UFG 259 was huge. It was almost like a big football event. Plenty of fights, plenty of talking points. It was just a monster for fight fans. If you are a fight fan, it was one of the “must see events”
No fights really fell through… The MMA Gods said “Go ahead and have some fun” … I think the vaccine is working, as I write this, 10% of the US population is vaccinated, and the CDC says that vaccinated people can gather in-doors without a mask… That’s a win
Jan Blachowicz vs Israel Adesanya
I got this fight wrong, but I thought this fight was much closer than the judges saw it. I thought the 1st round was very close, I thought Adesanya won the 2nd and 3rd rounds and I thought Blachowicz won the championship rounds. I’m not mad at the decision. Very smart fighting from Blachowicz. Now he knows that he has some room to put some more tools in his tool belt. I expect Glover Teixeira to be next. For Adesanya, I expect him to go down and fight some guys that are coming up. The guys that are on the come up at Middleweight are: Kevin Holland and Marvin Vettori
Amanda Nunes vs Megan Anderson
This match up was trash. The UFC just wanted to see Megan Anderson do the chicken dance. Irresponsible match making
Aljamain Sterling vs Petr Yan
OK, I had Sterling winning rounds 1&2, and I had Yan winning 3. That’s it. The tide was changing to Yan’s favor, but those are the scores that I had before the illegal knee. All of that scoring information is moot. Yan landed an intentional knee to a grounded opponent, that in itself is a DQ whether or not Sterling was KOed doesn’t matter. I personally thought Sterling was KOed. I see a lot of Elbow and Knee finishes in Muay Thai, and sometimes the victims dont go all the way unconscious, but it damn sure takes more that 5 minutes for them to feel better. I challenge any grown adult to get on their knees and get kneed in the face by a 10 year old, and then think if you need more than 5 minutes to recover
Islam Makhachev vs Drew Dober
I’m a Drew Dober fan, but wrestling is not his thing. And guys are going to want to wrestle Dober all the time. Why? because he hits hard, and he has a steel chin, its a no brainer to wrestle him. Drew Dober tapping to pressure isnt a good look though, lol borderline embarrassing, anyway Makhachev wants Tony Ferguson. I dont like that fight right now, with Ferguson coming off 2 losses, and Makhachev on a winning streak, I feel like Islam is picking a favorable fight for himself. I think RDA is the appropriate fight right now
Aleksandar Rakic vs Thiago Santos
Jon Jones physically broke Thiago Santos. Santos’ knees are shot. He used to have a good bounce and footwork, and he used to be EXPLOSIVE… now, he’s fighting mostly flat-flooted and he just isn’t closing the distance quick enough. Its a rough thing to see. You’re just never the same after some injuries. Rakic scouted Santos well and played a cautious game. I respect it. I think Rakic needs one more fight before he can fight for the title, but he’s definitely in the mix. I got this pick wrong
Dominick Cruz vs Casey Kenney
I think that last takedown for Cruz won him the fight, Kenney slowed down and Kenney didnt throw enough low-kicks. Low kicks were the key, but it didnt happen. I like Cruz vs Aldo. I see Kenney as a gatekeeper for the top 15 at the moment
Kyler Philips vs Yadong Song
This was MY fight of the night. I picked Philips to win, but after this fight I became a bigger fan of Yadong Song. Song just needs a little quicker footwork and he can close the distance and land the big right. I’d like to see Song vs Rafael Assuncao, I think he’s earned that fight. Philips vs Pedro Munhoz makes sense to me
Askar Askarov vs Joseph Benavidez
Heart alone doesn’t win you fights, It gets you hurt. I chuckle every time I think about “fighting for the fun of it”. Benavidez is old, and he proved that today. Askarov? He’s undefeated, but I’m not super impressed
Kai Kara-France vs Rogerio Bontorin
Bontorin is submission or bust I guess. I wasn’t too impressed with this fight. Got it wrong on the picks Kara-France did well to fight off the submissions and get a KO
Tim Elliott vs Jordan Espinosa
Espinosa has a poor ground game. Thats just the long and short of it
Kennedy Nzechukwu vs Carlos Ulberg
Nzechukwu won, and he didnt even take it to the ground. This was an old school 1800s strong man face punching contest, everything was bad. Nzechukwu just took punches to the face until he backed Ulberg up against the cage and KOed him. Hopefully Nzechukwu gets better
Sean Brady vs Jake Matthews
Brady kinda got the Joe Rogan seal of approval on the broadcast. I expect to see him in a big fight soon. I personally think that Sean Brady can be champion. When did I know that Sean Brady was good? I knew Sean Brady was good when he beat Colton Smith, a tough former UFC guy that was fighting out of Fort Hood, TX. Colton Smith lost to Robert Whittaker, Michael Chiesa and Diego Ferreira in the UFC and got cut after that. After Brady beat Smith, I knew he was on a different level. Would Sean Brady vs Robbie Lawler be too easy for him? One more thing: Give Sean Brady a nickname… That dude has the most whitebread plain-jane name in the UFC, nobody will remember it.
Amanda Lemos vs Livinha Souza
Souza is bad. Girls should be dying to fight her. Lemos is good. Lemos is a little robotic and formulaic at times, but she’s good
Uros Medic vs Aalon Cruz
Cruz looked bad. Probably my worst pick of the night. Cruz needed to get the takedown, but he couldnt set it up. He ended up getting blasted and TKOed in the end
Trevin Jones vs Mario Bautista
I tell you what. I like Trevin Jones a lot. He’s a good fighter, one thing though: He needs better footwork, it’s his bad footwork puts him in a lot of bad spots, if he can get his movement right, I think he could be very very good. Jones’ hands look good, he makes good decisions, he’s a dog… I haven’t seen his ground game yet… but his footwork needs work
My unbroken pick was a gimme
9/15 Not great, but not as bad as a couple of weeks ago