#ufc303

[theanticool]

I fell asleep during Lopes-Ige so just caught up with the title fight between Pereira and Prochazka. Absolutely flawless performance from Pereira. The big difference from the first fight - the jab! Poatan has such a lovely stiff jab that he can turn over into a left hook when given space but he rarely throws it. But in the first last night, he kept that thing in Jiri’s face early and often. Landed it really hard early, was showing it downstairs to the body. Really stopped the forward pressure and blitzes of Jiri. And when Jiri did blitz, he was forced to do it from so far out that it gave Poatan the space to land the left hook clean.

Fight was over after that knockdown at the end of the 1st. The instant head kick KO in the 2nd was just a consequence of Jiri being saved by the bell. Another brilliant Poatan KO. Not sure who’s next but if Poatan is healthy, hopefully we see him again around November/December. Crazy crazy year for him.

[scuffeddoes]

My boy he did it

[justsportpro]

UFC303 LIVE

[theanticool]

This sure is a MW LHW fight

[theanticool]

Macy Chiasson gets the 2nd round cut stoppage win over Mayra Bueno SIlva.

Not mad about it. Rally bad cut above the right eye of Silva. Second bad cut of the weekend. We had a fight between two front runners. Kind of surprised Chiasson was the one that came out on time. Esp after all those shots to the body in the first. She tends to wilt when hit there but managed to give MBS a few back. And it looked like Silva ran out of ideas after the first 4ish minutes. Chiasson got Silva down in the 2nd and was throwing elbows from inside the guard. Landed a real nice one that opened up that cut.

That's back to back for Chiasson. And Silva was a top 3 fighter. Only fights that make sense for her are Pena, Harrison, Vieira, and Pennington. So bring on any of those.

[theanticool]

Ian Machado Garry takes UD over Michael Venom Page.

Bad fight! A fight that tanks both guys' hype. The UFC audience gets exposed to the limits of MVP's grappling and his insanely low output and we see that IMG can be shut out of huge sections of the fight.

The Neal fight really exposed this to me but good lord does Garry not like fast fighters. Just completely 'nopes' his way out of striking exchanges. Didn't help that MVP was bigger than him. Even his grappling wasn't super impressive. Got the back in the first round and third but didn't really have an answer for the position. Hell, when he went for the leg and let MVP secure top position for a long time, he was placing figure four guard. Only reason he got up was because MVP got up. MVP could have chose to sat in guard for another minute and secured the fight. Instead, Garry finds a path to the back and ends the fight with standing back control. Didn't go for a leg to try to off balance MVP. Just sat there for 80 seconds. I feel like the more and more we see Garry not get these super favorable match-ups, the less interesting he will become.

Losing Hooft was also a big blow because you can see Garry's striking regressing. Like this should have been a jab and lowkick fight with some more head kicks mixed in to slow down the lead right hand of MVP. Instead, he just completely shut down after round 1.

[theanticool]

I think the most frustrating thing about MVP is that I think we know his style would work on a lot of guys at 170lbs. For as much as we joke about people kicking his skinny ass legs, that’s not MMA. Theres a ton of top fighters who if you put them in there with someone who is huge and just tags people from a million miles away, they will fall apart. Look at Wonderboy’s career. Look what he did to Holland, who is nothing if not a good welterweight. Think guys like Hendricks, Woodley, etc. I’d honestly probably would have picked MVP over Colby had they fought at some point.

But he’s also so inflexible that there are guys who would have ate him up. Sucks we’re only seeing him get these fights now, but that was the nature of Bellator’s 170lb division.

[theanticool]

Cormier saying that since JIri has already fought Pereira, he's going to know how to avoid the dangers is wild because it's Jiri Prochazka. That's not who he is at all. Bushido code doesn't include any type of self preservation apparently.

[theanticool]

Joe Pyfer KOs Marc-André Barriault in the 1st!

Impressive win for Pyfer but answers none of the questions raised in his fight with Hermansson. True MMA 185+ fashion. Got to love it.

MAB was forced to the fence where he quickly shelled up when faced with Pyfer's offense. Pyfer punched around the guard and managed to put him out.

I know MMA fans hate boxing but this is why you'll see a lot of boxer carry guys late into fights. So they can get late fight experience. Pyfer probably gets a bunch of his hype back but what he needed were rounds where he could pace himself and show that he could build to a finish. Instead he picks up a 90 second stoppage.

[theanticool]

The fuck?

[theanticool]

Jean Silva KOs Charles Jourdain in the 2nd!

Hadn't seen Jean Silva before but that man is a powerhouse. Big punching power and just a fire hydrant of a man in terms of moving him around. Jourdain was never a particularly gifted athlete but seeing him struggle to move the guy with one of his legs being held up was crazy.

Like I said, big big power from Silva. I think Jourdain was having success when he'd feint and throw off the timing of Silva but when he started trying to come forward, Silva had an answer. That big cracking step back left hook Silva landed in the 1st was wild. No idea how it didn't just put Jourdain out cause that landed hard. Then in the second, it was Jourdain's insistence of shooting that did him in. Silva was pressuring and I guess this is how Jourdain thought to deal with it. With a single leg wrapped up along the fence, Silva decided to start throwing elbows. First on the double leg attempt to the side of Jourdain's head and then to the rib cage as Jourdain tried to grab the single. Finishes Jourdain off with a beaut of an uppercut as they break and doesn't have to follow up cause it's clear Jourdain is out.

Sucks Silva didn't make weight but I'll definitely be looking out for more of him. Good energy and physical presence.

[theanticool]

Payton Talbott stops Yanis Ghemmouri in 19 seconds!

Man, this is kid is going to be good. Ghemmouri isn't a huge test tbf but that's the type of thing you do when you're a special talent. You get them out of there quick. Jab down the middle followed by an off beat cross and Ghemmouri goes down. Some follow up GnP and it's over. I like Payton using the jab to take a full step forward. Didn't try to overextend to get to the cross when Ghemmouri moved away. Stepped fully into range before letting the 2 fly. Great finish. Desperately needed 4 straight decisions.

[theanticool]

Gillian Robertson dominates Michelle Waterson-Gomez to take UD.

Honestly, 30-24. Waterson-Gomez got 0 down besides fighting off armbars.

Robertson looking like a real physical presence at 115lbs. Granted, MWG has always been a relatively small strawweight but a good sign for Robertson that she was able to pressure and back her up enough with an imposing striking game. Not a super exciting win for Robertson. Would have loved to have seen more GnP work from mount as opposed to baiting the armbar over and over again. But some real slick stuff on the mat. The guillotine into the snap down and step around in the 3rd round was gorgeous. Don't think Robertson will cut it as a contender but she's always going to be fun to see grapple.

Michelle Waterson-Gomez announces she's retiring. Props to her. Former Invicta FC atomweight champion. Has had a great career and is a pioneer for the women's MMA in North America.

[theanticool]

Got a busy night of fights ahead of us. And most of them are pretty good.

[theanticool]

Oh, that boy in TROUBLE

UFC 303 ain’t happening folks.