Jump to content
DVDVR Message Board

UFC 215: Nunes vs. Shevchenko II (9/9/2017) - Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (Rogers Place)


Elsalvajeloco

Recommended Posts

fawkux.jpg

UFC 215: Nunes vs. Shevchenko II
September 9, 2017
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (Rogers Place)

Amanda Nunes © (135) vs. Valentina Shevchenko (133.5) (second defense) - Nunes, DEC (split)
Neil Magny (169.5) vs. Rafael dos Anjos (170) - Dos Anjos, SUB (arm triangle choke), R1 (3:43)
Henry Cejudo (125.5) vs. Wilson Reis (125.5) - Cejudo, KO (punches), R2 (0:25)
Ilir Latifi (205.5) vs. Tyson Pedro (205.5) - Latifi, DEC (unanimous)
Jeremy Stephens (146) vs. Gilbert Melendez (146) - Stephens, DEC (unanimous)

Fox Sports 1 Preliminary Card:
Sara McMann (135.5) vs. Ketlen Vieira (136) - Vieira, SUB (arm triangle choke), R2 (4:16)
Sarah Moras (135.5) vs. Ashlee Evans-Smith (135.5) - Moras, SUB (armbar), R1 (2:51)
Gavin Tucker (145.5) vs. Rick Glenn (145.5) - Glenn, DEC (unanimous)
Mitch Clarke (155.5) vs. Alex White (155.5) - White, TKO (strikes), R2 (4:36)

Fight Pass Preliminary Card:
Luiz Henrique (244.5) vs. Arjan Bhullar (239) - Bhullar, DEC (unanimous)
Kajan Johnson (155) vs. Adriano Martins (156) - Johnson, KO (punches), R3 (0:49)

Event Bonuses ($50,000):
Performance of the Night:  Henry Cejudo
Performance of the Night:  Rafael dos Anjos
Fight of the Night: Jeremy Stephens vs. Gilbert Melendez

Attendance: 16,232
Gate: $2.03 million
Buyrate: 100,000

Cancelled Fights:
Junior dos Santos vs. Francis Ngannou - Dos Santos Removed Due to a Potential USADA Violation
Demetrious Johnson vs. Ray Borg  - Borg Removed Due to Illness

Link to comment
Share on other sites

even losing Francis Ngannou vs. JDS, it's still a nice card all things considered.  I like Nunes vs. Shevchenko a lot.  Dos Anjos/Magny is a really good welterweight fight too.  With a win on the prelims, Sara McMann could very well be fighting the winner of the co-main event.  People forget, but McMann's been on a very good run of late, and she could be do for another title shot soon.  I still think her first UFC title shot was possibly a little too early for her.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What people expected McMann to look like early in her career, she has looked like in her last couple bouts granted one opponent was extremely short notice and the other coming off maternity leave. I don't think Ketlen Vieira is going to offer anything to stop McMann. The question is can she do this against top female bantamweights who have been active? Against non-elite bantamweights, she can just truck them with her athleticism. It just hasn't been readily apparent until now and before then against a fringe type UFC fighter like Sheila Gaff. In her next 2-3 bouts, that's going to decide if McMann is just a high level gatekeeper or a legitimate threat to a Nunes, Shevchenko, and Holm.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's a damn good card, but I still wanted to see JDS / Ngannou go down.

1 minute ago, The Natural said:

Johnson vs. Borg is OFF. Borg is sick.  Nunes vs. Shevchenko headlines.

I am not sure who is more disappointed; me or Mighty Mouse.  I know he wanted to get that record shattering eleventh successful title defense.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote

Due to a viral illness to UFC flyweight contender Ray Borg, the main event bout against champion Demetrious Johnson at UFC 215 has been cancelled. Borg was deemed unfit to compete by the UFC medical team.

UFC 215, which is now headlined by the women’s bantamweight championship between Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko, will proceed as scheduled with 11 bouts at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Canada. Moving to the Pay-Per-View main card will be the flyweight bout between Henry Cejudo and Wilson Reis. Additionally, the Mitch Clarke and Alex White lightweight contest will now kick off the FS1 prelims.

With the removal of Johnson vs. Borg, customers may request a full refund of purchased tickets at point of sale.

UFC's statement.  Dammit Ray Borg.  Making this fight was a mistake.  Ray Borg was not a fit contender, and I said that from the beginning.  I'm not saying Johnson should've agreed to fight TJ Dillashaw.  However, the UFC should've waited and maybe booked Johnson vs. Pettis instead.  

Borg's UFC record was 5-2 and he had only won his last two fights, with only one of those fights being at flyweight, having missed weight TWICE in his last four.  his nutritionist says this has nothing to do with his weight cut, but I don't believe it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, TheVileOne said:

UFC's statement.  Dammit Ray Borg.  Making this fight was a mistake.  Ray Borg was not a fit contender, and I said that from the beginning.  I'm not saying Johnson should've agreed to fight TJ Dillashaw.  However, the UFC should've waited and maybe booked Johnson vs. Pettis instead.  

Borg's UFC record was 5-2 and he had only won his last two fights, with only one of those fights being at flyweight, having missed weight TWICE in his last four.  his nutritionist says this has nothing to do with his weight cut, but I don't believe it.

Pettis is a good fighter but I don't see what makes him a more qualified contender than Borg other than he can make it to the fight. If that's the separation, then he might as well have fought Dillashaw when they were trying to make that fight or Benavidez again. Pettis' best win is Brandon Moreno and Moreno is still very much an unfinished product.

If I have to sacrifice a prospect and mortgage the future of the division on another, the choice is pretty damn obvious.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

38 minutes ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

Pettis is a good fighter but I don't see what makes him a more qualified contender than Borg other than he can make it to the fight. If that's the separation, then he might as well have fought Dillashaw when they were trying to make that fight or Benavidez again. Pettis' best win is Brandon Moreno and Moreno is still very much an unfinished product.

If I have to sacrifice a prospect and mortgage the future of the division on another, the choice is pretty damn obvious.

He's never missed weight at 125 pounds.  He's on a four-fight winning streak.  He has a better record at flyweight than Ray Borg.  Borg has missed weight twice in his last four fights and only won his last two fights.  Only one of those fights was contested at flyweight. 

The Dillashaw fight was dumb because it messes up the fight with Garbrandt which they shouldn't have tried to break apart.  Had Dillashaw won it could've presented a lot of problems.  He probably wanted to move back up.  The Pettis fight sacrifices nothing.  And now we are out of the main event for UFC 215.  Ray Borg has never proven he's an elite level contender.  

Also to Dana White,

Maybe you should stop declaring fighters will never get booked in the main event for a card for a while, especially when you turn right around and book them for a main event anyway for their next fight.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, TheVileOne said:

He's never missed weight at 125 pounds.  He's on a four-fight winning streak.  He has a better record at flyweight than Ray Borg.  

So? His best win is still  Brandon Moreno, who could either be the fifth best flyweight or the 12th best flyweight depending on the night. The parity is the division is insane as the Elliott > Smolka > Nguyen > Elliott thing proves. 

8 minutes ago, TheVileOne said:

 Ray Borg has never proven he's an elite level contender.  

That's everyone in the division save for Joseph Benavidez, and I wouldn't use the word elite for the flyweight division.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, TheVileOne said:

Once again, the man has just won ONCE actually fighting at flyweight since his last loss.  That's hardly earning a title shot.  

All these dudes are essentially mandatory contenders like in boxing. Arguing why one shouldn't have it over the other is stupid. Borg deserves it as much as Pettis, and both fights are going to end the same anyway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nunes is a big gal, so wouldn't surprise me if she has trouble making weight.  however she did make weight without incident today.  But I recall she made weight for UFC 213 as well and they pulled the fight day of.

Call me a cynic or a skeptic, but I'm not buying that Borg's illness wasn't weight-cut related.

 

Quote

 

All these dudes are essentially mandatory contenders like in boxing. Arguing why one shouldn't have it over the other is stupid. Borg deserves it as much as Pettis, and both fights are going to end the same anyway.

 


 

 
Why are you defending Ray Borg when he already missed weight TWICE before this and now he's dropped out of a title fight the day of?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, TheVileOne said:

 

Why are you defending Ray Borg when he already missed weight TWICE before this and now he's dropped out of a title fight the day of?

The day of the event is Saturday and not Thursday night.

Also, that's not a defense of Ray Borg as much as it is Sergio Pettis is the same quality challenger as Ray Borg at this moment of his career. The low ceiling you presented being title shot worthy is very bare minimum. If that's the argument, Pettis has as much of a case as Borg does for one: Very little. 

Moreover, letting Pettis actually face...you know...Benavidez or Cejudo would do more for his career and tell the UFC where he is at than Borg is with the Horiguchi treatment he soon will get. Hell, don't let him win because that might actually make him a worthy challenger unlike damn near everyone who has challenged DJ. 

Part of matchmaking is about thinning the herd between the contenders and pretenders and with male flyweight division the UFC is in a handicap of the top 10-15 being mostly mid tier prospects with paper thin records (which is means the "title eliminator" type fights mean very little) and a dominant champion. Letting the one guy who might break that mold of the former jump the line just because "why not?" when he has a chance to adequately maturate  like a blue chip prospect should makes me thank God you're not Sean Shelby or Mick Maynard. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, twiztor said:

man, we're how many years into the flyweight division and there's still so little interest. i even watched the TUF season last year, but now i couldn't care less about any of those guys.

They gotta get DJ to 135 with the quickness once he breaks the record. That's the only solution I have. Pay him what you have to pay him, but get him to bantamweight.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

http://www.mmaweekly.com/ray-borg-releases-first-statement-after-being-pulled-from-ufc-215

Ahem.  So Ray Borg just fired his nutritionist.  Ahem. 

Quote

Moreover, letting Pettis actually face...you know...Benavidez or Cejudo would do more for his career and tell the UFC where he is at than Borg is with the Horiguchi treatment he soon will get. Hell, don't let him win because that might actually make him a worthy challenger unlike damn near everyone who has challenged DJ. 

They could've done the same with Borg and let him prove he can consistently make weight at a higher level.  Dude won two fights and one wasn't even flyweight.  Let's be honest here.  Johnson wanted a soft touch for his 11th title defense.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, TheVileOne said:

They could've done the same with Borg

Except, as I said above, Pettis is the better prospect of the two and it's likely the UFC is going to invest more into him. Borg is an ok prospect, but he is on the lower tier. Maybe at Jackson/Wink he goes to another tier but as is, he is way more expendable (especially w/ the issues he has had) than Sergio Pettis who has shown himself as being way more confident in his abilities in his last two fights. Borg being a sacrificial lamb is totally feasible. It happens all the time in boxing. The lower tier prospect with the glossy record either gets sacrificed to a much more proven prospect and/or is a showcase opponent for newly crowned champion. That's matchmaking 101.

So Sergio fighting the winner of Cejudo/Reis or Benavidez makes way more sense because if he beats someone coming off a legit win, he makes himself viable and people might actually give a damn about flyweight title fight outside the Anderson Silva record. Shit, I was more impressed with Cejudo in a losing effort against Benavidez than I was with any performance he had before he lost to Demetrious Johnson. If a fighter is on the cusp of legitimacy, don't take him off the path prematurely. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The only thing that would make people give a damn about flyweight at this point is Conor McGregor's skeleton somehow being able to make 125 pounds to fight Johnson.  Or Ronda Rousey coming out of retirement to fight Johnson at flyweight.  One of those two things.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, TheVileOne said:

The only thing that would make people give a damn about flyweight at this point is Conor McGregor's skeleton somehow being able to make 125 pounds to fight Johnson.  Or Ronda Rousey coming out of retirement to fight Johnson at flyweight.  One of those two things.

I don't think it's about PPV buys (because if that was the case, every other division would be gone) as it is about making highly competitive fights. They have a good core of fighters that can give you entertaining fights.  The glaring flaw is that none of those dudes are really going to beat Demetrious Johnson anytime soon. DJ has to move up to bantamweight so the division can move on. Once he has the record, there is absolutely nothing left for him accomplish at flyweight. You want to have a 4 man mini tournament for the vacant belt...do that because you need something that's not Demetrious Johnson vs. a random body.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...