop treating people like shit. And if they do, that’ll actually help the world become a better place.” And before the producer could try to get him to talk about something else (because Raj truly didn’t believe that it truly was the last question) he took off his mic and walked out - glad to finally be done with the show. 

[vandnana]

Loving You Is Easy

Part Six

Despite the window curtains being shut, their ability to snuff out the now fully risen sunlight became less than effective. The beams of light that found their way to me danced on top of my eyelids, slowly making them open.

There were side effects to deep sleep, one of them being the dragging sluggishness that plagued your body after you finally decide to force your eyes awake, and another being the delay of the mind’s distinction between reality and the dream world.  

I laid there idle, blinking slowly at the ceiling and fighting the drowsiness that sunk me deeper into the mattress. I opened my eyes further to look around the room, suddenly remembering where I was. I inhaled and exhaled deeply, slowly shifting my body to stretch. But as I tried to move, I felt an arm tighten around me, and I felt the vibrations of a slight hum on my neck. I shifted my gaze downward to find Chanyeol nuzzled in my neck, smiling as he slept. My body shivered as a response and my mind shot awake, drowning with questions about whether or not I was still dreaming.

“Chanyeol?” I called out to him gently, my tone colored in perplexity. 

He shifted as he heard his name, letting out a louder hum as a response.

“It’s June.” I whispered in a way that resembled how a mother would reassure their baby. 

For some reason, I felt the need to clarify my name to him, like I knew he would wake up once I said it. And he did, opening his eyes slowly then moving his head away from my neck to meet my eyes. I kept my gaze on him as he moved, and Chanyeol maintained his fixation, our arms still entangled in one another. His eyes were twinkling at mine, but mine were slightly squinted, still expecting his figure to disappear in front of me.

“Chanyeol...”

“Mm?” 

I was still in disbelief and needing reassurance. I lifted my finger up and poked him in the cheek to make sure that it was really him in front of me. A feeling of  relief trickled down my spine when he stayed put, crinkling his nose at my touch. I moved my head back a little, taking in the reality in front of me. Not knowing what else to do or what else to say, I simply smiled at him. 

Yet, even though I was smiling, my eyes were uncharacteristic in their wideness, suddenly making Chanyeol feel flustered. The heat between our bodies rose to his cheeks and ears, and he laughed nervously to distract from the fact that he was turning into a tomato. I noticed the color in his face change from pink to a slight red, and I felt my heart suddenly soften for him. 

“I-I was going to sleep on the floor, but when I put you on the bed you wrapped your arms around me and you wouldn’t let go, so I kind of just...laid here with you.” He let his words out like a flood, trying to explain himself but quickly realizing the implications of them. He abruptly pressed his lips together, another wave of embarrassment washing over him. 

He began to talk again, trying to explain himself a second time, but I cut him off.

“Chanyeol, you don’t have to feel weird or anything. I would have done the same if I was you. I-I don’t mind sleeping next to you. To be honest, no one’s ever held me like this before and I felt really safe...like this. I still feel safe. So...it’s okay.”

A breath that he wasn’t aware he was holding in faltered out of Chanyeol’s lips as they formed a relieved grin. Slowly but surely, the heat that permeated through his head dissipated as his thoughts moved onto something else.

“You-you don’t mind sleeping next to me?” Chanyeol’s heart could have burst open as it pounded faster and faster against his chest. Despite how comfortable we both felt around each other, he knew that, unlike him, I reserved my feelings inside.  

“I don’t. I’ve always slept by myself since I was a kid. I never got used to it though, so I usually hug something when I’m asleep. That’s probably why I held onto you.” A sudden sheepishness overtook my tone, and I closed my eyes tightly as if I had to brace myself for Chanyeol’s response. 

I didn’t need to.

He pulled me into his chest and rubbed my back reassuringly. “You don’t have to sleep alone anymore if you don’t want to.” 

I leaned back slightly so I could look at him, “I don’t want to.”

Chanyeol blinked at me, suddenly feeling awkward. “Oh. That’s fine. I under-”

“Sleep alone, I mean. I don’t want to sleep alone.” I reassured, patting him on the chest.

“Really? You’re just okay with sleeping like this? Every night?” Chanyeol lifted an eyebrow, his mind utterly confused by the implication that I was oblivious to. But his heart jumped for joy, pounding inside of his chest in every direction.

“Yeah. Why? Were you thinking of doing something other than sleeping?” I raised my eyebrows suggestively, teasing him.

His already stained cheeks became a furious red, suddenly flustered at my question. He started coughing as if my words gave him a sickness, and he flung himself out of my arms and out of the bed.

“Maybe you’re the one who wants to do something other than sleeping!” Chanyeol retorted, pouting immaturely at me.

I hopped out of bed, clear amusement painted on my face as I let my laughter fill the air. “I-I don’t know why messing with you always makes me laugh. I’ve never had this much fun with anyone. Ever.” 

“Yah! June! You can’t just make fun of me and then compliment me at the same time. It’s not fair!” Chanyeol whined, gripping his heart dramatically as if I shot him.

I managed to subdue my laughter, and I approached him, taking his hand off of his heart so I could press my ear against it. 

What I felt was just the normal thumping of a heart, and I lifted my head up, lowering my eyes at him. “Your heart is fine.”

“June it’s not. Every time you make fun of me, you stab a little dagger in it that only I can feel.” Chanyeol gripped his heart again and looked up, fighting back fake tears. 

I rolled my eyes at him, “You are so dramatic,” I took his face in my hands, pinching his cheeks lightly then letting go, “There, that should heal you.”

Chanyeol crinkled his nose at me, rubbing the slight numbness in his cheeks from my pinch. “Only slightly June. Slightly.” 

I crinkled my nose back at him before turning my attention toward the drawers. I smiled as I noticed little Yeol and little Junie blanketed in a scarf. Walking over, I sat them upright before opening one of my drawers to pick out my clothes for the day.

“We should definitely get ready now. Mrs. Park must need help downstairs right?”

“Actually, today she doesn’t want you to work at all. She told me to work for you. She thinks I tired you out yesterday because I came home carrying you while you were passed out.” He replied, walking toward his drawers and opening one.

I took out the clothes I wanted to wear, and shut the drawer before turning back to face Chanyeol. “You really carried me all the way home?”

He spoke as he rummaged through his wide selection of shirts and hoodies. “Of course. You know, I would have teleported but for some reason it wasn’t working.” 

“Or you could have woken me up! That’s such a long walk!” 

“Nah. You were too far gone for me to wake you. Anyway, you can take a shower before me. There are already new towels in there.”

I nodded, heading toward the door, but before I stepped out of the room, I hugged Chanyeol from behind to show my gratefulness, “I’m hugging you since you don’t want me to actually say thank you.”

Chanyeol didn’t say anything as he wrapped his arms around mine, but once I let go, he was reminded how warm it felt to have me in his arms.

I showered quickly, then slipped into the simple outfit I had picked. I dried my hair as best as I could before I tied it in a low loose bun. The steam locked in the bathroom found its escape as I opened the door. From the kitchen, the sudden aroma of the breakfast Mrs. Park had cooked filled my nose, and my stomach grumbled loudly. I fought the urge to go to the kitchen, returning to the room with the clothes from the night before in hand. I looked affectionately at the hoodie that Chanyeol let me borrow, remembering how he practically forced me into it. 

“Chanyeol, here’s your hoodie back.” My eyes that were once fixed on the piece of clothing found its gaze on Chanyeol who was now fully dressed in a loose gray hoodie and black pants.

He grabbed the hoodie from me, and threw it in the hamper that was in the corner of the room, almost making it. 

“If the hamper wasn’t shaped like that, I would have made it.” He huffed in annoyance, walking to the hoodie on the floor and picking it up.

“Ohh really? It wasn’t your bad aim?” 

Chanyeol scoffed at me, readying his stance to try again, “Please, June. I was crowned MVP three years in a row when I was in high school. I got this.”

“Only three years? Hmm, not impressive at all.”

He lowered his hands, looking back at me with flames in his eyes, “Okay, the only reason why I didn’t get it sophomore year was because my friend Junmyeon joined, and his rich dad donated like a million dollars to the school, so the coach had to pick him.” 

“Okay, okay, okay. Just, make it this time, and I’ll count it as four years.” I fought back a laugh, and rubbed one of his shoulders to calm him down. 

Chanyeol flaunted his ego with a half-smile. “It’s definitely making it in.” 

He positioned his hands meticulously before throwing the hoodie right into the hamper. He whooped loudly, clapping for himself, then bowing in front of me. 

“Thank you so much for making me the MVP, June. I’d like to thank you for absolutely nothing because this was a one man effort.” 

As a response, I threw my dirty clothes in the hamper, and he watched them fly through the air, then land in the hamper perfectly. 

I shrugged at him, and he scratched his head. His mouth hung open for a moment, before he let his ego take over. 

“You only figured out how to do that because you saw how perfect my form was.” 

I scoffed at him, walking away to head to the dining room. “Pfft. Get over yourself.” 

Chanyeol followed closely behind me, eager to argue still, “Yah! Where are you going?”

My head crashed into his chest as i turned around to face him again. I stepped backward, holding my head and pouting.

“Why is your chest so hard?” I rubbed my forehead slowly, and Chanyeol felt his heart soften as he felt his confidence rise.

He leaned down to look into my eyes, then held my face. “Are you okay? I’m sorry. My muscles are just so big.” 

I bore my eyes into him and pressed my lips together for a second before speaking, “I admit. I set myself up for that one.”

Chanyeol straightened his back and nodded at me, “Yeah, yeah you did. Hey, what’s that smell?”

I pointed to the dining room, “Mrs. Park made breakfast.”

“Why didn’t you say so sooner? I’ve been starving since we woke up. Come on!” 

[melonoverlord]

Obscure meme kalliste/allura? i dunno if you wanna do an ask for the two of them

What convenience store food would be their go-to at a 7-11 (Fantasy or otherwise)?

Kalliste is the type of kid who puts about four packets of brown sugar poptarts in the bottom of the shopping cart and feigns surprise when Icio asks her how did all these poptarts get here. But she’ll still grin in success as Icio lets her keep them because deep down they’re a pushover.

Allura just skips past all the snack food and goes to get ten klondike bars and just walk away with them. She always has to get wrangled back by Juniper because yes, it sucks that you can’t just take stuff, but you’re going to get arrested if you try to steal ice cream.

Who is their drinking buddy? If they don’t drink, which drunk friend would they watch over?

They don’t age at the same rate as the other kids on the ship, so they become of age a lot faster than Ravi, but by the time both are of age, they would probably be drinking with their new parents Icio and Juniper. When Kalliste and Leda get to around the same age, they would def be drinking buddies and get into all kinds of trouble together.

Who would be their go-to character in Clue?

They both over fight over Mrs. White because they like her little maid hat, but in the end Kalliste gets Professor Plum and Allura gets Mrs. Peacock because Icio can’t stand their daughters fighting and picks Mrs. White for themself.

If they ever had to go to college, what major would they pick?

Kalliste would pick Psychology and Law double major with the hope of being a prosecutor.

Allura would do Ethnic Studies, she likes arguing and helping different species get their rights.

Do they have a signature color(s)?

Not really, but both tend to wear a lot of various shades of brown. Now that they have more access to clothes, they’re trying on different styles and colors. Allura finds that she likes pinks and blues, while Kalliste doesn’t really care what she puts on since she can’t see it anyway, but Allura likes her in blacks, purples, and whites.

What would be their favorite vine?

Kalliste’s is “Road work ahead? Uh, yeah I sure hope it does.”

Allura’s is the classic “Bagel boys, babababa bagel boys, babababa bagel boys! With cream cheese!”

If they had a social media account, what would it be about?

Kalliste’s twitter is conspiracy theories about the other crewmembers. Highlights include “I smelled Psyche and she smelled like Ciri. Does that mean Psyche is also shaped like a human with human skin?” and “I think Castor’s species is a rock. He is angry and loud and doesn’t move when I tell him it’s breakfast.” Her instagram is picture of her sneaking up and scaring other crewmembers. Highlights of those include coming up behind Castor while he was stabbing his feelings away and jumping on him, making him scream.

Who would they invite to be their best man/maid of honor at their wedding?

Each other without a doubt. But they would also let Ravi and Crumb be their flower boy and Ring Bear, respectively. None of the kids know that it is a Ring Bearer, and not an actual bear who holds the rings.

Alternatively, who’s best man/maid of honor would they be?

Each other, but also Ravi would invite them to his wedding as his maids of honor along with Crumb and Psyche because there can be many maids of honor. Also Juni would want her daughters to say nice things about her so she’d invite them to be her maids of honor.

What would be the title of their sex tape/mixtape?

Kalliste’s mixtape is “Snuck into Your Heart”

Allura’s is “Knife to Meet You”

If there was no prejudice, what time period/place would they love to visit?

They would both have fun running around as 90s kids, staying out til 10 running around and playing with beanie babies.

What three words would they use to describe themself?

Crafty, Untrusting, and Loyal

What three words would their friends/family use to describe them?

Curious, Brave, and Protective by Ciri; Cute, clever, and innocent by Castor; “Little Ass Kickers” by Juni; “My beautiful snids” by Icio

What nicknames do they have? Any particular stories behind them?

Kalliste has “Liste”, “Lili” (pronounced Lee-lee), given to her by her dad before he died.

Allura just has “Lulu”, which was given by Autumn.

Do they consider themself a good person? Why or why not?

Not really, they both they’ve done things that their parents would disapprove of just to survive, and although it makes them sad, they know they can’t change the past.

If they were a cryptid, what would they be?

They would both be a Wendigo, perfectionist and very tired, but ultimately a romantic who wants to be free of worries.

What is the one thing they wish they could’ve said to a loved one, but never did?

Kalliste wishes she could say a proper goodbye to her parents before they were killed and say that she was sorry for being so skittish and shy.

Allura wishes she could have told Autumn how much she appreciated her in the time that they spent with her.

What would they tell their ten year old self?

Kalliste would say “Hold on to Autumn and appreciate to the best of your ability. She didn’t mean to leave you alone.”

Allura’s ten right now but if she was five she’d tell herself “Love Kalliste as hard as you can, because eventually she’ll be your only family left”

Who would be on their team in an all out prank war? Who would they be against?

Kalliste and Allura are a package deal, but they’d choose Ravi, Icio, and Juniper, and would probably be against Castor.

Can they drive a car? Are they good at it? (If cars don’t exist, would they be able to drive if they existed?)

Neither can drive, but that wouldn’t stop them from trying to drive one. Sure, they’re not tall enough to reach the pedals, but Kalliste’s got the brakes and gas and Allura steers.

Tell the story behind their most stupid injury/scar.

Kalliste has a scar on her cheek after the first time she tried to break into an apartment on Scylla and didn’t realize that someone put a dresser up against the window and tripped and fell, cutting her cheek on it. It was then decided that Allura would make sure to know the layout of the room before either of them went inside.

Allura once cut her hand open when she was trying to make tea for Kalliste when she was sick with the plague, and was too busy trying to make sure that Kalliste was okay that she didn’t know that she was slicing her hand and not a lemon. Whenever they argue, Allura holds out her hand and says “This was for you.”

What word(s) would they freeze up at if someone said it to them?

Any type of “stupid kid” or “useless” rhetoric, but they also get dangerously quiet whenever someone brings up OmniBorn Technologies

Who is someone that they don’t talk to much, but would probably get along with?

Nivviah and the snabies would adore each other. Nivviah is always a fan of kids and completely understands where they came from and why they have a hard time trusting people. Kalliste and Allura think that Nivviah is absolutely brave and a hero like the ones they read about.

Have they ever done something they think is unforgivable?

No, they both believe that although they have done bad things like stealing, they are not completely at fault and it was out of necessity, not hatred.

What type of soda would be their favorite?

Kalliste is a fan of orange cream soda, while Allura likes Shirley Temples (or Sprite if that’s not available)

What do they want more than anything?

They both just want a family.

What is their fatal flaw?

Kalliste does not trust absolutely anyone. Given her heightened sense of smell and hearing, if she senses even the smallest difference in someone’s physiology, it will set off alarm bells. Because of this, she can act cold and closed off in an attempt to protect both herself and Allura, and it takes a lot of coaxing to get her to fully trust you.

Allura is the definition of “young, scrappy, and hungry”. She will fight and claw her way to make sure that she and Kalliste aren’t forgotten and doesn’t really think about a situation before running into it, and will try to fight anything in her way. In her and Kalliste’s fight or flight response, Kalliste is the flight, Allura is the fight.

What Greek God would they be most like?

Kalliste would be Nemesis, the goddess of revenge, retribution, and justice.

Allura would be Eris, the goddess of strife, chaos, and discord.

Who do they looks the most up to?

Both used to look up to Autumn as she rescued them from the Genesian experimentation facility, but now that they’ve been living on the Freedom Vessel, look up to Juniper since she’s been taking care of them while Icio was missing.

If they had to pick between their best friend or significant other, who would they pick?

Since they both only had each other for such a long time, they would probably pick each other over anyone, especially Allura towards Kalliste, but if Kalliste was tired of having to become the “mom” at only 12 and had a significant other, she might be tempted to pick them over Allura if she knew that Allura still had someone to watch over her.

[writingsubmissions]

UFC on Fox 23 Preview

WHAT'S HAPPENING: *It wasn't much on paper, but in practice, UFC's offering on FS1 over MLK weekend wound up being perfectly fine, even though the ending was pretty much a total bummer. As a lot of people expected, Yair Rodriguez pretty much styled on B.J. Penn before becoming the first man (at least in UFC) to knock him down, eventually landing a ridiculous amount of blows on the ground against the Hawaiian legend before it got stopped, and leaving all of us wondering exactly what the hell we're doing here. The weird part is, in some ways Penn actually looked better than expected, at least technically - he had some brief early success clinching Rodriguez up, and landed a few solid strikes at one point based around his jab, but he just looked so old physically that the optics were absolutely awful, particularly once Rodriguez figured things out and was basically hitting Penn at will. It's kind of amazing looking back that Penn was once UFC's welterweight champion, given how small he looked here - nowadays, his natural weight class may be bantamweight, let alone featherweight. But anyway, Penn looked old even in his last fight two-plus years ago, so this was just...really, really bad. Anyway, who knows where we go from here - Rodriguez is now among the ranks of fringe contenders at featherweight, even though it's still unclear exactly how good he is - he's obviously talented and probably a top ten fighter or so at worst, but one does get the sense that there's a level where his dynamic but not particularly strategic style gets figured out and stifled. Though, on the other hand, there are guys like Anthony Pettis who can ride that all the way to a championship reign before it happens, so maybe Rodriguez is just in that class of fighter. And as for Penn, he should probably hang it up, moreso now than ever, but this is also the third or fourth straight fight of his where people have been saying that. *And a bunch of other fights happened, nothing too amazing, but also nothing too bad. Going through the rest of the main card, the biggest thing about the co-main was that two of the three judges seemed to be the only people in the building who thought Joe Lauzon beat Marcin Held, and this included Lauzon, who immediately started shaking his head after the decision was read for him and used his post-fight interview to make clear that he lost the fight. It was a bit of an ugly one, as after Lauzon had some success early, Held mostly just out-wrestled him and neutralized everything he did - on the one hand, Held didn't really do much with a lot of the advantageous positions he had, but on the other hand, Lauzon also didn't really do enough to win the fight either. Ben Saunders won a perfectly fine fight that could've gone either way that there's not much to say about, and I suppose the biggest win on the main card went to Sergio Pettis, who solidly won a fight over John Moraga and suddenly finds himself as sort of a contender. Sergio's sort of taken the complete opposite path of his brother Anthony - while Anthony burst onto the scene as a dynamic phenom, Sergio went through some struggles early in his UFC career and got kind of written off before putting together a really steady, well-rounded game and racking up decision win after decision win. So Pettis is now one of the best rising young fighters at flyweight, but unfortunately in a division with a champ that's currently cleaning house, that basically makes me worry that UFC doesn't rush Pettis into a title fight just for a lack of other available options. *As far as the prelims go, well, we already have 2017 submission of the year pretty much wrapped up, as Aleksei Oleinik hit one of the weirder ones in UFC history, an Ezekiel choke on Viktor Pesta while being fully mounted. On the one hand, Pesta probably should've seen it coming, as Oleinik already has close to double-digit wins via Ezekiel choke in his long career, but on the other hand, it's a strange choke that you don't really see often, and I don't think anyone expected it, least of all Pesta. As far as other standout performances, BJJ stud Augusto "Tanquinho" Mendes made good on his blue-chip prospect status, getting a narrow win over Frankie Saenz in a fight that looked like it was being set up for a Saenz victory. Although he's lost three straight, Saenz is a good fighter, so hopefully they hang onto him, especially since this was the best fight of the night. When it comes to other notable stuff, heavyweight Walt Harris looked good in picking apart fellow prospect Chase Sherman, Nina Ansaroff finally got her first UFC win with a one-sided performance over Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger, and Devin Powell continued the curse of Dana White's reality show, "Lookin' For A Fight", losing a one-sided decision to fellow debuting fighter Drakkar Klose. It's a funny one, that, particularly since it's Klose that's the projectable athlete and fits much more in the mold of who Dana White has personally signed, rather than Powell, a reedy brawler-slash-scrambler. *Well, Conor McGregor against Floyd Mayweather has progressed from "completely not a thing" to "almost completely not a thing," per a bunch of people. I'm assuming this basically has to do with WME-IMG looking at pay-per-view numbers for 2016, realizing that their biggest pay-per-view year ever was built on the backs of McGregor, Ronda Rousey, and possibly Brock Lesnar, and then realizing two of those people are gone and panicking about how to top it. The big thing a few weeks back was Dana White doing a radio appearance and offering Mayweather and McGregor $25 million each for the fight. This was dismissed pretty much immediately, given that it's less than Mayweather's made for a fight in years, and Floyd soon said as much, laughing off White as someone he used to remember carrying his bags. And to make the offer even stupider, $25 million is about twice as much as McGregor has made for a fight in his career, so you're pretty much telling McGregor his market value is double what he was already making, and now he has even more leverage to use that against you. Good work all around. Also, in a side note that should probably just be tagged onto this story, Nate Diaz applied for a boxing license in Nevada and is apparently close to getting it, so who the hell knows what long game the Diaz brothers are trying to play. *Bellator had a show. Tito Ortiz tapped out Chael Sonnen, who looked awful off the gas, in what was Ortiz's final fight, so now Sonnen is damaged goods, even though he'll be able to talk people into watching. I mean, the card did a really good rating, so there's that, but it never feels like Bellator is building momentum towards anything. Paul Daley kneed Brennan Ward's face in, so that was pretty cool, at least. *The Ultimate Fighter is coming back for a twenty-fifth (and perhaps final?) season, and the coaches have been announced - new bantamweight champ Cody Garbrandt and former teammate (and former bantamweight champ himself) T.J. Dillashaw. As long in the tooth as TUF is, these seasons start to live and die more and more based off the feud between the two coaches, and with the bad blood from Dillashaw's departure from Team Alpha Male, and Garbrandt replacing him as the top young fighter in the camp, this should be a good one. The two are slated to fight sometime after the show wraps, which will probably wind up being UFC's big July pay-per-view this year. As for the cast, it's going to consist of former TUF fighters, including some who are on the UFC roster, but none of the names leaked are particularly inspiring - either middle-of-the-road UFC roster guys like Zak Cummings or James Krause, guys who are past their prime like Joe Stevenson, or just fuck-ups there for personality who can't really fight, like the infamous Junie Browning. So...that'll be something. *A whole bunch of news is going on about various camps. First of all, it looks like the Blackzilians camp is pretty much no more after almost a year of rumors - team owner Glenn Robinson was going through issues with his main company filing bankruptcy, and apparently as time went on, this started to affect the camp. So, basically, a lot of the coaches, including striking coach Henri Hooft, and a lot of the team's best fighters, like Rashad Evans, Anthony Johnson, and Kamaru Usman, have all set up shop at Combat Club elsewhere in Florida, which essentially looks like the Blackzilians rebuilt under a new name. Meanwhile, the Blackzilians' main rival, American Top Team, lost one of its own mainstays, as former welterweight champ Robbie Lawler has surprisingly left the camp, where he pretty much revitalized his career, in favor of somewhere to be determined. And in a pretty interesting move, heavyweight Travis Browne has moved from the Glendale Fighting Club to Black House - it's interesting mainly because Browne is the boyfriend of Ronda Rousey, and moved to her team once the two started dating, and given how much of a hard line Rousey keeps when it comes to loyalty, this really does suggest that Rousey is done with Glendale coach Edmond Tarverdyan. On the plus side, at least the I.R.S. no longer considers Tarverdyan a fraud, as he's settled an ongoing case for a reported $160,000. *So the death knell for UFC Fight Pass may have come, as Eric Winter, head of the service, left after eighteen months on the job. Winter was a bit of a coup when he was hired from Yahoo! Sports, and he really did an awesome job with UFC's streaming service, getting the whole website re-designed, making sure a whole bunch of fights got cataloged and uploaded, and often making sure that the service would get one of the better fights on the card, as the "Fight Pass main event" was a landing spot for a lot of really excellent fights. Winter's stepping down to spend more time with his family, and it appears to be his decision, so it's unclear exactly where Fight Pass goes from here - 2017 has already been a bit down, since it looks like we're back to the service just getting the bottom-tier fights for the first two cards of the year, but then again, both of those cards have been so thin that that may not exactly be an indication of anything. *UFC re-booked Jessica Andrade and Angela Hill for the upcoming Fight Night in Houston, and it looks like this may portend an interesting change in UFC's drug testing policy. Basically, Hill, who was cut from UFC in 2015 and then spent 2016 moving up the ranks and becoming Invicta strawweight champion, was tabbed as a late replacement to face Andrade at UFC 207, but wound up falling victim to a quirk in the language of the drug testing policy - basically, anyone who was formerly in the UFC drug testing pool would be subject to a four-month window of testing before being allowed to fight again. This was to prevent guys from basically fake retiring, juicing up, and then suddenly returning, though, the rule only really initially came to light when UFC waived it to sign Brock Lesnar, who kind of wound up doing exactly that. Anyway, UFC I guess finally realized they could set the rules here and waived the rest of the four months for Hill, and the statement in which they did so included a note that apparently UFC and USADA are working to change this policy, so that fighters who are cut involuntarily from UFC aren't subject to these waiting periods, which would also make previous UFC fighters available once again as late-notice replacements. Good, smart stuff. *And now just a bunch of notes to wrap things up. UFC is currently off Russian TV, which is a bit odd as the company is seemingly set to expand into Russia as much as they can - basically, UFC I guess has left negotiating up to a third party who is demanding a much bigger contract from their Russian TV partner, and said network is balking. This all sort of feels like UFC's attempt to expand into China, which was scuttled as a bit of a disaster after a failure to understand the complex national politics going on. Invicta held another show - a good one as always - headlined by Megan Anderson beating Charmaine Tweet to become interim featherweight champion, basically the top true 145er out there with Cris Cyborg dealing with drug test issues. Anderson then called out the Holm/de Randamie winner, and given that the Australian prospect has marketable good looks and can beat the piss out of people, we should see her in UFC sooner rather than later. World Series of Fighting postponed their next show to a date a few weeks later, suggesting things aren't that great at everyone's favorite byzantine MMA pyramid scheme, and French prospect Tom Duquesnoy finally signed with UFC. Duquesnoy's topped prospect lists for years, and he's currently both the bantamweight and featherweight champion of BAMMA, one of the top promotions in Britain. Duquesnoy's reportedly had an offer on the table for years, but was just waiting until he felt ready to make a run in UFC, and even though he's just 23, apparently that time is now - I look forward to seeing what he can do. ------ BOOKINGS: *There's some actual pretty big stuff that's been announced, but let's do the usual run-through chronologically. First, as mentioned above, the Super Bowl weekend show in Houston added a fight between strawweight contenders Jessica Andrade and Angela Hill in a fight where Andrade will pretty much lock up a title fight if she wins. It'll be interesting to see what happens if Hill takes it, though - UFC just sort of threw her to the wolves as a 1-0 kickboxer in her first UFC stint, but she's improved greatly since then, and this would be a hell of a statement in a return. Plus with a few injuries on the card, some undercard fights got changed - with Sheldon Westcott out, Niko Price comes back from his debut win over Brandon Thatch to fight Alex Morono, Volkan Oezdemir will become the first Swiss fighter in UFC history when he steps in as a replacement against Ovince St. Preux, and with Evan Dunham and Johnny Case both hurt, their original opponents, Abel Trujillo and James Vick, will square off. And I guess to make up for the loss of a bout in that Trujillo/Vick shuffle, UFC added a late-notice heavyweight bout, with Anthony Hamilton facing the debuting Marcel Fortuna. *From there, we head to Brooklyn, where UFC 208 got a viable co-main to seemingly round out the card, as Anderson Silva will surprisingly return to take on Derek Brunson. The matchmaking makes sense if you figure the two are close in the rankings and Brunson was the best guy available for Silva to face on the date, but it's still a weird fight. Brunson isn't exactly a dream fight, someone UFC seems to be looking to build, or someone that Silva can just beat, so it's sort of minimizing the asset that is an Anderson Silva fight at this point, but it's still an interesting matchup to see exactly where both guys stand at middleweight from a purely sporting standpoint. Unfortunately, UFC 208 also wound up losing two fights in order to bolster the Halifax card a week later, but more on that in the next bullet point... *The original headliner for Halifax was supposed to be Junior dos Santos taking on Stefan Struve, but with Struve hurt and a search for a replacement turning up fruitless, dos Santos has been taken off the card entirely (more on him in a bit) and the new main is Derrick Lewis taking on Travis Browne in a fight originally slated for Brooklyn. It's not the biggest main event, but UFC actually wound up doing a good job filling out the rest of the card after a few weeks of radio silence. In what one assumes will be the co-main, Johny Hendricks will be moving up to middleweight to take on Hector Lombard, in a matchup of guys who badly need a win to rebound from a really rough 2016. Plus there's some other fun stuff - Liz Carmouche and Sara McMann will square off at bantamweight in a fight between two veterans who are suddenly relevant again, and with Gilbert Burns injured, Paul Felder's bout at UFC 208 has been scrapped, and he instead faces Canada's Alessandro Ricci here. Plus there are two fights in UFC's "let's get some Canadians on the card" division: British Columbia's Ryan Janes takes on Gerald Meerschaert at middleweight, and Halifax-based featherweight Gavin Tucker makes his UFC debut against Sam Sicilia. *And then there's stuff for March! The nightmare is finally over, as everything's finally agreed to, and Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson will face off at UFC 209 for the interim lightweight title. It's a hell of a fight between two excellent contenders, and the third time UFC has tried to put this fight together, but the whole interim title thing does feel a bit cheap since Conor McGregor is still fully healthy - this really seems like a deal where WME-IMG is just seeing the upside of having two title fights on a card without realizing that a second title probably doesn't really mean anything if it's just sort of made up, and if anything it just sort of hurts the drawing power of belts in the long term. One could say this is what UFC needed to do to have this fight go five rounds, but, well, they can just sort of arbitrarily decide that anyway. So that's the lone new fight for UFC 209, while the card the week after from Brazil added four undercard fights. Bethe Correia returns to face Marion Reneau, Jussier Formiga and Ray Borg square off in a fairly relevant flyweight fight, and in a fairly interesting featherweight bout, original TUF Brazil winner Rony Jason takes on Canadian prospect Jeremy Kennedy. Plus, UFC has signed TUF Brazil 3 alum Paulo Costa to debut on this show - he was initially matched up with Alex Nicholson, but Nicholson got hurt almost immediately after that fight was announced, so instead Costa faces South Africa's Garreth McLellan. And then we go to the London card, which still doesn't have a main event, but added two more undercard bouts to seemingly fill out the card - Tim Johnson and Daniel Omielanczuk square off at heavyweight, while bantamweights Lina Lansberg and Veronica Macedo square off in a bit of cruel matchmaking - Lansberg just fought Cris Cyborg at 145, while Macedo is so undersized for the division she might even be better off at strawweight. *UFC's still filling out stuff for March, but UFC 210 and UFC 211 are already set - 210 will be taking place in Buffalo on April 8th, while 211 heads to Dallas on May 13th. There's only one fight announced so far for Buffalo, and it's a good one, as Gegard Mousasi looks to keep breaking through in this latest run at middleweight by taking on former champ Chris Weidman. But it looks like UFC might be loading this one up, as there's a few big fights rumored for this card - the strongest one seems to be that this is where Daniel Cormier will finally defend his belt against Anthony "Rumble" Johnson, but there's also some whispers that the Jose Aldo/Max Holloway featherweight title fight may take place here, as well as a fight between Frankie Edgar and Ricardo Lamas, although all of that has yet to be confirmed by someone that credible. And as for Dallas, this all seems to be preliminary, but apparently the targeted main event is Stipe Miocic defending his heavyweight belt against Junior dos Santos, who I guess between Cain Velasquez's injuries and Fabricio Werdum feuding with UFC over money sort of wound up skipping the line, though JDS also has a win over Miocic in a pretty fun war that took place at the tail end of 2014. Also, there's two more bouts apparently set without a date just yet - as mentioned above, Cody Garbrandt is expected to defend his bantamweight title against T.J. Dillashaw after this coming season of TUF, and apparently Joe Rogan let slip that Anthony Pettis's return to lightweight will be against Russian striker Mairbek Taisumov. ----- ROSTER CUTS: 1) Tim Kennedy (18-6 overall, 3-2 UFC, last fought 12/10/16, L vs. Kelvin Gastelum): Longtime middleweight contender Kennedy retired, which had been brewing for a while, leaving behind a sort of complicated legacy. Kennedy kind of seemed like someone everyone could get behind - a former military sniper who earned a Bronze Star, Kennedy would fight between military commitments before being able to fight full-time as his career started with Strikeforce. And Kennedy had a ton of success as mostly a grinder - he would come up short in title fights against Jacare Souza and Luke Rockhold, but Kennedy was a solid third in Strikeforce's middleweight division, earning wins over guys like Robbie Lawler and Melvin Manhoef. And when Kennedy's UFC tenure started, it looked like he was pretty close to earning a title shot himself - he got a deathly boring win over Roger Gracie to start, but followed that up by knocking out Rafael Natal in the main event of a fight at Fort Campbell, which was a cool moment, and then getting another main event win in one-sided fashion over Michael Bisping. But Kennedy lost a fight to Yoel Romero in controversial fashion in late 2014 - Kennedy seemingly had Romero on the ropes at the tail end of round two, Romero's corner used a bunch of tricks like "forgetting" to take the stool out of the cage to buy Romero time to recover between rounds, and an obviously frustrated Kennedy took his eye off the ball and got knocked out in the third round. That loss and the way it happened seemingly broke Kennedy's will to compete in MMA for a bit, as he took about two years off and made an occasional bad headline. Kennedy spent his hiatus doing some weird reality show where he was hunting Hitler, and would just spend a lot of time in the alt-right sphere of things, appearing on shows with Alex Jones and firing off the sporadic crazy post on social media, highlighted by one where he talked about killing women and children while in the military, circling it all back to show that having PTSD is a choice, essentially calling those who suffered from it mentally weak "pussies." Just...gross stuff. So Kennedy finally returned in 2016, at first slated to fight Rashad Evans at Madison Square Garden, but after Evans had medical clearance issues, Kennedy wound up taking on Kelvin Gastelum this past December. And Kennedy looked like his old self, overpowering Gastelum for a bit, but that lasted about a round, as Kennedy suddenly gassed, and basically got wrecked before the referee called things off in the third round. So about a month after that, Kennedy retired via social media, and, say what you will, it looks like he'll be focusing on efforts to help unionize MMA fighters - hopefully that becomes a positive part of his legacy. 2) Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger (6-4 overall, 0-3 UFC, last fought 1/15/17, L vs. Nina Ansaroff): Jones-Lybarger announced her retirement a few days after her loss to Ansaroff, although honestly, she was probably getting cut after a 0-3 UFC record anyway. Jones-Lybarger, a former basketball player out of Arizona, is obviously an athlete, and was a solid pickup by UFC in late 2015, given that she was coming off a win against solid vet Zoila Frausto to cap a 5-1 record. But she never really showed much, as she seemed to struggle to impose her game against UFC-level athletes, even as the matchmaking sort of moved her down the ladder - a debut against top contender Tecia Torres did her no favors, the follow-up against Randa Markos was just sort of a sloppy affair, and a bout against Ansaroff, who was 0-2 in UFC herself, was just mostly a one-sided beating in her hometown. ----- UPCOMING UFC SHOWS: 2/4 - UFC Fight Night 104 - Houston, TX - Dennis Bermudez vs. Chan Sung Jung, Alexa Grasso vs. Felice Herrig 2/11 - UFC 208 - Brooklyn, NY - Germaine de Randamie vs. Holly Holm, Derek Brunson vs. Anderson Silva 2/19 - UFC Fight Night 105 - Halifax, NS - Travis Browne vs. Derrick Lewis, Johny Hendricks vs. Hector Lombard 3/4 - UFC 209 - Las Vegas, NV - Tyron Woodley (c) vs. Stephen Thompson, Tony Ferguson vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov, Mark Hunt vs. Alistair Overeem 3/11 - UFC Fight Night 106 - Fortaleza, Brazil - Vitor Belfort vs. Kelvin Gastelum, Edson Barboza vs. Beneil Dariush, Mauricio Rua vs. Gian Villante 3/18 - UFC Fight Night 107 - London, England - Corey Anderson vs. Jimi Manuwa 4/8 - UFC 210 - Buffalo, NY - Gegard Mousasi vs. Chris Weidman 5/13 - UFC 211 - Dallas, TX - Stipe Miocic (c) vs. Junior dos Santos ----- UFC on Fox 23 - January 28, 2017 - Pepsi Center - Denver, Colorado Even though UFC's slate for early 2017 is fairly disappointing in the wake of them loading up big shows in November and December, they did well to put together a solid card here, as the company continues to sort of nail down the Fox format. We've got a photogenic fight on top that may determine a title contender, the biggest test yet for what could be UFC's next great heavyweight, and two really solid action fighters. And even the undercard is pretty solid - the top two prelims are pretty strong, and while things rapidly go downhill after that in terms of relevance, thankfully a lot of the card is prospects with some upside, rather than low-ceiling veterans matched together due to there not being much else to do. At least on paper, this card looks like it could be the highlight of the first two months of the 2017 calendar, so hopefully it comes through in practice. MAIN CARD (Fox - 8:00 PM ET): Women's Bantamweight: (#1) Valentina Shevchenko vs. (#2) Julianna Pena Welterweight: (#5) Donald Cerrone vs. (#12) Jorge Masvidal Heavyweight: (#7) Andrei Arlovski vs. (#10) Francis Ngannou Featherweight: Alex Caceres vs. Jason Knight PRELIMINARY CARD (Fox Sports 1 - 5:00 PM ET): Middleweight: Sam Alvey vs. Nate Marquardt Bantamweight: (#4) Raphael Assuncao vs. (#7) Aljamain Sterling Welterweight: Jingliang Li vs. Bobby Nash Light Heavyweight: Henrique da Silva vs. Jordan Johnson Middleweight: Alessio Di Chirico vs. Eric Spicely Light Heavyweight: Marcos Rogerio de Lima vs. Jeremy Kimball PRELIMINARY CARD (UFC Fight Pass - 4:00 PM ET): Flyweight: Alexandre Pantoja vs. Eric Shelton Lightweight: J.C. Cottrell vs. Jason Gonzalez THE RUNDOWN: Valentina Shevchenko (13-2 overall, 2-1 UFC) vs. Julianna Pena (8-2 overall, 4-0 UFC): Welcome to the new normal, as this fight, which UFC has been trying to put together for a while, will probably determine Amanda Nunes's next challenger in the first fight of the post-Rousey era. And it's a pretty excellent fight, pitting striker against grappler in what's becoming a rarer and rarer matchup of the two obvious top contenders for a title. Back in late 2013, when Julianna Pena pretty much ran through the rest of the TUF 18 cast to become the first female Ultimate Fighter winner, there was some thought that she might be facing Ronda Rousey for the belt sooner rather than later - for one thing, she looked good in her fights, but with marketable good looks, a friendship with Rousey blood rival Miesha Tate, and a division that was still in an early state of flux, Pena had all the tools to work her way up the ladder in fairly short order. But that got derailed almost immediately thanks to a massive knee injury suffered before her first post-TUF fight, and things have gotten sort of weird from there. In the cage, Pena has done her job well enough since coming back, running through Milana Dudieva in her comeback fight and then getting wins over Jessica Eye and Cat Zingano, but outside of the cage, she hasn't really connected with the fanbase much, and if she has, it's been quite negatively. Essentially, if Pena pops up in the MMA news, it's usually for one of two things - either one of a surprising amount of bar fights she and her teammates seem to find themselves in, or just some weird comment where Pena apparently thinks she's a much bigger star than she actually is, demanding a title shot and just pretty much making it clear with every fight that we should be thankful she's fighting rather than holding out for a title shot she thinks she's already earned. All that talk is well and good, but there's a point where it becomes more delusional than anything, and Pena's probably past that - unless she manages to win this fight, of course. On the other side of things, Valentina Shevchenko just sort of quietly became a contender in pretty quick fashion - she came in as a late injury replacement on the last card of 2015 and beat Sarah Kaufman, and then had a performance that looks even better in retrospect against Nunes, becoming the second fighter to last fifteen minutes with the current champ and winning a fairly one-sided third round in a close decision loss. From there, Shevchenko was seemingly expected to be a set-up win for Holly Holm to rebound against after losing the bantamweight title, and I could see the logic - Shevchenko is primarily a striker by trade, and Holm had already theoretically proven herself to be the best striker in women's combat sports, but after a slow start, Shevchenko pretty much figured Holm out standing and then started to use her wrestling, earning an increasingly lopsided win and establishing herself as a top contender. So, yeah, this is a really fascinating fight - Shevchenko's proven herself to be a top-tier well-rounded fighter in just a little over a year in UFC, while Pena's still somewhat of a question mark, and it's unclear if she's truly at the level of a title contender, or just sort of at the top of the next tier. Pena's two most recent fights, those wins over Eye and Zingano to get her into this spot, are just weird ones because they're so one-dimensional - either Pena or her opponent just keeps looking for the clinch and to grapple, and Pena's been able to win narrow victories by using strength and positioning to do just enough to win. But she's really unproven on the feet - outside of some flailing punches early in the Eye fight that did not look good, there's just not enough to go on to call her striking game anything other than a question mark. Add in some questions about how good those wins over Eye and Zingano really are - Rousey's fall from grace has sort of shown that we're in the middle of an evolution process in women's MMA, and Eye's losing streak and Zingano's flat last few fights suggest those two may be on the wrong side of it - and there's just a lot of uncertainty around Pena's resume, though she's enough of a talent where any skepticism should also be laced with some optimism. Pena definitely still has a shot to win, particularly after re-watching Shevchenko's fight with Nunes - I remembered it being a lot closer of a fight before Nunes got tired and Shevchenko took over, but Shevchenko did struggle a lot early when Nunes was able to get her to the ground and get on top of her, and that pretty much figures to be Pena's gameplan. One would think that Shevchenko should just be able to keep the fight standing and probably handle Pena rather easily on the feet, but if nothing else, Pena's last two fights have shown she can usually get the fight where she wants, although that comes with the caveat that Zingano, and Eye in particular, have some questions about strategy. A Pena victory is certainly possible, but I just have too many concerns to call it, so I'll say that Shevchenko wins this rather handily, in fact keeping things on the feet and just out-striking Pena - I'm assuming Pena is better than some of those flailing punches she showed in the Eye fight, because if not, a quick finish is certainly on the table, but instead I'll say that this is more of an extended beatdown, finally ending late due to a TKO stoppage. Donald Cerrone (32-7 [1] overall, 19-4 UFC, 6-3 [1] WEC) vs. Jorge Masvidal (31-11 overall, 8-4 UFC, 5-1 Strikeforce, 2-1 Bellator): A fun fight here, as Donald Cerrone, as always, is keeping busy, and good on Jorge Masvidal for calling his shot. It's pretty impressive how quickly Cerrone regained his momentum in 2016 - after losing a lightweight title fight in one-sided fashion to Rafael dos Anjos, Cerrone pretty much seemed eternally cemented as UFC's top non-contender, a fan favorite who was probably better off fighting whoever's available as soon as possible and putting on a good showing rather than trying to make a focused run for a belt. And, well, Cerrone's sort of split the difference - he moved up to welterweight just to take another fight that eventually wound up being against Alex Oliveira, and with that his striking has taken another leap forward, as he became the first man to knock out Patrick Cote, the first man to knock out Rick Story, and the first man to cleanly knock out Matt Brown, quickly becoming a contender once again despite not really changing much in his approach to taking fights. At the moment, Cerrone doesn't really seem to have a clear path to a title shot, with Tyron Woodley and Stephen Thompson scheduled for a rematch, and the winner likely to get Demian Maia, who's holding out for a well-deserved title fight, so, as "Cowboy" is wont to do, he's just taking whatever fight is available, so here he is in his hometown against Jorge Masvidal. Credit to Masvidal for being a smart man, since while many fighters just say they'll fight whoever UFC puts in front of them, Masvidal straight up called out Cerrone after his win over Jake Ellenberger this past December, putting a fight on management's radar that nobody else was probably thinking of at the moment. Masvidal's had a strange career - he came up in the same Miami street-fight scene that birthed Kimbo Slice and turned into a pretty solid, well-rounded fighter, fighting all over the world in Japan, the nascent days of Bellator, and Strikeforce before landing in UFC. But Masvidal's also ridiculously frustrating - he's not much for overall fight strategy, and even when he's winning a fight based off his talents, he has a bad tendency to start coasting, making his wins closer than they need to be and even sometimes turning them into losses. Anyway, this should be a solid win for Cerrone - he has some flaws, particularly when dealing with fighters who can pressure him like Brown did, but I really don't have any faith in Masvidal to do what he needs to do and keep winning rounds - plus even the grappling game is sort of a wash, as both guys are underrated on the mat. I'll give Masvidal the benefit of the doubt that he's tough enough to survive all three rounds with Cerrone, since he hasn't been knocked out since 2008, even though Cerrone's on a streak of breaking formerly unbreakable chins. So I'll say Cerrone wins a clear decision in a fight that's fun and never quite reaches blowout status. Andrei Arlovski (25-13 [1] overall, 14-7 UFC, 0-3 Strikeforce) vs. Francis Ngannou (9-1 overall, 4-0 UFC): A really, really fascinating fight here, as Francis Ngannou is the rare blue-chip heavyweight prospect, and he has a shot to become a legitimate contender way quicker than anyone could've really anticipated. Ngannou was always viewed as someone with potential, as the Cameroonian fighting out of France is a giant mountain of a man built like a NFL defensive lineman, but he was only about two years into the sport when UFC signed him in late 2015. But, well, Ngannou wound up being a natural when it comes to picking things up, as you can trace a clear line of upward progression through his four UFC fights. In his first bout, against Luis Henrique, Ngannou mostly got taken down at will before uppercutting Henrique's head into the bleachers, and by his next fight, against stud wrestling prospect Curtis Blaydes, Ngannou was stuffing takedown after takedown without much of a problem. After a quick showcase win over Bojan Mihajlovic, Ngannou showed last month that he's somewhat scarily already learned submissions - Anthony Hamilton tried to clinch up with him and wear him out, but Ngannou just grabbed a kimura and basically took Hamilton, who's a large man himself, down by sheer force, getting the quick tap. So Ngannou is pretty much the prospect to watch at heavyweight, especially given that he's one of the younger fighters on the roster at age 30, though there's still a bunch of questions to be answered when he goes into deeper waters, like how he responds to getting hit and exactly how he'll deal when facing higher level athletes that he might not have such an obvious advantage against. It'll be interesting to see what type of a challenge Andrei Arlovski offers him, particularly as his career is sort of sputtering after the luck of his UFC comeback run has started to turn the other way. A former UFC heavyweight champ over a decade ago, Arlovski was sort of left for dead after a run of four straight losses in Affliction and Strikeforce from 2009 to 2011, three of which came via vicious knockout - basically, the book was out that Arlovski suddenly had a glass jaw, which at heavyweight is pretty much a death sentence. But Arlovski quietly rebounded a bit, racking up wins in various promotions, though when UFC re-signed him in 2014, it was still seen as little more than a novel signing for depth in an extremely thin division. But the next two years saw Arlovski make a run towards an unlikely title shot - it included deathly boring decision wins over Brendan Schaub and Frank Mir, but Arlovski also scored quick knockouts of Antonio Silva and Travis Browne that, admittedly, haven't aged particularly well. And in 2016, the luck pretty much ran out - Stipe Miocic ran through him in just 54 seconds en route to his own title shot, Alistair Overeem knocked him out, and while a loss to Josh Barnett was less one-sided, Arlovski eventually got tapped out late there as well. As it is, Arlovski's pretty much just a fringe top-ten fighter at this point - while he's not particularly physically imposing anymore, he makes up for that by just knowing what he's doing; despite the recent knockout losses, Arlovski's done a solid job of protecting his chin, especially compared to where he used to be, and he basically has a much better sense of physical space and technical striking than at any point in his career. So there's the chance that, by being the smaller and quicker guy, Arlovski can just use his veteran savvy to avoid danger and pick Ngannou apart - and hell, given that we haven't really seen Ngannou get hit, that may also turn downhill quickly into some sort of a knockout. But, more likely than not, Ngannou will probably use his athleticism to hit the great equalizer and put Arlovski's lights out. I do think Arlovski's a bit underrated here - Arlovski's currently between a three- and four-to-one underdog, and he really could just make Ngannou chase him and wear him out in an ugly fight - but I'll say Ngannou in fact does get another first-round knockout and makes the win look a lot easier than it actually is. Alex Caceres (12-9 [1] overall, 7-7 [1] UFC) vs. Jason Knight (16-2 overall, 2-1 UFC): UFC pretty much always opens up the main Fox card with a good action fight, and with this one, they've done it once more. Alex Caceres is a frustrating talent, since while he has a bunch of skills and often puts on an exciting show, it's unclear whether or not that's all coalesced into anything all that good. Caceres was more notable for his "Bruce Leeroy" persona rather than anything he really showed in the cage on season 12 of TUF, but UFC still saw fit to pick him up thanks to his potential. It took a bit for that gamble to pay off, as Caceres started 1-3 in the UFC, but it eventually did, as Caceres soon reeled off a five-fight unbeaten streak that was mostly over the lower reaches of the bantamweight division, but culminated with what was a big win at the time over Sergio Pettis. And even the fight that snapped that streak, a July 2014 loss to Urijah Faber, was considered a plus performance at the time for Caceres, since he gave a much better showing than expected from a non-contender. And then, well, the wheels came off a bit - Caceres lost in an upset to Japanese vet Masanori Kanehara, and then got blown out of the water by Francisco Rivera, causing Caceres to move back up to his original weight class at featherweight. Results have been mixed - after an obvious tune-up win over Masio Fullen, Caceres looked outstanding for two rounds against Cole Miller before almost losing the fight a few times in the third, and his main event fight against Yair Rodriguez over the summer was a strange one, as both guys just sort of did stuff without much of an overall plan, with Rodriguez mostly getting the better of things. And that's sort of still Caceres's game - he just kinda does stuff, even if you can see him mixing things up and picking his shots a bit more than he used to. On the other side of things, we have Mississippi's Jason Knight, who's quickly making a name for himself as a featherweight prospect to watch. After a completely nothing UFC debut where Tatsuya Kawajiri just kept taking him down, Knight showed out in his sophomore effort against Jim Alers, showing a propensity for trash talking, volume striking, and basically just not giving a fuck that led to him getting the moniker "Hick Diaz" in some circles. And he pretty much followed that up against Daniel Hooker in Australia this past November - Knight just throws a lot of volume and doesn't particularly care what you do to him, showing some Southern machismo the whole while. And I think that's going to throw Caceres off - while his performances are inconsistent from fight to fight, or hell, even round to round, they're still mostly predicated on dynamic bursts of offense, and I figure Knight is just going to get in Caceres's face, overwhelm him with punches, and just sort of prevent Caceres from gathering his bearings about what he's going to do next. I doubt Knight finishes him, since he hasn't shown much knockout power in the UFC to date, but I still think it'll be a fairly one-sided, but still pretty fun, decision win. Sam Alvey (29-8 [1] overall, 6-3 UFC, 1-1 Bellator) vs. Nate Marquardt (35-16-2 overall, 13-9 UFC, 1-1 Strikeforce): A solid enough fight here between veteran middleweights that could wind up in a pretty brutal knockout. It's nice that Nate Marquardt settled into a late-career niche and UFC figured out what to do with him; after a long stint as a middleweight contender and lower-tier card main eventer in UFC, then a brief run in Strikeforce, Marquardt's second UFC run was just sort of getting depressing. Marquardt lost four of five fights upon his comeback, and save a win over a similarly shot James Te Huna, it looked like Marquardt had just suddenly finally gotten old, as knockout artists like Jake Ellenberger and Hector Lombard destroyed him rather quickly, and younger, more athletic guys like Brad Tavares and Kelvin Gastelum made him look old and completely done as a fighter. But Marquardt was able to knock out C.B. Dollaway in a fight that seemed set up to be an easy win for Dollaway, and after being run through by another young athlete in Thiago Santos, UFC seems to have finally gotten the hint, realizing that Marquardt is a greatly diminished athlete, but still a dangerous veteran with knockout power, and putting him against fellow veterans in fights he can actually win. God knows there's enough non-athletes at middleweight. So anyway, after a brutal knockout of Tamdan McCrory, Marquardt returns to try and make it two straight against "Smilin'" Sam Alvey, who had a bit of a breakout in 2016. Alvey's always sort of been a weird cult favorite on the UFC roster, a giant, goofy ginger with a permanent grin that walks out to Train and gives these weirdly enthusiastic post-fight interviews, where he just sort of rants and raves about how great things are, including [insert city here] and calls out his next opponent. Alvey looked like he might be on the cut line after coming back from a broken jaw and losing to Elias Theodorou in June, but instead Alvey wound up fighting three times in under four months - his wife, always in his corner, and seemingly always pregnant (and a former America's Next Top Model winner - live the life, Sam), had another child, so he's gotta pay the bills - and has racked up three straight wins over Eric Spicely, Kevin Casey and Alex Nicholson. Alvey still doesn't have a ton of upside, but at least he seems to be carving out a niche, particularly since UFC seems to be putting him in more prominent situations on cards recently. This is a super-weird fight to call - Marquardt is still dangerous and has veteran savvy in spades, but sometimes he looks just awful out there, although that may just depend on his level of competition. And Alvey just has a ridiculously weird counter-striking style that's extremely low-percentage, but still works for him - Alvey just basically refuses to engage first, and just sort of hangs back and waits for an opening where he can blast his opponent with a power punch down the middle. When it works, it's an awesome knockout, but when it doesn't, things can turn into sort of a slog, as Alvey just kind of neutralizes his opponent while doing nothing himself. So this could go any number of ways. I sort of discount the possibility of Alvey winning via knockout, since I think Marquardt has enough experience to not give him the opening, but if this is one of those fights where Marquardt looks shot, that's entirely possible. So I could see this turning into a war of attrition where Marquardt isn't really able to do much, Alvey chooses not to, and this goes to the cards; but, I'll actually say that Marquardt is able to find an opening at some point and nail Alvey with a knockout shot, plus there's always the possibility that Marquardt just takes things to the ground, which he hasn't done in a while and doesn't really seem to be Alvey's strong suit. But as far as an official prediction, I'll take Marquardt via second-round KO. Raphael Assuncao (23-5 overall, 7-2 UFC, 3-2 WEC) vs. Aljamain Sterling (12-1 overall, 4-1 UFC): A really well-made and interesting fight here, pitting two fringe bantamweight contenders badly in need of a win against each other, as well as continuing the streak of Aljamain Sterling's fights being a little bit lower on the card than they probably should be. UFC's never really seemingly made him a priority, but Sterling's been a blue-chip prospect pretty much since he came onto the scene - Jon Jones comparisons were inevitable, given that Sterling's also a lanky black athlete who wrestled in upstate New York before starting in the same gym as Jones, but while it's not really an apt comparison in terms of style, it was looking pretty suitable in terms of results for a while. Sterling was pretty much using his wrestling at will to just keep running through opponents as he moved up the ladder, and after tapping out Johnny Eduardo to finish out his UFC contract, it seemed like the world was Sterling's oyster. But for whatever reason, MMA promotions just don't really seem to see much in Sterling, who's a charismatic and talented guy - Bellator reportedly didn't even make an offer, and while he got a pay raise from UFC, it still seemed low for a future marketable contender. And then things hit a further snag last May - in a bout against Bryan Caraway that seemed set to build Sterling towards a title shot, Sterling just sort of fell apart after a dominant first round, getting tired and showing a whole bunch of holes in both his striking and his takedown defense. Thankfully, Sterling's still at the point where he can fix some of those mistakes, but it was a concerningly poor performance late in that fight, and "The Funk Master" badly needs a rebound win against Raphael Assuncao, the dark horse of the bantamweight title picture. At the end of 2014, Assuncao seemed pretty much set for a title shot - he's sort of bland and won't get anyone excited, but he's damned good, and was riding a 7-0 record, all in the UFC, after cutting to bantamweight, including a win over then-champ T.J. Dillashaw. But an injury forced him out of a slated fight with Urijah Faber, and a long layoff pretty much killed all the momentum of Assuncao's career - he didn't return until UFC 200 after twenty-one months on the shelf, and even then there were rumors he fought injured while losing a rematch to Dillashaw in a fight where Assuncao still looked sort of good, but clearly lost all three rounds. Losing a fight to Dillashaw is no shame, but given where his career is and the fact that, frankly, he's not the kind of guy who'll get fans clamoring to see him in a big fight, Assuncao badly needs all the wins he can get, including one here. It's a really well-matched fight, but at the end of the day, I think it really just comes down to if Sterling can get Assuncao to the ground and keep him there, and sadly, I'm not really all that optimistic. Caraway just seemed to blow Sterling's game wide open, showing that at least as of last May, if you pressure Sterling and can counter his single strikes from a distance fairly effectively, he doesn't really do a whole hell of a lot while playing defense. And while Assuncao may not have the type of footwork to pressure Sterling quite like Caraway did, Assuncao's main strength is his ability to counter on the feet, so unless Sterling's patched those holes in his game (which is in fact completely possible for a talent like Sterling), the striking game figures to be all Assuncao. And Assuncao's takedown defense has pretty much been on point - Caraway and even Dillashaw, two talented wrestlers, weren't able to do much with him, and even when they got Assuncao to the ground, he pretty much popped right back up. Admittedly, Sterling might wind up being at another level, but again, it's somewhere else where I'm not optimistic. Despite my pessimism, I still give Sterling a shot here - mainly banking on his solid coaching at Serra-Longo and the fact that he's a top-flight kind of talent - but everything on paper favors Assuncao, so I'll say the Brazilian takes a clear decision. Jingliang Li (11-4 overall, 3-2 UFC) vs. Bobby Nash (8-1 overall): This could be a pretty fun fight, but I say this as someone who's a big fan of Jingliang Li, the one decent fighter to come out of UFC's now-abandoned efforts in China. And Li's not just decent by the low standard of Chinese fighters, he's pretty solid overall, as he could easily be 5-0 in the UFC - his loss to Nordine Taleb was a close split decision, and he was winning a fight against Keita Nakamura before getting caught in a last-ditch submission attempt. At first, Li lived up to his "The Leech" nickname, mostly being a one-dimensional wrestler, but he's developed a pretty solid boxing game over his UFC career, flashing some good technique and knockout power. After a few opponents fell out of fights on a few different cards, Li winds up here in Denver to fight Michigan-based newcomer Bobby Nash. Nash seems fine - he looks like an alright-enough athlete and has some solid striking himself, but honestly not a ton stood out, at least at the moment. That's alright enough for now, since Nash is just a little over two years into his pro career, and he seems like he could at least stick around if he's matched up against lower-level UFC opponents often enough, but I don't think Li is that. This should be a fight where Li is controlling most of it, since Li should be the better striker and the better wrestler, but the saving grace for Nash is that Li's defense is still quite poor in pretty much every area, and Nash has shown fight-ending ability both in terms of knockout power and submissions. But I expect Li to just do what he wants unless he gets stopped, and given that another negative for Nash is that I really didn't like the way he reacted to getting hit, sort of backing up to collect his thoughts, I'll call for Li to stun him early and move in for the kill for a first-round knockout. Henrique da Silva (12-1 overall, 2-1 UFC) vs. Jordan Johnson (6-0 overall): A perfectly fine light heavyweight bout here. Henrique "Frankenstein" da Silva has kept busy, with this being his third UFC fight in under four months, but it's hard to tell if he's actually any good - he didn't come into UFC with much in the way of expectations, and while he's had an alright amount of success mostly through sheer aggressiveness, all save one of his UFC fights have come against debuting opponents, and the level of competition doesn't seem to be all that high. So da Silva looks to rebound from the lone loss of his career, a submission to Paul Craig, against yet another debuting fighter, top light heavyweight prospect Jordan Johnson. A former wrestler at both Iowa and Grand Canyon University, Johnson's pretty much a raw grinder at this point, though he has some submission skills, and seems to have taken to striking well enough that he's been on a lot of top prospect lists at 205. And Johnson's done about as well as could be expected, getting six wins without a ton of trouble, and doing so in RFA, one of the top regional promotions you can go to in the US. This isn't quite a gimme - since Johnson's still just under three years into his pro career, I do have some questions about how he can react if da Silva decides to go into Frankenstein mode and just charges forward with little regard for defense - but Johnson does have enough wrestling skill, and da Silva has enough defensive liabilities, that I can just see Johnson grinding out a fairly one-sided decision by winning round after round, with a possibility of him getting a submission at some point. Alessio Di Chirico (10-1 overall, 1-1 UFC) vs. Eric Spicely (9-1 overall, 1-1 UFC): A neat fight here at middleweight. It's hard not to root for Eric Spicely - he came across as an easy fan favorite on season 23 of TUF, since he's overcome a pretty horrible amount of adversity, leaving a broken home as a teenager, pulling himself together after the death of his girlfriend in a freak canoeing accident, and just eventually got his life on track. But despite being a pretty solid fighter and making the final four of the season, there was some concern he wouldn't get a contract - Spicely's sort of a pudgy, physically unimpressive guy, and his grappling-heavy style seemed like something Dana White would really hate. But Spicely did wind up getting a shot, losing in what was honestly pretty embarrassing fashion via quick submission to Sam Alvey, and that seemed to be that for Spicely's career in the UFC. And, well, it was supposed to be, but a funny thing happened - in the whole purchase of UFC by WME-IMG, apparently the paperwork to terminate Spicely got lost in the shuffle. So, come August, Spicely apparently got a call explaining just that and offered him one of two options - to get cut, or to fight Thiago Santos, a top-fifteen fighter with destructive power, on about a month's notice in Santos's home country of Brazil. Spicely took the latter choice, and, wouldn't you know it, wound up out-wrestling Santos and scoring a first-round submission, getting one of the biggest upsets in UFC history, and the biggest one (at least per betting lines) of 2016. Good on him. So after that, Spicely returns a few months later to fight Alessio Di Chirico, one of UFC's recent signings out of Italy, a country that's increasingly starting to build a MMA scene. Di Chirico's solid - he seems to be a strong athlete, and has some solid boxing, though his grappling game is still a little bit of a question mark (at least at a UFC level) and he still seems rather raw overall. So this pretty much boils down to a striker-versus-grappler fight; Spicely obviously wants to get things to the ground, since that's the only place he's had any real high-level success, and Di Chirico should be able to take this if it remains standing. Di Chirico seems to have some decent takedown defense, with the caveat that Spicely might be the best wrestler he's faced to date, so I'll call for the Italian to mostly keep this on the feet and win a decision, though this is really a coin flip of a fight. Marcos Rogerio de Lima (14-4-1 overall, 3-2 UFC, 0-1 Strikeforce) vs. Jeremy Kimball (14-5 overall, 1-1 Bellator): This is one of those fights that doesn't really mean a whole hell of a lot, but pretty much exists to be a fun brawl, and I'm okay with that. Not a ton was expected of Marcos Rogerio de Lima off of TUF Brazil 3, but "Pezao" has done well enough for himself, getting over .500 in UFC by pretty much just being aggressive as hell and always searching for the finish, which has wound up with all five of his UFC fights ending in the first round one way or another. He was slated to face John Phillips, yet another Conor McGregor teammate being signed by the UFC, but with Phillips having visa issues, the late-notice call went to local Colorado fighter Jeremy Kimball. Not a ton of recent footage is out there on Kimball, but his M.O. seems to be the same as de Lima's - to just hit the other dude in the face really hard, and worry about the rest later. So these two guys are probably going to swing bombs at each other, and since de Lima's been doing it at a higher level, I'll say the Brazilian takes it by first-round knockout. But this is really just a fight wherever who hits the first big bomb wins it. Alexandre Pantoja (16-2 overall) vs. Eric Shelton (10-2 overall): This most recent season of TUF - built around flyweight champions from promotions all over the world competing in a tournament for a title shot against UFC kingpin Demetrious Johnson - was the best in years in terms of talent, but for whatever reason, UFC didn't really sign a lot of guys off the show, I guess figuring that since a lot of other top promotions don't have flyweight divisions, they could afford to be patient. But these two guys, both standouts on the show that made it to the final four, got the call and square off here. Brazil's Alexandre Pantoja, then the champion of top American promotion RFA, was the top seed on the season (even if most people beforehand did favor the eventual winner, Tim Elliott) and didn't really do a ton to dissuade that - while the Nova Uniao product wasn't all that dynamic on the show, he showed he could hold his own pretty much anywhere and do well against whatever opponent came his way. On the other side of things, Eric Shelton, an Illinois native who was the champion of Midwestern promotion Caged Aggression, pretty much came out of nowhere to go on a run through the show - Shelton was relatively unknown and seeded at number fifteen, and then just used his athleticism and a high-level wrestling and grappling game to impress time in and time out, even going close enough with Elliott that the decision easily could've gone the other way and sent Elliott to the finals. It's a hard one to call, but as a general rule, it's better to go off of pre-TUF resumes rather than the results during the season, which can be a bit fluky, so for that reason I favor Pantoja to get a decision, since he has more experience and a better camp behind him. But Shelton's gotten here by outdoing expectations time after time, so him doing so once more is entirely possible. J.C. Cottrell (17-4 overall, 0-1 UFC, 1-0 Bellator) vs. Jason Gonzalez (10-3 overall, 0-1 UFC): Somewhat surprisingly, this is the one clear fight on the card that's between two guys that are definitely on the cut line, as both lost their UFC debuts in rather one-sided fashion after coming in as injury replacements. Oklahoma's J.C. Cottrell stepped in on short notice and lost to Michel Prazeres via decision on the Holm/Shevchenko card this past summer; Cottrell's game is typically built around using his wrestling to set up spots where he can jump onto a submission, but I'm not really sure it'll work at a UFC level, and Cottrell looks like the sort of "quadruple-A" fighter who can take care of a lot of guys in smaller promotions but will struggle on a major stage. On the other side of things, we have California's Jason Gonzalez, who came in with a little bit of hype after a decent stint on TUF 22 and a career as a finishing machine on smaller shows - Gonzalez is a gigantic lightweight with knockout power, and has a pretty dangerous submission game to boot. But he got shockingly knocked out in the first round by Drew Dober at UFC 203, casting into doubt exactly how much success Gonzalez will have, since Dober isn't exactly a knockout artist. Still, he's impressed me more than Cottrell, so I'll say Gonzalez gets the second-round knockout, though it's hard to have a ton of confidence in either guy at the moment.