#just lando and a bunch of wrestlers

[scarskelly]

I present to you, Fuck Off: my collection of middle finger reaction images.

[thesportssoundoff]

“I know undercards don’t matter. You don’t need to drive the point home so hard.” UFC 234 From Australia Preview

WHEW boy! Let's talk about this right quick. Let's begin with the positives of this card which are readily apparent. The two big middleweight fights at the top of the bill are pretty damn good. Even IF we assume that Israel Adesanya vs Anderson Silva is nothing more than a high level MMA human sacrifice, the mere presence of Anderson Silva makes this must see appointment television. Silva vs Adesanya will at least be memorable and the middleweight title fight is probably the best fight to showcase the transition from old and clunky to young and vibrant. Robert Whittaker and Kelvin Gastelum both represent some truly positive things ranging from the benefits of cutting less weight to the rise of young and athletic in a division run by a bunch of Muks.  The bad news is that the rest of this card ranges from "It's intriguing but not quite worth the spot it has" to "How could anybody care about this?" Some of these fights in all fairness are solid well put together contests pitting two solid fighters with similar records/places in the division----but most of these fights would have a hard time being considered appropriate main card ESPN+ fights. They want you to pay for the privilege of seeing Montana De La Rosa and Nadia Kassem. Remember that folks. Let's chit chat about it.

Fights: 12

Debuts: Marcos Rosa, Callan Potter and Raulian Pavia

Fight Changes/Injury Cancellations: 2 (Ryan SPANN OUT, Sam Alvey IN vs Jim Crute/Alex Gorgees OUT, Callan Potter IN vs Jalin Turner)

Headliners (fighters who have either main evented or co-main evented shows in the UFC): 5 (Israel Adesanya, Anderson Silva, Kelvin Gastelum, Robert Whittaker and Lando Vannata)

Fighters On Losing Streaks in the UFC: 2 (Wulliji Buren, Teruto Ishihara)

Fighters On Winning Streaks in the UFC: 6 (Robert Whittaker, Israel Adesanya, Kelvin Gastelum, Ricky Simon, Dong Hyun Ma, Rani Yahya)

Main Card Record Since Jan 1st 2017 (in the UFC): 23-5

Kelvin Gastelum- 2-1 (1) Robert Whittaker- 3-0 Anderson Silva- 1-0 Israel Adesanya- 4-0 Ricky Simon- 2-0 Rani Yahya- 3-1 Montana De La Rosa- 2-0 Nadia Kassem- 1-0 Jim Crute- 1-0 Sam Alvey- 4-3

Fights By Weight Class (yearly number here):

Lightweight- 3 (7) Bantamweight- 3 (4) Middlewieght- 2 (3) Flyweight- 1 (4) Women’s Flyweight- 1 (4) Light Heavyweight- 1 (3) Featherweight- 1 (3)

Welterweight- (4) Heavyweight- (2) Women’s Strawweight- (1)

2019’s Records We Keepin Track Of:

Debuting Fighters (2-7): Callan Potter, Raulian Pavia, Marcos Rosa

Short Notice Fighters (1-2):  Callan Potter, Sam Alvey

Second Fight (5-1):  Nadia Kassem, Jim Crute, Devonte Smith, Kai Kara France, Jonathan Martinez, Jalin Turner

Cage Corrosion (Fighters who have not fought within a year of the date of the fight) (3-0):

Undefeated Fighters (1-6): Nadia Kassem, Israel Adesanya, Jim Crute

Fighters with at least four fights in the UFC with 0 wins over competition still in the organization: Dong Hyun Ma

Weight Class Jumpers (Fighters competing outside of the weight class of their last fight even if they’re returning BACK to their “normal weight class”) (3-3): Nadia Kassem, Jalin Turner

Twelve Precarious Ponderings

1- "What is this PPV gonna draw?" is going to be a pretty complicated discussion when you factor in all of the usual elements at play. For starters, the top two fights could not be anymore appealing. Four well known proven middleweights who have headlined enough events (be it on free TV, PPV etc) to at least have some cache with fans. Gastelum, Whittaker, Silva and Adesanya all have highlight reel worthy performances to make for a hell of a sizzle reel. Both fights have compelling enough stories to get people excited. We know fans don't necessarily care about undercards as much as you'd think so the complete ass-ness of the undercard is not entirely worthy of discussing.The counterpoint is that this card as a whole is very weak, it's an international PPV (which fans seem to not necessarily associate with quality) and historically speaking Robert Whittaker and Kelvin Gastelum have been anti-draws on PPV, Silva is the big star who hasn't been relied upon to move PPVs for a long time AND Israel Adesanya has struggled to draw free viewers to TVs let alone paying ones. There's also the fact that if there's a purchasing decision to be made, I imagine fans would rather splurge on UFC 235 than this card. The very loaded UFC 225 card with CM Punk, Holm, Andrei Arlovski, Tai Tuiavasa, Whittaker/Romero and Covington/RDA did around 250K buys which is pretty blegh. So what's this one do? I feel like 200K is the bottom line and anything over what 225 did should be a success.

2- Of the ten fighters on this main card, only four of them have ever appeared on a PPV main card before. Remove the co-main and main event and half of the fighters on the main card last appeared on the Fight Pass prelims or FS1(2) prelims to the main card. Only Jim Crute and Sam Alvey appeared on main cards last. This is a very thin main card.

3- The key challenge in figuring out the co-main event is whether Whittaker's body can hold up over what figures to once again be another grueling 25 minute fight. Gastelum has only been rocked once (a big counter hook vs Rick Story after mentally checking out for a bit) and so he figures to be there for as long as the fight lasts. Gastelum hits hard for a dude going up to 185 lbs and  when he gets going, he drowns people under a consistent offensive workrate. Like against Romero, Whittaker is going to be the fighter who has the technical advantages and he's the sort of fighter who can remain elusive while also being offensive and consistently pressuring. The problem is that Whittaker has broken hands, torn ACLs and been rocked consistently in his last two fights, both violent as all get out wars with Yoel Romero. That's nearly an hrs worth of fighting with Yoel Romero which physically and systematically destroys most normal people. At some point Whittaker is going to break down and I'm left wondering if Gastelum is going to be the lucky beneficiary to Romero's hard work.

4- So how likely it is that Adesanya vs Anderson Silva turns into one of those overly respectful deals where it's fifteen minutes of staring with an occasional flurry? Would Adesanya carry Silva out of respect?

5- Nadia Kassem is rather interesting and while her vs Montana De La Rosa is not in any way shape or form a main card PPV fight, it IS an interesting one. De La Rosa is a TUF contender turned solid flyweight who seems to have bouts of mental blockage at inopportune times BUT also packs good skills on the feet and in the grappling department. Kassem is really powerful, a big 125er (let's not forget she weighed 120 lbs in her strawweight debut) and comes from a market that the UFC visits 3-4 times a year with one PPV a year. She could be 2-3 wins away from us talking about her vs Valentina Shevchenko.

6- How many fights off of this show will you remember ONCE you remove the main and co-main event?

7- Kelvin Gastelum has managed to make things work pretty well with a basic 1-2 combination punctuated by a leg kick or two when he has to. He's a crisp boxer but people forget he's also a pretty damn good wrestler as well. I wonder if he tries to bring that back into the fold against Robert Whittaker just to shake things up over the course of the fight.

8- I wonder if Kai Kara France vs Raulian Pavia is exempt from Fight Of The Night honors on principle alone given that they're going to be gutting the division.

9- It's tough to remember it now but we started 2017 believing Lando Vannata could become one of the bigger future stars of the sport. At the very least, fresh off a highlight reel KO over Makdessi and with a FOTN vs Tony Ferguson in his backpocket, we figured he'd be a key factor in the division. Since that point? Lando is 0-2-2 with two draws that could theoretically have been losses. Vannata is a really fun fighter to watch but one who seems to fold under pressure and one who seems neither strong enough to wrestle successfully or complete enough to do the middle of the road stuff to make his high end flashy offense work. He flirted with free agency but the UFC brought him back. He gets a guy who rumor has it was signed primarily based off of his friendship with Anderson Silva. This is a gimme.

10- It's probably not going to be UFC quality but Shane Young vs Austin Arnett should be at the very least somewhat fun. I hope?

11- Rani Yahya finally gets his PPV debut after being in the UFC since the original WEC merger. Bless him.

12- Jim Crute, who is a very hittable guy, taking on Sam Alvey, who hits very hard, is a very risky way to give your Australian LHW prospect wunderkind some PPV exposure.

[thesportssoundoff]

“A Very Good Card In A Very Divisive World” UFC 209 Preview

Joey

Feb 27th, 2017

Well well! It's time to do one of these deals, eh? Time and general malaise on MMA has prevented me from really writing one of these out but it's well overdue now. The UFC returns to Las Vegas and it's got a really, really solid showcase for us with a really good PPV card, a decent prelim slot and some great FP prelims to occupy our time on a Saturday night. I'll be going from combine footage to UFC 209 on a string so I'll be all sport'd up. The main card is anchored by two tremendous fights for championships. Sorta. The main event is a rematch of a FOTYC for 2016 when Tyron Woodley defends his championship vs Stephen Thompson. The co-main event is the fight of the year for me thus far as undefeated Russian lightweight phenom Khabib Nurmagomedov takes on the real funkmaster of the UFC in Tony Ferguson for the interim lightweight championship. If Conor McGregor is bullshitting us, again, then it might as well be the real championship. The main card features a wealth of veterans and "names" like Rashad Evans, Mark Hunt and Alistair Overeem. OH! and Lando Vannata is back fighting a scary powerful stand up specialist in David Teymur. That fight's going to be fucking cool. There's a few heavyweight scraps on the FS1 slate plus Mirsad Bektic is back! Anyways let's get our numbers right real quick:

Fights: 12

Debuts: 3 (Daniel Spitz, Cynthia Calvillo, Andre Soukhamathath)

Fight Changes/Injury Cancellations: 3 (Todd Duffee out, Daniel Spitz in/Igor Pokrajac out, Gadzhimurad Antigulov in/Gadzhimurad Antigulov vs Ed Herman cancelled)

Headliners (fighters who have either main evented or co-main evented shows in the UFC): 7 (Tony Ferguson, Wonderboy, Tyron Woodley, Mark Hunt, Alistair Overeem, Rashad Evans and Lando Vannata)

Fighters On Losing Streaks in the UFC: 2 (Albert Morales and Rashad Evans)

Fighters On Winning Streaks in the UFC: 8 (Khabib Nurmagomedov, Tony Ferguson, Dan Kelly, David Teymur, Mirsad Bektic, Darren Elkins, Luis Henrique and Luke Sanders)

Stat Monitor for 2017:

Debuting Fighters (Current number: 6-4)- Daniel Spitz, Cynthia Cavillo, Andre Soukhamthath

Short Notice Fighters (Current number: 5-6)- Daniel Spitz

Second Fight (Current number: 3-8)- Mark Godbeer, Luke Sanders (Tyson Pedro and Paul Craig also but they're fighting so who knows)

Twelve Precarious Ponderings

1- I suppose we need to address the elephant in the room, primarily on ticket sales being poor thus far. Now we've been here before; ticket sales don't equal PPV sales so who knows what this event will do with the main revenue getter. NOW having said that, I'm reminded of Jim Cornette's "venue that needed a show, not a show that needed a venue" line about Royal Rumble 1997. Vegas is a finicky market and we've seen big shows struggle to sell tickets there (UFC 182 and 183 struggled to move tickets) and if you don't have a BIG main event, you're sort of going to lose going there. They booked a venue needing a show and while UFC 209 is an amazing card, it''s not a "Vegas" card. Now where would this show do better numbers? With New York and Texas out of the equation, you're kind of stuck finding the right sort of venue for two big title fights. Wonderboy is from South Carolina and Woodley is from Missouri so maybe something southern-y would work although you leave out Tony and Khabib as well. I wonder if Florida would've been a good fit for a PPV or even maybe making a return to Atlanta. Whatever the case, ticket sales either will or they won't fix themselves.

2- This main card really does have something for everybody. Wonderboy/Woodey 1 was really great and heavy on drama, the trashtalk between Khabib and Tony Ferugson has only amplified that this is a great fucking fight for a title that may or may not exist nor matter, Overeem/Hunt and Teymur/Vannata are for those of you who love striking and if granddads fighting is your game then Rashad Evans/Dan Kelly should be all the rage. The prelims have some fantastical fights with divisional relevance too, namely Darren Elkins vs Mirsad Bektic at 145 lbs and Marcin Tybura vs Luiz Henrique.

3- So the main event is hard to predict because rematches more often than not don't follow the tone of their predecessors. The first fight between Woodley/Thompson was almost all striking outside of the Woodley dominant rounds (1 and 4) where he found a way to get the fight to the ground. The first round was off a caught kick and the fourth was off an insanely tight looking guillo that Thompson somehow survived. The rest of the fight was a Tyron Woodley fight with bits of a Wonderboy Thompson fight mixed in. Woodley lived against the fence, picking his moments for big power shots while Thompson was happy to point box and take advantage of Woodley's lulls. So what can change in the rematch? I suppose Woodley can try for more takedowns and Wonderboy can try to kick more. Otherwise the fight will look the same, the question being whether we'll get more rounds like 1 and 4 or more rounds like 2, 3 and 5. I 'unno.

4- Fair to say Thompson vs GSP would never happen but what about Woodley vs GSP? If money is the goal (and it is), I wonder if Nick OR Nate get a call from Dana about fighting the winner.

5- The Khabib vs Tony Ferg fight is SUCH a tough one to call. Both are really great wrestlers in unconventional ways. It's hard to imagine a single fighter as strong as Khabib at 155 lbs who can wrestle the way he does and at the pace he does. Tony Ferguson's wrestling is slippery, unorthodox and his submission game may be the best Khabib has faced. Ferguson was taken down at will vs Danny Castillo but that may have been primarily due to his desire to try and work for submissions. That's not going to work vs Khabib who if he takes Ferguson down will probably notlet him up. In Ferguson's favor, he's fought at altitude for five rounds before with zero let up and Khabib's striking is subpar at best even if he packs serious power. This fight is going to be awesome.

6- LET'S SAY for the sake of argument McGregor ducks the winner of this fight between Tony and Khabib. Who is next? Edson Barboza if he beats Beneil Dariush?  Poirier/Alvarez winner? God don't tell me Michael Chiesa!

7- Will Mark Hunt get a live mic if he wins? I'm betting he doesn't.

8- Are we all  overlooking David Teymur? Sweden is kind of a big market for MMA and Teymur, a kickboxer who has taken to MMA very quickly, is super powerful in his hands and feet and won't be at a serious athleticism disadvantage vs Lando. What's more, he went through TUF which exposed him to a wide variety of fighters and styles. I'm not sure if Teymur wins but given how Lando is quickly on the path to superstardom, it feels like its the UFC's luck for him to drop the ball.

9- How did Rashad Evans get cleared? Will he even make weight for this fight?

10- Nice to see Luke Sanders back. For those who  forgot, Sanders stepped up on like two weeks notice to submit Maximo Blanco in a round. Then he disappeared! He pulled a ghost to steal a phrase. Sanders is a really strong talented sturdy bantamweight but Iuri Alcantara only loses to the elites of the world (even Frankie Saenz is pretty stout) so this is a fine test for Luke.

11- We bemoan the lack of genuine 205ers but the UFC's giving us two really good young fighters in Tyson Pedro and Paul Craig. Both are under 30, coming off big wins and in the case of Pedro, they may be a lot of upside in that package. I'm excited to see that fight and IMO it's main card worthy.

12- If I told you Darren Elkins has had 16 UFC fights and he just finished 1 of those fights, would you be surprised?

Must Wins:

1- Tyron Woodley.

Well duh. Remove the title fight aspect from it and Woodley's STILL got the most pressure on him. Woodley is a guy who talks a lot about social justice and trying to do the right thing in a rather muddled MMA  scene and social climate. His words will have power regardless of whether he's champion or not. For Woodley though, his social impact and his big money fights can only come through with a win in a main event.

2- Tony Ferguson

"El Cucuy" doesn't have an in to the road to UFC stardom. He doesn't have a big Russian fanbase that can be mobilized to try and garner support. He isn't from some big city where the UFC can go and run shows based around him. He's not a talker either. Tony's just a tremendous fighter who puts on top notch performances and finishes fights. That has never meant less than it does now. Ferguson beating Khabib, given the legend of Nurmagomedov and his standing in the company, would basically catapult him into superstardom. If such a concept exists.

3- Rashad Evans

The UFC did Rashad a solid by giving him a fighter who for the most part isn't going to trouble him a whole bunch. While BJ Penn got Yair and Arlovski got Ngannou, the UFC is giving Rashad a very good wrestler/judoka with okay-ish power and okay-ish submission skills. It's Rashad's first fight at 185 lbs and it's a sensible test to see what he still offers to the company and what he offers at a new weight class.

Five Underlying Themes:

1- How they dance around the rather obvious concern that Conor McGregor might not even defend his 155 lb title while promoting an interim title.

2- If the three man booth, Anik, DC and Rogan, can improve from a decent debut. Primarily whether or not Rogan and DC improve their chemistry.

3- Will the UFC suffer its second decision heavy PPV in a row?

4- Is Lando Vannata still on his way up the rankings as a star?

5- The continued remaking of the HW division with three fights including a really good one as the prelim headliner.

Predicting (Bonus) Winners!

Current record: 12-12 (Missed on: Houston card, UFC 208, the Canada card. Went 4-8 on the last show I did, UFC on Fox)

Tyron Woodley Tony Ferguson Rashad Evans Lando Vannata Mark Hunt Marcin Tybura Mirsad Bektic Iuri Alcantara Mark Godbeer Paul Craig Amanda Cooper Albert Morales