Another Sports Podcast
Noche UFC Review
alright what's up guys I was procrastinating so we'll see how long this goes for this episode I'm at least gonna do the UFC I'll maybe I'll do a separate episode for the NFL week two and week three stuff let's just get right into the UFC obviously big card on Saturday night a monumental event at the sphere in Las Vegas which as I mentioned we talked about last week wasn't really too into the whole sphere thing I didn't really like I said I didn't really care care about it I guess I thought we were getting I thought I was getting a little bit overplayed and I thought the event in general had a little bit of in marketing and identity crisis but I will say that I was impressed by the whole viewing experience it was definitely cool I don't think it was it was cool when they played the videos and then it was cool obviously when the fighters walk out and there's a giant background in the going on and the tail of the tape screen was was super cool once they started fighting on TV you didn't really get that sort of like sense that there was really it kind of looks like if you didn't know any better you would have thought it was in the apex with the way that the seating was obviously though I'm sure in the crowd it looked it looked it looked super sick but it definitely was better than I expected I I wondered how the viewing experience was going to be through the TV and they definitely were able to cover the fact that you know if you weren't sitting there live and give you that true experience I definitely I don't believe that that's the only time they're ever gonna do that I know that Dana White said that they were this was a one and done and it was a once-in-a-lifetime thing I don't believe it I think it was a little bit too big of a spectacle for them to not do that again that doesn't mean that they'll do it every year but I could see it being a thing where it's every every couple years I know they have a deal with MGM to host events at the T-Mobile arena so and I mean they're able to host events at the apex so I don't know how they skirt around skirt around that I know that they had to like come to some agreement with MGM to do an event at the sphere so maybe when that deal runs out perhaps that could be worked in because that would be that was you know that was a really cool thing and I think that certainly MMA has the advantage of being able to provide some unique venues and that's certainly one I thought the theater seating was actually the coolest part of the whole experience when you watched it when the fighters came out and they sort of had that shot where they were kind of shooting and all you could see was just a sea of people behind them that was that was actually probably the coolest part but yeah overall I was impressed with the whole graphics and all that stuff which I thought I was going to be but you know at the end of the day it was mainly about the fights and you know the main events sort of underwhelmed I'll start with the main event obviously that's sort of how a lot of that's exactly how a lot of people thought the fight was going to go you know it was sort of one of those things where one guy was going to dominate or the other guy we didn't really get a hyper competitive fight I feel like that's the only thing that really held it back actually you know you could say what you want about Marab to polish Philly but man he's just he's got a crazy pace and you know anybody that tries to fight like that I mean if I tried to fight like that I'd be gassed in in in two minutes so the fact that he's able to do it for 25 and not even be breathing heavy is insane and it's definitely a weapon it's a weapon that he really uses you know you talk about you see people talk about using their cardio as a weapon but you know he really is able to use it he was moving from side to side the entire fight O'Malley had no chance at sniping him at any point in time he just wouldn't stay still and he got in on few takedowns Warl Mally out O'Malley you clearly was tired by the championship rounds when they came around and credit to O'Malley I think he came back and won that fifth round with some with some of those front kicks but it was obviously too little too late I thought the score cards were a little generous on O'Malley side I think it was the judges that scored at 48 47 which is ridiculous I think they gave the third round to O'Malley which I saw some people trying to make the case for but I didn't really see how you could make that how you could watch that fight and think that it was a 3-2 fight yeah Rob again just he did everything he needed to do and it wasn't even necessarily like it's a great game plan that's just how he fights O'Malley was the one that needed a game plan for him and you know obviously some Tom Fuckerie going on at the start of the fight which I will say you know Tim Welsh who's you know gotten a lot of praise especially with O'Malley and all that stuff over the past couple years that you know to be yelling out at the opposing fighter to try to get to try to get them to make a mistake at the start of the fight it is one thing if you do it like he did it against Aljo where it's sort of in the middle of the fight and it's like nothing's really happening you know like you kind of want to just like throw it out there and see what happens I kind of get that it's a little bit of it it's still a dick move it still probably shouldn't be allowed but it to do it at the beginning of the fight like the first thing that you're doing is a little ridiculous like you know why don't you worry about what you're doing worry about your guy don't worry about what's going on with the other team you know I mean so I thought that he came off as a tool in that whole situation O'Malley handled it well though so you know props to him he hasn't really complained or anything like that but obviously the people around him didn't look the greatest out of that hole out of that whole ordeal next thing I think the more underwhelming of the two main events was the co-main event and it was mainly just because of how one-sided it was Valentina Shifshanko and Alexa Rosso fighting for the flyway title and it was a one-sided domination from Valentina pretty much from start to finish really Alexa had no real was never really in that fight and it was kind of bizarre to see it was a shame because the first fight was well the second fight I should say was quite entertaining and I thought that we were gonna get another close entertaining fight this time around but no it was one-sided from the beginning and I don't know what Alexa did over the past year but she didn't do any wrestling it didn't seem like she stopped to take down at all I know later on the fight she did but she was getting taken down at Will Valentina was holding her down smothering her smothering her and you know there was a couple submission attempts that she threw up that you know Joe Rogan thought that were close but none of them were really ever close the only one that she kind of came close on was she got a guillotine and not even really when she was in guard but when she flipped over into mount that's when you kind of were like okay well she might be working on something here at least at the very least you could have used it to get on top but she rolled back over up back onto her back yeah other than that I mean there was there was really nothing going on for her in the fight yeah kind of a head scratching performance from Alexa Garso and I didn't even really think that Shepchenko's hands looked that great she's kind of notorious for being very a very good kickboxer but I thought that she didn't look as crisp as she usually does and she was obviously relying on her grappling which she's a very well rounded fighter so props to her for at 36 coming back and and winning her belt back I didn't think that that was gonna happen I thought that she was just too long in the tooth and I thought Rosso has been getting better but I guess it's unpredictable and yeah props of Valentina Shepchenko who's carbon out of legacy now but two-time flyaway champion and and like I said at an age of 36 it's not easy to do but yeah obviously underwhelming fight there the rest of the card Lopez and Ortega was the featured fight I had Lopez early in that fight and it almost came to fruition he hurt Ortega bad on the feet with two punches that I can't believe didn't sleep Ortega and then from there was very impressive performance it's just the power was the main difference the power and just the crispness of the strikes it looked like Ortega was you know he had a nice jab going on but he didn't really pose much of a threat in in any other aspects of the stand-up and anything that Lopez was throwing looked like a heat-seeking missile everything was straight everything was crisp they were kind of the commentary was annoying me they would seem to have been talking up Ortega striking the entire fight but he was getting he was he was getting his ass beat he was eating some some big shots and he takes a lot of shots almost every single fight but it was a dominant performance from beginning to end he hurts Ortega at the end of the fight almost finishes him right before the final bell and that's exactly what he needed it now he's probably you know if he waits he'll probably end up fighting for the belt he may have to fight the winner of Ivoive and Aljo which could potentially be a rematch with the voive but yeah I don't know I mean I feel like he's a marketable guy they may just have him sit around and and wait for Max and Ilya to fight and then give him the title shot in probably the early part of next year and you know I I could totally see that happening I got a hundred percent see that happening I I guess you know that sort of is where's where is that leave Volk does he fight Volk I don't know kind of seems like a weird fight probably not a fight that Volkonofsky I mean Volkonofsky would take it but man you know I don't know I don't know what you do there it seems like it's a little bit of a log jam up there at the top of 145 hopefully there's no bullshit after the max Ilya fight with like you know trying to move up and and go to 155 with the belt hopefully whoever wins that fight fights the next in line because there is a couple guys in line there for that belt so again that was really impressive performance from Diego Lopez who they said was able to keep it going on all three rounds which that was the main question he definitely slowed down after he had such a crazy first but he was still able to win the second round and the third round so it might be a question of pacing for him but he he was able to last all three rounds and you know maybe he should fight in a main event beforehand but I said I don't know they may just have him wait and then and then give him give him the title shot elsewhere on the card obviously the rest of the card had some crazy finishes the Zellhaber revivitch fight that was obviously that's one of the best fights of the year probably gonna be fight of the year I can't really think of one off the top of my head that was better than that one Zellhaber got hurt early it though in that second round I think and it was just a crazy back and forth fight from that from then on the Rodriguez Ode Osborn fight another crazy fight come crazy come back by Rodriguez gets hurt extremely early in the fight gets I mean he was looking up at the lights and he ends up coming back getting triangle - got got triangleed off the knockdown and somehow survived and was able to turn around and and win the next two rounds convincingly or well somewhat convincingly but in that third round but again crazy come back by him the feature prelim Irene Aldana and Norma Dumont good fight Aldana had maybe the worst cut I've ever seen in anything especially in in combat sports really I've never seen a cut that bad that cut was so insane and I get and if you didn't see the video of them like putting it back putting her face back together after the fight don't watch it because I can't I didn't even know that a cut could go that deep and I'm someone that's a little bit squeamish when it comes to that stuff I I can take cuts I can take swellings and and stuff like that but when you start seeing like the inside of like somebody like oh and I can't believe they let her fight with that I can't believe they she can't she got that in the second round off a headbutt and then she comes out in the third and it didn't even really look like anything that they did in the corner stop the bleeding she was she came out in the from in from her corner in the third round and blood was just pouring down her face and it's like I can't believe they didn't stop it and it probably made the cut worse I mean that she had another five minutes of fighting and it probably just deepened it to the point where I mean it looked like it went to the frickin bone how bad that cut was I mean I've never I've never seen a cut like that that that was gnarly that was absolutely gnarly okay off that the fight beforehand the Ignacio Bob Mundes fight knocks out man Manuel Torres again he had two vicious right hands where he caught him with the same punch he leaned back caught him with the same punch pulled and threw a right hand right down the pipe ended up finishing Manuel Torres it was it was definitely a good night you know it was definitely a good night of fights up until the two main events seemed to sort of like put a damper on what was an exciting night with the sphere and everything but you know that's that's the risk you take I guess as a combat sports fan you not always guaranteed a good a good fight and I wouldn't even necessarily say that Marab and O'Malley was necessarily that bad I think it was just it was so one-sided and once once Marab got going you knew it wasn't going in it wasn't gonna trend in the other direction the woman's the woman's fight beforehand that was kind of boring because that was so one-sided but yeah I was a good night of fights and I think I'm gonna cut it off here because I'm a bit tired at the moment so I will do week two of the NFL I'll maybe I'll try to do it tomorrow if not I'll do it on Thursday I'll sort of do like a two-and-three sort of sort of episode but other than that take care everyone