UFC Moscow Competitors and Bellator Welterweights

  Right, my own rankings are going to take a lot more time and effort than I'm willing to put into them at the moment so any rankings I talk about after today's blog post will be official rankings until I actually make real progress with the task of coming up with my own system. I did read bleacher report's take on the latest rankings and it seems to me that it's done on the whim of the voting panel. Daniel Cormier has dropped down one place in the pound for pound rankings despite not fighting since his loss to Stipe Miocic. Michelle Waterson has dropped a place after the weekend's Boston card even though she wasn't on it. Her position was static immediately after losing to Joanna. It's things like this that prompted me to try and come up with my own system.
  Junior dos Santos v Alexander Volkov at Moscow has been cancelled and Zabit Magomedsharipov has been bumped up to a three round main event. Greg Hardy has been lined up to fight Volkov. I don't know why they didn't choose Francis Ngannou to replace Dos Santos and keep the fight as a five round main event. I can only theorize that the UFC have seen Francis filming for the Fast & Furious film franchise and assume he isn't as committed to fighting as he should be. I also think that after losing to Stipe and a terrible contest (you could hardly call it a fight) with Derrick Lewis, the UFC aren't as willing to promote and market him in a title fight so don't want to invest in him. They probably see Hardy as either a potential big name if he beats Volkov or, if he loses, an excuse to phase him out of the promotion because of the controversy he generates. I assume Francis would have taken the short notice fight given his tweet with the thinking emoji and stating in interviews of his frustration with the UFC tying up the title with a third Stipe v Daniel fight. Francis is anxious to get back on a run at the title. This would have provided him the opportunity.
  I'm a bit of a Weasle fanboy. I watched his video on his thoughts on the Volkov v Hardy fight and that's what inspired this segment. I knew Volkov had to be good to be ranked in the UFC and that Hardy doesn't have much MMA experience but I didn't realise how much more experienced Volkov is. Hardy is learning as fast as Francis Ngannou did (albeit with less experience than Francis had coming in) and is naturally athletic given that he's coming from American football, but is he ready for a former world champion? Volkov was a Bellator world champ. He has years of experience of fight camps, sparring, game planning etc. Anything can Happen in MMA and Hardy hasn't been beaten inside the octagon, but they were all unranked opponents, so there is a high probability that it's a "gimme" win for Volkov to please the Russian crowd.
  The mention of Bellator reminded me that the welterweight tournament final between Rory McDonald and Douglas Lima is coming up. That should be an interesting rematch. Rory has looked, to the untrained eye like myself at least, that he hasn't been firing on all cylinders since his loss to Gegard Mousasi even though he's been grinding out wins, but I think he has come out and said that he is very motivated for this fight. Lima has looked very driven and trying to make a statement of intent in his run to the final. I think Rory's experience will grind out a victory but it wouldn't shock me if Lima wins given how the first fight went.

MMA's Next Big Star, Context, Karate Hottie and Rankings

Isreael Adesanya is the new undisputed middleweight UFC champion. That walkout was next level. An amazing showman and the next big star in MMA. What was it? Over fifty thousand at UFC 243 in Melbourne? I didn't think it was his time yet for two reasons. First Robert Whittaker went ten rounds with Yoel Romero and got injured during one of the fights but fought on and still won. Second I underestimated how good Kelvin Gastellum is. Although Whittaker didn't use everything in his arsenal against Adesanya. But still, I'm glad the last stylebender proved me wrong. I'm a fan and have been following him on twitter for some time now. Whittaker was saved by the bell in the first round but didn't last another full round. Adesanya didn't look like he'd been in a fight at all afterwards compared to how he looked after Gastellum.

When I watched Al Iaquinta's fight against Donald Cerrone in the run up to his fight with Dan Hooker I suspected Al would be at the wrong end of another beating in Melbourne. I was right. Izzy and Dan are intelligent with intelligent coaches. There was plenty they could learn from the Cerrone fight. Not many made much of a deal about Hooker's comment after he heard Dustin Poirier turned down his call out. I thought, being Irish, Hooker's "chasing leprechauns" was insensitive, a bit ignorant and uncalled for. Maybe I took it out of context.

Speaking of out of context, I want to mention Ben Askren. I heard that Ben was talking about Israel Adesanya in a complimentary fashion and was becoming a fan of his. Ben talked about him being well spoken and some people, including online media personnel who cover MMA, took this to be a racial slur. I think it says a lot more about what goes on in other people's minds that they're actively looking to criticize and so easily triggered, than it does about someone giving compliments where they are deserved. 

I'm looking forward to "The Karate Hottie" Michelle Waterson fighting Joanna Jerdz... nope! I can't spell her last name... at the weekend. Her fight against Karolina Kowalkievic was the best performance I'd seen from her. Many are predicting Joanna to outclass her but I'm hoping Michelle can do it. The downside is we have to listen to Joanna's moaning excuses on MMA media if she loses.

I have to print out the newest UFC rankings in research for my own planned ranking system that I talked about in a previous post. I haven't researched the records of the old rankings because I haven't made the time to do so. I might not blog next week to make time to research the latest rankings instead. I keep talking about coming up with my own system to see how it compares with the real rankings and it's about time I did something to make it happen.

Bellator Dublin

I attended the Bellator Dublin event at the 3 Arena on Friday the 27th of September 2019. It was the second live mixed martial arts event I attended and my second Bellator event. I didn't take my seat until the second round of the first prelim and was still getting my bearings so didn't pay too much attention to the first fight. I looked through the photos I took at the event and most weren't very good. I was too interested in the fights to take the time to get any decent action shots so I took photos between rounds and between fights. Most had very little subject matter and some were blurry so I won't bother sharing them. I have a video to give an idea of the crowd there though. One thing I remember about the night was that there were about three or four fights paused for nut shots.
Like I said, I didn't pay much attention to the first fight. It was at welterweight. Gnusariov beat Coughlan by unanimous decision. The second fight was at featherweight where Logan Submitted Gustab in the second round by triangle. Next up were the flyweights O'Driscoll and Hadley. In my view O'Driscoll had the upper hand early in the fight but maybe this was a feeling out process for Hadley. Hadley locked in a rear naked choke in the third round though and got the submission victory. Hadley is undefeated so far in his career. Mulpeter v McCabe at welterweight was a fairly even contest. I remember that Mulpeter seemed to have the bigger support but there was definitely good vocal support for McCabe. Mulpeter got a split decision victory from the judges. Mulpeter came up to a group of people  near where I sat during a later fight to meet some friends and have a brief discussion before leaving. I remember him saying to them how McCabe was a tough opponent. There was another split decision in the following fight between Moore and Chadwick. Chadwick tried to pressure Moore against the cage early but Moore was able to use his length and reach as the fight progressed. I don't fully remember how many takedowns there were and how much of the fight took place on the ground because I didn't take note of it. In the end Moore was victorious. Bulaid and Maiboroda were both making their professional debut at featherweight in the next fight. Bulaid outclassed Maiboroda and won by knockout in the first round. Roddy v Pietila at lightweight was an intriguing contest. I thought Pietila was getting the better of the exchanges in rounds one and two. Roddy dominated Pietila in the third. I'm not a judge but if I was scoring it I would've called it a draw. I thought the first two were 10-9 to Pietila and Roddy, looking for a finish, dominated the third enough to get a 10-8. That would've made it 28-28 in my scores. But when they were announcing the result all three judges gave the unanimous decision victory to Roddy. Next up was Richie Smullen against Tobin. Smullen got a rear naked choke in the first round and when the referee checked Tobin he wasn't able to tap because he was unconscious.
The next two prelims were postponed due to time constraints as they were closing in on the Paramount tv start time in the USA.
Franz Mlambo against the Englishman Wooding opened the main card. It was a good contest and Mlambo used his height and reach advantage to good effect and got a unanimous decision victory. He was one of the fighters I was looking forward to seeing so I'm glad he got the victory. Leah McCourt faced Hughes in the women's featherweight division next. McCourt looked to clearly be the more skilled fighter of the two from what I remember. It showed in the result. McCourt won by technical submission in the first round via rear naked choke.
The next fight was memorable for the wrong reasons if you were hoping, as I was, that Will Fleury would win. Novenyi Junior got pressured early on but then he hurt Fleury with an overhand right sending Fleury against the cage and on his bum and the momentum completely changed in his favour. Fleury didn't give up and probably could have been tko'd a couple of times when he was caught with that overhand right several times. He managed to take down Novenyi Jr at one stage and even found the strength to stand up after being taken down and pressured on the ground at one stage. Once Novenyi rocked Fleury in the first he looked a different class after that. I was wondering why Fleury had no answer to the overhand right but it's hard to break from a gameplan and try something different once your brain has been scrambled from bombs to the head. Novenyi essentially took round three off. Even showboating at one stage, much to the annoyance of the crowd. But he still looked fresh, knew he had done enough and just had to avoid Fleury doing any damage to him to secure victory at that stage. Unanimous decision in the end but fair play to Fleury for fighting on and never giving up. Novenyi Jr looks like a hot prospect after his performance against the best middleweight in Ireland.
Keifer Crosby faced Pereira next. Crosby looked very good and took a unanimous decision victory. Then came the Paramount tv main event. Former UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson faced Myles Jury. I was looking forward to seeing a former UFC champion live. To be honest, I thought it was the most boring fight of the night. A lot of shadow boxing in my opinion. Occasionally there was a kick from Henderson and a kick or a combination of punches from one of them that'd produce a roar from the crowd but there was nothing to create an atmosphere. I didn't know, or care, how the judges would score it. Well both are excellent jiu jitsu artists so I can kind of understand why they were so tentative about takedowns and going to ground. But what we got on the feet didn't excite me. Henderson got the victory by unanimous decision.
Up next was the main Virgin media & Channel 5 tv card. I knew Peter Queally would have the entrance of the night. The whole crowd singing along to The cranberries' "Zombie" and still singing it when Scope, his opponent, walked on. Scope's walk on song was drowned out by the noise of the crowd singing Zombie. Once the hostilities got underway Queally took the upper hand and was dominant in the first round. He never looked to me like finishing Scope but it looked a comfortable 10-9 round for Queally. Scope took the fight to Queally in the second round. I forget how it got to ground but I think it was a kick from scope that knocked Queally. Things were looking ominous for the home town favourite. But Queally kept his composure and it seemed that Scope got tired. There was a huge roar from the crowd when Queally found his feet and it didn't take him long to rock Scope with punches that sent him against the cage and sliding to the canvas. Queally quickly got in with ground and pound causing the referee to step in and stop the contest. Queally by tko in round two. Fight of the night! Then came another big name on the international stage that I was looking forward to in the co-main. Michael "Venom" Page took on Richard Kiely. I was hoping against hope that Kiely would find a way to win. Dan Miragliotta reffed and deducted a point from Page in the opening round. No one knew why. It turns out it was for showboating. Kiely got knocked down once there was an exchange after a tentative start by both fighters. When he went to ground again Page showboated for a second time and that was when the point was deducted. After that Page waited for Kiely to attempt another strike and went in with a flying knee. The referee had seen enough at that stage and stopped the fight. Easy victory for Page who said in his cage interview that he "hardly trained for the guy". A massive gulf in class. It turns out there was a bit of beef between Miragliotta and Page so they will most likely never share a cage again. More here: https://themaclife.com/featured-posts/dan-miragliotta-confirms-called-michael-venom-page-fcking-piece-st-following-bellator-dublin-bout/ . Kiely was fined for flipping the bird at Page. There was almost a bit of afters between Miragliotta and Page and Kiely took an interest in getting something out of it as well but it was all handbags in the end.
Camila Rivarola faced Danni Neilan in one of the postponed prelims next, before the main event. Danni Neilan was making her professional debut but she looked like a seasoned professional compared to Rivarola. Neilan dominated and outclassed her relatively more experienced opponent and got a unanimous decision victory. Rivarola had her moments early in the first but the result never looked in doubt to me after that. If this is an indication of what's to come Neilan looks like a hot prospect.
After that it was time for the main event of the night. James "Strabanimal" Gallagher facing Roman Salazar. A catch weight bout at 140lbs on short notice after Gallagher's original opponent pulled out due to injury. The walk on and the post fight celebrations lasted far longer than the fight itself. Salazar quickly closed the distance. Once it went to ground Gallagher had a hold of Salazar's neck. Salazar pushed against Gallagher's face with his hand but the ref swept the hand away. I'm not sure why but perhaps to prevent eye scratching. The roar of the crowd increased as it looked like Salazar was tapping soon after because his attempt to get out of the choke failed. The ref had a good view of it and Gallagher shouted at the ref that Salazar was tapping. Eventually the ref stopped it. But it was a very quick fight. Gallagher with a guillotine choke technical submission after a mere thirty five seconds.
When Gallagher left the arena and most people were making their way out there was an announcement that there was one more fight. The other postponed prelim took place between Courtney and Clarke. It was a good contest but most of the crowd had actually left at that stage so it had the feel and atmosphere of a prelim. I don't remember the details but it seemed fairly back and forth. Towards the end of the fight Clarke got the victory by third round submission. A rear naked choke. It was Clarke's professional debut too.
All in all it was a great event and a great atmosphere. I think I'll go again if there's another one happening. I think there could be another one in the works for next February.