Misdirection

As you would have seen from the previous post, I was at Bellator Dublin at the weekend. I noticed in at least a couple of fights that as one fighter would shoot for a take down the other would wrap an arm around the neck and attempt to get a guillotine if not taken down or threaten some sort of submission attempt if taken down. I watched Tyson Fury v Deontay Wilder on Monday and a big part of Fury's plan was to clinch with Wilder and make Wilder carry his weight to tire Wilder. The hold Fury had on Wilder when they clinched was similar to what I saw in the 3 Arena on Saturday night.
There was a lot of hype over Fury getting some MMA training from Darren Till and this training probably served two purposes:
1) Get Fury to be able to handle Wilder in the clinch
2) Misdirection, which got the press hyped up about Fury possibly looking for an MMA fight so that he could train his game plan for Wilder in plain sight with no one really noticing.
It could also have given a false optimism to the Wilder camp that Fury wasn't 100% focused on the rematch.
I notice that the best combat sport fighters can be very good at misdirection, whether intentionally or a handy side effect. Take the recent Conor McGregor v Donald Cerrone UFC fight as an example. Conor was the polar opposite, personality wise, to how he was in the lead up to the Khabib fight. This wasn't intentional misdirection, in my opinion, but did play a part in the real misdirection in my humble opinion. The focus was on bigging up Cowboy's enviable records of most wins under Zuffa, most head kick knockouts etc. Cowboy's coaching team were saying things like Conor only has the left hand, Cowboy has better wrestling and grappling, the longer it goes on the worse Conor's cardio is. The press were lapping this up because they were getting stories out of it.
All the while no one outside of Conor's camp could have anticipated how effective those hard shoulder strikes were in Conor's ruthless 40 second demolition of Cowboy. It isn't just magicians that are masters of misdirection. The best mind game players in combat sports are also great at it.
I tweeted this in a thread recently but felt it would also make a great post for this blog, hence the extra post today.
The thread on twitter can be found here: https://twitter.com/aherneamon/status/1232126525107036160?s=20

Bellator 240

Bellator came back to Ireland and had their event at the 3 Arena in Dublin on the 22nd of February. I took my seat as the first fight got underway but I didn't pay too much attention to it as I was getting settled and looking for a full line up of the card and setting up notes on my phone. I was seated opposite one of the cage doors which slightly obstructed my view if they were fighting in the centre of the cage. But I tried to watch the cage rather than the screens as much as I could. I saw John Kavanagh looking at the screen a few times while shouting instructions to his fighters so my view of the action didn't feel as bad as I thought it might be when I first took my seat. The opening fight was a featherweight contest between Adjoudj and Balinta. Balinta won by split decision. Next up was another featherweight contest. Clarke dominated Faulding in a unanimous decision victory. I seem to recall some fierce elbows from Clarke while he was on top of Faulding against the cage. The following flyweight contest between O'Driscoll and Bouarsa didn't last long. O'Driscoll with a 1st round TKO victory. Logan v Murrie next and it was a win for Murrie with a rear naked choke in the first. John Kavanagh looked annoyed at his fighter after it ended because he was shouting instructions during the choke as though he saw a way for Logan to get out of it. The action was happening fairly close to Kavanagh. The next one was a contracted 161lbs bout. Piskorz of Poland had a good following in the crowd but it wasn't to be his night though. There was a big cheer from the crowd in the first round. Referee Dan Miragliotta moved closer to the action to see if he needed to step in. Piskorz managed to break from Duncan and the ref tripped and fell as he was backing away. He got up quickly but it got a big cheer from the crowd. In the second Duncan was handing out too much punishment to Piskorz and the ref stepped in. TKO for Duncan. Will Fleury at middleweight was up next trying to get back in the win column. Fleury was clearly the better fighter but when he went for the takedowns his opponent Moore would wrap an underarm around Fleury's neck and it looked like Moore could work to a submission attempt from where I was watching (noticed the same thing when Clarke took down Faulding). I needn't have worried. Fleury got on top of Moore and worked his way to an arm triangle submission in the first round.

Artem Lobov on the stand with John Kavanagh to his right, cornering Richie Smullen

Richie Smullen was up next. His opponent was Dias from Brazil. It was a close fought contest but Dias got the split decision victory.

Next up was one of the fights I was anticipating before the event. Neilan v Penco. In the opening exchanges Penco looked smooth and the more fluid fighter. She tried to use her reach and height advantage and kept her opponent at distance at first. But Danni Neilan grafted her way to dominance. She more dominated than out classed Penco to a unanimous decision victory. Two professional fights for Danni Neilan and two strong victories. Following on from that was Redmond v Karakhanyan. Redmond looked pretty good but in the second round Karakhanyan locked in a guillotine choke that Redmond couldn't get out of so a submission win for Karakhanyan. Richard Kiely, coming off a loss to Michael "Venom" Page in September, was up next and to be honest he didn't look that good. It looked to me like he tried to imitate Page's style in his fight against Hardwick on Saturday night. He had some interesting moments but ultimately lost to Hardwick with the second guillotine submission in a row at the event. Enkamp v Long next. There were a few good exchanges and Long was holding his own. Then came a highlight reel finish much to the appreciation of the crowd. Enkamp bounced back one step and spun around looking for a spinning back fist. He caught Long with his elbow so I called it a spinning back elbow in my notes. First round KO for Enkamp by spinning back elbow. He went in with a couple of hammer fists but the ref was already moving in to stop the fight as he was swinging them. Long was already out.

Franz Mlambo in the cage before his fight with Ricky Bandejas

Then there was another of the fights I was anticipating: Ricky Bandejas v Franz Mlambo. I said in the blog last week that I thought Bandejas would win because Mlambo can get caught, but I was still hoping Mlambo would win. It was an amazing opening round for the Irishman. Bandejas looked to be trying to feel his opponent out and Mlambo capitalised on every opportunity that presented itself. I watched most of the fight without the aid of the big screens so I didn't see things from every vantage point. Malmbo dropped Bandejas a couple of times and was clearly the better fighter in a dominant first round. He looked way better than expected. SBG had him well prepared. Then in the second round Bandejas went for a kick to the body but Mlambo caught it. While Mlambo was thinking about what to do next with his head unguarded Bandejas caught him twice in the head with swinging punches. Mlambo went face down on the canvas. I thought he slipped because Bandejas was on one leg and I didn't think he'd generated enough power while Mlambo was holding the other. Once he went to ground Bandejas was quickly in with rapid hammer fists to the head and the referee stepped in. Mlambo grabbed the ref's leg and when he realised what was going on he stood up and looked surprised that the ref stopped it. Becuase of this I thought it was an early stoppage, but looking at the replay on the big screen, I could understand the stoppage. KO victory for Bandejas 1m 42s of round 2. Bandejas said to give him another SBG Ireland fighter since he's knocked out two in a row when asked who he'd like next. Brian Moore was in the arena and posted on instagram tagging Bandejas to let him know he was willing to fight him next. Australia's Bec Rawlings v Kallionidu of Greece was up next. It started off on the feet as expected but Rawlings got a take down and dominated on the ground. Between rounds Rawlings looked exhausted though. In the second Kallionidu looked to establish distance and step up the pace with her striking and keep the fight on the feet. In the standing exchanges she looked like she might have the upper hand. But Rawlings got another take down and managed to keep it on the ground for most of the round where she looked dominant. She thought she had won at the end of the second because she locked in a tight rear naked choke, but the bell rang just as it looked like Kallionidu might tap. Again, Rawlings looked exhausted between rounds. It was a similar story in the third but Kallionidu managed to catch Rawlings and put her in trouble when there were standing exchanges. But she couldn't keep it standing and so couldn't dominate. In the end it was a unanimous decision victory for Rawlings. Kiefer Crosbie faced Furtado in the next one. Furtado proved to be a difficult opponent. There was a bit of gamesmanship, it looked like to me, from Furtado's corner between rounds. Before the start of the second the ref had to instruct them to wipe down Furtado and they were slow to do so. He was drenched before the start of round 3 and the ref called for a towel and wiped him down himself. It was almost as if Furtado was trying to get extra time to rest between rounds and get Crosbie impatient. Crosbie got fined for flipping the bird at Furtado after the fight but apologised for the incident. I can understand his frustration if he saw the between rounds antics as gamesmanship, although I don't know what was said to each other during the fight. Crosbie won by split decision. Next up was the main event for those watching on Paramount in the USA. Brent Primus faced late replacement Chris Bungard. Bungard in for the injured Peter Queally. Bungard had a couple of good moments on the feet at first. But once it went to ground Primus went for a choke. He couldn't lock it in but adjusted and got the submission victory by neck crank in the first round. Then it was on to the Irish Main card. They made changes to the cage to suit the sponsors for the Channel 5 tv coverage so there was a longer break between fights.

First up was Aaron Chalmers v Austin Clem. It was a dominant performance from Clem. One judge even scoring it 30-26! Chalmers couldn't string any decent attacks together. Unanimous decision victory for Clem. Ward v Kurtz was the co-main. SBG's Charlie Ward looking to get back to winning ways after losing last time out in London. He looked good out there. He was sharp. In the third round there was a lot of blood coming from cuts on Kurtz's face and the doctor was called in but he said it was ok to fight on. It didn't last long though. Kurtz was taking a beating at that stage and the ref decided to call a halt to proceedings less than two minutes later. TKO victory in the 3rd for Ward.

Leah McCourt is interviewed after her fight as her daughter hugs her

One thing that disappointed me was that a lot of people left the arena before the main event. The arena was still more than half full but surely they should have stayed around to support a big prospect in Irish MMA. Leah McCourt faced German Judith Ruis in the main event. There was a woman screaming for Leah louder than everyone else in the arena a couple of rows behind me. People were getting a laugh out of her screaming "come on Leah, you can do it! Do it for Isabella!" Isabella is Leah's daughter. I got a bit distracted by her screaming and one guy taking the mickey out of her to laughs of the people around him. But I wish some of the people that had already left had stayed and been as enthusiastic in supporting Leah. There was a moment where Ruiz looked to to have locked in a solid arm bar and I thought it might be over, but McCourt kept her composure and managed to turn in towards Ruis and got an excellent escape. Leah McCourt looked good in her unanimous decision victory though. 

I left the arena shortly after everyone left the cage after the main event. I found out the following day that I missed another fight. John Kavanagh tweeted that his last fighter was in the cage at midnight. I saw highlights of what looked like a good fight on twitter that wasn't on when I was in the arena - Bulaid v Freitas - so I'm assuming this fight in front of an almost empty arena happened after the main event. Described by the commentary team as two high level kick boxers in an MMA cage with MMA gloves. Illias Bulaid got a unanimous decision victory over Diego Freitas. 

Bellator Dublin Coming Up, Rio Rancho and UFC Dublin in August.

First of all I want to talk briefly about the main event at UFC Rio Rancho at the weekend. Jan Blachovich defeated Corey Anderson by KO in the first round. Jan did to Corey what many thought Johnnie Walker would do to him. I didn't see the fight but I saw the knock out here: https://www.ufc.com/news/ufc-rio-rancho-results-anderson-blachowicz-2 . From what I gather from the Weasle's breakdown, it was a case of getting Corey's rhythm and timing down for Jan. Corey always took two steps before a major strike and Jan picked his moment.
Bellator Dublin is coming up on Saturday. I counted 19 fights on the card. It seems a bit much even with the original main event cancelled. There were 17 in September and they had to jumble around a couple of preliminaries to keep with the Paramount schedule in the USA. The Paramount main card is going to be recorded and shown in the evening across the Atlantic. Maybe that'll help scheduling issues, but it'll take a number of fights not going the distance not to put the pressure on the schedule. The real reason I'm talking about that is I don't want to miss any fights and I'm thinking of toilet breaks.
Danni Neilan, Richie Smullen and Will Fleury are the three names I'm looking out for in the prelims. Danni impressed me in her debut and it was one of the jumbled around fights, so she was fighting in front of a full house just before the main event. Will lost to an impressive Novenyi Jr. in September so hopefully he'll bounce back from that. Franz Mlambo faces a major step up in class against Ricky Bandejas in the Paramount main card. I'd like to see Franz pull off a surprise victory but he can be hit and Bandejas has an impressive KO against James Gallagher. I think Bandejas wins that one but it'll be good experience for Franz regardless of the result. Kiefer Crosbie faces Imaik Furtado. John Kavanagh said on social media that he expects Kiefer to win by second round ko. I don't know anything about Furtado except he has a 6-1 record compared to Crosbie's 7-1.
The main event for the Paramount viewers is Brent Primus v Chris Bungard. Bungard is a late replacement for Peter Queally who had to pull out of the event unfortunately. If he won this he could have been a star in the making after his fight of the night performance in September, but it's not to be for now.
Then we go to the Bellator Dublin Main card. Charlie Ward faces Kyle Kurtz in the standout fight of the two for me. Ward is always fun to watch, but is coming off a loss in his most recent fight in England so hopefully he'll be back in the win column Saturday night. The main event features Leah McCourt v Judith Ruis. Ruis is a German fighter that I don't know much about to be honest. She has a 6-4 pro record. McCourt looks like she's being pushed as a potential star by Bellator. She's coming from a rear naked choke victory in her fight at the venue in September. But I've seen analysis which suggests she's good wherever the fight goes and she did look good to me five months ago.
One more thing I want to mention today. A UFC fight night has been announced for Dublin on the 15th of August. Tickets are on sale the end of June. It's not a big pay-per-view event so Conor McGregor won't be on the fight card. Or at least I doubt he will anyway, but he did tweet "Conor McGregor v Diego Sanchez" recently. Who from Ireland fights in the UFC apart from Conor now though? They cancelled the last one in Dublin to make a fight night in Liverpool for Darren Till. I wouldn't be surprised if they did the same with this one to accommodate a new rising star and the fact that the best Irish fighters are mostly with Bellator now. So I won't be too pushed about going until closer to the date. The fact that Queally and Gallagher are out Saturday could help some make up their mind to hold out for August instead.

UFC 247, Released Fighters & Bellator Middleweight.

I didn't get to see UFC 247 unfortunately. But all the evidence suggests that Dominick Reyes won the main event in everyone's eyes except the judges. I wish I'd seen the fight to be able to make my own call on it. A lot of people were complaining about one judge in particular giving it 49-46 to Jones when it looked like Reyes won the first three rounds. It looks like Valentina Shevchenko will be champion in her division for a long time. She's unrivaled at the moment. The weasle suggested Roxanne Modafferi as her next opponent. I like that fight. Roxanne is good on the ground and her experience might cause a few problems for Valentina, so should make for an interesting fight. I think Derrick Lewis got the home town decision with the judges. I'm told Ilir Latiffi had numerous takedowns and even though he didn't do too much damage, he held Lewis down whereas Reyes got straight back up after Jones struggled to take him down. Yet Jones reckons the takedowns were what got him the decision. So more inconsistency from the judges. It was also reported that one judge wasn't even looking at the Lauren Murphy v Andrea Lee fight for periods of time but that was contradicted by mentioning that they have monitors on the floor to see what's going on in the octagon if their view is blocked. I don't know how true that monitor thing is because commentators have to be observant. I must also mention James Krause. He took a fight on a days notice when Trevin Giles' original opponent pulled out last minute. Giles is a weight division above, even two if you count that Krause has fought at lightweight. He went in against a bigger guy without a proper training camp, no time to prepare, made a good showing of himself and took it to a decision. Giles won but everyone is praising Krause for his "gangster" move.
In the meantime the UFC have quietly released eight fighters:
Heavyweight Junior Albini with a 1-4 record in the UFC (14-6 total in MMA)
Welterweight Nathan Coy 1-2 (15-7)
Bantamweight Brandon Davis 2-5 (10-8)
Women's flyweight Kalindra Faria 0-3 (18-8-1)
Men's bantamweight Grigorii Popov 0-2 (13-3)
Welterweight Ben Saunders 10-10 (22-13-2)
Men's bantamweight Jin Soo Son 0-2 (9-4)
Heavyweight Daniel Spitz 1-3 (6-3)
Credit: MMA Junkie and SBNation for that info.
It was revealed Monday that Douglas Lima is going to go up a division to fight Gegard Mousasi for the Bellator middleweight title vacanted by Rafael Lovato Jr. due to an ongoing medical condition. Well he's ambitious, I'll give him that. Rory McDonald didn't fare too well against Mousasi but maybe Lima has a few tricks up his sleeve. I don't fancy his chances. We'll see though. Speaking of Bellator, only a week and a half to go to the Dublin event. I'll be taking notes and I'll do another extensive post here.
I just want to mention one more thing in relation to Jon Jones before I go. The weasle tweeted: "I see people saying that Jones has declined. This can be true if the whole PED thing is real but I also see that his competition is clearly stronger now than ever before". I replied with: " Stronger competition and more wary of his opponents strengths and less inclined to take risks now that he has to stay PED free". My observation summed up was playing safer against stronger competition rather than decline. The weasle replied with "Very well said". So it seems this casual's observations can mean something to guys who are able to provide a more in-depth analysis into the technical aspects of the sport, when I get the observation right.

A Number Of Things Going On

First of all the Bellator Dublin card looks like it won't be a sell out this time. The main event has been cancelled and a replacement lined up for the co-main because James Gallagher and Peter Queally have both withdrawn due to injury. Such a pity. Gallagher has a back injury. Don't know what Queally's injury is but Chris Bungard is taking his place to fight Brent Primus. There are still a couple of other fights I'm looking forward to though. Danni Neilan and Franz Mlambo are still there. Danni impressed in her pro debut in September by outclassing her opponent Rivarola to get a unanimous decision victory. I hope she's a future prospect. Leah McCourt v Judith Ruis of Germany is the main event now according to what I read on The Mac Life.
I hear that Saudi Arabia want to give $100m for Khabib to fight either Conor McGregor or Floyd Mayweather in their country. A bit of a power play by the Saudis and an attempt to change their image to the world. But The UFC have a base in Abu Dhabi and I assume they'd want any major Middle Eastern events there. Khabib is not looking past Tony Ferguson but the UFC, or at least the MMA media, are disrespecting Tony by looking past him and chasing the "money" fights for Khabib before he's even fought Tony. This title fight in April for the lightweight championship of the world should be the biggest UFC pay per view event this year, regardless if Usman v Masvidal is made for international fight week and Stipe Miocic v Daniel Cormier is made for later this year. I'm saying it should be, not that it will be. Tony and Khabib are the best lightweights fighting for much more than the belt - arguably the greatest lightweight of all time. If Khabib wins he's beaten everybody who's anybody in the division, pretty much. If Tony wins the only fight to make other than a rematch with Khabib is Conor McGregor. I'm hoping Tony wins. I really hope it goes ahead this time! The fight going ahead and Tony winning would silence the doubters and make people take notice and give respect to Tony that he deserves.
UFC 247 is this weekend. I haven't looked at who else is on the card apart from the main and co-main to be honest. I expect Jon Jones to win the main because of his reach advantage and fight iq. But Dominick Reyes can cause problems for him. Reyes has good instincts and great reflexes but he can be caught out when things aren't going according to the game plan. Katlyn Chookagian trains at top gyms in New York and New Jersey but I don't see her getting past Valentina Shevchenko.