UFC 249 - A Reaction

Let me start with that main event. I honestly didn't see that coming. It was a methodical demolition of Tony Ferguson by Justin Gaethje. It was so sad seeing Tony looking like his opponents usually do after fighting him. Round one went to Gaethje. You could give round two to Tony because of that uppercut that dropped Justin but Tony had no answer for him after that. Justin was able to attack the legs with kicks from punching range and did to Tony what I thought tony would do to him, punch and move. Justin looked scarily good and in the peak of concentration throughout as he picked his shots with precision. Also, his coach told him take about 10% off his punches because he was using too much energy and Justin followed instructions and looked pretty fresh the whole fight. Tony took a lot of damage from heavy punches and it was sad to see him get stopped, but in the end it was a merciful stoppage. He took heavy damage and withstood what would normally be knockout punches and suffered a broken orbital bone. Ouch! 0/1
I only saw bits and pieces of the co-main event. I'm not surprised by the result. It looked like Cejudo was never in trouble in that fight. Cruz complained about the stoppage but he took a knee to the head to get dropped and a lot of unanswered punches to the head to follow so I think it was sensible. 1/2
I thought Ngannou v Rozenstruik would go on for more than a few minutes if not a round but it only lasted twenty seconds. Ngannou took an equilibrium shot behind the ear and walked through it like it was nothing and he got tagged a second time but that only made him angry. If Rozenstruik had moved out to the right instead of ducking left it would have prolonged the fight. But who knows by how much? His wild swinging punches wouldn't be effective by a lot of fighters but the speed and power they come at you from Francis seems to make them unstoppable. I think if he had more technique and straighter punches to harness the power he'd be unbeatable. He probably is anyway but I get a feeling that a fighter with great footwork and movement, better technique and a granite chin with the ability to use going for takedowns to stop Francis' attacks can beat him. But it looks like most fighters won't at the moment. 2/3
I got Stephens v Kattar right. Stephens went in heavy and still got knocked out. I think anyone who misses weight by that much should be forced to go up a weight division. 3/4
I called Hardy v De Castro right as well. Hardy with the win. 4/5
I wasn't surprised by the result of Pettis beating Cowboy. I went with who I hoped would win rather than who I thought should win. Glad Cowboy took it to a decision though. 4/6
It seems Werdum had an off day. He was outstruck by Oleinik and, from what I heard there weren't that many opportunities to take it to the ground where Werdum is supposedly stronger due to superior Brazilian jiu jitzu. 5/7
Esparza v Waterson was a close fight and I'm disappointed Michelle lost. 5/8
I made my prediction for Hall v Jacare before Jacare tested positive for the corona virus and had to be pulled from the card so that prediction is N/A.
I predicted Luque to beat Price and I was proven correct. I'm told it was another war, which Luque was in a lot of recently. I saw Price's eye and the doctor's stoppage looked like the right call. 6/8
Mitchell defeated Rosa by split decision but I didn't make a prediction for that one so that's another N/A.
Finally Ryan Spann defeated Sam Alvey by split decision in the opening fight of the night. It looked to be that close in the octagon alright judging by reports but it was one I called the other way in my predictions. Total score: 6/9. I'll take that. Not bad for a casual!
There's another card tonight from Jacksonville with Anthony Smith v Glover Texeira as the main event. Michael Johnson and Sijara Eubanks are two others that spring to mind on the card. Oh yes! Ovince St Preux is moving up to heavyweight for the card. Interesting to see how that goes for him. Then there's another one Saturday. It's a busy week in the UFC. I'll talk about those other cards in the next blog.