#i’m gatekeeping him from non-natives

[thevoidwouldbecalling]

Maybe it’s just me but I don’t think I’ve seen MCU fandom blatantly sexualize a male character to the degree it’s currently doing so to Namor and honestly I’m KINDA uncomfortable about it!!

[barbasbackside]

Based. I wasn’t sure if I was gonna say anything about this, but ops post is making me feel safe enough to do so.

Idk if it’s the whole Hozier fandom or if it’s just s sect group of people getting mad at him, but from the comments I’ve seen, it seems like a lot of white or non indigenous people are getting the most mad and offended.

I am a reconnecting native from South America, so maybe my opinion doesn’t hold much weight. But I have spoken to several of my indigenous profs in the indigenous studies program at my uni (I’m Canadian), and they doesn’t feel like smoke cleaning or smudging with sage is a closed practise. They said that sage is a medicine, and just like all medicines, you can’t gatekeep that. They told me all that matters is that you learn about the practise and do it with good intentions.

Also, you don’t know if she was gifted that sage. Maybe she was. We just don’t know.

I feel like a lot of this hate for Hana is simple because she is Hozier’s girlfriend and people are looking for any excuse to hate her and make him break up with her.

I don’t know the whole situation, maybe there’s something I’m missing. But this whole cancelling of her and him seems like it was done in bad faith. I’m not saying that she or him shouldn’t be held accountable if they do something wrong, but at the end of the day, I think this was never really about speaking up for indigenous peoples. It felt like non indigenous people speaking for them and over them because Hozier broke “fans” parasocial relationship by getting a girlfriend.

Again, that is my dog shit opinion on the matter. Do not come for me. I do not think Hozier is above reproach, but this ain’t it, folks.

If anyone sees this, pls keep the comments nice. I will leave you with a comment I found on Reddit.

(Yes, I know she’s half Japanese, but you get the point)

.... Not y'all trying to cancel Hozier because his girlfriend, five years ago, got married and had a smoke cleanse done?

Not y'all trying to cancel Hozier because she did humanitarian aid and went to teach English to people in Haiti in 2011 (THIRTEEN YEARS AGO, before she'd even dismantled her Christianity?)

Not y'all trying to CANCEL HOZIER because his GIRLFRIEND has MADE MISTAKES and he's deleting all comments about her BECAUSE HE DIDNT EVEN WANT ANYONE TO KNOW HE WAS DATING SOMEONE BC YALL ARE FREAKS???

Like, this is EXACTLY why he didn't want y'all to know, because y'all can't treat him like an actual fucking human being. He's your "uwu mystic fae God lesbian savior" until he gets a girlfriend who is also a fucking human who made mistakes. Then he's an irredeemable fucking colonizer????? 🥴

[pointlesstrashyexistence]

My Latinenatural contributions

Sam and Dean have loving and mildly insulting nicknames for their loved ones

Dean calls Cas “mi viejo” (my old man) (it takes Cas a minute to realize it’s a term of affection) and (jokingly, whenever he manages to make Cas dress differently in some way) “Papi chulo”. Dean can never call him that without bursting out laughing because even he finds it stupid. Maybe “Guapo” (handsome) and “Querido” (beloved) when feeling very soft and affectionate. Sam is “Calaca” (skeleton, someone who needs to eat more), “Gordo/Gordito/Gordi” (Fatty/Little Fatty, because even though Sam is very muscular and fit as an adult, he was a chubby child and even when you get skinny later in life your family will always call you that. BTW this is often used as a term of affection not an insult among Hispanic-Latine families), “Pendejo” (dumbass. Every Hispanic-Latine parent has called their child this at least ten times and Dean is essentially Sam’s father and mother) and “malcriado” (spoiled). Sam and Cas, as chaotic besties who always do crazy shit and gossip whenever Dean isn’t around, together are “las chismosas” (gossipers) and “hijos de la gran puta”

Look in my version Dean gets to live to the point where he’s old enough he admits that he needs to start wearing glasses more often

So Sam, with petty sibling energy, calls Dean “Cuatro Ojos” (Four eyes), “Payaso” (clown/buffoon bc Gatekeep!Sam is back at it again but also sometimes Dean just says stupid shit), and in the mornings when Dean is moving extremely slowly bc he hasn’t had his first cup of coffee “Tortuga”. Maybe sometimes “pendejo” but it feels more like something someone older calls someone younger. When judging Dean’s eating habits, maybe “vaca” (cow). I’m not sure Sam would have a nickname for Cas. I don’t know why. I feel like nicknames for Cas are something specific to him and Dean because nicknames are part of how Dean shows affection and care, which isn’t how Sam does. I do think Sam probably refers to Cas as “Angelito” (little angel) around Dean in this affectionate teasing manner you do when you know your sibling or best friend is in love. I think Sam has nicknames for others though. In my head, he calls Eileen “mi leon” (my lion) bc she’s strong and confidant and amazing and and they trust each other and he feels safe with her in a way he hasn’t felt in some time

Look I’m Puerto Rican and Dominican so Jack is gonna get all the non-feminine nicknames I got basically. To Sam and Dean he is “el niño” (the boy), “nene” (specific term for “boy” Puerto Ricans use), “jefe” (Boss, specifically when its Jack’s turn to decide on things like movie night or dinner or something), “flaco”, “Chiquito” (small boy). I hate that basically any time a tv show wants to establish how Hispanic and Latine a family is they always have the parents call their kids “mijo/mija” but yes Jack is also “mijo” but not often

Dean’s favorite coffee brand is Cafe Bustelo because it was almost always around so it was practical and it tasted good. Sam likes it well enough. He prefers Pilon and Pico Rico but they’re much less popular and harder to find.

Dean is the only one who cooks bc Sam is horrible at it, Cas can’t taste test anything to know if it’s fine, and he doesn’t trust Jack in the kitchen yet to do more than make himself cereal. Dean buys a cookbook of Hispanic dishes bc he can barely recall anything his mom made from his childhood, especially dishes from her culture so he tries to learn. He makes a flan and the caramel is a little bitter but everyone enjoys it. He experiments and makes his own family recipe.

Dean knows Spanish decently enough bc it was what Mary (in my version Maria) would speak to him in while John spoke English because despite the glares she got when she spoke it she wants to make sure her children know. He mostly keeps up with it and improves through listening to music (Selena definitely, and probably also Mana, Menudo, and Aventuras). Sam pre-Stanford doesn’t know a lot of Spanish because Dean didn’t have a lot of time to teach him and by the time Dean realizes he probably should Sam is at the age where it’s harder to absorb and learn a new language and Dean doesn’t quite know how to teach him i that way that if you go to a native speaker of a language and ask them specific questions about the why’s of their languages grammar rules they probably won’t know how to explain. But Sam connects hearing it with feeling peaceful and closer to Dean and Mary and a culture he never really got to learn. He learns a lot through reading Spanish poetry like Pablo Neruda and probably reading the Bible in Spanish and English. He prefers Spanish version of church songs because even though he gets clammy and feels sick and gets a headache anytime he’s in a church, he remembers Dean and stories about their mom.

Sam likes praying with Virgin Mary candles because they make him think of his mom and the peaceful life they could’ve had if she lived but also how he thinks she would’ve wanted him and Dean to find peace even as he gets another headache and his nose bleeds the longer he prays. Dean has no faith in God or angels (at least until Cas), but he sees the image of the Virgin and feels love and pain and safety because who he actually sees is the fictional version of his mom he’s built in his head.

Mary taught Dean the “Angelito de mi guardia”/“my guardian angel” prayer and even put a little plaque with a picture of a child praying to an angel with the words (I had one of these ok) on his bedside. After she dies, he keeps saying it, to an angel at first, and then on behalf of Sam, and then for himself as his faith dwindles and he just can’t keep pretending like he has any left anymore.

Sam and Dean both got these little red, thread, bracelets with a cross after their baptisms. Dean used to wear his until he stopped caring about his faith and just keeps it tucked inside his pockets because it’s one of the last things he has left of his mom. Sam stays wearing his even when for some reason his skin itches so badly he has rashes no matter where he moves the bracelet. He keeps it in a small plastic case in his coat so it doesn’t get anymore threadbare, but whenever he would touch it it still gave him rashes.

I feel like Mary would’ve made Dean and, had she lived longer, Sam do bendiciones with her. But I am basing this off of my family and we never say the full thing even when we’re adults so for Mary it’s just “‘cion Mamí” “Dios me la bendiga. Good night Dean. I love you”.

[buttercupbuck]

Hi! Hope this ask doesn’t come as a rude. I’m not American, I’m from another country that have tons of nationalities as well, and it’s a common thing that people here have up 2-3 native languages. And sometimes the language that we talk can be a mess of languages.

So I just wanted to clarify on why Eddie speaking Spanish counts as a gate keeping? I just want to understand that and not to stir any drama. I tried to put this situation on reality of my country and if I wrote a Slavic and non Slavic characters, and non Slavic would speak in his language, it wouldn’t be considered as gatekeeping. I realize that all countries and cultures are different, so I really just want to understand that moment, and I really love Eddie and don’t want to suddenly write him as inappropriate. But I really don’t want to add any drama so please feel free to ignore my message!

yeah of course! 

so i swear im really not trying to be a gatekeeper in general despite my jokes, but when it comes to spanish, it’s just...not non-spanish speakers’ place to decide when and how to use it in fic, because it usually just ends up being really exploitative and insensitive when they do choose to incorporate it. 

my main issue (even though i have a lot of them) with the way people write eddie speaking spanish in fics is that it’s incredibly fetishistic - latino men and the spanish language have a pretty long history of being fetishized in media, and while the show doesn’t really fall into that, the fics absolutely do - they have him speaking spanish when he’s horny, or when he’s trying to romance buck, or when he’s angry (another latino stereotype), etc. a lot of fic writers exploit spanish bc they want to “spice up” their fic, and it’s just really gross.

another thing is that eddie’s first language is without a doubt english. the way he speaks spanish on the show makes that pretty clear - he speaks it slowly and carefully compared to people who grew up with it and speak it fluently. at most, we’ve seen him speak a maximum of 4-word sentences in spanish. so he’s not going to slip into spanish when he’s angry, or passionate, or whatever, because it’s not his first language or even close. even if he grew up around some of it, it’s not an unconscious thing that he doesn’t have to think about.

also,,,as someone who is also mixed and who learned spanish later in life and struggles with it, it’s incredibly invalidating when fic writers disregard all of the above to have eddie speak perfect, “sexy” spanish. there’s already so much shame that comes with not speaking good spanish as a mixed person, and it’s just...really hurtful for people who aren’t even in the community to imply that it’s not enough, either. i’m not saying that my experiences are universal or that they even translate to eddie’s, because we really don’t know much about his upbringing at all, but i still think it’s so weird that fic writers completely ignore canon in order to fetishize eddie, so it’s just awful on a lot of levels 

and then it’s just inaccurate on so many other levels, as well - the google translate is always horrible and obvious, they have him speaking spanish to non-spanish speakers (which he hasn’t done and wouldn’t do), and so on. 

anyway, thank you a lot for asking! i really do appreciate it - if anything didn’t make sense, please let me know! 

[thefrillypirate]

I blew up on FB so I'm going to share it on here so some of y'all need to read it too.

I've come to resent the new age/neo-pagan/online witchcraft community. Those posts you keep sharing? "Signs you were born a Witch"?

Utter bullshit. I'm sorry, but I mean it. You aren't magically special, and also please stop contributing to the extensive cultural appropriation that is already rampant in the spiritual community.

I don't use the term "Witch" for myself except in humorous or ironic manners. I refer to myself solely as a practioner of "Granny Work", but that's for another post. However, I take the term extremely seriously as there are those who that is their proper title in many translations, and it deserves the courtesy or respect.

We are at a point in the world where people are exploring their spiritual standings and I am okay with that. But you don't have to be born ~•*magical*•~ or feel like you need to be "special" to explore and learn. I guarantee you are empathetic, but you are not an empath. Being an Empath can be a form of neurosis that you need medical attention to deal with. Why do I know this? The last empath i dealt with felt so strongly the need to help her make coworker while his wife was dealing with chemo treatments that she would have sex with him. Multiple times. Because it was the only way to "solve the problem he was suffering from." She would have panic attacks of this. I can promise you it wasnt some goddamn gift that she "had to use". Also, this stigmatizes neurodivergent people such as those on the autism spectrum who have no or little empathy.

I understand women want to feel good, important, powerful. But a lot of these "witchcraft" blogs and posts you are sharing about "pussy on the ground, head to the sky" are the same sites and books written by TERFS and place a stigma around male and non-binary practitioners. It's also just weird and sounds like a yeast infection ready to happen.

I myself am not Jewish, so I am speaking from a gentile, and ask if you have questions on the topic please ask someone of the Jewish Community, but please stop with you Lilith worshipping. Every Kabbalah practitioner and just general Jewish Practitioner I have met has issues with the cultural appropriation of their beliefs. It's a closed practice and unless you are jewish you will likely misuse, stereotype, or speak over actual practitioners by romanticizing important aspects of their practice. This also includes voodoo, hoodoo (yes they are different stop using them interchangeably), rootwork, Native American Practices, and other closed practices. Do your research. Don't just believe every freaking tumblr, pinterest screenshot, and shared facebook edit you see and decide to immediately incorporate it into your practice without some fact checking and research.

This isn't gatekeeping either, please don't read this as such. It took me YEARS of research and work to figure out my relationship with spirituality and a manner that makes me happy but is also respectful of others. Hell, I am still researching and learning even if over all I keep it private. What happens though is a see people on my feed getting drunk and posing on gravestones in Salem, or talking about being Lilith with their Boyfriend, or making jokes about dancing naked around a fire because their are an ~empath~ and it leads to stigmas and backlash to those who are actually trying to learn or practice. I see it here, and on pinterest, insta, even as screenshots from tumblr. I see native and generational practitioners being blocked, over-spoken, or outright chased from their practices because white girls who watched American Horror Story want to feel good. It doesn't help anyone.

If you want to learn, go ahead. If you just like the aesthetic, fine. But understand that people take these seriously, some practices have been around for only 70ish years like Wicca, and some practices are 100s of years of evolution due to forced circumstances like Voofoo brought over by Slaves, and some practices have not really changed for thousands of years like Native American spiritualism and Jewish Mysticism. Please be respectful, talk to practitioners if you want to learn even from an academic perspective. And don't be stupid.

[newcatwords]

who i mean when i talk about the white man

the beauty of the agent smith character from the matrix is that he can inhabit anyone, meaning that anyone can become him.

this is one of the ways i think about the white man.

usually, though, when i talk about The Man, i mean the high level operatives of the state & industry...judges, gatekeepers, bosses. but it also includes the more anonymous enforcers: cops, soldiers, etc... these are people who can bring the hammer of the state down on you if they so choose. they have chosen to become the hand of the state..the mouth of the state..acting on its behalf, doing its work, etc.

is america the white man’s state?

well it was founded by 100% white men:

it was founded for white men. it was not for white women (who couldn’t vote, etc.) or black people (who were enslaved, 3/5ths of a person). it was not for the people who were already living where these men were trying to form their country: native people weren’t even allowed to become citizens of USA until 1924.

you can argue that the white men who ran this place (and who started institutions like the major universities, etc.) have gradually let other people in - women, black people, jews, immigrants, etc. but the rules & values of the american government, of major universities, of news organizations, etc., are in almost all instances the rules & values of those original white people & the white people that have been running those places ever since.

even things like tech products (like this website!) that are meant to be for anyone to use, where technically anyone can work, are the white man’s tech..primarily built & founded by white men..primarily in the white, western tradition of high tech. almost every discipline you can get a degree in (like computer science) was invented & founded by white men working within universities run by white men. this is the most basic sense in which i mean these instutions belong to the white man. he founded them. they are his creations. he continues to create them - publishing the news, keeping the university running, keeping the government running.

you may want to become a part of those institutions - to be in government, to work for a major tech company, to be a cop or a teacher, to be recognized in the art or business world, to get tenure at a major university, etc. ..which is your business and you do you. right now i am writing in the white man’s language (english), using his technology (a computer, the internet, this website), and i, too, try to get my hands on his money (dollars) if at all possible lol.

not all white men are agents of the white man’s state, but most of them (especially if they’re straight and/or christian) can become a part of it. all of them benefit from it (you’re just not as likely to get killed by a cop during a traffic stop if you’re white. this is just reality.). 

almost anyone (with the right papers, with the right skin color) can become The Man...when you as a white person call the cops on a black person, in that moment, you are The Man. when you as a white person try to police someone else’s behavior..or question whether they are in the right place etc...in that moment, you are The Man. if you’re gatekeeping your favorite hobby or industry, in that moment, you are The Man. that’s the beauty of the agent smith character in the matrix - agent smith can execute the full power of the state (ie, visit death on you) and anyone can become him.

it’s much harder (in many cases impossible) for certain “others” to enter various parts of the white man’s world. but it’s possible! look at your black & women cops. look at your colin powells and condoleezza rices..look at all the queer people who are allowed to rise to the top. which is why i think of being The Man as a condition, not as something essential about who you are. of course some people really are The Man on the inside lol - they were born into it or have adopted it or really think they know better and can’t see any other way. waddaya gonna do.

many white people especially are confused about the things that make up white culture. it’s especially difficult to understand because part of white culture is insisting that its culture & ways are universal. so every time you’ve heard a white man say “this is human nature” or “all people do this”, that in itself is white culture. white culture claims to be a neutral culture and a universal culture. but the more you learn, the more you discover that things you might have thought were neutral or universal are actually historically, geographically, & culturally specific to whites/westerners..they are things that were invented by whites/westerners.

here’s one example: many people think that some form of jail/prison/confinement of a person who did a bad thing is universal, or at least very common throughout time and in many parts of the world. but jails/prisons were invented in the west and in fact through much of the west’s history, these were not the main or preferred ways to punish people. michel foucault’s book “discipline & punish” is a good history of the invention of the prison.

when i say “a product of white culture” or "western culture”, the white reader might think “well i’m white and it’s not *my* culture.” that may be true! now imagine the whitest of the whites: your new england snobs, your english posh snobs, the good ole boys who run your town or state, your oppressive church leaders, an elected official who hates you & lies to you, a smug know-it-all educated technocrat (it might be you!), a karen, a cop, the trumpists, the polite skeptic liberals who are always telling you to temper your expectations, the shmucks who make the sexist, dumb hollywood movies, alllll the gatekeepers... their culture, the way they do things, the things they value, that is white culture. it varies. the white conservative’s culture is not the same as the white liberal’s culture, but they do have some things in common, like wanting to keep america going. both of their cultures are white cultures.

these whites are the people who make the culture that so many of us have grown up in - not just those of us in the west. the white culture machine includes academia (which produces scientific knowledge, histories, & the social theories & policies that many reforms are based on), tv, movies, the music industry, the art world, fashion, wall street, the tech industry, the news, professional sports, the politicians & cops (that are so often the content of the news), schools, white churches, most philanthropies, and all kinds of national (& many international) interest groups (ngo’s, advocacy groups, etc.).

these are institutions that (like the US government) were founded primarily by white men and have been run primarily by white men since their founding. they have all the money. they have power - whether it’s commercial power, political power, power to shape the national conversation, power to define what is true (only western science can say what’s true, according to western science!), power to give you a job or take it away, etc.

if you want to be “at the top of your field”, you are almost always meant to strive to join one of these white institutions (mostly white mens’ institutions). you might say “well there’s nothing particularly white about them..it’s just a news company..or an ad company. they’re just doing business.” but when i say white in this context, i mean that the people who founded them were either 100% white or mostly white. the people who have always run them have been either all white or mostly white, and the people who run them now are either all white or mostly white. in this sense, they are the white man’s institutions.

it can be hard to understand that because they are often the national or otherwise “official” thing: national news, or the biggest national/international companies, the top national/international universities. they certainly sell themselves as “the official thing” because it doesn’t sound great to say “the official newspaper of the white man.” and they want to be the official thing. they want to be the top x in the world. that’s an important white, western value as well - wanting to be the thing for everyone. the UN was not the dream of all peoples. it was the dream of some specific white, western people who created it.

here in america, a white man’s state, we grow up in that state’s schools, learning the history it wants us to learn. we watch its tv and listen to its music. we read its news and use its tech. we & our ideas..many of the things we think are true..many of the things we value..have been installed in us by that state and its various mouths (the ones who teach its desired history, tell you how you should look, what you should want out of life, what you should buy):

(above graphic from the movie “they live” (1988))

but we do all have a choice about which aspects of the white man’s culture we choose to adopt..we have choices about which of his values (progress, superiority of humans over nature & animals) we adopt..choices about which books we read & which movies we watch. is the matrix white man’s media? it used to be, but the wachowskis left the club ;). now it’s white trans women’s media :}

one final thing: is everything that white men do or think part of the white man’s culture? are all white men The Man? i hope that this post has made clear that i think the answer to both questions is “no”. i hope i’ve also made clear that non-whites and non-cis-het-men can very much be The Man or agents of The Man at times, or even their whole life. i’m not saying that it’s necessarily bad or necessarily good here, i just want us all to be honest with ourselves about who we are & whose work we’re doing.

a related question: if you start a club and you’re a white man, is it the white man’s club? i think it depends..it might be. do you work within the white, western tradition? do you accept its assumptions (capitalism is good, meritocracy is real, etc.)? do you further its culture? do you support its work? do you subvert it (by insisting that the club & its ways & rules are co-created with women, POC, etc., as real equal co-founders, for example)? do you use your position as someone the cops might believe, or someone the manager might listen to, to get your way & get what you want? ..to get someone else out of the way when you want? you might be The Man!

we can debate specifics - whether industry x or person y or instution z or cultural value n is white, but for me it comes down to this: was the value/government/institution founded by whites/westerners? has it been run & carried forward by whites/westerners? you can also ask whether it primarily benefits whites/westerners (who are allowed to rise to high positions or allowed to not be as likely to be killed by the cops, etc.) and whether it promotes the values/goals of The White Man. if a judge, a cop, an elected official, a principal, a high level church leader, a university president, and a corporate leader can all agree on it, then in my book, it promotes the values/goals of The White Man. an example of values that might fit this bill include an agreement that we should not try to dismantle america, for example. that one should work within the system...that industrialism is the way to go...etc.. primarily these are pro-establishment values. and “the establishment” is another way that i think many people talk about the white man’s culture & institutions.

anyway, this post has gone quite long. thank you for staying with me till the end. i hope it’s provided at least a rough sketch of what i mean when i talk about the white man or The Man and i hope it’s given you something to think about. i apologize for not going into the history of the usage of “The White Man” or “The Man”..i started writing this on a whim & haven’t done a historical dive. please forgive me for that. thank you.

[spiders-hth-is-an-outlier]

Four Reasons You Can Pry Cass Out of My Cold Dead Hands

Look, I kept my mouth shut for like three goddamn years of Tumblr.  That’s a lot, for me.  I’m not famous for keeping my mouth shut, so, you know.  Accept that I tried, and even though I failed, An Effort Was Made.  Take that for whatever it’s worth.

Cass is the better spelling.  It’s not just the correct spelling (though it is the correct spelling), it’s the superior choice of spelling, and here is why.

1. The Phonetics Are Good, Not Bad

You may see people point out that in English, single-syllable words with an A in the middle are typically pronounced with a short A sound.  Bat, rad, van, pal.  Cool, true!  This would be a point, except that--

It’s typically NOT true of words that rhyme with, uh, Cass.

Now, there aren’t a ton of those words in English.  One-syllable words with a short A sound and an S at the end are relatively rare!  Which is cool, because we can pretty much look at all of them, ready, here we go:

ass -- bass -- brass -- class -- crass -- gas -- glass -- grass -- lass -- mass -- pass -- sass

What do you notice?

Sure, I’ll give you “gas.”  It’s short for gasoline, and nobody ever bothered to add an extra S to make it match the pattern.  So there you go.

But now take the second S off of every other one of those words. Usually you  get a word that doesn’t exist in English, with the exception of “as” and “bras” (if you’re allowing plurals into the conversation).  But of those two exceptions, now *neither one* rhymes with Cass anymore -- either the consonant sound changes to a Z sound, or the vowel becomes that soft ah instead of a short A.  That’s what Kripke was trying to say when he says he picked the spelling because “Cas might sound like Caz.”  He meant that, reasonably enough, people might be prompted to think of the only other one-syllable word in common use English that matches this pattern, which is ass/as.

But what about the other words?  If you drop the second S and allow people to *guess* how they think the word might be pronounced -- well, who’s to say.  Would you automatically rhyme bas, clas, glas, las, and mas with gas?  Maybe you would.  More likely, in my opinion, your best guess would be to either rhyme them with as, or to pronounce them as the non-English words they are -- bas relief is from a French loan, glas is Irish, las and mas are common Spanish words.  None of them are pronounced with a short A.

So yeah, if you were randomly reading a fantasy novel, as a native English speaker, these are the calculations you’d make about how to pronounce a name: Das would sound more like dahz, I bet, while Dass is definitely dass.  Vas and Vass.  Ras and Rass.  Shas and Shass.  You don’t look at those and pronounce them the same way in your head; not if you’re an English speaker.  You just don’t.  And without the cue of knowing the full name, you wouldn’t for Cas and Cass, either.

2. Cass Is a Human Name, and We Call That Themes

Cass is a real, live name.  People have it.  The majority of them are women, and it’s short for Cassandra, sure, but it’s also a real, live, human male name.  Really!  Here’s a list of people who have that name in real life and fiction alike.  For some  of them, it’s a diminutive of single-S names like Caspar and Casimir. That’s a thing!  Sometimes it’s just a freestanding name; Cass Ballenger the politician just had it as his middle name.  Sometimes it does come from double-S names like Cassian and Cassius.  Regardless, it’s just -- a name that exists.

When you name a fictional character, sometimes you just pick one randomly, but sometimes the name reflects on or points up something thematically.  I have no idea if that was the intention in this case, but even if it was accidentally, something pretty cool happened.  The made-up fantasy-faux-angelic name “Castiel” tends to be used by other angels, particularly ones like Raphael and Naomi who are speaking to him as real or presumptive superiors in a hierarchy.  “Castiel” is the designation he was given out of the gate, when he was made to be God’s enforcer.  “Cass” is the name Dean gave him.  Cass is what his friends call him, and it’s symbolic of his relationship to humanity, which he consistently chooses over his relationship with angels.  When he fell, or jumped ship, or however you’d like to think about it, he was given a human name, which everyone who regards him with even the slightest affection at all now uses.  It’s good!  That’s good!  It’s a good use of a small thing to point up how differently different characters see him, and whether they emphasize his familiarity or his alienness. You lose that if you insist that his name is only an abbreviated form of his given name.  You lose something from the text if you imagine he’s being called Castiel-only-shorter, instead of becoming a real person named Cass.

3. Just Don’t Be A Jerk, People Are Named What They’re Named

This is just, like -- decency?  I know he’s not a real person, but it’s -- rude, right?  You don’t correct the spelling of someone else’s name.  Who does that?  Do you have beef with parents who call their daughter Catherine Katie, because only Catie is acceptable to you?  People are allowed to just do, like, whatever with names, it’s literally fine.  You know what’s not typically a nickname for Dimitri?  MISHA.  But that’s his name, because it just is.

Yeah, it’s fandom.  You can change whatever you like.  You can have whatever opinions you want about how you would have spelled it, if you were Eric Kripke, or Chuck Shurley, or Metatron, or Dean Winchester.  I have opinions about Isaac Lahey’s name in Teen Wolf, because it’s spelled Lahey and pronounced Leahy, and that’s bonkers!  But that is how it’s spelled, and I just -- go on with my life, unharmed.  Castiel isn’t a real person who will have real feelings about however you prefer to spell his name.

But the standard rule for polite society in re: how to spell someone’s name is however they want you to spell it.  Normally not obeying that rule reads as passive-aggressive at best.  Which is how we come to....

4. Fandom Gatekeeping Is Shitty, Actually

The reality behind the fervor with which Cas-people not just defend their choice to use the non-canonical spelling, but regularly flood my goddamn dash with weird, angry screeds about the fact that 100% of the world doesn’t use the non-canonical spelling, is that they are using it as a shibboleth, a marker of who counts and who doesn’t.  Who belongs here and who doesn’t.  I’ve always known this, because I’m clever like that, but recently I’ve seen versions of the Weird, Angry Screed that spell it out directly: people who spell it Cass are either new around here and haven’t learned How We Do It yet, or by choosing not to do it How We Do It, they are signaling their contempt for pro-Castiel fandom.

And honestly I understand that my reaction to this isn’t the typical one.  I know that most people find those little signs and signifiers of who’s Team Us and who’s Team Them Over There to be comforting.  There’s something that people just like about wearing the jersey; it makes them feel safe among others like them.  I get it.

But much as I love fandom, there’s something I have always hated, and always will hate, about that kind of expectation of groupthink within fandom.  I know, rationally, that part of the socialization is that you’re supposed to learn lingo and references and in-jokes -- you’re supposed to join the fandom by speaking like the fandom speaks.  But there’s something, I dunno, almost threatening?  There’s something crazy-making about taking this random, essentially irrelevant detail, and turning it into something that proves if you belong here or not.  At best, maybe you’re “new around here” (which is okay?  It’s fine, actually, to be new in a fandom and not yet realize that you’re supposed to be ignoring eleven seasons of subtitles? Why are you yelling at newbies, please don’t?), but at worst, we know because you won’t make this mental change that we’ve all agreed to make, that actually you’re not just an outsider, but an opponent.  If you weren’t, you’d do what we all do.

It’s the most literal, direct example of fandom gatekeeping.  If you know the secrets of how we speak and what we accept as real and important, then you’re cool and you can stay.  If you don’t know, or you disagree with what we all got together and accepted as real and important, based on -- watching the show? -- then we know to stay away from you because you’re the wrong kind of fan.  Not our kind.  Wearing the bad jersey.

It’s shitty.  It’s mean-spirited.  It’s the worst kind of cliquish fan posturing, casting people with legitimately different approaches to how and why to use, change, or discard canon in their art and conversation as opponents in a dumb, made-up turf war, and it serves to intentionally carve the fan community into narrower slices of self-siloed echo chambers of agreement and validation, rather than requiring people to just -- get cool with the fact that different opinions exist.

Sure, not all people who spell it Cas are like that.  Some of you seem nice.  But man, I see the knives come out all over every time the Cass spelling pops up in canon, because a lot of y’all really take this seriously, beyond just habit and aesthetic preference.  And even when it’s not said out loud, it’s clear to me that it’s not an argument about how the word looks on the page.  It’s clear to me that those who won’t conform don’t belong and aren’t wanted, and people are afraid someone somewhere might not realize they don’t belong and aren’t wanted until they conform.

There was a time in my life when I’d find that really hurtful, honestly.  That time is not now, because I have real problems, and what Supernatural fandom thinks of me really, truly, deeply does not matter to my life.

But it does bother me enough to write all this out, I guess, and I know that’s because I remember a time when I was younger and more isolated and fandom was really a social and emotional home for me, and I still have an idealistic fondness for the idea of a big-tent, non-gatekeepy version of fandom where people can just, like, be cool to each other about things, even things they disagree intensely about.  There are still people in the world who need and deserve that, and it always angries me up a little when I see people deliberately wrecking that version and replacing it with one where fans have to performatively prove that they aren’t on the wrong team through weird little random tics that have to be repeated just-so, just the way you learned them. So I don’t do that, out of love for my imaginary version of fandom where no one’s asked to do that.

So yeah, the combination of those four factors means that I am never, ever, ever going to mend my ways on this topic, which is a privilege I have, as a person with basically nothing invested in anyone in Supernatural fandom.  (I mean, some of y’all seem really nice, but none of my actual friends live here.)  That lack of being invested in the fandom also, I realize, means that I have no social capital to spend, and people are unlikely to give a fuck what I do or why I do it, so all of this has really been -- basically meaningless.  Still, I’m not really good at thinking things and not saying them, although I’m getting slightly better.  Really!  In general!

[missymarysthings]

Parting Encounters

When Firis woke up the next morning after the ball, there was only one thing on his mind. He had to see Mazella one more time before he began his journey. So with that in mind he bathed quickly and instead of wearing one of his usual dresses that were more grey than pink, he wore something more pink than grey to compliment his eyes. 

Firis would not consider himself giddy in any means. However, the last time he took such an interest in someone it was when he first met his fellow mages. So why pass up this chance life, by extension of Octavian, has given him?

As he made his way to the castle, he bumped into Idium. He chuckled and raised a brow at his mentor. “Going my way?” Firis asked with a cheeky grin.

“Good morning to you too Firis,“ Idium said and laughed softly. “But to answer your question, yes. I...would like to speak with Queen Crystalia one more time before the five of us gather and then head on our separate journeys,” he said. 

“Ah, delightful, our reasons are similar then!“ Firis noted. “For me it is the dear master of ceremonies, Mazella, I wish to see and speak with,“ he explained and placed his hands behind his back. “I will understand if she can not spare the time, but...I can hope, no?“

“We can both hope Firis, for who is to say Queen Crystalia can spare a moment or two for me as well,” Idium mused. Firis chuckled once more, he could see the shy hopefulness hiding in his mentor’s eyes. It was nice to see him to be a little uncertain for once. In a weird way of course. 

They made their way to the grand hall and, to Firis’s initial delight, Mazella was indeed at her little table like she mentioned she might be. However, once they got closer to her, and Firis noticed how she looked he softly frowned. He quickly closed the gap to the table and leaned over the table to get close to her face. His frown grew as he gently took her face in his hands. “You look absolutely drained! Did you even sleep last night my dear master of ceremonies?”

Mazella was a bit started by the mage’s sudden appearance in her face, she had been more “focused” on her cards, and him gently taking her face in his hands. Which were softer than she expected them to be, she wasn’t sure why she did not notice that last night but, that wasn’t the point right now. “Please don’t frown,” she found herself saying first, surprising herself a little. “I do what is needed of me, Firis. It’s okay, I’ll be fine. I’ve bounced back from worse,” she said.

Firis’s frown did not leave and even Idium seemed a bit skeptical. Firis, however, had the advantage of knowing more from the things Mazella had shared with him the previous night. “Before I speak with you further Mazella, where can Idium find Queen Crystalia?”

“She is...actually, give me a moment,“ Mazella said and then took Firis’s hands off of her face so she could grab her cards. She pulled out one of them and enchanted it. With in a few moments she could see her queen’s face. “High Queen Crystalia? One of our guests from last night, the mage Idium, wishes to see you.“

No sooner than Mazella had finished speaking, the queen disappeared from her sight, and was soon reappearing in the entrance hall with them in a flurry of snowflakes. Idium could not help but bow in her presence. Firis also took a moment to bow as well before he focused back on Mazella. “Idium...” the queen said softly. Her nephew’s words, were starting to play through her mind again. Although she was sober now and could think with a clearer mind, it just meant she could not deny the connection she had felt between herself and Idium last night. She then held out her hand to him. “Let us...talk in the gardens,” she said. Idium stood straight and took her hand.

“After you, Queen Crystalia,” he said softly in return. Mazella watched them leave, and though she cleared the image in the card, she kept it activated. Although she doubted Idium would cause trouble, she wanted to be alerted just in case. However, the ‘gatekeeper’ of the grand castle was startled once more as Firis’s hands returned to gently cup her face. When she focused on him once more his frown was still present.

“Your devotion is admirable, and I know you say it is in your nature,“ he began quietly. “But it would be such a shame if you burn out your light because of it, or become a falling star to make someone else’s wish come true. Mazella, forgive me for saying this, but the thought of that happening to you just makes me sad and upset.”

Mazella glanced to the side and made a non-committal sound. “We just met last night. You should not be worrying about me. I told you, I-”

“But you were the highlight of my night, my dear master of ceremonies!“ he interrupted in protest. “If us just meeting was indeed so trivial...then why did you share with me what you did, hm? Why were you comfortable sharing things you would not want others to know you said?“ he asked. “Why can’t I care already? Am I really just another guest among hundreds across so many events? Or are you not used to a guest actually wanting your time instead of one of the queens? Tell me honestly Mazella.“

She stayed silent for the moment, a little stunned by his words. She wasn’t sure what to say at the moment. After another moment or two she heard Firis sigh as he took his hands away. She glanced at him to see he had taken a thinking pose instead and was looking more at the ground than at her. “Firis...”

“No...it’s okay. I am a simple mage doing my own thing, while you are here doing important work. I should not have asked those questions, or indirectly accuse you of being...” he trailed off and shook his head as he let his arms hang back at his sides. “Your time and your duties are valuable, and important, and I should not be infringing on them,“ he ended up saying. “Again forgive me, master Mazella. May the rest of your day find you better than right now,“ he added and turned to leave. 

Something about the situation, about the things he just said suddenly gave her a sense of dread. As he started to walk away it hit her. It was reminding her of the night Lula had left the castle before her grand ball to ‘take care of something’. How she felt her concerns and trust were being pushed aside and had begun to question her queen, but then stopped herself. Her mind then thought of everything that happened afterwards, and understood why she was now feeling this dread. 

But in this situation Firis was in her place in a way, and she was being similar Queen Lula. There were crossovers, but in the end she started to fear that something bad was going to happen to him if they parted ways on this...sour note. She stood and leaned over her little table to catch his arm. “Firis wait. I should...apologize. I should not take for granted that you care even though we just met. I...rather people not worry about me regardless if there is valid reason to do so. The queens are the most important ones and I see myself as beneath them. That I should not matter as much as them as they are the hopes of the kingdom. I just do what I can to ensure their safety and that any event they throw goes well and to their expectations. I...I don’t expect anyone to see me as anything more than just another person with their duties to fulfill here in the castle,” she explained. 

Firis turned to look at her with a slightly saddened expression. Why did she value herself so little? Could she not see the bright light she had? Does it look dim to her or was she dimming it on purpose? He was confused. He then walked around the table so she did not have to lean over it. “Between last night and today...you make it sound like you should not matter at all as a person, and I just can’t agree to that. Mazella the person should matter just as much as Mazella the master of ceremonies, or Mazella the...gatekeeper/protector. You may not be a queen but that doesn’t mean people can’t care about you too,” he said and placed his free hand on her cheek. “It should not mean you run yourself into nothingness, and I don’t think the queens would want that either. I don’t want that to happen.”

“If I, as a person, could not make any more mistakes...maybe I‘d be more accepting of that,” she said a bit sadly. “I am trying to learn from my mistakes but...I wonder if I really am,“ she said softly. She knew her training with Alvara was making some progress, but was it really good enough? Was it fast enough? Why was she starting to feel like a disappointment? Mazella sighed in slight frustration.

Firis leaned in to kiss her cheek and then nuzzled it a moment before leaning back. Mazella looked at him a bit wide eyed, but he looked like what he just did was an absolutely normal thing to do. “Do not let the knowledge of your mistakes hold you down. They are making you doubt yourself. You deserve to shine like you are meant to and do not give up on bettering yourself. Do not overdo it and I believe you will be fine,” he said gently. “It may not mean much coming from me but I care and believe that you can find your balance,” he added and smiled warmly at her.

Mazella let go of his arm and shortly after he took his hand off her cheek and stepped back. “You are...certainly different,” she said a bit speechlessly. He lightly chuckled and adjusted his monocle. She placed her hand on the cheek he kissed.

“I am me, Mazella. Nothing more, nothing less,“ he said and winked. “And I am certain I have taken up too much of your time now. I want to write to you from time to time while I’m on my travels. Is that...permissible?“

“I should start paying attention again, that is true, but...thank you. Just...thank you. And...please do write...it would be nice to have something so simple to...look forward to.“

While this was happening with Mazella and Firis, Queen Crystalia and Idium were having their own conversation.

The queen had led Idium to one of her favorite parts of the vast gardens. Perhaps it was in part because this section had some of the flowers native to the North that her father had planted here long ago. They always seemed to look pretty with a light dusting of snow too. There was a bench by a small frozen fountain that she led him to and sat down gracefully. She then patted the space next to her and waited for him to join her before she spoke. 

“Idium…I...forgive me for seeming indelicate and forward right now but...am I alone in feeling a connection between us?“

Idium blinked at the question. He was not expecting this, or as she said, her forwardness in asking. However, he also could not deny that he was happy that she asked. “No, you are not alone in that feeling Queen Crystalia. If I am honest, I was hoping that I was not wrong in that feeling. However, at the same time I also thought I was being foolish. You are one of the High Queens of the Light Kingdom, after all. I am not a noble or anything of high standing so I felt I should not be expecting much except a kind and gracious welcome and small talk,“ he said as he interlaced his hands in his lap. “But the conversations we had and the time we spent in each other company at the ball, did feel more than that to me. Of course, part of me was also trying to rationalize it as just my previous idolization of you making me feel that way.”

“Status does not matter that much to me, although there are those who feel it should matter to me,“ Crystalia said. “However, it did not matter to my father. If it did...I would not be here today. My mother was a simple woman blessed with healing magic, a kind and compassionate heart, and a wise mind. Sure, there were those that were disappointed with his choice of her, but he cared not for she was what his heart wanted. Their love was true,“ she said and then sighed softly. “How I miss them...“

“I am sorry, I did not mean to bring up bittersweet memories,“ Idium said and looked down. Crystalia shook her head and make him look at her again.

“Do not apologize. I will never shy away from talking about how my parents loved each other. A love like theirs was something I looked up to, that I had hoped one day I would experience for myself. Some would say it was foolish of me to hold onto that hope. Some even now would still say that, citing that I am the only of the High Queens to still be unmarried,“ she said and turned her gaze to the flowers. 

Idium followed her gaze to the flowers as he thought over the things she was saying. He was similar to her. He too once believed in finding a true love to call his own. Despite being what he was, and how some viewed his kind...he had still had those hopes in his younger years...

“I thought I had found it once-“ they both started to say in unison but stopped and looked at each other. They both waited a moment to see if the other would continue. “They were not what they seemed at first.“ they ended up finishing in unison. They blinked and looked away from each other and at the flowers again.

“Seff and his brothers were the first to see it, however. The first to know more, to hear more of his true nature,“ Crystalia began to explain and sighed. “I...almost fought them over it, figuratively. I was blind to the true nature of that man, but...in the end I saw a hint of it myself and trusted their judgement. I...never tried looking for love again after that...“ she finished and then trailed off. Although she could have mentioned an occasion before that, she would never bring up her silly and brief teenaged crush of Seff. She could tell early enough, so she could squash it down, that she wasn’t exactly his type. Though on occasion back then she still wondered what it would be like, but she figured that she probably would end up unintentionally annoying him to the point they’d be ex’s instead.

“She...seemed so interested in me, and what I was trying to do. Liked to watch me work and ask questions to figure out why I would do certain things. She would sometimes bring me books she thought would be helpful. It was so...kind and cute...“ he trailed off and covered his left, and lighter colored, eye for a moment. He then lowered his hand and sighed before he continued speaking. “I was blind to her true reasons of interest in me until it was too late. If I had realized she was only looking to use my talents for her own gains sooner...well...the naive mistakes of a younger man I suppose. I had my own hopes diminished after that.“

Idium then summoned a couple crystals to float in the air in front of him. Two blue ones, a purple one, a yellow one, a pink one and a clear one. With a little concentration, and a light snap of his fingers, they glowed for a moment before they started to transform. After a minute or so they came together to form a little bouquet of crystalline flowers in front of the queen. 

Crystalia tentatively reached out to take them. They were lighter than she thought they would be. Although, she wasn’t sure why she thought they would be heavier. She brought them to her chest and looked at Idium. He looked at her and there was something unspoken between them. She blushed slightly and looked down at the flowers again. “I know you are set to travel once more after we are done talking but...please do not let too much time pass before you come this way again. I also implore you to be careful, and be safe on your journey,” she said softly. 

“When I come back...I will court you properly. You deserve nothing less, and I cannot do so if I am not in one piece, or of sound mind,“ he responded softly and placed his hand over his heart. “I will return to you...“

[writingsubmissions]

UFC 211 Preview

WHAT'S HAPPENING: *Well, the Fight Night card from Nashville was pretty weird, though moreso in retrospect, since enough impressive performances were peppered throughout the card that things never really dragged all that much, despite some clear lowlights on the card. The main event between Cub Swanson and Artem Lobov wasn't one of those lowlights, but it was pretty weird, and I'm not exactly sure how to feel about it, since Lobov hung in there for twenty-five minutes and actually looked kind of good at times, considering. Swanson was clearly the better fighter, but Lobov threw a bunch of volume and whenever it looked like Swanson was finally ramping things up to put Lobov away, the Irish-Russian would land some solid blows and gain back a bit of momentum. So this fight really did more for Lobov than for Swanson - while there seemed to be some momentum behind Swanson after that fight of the year contender over Doo Ho Choi, not being able to put away Lobov just sort of confirms that Swanson's sort of the best of the non-contenders rather than someone who can provide a challenge for the belt. Meanwhile, this probably took Lobov from, say, a guy who should be a gatekeeper to stay in the UFC from someone who can be a gatekeeper for actual prospects - though I worry an impressive performance here means, given his friendship with Conor McGregor, that we're going to see Lobov in undeserved big fights from here on out. *And the co-main was a little from column A, a little from column B when it comes to combining an impressive performance with some weirdness. Al Iaquinta pretty much picked up where he left off, knocking out Diego Sanchez in about a minute and a half (side-note - while Sanchez has been more offensively potent than he has been in a while, his chin being so done means he should probably retire pretty much immediately, even though he won't), and then after the fight seemed more interested in plugging his real estate business rather than any future fights, so...yeah. Iaquinta's already openly feuding with UFC management again and, while not outright retiring again, doesn't seem like he'll be fighting again anytime soon - but more on that a bit further down. *Let's address all the impressive performances first, led by Mike Perry, who's quickly becoming a problematic fave. Perry's essentially the human embodiment of Florida and sort of a garbage person, but he can crack - he was having some trouble early on with Jake Ellenberger, but as soon as Perry got into a groove, it was all over in brutal fashion, as Perry got into the clinch and destroyed Ellenberger with an elbow that made for one of the scariest knockouts of 2017. And then he breakdanced. This guy. Joe Lauzon and Stevie Ray had one of the best fights of the night - Lauzon exposed the main flaw in Ray's game, taking him down and dominating things on the ground in the first round, but the longtime vet tired out and from there Ray pretty much took over, turning things around and dominating the third round on the feet. Ray got the decision win and gave a pretty charismatic post-fight interview after the fact, and he's already booked for a fight against Paul Felder in his native Scotland that should be a firecracker of a bout. On the undercard, Mexico's Brandon Moreno is quickly rising up the ranks at flyweight once more - Tennessee native Dustin Ortiz was doing quite well controlling him with wrestling and clinch-work, but Moreno nailed one big kick and then immediately jumped onto the fight-ending choke. Moreno's exciting and has a ton of charisma, and he should be given some pretty big fights next to see how far he can take this, even though this probably sadly ends with him being rushed into a fight with Demetrious Johnson due to a lack of other options. And the other two impressive performances kicked off the card, as rugged welterweight Bryan Barberena scored an uncharacteristic first-round knockout over Joe Proctor, and a fun flyweight sprint to open the show saw Team Alpha Male product Hector Sandoval knock out Matt Schnell with some hammerfists on the ground. *And then there was the rest of the card. There were two more fights that were alright - Ovince St. Preux got back on track, tapping out Marcos Rogerio de Lima as soon as de Lima gassed, and Tennessee's Scott Holtzman got a workmanlike win over Michael McBride to stay afloat - and then a few absolute stinkers. I suppose the best of that bunch was Danielle Taylor beating Jessica Penne at strawweight - this was Penne's best performance since one-sided beatdowns at the hands of Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Jessica Andrade, who square off for the title on Saturday - but Taylor's slowly starting to figure out how to make her style work in the UFC. Taylor's absolutely tiny and packs a bunch of power, so she just sort of circles at a distance and divebombs in with combinations, which threw Penne off enough that she was able to win a narrow decision. A bantamweight fight between John Dodson and Eddie Wineland was the huge disappointment on the card, as this was the worst of Dodson - he was just too fast for Wineland to do much of anything, so Dodson just sort of did just enough to coast to a boring victory, pretty much undoing all the gains he had done in looking fairly aggressive since moving up to 135. Thales Leites and Sam Alvey was another bad fight - Leites injured Alvey's ankle fairly early on with some leg kicks, which prevented Alvey from effectively pressuring and just let Leites coast to an ugly win. And Alexis Davis and Cindy Dandois had just a gong show of a fight at women's bantamweight - Dandois is a talented submission artist, so the scrambles on the ground weren't that bad, but she got exposed as, by far, the worst striker in the UFC here and the whole thing was just uncomfortably bad to watch. Ick. *So, yeah, Al Iaquinta. Apparently the reason he seemed so unenthused after his fight is that according to him, after seeing Ellenberger get knocked out so brutally on the monitors backstage, Iaquinta pretty much reconsidered if this whole fighting thing was worth the effort, and almost left the arena. And then things went completely to hell after Iaquinta wasn't awarded a post-fight bonus (though, admittedly, Perry and Moreno were probably the right choices), as Iaquinta cursed out the UFC, management, and has pretty much been going off on Twitter in the weeks since, declaring himself President of the UFC and throwing barbs at Dana White and guys like Sage Northcutt. The whole thing essentially stems back to Iaquinta being on bonus probation (which nobody realized was a thing until Iaquinta brought it up) from a number of incidents, like Iaquinta trashing a hotel room and skipping out on a fighters' meeting in Las Vegas, though Iaquinta claims he told the company about the latter in advance. But the real messiness came when Iaquinta needed knee surgery - Iaquinta claimed it was chronic and dated back to his days on TUF, and thus should be covered by the UFC's insurance policy, but UFC (or, according to them, the insurers) pushed back, and things got really messy from there. An unnamed UFC official who is almost surely Dana White tried to throw Iaquinta under the bus this past week, saying that he didn't even thank UFC or the doctors once he got the surgery, which...really, we're going there? Anyway, it's not like anyone on either side of this argument is consistent, so we'll probably see Iaquinta back in the cage at some point, but right now, it's a mess. *And speaking of messes when it comes to fighter relations, Anderson Silva's UFC 212 fight turned into a bit of a disaster, and now it's off. About a week ago, Silva came out and said that he wanted an interim title fight with Yoel Romero on the card, or else he would retire. Apparently UFC had offered him a bunch of different opponents that Silva all turned down - Luke Rockhold was confirmed as one, and the latest rumor was Ovince St. Preux at a 195-pound catchweight for some reason - so it's not all their fault, but they decided not to give in to Silva's demands, and now it appears he's off the card, though him retiring still seems fairly unlikely. Middleweight's just become a mess, particularly with Georges St. Pierre filming a (frankly uninspiring) callout video of Michael Bisping that says he's ready to fight him...sometime after October, which one assumes will be UFC's return to Madison Square Garden in November. So we have to wait even longer for a fight nobody really wants to see beyond it being GSP's return, and we're getting a belt with a ton of contenders held up in the process, causing an absolute chaos in a division. Great. For better or for worse, this'll probably be the long-lasting influence of Conor McGregor - as the guy who showed fighters their own worth and how to get paid. Add in the rise of McGregor happening just as UFC ownership cashed out and showed that the promoters are, in fact, not the friend of the fighters, and it's just been a toxic combination for fighter relations at a time when UFC needs big fights to happen. Sigh. *Ronda Rousey and Travis Browne have apparently gotten engaged. Hopefully it goes better than Browne's last marriage. *ESPN laid off about a hundred employees a few weeks back, as it looks like the sports bubble is finally bursting, which should have some effects on UFC business. WME-IMG bought the company at a premium, assuming a few different things - one, that buyrates would stay at their current levels thanks to Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey (whoops), and cashing it on UFC's next TV rights deal. Live sports are still the big ticket items in the cable world, since they're one of the few DVR-proof things out there, but as more and more people live without cable, it's making a lot of these expensive long-term deals somewhat untenable. When UFC's deal with Fox comes due at the end of next year, they'll still be the biggest property on the market, but it's unclear now what that's worth - UFC banked that they'd be able to be the last big property to get a TV deal before the bubble burst, but instead it looks like they'll be the first one to get a deal under this new landscape. They may still get bigger money out of the deal - maybe even enough to eventually shift UFC's big money source from pay-per-view to TV rights fees - but if ESPN can't pony up the cash, it'll be tough to ignite a bidding war that can cause a huge windfall for the new ownership. *TUF 26 has a point! UFC is officially adding women's flyweight, which I have mixed feelings about - on the one hand, it's the women's division to add, since there's a bunch of talent currently on the roster and available from Invicta, even if Bellator has gotten a bit of a head start, but on the other, at a time when the belts are getting rapidly devalued, adding yet another championship is probably an iffy move. But TUF 20, crowning the first women's strawweight champion, was a pretty great season, so hopefully TUF 26 does the same thing to get 125 off to a good start. *Miguel Torres retired, ending what's probably going to wind up being an underrated and somewhat forgotten career given how suddenly he dropped off the radar. Urijah Faber gets all the credit for starring in WEC and basically making weight classes under 155 viable, but Torres was right there with him, reigning over bantamweight while Faber reigned over featherweight. There was always talk of a dream match between the two, but it never materialized after Faber lost his title to Mike Brown. After winning an instant classic over Takeya Mizugaki, Torres suddenly went from champion to out of the title picture, losing his title in a shocking knockout loss to Brian Bowles, then getting tapped out by Joseph Benavidez for only his second and third losses in a forty-fight MMA career. Then came his UFC career, which frankly wasn't much - his most notable fights were losses to Demetrious Johnson and Michael McDonald, the latter in an obvious attempt to make a name for a talented prospect, and then Torres got cut for a misguided tweet about a "rape van" that was honestly almost too unfunny to really be offensive, particularly given that other UFC fighters have said or done much worse. But even though the reason was kind of eh, UFC cut him at the right time, since Torres signed with WSOF and washed out of it soon after, then just kind of bummed it around his native Indiana and the occasional fight in Asia before calling it a career. Farewell to one of the best mullets in the game. *Things got a bit weird between Brian Stann and Cris Cyborg - essentially, in a radio interview, Stann seemingly confirmed a lot of the whispers going around about Cyborg - that she basically never really made a good faith effort to try and cut down to 135, as her and UFC both agreed to, and a lot of the stuff about her ditching promotional stuff that UFC would throw her way, then complain about how UFC doesn't promote her. In response, Cyborg (or whoever runs her Twitter account - probably her boyfriend/manager Ray Elbe) posted a thing about Stann not liking Brazilians because he got knocked out by Wanderlei Silva, which...not the best look going after the war hero there. *Let's do some quick hits to finish things up. UFC finally signed former WSOF lightweight champ Justin Gaethje, who immediately becomes one of the best action fighters on the roster. It'll be interesting to see how they book him - they could easily throw him right into the fire, but it'll be interesting to see how Gaethje's all-offense no-defense style plays with a step up in competition. Kelvin Gastelum has been suspended for a few months and had his win over Vitor Belfort overturned to a no contest after failing a pot test. The fact that this happened, but Belfort was never flagged while fighting in Brazil, just kind of makes you laugh, then cry. Frank Mir got the full two-year suspension for doping stemming from his March 2016 loss to Mark Hunt - Mir's excuse that it must have been tainted meat or something fell apart once USADA improved their technology and was able to see that samples going back a few months before also tested positive for the drug in question - whoops. Former bantamweight champ Renan Barao is dropping back down to 135 after a two-fight experience at featherweight. And Paige VanZant posted a sexy video on Twitter to sell some Reebok stuff, and then everyone basically got all weird about it and shamed her into taking it down, because that is what MMA fans and humans do. ------ BOOKINGS: *Not a ton of big stuff, save three title fights seemingly getting confirmed for July...kind of. It looks like the long-awaited Jon Jones/Daniel Cormier rematch is a go for UFC 214, which is in Anaheim at the tail end of June - the ball was previously in Jones's court if he wanted that fight or a tune-up match, but he's apparently chose to get his title back as soon as possible. Apparently the co-main of that fight will be Cris Cyborg against...somebody. Women's featherweight champ Germaine de Randamie is apparently going through some issues - there's the ongoing saga of her hand injury, plus apparently she has some problems involving fighting while serving as a police officer in her native Netherlands, so there's apparently the option that UFC may sign Invicta champ Megan Anderson and we get an interim title fight in a three-person division. And the women's bantamweight title fight between Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko, a rematch of the bout that got Nunes the title shot, is taking place on the big UFC 213 show after a few false starts - hell, given how things are shaping up, it may actually wind up being the main event. *Let's go event by event! UFC 212 has apparently lost Anderson Silva, so instead it'll get the retirement fight of Vitor Belfort, who takes on Nate Marquardt in what could conceivably be a retirement fight for both. Belfort's apparently training with Tristar in Montreal for this camp, which comes absolutely out of nowhere, but hey, Vitor's gonna Vitor. That card also adds a few undercard fights - bantamweights Iuri Alcantara and Felipe Arantes square off in a weird fight to make, given that it's a rematch and Alcantara is coming off a big win over Luke Sanders, while Arantes is coming off a loss, and action welterweight Luan Chagas returns to take on British vet Jim Wallhead, who showed little in his UFC debut this past September. *The Oklahoma City card weirdly hasn't gotten any additional fights, but a few undercard bouts have been added to the other June cards from Auckland and Singapore. Auckland adds three bouts - local fighter Luke Jumeau makes his debut against Dominique Steele, who after facing Court McGee in Utah, is apparently slotted as the guy who has to fly in and take on the hometown fighter. Also, Brazilian prospect Warlley Alves looks to rebound against Japanese vet Kiichi Kunimoto, returning from a two-plus-year layoff, and France's Thibault Gouti did in fact apparently negotiate another UFC fight in exchange for fighting an opponent who missed weight, as he takes his 0-3 record to New Zealand against "The Other" Dong Hyun Kim. As for Singapore, Jingliang Li, the one decent Chinese fighter UFC has been able to find, has re-signed with the promotion and will take on Quebec's Jonathan Meunier. Though, sadly, the Auckland card just apparently lost a big name, as Joseph Benavidez has announced he's hurt and out of his fight against Australian favorite Ben Nguyen. The hope was this was just something minor, which could clear the way for Benavidez, the deserving contender, to just get a third shot at Demetrious Johnson instead, but apparently it's an ACL tear that will keep Benavidez out of action for quite a while, which is fairly shitty. *The TUF 25 finale, which takes place the day before UFC 213, has added a bunch of fights, though nothing that figures to be too prominent on the card. The best of the bunch is probably British prospect Marc Diakiese, who's quickly establishing himself as maybe the rising lightweight to watch, taking on Drakkar Klose, who had a successful UFC debut over Devin Powell in January. Past that, we have Steve Bosse and Jared Cannonier squaring off in a battle of light heavyweight bangers, Angela Hill taking on Ashley Yoder at strawweight, Jessica Eye looking to stay afloat in UFC against debuting top prospect Aspen Ladd, and vets Ed Herman and C.B. Dollaway squaring off at light heavyweight. *Speaking of UFC 213, it added a few fights - past some stuff that was already rumored but just got officially announced, and the Nunes/Shevchenko fight mentioned above, Anthony Pettis and Jim Miller square off in a really fun fight between name lightweights, as Pettis looks to have a successful return to the division he was once champion of. Plus Thiago Santos and Gerald Meerschaert square off at middleweight in a pretty solid striker-versus-grappler match. *The card from Glasgow has had by far the most stuff announced, though no big fights yet - though I suppose there's a chance they put Stevie Ray, probably the best Scottish fighter in the promotion, against Paul Felder in the co-main event slot based off local interest. Past that bout, there's some fun stuff - light heavyweight Paul Craig, the only other Scot announced thus far for the card, takes on Khalil Rountree in a pretty neat grappler/striker fight. Both of UFC's Welsh fighters return - top bantamweight prospect Brett Johns gets a tough test in Canada's Mitch Gagnon, and Jack Marshman takes on Ryan Janes in what should be a fun middleweight bout. Ireland's Neil Seery will hopefully finally have his retirement fight, as it's fallen through twice, when he faces rising Brazilian Alexandre Pantoja. England's Mark Godbeer takes on Justin Willis at heavyweight, action welterweights Danny Roberts and Bobby Nash square off, and Conor McGregor teammate Charlie Ward is also on the card, as UFC continues to search for someone he can beat - so step right up British kickboxer Galore Bofando, if that is your real name. *And that leaves the Fox card from Long Island, which only has one fight confirmed thus far, and it's an awesome one, between top bantamweight prospects Jimmie Rivera and Thomas Almeida in what should be an excellent bit of violence. Past that, local boy Chris Wade takes on Jersey's Frankie Perez at lightweight, and rumored light heavyweight bout between Gian Villante and Steve Bosse was half-right - Bosse is instead facing Jared Cannonier in Vegas, as mentioned, and Villante is instead taking on Patrick Cummins, in a fight originally scheduled for the Albany card this past December. *Oh, and UFC announced one more location for a card in 2017, as the promotion will be making their debut in Edmonton on September 9th, for UFC 216. ----- ROSTER CUTS: 1) Scott Askham (14-4 overall, 2-4 UFC, last fought 3/18/17, L vs. Brad Scott): There's really not a ton to say about Askham, as the Doncaster native wound up being a fine fighter, if a bit of a disappointing prospect. Askham came up as one of the best prospects in England who could do a little bit of everything, so there was some hype behind him when he debuted, but he just wound up being sort of an average fighter everywhere once he got to the UFC level. He handled lower-level guys like Antonio dos Santos and Chris Dempsey rather easily, but most of his fights were just kind of fun, if completely unmemorable affairs, that in a few cases easily could've gone either way. Askham's still just 28, and UFC still cares about England, so a return wouldn't be shocking, but if not, there's a solid career on the European circuit waiting for him. 2) Joe Proctor (11-5 overall, 4-4 UFC, last fought 4/22/17, L vs. Bryan Barberena): UFC brought the axe down pretty quickly on Proctor, given that he just lost on the Nashville card. The Boston native is sort of the American version of Askham, in that he was a jack of all trades, master of none type that never really had any standout performances, but was usually good for a fun fight and could handle guys that didn't really belong on the UFC roster. With some better matchmaking, Proctor easily could've kept hanging around, but Magomed Mustafaev and Bryan Barberena were two tough asks, so it's not a surprise Proctor lost two straight and then got cut. ----- UPCOMING UFC SHOWS: 5/28 - UFC Fight Night 109 - Stockholm, Sweden - Alexander Gustafsson vs. Glover Teixeira 6/3 - UFC 212 - Rio De Janeiro, Brazil - Jose Aldo ( c ) vs. Max Holloway (ic), Claudia Gadelha vs. Karolina Kowalkiewicz, Vitor Belfort vs. Nate Marquardt 6/10 - UFC Fight Night 110 - Auckland, New Zealand - Mark Hunt vs. Derrick Lewis, Derek Brunson vs. Daniel Kelly 6/17 - UFC Fight Night 111 - Singapore, Singapore - Bethe Correia vs. Holly Holm, Colby Covington vs. Dong Hyun Kim, Rafael dos Anjos vs. Tarec Saffiedine 6/25 - UFC Fight Night 112 - Oklahoma City, OK - Michael Chiesa vs. Kevin Lee, B.J. Penn vs. Dennis Siver, Tim Boetsch vs. Johny Hendricks, Ilir Latifi vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira 7/7 - TUF 25 Finale - Las Vegas, NV - Brad Tavares vs. Elias Theodorou, Steve Bosse vs. Jared Cannonier 7/8 - UFC 213 - Las Vegas, NV - Cody Garbrandt ( c ) vs. T.J. Dillashaw, Amanda Nunes ( c ) vs. Valentina Shevchenko, Donald Cerrone vs. Robbie Lawler, Alistair Overeem vs. Fabricio Werdum 7/16 - UFC Fight Night 113 - Glasgow, Scotland - Paul Felder vs. Stevie Ray 7/22 - UFC on Fox 25 - Uniondale, NY - Chan Sung Jung vs. Ricardo Lamas, Thomas Almeida vs. Jimmie Rivera 7/29 - UFC 214 - Anaheim, CA - Daniel Cormier ( c ) vs. Jon Jones ----- UFC 211 - May 13, 2017 - American Airlines Center - Dallas, Texas Well, this is a pleasant surprise. It's been kind of a blah year thus far in UFC, and I'm not exactly sure why the company decided to make this May card such a big one, but it's amazingly seemingly held together, and the results are fairly ridiculous. Not only do we get two title fights, there's six fights here that could easily headline a card themselves, fairly consistent with when UFC really goes out of their way to stack a card huge. And this card isn't just stacked in quality, but also quantity - they've tried it a few times over the years, but this might be the card where UFC puts on 14 fights, which would be the most since UFC 2. Crazy stuff, in pretty much every aspect, so sit back and enjoy the ride. MAIN CARD (Pay-Per-View - 10:00 PM ET): Heavyweight Championship: ( C ) Stipe Miocic vs. (#4) Junior dos Santos Women's Strawweight Championship: ( C ) Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs. (#3) Jessica Andrade Welterweight: (#3) Demian Maia vs. (#5) Jorge Masvidal Featherweight: (#2) Frankie Edgar vs. (#7) Yair Rodriguez Flyweight: (#2) Henry Cejudo vs. (#6) Sergio Pettis PRELIMINARY CARD (FX - 8:00 PM ET): Lightweight: (#3) Eddie Alvarez vs. (#9) Dustin Poirier Featherweight: Jason Knight vs. Chas Skelly Middleweight: (#9) Krzysztof Jotko vs. Dave Branch Lightweight: Polo Reyes vs. James Vick PRELIMINARY CARD (UFC Fight Pass - 6:00 PM ET): Women's Strawweight: (#12) Jessica Aguilar vs. Cortney Casey Featherweight: Jared Gordon vs. Michel Quinones Heavyweight: Rashad Coulter vs. Chase Sherman Featherweight: Enrique Barzola vs. Gabriel Benitez Light Heavyweight: Gadzhimurad Antigulov vs. Joachim Christensen THE RUNDOWN: Stipe Miocic (16-2 overall, 10-2 UFC) vs. Junior dos Santos (18-4 overall, 12-3 UFC): For as much of an aging mess that the heavyweight division has become, title fights in the division as still pretty fun, and this should be no exception, particularly since these have already squared off in a really fun fight back in late 2014, which saw dos Santos get a narrow victory. That was the last loss for Cleveland's Stipe Miocic, who's been a pretty neat little story as he's ascended towards the title. Although he was pretty much always regarded as a top prospect at heavyweight, I don't think I was alone when I didn't really see a championship-level ceiling for Miocic as he rose up the ranks, and a 2012 knockout loss to Stefan Struve, of all people, seemingly cemented that. But Miocic plugged away, improving with win after win, and after narrowly losing that first war against dos Santos, he pretty much turned into a knockout machine, laying a beatdown on Mark Hunt and obliterating Andrei Arlovski before heading down to Brazil and unseating Fabricio Werdum in his own hometown. And Miocic's first title defense over Alistair Overeem was a pretty great moment - Miocic has been embraced by his hometown since winning the title in a city starved for championships (though the Cavaliers did soon overshadow that, though Miocic did take part in their championship parade), so UFC decided to run a card in Cleveland built around Miocic, and after a crazy brawl, the hometown crowd got sent home happy after Miocic scored the first-round KO. Since then, it's been kind of a mess finding Miocic a challenger - Cain Velasquez is always hurt, Fabricio Werdum is feuding with management at the moment, so UFC decided to go with the last guy to beat Miocic, and so Junior dos Santos gets the shot. It's been a weird few years for dos Santos, who seemingly cemented himself as the best heavyweight on the planet after a 64-second knockout of Cain Velasquez on UFC's debut on Fox, all the way back in 2011. But Velasquez absolutely dominated the next two fights of the trilogy, with the last fight being such a beatdown that many worried it was going to shorten dos Santos's career. And for a while, those people looked like they were right - the Brazilian took over a year to return for his fight with Miocic, in which he took a ton of damage, and then after another year-long layoff, dos Santos returned and got brutally knocked out by Overeem, the first clean KO loss of his career. It looked like dos Santos was rapidly falling from the ranks of the elite, so of course things turned completely around with his next fight, as dos Santos pretty much put on a virtuoso performance in keeping Ben Rothwell at bay for five rounds, suddenly re-establishing himself as a top contender. UFC tried to book a few fights for JDS in the interim, most notably a February fight with Struve that fell through, so as things have shaken out, dos Santos has gone through another year-plus layoff before fighting here. And this should be another fun one, as pretty much all dos Santos fights are - the challenger's as pure of a boxer as you'll find, and combine that with his takedown defense and the power that heavyweight brings, and you'll almost always get a fun chess match, if not just an outright slugfest. And though Miocic came up the ranks advertised as sort of a boxer-wrestler, he's also relied much more on the former in recent years, sparking fights into brawls for however briefly they last. As with pretty much all heavyweight fights, this is more or less an outright coin flip, given the fact that either can knock the other out at any second, and that their first fight was so close. I'll slightly favor Miocic - while dos Santos's win over Rothwell was a pretty excellent rebound performance, the former champ does look somewhat physically diminished from his peak before that last Velasquez fight, just in terms of athleticism and speed. And while I know "MMA math" doesn't really work like this, Miocic's only improved since their first fight, and when faced with a slower dos Santos, that should be more than enough to make up the difference in the rematch. I do expect a pretty great striking match, though I think Miocic will take over at some point, and in his last few fights once Miocic gets rolling, he pretty much hasn't given up the momentum. So I'll say things do roll downhill enough for Miocic to get the finish, and I'll say it comes via third-round knockout. Joanna Jedrzejczyk (13-0 overall, 7-0 UFC) vs. Jessica Andrade (16-5 overall, 7-3 UFC): Joanna Jedrzejczyk has pretty much dominated the strawweight division since UFC launched it in 2014, but this should be excellent, as Jessica Andrade may be her toughest test yet. Jedrzejczyk was an interesting prospect when UFC signed her, given her excellent muay thai background, but after a controversial decision win over Claudia Gadelha, most figured that inaugural champion Carla Esparza would be able to neutralize the striker and take her to the ground. Nope - despite just three months in between fights, Jedrzejczyk showed suddenly improved takedown defense, more or less annihilating the champ to take the belt, and then followed that up on another quick turnaround to absolutely beat the piss out of Jessica Penne, turning the challenger into a bloody mess in one of the more one-sided title fights you'll ever see. Since then, Jedrzejczyk's reign hasn't been quite as brutal, but no less dominant, with three clear decision wins - her rematch with Gadelha was an absolute war that pretty much confirmed Gadelha as the second-best fighter in the division, but Valerie Letourneau and Karolina Kowalkiewicz weren't really able to accomplish much against the champion. But now, we get something completely different in Jessica Andrade, who might be the biggest powerhouse in the strawweight division. Andrade came into UFC as a raw and young bantamweight, and was a frustrating prospect - she could excel pretty much everywhere, but was fairly undersized, and in fights against Marion Reneau and Raquel Pennington, she was seemingly cruising to a win before leaving herself open for a fight-ending submission. After that Pennington loss, Andrade announced she'd be moving down to strawweight, which was a bit surprising - Andrade seemed to be too stocky and muscular to cut much more weight, so there was some worry that Andrade would just drain herself and be ineffective in her new weight class. But thus far, the results have been excellent - she ran through Penne, then dominated Joanne Calderwood as soon as she got things to the ground, and her last fight against Angela Hill was a fun, but one-sided striking match against a tough opponent. Andrade poses a really tough fight for Jedrzejczyk - Gadelha has by far had the most success against the champion, mostly using her power and wrestling skill to just neutralize the champ for a few rounds, and that seems like a gameplan that Andrade can borrow a lot from, plus it's unclear if Andrade will gas as badly as Gadelha did come the later rounds. And on top of that, unlike Gadelha, Andrade has thudding power - she's not a one-hitter quitter (and I struggle to think of any strawweight that is), but Andrade's punches cause damage, and she's more than capable of hurting and overwhelming pretty much any opponent. Still, I'll favor the champ to get the win, even though I have surprisingly little confidence in the pick for such a dominant champion - I'm honestly not really sure how Jedrzejczyk will dissuade Andrade from wading in and throwing sledgehammers, which gives me pause, but I trust Jedrzejczyk's striking and length to keep Andrade at bay, at least somewhat, and pretty much just win rounds. In fact, I could see this looking a lot like the Gadelha fight, where the champion has to survive early, but either through Andrade exhausting or Jedrzejczyk adjusting, Jedrzejczyk wins the back half of the fight to take the nod. Anyway, this is a uniquely tough fight for Jedrzejczyk, but I'll take her by decision, even if, honestly, a shocking first- or second-round upset finish wouldn't surprise me all that much. Demian Maia (24-6 overall, 18-6 UFC) vs. Jorge Masvidal (32-11 overall, 9-4 UFC, 5-1 Strikeforce, 2-1 Bellator): Well, it wouldn't be a major UFC card in 2017 without a guy who's earned a title shot being forced into a tricky fight. Like Jacare Souza before him, Demian Maia probably should have been fighting for a title rather than fighting a rising contender, but he's somehow wound up on the outside looking in, between Tyron Woodley and Stephen Thompson fighting to a draw mucking things up, combined with UFC's complete lack of enthusiasm in giving Maia a title shot. I can see why some people might consider Maia's style boring - I believe it's Jordan Breen I'm stealing this from, but someone put it best when they described Maia's approach as a "citizen's arrest" style of fighting, but I think the fanbase has evolved enough that Maia's seen as sort of an entertaining throwback. Maia's creeping up on forty years old, but since cutting down to welterweight, he's been absolutely excellent and one of the best jiu-jitsu practitioners in the history of the sport - Maia's not just an excellent submission artist, but an excellent wrestler, and fight after fight, opponent after opponent, Maia just takes his opponents down and goes to work, even schooling guys as high-level as fellow BJJ ace Gunnar Nelson. He made Neil Magny look like an amateur, he dominated Matt Brown, and his last fight may have been the most impressive of all, as a dangerous fight with Carlos Condit turned into Maia immediately getting a takedown, working for a choke, and finishing one of the divisional elite in just a shade under two minutes. Ridiculous stuff. That seemingly earned Maia a winner at the Woodley/Thompson winner, and may have if there actually was a winner of that fight, but instead UFC forced him to keep busy and put him against Jorge Masvidal, who's no prospect, but is suddenly a rising contender. Masvidal's always been a fascinating character, as he came up in the same Miami backyard brawling circuit that birthed Kimbo Slice, but became legit and made a name for himself as a top lightweight fighting around the world, before landing in UFC about a decade into his career. But Masvidal has always been a frustrating talent - he's got solid boxing, wrestling, and grappling, but he became most notorious for his tendency to coast; maybe it's that old street fight mindset that causes Masvidal to focus more on surviving rather than winning rounds, but Masvidal can be winning a fight or various exchanges and then just take his foot off the gas pedal, making him kind of the king of narrow decision losses that a bunch of people felt he won. A loss in that fashion to Al Iaquinta was apparently one too many for Masvidal, and he decided the solution was to move up to welterweight, where things, for a while, were mostly the same - after a quick win over Cezar Ferreira (who looked horrible in his one fight cutting down to 170), Masvidal once again gave up narrow decision losses to Benson Henderson and Lorenz Larkin. But Masvidal's suddenly turned things around, tightening up his boxing and flashing a ton more power - I'm not really sure wins over Ross Pearson and Jake Ellenberger are worth much nowadays, but Masvidal was dominating those fights, and then Masvidal earned the biggest win of his career, obliterating Donald Cerrone for a second-round knockout this past January in Denver. Cerrone looked to be cruising to a welterweight title shot of his own, but Masvidal pretty much stole his spot, and should be an interesting test for Maia. Like a lot of Maia fights, this is a pretty binary in terms of results - while the Brazilian has improved a ton on the feet, he'll still get dominated if this stays standing, and while Masvidal is a surprisingly savvy grappler, Maia's chewed up and spit out much better guys whenever he's taken them to the ground. A finish could come at any time - either Maia by submission or Masvidal by knockout, and even if it doesn't, this probably comes down to each guy dominating in their phase, and just adding up at the end whether more of the fight took place on the feet or on the mat. While this reeks of another Jacare/Whittaker fight, where a deserving contender just gets knocked off thanks to UFC's promotional machinations, I'll have some faith and go with Maia to win this since, even at 39 years old, I frankly trust him a lot more - while Masvidal looked good against Pearson and Ellenberger, neither of those wins really impress me, and it's only the Cerrone knockout - which, admittedly, was a great performance - that suggests that Masvidal can hang at this level of top contender. But given the inconsistency of Masvidal's career, and that Maia's just on a roll of taking everyone down and dominating them, I'll go out on a bit of a limb and say that Maia pretty much duplicates the Condit performance, controlling a dangerous foe and slowly working towards a first-round submission. Though, admittedly, this could go in the complete opposite direction. Frankie Edgar (21-5-1 overall, 15-5-1 UFC) vs. Yair Rodriguez (10-1 overall, 6-0 UFC): It's pretty crazy that less than two years ago, there was a question if UFC was rushing Yair Rodriguez by putting their prized Mexican prospect against Charles Rosa - now, the question is if Rodriguez can beat an all-time great and make himself a championship contender, and a lot of people think he can. Rodriguez honestly wasn't even obviously the best prospect on season one of TUF: Latin America, but he joined his castmates in getting really good, really fast as soon as they all received UFC-level pay and training, with Rodriguez suddenly becoming UFC's biggest native star in a country with huge potential. Wins over guys like Rosa, Daniel Hooker, and Andre Fili - the last by highlight-reel switch kick knockout - showed Rodriguez to be a ridiculous athlete with an unorthodox striking style, somewhat similar to peak Anthony Pettis, but it was his five-round main event win over Alex Caceres that really drove home that Rodriguez is something special. It's not as if Caceres himself is an amazing win, as he's a talented, but inconsistent vet, but Rodriguez showed off a ridiculous combination of athleticism and cardio, fighting five rounds using his high-power, high-pace style, at elevation, and barely flagging over the course of the fight. After that was a win over B.J. Penn, which, the less said the better - Penn was just too physically outmatched for the fight to be anything but a blowout - and now Rodriguez gets thrown into the deep end against Frankie Edgar, who's probably one of the pound-for-pound greats of all time. Edgar first made his name unseating Penn for the lightweight title in a huge upset all the way back in 2010, and he's been regarded as an elite fighter ever since; there was his amazing pair of title defense against Gray Maynard, and then two narrow losses to Benson Henderson, either of which (particularly the second) you could've made the case that Edgar won. But rather than stick at lightweight, Edgar decided to cut down to 145, and the results have been fairly outstanding. Sure, Jose Aldo has turned him back twice - first in Edgar's debut in the division, and then in a shockingly one-sided fight that further cemented Aldo as an all-time great back at UFC 200 - but other than that, Edgar has pretty much wrecked all comers. Cub Swanson's career-best run towards the belt instead turned into Edgar beating him down for twenty-five minutes, Chad Mendes got knocked out in just two and a half minutes, and even if his last win over Jeremy Stephens was classic Edgar, getting in some trouble before fighting through the damage to win, the Jersey native doesn't really show any signs of slipping out of the elite. Still, it'll be fascinating just to see how Edgar handles someone as physically gifted as Rodriguez, who even past all his speed and cardio, also might be bigger than anyone Edgar has even faced at lightweight. And while guys like Mendes and Stephens also have knockout power - though Edgar's as good as anyone at recovering from damage - Rodriguez's unorthodox kicking game and tendency to throw out crazy combinations is also probably unlike anything Edgar has ever seen. Still, I have faith in Edgar to pull it out, even though I doubt it'll be easy - while Rodriguez is a ridiculous prospect who's making a charge towards a title sooner rather than later, his best wins at this point are inconsistent journeymen Fili and Caceres, and Edgar's toughness, veteran savvy, and just all-around good game is too much of a step up for me to have a ton of faith in picking Rodriguez to win. But again, I do think it'll be tough - while the obvious route would be for Edgar to just take Rodriguez down to neutralize and maul him like he did to, say, Swanson, Rodriguez has shown a pretty slick submission game that should keep Edgar honest, on top of having that speed and athleticism edge. Add in the fact that this is a three-round fight, and I could see the argument that Rodriguez is able to outquick Edgar for most of the fight, hit some crazy shots from a distance, and basically do enough before Edgar is able to adjust like he can in a five-round fight. Still, I'll go the opposite route, say Edgar mostly makes this ugly, taking things to the clinch and the ground - even if he's unable to keep Rodriguez there for long stretches of time - and earns a close decision. Still an excellent fight, though, and it speaks to how quickly Rodriguez has improved that we're even at this point just two and a half years into his UFC career. Henry Cejudo (10-2 overall, 4-2 UFC) vs. Sergio Pettis (15-2 overall, 6-2 UFC): Flyweight's a bit of a jumble - you have Demetrious Johnson, then Joseph Benavidez, then seemingly everyone through number three to number twenty can knock each other off - but it does make for a bunch of fun fights, and this is no exception. Henry Cejudo's had a bit of a strange run - a former Olympic gold medalist in wrestling at just 21 years old, Cejudo immediately became a blue-chip prospect as soon as he entered MMA, but the early portions of his career were marred with a bunch of questions about his dedication and his ability to make flyweight, as he missed weight a bunch of times and was forced to make his UFC debut at bantamweight. But Cejudo got his head on straight, and after a few wins, was pretty much rushed into a title fight with Johnson - a lot of people thought that Cejudo's Olympic wrestling pedigree and rapidly improving striking meant he could be the guy to finally unseat Johnson, so it was sort of deflating when Mighty Mouse went out there and obliterated Cejudo with some knees in the clinch in a shade under three minutes. Still, Cejudo recovered quite nicely, looking excellent in his last fight against Benavidez, which wound up being a decision loss that easily could've gone either way. This all leaves Cejudo in a pretty weird place - he's probably still the best bet to beat Johnson if you look a year or two out, and he's proven himself to be either the second- or third-best guy in the division, but his upward mobility in the division is fairly limited after those two losses, and at age 30, he's a bit older than you'd expect, even though he's still rapidly improving. But anyway, this is all moot if Cejudo doesn't get past Sergio Pettis, the young brother of former UFC champion Anthony. Pettis the younger was tabbed as a top prospect upon his debut, as he ran through smaller circuits while still a teenager, but he's not his brother, for better or for worse. While Anthony developed a style based off single, explosive strikes, Sergio's just a fairly solid, meat-and-potatoes striker and wrestler. And while Anthony pretty much burst onto the scene and charged towards the WEC lightweight title, Sergio's rise has been much more in fits and starts - while he's looked solid in every fight, losses to Alex Caceres and Ryan Benoit showed that Pettis can both leave himself defensively open and doesn't react well if he gets nailed, as both losses were "come-from-ahead" affairs. But Pettis continues to slowly move up the ladder, notching the biggest win of his career over John Moraga in January, and at just 23, he should be a concern at 125 for years to come. Still, I don't really see what Pettis can offer Cejudo here - for as flawed as Anthony's game has been recently, if Sergio was a more dynamic athlete with one-shot power, I'd at least give him a chance to hit something and finish Cejudo. But Sergio just breaks his opponents down, and, well, I don't see that happening - Cejudo is obviously the better wrestler and should be able to dictate where the fight takes place, and he's also the better boxer, and frankly, still might be the guy improving more from fight to fight. It's not like Cejudo's a particularly dynamic finisher either, so this is almost surely going to a decision, and while I don't expect this to ever really be a blowout, it should be pretty clear from the jump that Cejudo is the better fighter as he wins round after round. Eddie Alvarez (28-5 overall, 3-2 UFC, 9-1 Bellator) vs. Dustin Poirier (21-5 overall, 13-4 UFC, 1-1 WEC): It's been a long, strange trip for Eddie Alvarez - he spent years fighting around the world and establishing himself as one of the top action lightweights in the world before becoming a bit of a star in Bellator, who pretty much tried to build around him as they were finding their footing while replacing UFC on Spike. But things sort of went to hell once Alvarez tried to sign with UFC - Bellator used some contract matching provisions to try and keep him with the promotion, and Alvarez wound up missing out on an instant UFC title shot against Benson Henderson as things descended into a messy legal battle that threatened the prime of Alvarez's career. But things eventually worked out - thanks to a bunch of negotiations and Bjorn Rebney's ouster from Bellator, Alvarez eventually wound up winning back the Bellator lightweight title and then leaving the promotion as champ, finally signing with UFC in mid-2014. But Donald Cerrone beat Alvarez via close, but clear decision in Alvarez's debut, which was pretty deflating - it looked like Alvarez had pretty much missed out on his chance for glory in UFC, and had gotten to the promotion just a little too late. But things turned around pretty quickly after that - after wins over Gilbert Melendez and Anthony Pettis that went against type, seeing Alvarez fight smart and use wrestling rather than try to excite the crowd, Alvarez managed to shockingly upset Rafael dos Anjos last July to become UFC champion, and then somewhat improbably wound up headlining UFC's debut in Madison Square Garden against Conor McGregor. Admittedly, that fight went horribly for Alvarez, as McGregor dominated before getting a second-round knockout, but still, it was nice to at least see Alvarez get a big stage for once, as well as earning the big paycheck his entire career had been building towards. So, well, now what? Alvarez is probably still in the decline phase of his career, but he's got a bunch of fun fights left in a deep division, and Alvarez facing off against Dustin Poirier should be pretty awesome. Poirier's been one of UFC's most reliable action fighters since his debut back in 2011, and after stalling out a bit at featherweight (once again, thanks to McGregor), Poirier decided to move up to lightweight about two years ago. And the results have been pretty excellent - by draining himself less, Poirier has been able to lay on even more volume, and show even more power, and his whole game has clicked together at about the same time. There's the improved striking - even beyond just the physical improvements, Poirier's shown some better strategy - and he's gone back to relying on his grappling when needed, as he scored a big upset win over Joe Duffy to kick off 2016 mostly by using wrestling and submissions. Poirier probably does still have a clear ceiling - his one loss at lightweight, a quick knockout to Michael Johnson, showed that he still leaves himself defensively open on the feet, and his last win over Jim Miller showed that Poirier can still, against better judgement, be lured into a brawl - but if the Louisiana native settles in as a perennial top-ten lightweight and fight of the night contender here on out, there are worse fates. It's a hard one for me to call, particularly since I probably underrate Alvarez, but I do favor Poirier in terms of speed and volume, and think he should be able to win rounds. Still, Poirier's defensive issues give he pause - Jim Miller was able to clip him, and Alvarez showed against dos Anjos that he can still be a dangerous counter-striker, so I could easily see a scenario where Poirier gets over-aggressive and Alvarez just clocks him, either ending the fight or turning the tide of the bout for good. But Alvarez probably won't be able to use his wrestling as a safety valve like he did against Melendez and Pettis, given Poirier's submission skills, so what the hell - I'll take Poirier by decision in what hopefully winds up being Alvarez's best fight (if not performance) in UFC to date. Jason Knight (17-2 overall, 3-1 UFC) vs. Chas Skelly (17-2 overall, 6-2 UFC, 3-0 Bellator): A really excellent fight here between two of the more interesting talents bubbling under the top fifteen at featherweight. Mississippi's Jason Knight, an Alan Belcher protege, had a fairly forgettable UFC debut in a loss to Tatsuya Kawajiri, but established himself as a prospect to watch in pretty short order. Knight came in advertised as more of a submission fighter, and he's flashed those skills, but a majority of his success has come as a pressure striker, overwhelming his opponents with volume and trash-talking, like some sort of long-lost Diaz cousin. (Related: This caused me to coin the nickname "Hick Diaz" for Knight, which has stuck, which still makes me laugh and is super-weird. But he apparently doesn't like the nickname. Please don't hurt me, Mr. Knight.) In his last fight, Knight more or less handled Alex Caceres, who's quickly becoming a benchmark to see if featherweight prospects are decent, finally flashing those BJJ skills for most of the second round and scoring a rear-naked choke victory. There was some thought this would get Knight a shot at someone in the top fifteen, but instead he gets another interesting fighter putting it all together in Chas Skelly. Skelly's game is fairly straight-ahead, but successful, as he's probably the most exciting example of the grinder archetype out there - his game is pretty much predicated on taking his opponents down at will, which he's mostly done, but rather than lay and pray, Skelly mostly tries to go for some submissions, and had a bunch of success in doing so. Skelly already got a shot to break into the top fifteen against fellow grinder Darren Elkins, but Elkins turned away another prospect as he does, so Skelly decided to change camps and go to Henri Hooft, who's been working on Skelly's striking. And the results have been fairly solid - admittedly, you can't glean much from Skelly's win over Maximo Blanco, where he used a running flying karate kick and a choke to win in just nineteen seconds, but Skelly looked much improved in pretty much taking apart Chris Gruetzemacher this past February. It's a hard fight to call, but I'll favor Skelly - as impressive as Knight has looked in his recent performances, I just have flashbacks to that Kawajiri fight, where Kawajiri was pretty much able to hold Knight down and control him for three rounds. Admittedly, Skelly favors submissions over control, particularly compared to Kawajiri, but I can easily see a fight where Skelly dictates where things take place and wins rounds, even though Knight is quite comfortable off of his back and able to keep things quite entertaining. So I'll take Skelly to win a decision, although as with a lot of this card, it's a fun fight that could go either way. Krzysztof Jotko (19-1 overall, 6-1 UFC) vs. Dave Branch (20-3 overall, 2-2 UFC, 2-0 Bellator): Well, good for Dave Branch that he found his way back to the UFC. A New York City native and Renzo Gracie protege, Branch came into UFC fairly raw and had a fairly nothing first run with the company in 2010-11, most notable for Gerald Harris knocking him out with a slam in his UFC debut. But Branch eventually wound up in the fledgling World Series of Fighting an excelled from there, winning both their middleweight and light heavyweight belts and beating solid UFC vets like Yushin Okami, Vinny Magalhaes, and Jesse Taylor. It was a pretty solid deal - Branch's fights weren't particularly exciting, but he got some notoriety and was getting paid six figures per fight - but with the writing on the wall as WSOF collapsed, Branch finally makes his return to UFC here, and gets thrown right into the top ten against Poland's Krzysztof Jotko. Jotko looked like he'd just fall right into the morass of random European middleweights that UFC has a bunch of, particularly after an early loss to Magnus Cedenblad, but since then Jotko has been stringing together wins, most notably getting a big one over former contender Thales Leites this past November. Like Branch, Jotko's fights haven't really been all that fun, focusing on clinch-work and wrestling with some janky striking thrown in, even if he did have enough power to knock out Tamdan McCrory, but it's effective, as he's been able to control most of his foes. While the winner will probably get a pretty big fight next, as middleweight starts to turn itself over, this pretty much figures to be kind of a boring fifteen minutes of wrestling and grappling. And as impressive as Branch's WSOF run has been, Jotko has been looking more impressive and doing so at a higher level, so I'll favor the Pole to get the nod. Polo Reyes (7-3 overall, 3-0 UFC) vs. James Vick (10-1 overall, 6-1 UFC): A solid lightweight bout here, even as UFC once again seemingly doesn't know what to do with James Vick - though, oh well, it'll be fun. Vick's a strange fighter who's had a strange career - he's a 6'3" lightweight, which is absolutely ridiculous, and UFC's spent most of his tenure having him knock other prospects down the ladder rather than moving up it himself; essentially, the first few years of Vick's UFC career would see him beat a talented prospect, get hurt, be out of action for about a year, and then return to beat another prospect, get hurt, and repeat the whole process over. But since last year, Vick has finally been fighting rather frequently, and finally got a shot at a big opponent, even if it didn't go so well, as Beneil Dariush brutally knocked him out in the first round. But after a win over Abel Trujillo to rebound, Vick's kind of back where he started, facing a talented, fun prospect that he's probably going to beat. Meanwhile, Polo Reyes showed little on season two of TUF: Latin America - even as his castmates built him up as the toughest fighter in the house - but he's probably been the standout of the cast since they've all started in the UFC proper. Reyes's fight at UFC 199 against "The Other" Dong Hyun Kim was the rare deep prelim to wind up as one of the best fights of the year, and outside of that Reyes has established himself as a fun knockout artist and Mexican fan favorite. Still, he should be out of his depth here - Reyes struggled a bit with Jason Novelli in his last fight, and Novelli's outside of the UFC, while Vick is about a top-twenty fighter in a deep division. I just see Vick's length, which he's increasingly learning how to use, giving Reyes a ton of trouble and mostly keeping him at bay - there's also a pretty likely chance that Vick gets a submission if they start grappling at any point, between Vick's long limbs and skill on the mat and the fact that Reyes hasn't really shown a ton there. But Vick mostly gets his subs when opponents dive in for takedowns, and Reyes is about as pure a boxer as there is, so I just see this being a clear decision win for Vick, with Reyes hopefully being able to do enough to keep things interesting. Jessica Aguilar (19-5 overall, 0-1 UFC, 5-1 Bellator) vs. Cortney Casey (6-4 overall, 2-3 UFC): A really solid strawweight fight here, as it should show what Jessica Aguilar has left going forward. Aguilar's an interesting case - thanks to wins over Megumi Fujii and Carla Esparza, she was pretty much the consensus best strawweight in the world just four or so years ago, but wound up signing with World Series of Fighting right before UFC launched the division and signed pretty much all her potential opponents. After both sides agreed to part ways, Aguilar did finally make her UFC debut in 2015, but wasn't able to accomplish much against Claudia Gadelha - which isn't really an indictment, given that Gadelha's the obvious second-best woman in the division - and tore her ACL while training for her next fight. So at 35 and coming off a major injury, this is kind of surprisingly already a make-or-break fight against Cortney Casey, who's settling in as sort of a fun action fighter. I was glad UFC kept her around after losing her first two UFC fights - against Joanne Calderwood in Scotland and Seohee Ham in South Korea, both tough asks - since they were both the best fights on their respective card, and she rewarded the company's patience, running through Cristina Stanciu before scoring a big upset win over Randa Markos. Like Aguilar, she fought Gadelha in her next fight, and like Aguilar, she wasn't able to accomplish much, but Casey is big, athletic, and aggressive, so even if there's probably not a championship-level ceiling, she's one of the more exciting fighters to watch in an interesting division. It's a hard one to call, particularly since Aguilar's sort of a question mark coming off the injury - I've always worried a bit that women's MMA may be evolving a bit past her as younger, better athletes go into a sport that now has some viability, so while she's probably still the much better technical fighter, I'll say that Casey's physical talents are too much for her and Casey earns the decision. Jared Gordon (12-1 overall) vs. Michel Quinones (8-1 overall, 0-1 Bellator): This should be a fun fight between two debuting featherweights. Queens's Jared Gordon is the latest prospect off of Dana White's "Lookin' For A Fight" - he's an exciting fighter with an interesting backstory, dealing with drug addiction and multiple relapses and near-death experiences, so of course what Dana White focused on on the show was Gordon's lack of personality, because Dana White doesn't really know how to make people excited to see fighters anymore. But anyway. So Gordon makes his debut against Michel Quinones, a Florida native who was slated to fight on the Halifax card in February before getting hurt - watching some tape on Quinones, he's a fairly solid kickboxer who prefers to circle and sort of peck away at his opponents. You'd think this would lead to giving up rounds, but in what I've watched, he's precise enough to still cause damage and get knockouts, so, hey, it works. Meanwhile, there's little useful stuff on Gordon out there - there's a few highlight reels where he obviously looks good, but he's mostly fought for promotions behind paywalls, so I'm mostly relying on those highlights, where he looks like an aggressive and imposing boxer-grappler that can cause some damage as he moves up the ranks. I'm sure there are some flaws in Gordon's game that'll soon become apparent, and you can probably make a lot of money betting against fighters Dana White discovers, but based off hype and what little I've seen, I'll take Gordon via decision with pretty much no confidence. Rashad Coulter (8-1 overall, 1-0 Bellator) vs. Chase Sherman (9-3 overall, 0-2 UFC): This was originally supposed to be Germany's Jarjis Danho taking on Ukraine's Dmitry Poberezhets - a weird fit geographically for a card in Dallas - but thanks to injuries, it's now something more appropriate, as Dallas's own Rashad Coulter takes on Mississippi's Chase Sherman. There were some decent hopes for Sherman as he came into UFC this summer - he's a former football player for Delta State, so he has some athleticism, and he's young for the division - but he's been pretty much all potential and no production thus far in two UFC fights. Sherman fights kind of like fellow Alan Belcher protege Jason Knight, mostly striking with a ton of trash talking and machismo, but his defense hasn't really come around yet, which is a problem at heavyweight. Meanwhile, Coulter's sort of your standard UFC heavyweight signing - already well into his thirties, and a big dude with a ton of knockouts on his record and not much else. Sherman should have a clear edge in athleticism, but I don't really see anything that prevents Coulter from scoring another first-round KO, so that's my pick here, though as always, never make a pick in a heavyweight fight with any sort of confidence. Enrique Barzola (12-3-1 overall, 2-1 UFC) vs. Gabriel Benitez (19-5 overall, 3-1 UFC): A fun fight here between two TUF: Latin America alums. Gabriel Benitez was probably the consensus favorite to win season one of TUF: Latin America, and definitely left the most impression of anyone on the show personality-wise, as he's quite charismatic and got a ton of camera time. He wound up falling short in the semi-finals of the season, and Yair Rodriguez wound up being the potential superstar of the cast, but Benitez has wound up being a pretty fun mid-level action fighter when he's healthy, with some surprising wins over guys like Clay Collard and Sam Sicilia. He faces TUF: Latin America season two winner Enrique Barzola, who's probably the best fighter going out of Peru, which has more of a MMA scene then you'd think. Barzola was a surprise winner of the season, but despite being at some physical disadvantages, he's proven to be a tough wrestler with a ton of cardio, and enough janky striking to survive against lower-level opponents on the roster. But Benitez figures to be Barzola's toughest test to date, and while I could see a scenario where Barzola just takes Benitez down and controls most of the fight, I expect Benitez to win a striking match via decision that should be pretty fun. Gadzhimurad Antigulov (19-4 overall, 1-0 UFC) vs. Joachim Christensen (14-4 overall, 1-1 UFC): This is a weird fight for Dallas - Joachim Christensen's one of the few Danish fighters left on the roster, and the card in two weeks was initially supposed to be in Copenhagen, so I guess when those plans fell through they put that fight here, but I'm surprised they didn't just put it on what became a card in Stockholm rather than make it fight number fourteen on this card. Anyway, Christensen's shown to be a solid enough light heavyweight in his two UFC fights, even though his ceiling is fairly low - while he's a decent kickboxer with enough grappling to be dangerous, he's not particularly athletic and almost forty, so he just figures to be sort of a gatekeeper going forward. Meanwhile, Antigulov's an intriguing talent in a thin division that needs it - he's an aggressive bowling ball of a dude who just looks to take his opponents down immediately and then either get a ground-and-pound stoppage or the submission, the latter of which he did in his UFC debut against Marcos Rogerio de Lima. I'm not sure he'll ever be a championship-level fighter, but the state of the division is enough that those skills can probably get him close to the top ten. Anyway, I don't really see Christensen being able to stop Antigulov from what he's going to try and do, so my call is for the Russian to get a first round stoppage, likely by ground-and-pound TKO.

[writingsubmissions]

UFC 209 Preview

WHAT'S HAPPENING: *Fight Night from Halifax pretty much followed the same script as most of UFC's offerings this year, that terrible UFC 208 card aside - nothing was particularly amazing, but the card was filled with pretty solid, well-matched action from top to bottom. The best fight of the night was probably the main event, which saw Derrick Lewis get stunned early by some body kicks but come back to score a TKO stoppage over Travis Browne in the second round - in fact, this was the kind of crazy brawl that UFC 208 really could've used, which is somewhat bittersweet, since this fight was in fact initially slated for that card. But all's well that ends well, since being in the main event slot here gave Lewis a platform to be the guy everyone would be talking about the next day, and boy did he give people something to talk about. Lewis kicked things off by explaining that he wasn't actually hurt by Browne's body kicks early in the fight, but just suddenly needed to, well, drop a deuce, then went on about being happy he could knock Browne out because of previous domestic violence allegations against Browne. Somewhere in there was a weird comment asking where Travis Browne's current girlfriend, Ronda Rousey's "fine ass" was, along with some distaste for the snow in Halifax, and then in the post-fight interview on FS1, Lewis apparently had a toy UFC belt and was proclaiming himself interim heavyweight champ. So yeah, Lewis will probably eventually say the wrong thing at some point - assuming something in this interview wasn't already it - but for now, just enjoy the ride, I suppose. Also, Lewis suddenly finds himself as fresh blood near the top of the heavyweight division, as despite a pretty limited game, his sheer physicality means he's probably one or two fights away from a title shot and should probably be fighting contenders from here on out. While Lewis will probably be overmatched against all those guys, he hits hard enough and seems to do a solid enough job of just surviving that there's actually a chance he could knock out pretty much anyone in the division. As for Browne, this marks three straight losses, and I have no idea where he goes from here - he apparently spent parts of this camp with three different teams, and he looked more comfortable than he had in his last few fights, but one fears that Edmund Tarverdyan's coaching may have broken Browne's game for good. *The co-main event was a weird one going in, with Johny Hendricks and Hector Lombard both trying to revive their careers in the former's middleweight debut, but it wound up being a pretty solid bout. Things went back and forth, and both guys probably looked the best they have in a while as far as the latter stages of their careers; both are obviously diminished, but there's enough veteran craft and bursts of violence that it was a fine nip-tuck three rounds. Hendricks wound up getting the win, and it was pretty nice in the aftermath to see him actually being happy about fighting again, as he finally found a weight class he could make and just seemed overjoyed with how much energy he was able to fight with now that he wasn't training himself to attempt making welterweight. Sadly, I'm not really sure how well things are going to go going forward, since Hendricks is still quite undersized for the weight class, but he should be able to hang around as sort of a top-ten gatekeeper of sorts, as long as UFC doesn't feel pressured to put him into bigger fights. *Outside of the top two fights, the biggest result probably took place about halfway through the undercard, as Randa Markos got a stunner of an upset over former strawweight champ Carla Esparza. Esparza's been looking to get back into action for a while, as she's been sort of the forgotten woman at the top of the strawweight division, while Markos's career seemed to be careening downwards after some camp changes and a few losses. But Markos looked better than she has in a while here, using a weird, hunched-over striking stance to just keep Esparza at bay on the feet, then holding her own in the grappling department with one of the best wrestlers in the division. Honestly, I still thought Esparza won, but it was a narrow affair, and that alone was impressive from Markos - and getting the decision win has suddenly given her career new life, while it's suddenly Esparza that's looking for answers. *Running through the rest of the card, the most important result was probably Sara McMann pretty much running through late injury replacement Gina Mazany, as expected. McMann then gave the world's most polite callout to the winner of the assumed Nunes/Shevchenko bantamweight title fight, and honestly, McMann has suddenly revived her career and probably become the top contender; it's either her or Raquel Pennington, and that may be the fight to make in order to officially crown a top contender. Two Canadian prospects both made solid debuts, and it was actually the much less-heralded Gavin Tucker that had the more impressive one, outclassing a solid vet in Sam Sicilia on the feet and looking like someone UFC could make a priority in the Canadian market. Meanwhile, Aiemann Zahabi, brother of Tristar coach Firas and considered one of the top Canadian prospects out there, was merely solid in a win over Reginaldo Vieira; Zahabi was obviously the better fighter, but he just seemed to struggle a bit when faced with Vieira's aggression and forced to counter, enough so that Vieira easily could've stolen the fight through sheer activity. Canadian favorite Elias Theodorou got a big win over Cezar Ferreira, even if the fight wasn't all that pretty, as a grappling-based struggle. Two striking matches saw brutal finishes, as Paul Felder destroyed Alessandro Ricci's nose with a vicious up-elbow for a first-round stoppage, and Thiago Santos got a bit of a comeback win over Jack Marshman with a beautiful spinning wheel kick. Marshman's ridiculously tough, as while he was in no position to defend himself and the fight was rightfully stopped, the Welshman actually stayed awake and seemed to merely be stunned rather than unconscious from such a ridiculously violent blow. Santiago Ponzinibbio beat Nordine Taleb in another fun fight between two action welterweights, and midwestern vet Gerald Meerschaert opened up the card with a slick armbar submission over Ryan Janes. *UFC officially announced that Georges St. Pierre is back in the fold, and this week, Dana White went to ESPN to announce his comeback fight, and people...are not happy. There isn't a date or a venue, but St. Pierre will be making his comeback against Michael Bisping for the middleweight title, because...because. I'd say it's a fight that fans want to see, but is it? St. Pierre against Anderson Silva seemed to be the obvious win/win fight in terms of starpower and interest, playing off the years where the two were the consensus best fighters in the sport, and while I think Bisping's among the most entertaining personalities in the sport, he's never been a particularly big box office draw. I guess this all boils down to the squeaky wheel getting the grease once again, as Bisping has basically asked for the St. Pierre fight whenever he's had a public platform to do so, and much like the Dan Henderson fight, it seems management has eventually decided to let him call his shot. This also throws a wrench into the middleweight division, which already had a backlog of contenders after Bisping/Henderson, and I'm kind of of two minds: on the one hand, it is complete bullshit that guys like Yoel Romero and Jacare Souza have to wait things out for Bisping to fight a retiring non-contender and a career welterweight, but on the other, the pro wrestling fan in me does kind of love the storyline of Bisping dodging legitimate opponent after legitimate opponent and building to him finally getting his comeuppance. But it's just like, there were much better options for St. Pierre here, and if Bisping's such a draw, you'd think they'd try to get another fight out of him before late 2017. It's really unclear now when the fight is going to be - one would think it's a natural for UFC 213 over UFC's big July weekend in Vegas, but word is already out that GSP won't be ready by then; and UFC's September pay-per-view date in Canada is apparently out, since Dana White has already said the fight won't take place in St. Pierre's native country. So, I guess it'll be in Vegas at some date to be determined. *So, Cris Cyborg actually got her retroactive TUE, and is amazingly free and clear to fight, per USADA. While Cyborg didn't actually bother to disclose any of the drugs she was taking until she was actually notified of the failed test, USADA ruled that the treatment she was receiving was in fact the standard care for her depression issues, and that outweighed the fact that those drugs are banned out of competition. Okay then. I'd imagine similar stuff to this has happened in the past, and at the very least there probably should've been a brief suspension since she didn't disclose any of this beforehand, but...yeah. It's not like we figured she wasn't on the juice anyway, so I guess we'll just go on with our lives as she fights in a division that doesn't really exist. *Speaking of USADA, a few changes are going into effect on April 1st when it comes to UFC's drug testing policy. Essentially, the main change will close the loophole that basically prevented once-cut fighters like Ben Saunders and Angela Hill from returning to UFC on short notice - now, rather than a mandatory four-month drug testing window for anyone returning to UFC, it'll be six months, but only apply to those who left UFC involuntarily. So, essentially, if you're cut, you're free to be re-signed and return, but if you retire, you'll theoretically have to re-enter the drug testing pool for half a year before allowed to fight again. Also, the "in-competition" window will now be considered closed after a fighter's post-fight drug test; this basically clears up the controversy that happened at UFC 202, where Nate Diaz was smoking cannabis oil after his drug test, but nobody seemed to be sure if he was technically still "in competition" at the time. *A few years back, a Zuffa presentation to investors infamously said that their goal was "Global Fucking Domination" - and it looks like for the first time in a while, UFC's starting to roll that back, at least financially. Off the huge cuts a few weeks back, a few more fighters have left the promotion, and in an interesting bit of synergy, they're all doing so because of better opportunities back home. The big one is flyweight contender Kyoji Horiguchi, who was reportedly set to be a free agent, and did indeed sign with RIZIN in his native Japan shortly after that leaked out. As one of the best Japanese fighters in the world, Horiguchi figured to get a big offer from whatever Japanese company was willing to pay him, and despite Horiguchi being a young, exciting fighter near the top of a thin division, they didn't see the offer as worth matching. One would think this would've been a problem in the past, but it really hasn't been, and part of that has been UFC being fairly proactive as far as letting fighters not even reach free agency; but that's one of the side effects of corroding the goodwill between fighters and management, whether it be the Reebok deal or just UFC's management style in general - guys are going to be willing to see if there are greener pastures. Similarly, the promotion surprisingly cut light heavyweight contender Nikita Krylov, who was another rising young talent in a thin division, albeit one coming off a loss. But this wound up being a case of UFC being proactive in the completely other direction - Krylov had apparently made it clear he was going to sign with a promotion in Russia once his UFC deal was done, and with one fight remaining on his deal, UFC just decided to cut him loose. Krylov's already signed with Fight Nights, and it's unsurprising that he'd get a big deal with the promotion - long story short, MMA promotions have become a way for Russian oligarchs to basically try and curry favor with the national government, and Krylov, as a Russian-sympathetic Ukrainian with a high UFC profile, is a big get. And lastly, while he's nowhere near as big a name as the other two, Korean fighter Dongi Yang also asked for and was granted his release to join Korean start-up promotion Gleamon FC. Yang was somewhat surprisingly brought back for a second UFC run when UFC ran Seoul in November of 2015, but he had trouble getting booked since - his only other slated fight was against Ryan Janes on the Manila card which wound up getting scrapped. So it's somewhat unsurprising that Yang decided to go somewhere where he could actually fight, but it's also a sign of the times that guys are willing to ask for their release from the biggest promotion in the world. *On the plus side, after Dana White said he was done with the promotion, UFC did in fact wind up re-signing top light heavyweight prospect Misha Cirkunov. When White said that negotiations had fallen apart, it seemed like WME-IMG cheaping out once again, but then word got around that UFC had actually made Cirkunov a pretty competitive offer in line with what you'd expect a rising young fighter with some promotional upside to get. Cirkunov looked poised to be one of UFC's Canadian stars going forward after a big win over Nikita Krylov in his adopted hometown of Toronto, so it's nice to see that at least in one case, everyone came to their senses. *Bellator gonna Bellator, as nothing went right for the promotion at Bellator 172. The card was slated to be headlined by Fedor Emilianenko returning to face Matt Mitrione, but that fight got called off hours before the event was slated to start, as Mitrione suddenly came down with a case of kidney stones. After some scrambling for a replacement - with Chael Sonnen apparently being one of the options - Bellator just ran out of time to get a deal done, and the card went on with local favorite and UFC vet Josh Thomson facing Patricky Pitbull in the main event. Bellator has been building for a fight between Thomson and lightweight champion Michael Chandler for a while now, so, of course, Patricky knocked Thomson out in the second round, becoming the first man to finish Thomson since Yves Edwards all the way back in 2004. And the other big UFC veteran on the card was also a complete bust, as Josh Koscheck finally made his Bellator debut...only to get knocked out by Mauricio Alonso, a Brazilian journeyman pretty much signed as a showcase opponent for Koscheck. Koscheck's chin is completely done at this point, and I really hope he retires, to be quite frank about it. *And as seemingly always, we end things with a note on a drug test or a suspension, as Tom Lawlor has been suspended for two years after a failed test for ostarine. Lawlor, who's been a fan favorite for years running now, has pretty much stopped just short of saying he's retired, as he'll be 35 by the time he can fight again and seemed close to ending his career due to injuries anyways. Lawlor's test failure was a surprising once, since he's been a pretty vocal anti-steroid voice for years running, and he's been pretty open about the fact that he has no idea how the ostarine got in his system. But, well, that's not an excuse, so a two-year suspension it is. ------ BOOKINGS: *Well, the big news is the GSP/Bisping fight mentioned above, but UFC also added a bunch of interesting stuff to the slate over the last two weeks, the highlight of which is probably them really stacking up the UFC 211 card in Dallas this May. Already announced for the card were two big heavyweight fights, the main event title fight between Stipe Miocic and Junior dos Santos, as well as a tilt between Fabricio Werdum and Ben Rothwell, and it looks like they've filled out the rest of the main card. After some rumors of the fight taking place on a few different cards, the expected Joanna Jedrzejczyk/Jessica Andrade strawweight title fight, which should be a good one, will co-main the card here, and somewhat surprisingly, Demian Maia and Jorge Masvidal will square off in what might be a #1 contender's fight at welterweight. After tapping out Carlos Condit and making it look easy last August, Maia, somewhat rightfully, was sitting out waiting for a title shot, though there was some talk that he could face Donald Cerrone in a fight to crown the top contender. But with Masvidal beating Cerrone, well, it looks like he's taking Cowboy's spot. Weirdly, the Maia/Masvidal fight was initially rumored to be taking place on the Nashville card, which threw into question exactly what was going on, since Cub Swanson and Artem Lobov were already announced as the main event for that card. But the bout eventually landed in Dallas, and it's unclear what that means for the Eddie Alvarez/Dustin Poirier fight that was also expected for that card, but hasn't officially been announced. If it's indeed at UFC 211, that's a pretty ridiculously stacked main card, but one wonders if Maia/Masvidal heading there means it's being moved to a different date - after all, that Fox show from Kansas City still needs a main event... *UFC was expected to run Copenhagen for the promotion's debut in Denmark over Memorial Day weekend, but it looks like those plans are off - but UFC will still be making its way to Scandinavia, as May 28th will mark their return to Stockholm, Sweden. And we have a main event - unsurprisingly, the card will be headlined by Sweden's own Alexander Gustafsson, this time taking on Glover Teixeira. UFC tried to make the bout once before, in June of 2015, but things fell through due to injury and that card instead saw Joanna Jedrzejczyk beat the piss out of Jessica Penne in her first title defense. They also added a few other bouts featuring Swedish fighters, as Magnus Cedenblad will take on Chris Camozzi, and Jack Hermansson will take on Alex Nicholson, both at middleweight. There was also the brief rumor of top heavyweight prospect Francis Ngannou taking on Stefan Struve, but Struve ended those rumors in short order, as he's apparently still recovering from surgery. That does seem to be a slated fight for sometime later in the year, though, which makes one wonder exactly why UFC seems to hate Stefan Struve. *Some other fun fights are taking place, so let's run through them. UFC 212, the Aldo/Holloway card in Brazil, got a fun main card fight, as the rumored Claudia Gadelha/Karolina Kowalkiewicz bout between Joanna Jedrzejczyk's toughest tests to date will take place there. UFC 210 in Buffalo added some interesting fights, even if the main card isn't particularly stacked - after a one-off attempt to make lightweight, Thiago Alves heads back up to welterweight to face Patrick Cote. And two New Yorkers get to fight on the card - top lightweight prospect Gregor Gillespie takes on Andrew Holbrook, and Bellator vet Desmond Green makes his UFC debut against Josh Emmett. Nashville added three fights to a card that's shaping up nicely - John Dodson and Eddie Wineland square off in what should be a fun as hell bantamweight fight, native Tennesseean Ovince St. Preux takes on Marcos Rogerio de Lima in a fight St. Preux badly needs to win, and Cindy Dandois makes her UFC debut against fellow grappler Alexis Davis. Belgium's Dandois has been a pretty solid featherweight in Invicta, so one would think they'd sign her to join a division that needs, you know, fighters, but nope - this one will see Dandois cut down to 135, which she's also fought at in the past. And while the Fox card in Kansas City still needs a main events, some solid fights got added, headlined by Jeremy Stephens taking on featherweight prospect Renato Moicano. Stephens had been rumored to take on Gilbert Melendez on this card, but Moicano's a fine replacement violence-wise, even if he doesn't have the name value. Talented lightweights Rashid Magomedov and Bobby Green will square off, veteran grapplers Nathan Coy and Zak Cummings will take each other on, and in what might be the most interesting fight of them all, uber-prospect Tom Duquesnoy makes his UFC debut against Patrick Williams. And to wrap things up, UFC 211 also added one more fight, between TUF: Latin America alums Enrique Barzola and Gabriel Benitez. *And lastly, UFC added two more events to the schedule. UFC 214 got moved up a week, as UFC will now head to Anaheim on July 29th. And the company announced their return to Singapore for a card on June 17th - no fights have been announced, outside of the expected debut of top Chinese fighter Guan Wang, as UFC is suddenly trying to promote Chinese talent again. Hopefully it goes better this time around. ----- ROSTER CUTS: 1) Kyoji Horiguchi (18-2 overall, 7-1 UFC, last fought 11/19/16, W vs. Ali Bagautinov): As mentioned above, Horiguchi is the most surprising name UFC has let get away in recent memory, since he's an exciting, young fighter that still has a bunch of upside while being a top contender in a thin division. It was kind of absurd that Horiguchi got a title shot when he did, in April of 2015, coming off of wins against Darrell Montague, Jon Delos Reyes, and Louis Gaudinot, but options were scarce, and UFC just decided to throw a talented prospect to the wolves. Horiguchi was unsurprisingly outclassed there, but he's continued to improve and looked excellent in his last fight over top veteran Ali Bagautinov, even mixing in some clinchwork and grappling to go with his typical powerful striking style. That fight was the last on his contract, and as possibly the best Japanese fighter in the world, Horiguchi must've known the big offers were coming, and he signed with RIZIN pretty much right after becoming a free agent. He's already slated for a fight in April, and honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if RIZIN soon had a flyweight division roughly the same level as UFC's, Johnson aside. 2) Nikita Krylov (21-5 overall, 6-3 UFC, last fought 12/10/16, L vs. Misha Cirkunov): Farewell to Nikita Krylov, owner of one of the most bizarre UFC careers in recent memory. The Ukrainian came into UFC as a pudgy, 21-year old heavyweight with an undefeated record (because his losses had mysteriously not yet been reported), and put on an instant classic in his UFC debut against Soa Palelei for all the wrong reasons, as the two giants just tired immediately and then just sort of flopped around at half-speed until Palelei won after Krylov essentially got too tired to defend himself. That earned Krylov instant cult favorite status among the MMA hardcores, and his subsequent two fights just helped that right along - Krylov came out of nowhere to uncork a head-kick knockout of Walt Harris in just 25 seconds, but then cut down to 205 and got immediately tapped out by Ovince St. Preux with a basic choke. That seemingly established Krylov as a joke for the rest of his career, but then he suddenly went ahead and became an actual prospect, further trimming down and becoming a weird fighter who wasn't all that good, but was ridiculously tough and aggressive and had just enough of an idea of what he was doing to put away his opponents. Krylov then faced off with Misha Cirkunov in a rare prospect-versus-prospect fight at light heavyweight, and finally found his match in another top-tier athlete who was able to weather the storm and take advantage of the openings Krylov provided, eventually clamping on a choke for the submission. Cirkunov's future was still fairly bright, so it was a surprise when UFC cut him, until it came out that Krylov only had one fight left on his deal, and made it apparent he was going to sign back in Russia. And indeed, Krylov signed with Fight Nights shortly thereafter. 3) Valerie Letourneau (8-6 overall, 3-3 UFC, last fought 12/10/16, L vs. Viviane Pereira): Letourneau confirmed her release from UFC on social media, and she had a weird run - frankly, I'm still unclear if she was actually all that good. Letourneau was a bit of a surprise choice for a late-notice slot on a card in 2014 - while the Montreal native is a pioneer in Canadian women's MMA, her lone UFC exposure was a loss on TUF to Roxanne Modafferi, whose career seemed all but over at that point. But Letourneau got a debut win in a fairly trash fight over Elizabeth Phillips, and then surprisingly made the cut down to strawweight, where she looked absolutely brutal and drained on the scale. Still, she made weight for another win over Jessica Rakoczy - in another fight where neither woman looked all that good - and then scored a win over Maryna Moroz where Letourneau's game suddenly looked fairly impressive. Still, it was a shock when she was chosen to fight Joanna Jedrzejczyk for the strawweight title after that win - the thought was seemingly, since this was the big Rousey/Holm show, that Letourneau would be a solid opponent for Jedrzejczyk to have a showcase win over. But to her credit, Letourneau managed to hang in there for all five rounds, which was far from expected, and seemingly had cemented herself as a top-ten or so strawweight. And then the wheels fell off. Letourneau faced Joanne Calderwood in a one-off flyweight fight and had a competitive loss, albeit one where Letourneau struggled with an ill-fitting top and then got knocked out, and once UFC decided not to add Letourneau's natural division, it was back down to 115, where she drained herself once again, but still missed weight against Viviane Pereira. And that Pereira fight wound up being absolutely awful - Letourneau had a comical size advantage, but was too drained to do anything with it, and the result was just a terrible fight where nobody really deserved to win. After that performance, I kind of don't blame UFC for cutting Letourneau, and hopefully she can now fight somewhere where she can be at flyweight, and not put herself through such a rough weight cut. 4) Dongi Yang (13-3 overall, 2-3 UFC, last fought 11/28/15, W vs. Jake Collier): As mentioned above, Yang requested his release after basically not being booked, instead choosing to latch on with a new promotion in his native Korea. In his initial UFC run from 2010 through 2012, Yang was one of those mid-tier guys who had a bad record due to some tough matchmaking, as UFC decided to keep feeding him to what were then top prospects like Court McGee and Brad Tavares. But he was still a surprising signing when UFC decided to hold an event in Korea, since in the intervening three and a half years, Yang had only fought twice. But he got a win in that return fight over Jake Collier, and then...nothing. UFC didn't run Asia in all of 2016, and Yang's lone booking was on a card in Manila that wound up getting scrapped. ----- UPCOMING UFC SHOWS: 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, Alan Jouban vs. Gunnar Nelson 4/8 - UFC 210 - Buffalo, NY - Daniel Cormier ( c ) vs. Anthony Johnson, Gegard Mousasi vs. Chris Weidman 4/15 - UFC on Fox 24 - Kansas City, MO - Rose Namajunas vs. Michelle Waterson, Gilbert Melendez vs. Jeremy Stephens 4/22 - UFC Fight Night 108 - Nashville, TN - Artem Lobov vs. Cub Swanson, Al Iaquinta vs. Diego Sanchez, Sam Alvey vs. Thales Leites 5/13 - UFC 211 - Dallas, TX - Stipe Miocic ( c ) vs. Junior dos Santos, Joanna Jedrzejczyk ( c ) vs. Jessica Andrade, Ben Rothwell vs. Fabricio Werdum, Demian Maia vs. Jorge Masvidal, Eddie Alvarez vs. Dustin Poirier 5/28 - UFC TBA - Stockholm, Sweden - Alexander Gustafsson vs. Glover Teixeira 6/3 - UFC 212 - Rio De Janeiro, Brazil - Jose Aldo (c) vs. Max Holloway (ic), Claudia Gadelha vs. Karolina Kowalkiewicz ----- UFC 209 - March 4, 2017 - T-Mobile Arena - Las Vegas, Nevada It's pretty crazy to think that this card essentially marks the one-year anniversary of Nate Diaz's win over Conor McGregor, a fight that helped establish 2016 as pretty much the peak year in UFC history, as well as more or less upend the entire way that the company promotes fights. And while this isn't that level of a card, this show does sort of serve as a tentpole for the beginning third or so of 2017, as this features two of the best fights that UFC can put on at the moment. And they actually did a pretty solid job of loading this card up - pretty much every fight on this card should be fun, and frankly, UFC's matchmaking has been excellent lately, as even the fights that may not be that great to watch (Evans/Kelly, maybe Bektic/Elkins) are really interesting fights to see where certain guys stand at the moment. After a rough two months to start the year, it looks like UFC is finally shaking out of their doldrums, and this card is really kickstarting that into motion. Whee. MAIN CARD (Pay-Per-View - 10:00 PM ET): Welterweight Championship: ( C ) Tyron Woodley vs. (#1) Stephen Thompson Interim Lightweight Championship: (#1) Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. (#2) Tony Ferguson Middleweight: Rashad Evans vs. Daniel Kelly Lightweight: David Teymur vs. Lando Vannata Heavyweight: (#3) Alistair Overeem vs. (#8) Mark Hunt PRELIMINARY CARD (Fox Sports 1 - 8:00 PM ET): Heavyweight: Luis Henrique vs. Marcin Tybura Featherweight: (#13) Mirsad Bektic vs. (#14) Darren Elkins Bantamweight: (#15) Iuri Alcantara vs. Luke Sanders Heavyweight: Mark Godbeer vs. Daniel Spitz PRELIMINARY CARD (UFC Fight Pass - 6:30 PM ET): Light Heavyweight: Paul Craig vs. Tyson Pedro Women's Strawweight: Cynthia Calvillo vs. Amanda Cooper Bantamweight: Albert Morales vs. Andre Soukhamthath THE RUNDOWN: Tyron Woodley (16-3-1 overall, 6-2-1 UFC, 8-1 Strikeforce) vs. Stephen Thompson (13-1-1 overall, 8-1-1 UFC): UFC 205 will rightfully be best remembered for Conor McGregor becoming UFC's first simultaneous two-weight champion, or for being the promotion's big debut in Madison Square Garden, but the best fight of the night was the welterweight title bout, a majority draw between champion Tyron Woodley and challenger Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson. It took a bit to get going, but it was a pretty great, back and forth affair; for being a fairly stout wrestler going against a highly decorated kickboxer, Woodley did an excellent job of hanging with Thompson on the feet, and had the best moments of either fighter in a one-sided round four, where Woodley pretty much beat Thompson pillar to post and clamped on a tight guillotine that Thompson was lucky to survive. And as it turns out, Woodley needed that one-sided fourth round, as even though many thought Woodley won the fight (and, to be fair, a bunch also had it for Thompson), that 10-8 round was enough to tie it on two out of the three scorecards. So, of course, a draw necessitates a rematch, and UFC runs it back here, about four months later. Even though the draw was probably frustrating, the first Thompson fight was the sort of great bout and great performance that Woodley seemingly needed to be taken seriously as welterweight champion; before this, Woodley was sort of seen as an unworthy title-holder, who had some high-profile failures, beaten some weaker names, and then basically just waited things out until he got a title shot, as more interesting fighters were booked in other fights. And when Woodley knocked out Robbie Lawler in fairly sudden fashion once he got his shot, Woodley was just sort of seen as a boring spoiler in the division, and most assumed Thompson would be able to take the title from him and move on to more fun, violent things. But as mentioned above, Woodley held his own, and given that consensus has seemingly crystallized that he probably got the better of things in the first fight, it's nice to see him now taken seriously as one of the top welterweights in the world, even if he seems to be filling the role of well-spoken, somewhat cocky, black athlete that irrationally arises the ire of parts of the fanbase that Rashad Evans used to fill. And that's made for a solid contrast against Thompson, who's pretty much as white-bread as they come, as a karate practitioner from South Carolina. These two really do make for an excellent matchup in terms of frame and style - again, Woodley's a short, compact wrestler who's learned how to leverage the knockout power in his fists, and he has a ridiculous ability to cover distance in a short amount of time when going for that finish. Woodley also tends to use a weird strategy where he actually starts to back himself up against the cage, seemingly in the hopes that his opponents will open themselves up for either a takedown or an overhand, and you can see why many thought Thompson would just pick him apart in his first fight. Thompson's done an excellent job of rounding himself out where other karate guys have faltered, leveraging his long frame into some excellent distance management, keeping active, and improving his takedown defense to the point that he can - typically - keep fights where he's most comfortable. Appropriately enough, given that it was a draw, their first fight has given a lot of insight as to how those styles will interact, but not so much in terms of who will actually win it this time around. Woodley, as mentioned, did a much better job on the feet than anyone probably could've expected, but Thompson should still figure to have the advantage there. And while Thompson could easily finish the fight with a well-placed kick, again, it was Woodley that came the closest to finishing things a few times both on the feet and on the ground. I really don't see anything less than a back and forth war, but I do always tend to favor wrestlers, since they can control where the fight takes place, and for that reason, I'll take Woodley to win a decision, since he had some success taking things to the ground in the first fight, and that should be able to serve as a safety valve, if not a way to just outright win the fight, as needed. Still, it's an excellent rematch of a fight that was surprisingly fun and helped establish Woodley's title reign, so hopefully whatever the result is, it sets things up so that we can get a trilogy fight in the coming years. Khabib Nurmagomedov (24-0 overall, 8-0 UFC) vs. Tony Ferguson (22-3 overall, 12-1 UFC): With all due respect to the main event, which is an excellent fight in its own right, I think people are most excited about this fight, which is one of the best UFC can put on at the moment - in fact, it's apparently the first fight between two guys each riding an eight-fight UFC win streak. And while it's somewhat ridiculous that they're fighting for an interim belt, I don't think anyone will complain about this being a five round fight; and as an added bonus, that belt theoretically acts as a golden ticket for the winner to face Conor McGregor, which should be a hell of a fight either way. Khabib Nurmagomedov's sort of loomed over the lightweight division as an uncrowned champion for a few years now - one of the first fighters to come into UFC of this recent wave of Dagestanis, Nurmagomedov has pretty much been the best, destroying opposition with his ridiculously stifling wrestling; hell, in his fight against Abel Trujillo, Nurmagomedov managed to hit a UFC-record twenty-one takedowns, despite it only being a three-round fight. Honestly, looking back on Nurmagomedov's first five fights, you could've made the case that his competition was rather weak, as a lot of his early opponents started trending south right after they faced Khabib - but all that's moot, since he really became a contender in fight number six, against future division champ Rafael dos Anjos. Both Nurmagomedov and dos Anjos were riding five-fight win streaks, and the winner seemed set to be a title contender if they weren't already, which made it all the more impressive when Nurmagomedov just stifled dos Anjos like he had every previous opponent. But while dos Anjos rebounded from that loss to start another five-fight win streak that led him to the UFC championship, Nurmagomedov instead headed into surgery, as he tore up his knee over the summer of 2014. And as mentioned before, once dos Anjos won the title, Nurmagomedov's presence just loomed over the division, since by proxy, he figured to be the actual best lightweight in the world, but was just too hurt to compete. After a few teases of a return - the last of which was actually against Ferguson - Nurmagomedov finally came back in April of last year against late replacement Darrell Horcher, after another attempt to re-book the Ferguson fight fell through. And after taking about a round to shake off two years of rust, Nurmagomedov just simply picked up where he left off, dominating Horcher and setting his sights on lightweight gold. Khabib took out another contender, this time Michael Johnson, at UFC 205, and provided one of the best out-of-the-cage highlights of the night, stirring the mostly Irish crowd into a frenzy as he called Conor McGregor a chicken, and then talked about how he was going to make said chicken tap and win lightweight gold. Great stuff. But for everything Nurmagomedov has done, Ferguson has pretty much been right there with him, right down to beating dos Anjos in a hell of a five round fight just a week before Nurmagomedov's win over Johnson. Ferguson won season 13 of TUF back in 2011 and reeled off three quick wins, but after a flat loss to Johnson where it turned out that Ferguson had broken his arm, Ferguson was pretty much out of sight, out of mind for a good year and a half while he recovered. And when he came back at the tail end of 2013, Ferguson seemingly was starting over from scratch, working his way slowly up the ladder, against a lot of the same people Nurmagomedov faced, in fact. But while Nurmagomedov wins with just hard-nosed, straight-ahead wrestling, Ferguson instead does so with style; Ferguson is lanky for a lightweight, and he uses that frame to great effect, just sort of bouncing around everywhere, pecking away from distance, and occasionally doing some crazy things with movement, like doing a weird ninja roll or striking from an unorthodox angle. And his grappling game is fairly similar - despite having a background in wrestling, Ferguson never really uses it, instead choosing to hop on all sorts of chokes, particularly a D'Arce that has become a bit of a signature after his crazy win over Edson Barboza. And it's that contrast in styles that makes this a ridiculously fun fight on paper, even past the talent of both guys; Nurmagomedov has never faced someone as dangerous and active as Ferguson, while a hard-charging Russian who just wants to cut through the shit and take Ferguson down is probably his toughest test yet. Honestly, for being such a fascinating fight on paper, this seems to be a pretty binary fight, and we'll probably figure out how it's going to go within the first few minutes, since it really comes down to if Khabib can catch Ferguson or he can't. We saw it briefly in the Johnson fight before Khabib took over, but Nurmagomedov's striking still isn't all that great, and is pretty much just a means to an end of getting close to take his opponent down and maul them. That could be a huge problem against someone with one-hitter quitter knockout power, like, say, McGregor, but despite being having some power, I don't really think of Ferguson as that type of guy. But what Ferguson is is evasive, and even worse for Khabib, Ferguson also seems to have one of the best gas tanks in MMA; he just always fights at a ridiculous pace, and if doing so for five rounds against Rafael dos Anjos at the elevation of Mexico City doesn't tire him out, a fight with Nurmagomedov probably won't. Unless, of course, Nurmagomedov just takes over and out-wrestles Ferguson to wear him out, but at that point, the question of if Ferguson can keep avoiding him is moot. I could see a scenario where Ferguson just pecks at Nurmagomedov from outside and then takes over as the Russian tires out, but honestly, I have the feeling it's only going to take one takedown for Nurmagomedov to take over the fight, and things should go downhill for Ferguson after that, since once Khabib gets into a groove, pretty much every fight to date has been over. So I'll take Khabib via decision, with a chance of a late finish if Nurmagomedov is able to take over early enough in the fight, but I do expect some trouble before the Russian figures things out and gets his hands on Ferguson. Either way, though, woohoo, what a fight. And I can't wait for the winner to face McGregor. Rashad Evans (19-5-1 overall, 14-5-1 UFC) vs. Daniel Kelly (12-1 overall, 5-1 UFC): While I'm happy that Dan Kelly has somehow had enough success to get such a big fight, it is kind of sad that it's come to this to see if Rashad Evans has anything left. Evans was never really been the biggest star, but he's been a UFC stalwart for over a decade, became UFC light heavyweight champion, and gave us some of the better rivalries in the history of the sport with Quinton Jackson and Jon Jones. But, for all intents and purposes, Evans's dominant win over Chael Sonnen in late 2013 was pretty much the end of his high-level career, or so it seems. Slated for a fight against Daniel Cormier that would've put the winner firmly in the title picture, Evans went down with a knee injury that was supposed to only keep him out for a month or so, but instead turned into a two-year ordeal of surgeries. And once Evans finally returned against Ryan Bader, he looked pretty much done - Evans went from 34 to 36-years old during his layoff and showed every year of it, just looking slow, getting out-struck by Bader, and not even having much success implementing his reliable wrestling game. And things went even worse in an attempted rebound fight against Glover Teixeira, as Evans did even less before getting obliterated via knockout in just under two minutes. And so Evans turned to the last resort of the fading fighter - changing weight classes, in this case cutting down to middleweight, though getting a fight booked at 185 became a bit of an ordeal itself. Thanks to privacy laws, it's unclear exactly what happened, but some sort of medical issue that Evans has apparently had throughout his entire career got flagged by the New York commission right before Evans was slated to fight at UFC 205. So his bout against Tim Kennedy was shifted a few weeks later, to UFC 206, only for Ontario to basically follow suit and refuse to clear Evans. But thankfully, there's always Nevada, so Evans can finally make his middleweight debut against, of all people, Australia's Dan Kelly, one of the unlikelier success stories of the last few years. A four-time Olympian in judo, Kelly didn't really take up MMA until he was 35 years old, and when he showed little on a Canada/Australia season of TUF a little over a year later, that figured to be that. But UFC was in full global expansion mode, signed Kelly to a contract anyways, and after two ugly wins over lower-level foes, Sam Alvey destroyed him under a minute and seemingly put an end to a fun little story to those who bothered to watch UFC's Australian shows. But then things took a bit of a crazy turn - after knocking off prospect Steve Montgomery, Kelly suddenly became a going concern in the middleweight division, scoring a come-from-behind finish over top prospect Antonio Carlos Junior in one of the bigger upsets of 2016, and then taking out solid vet Chris Camozzi on UFC's most recent card down under. It's a wonder to behold, as Kelly, who's been an underdog in all six of his UFC fights, just continues to win - he's kind of plodding and creaky on the feet, often wearing a giant knee brace, but he just bites down on his mouthpiece, wades in with some wild punches, and just hopes he can get close to his opponent. And to his credit, when he does, age goes out the window, and judo takes over, as Kelly just uses a combination of technique and sheer dad strength to take over his foes and just beat the piss out of them as they wonder how exactly this all happened. Amazingly, given all of Evans's accomplishments and given that Kelly's pretty much mostly been a curio during his UFC career, this is a somewhat hard fight to call, given that it's unclear exactly what Evans has left, as well as questions about how he'll look at a new weight class. If Evans was more of a finisher, I wouldn't have much of a problem picking him - Kelly tends to wear down his opponents through sheer tenacity, and Alvey showed that if you can just blast him early, you can score a quick knockout before tiring out. And hey, maybe Evans is just enough more of a powerhouse at middleweight to make that happen. But I could easily see a fight where Evans has some success early, tires due to the weight cut, and, once again, Kelly takes over the late stretches of a fight over an exhausted opponent to steal another win. But I kind of have to take Evans to win a decision - he has the size, the veteran wiles, and enough of a wrestling background that one should hope he should be able to neutralize Kelly, if not just outbox him for three rounds to keep him at bay. Still, to come full circle, as much as I love Dan Kelly's unlikely success, it's still sort of sad that it's come to this. David Teymur (5-1 overall, 2-0 UFC) vs. Lando Vannata (9-1 overall, 1-1 UFC): When Michael Chiesa was forced to back out of a main event against Tony Ferguson, and newcomer "Groovy" Lando Vannata stepped in, it was viewed as a bit of a disappointment, but instead, it may have been a launching pad for someone who may become a future star. First of all, the fight itself wound up being absolutely awesome - Ferguson seemingly finally met his match and faced someone with enough swagger as he has, as Vannata just sort of let things flow, played the evasion game on defense, and hit enough crazy counter-shots to actually have Ferguson briefly on the ropes before succumbing to a second-round submission. And rather than wind up as some one-hit wonder, Vannata instead followed that up by taking out John Makdessi with possibly the most aesthetically pleasing knockout of 2016, a walk-off spinning wheel kick that dropped Makdessi like a bird being shot out of the sky and established Vannata as a prospect to watch. Rather than rush Vannata back against high-level competition, UFC instead did a fascinating lateral move here, matching Vannata up against Swedish striking prospect David Teymur. Teymur wasn't particularly memorable on the McGregor/Faber season of TUF, but he's looked good since making it to the UFC roster proper, knocking out castmate Martin Svensson and then doing the same to newcomer Jason Novelli, both in rather brutal fashion. Like Vannata, Teymur hasn't shown much outside of dynamic, violent striking skill, but hey, that's more than enough to make you someone people want to see. This could be a bit of a tricky matchup for Vannata, but frankly, he's looked the better of the two and done so against much tougher competition. So while Vannata could dick around and get himself knocked out, and while I could see Teymur going fairly well early on as both guys feel the other out, I'll say Vannata eventually hits a groove (pun not intended, I swear) and scores a second round knockout. Alistair Overeem (41-15 [1] overall, 6-4 UFC, 4-0 Strikeforce, 7-7 PRIDE) vs. Mark Hunt (12-10-1 [1] overall, 7-4-1 [1] UFC, 5-3 PRIDE): It's an interesting fight between two late-career heavyweights, but UFC pretty much has to be screwing with Mark Hunt at this point by booking him against Alistair Overeem. Hunt's sudden career resurgence in UFC was a ridiculous one - even though he was pretty much just a super-heavyweight oddity, Hunt refused to be bought out of his PRIDE contract, and after a quick submission loss to Sean McCorkle, Hunt suddenly flashed some takedown defense and rode knockout after knockout all the way to an interim title shot. And since, he's been a fairly reliable hand - while a one-sided loss to Stipe Miocic pretty much confirmed a title won't be in his future, Hunt's been someone UFC can feature on a lot of shows in Australia or his native New Zealand, and he'll probably give you a fun as hell brawl and a knockout while doing it. But one of the sidebars of Hunt's career is that his opponents keep failing drug tests - Antonio Silva did so after their 2013 war, and Hunt's last two opponents did so, as Frank Mir flunked a drug test after the fight, and, well, then there was the whole Brock Lesnar mess. Lesnar came out of retirement to face Hunt at UFC 200, but UFC waived a mandatory four-month drug testing period to get Lesnar on the card, which caused the conspiracy theories to fly after Lesnar pissed hot following a surprising win over Hunt. Hunt, for his part, refused to fight unless UFC would guarantee him that he would receive his opponent's purse if they failed a drug test, and then sued the company; and while that lawsuit is still going on, Hunt basically needed the money and decided to take a fight that, of course, is against Overeem, one of the sport's most notorious drug cheats. Overeem exploded from a reedy light heavyweight to an absolute monster of a heavyweight over the course of his career, which mostly took place in Japan and other areas without drug testing, and whenever the Dutchman was prompted about the change, he'd knowingly give the credit to a diet of horse meat. Sure, horse meat. When UFC finally brought Overeem over from Strikeforce to debut against Lesnar, getting a drug test was, unsurprisingly, a bit of a hassle - Overeem just wound up getting a conditional license without having to pass one, as he submitted two samples that, for various reasons, weren't able to be tested, and pretty much waited out the clock. But the Nevada commission was finally able to catch him with a surprise drug test at a press conference, and Overeem finally pissed hot now that he didn't have any notice, which kept him out of action for all of 2012. And when Overeem returned, he was obviously a much diminished fighter without his horse meat - there was still some violent offense, but once opponents were able to weather the storm, Overeem would gas out and was pretty much a sitting duck for knockouts at the hands of guys like Antonio Silva, Travis Browne, and Ben Rothwell. But Overeem turned to Jackson-Wink in a last ditch effort to save his career, and the Albuquerque camp worked wonders, reinventing Overeem's game from a power striker to sort a combination outside boxer and grappler that was able to both leverage his physical gifts as well as keep his suddenly diminished chin safe. And Overeem rode that change to a four-fight win streak and a title shot, even though he fell short in a crazy brawl against Stipe Miocic. I really hope this fight is fun - if it stays on the feet, it's a really awesome battle of former top-flight kickboxers, pitting Overeem's athleticism against Hunt's durability. But in fights against one-dimensional opponents, Overeem has shown a willingness to just take things to the ground and play it safe, and I fear that's what happens here. Lesnar showed that while Hunt's takedown defense is much improved, and Hunt's short, squat body type makes him hard to take down, it can be done, and I see this fight playing out a lot like this one, with Overeem taking things to the ground and just keeping them there, much to the chagrin of the crowd. That said, there's still a chance at any moment that Overeem could just get lamped, and I'd love to be wrong just for entertainment's sake, but my pick is Overeem by fairly one-sided, disappointing decision. Luis Henrique (10-2 [1] overall, 2-1 UFC) vs. Marcin Tybura (14-2 overall, 1-1 UFC): Let's try this again. Much like Rashad Evans above, a minor medical issue made a skittish New York commission refuse to clear Luis Henrique, so rather than being on UFC 208, this fight will instead take place at 209. Henrique's an interesting talent - the Brazilian started his UFC run by getting his head knocked off by Francis Ngannou, but he's rebounded quite well, using aggression and wrestling to pretty much overwhelm some lower-level giants of the division, scoring submission wins over Dmitrii Smoliakov and Christian Colombo. Add in the fact that Henrique is somehow just 23 years old in a division where 30 is considered young, and the sky is pretty much the limit. But for now he has an interesting test in Poland's Marcin Tybura, who's in pretty much the opposite situation, coming in as a fully-formed vet. Despite coming in with a really solid regional record, Tybura disappointed in his UFC debut against Tim Johnson, where he pretty much got out-wrestled, but he rebounded in a huge way with a beautiful head kick knockout of Viktor Pesta. That Johnson fight, though, is representative of what I think might be Tybura's big problem in the UFC; while he's a skilled fighter, he's just not particularly large for a UFC heavyweight, and the company is basically filled with the biggest, toughest guys from every smaller promotion. Against another mid-sized heavyweight like Pesta, Tybura styled out, and what makes this interesting is that Henrique is somewhere in the middle - he's not quite cutting to 265 like some guys, but he's fairly big, and just wrestles like an absolute powerhouse. I'll lean towards the side of saying that Henrique's physicality winds up being too much for Tybura, and that the Brazilian wins a wrestling-heavy decision with a chance of a finish. Still, if Tybura can neutralize that wrestling game, his experience and striking skill might actually make Henrique a sitting duck. And that's really why UFC matchmaking has been wonderful lately - while I favor one guy, there's a chance the other could just as easily make that pick look stupid - ah, the wonders of this sport. Mirsad Bektic (11-0 overall, 4-0 UFC) vs. Darren Elkins (21-5 overall, 11-4 UFC): Mirsad Bektic was topping prospect lists in fairly short order after coming onto the MMA scene - a Bosnian refugee whose family fled to Germany and eventually wound up into Nebraska, Bektic is a top-flight athlete and an explosive wrestler who's quickly picking up the striking game, which, well, adds up to pretty much everything you'd want. He's still there to be hit a bit, but that hasn't really come close to hurting him yet, particularly when he can rush into a takedown at the first sign of danger. After beating some low-level competition, UFC finally looked ready to push Bektic up the ranks by matching him up against Tatsuya Kawajiri, but Bektic wound up tearing his ACL and missing the greater part of 2016. But when Bektic made his return at UFC 204 this past October, he pretty surprisingly picked up right where he left off and showed little, if any, rust, running through Russell Doane for a first-round finish. The one knock on Bektic at this point is his weak competition in the UFC - outside of Chas Skelly, everyone else is either out of the UFC or about to be - and this fight is going to fix that in a big way, as Darren Elkins is a perennially tough out. Since about 2012, Elkins has been a prospect-killer supreme; the Indiana native's game isn't pretty, but it works, as he just sort of goes after takedowns and gets his opponents to the mat through sheer force of will, basically staying on them and preventing them from getting any offense in. Elkins has lost enough fights to guys like Chad Mendes and Jeremy Stephens that a title run almost definitely isn't in the future, but Elkins can hang with pretty much anyone outside of the elite. Frankly, this fight really comes down to whose wrestling is better, and while Bektic has been a prodigy to date, we have yet to see him against someone who'll probably just ignore the hype, charge forward, and try to put him on his back. Elkins is currently about a three-to-one underdog, which seems wide to me, since while Bektic's offensive wrestling game is frightening and vicious, offensive and defensive wrestling seem to be two different skillsets, and again, there's always the chance that Elkins can put his opponent on their back first. But while there's way more upset potential than seemingly expected, I'll favor Bektic to take the decision - even after the ACL tear, Bektic's athleticism still seems otherwordly, and the Bosnian also should have the better striking to work with. But, that said, I don't really think it'll be a mauling like a lot of Bektic's other wins - this should be a pretty solid fight that sets Bektic up for bigger and better things. Iuri Alcantara (34-7 [1] overall, 8-4 [1] UFC, 1-0 WEC) vs. Luke Sanders (11-0 overall, 1-0 UFC, 1-0 Strikeforce): Well, Iuri Alcantara's back at the gatekeeper game, as Luke Sanders finally gets to follow up on an impressive debut and fight at his natural weight class. Alcantara's pretty much been a top-fifteen mainstay since cutting down to bantamweight in 2013, as he's won a great majority of his fights, and even in his losses, he's pretty much always put up a game performance as a jack of all trades, master of none. And it's that skill set that has pretty much made Alcantara UFC's go-to prospect test at 135, as a great part of his career in recent years has been spent fighting guys coming off impressive debuts. Jimmie Rivera outclassed Alcantara about a year ago as part of his rise up the division, which led some to think Alcantara's best days might be behind him, but the Brazilian followed up by blowing the doors off of Brad Pickett, so Alcantara seems to be far from done. This time around, Alcantara's test is Tennessee's Luke Sanders, who was a top prospect on the radar for a while before getting the late call-up from UFC last January. There, Sanders fought up a weight class and got a surprisingly quick win over Maximo Blanco and established himself as a name to watch...before dropping off the radar after not being booked for over a year. Anyway, Sanders is a similarly well-rounded guy who's good everywhere, but with no particular standout skill, which makes for an interesting fight, since it's unclear who should have the advantage where in each aspect of the fight. I could just flip a coin, but I'll actually slightly favor Sanders to win a decision, just because he seems more active and I trust him to win more rounds. Still, this figures to be a nip-tuck fight, and should either establish Sanders as yet another rising young bantamweight, or keep Alcantara as the big veteran test in the division. Mark Godbeer (11-3 overall, 0-1 UFC, 0-1 Bellator) vs. Daniel Spitz (5-0 overall): Heavyweights! British vet Mark "The Hand of" Godbeer made his UFC debut this past November, and, welp, it didn't go well at all, as what figured to be a striking match against Justin Ledet turned into Ledet getting an unlikely first-round submission. So Godbeer, who's pretty much a one-dimensional kickboxer, tries to rebound here against newcomer Daniel Spitz. Spitz is a former Washington State lineman training at Sikjitsu, the same team that's churned out Julianna Pena and Michael Chiesa, and gaining a rep as a camp where the coaching is pretty dumb (choosing not to focus on things like altitude and defense), but where you can become a pretty solid submission expert. The only fight of Spitz's that's really out there is against "Cabbage" Correira of all people, and while Spitz does look decent when it goes to the ground, most of the fight is spent with Spitz using his giant frame - at 6'7", he's a tall dude - to just sort of peck away and keep Correira at bay with single strikes. I think Spitz has a shot if he gets it to the ground - and Godbeer's grappling defense looked bad enough against Ledet that he just might be able to - but if this remains on the feet, Spitz just looks way too slow and defensively open for Godbeer to not just track him down and crack him. So my pick is Godbeer by first-round knockout, with the caveat that this is low-level heavyweights, and pretty much anything can happen. Paul Craig (9-0 overall, 1-0 UFC) vs. Tyson Pedro (5-0 overall, 1-0 UFC): It remains to be seen exactly what the hell UFC is doing with the light heavyweight division as they continue to let good talent walk, but on the plus side, this is a real interesting fight between two prospects coming off impressive debuts. Four first names enter. Only two will survive. Scotland's Paul Craig made a memorable debut this past December - the "Bearjew" nickname alone was probably enough, but Craig used an impressive wrestling and submission game to put away rising prospect Henrique da Silva within two rounds, and then gave a charming post-fight interview in an often-incomprehensible brogue. And, well, the debut also went pretty similar for Australia's Tyson Pedro - facing Khalil Rountree in his home country, Pedro ate some strikes early on, but got Rountree to the ground in short order, earning the tap to go to 5-0 with five first round finishes. It's an interesting fight since, well, both guys are pretty similar fighters, which is particularly fascinating since you rarely see submission experts in the higher weight classes. Either guy could easily win this, but I'll favor Craig to take over the fight and earn, let's say, a second round submission, mostly since Pedro's faced way weaker competition, both pre-UFC and when comparing da Silva and Rountree. Cynthia Calvillo (3-0 overall) vs. Amanda Cooper (2-2 overall, 1-1 UFC, 0-1 Invicta): UFC threw together two fights at the bottom of this card to help fill it out, and this does feel sort of thrown together, since both women are fairly unproven. Amanda Bobby Cooper didn't really impress in her lone Invicta fight, but she still managed to make it to the finals of TUF 23 before getting dominated by Tatiana Suarez. Cooper rebounded with her first UFC win over the since-retired Anna Elmose, but the whole package is just sort of...eh; Cooper's a solid enough boxer, but still sort of a sloppy grappler who gets herself into bad positions, which is probably trouble against the debuting Cynthia Calvillo. Calvillo probably sets some sort of record as far as a normal prospect goes, as she just started her pro MMA career this past August, so she's making her UFC debut about six months after officially starting. But the Team Alpha Male product has an amateur career going back to 2012 that includes a big win over current top prospect Aspen Ladd, who's actually the woman that beat Cooper in that aforementioned Invicta fight. Calvillo's film shows about what you'd expect from a raw Alpha Male fighter - the striking is still a work in progress, but she looks like a natural wrestler who's comfortable going for chokes or just mounting and beating the piss out of overmatched competition. Cooper's almost surely her toughest test to date, particularly on the feet, but given that I've never really been impressed by Cooper, I feel comfortable saying Calvillo can impose her game and get, let's say, a second-round stoppage on the ground. Albert Morales (6-1-1 overall, 0-1-1 UFC, 2-0 Bellator) vs. Andre Soukhamthath (11-3 overall): The second of two fights thrown on this card at the last minute, this one should be a barn-burner. Albert Morales has had a weird, brief UFC career thus far - the Californian was a ridiculously raw prospect when UFC scooped him up last year, and after a debut against Alejandro Perez that was called a draw thanks to some iffy refereeing, Morales was thrown in against top bantamweight Thomas Almeida in what wound up being a rebound fight for Almeida. UFC matchmaking has gotten better in terms of handling prospects, but Morales is a reminder that sometimes they don't really seem to have a plan in mind. But this is finally a well-matched fight against the debuting Andre Soukhamthath, a Laotian-American from New England who's been training at Combat Club, which is essentially the former Blackzilians. Soukhamthath really got on the prospect radar with a beautiful knockout knee over Kody Nordby about a year ago, but he's faced a solid slate of competition over the last few years. Both guys are essentially exclusively strikers, so this should be a really fun fight, and it's a hard one to call - Morales definitely has the athleticism advantage, and seems to handle getting in a firefight more, but Soukhamthath seems to be much more technical, has a vicious clinch game in close quarters, and as his last few fights have shown, can put away opponents with a dynamic finish. I favor Morales to take a decision, but this could easily be a narrow split decision type of fight in a good way, where both wind up looking good.