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UFC Fight Night on ESPN+ 12: Moicano vs. Korean Zombie (6/22/2019) - Greenville, SC (Bon Secours Wellness Arena)


Elsalvajeloco

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UFC on ESPN+ 12

UFC Fight Night on ESPN+ 12: Moicano vs. Korean Zombie 
June 22, 2019
Greenville, SC (Bon Secours Wellness Arena)

Renato Carneiro (146) vs. Chan Sung Jung (146) - Jung, TKO (punches), R1 (0:58)
Bryan Barberena (170) vs. Randy Brown (170.5) - Brown, TKO (strikes), R3 (2:54)
Andre Ewell (135) vs. Anderson dos Santos (135.5) - Ewell, DEC (unanimous)
Andrea Lee (125) vs. Montana De La Rosa (126) - Lee, DEC (unanimous)
Kevin Holland (186) vs. Alessio Di Chirico (186) - Holland, DEC (unanimous)

ESPN Preliminary Card:
Dan Ige (146) vs. Kevin Aguilar (145.5) - Ige, DEC (unanimous)
Ashley Yoder (115.5) vs. Syuri Kondo (115.5) - Yoder, DEC (unanimous)
Matt Wiman (155) vs. Luis Peña (155.5) - Peña, TKO (strikes), R3 (1:14)
Allen Crowder (255) vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik (246) - Rozenstruik, KO (punches), R1 (0:09)
Ariane Lipski (126) vs. Molly McCann (126) - McCann, DEC (unanimous)
Deron Winn (185.5) vs. Eric Spicely (185.5) - Winn, DEC (unanimous)

Event Bonuses ($50,000)
Performance of the Night: Jairzinho Rozenstruik
Performance of the Night: Chan Sung Jung
Fight of the Night: Deron Winn vs. Eric Spicely

Attendance: 7,682
Gate$567,930 

Cancelled Fights:
Deron Winn vs. Markus Perez - Injury to Perez
Rob Font vs. Cody Stamann - Injury to Stamann
Deron Winn vs. Bruno Silva - Silva Potential USADA Violation
John Lineker vs. Rob Font - Injury to Lineker (Cut)
 

Edited by Elsalvajeloco
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My thoughts on the entire card since I couldn't watch it live:


- Deron Winn is really mini DC, but constantly facing a height (and reach) disadvantage is going to limit him tremendously. I thought he decisively beat Tom Lawlor in his last fight, but you gotta believe if he was 5'11" or maybe 6'0", Winn would have won by a landslide. Here, he's facing a tall, pure grappler in Eric Spicely who is not awful striking but still coming in on short notice. Winn had no real option but to just walk in and windmill. In the opening round, he got caught frequently but really wasn't hurt too bad. So his chin is similar to DC as well. Then, Spicely started looking like someone who just took a fight on 48 hours notice. Maybe he was training for a fight in CES, but I doubt he was training to fight a tiny, squat bulldozer. Winn just wore on him. It was a fun, sloppy brawl, but if Winn was the average size of a middleweight by today's standards, he would have never fought Spicely that way. He would smash him on the feet or worst case scenario, took him down when there was very little threat of a submission and pounded him out on the ground. Spicely is a decent fighter, but he is a high level fringe fighter whereas Winn despite giving up size is a durable powerhouse wrestler. 

- I dunno what fight Bisping was watching, but Lipski vs. McCann wasn't close at all. I thought the judges got it right with McCann winning all three rounds convincingly. I will give Lipski this. When she throws her techniques, they look beautiful. The problem with this though is she doesn't do it often enough and she is way, way too predictable and sometimes too robotic. McCann must have landed two dozen left hooks and right straights in round one. Lipski's head was like a Pez dispenser. I think Lipski is too trapped in a Brazilian muay thai rhythm. This isn't a muay thai fight. You have to be able to cut the Octagon off, and she just let McCann dictate everything. It looked like for a minute halfway through round 2 that McCann was slowly down after keeping a frantic pace in round 1, but she got her second wind. What helped that was Lipski had no sense of urgency. I dunno if she thought it was a five round fight, but she should have knew she dropped round 1 and round 2 at that point was probably McCann slightly ahead. McCann's volume was great and the diversity was good considering McCann is thought as a head down type of brawler. But damn, Lipski just looked out of her depth. She changed levels at one point in round three for a takedown attempt and as soon as Lipski got close, McCann grabbed a plum and kneed the crap out of her. How does that happen to a supposed national muay thai champion? Anyway, McCann cut a fiery babyface promo post fight like Winn in the previous bout.

- Jairzinho Rozenstruik hits like a goddamn Mack truck. He isn't a very dynamic fighter, but if you get touched by him, you're at risk of losing. Crowder gave Greg Hardy fits (which shows you how stupid that matchmaking was given what Hardy has shown so far), but Jairzinho drops him with a jab and pummels into unconsciousness. Rozenstruik vs. Derrick Lewis should be the endgame here.

- I really like Luis Pena as a prospect. As far as lightweight comparisons, I think he is a little bit more Cerrone than James Vick. And probably WEC/early UFC Cerrone too. I think with Pena, he is at the opposite end of the spectrum from his AKA teammate and roommate Deron Winn. Pena has to make people fear trying to take him down because his physique is kinda spindly. He isn't too skinny, but you can tell he is every bit of 6'3". His hands aren't at the level of a Cerrone yet but using another comparison, I don't think he is a one and done type of boxer like a Michael Johnson. I think one of Michael's problem also is he is little bit too wild. Pena throws everything short and tight despite being so big. However, again, he has to give his opponents a reason not to take him down. However, against Wiman, he did just that. He made Wiman look super old and absolutely dominated him everywhere. This was a great showing for him, and one I think he really needed to stand out.

- Yoder vs. Kondo was just overmatched striker vs. someone who could just run game on said striker on the ground. This was likely Kondo's UFC swan song, and I really don't see how she made it even this far. I vaguely remember the Chan Mi Jeon fight, but from what I do remember, it wasn't a fight that made believe either woman had a chance in the UFC. If that fight was in JEWELS or Road FC, I would understand. But in the UFC, it made no sense. Then, Kondo went out there and got cooked by Poliana Botelho. She probably should have been gone after the Xiaonan Yan fight. In this fight, it was evident Yoder was just a much better fighter.

- I keep forgetting Dan Ige isn't your conventional Hawaiian fighter (his Xtreme Couture teammate, fellow Hawaiian, and protege Punahele Soriano is very much one as he showed on DWTNCS this past week despite being a wrestler as well). This was all the more evident when he fought Kevin Aguilar. If Winn is mini DC, then Aguilar is mini Paul Buentello. I was hesitant picking Aguilar coming into this fight because he never really impressed me in LFA all that much. His record on paper doesn't line with who he is as a fighter. Up against someone who technically is solid, Aguilar looks like someone who is only three months into training kickboxing for the first time. Ige just knocked him all over the place. If you thought someone was 17-1 coming this fight, you would certainly think it was Ige. Aguilar is tough is hell, but you cannot really make in the featherweight division off toughness. You can't be a Leonard Garcia in this era of MMA. It is just too many guys who are more than talented enough to put the screws to you. 

- Kevin Holland is someone I believe could be a superstar if everything came together. From watching this fight, he relies so much on doing everything in short explosive bursts. You have someone built like Jon Jones trying to fight like Rumble Johnson. It doesn't mesh well because he isn't a big time puncher. Does he have the talent to stop people with strikes? Probably. Should that be his MO in every fight? Certainly not. He fought someone in Alessio Di Chirico who is a tough out and doesn't fall down easily. Granted, Holland got hurt on a takedown and had only one good shoulder to work with. He should have been focused on grinding Di Chirico down, getting it to the floor, and going from there. Di Chirico was looking to counter and was fairly successful. I think what caused Di Chirico to lose a contentious decision is while he was waiting to counter, he let Holland's ineffective bursts look like real activity when it wasn't.  TBH Holland being less explosion dependent post injury probably made Di Chirico less effective because the bout slowed to a crawl. There was very little for Di Chirico to counter.  So Holland's one or two punches landed and some weak low kicks made it looked like he was doing something to Di Chirico's something bordering on nothing. Holland cut a hilarious promo after Di Chirico stormed out when the decision was read by Joe Martinez. It feels like Holland is an eighth of where he needs to be. The big question is how is going to get the rest of what he needs? If this was Bellator or PFL, he would have time to work on stuff. He is 3-0 since that short notice Thiago Santos fight. Di Chirico is a solid test, but there are bigger tests to come. He was fortunate here that Di Chirico's strategy wasn't the greatest either, and the judges saw it that way as well.

- De La Rosa vs. KGB Lee was a very fun scrap. Even though IMO Lee is still just one tier below where she needs to be to fight Valentina, it's hard not like her poise. She is well rounded, but she is legit confident everywhere the fights goes (unlike roughly 90% of fighters who say the same thing). De La Rosa took her down and it looked like it was just another day at the office. Lee calmly worked her way up and went back to work. You can't say enough about her offense. It's diverse and she brings the same cleanness that Lipski brought earlier on the card. The obvious differences are Lee can land in combination, and Lee is hard to time. That can throw you off. Whereas someone like Alexa Grasso can do that with her hands at her best as we saw two weeks ago in Chicago, KGB can do that with elbows, knees, and kicks. We were this close to getting another big women's MMA KO in 2019 after Bernardo vs. Araujo and obviously Shevchenko vs. Eye because Lee was so close with those head kicks and De La Rosa was already exhausted and hurt. If Lee landed one of those just a little cleaner, it would have been night night. With that being said and with all the optimism in the world, Lee at best is still one or two fights away at least. She is by far the front runner in terms of women's flyweight contenders no matter what though.

- I wasn't too overly impressed by Andre Ewell in his past UFC appearances, but he let it fly in this fight with Rafael dos Anjos meets Rony Jason combo doppelganger Anderson dos Santos. Ewell was landing the sharper and harder punches. I dunno what this means for his performances against other solid bantamweights, but he looks like someone who belongs in the UFC. Anderson dos Santos...probably less deserving of that claim, but he gave an okay account of himself as a moving punching bag who occasionally landed punches.

- I think there comes a time in every perpetual tough out/high level gatekeeper's career where there is not enough tread on the tire to make it to the desired destination. If it wasn't tonight for Bryan Barberena, it's getting damn close after the Luque beating and then Randy Brown just unleashing hellacious offense on him. Inconsistency has been Randy Brown's problem. You never know what guy will show up from fight to fight. Will it be a dynamic offensive fighter or someone who randomly gets knocked out while in top position? This fight was kinda both, but it played out as Brown clearly winning round one. Then, he went down a gear while Barberena tried to come on. The initial problem here for Barberena is if this was a year or so ago, Barberena would have taken over and it would have been over consequently. This version of Randy Brown versus this version of Bryan Barberena is simply a lamb being led to slaughter. Even Bisping was smart enough to point out that neither was landing anything early in round two. The second problem for Barberena here is if he doesn't take over fights by pressure and volume, he is a sitting duck and one that doesn't produce anything to keep someone off of him. It's like a roleplayer in the NBA who is a sharpshooter from beyond the arch and has no mid range game to speak of, can't drive to the lane, and can't guard a soul at the other end. If he isn't hitting threes at will, he is useless. That's what Barberena was here and to a large extent in the Luque fight. He is a punching bag with arms and legs if he isn't landing anything. The final and most detrimental problem here for Barberena is there is no chin or amount of grittiness that can you get you through that. It was a matter of time because Brown was going to start landing again even he was just a wee bit fatigued. Still a decent win for Brown, and hopefully this leads to him being more consistent.

- Prop to Moicano coming out to Steel Pulse's "Your House". That's about all that went well for him here. Got caught cold while standing straight up with a big overhand right followed with a short left hook, and it was a done deal. CSJ did what he needed to do to get back into contention. I would love a quick turnaround from CSJ because why not keep up the momentum?

Edited by Elsalvajeloco
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2 hours ago, The Natural said:

The Korean Zombie's would be 3-0 since coming back from his mandatory military service were it not for Rodriguez's bend down upwards elbow which KOd him in the last second of the fight.

Yep,  that's how you come back from a pretty startling defeat.  Knock someone the fuck out in less than a minute.

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