I saw all the Contender series fights this season, as I did in 2019. I rated everyone on their performance, and this is my top 10 list. Anyway these are based on their show performance, and is not an overall rating of the fighter.
UFC
Contender Series 2020 Week 10
Ok, so the Contender Series came to a close with a pretty crappy card IMO
So now we’re done. We had a little hiatus with the Fight Island break, and we’re back to finish the season. Over-all it was a good season. Probably only about 3 bad cards out of 10, I’d call this a bad card. -whatever
Guys that got contracts on this show were: Victoria Leonardo, Tucker Lutz, Gloria de Paula, JP Buys, and Nick Maximov got some kinda Ultimate Fighter deal
Here are grades of the talent on the show. These grades are only based on their Contender Series performance, and not their performance before, in other organizations.
UFC 255 Picks
Back at the Apex for some small-cage fighting, some pandemic fighting, some weird crowd-less fighting. I know there are people that hate the crowds and love the silent in fights, I’m not one of them – For 2 reasons: 1. Because the crowd is a character itself, sometimes when I’m watching these UFC cards, I dont know if they’re in Vegas, I dont know if they’re on Fight Island, I dont know if they’re in Florida, and it really doesn’t matter, there is no crowd, so there really isn’t anything thing to differentiate the venues. And yes, crowds boo and all that, but the crowd also cheers and gives the fighters a little motivation sometimes. I wouldn’t want to rob a hometown fighter of an audience singing his name. Reason 2. The 2nd reason is a simple one: An audience at a fight is NATURAL, If you get into a fight ANYWHERE, people are going to gather around and watch. Fighting behind closed doors is like a domestic situationš , and with domestic situations, there would be no rules. Fighting crowd-less is so sterile to me. I cant wait till things get back to normal. When can we at least get to 25%?
Contender Series 2020 Weeks 8 and 9
They did a great job of taking the Tuesday out of that Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series, because it wasn’t held on a Tuesday for week 8. I guess that they wanted to get around that pesky presidential garbage. Anyway, there were a lot of mismatches on week 8. On week 9 there were a lot more even contests
Fighters that got contracts were:
Jared Vanderaa, Luis Saldana, Ignacio Bahamondes, Carlos Ulberg, Luana Pinheiro, Nikolas Motta and Natan Levy
Here are grades of the talent on the show. These grades are only based on their Contender Series performance, and not their performance before, in other organizations.
What Happened at UFC 254?
So this was a pretty good card over all. Abu Dhabi, Justin Gaethje, Khabib Nurmagomedov, UFC Light weight title. Khabib Nurmagomedov Beat Justin Gatheje via Triangle-choke in the 2nd round to become the undisputed UFC Lightweight champion. After the fight Khabib Also retired, capping off a 29-0 unbeaten MMA record.
Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Justin Gaethje
I liked the way Justin Gaethje was fighting in the first round, even though he lost that round…well sort of… He won it on the judges score card… but none of that matters. Khabib was able to take Gaethje down in the 2nd round, and had the confidence to hit a triangle from the mounted position, Khabib went to his back to finish the triangle and Gaethje tapped, but the referee must’ve hated him or something… because, the ref totally missed the tap, and Gaethje went unconscious. Speaking of… I haven’t seen Keith Peterson during this whole pandemic. Personally, I think Keith Peterson is the best referee right now. Anyway Khabib won, I guess by technical submission and retired after the fight, stating that he didn’t want to continue fighting without his father. So we move on -This is rough for MMA fans, because we never got to see Tony vs Khabib. I predicted that we would see this fight, because Khabib had said that he wanted to fight two more times before his retirement, SO, I THOUGHT THAT THE LAST FIGHT OF KHABIB’S CAREER WOULD BE TONY. it wasn’t to be. (Hindsight 20/20) Tony should’ve held out and waited for Khabib, he would’ve made more money fighting Khabib, and he always couldve fought Gaethje later. OK what now? So it doesn’t make sense for Ferguson to fight Gaethje again, Michael Chandler is now in the mix, and if Conor McGregor wants another shot at the Lightweight belt he’ll have to do some fighting at 155. Tony, Justin, Conor, Dustin, Michael. There are 5 guys in the mix, one of them will be left out in the cold
UFC 254 Picks
The Ultimate Fighting Championship stays in Abu Dhabi for UFC 254, Justin Gaethje vs Khabib Nurmagomedov. Its Aight… Ofcourse they put a bunch of new guys on the card, so they can pay the guys at the top more. I’d like to see more co-promotions in MMA, I’ve been playing around with this idea in my head -Bellator and the UFC are going to have the same number of XXX shows, in other words UFC 2XX and Bellator 2XX will be equal, wouldnt it be cool to have a UFC/Bellator 260 or something like that. That would be so cool. They dont even really need to have any title fights, just a big main event. loads of people would watch. -But maybe the UFC doesnt wanna give Bellator that clout.
What happened at UFC 253?
OK so, we’re back in Abu Dhabi. MMA Fights! Israel Adesanya beat Paulo Costa by TKO in the second round to retain his UFC Middleweight title at UFC 253
Israel Adesanya vs Paulo Costa
So the fight went how I initially predicted it. It turns out that Costa was never going to grapple, and it turns out that Costa had nothing for Adesanya. Ive talked bout leg kicks on here a few times, and I’ve always said, the worst thing that you can do when getting leg kicked is to just pretend that it doesn’t hurt. I’ll say it again. When you’re getting leg-kicked there are three things that you can do: 1. Come forward, and apply pressure, 2. Kick your opponent back. 3. Check/block the leg kick. (This does NOT work against a seasoned leg kicker). Just eating leg kicks, ain’t an option. Anyway, Costa got kicked, lost his mobility and got finished in the 2nd round. I like that Cannonier is next, I dont even think that Cannonier should have to fight Robert Whittaker to be next.
Contender Series 2020 Week 7
I think the show took a little bit of a dip in week 7. Horrible commentary on the Week 7 show – Maybe yelling is part of calling fights. Fighters have to make their own decisions inside that cage, and I just dont think anybody should disrespect them.
Fighters that got contracts were Jordan Williams,Ā Collin AnglinĀ and Danyelle Wolfe
Here are grades of the talent on the show. These grades are only based on their Contender Series performance, and not their performance before, in other organizations.
UFC 253 Picks
Ok, this UFC card feels a little more special. Maybe its because of the wait, maybe its because of the match-ups, but for some reason there is a little more juice to UFC 253. I’m guessing that I’m going to have to amend some of the fights mid-week with so many fights falling out recently. Then again, Its in Abu Dhabi, and everything seems to run a little smoother there.
| Israel Adesanya | vs | Paulo Costa |
OK, I’ve gone back and fourth with this fight. A month ago, I wouldve told you that Adesanya is going to dominate Costa and win by TKO in the 3rd round, but now I’m not so sure. Costa has been having some good coaching recently, and he’s been adding more finesse to his game. I still see Adesanya winning this one, but this is not a runaway.
Contender Series 2020 Weeks 5 and 6
So, we have some more Contender Series grades for you. These shows are getting a lot better. When the show first started, there were some real duds, but with real matchmaking and real research “Dana White” was able to put together some great fights this season.
Jimmy Flick, Ronnie Lawrence, William Knight Khizriev, Drako Rodriguez, Phil Hawes and Tafon Nchukwi all got contracts on weeks 5 and 6
Here are grades of the talent on the show. These grades are only based on their Contender Series performance, and not their performance before, in other organizations.