Weekend feedback: UFC Fight Night, 194, more

Hi I’m a UK fan . Names Chris Phelps (hulkamania78 – Twitter ) 
 
Always hated Macgregor and he’s said some stupid comments about the UK as he from Southern Ireland and usually when somebody talks that much smack their up for a fall
but he’s totally winning fights with mind games. Aldo looked gone before the bell wouldn’t do eye contact and seemed really small to me compared to Connor . But after TUF22 I like him it’s all smart comments to get under people’s skin and as someone from his part of the world it’s a very UK sense of humour . Anyway he backed up his words and gave Aldo his first KO lose . 
 
Weidman looked like he’d not done enough  training seemed to believe by beating Silva it guranteed a win but he was really outclassed and outworked . Rockhold deserved it all brilliant performance . 
 
The rest of the card was ok Romero started great Spinning back fist but it died on its Arse that fight and other than a lucky KO if the fight the next level in the division they both aren’t elite . 
 
My view from a WWF/E/ UFC fan since Shamrock and Severin transitioned in the late 90’s and been an MMA fan since . Wrestling fan since late 80’s (I’m 37) as a lot of the first PPV weren’t shown in the UK. 
 
Thanks 
 
 
Chris Phelps 
Manchester , England

 

 

Hi Dave,

 

I gave the show a thumbs up

 

Best Fight: Weidman vs Rockhold

Best Performances: Damian Maia, Luke Rockhold

 

This card sets up lots of interesting matchups for 2016.

 

Although the main event was over in seconds, I think the Aldo vs McGregor rematch should be made, and there is no better opportunity now for UFC to try to pull off the stadium show in Ireland. That would be an insane atmosphere if they could get council to bend the rules for the one day. It would be crazy for them not to for the economic impact to the area. I don’t think Holloway is ready for the title shot but at least he called them out.

 

Herb Dean gave Weidman a lot of lee way in the end of the 2nd to let him absorb that much punishment. Rockhold looked great and never let up after that missed wheel kick. Both looked solid up to that point but Rockhold’s kicks had a lot more power behind them.

Easy to match up Rockhold vs Romero and Weidman vs Jacare next with the winners facing off again.

 

Maia looked like a machine vs Nelson who is no pushover. Matching him with the winner of Lawler vs Condit makes sense after this domination.

 

I was expecting more fireworks from the Stephens vs Holloway fight but both looked a bit tentative here and were fighting not to lose until the end when desperation set in.

 

Faber looked good and his elbows were devastating however I  am not sure how Faber would fare against the Frankie Edgar that took apart Chad Mendes the night before. The Dillashaw vs Faber fight would make a better story with the grudge aspect.

 

Looking forward to the FOX fights. Huge Cowboy fan. Main card looks like it has amazing potential.

 

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Grant Zwarych

Wrestling Observer Index

 

 

UFC 194 & Weekend shows

 

Fight Pass (The Barbie and Ken show)

Thumbs Up: Main card only. Good show for what it was. Note to UFC: never again put Northcutt, Paige or even Namajunas on anything but a PPV or featured prelim match on FS1/Fox.  

Best Fight: Namajunas vs Van Zant mostly because of Paige’s escape tricks. 

 

FS1: Only watched the main event; Edgar looked good. 

 

UFC 194 

Thumbs Up: Faber fight plus PPV portion only. Great show! If UFC was struggling pro-wrestling promotion the results on this show would have been the perfect booking to shake things up and create new stars. Instead they are a shoot sport and still create better storylines than all the worked organizations. 

Best Fight: Rockhold vs Weidman

Best KO: McGregor, (13 seconds > 10+ years) 

Worst Fight: Romero vs Souza. Jacare didn’t do anything, he just waited for an opening for a one-punch KO and the fight went by, Romero won by default. Worst, in the last round when Romero gassed out Jacare decided to take him down instead of finishing on his feet; whoever came with that battle plan should be fire!

 

Leonardo Mendes Toledo

 

FN 80

 

Thumbs very up. Highly entertaining card.

Best fight: Chiesa vs. Miller

Worst fight: Carlos Jr. vs. Casey. For a fight that actually happened, Tukhugov vs. Nover

Best performance: Rose

Worst performance: Coy I guess

KO: Pozinibbio & Means both had 1-punchers

Sub: Rose

 

Emily Kagan comes up with her best performance but Kailin Curran slips in RNC for the tap late in the 2nd. Reverse of Curran’s last two fights where she started fast then got caught. She’s a potential star. Zubaira Tukhugov takes a 30-27 x 2, 28-29 SD over Phillipe Nover in basically a sloppy kickboxing match. Late sub Danny Roberts uses strikes from bottom to set up triangle then transitions to arm bar to tap Nathan Coy, who apparently never heard Thomas Hearns’ advice to never cut your hair right before a fight. (It was like a foot long yesterday and shaved tonight.) BZs get over ATT. Santiago Ponzinibbio paintjobs long-inactive Andreas Stahl and finishes with a clean 1 punch right cross KO late in the 1st and does a equally good job not letting Jonny Pipik get his usual stupid questions in. 

 

Aljamian Sterling shuts down also long-inactive Johnny Eduardo, finishing late in the 2nd with Guillotine. Antonio Carlos Jr. accidentally pokes Kevin Casey in the eye and it’s over in 11s. According to Buffer, ‘the referee stops it on the advice of the referee’. The referee then raises both guy’s hands, which makes no sense to do on a No Contest. See, if there’s no ‘contest’, there’s no ‘winners’. Total clusterfuck. Sergio Moraes, down 2 rounds, staggers and drops a tiring Omari Akhmedov and finishes him with a ground strike. Tim Means knocks John Howard cold with a left check hook early in the 2nd after losing a competitive 1st. First left hook all night Stann HASN’T called a ‘check hook’.

 

Thiago Santos, supposedly lacking cardio, comes on as the fight progresses and removes Elias Theodorou from the unbeaten ranks (and from any face modeling gigs for awhile) via 29-28, 29-27 X 2 UD.

 

Ken Doll, uh Sage Northcutt, aided by a bogus standup in the 1st, chokes out Cody Pfister early in the 2nd, then proceeds to put over Dana, the Fertittas, Fight Pass and John 3:16 in one sentence. This guy makes John Cena look like Aleister Crowley.

 

In by far the best competitive fight of the night, Michael Chiesa checkmates Jim Miller by escaping a leglock into back mount into RNC in the 2nd after back and forth grappling the entire fight.

 

Rose Namajunas cuts off all her hair and takes it out on Paige Vanzant, putting a terrible beating on her in the 1st. Lights her up standing, takes her down at will, pounds her bloody and threatens with RNC. At LEAST 10-8. I’d go 10-7.

 

The 2nd is as dominant but not as damaging, but still a 10-8. Paige’s offense is zero.

 

Jonny Pipik says Paige has the advantage in landed strikes. That’s the stupidest statement I’ve ever heard. I haven’t seen her land one strike. Rose dominating again in the 3rd. Rose jumps her back and sinks the RNC and somehow Paige escapes. That was like 10-0. I gotta go 10-7 again.

 

Rose still all over her in the 4th. Paige somehow escapes an armbar. She’s like Ben Henderson. And DOES IT AGAIN. Pretty amazing really. Rose is GOOD at subs, too. Rose just always ends up on top in every scramble. 10-7. You could really call all these rounds 10-0. Paige’s only work has been defense and you don’t score that.

 

Neither breathing hard going into the 5th. Paige trying but Rose just dumps her again. Rose finally sinks the RNC and stays palm to palm and Paige taps. Rose was just Zen here especially considering she was a late sub and only had 5 weeks to train. Paige is the World’s Toughest Barbie. I said a few months back I could imagine them fighting multiple times in the next few years.

 

TUF 22 FINALE

 

Thumbs 3/4 up. Couple stinkers.

Best fight: Ferguson vs. Barboza (of all 3 cards)

Worst fight: Gonzaga vs. It Doesn’t Matter What His Name Is, possibly ever

Best performance: Ferguson

Worst performance: It Doesn’t Matter What His Name Is

KO: Frankie

Sub: Ferguson

 

 Decent opener. Chris Gruetzemacher, badly outsized, outstrikes Abner Lloveras for the 29-28 UD. Geane Herrera in for the second time as a late sub having all kinds of problems with the movement of Joby Sanchez, but puts him out with a perfect left hook and followup punches on the ground late in the 2nd and might be a guy to watch in the FlyW division. Ryan LaFlare paintjobs 2 years inactive Mike Pierce pretty much the whole fight. The wrestling cancels out. Pierce stages a last second burst but not much lands but it might steal the round if the judges are as dumb as usual. Should be 30-27 but is only on one card so 2 dumb judges. Pierce acts like he got robbed. Riiight. HWs stink out the joint. Possibly the least amount of action in 3 rounds in history. Gabriel Gonzaga did what work there was and should win 30-28, since the 2nd was so dead there was no way to give it to anybody. One judge actually gets it right, the other two go 30-27. The other guy’s name so you can avoid watching him is Konstantin Erokhin.

 

Julian Erosa finishes strong to edge Marcin Wrzosek via 29-28 SD in a very close fight.

 

Tatsuya Kawajiri does his usual top control squash job on late sub Jason Knight. 30-27 only possible score. Not much fun.

 

Joe Lauzon-Evan Dunham is a major letdown, because Dunham does such a total paint job and never lets Lauzon into the fight, and Lauzon seems to accept it. Even to the point that 2 judges gave a 10-8 round.

 

Tony Ferguson-Edson Barboza more than makes up for it. Just off the chart. Barboza takes a 10-8 in the 1st as Ferguson loses a point for a blatant head kick on the ground. Ferguson snags his TM D’Arce in the 2nd for the tap. Have to wonder if Barboza really recovered from the illegal kick but Ferguson is a serious title threat.

 

Artem Lobov vs. Ryan Hall  in the LW Final is sorta interesting in a trivia sense—both guys were actually eliminated then brought back. Lobov is Conor’s guy and he KOed everybody on the show but has an 11-10 record outside it which kind of makes you wonder how bad the guys on the show were. Hall is undersized and really good at JJ. They became friends and were actually training together when Hall got the call that he would be a sub in this fight. Both pretty much one trick ponies. Hall puts a total drubbing on Lobov. Beats him to the punch till he can get the fight to the ground, which he does at will, and goes from sub to sub to sub. It almost looked over in the first minute, but Lobov did manage not to get hooked, but his offense was exactly nothing. Correct score would be 30-0. Does get two 30-26s. See why Lobov is a .500 guy.

 

Not much to say about the main. Chad Mendes was doing damage with low kicks, then Frankie Edgar dropped him with a left hook and finished him with a ground strike and cemented his #1 contender staus to the Aldo-Conor winner.

 

UFC 194

 

Another 3/4 up. Very stacked on paper, uneven in action. Too many stinkers and squashes.

Best fight: Faber vs. Saenz

Worst fight: Medeiros vs. Makdessi

Best performance: Rockfish, Conor, HM to Santos & Maia

Worst performance: Aldo

KO: Conor

Sub: Warlley

 

Court McGee back after 2 years off dominates physically vs. Marcio Alexandre Jr. as expected for the 30-27, 29-28 X 2 UD. John Makdessi and  Yancy Medeiros stink out the joint with great lack of force. Goldy mentions both were Junior Tyke Juan Dough champions or something and that’s what this looks like, a game of tag. A fight almost breaks out in the last few seconds and Medeiros scores a flash KD with a left hook so I give him the fight by a score of 1-0, so I guess that makes 30-29. Decision taking an eternity. 29-28 split Medeiros. Rogan pissing and moaning for some reason.  Magomed Mustafaev squashes Joe Proctor in -2m via TKO. Was like a guy with 6 baseball bats (didn’t throw any elbows) against a guy with none.

 

Leonardo Santos, undefeated for 6 years, takes much younger Kevin Lee to school. Gets the better of the striking, takes Lee down when Lee gets goofy, then catches him coming in with an overhand right, drops him, and pounds him out midway through the 1st and goes for a Jose Aldo victory lap around the arena. Rattner snivels about how he could get fined for it. In an 0 Must Go, Colby Covington  eats a Warlley Alves body kick and decides to shoot. Warlley snags a Guillotine, Colby tries to slam out of it which just lets Warlley sink it and it’s over in 1:26. Tecia Torres just a step ahead of the much bigger Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger all the way in a fight that features fighting at all ranges. 30-27 only possible score. Urijah Faber probably wins all three rounds, but Frankie Saenz almost completely neutralizes his wrestling until the final minute of the fight, almost holds his own striking with low kicks, and survives when badly stunned early in the 2nd. Urijah seems to tire from the effort. He gets a second wind, but Urijah tiring in a 3 round fight is a really bad sign. I’m not seeing him competitive with the upper echelon any more. 30-27, 29-28 x 2 UD, Urijah still short of breath on his promo. This is the guy who used to have the best cardio in the business.

 

Goldy quotes Rockfish saying ‘I train with champions and he trains with jabronis,’ and adds, ‘We’ll find out what that means.’ He had no clue. I’m not making that up. We sure found out what it meant, though.

 

Fairly easy win for Max Holloway over Jeremy Stephens as expected. Stephens used Holloway as sparring for Pettis and this sort of felt like a sparring session. Holloway obviously learned more from it than Stephens did. One judge somehow gives Stephens a round.

 

Demian Maia just wrecks Gunnar Nelson in a grappling with ground strikes match. Takes him down early every round and just flows from pounding to subs at will. Nelson by the end content to survive. Total strikes was something like 200-5. Correct score 30-0. If this is 30-27 it’s a joke. 26 and 2 25s which is still too close but acceptable. Maia very correctly trashes the ratings system on his promo.

 

I think Jacare vs. Yoel Romero is a draw. Romero drops Jacare in the 1st with a SBF and pounds the hell out of him. It’s a 10-8 for sure. Jacare comes out groggy and Romero gets a TD reversal taken away in the 2nd from a fence grab and Jacare may edge the round with late body shots. Romero is gassed in the 3rd and Jacare is all over him but not more than a 10-9. That makes 28-28 by me and apparently most people with functioning brain cells. 29-27 Romero, 29-28 Jacare which makes no sense as R1 was a definite 10-8, 29-28 Romero and he takes a dubious SD. His cardio will not stand up in a 5R fight.

 

MW champ Chris Weidman and challenger Luke Rockhold both look a little tense early and Weidman in control and takes back standing. Rockhold gets a Guillotine position and holds it till a standup but gets relaxed and puts on a little burst late. Weidman 10-9. In the 2nd Rockhold is loose and has the range with his left kicks to all targets. Drops Weidman for a flash KD with a right hook early. Weidman lands a good body kick late. Rockhold wide 10-9. Rockhold, usually a cardio machine with an extra high gear in late rounds, seems gassed early in the 3rd and Weidman landing the body kicks. Weidman missed a wheel kick badly midround and Rockhold takes his back, mounts, and pounds him bloody. Should have been stopped, 10-7 Rockhold. Weidman with a blatant fence grab early in the 4th but Rockhold ragdolls him down. Rockhold dropping bombs on him. Weidman is a mess. Rockhold pounds from half guard. Weidman is turtled up. Dean steps in. New champ. On the postfight, turns out Rockhold was fighting sick and on antibiotics.

 

The main is just bizarre as Conor McGregor KOs Jose Aldo in an oddly similar manner to how Edgar KOed Mendes the night before, but it’s only 13s into the fight, and unifies the FW title. They both threw left hooks and Conor had the perfect angle and got there first. Wacky, iconic moment. Aldo’s actually landed after he was unconscious. Conor vs. Frankie is probably the next fight. Aldo looking like a very old 29. Conor did an out of character interview on the fs1 postfight show and didn’t come off like a dick at all. 

 

Crimson Mask

 

Hey Dave
Show was a massive thumbs up for what I saw. 
I live in New York City and had trouble finding the show, either due to maximum capacity of bars or lack of the show being shown. Eventually I was able to get into an Irish Pub just at the beginning of the Weidman/ Rockhold Match. Rockhold completely dominated the rounds to the point where Herb Dean should have stopped it at the end of the 3rd. The bar crowd wasn’t into either men despite having Weidman be from Long Island. The bar came unglued for every second Connor was on screen. Chanting and Singing. I don’t think it really clicked with the crowd when Aldo started going down. Nobody actually knew what happened until Big John stopped the fight. It was incredible. It was a moment I’ll never forget. Tonight Connor solidified himself as a real Star. It would be a crime not to book Connor/Aldo 2 and Ronda/Holly 2 at UFC 200.

 

Lee Pavlakos

 

Thumbs up show

 

Best Fight: Luke Rockhold vs Chris Wiedman

 

Worst Fight: Tecia Torres vs Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger

 

Was watching the PPV at a friends house, when Conor knocked out Jose I was the only one jumping up and down celebrating meanwhile everyone’s jaw dropped to the floor in stunned silence.

 

Thank goodness for the last 2 finishes because that saved the show. If they name Yoel Romero the next contender at the Middleweight Championship, he better drop some muscle mass quick, or else he won’t make it out of the 3rd round. They also gotta do something about him dumping water on his body to buy more time in between rounds.

 

Hopefully next year for the UFC 200 show and the year end show they just do only 2 nights of fights instead of 3 straight. I’m just saying, it’s alot of writing for Dave Meltzer to do for the Observer newsletter.

Click Here: Cheap Golf Golf Clubs

 

Thanks,

 

Eric  Poon

 

Thumbs Up

Best fight: Romero vs. Jacare

Worst Fight: None

Wow! While normally I would resent paying $60 for a 13 second fight, this was an amazing night. Would love to see Rockhold-Weidman II and McGregor-Aldo II on the same card. And how powerful is Aldo that he can open a cut on McGregor while knocked out?! By the way, thanks to you and Bryan for creating a UFC fan with your preview for Silva-Weidman I while I was listening strictly for WWE a few years back!

 

Kevin Finger

 

Hey Dave,

 

This was my first time ordering a UFC ppv and I’m pretty disappointed. I ordered it based on the amount of press the event was receiving on your site and many others. I’m a WWE fan and figured I’d give it a try after hearing interviews hyping the fight with Conor. I understand that anything can happen in MMA, but I am really disappointed in how short the main event went, I thought it would be a closer match with some drama–I’m really wishing I had that $55 back right now. Was not worth the cost. I don’t know that I’ll ever order one again at this point—

 

Dan (please don’t use my last name)