UFC Fight Night 87: Overeem vs. Arlovski (5/8/2016) - Rotterdam, Netherlands (Ahoy Rotterdam)

[Elsalvajeloco]

UFC Fight Night 87: Overeem vs. Arlovski 
May 8, 2016
Rotterdam, Netherlands (Ahoy Rotterdam)

Alistair Overeem (244) vs. Andrei Arlovski (248) - Overeem, TKO (jumping front kick and punches), R2 (1:12)
Antônio Silva (266) vs. Stefan Struve (265) - Struve, TKO (elbows), R1 (0:16)
Albert Tumenov (170) vs. Gunnar Nelson (170) - Nelson, SUB (rear naked choke), R2 (3:15)
Germaine de Randamie (135) vs. Anna Elmose (135) - De Randamie, KO (knee to the body), R1 (3:46)
Nikita Krylov (205) vs. Francimar Barroso (204) - Krylov, SUB (rear naked choke), R2 (3:11)
Karolina Kowalkiewicz (115) vs. Heather Jo Clark (116) - Kowalkiewicz, DEC (unanimous)

Fox Sports 1 Preliminary Card:
Rustam Khabilov (155) vs. Chris Wade (155) - Khabilov, DEC (unanimous)
Magnus Cedenblad (185) vs. Garreth McLellan (184) - Cedenblad, TKO (head kick and punches), R2 (0:47)
Jon Tuck (156) vs. Josh Emmett (156) - Emmett, DEC (split)
Yan Cabral (156) vs. Reza Madadi (155) - Madadi, TKO (punches), R3 (1:56)

Fight Pass Preliminary Card:
Kyoji Horiguchi (125) vs. Neil Seery (126) - Horiguchi, DEC (unanimous)
Leon Edwards (169.5) vs. Dominic Waters (170) - Edwards, DEC (unanimous)
Yuta Sasaki (125) vs. Willie Gates (125) - Sasaki, SUB (rear naked choke), R2 (3:30)

Event Bonuses ($50,000):
Performance of the Night: Germaine de Randamie
Performance of the Night: Gunnar Nelson
Performance of the Night: Stefan Struve
Performance of the Night: Alistair Overeem

Attendance: 10,421
Gate: $1.523 million
Rating: 656,000 viewers

Cancelled Fights:
Rashid Magomedov vs. Chris Wade - Injury to Magomedov
Peter Sobotta vs. Dominic Waters - Injury to Sobotta
Patrick Holohan vs. Willie Gates - Holohan Retired Due to Blood Disorder
Nick Hein vs. Jon Tuck - Injury to Hein (Herniated Disc)

[Elsalvajeloco]

 

[twiztor]

damn they had to dig deep for that free fight. UFC 40: Vendetta! the first UFC PPV i ordered with friends. had seen some earlier ones via rental vhs tapes, but this event (headlined by Shamrock/Tito Ortiz) is what hooked me for the duration. this was in November of 2002, the same month that the Elimination Chamber made its debut.

been looking forward to this main event for a while. thought it wouldn't happen, with them both at Greg Jackson's camp, but excited to see it come to fruition. WAR ARLOVSKI!

planning on watching this event (main card at least, prelims if possible) and then catching Captain America 3: Civil War, so i'm geared up for a great Sunday.

[Elsalvajeloco]

 

[supremebve]

Is this the greatest collection of glass jaws in the top two fights on any card ever?  Those two fights could both end in the first 10 seconds, and I wouldn't be surprised at all.  Overeem vs. Arlovski is essentially a race to see who will land first, because neither of these dudes are going to be able to withstand the other's power.  This should be a fun watch.

[Elsalvajeloco]

As time has progressed, Struve tends of fight against his strengths every fight out. If there was one guy I would pick to not knock out Pezao who was realistically going to face him (ruling out most scrub HWs), Struve would be that guy. He barely beat reanimated cadaver Minotauro. Struve is a 7 foot fighter who wants to fight like he is a six foot welterweight. As a heavyweight with a less than sturdy chin and average strength, that style of fighting is untenable.

[twiztor]

4 hours ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

As time has progressed, Struve tends of fight against his strengths every fight out. If there was one guy I would pick to not knock out Pezao who was realistically going to face him (ruling out most scrub HWs), Struve would be that guy. He barely beat reanimated cadaver Minotauro. Struve is a 7 foot fighter who wants to fight like he is a six foot welterweight. As a heavyweight with a less than sturdy chin and average strength, that style of fighting is untenable.

i've been saying this forever. Struve has this amazing advantage in height and reach, and yet he insists on fighting in ways that completely negate that. i'm still picking him against Bigfoot, but there's not too many people i'd pick for Bigfoot to beat at this point.

as for the glass jaw thing, one of my biggest Arlovski pet peeves is the "weak chin" argument. he may not have a chin of granite like Fujita back in the day, but it's not like AA is getting KO'd by a slight breeze. what lends to him getting rocked more often than not is his terrible defense, especially when he starts fighting aggressively. seriously. show me Arlovski getting KO'd by anything but an absolute blast of a punch. you can't do it.

[supremebve]

11 hours ago, twiztor said:

i've been saying this forever. Struve has this amazing advantage in height and reach, and yet he insists on fighting in ways that completely negate that. i'm still picking him against Bigfoot, but there's not too many people i'd pick for Bigfoot to beat at this point.

as for the glass jaw thing, one of my biggest Arlovski pet peeves is the "weak chin" argument. he may not have a chin of granite like Fujita back in the day, but it's not like AA is getting KO'd by a slight breeze. what lends to him getting rocked more often than not is his terrible defense, especially when he starts fighting aggressively. seriously. show me Arlovski getting KO'd by anything but an absolute blast of a punch. you can't do it.

Arlovski is a heavyweight, all of those punches are absolute blasts.  He has 11 loses, 8 of them by knockout.  Overeem has 14 loses, 9 by knockout.  Silva 8 loses, 7 by knockout. Struve has 8 loses, 6 by knockout.  Those dudes don't stand up to punishment well, I don't think saying they have week chins is out of line at all.

[AxB]

I'd say they have ordinary chins, they're just in a division where almost everyone has heavy hands. Just say that some heavyweights have good 'not getting hit clean' skills and the odd one or two has Kaz Fujita punch resistance, but basically everyone can be knocked out by anyone in the division.

[supremebve]

Just now, AxB said:

I'd say they have ordinary chins, they're just in a division where almost everyone has heavy hands. Just say that some heavyweights have good 'not getting hit clean' skills and the odd one or two has Kaz Fujita punch resistance, but basically everyone can be knocked out by anyone in the division.

Not everyone seems to be blown away though, between those four and Frank Mir they all seem to get knocked out in cartoonish fashion.  If you land a solid shot on any of those dudes, you'll have a lifelong highlight on that Baba O'Riley video they show at the live events.  

[Elsalvajeloco]

Mir just seems to fold at certain points. All the guys he gets stopped by all hard hitters. Getting done up by Mark Hunt, Shane Carwin, or Junior dos Santos is not really that embarrassing. Over the years, he has taken a ton of punishment. He managed to survive in certain fights (the first Brock fight for example) and make a decent account for himself. Then, in certain fights, he just looks for a way out and finds himself getting pummeled. It's been going on since early on in his Zuffa tenure, and that's basically his whole fifteen year career.

Now, between having an awful non-roided yet somehow roided physique and no inclination to be in anything other than brawls, he's basically a sitting duck for anyone with power and accuracy.

[Elsalvajeloco]

FWIW undefeated Team Alpha Male fighter Josh Emmett who was suppose to fight on a local NorCal card on Saturday is stepping in to replace Nick Hein against Jon Tuck. Not sure if there is any shift between the FS1 and Fight Pass prelims.

[supremebve]

1 hour ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

Mir just seems to fold at certain points. All the guys he gets stopped by all hard hitters. Getting done up by Mark Hunt, Shane Carwin, or Junior dos Santos is not really that embarrassing. Over the years, he has taken a ton of punishment. He managed to survive in certain fights (the first Brock fight for example) and make a decent account for himself. Then, in certain fights, he just looks for a way out and finds himself getting pummeled. It's been going on since early on in his Zuffa tenure, and that's basically his whole fifteen year career.

Now, between having an awful non-roided yet somehow roided physique and no inclination to be in anything other than brawls, he's basically a sitting duck for anyone with power and accuracy.

Frank Mir just looks cartoonish whenever he gets hit hard, he isn't really in the same class of those other dudes when it comes to glass jaws.  Every time he gets hit he flails around and his goofy haircut flops around and it looks like he was hit with a cannonball instead of a right hand.  

[Elsalvajeloco]

The late Justin Eilers had the same thing going on.

[J.T.]

Struve vs. Bigfoot is as close as we'll come in real life to a kaiju movie.  The only things missing are the alien invaders, the crazy scientist, and the twin, tiny, magical faeries to summon Bigfoot from a gigantic egg.

[Elsalvajeloco]

If RIZIN lasts more than a few shows and Struve gets cut, I can see some freakshow fights in his future. BARUTO vs. Stefan Struve is coming to a local Japanese TV channel near you.

[J.T.]

 

[Elsalvajeloco]

 

[Elsalvajeloco]

Really intrigued with the female bantamweight bout. Here is a clip of GdR's opponent Anna Elmose:

As you can see, she's bringing some hand cannons herself.

[Hail Sabin]

You know I'm interested in both female fighters on the main card.

[Execproducer]

5 hours ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

Really intrigued with the female bantamweight bout. Here is a clip of GdR's opponent Anna Elmose:

As you can see, she's bringing some hand cannons herself.

I watched all of her fights, including her kickboxing stuff, on YouTube. One would definitely expect her to bring the fight to Germaine.

[DreamBroken]

Good looking card for sure with some interesting fights. Wish it wasn't a Sunday morning one. Glad to see Heather Clark finally back, even though I don't expect her to have much of a shot against Karolina who's usually on fire. Always liked Heather and thought she did look real good in her last fight.

[Elsalvajeloco]

Everyone thought the Randa Markos fight was going to be the breakout performance for Karolina, but it ended showing that Markos' run on TUF wasn't a fluke if anything. Clark is a more friendly matchup, but it will be telling how they use her after this fight. Like I said in the UFC Tampa event thread, they need someone to occupy that contendership role. If the UFC takes their time with Namajunas, they can't really be expected to do the same with Kowalkiewicz. If Karolina wins 3 or 4 fights in a row, a fight with Joanna is their biggest selling regional based fight that isn't something like Aljamain Sterling vs. Jimmie Rivera. That can probably sell out an arena in Poland easy.

[DreamBroken]

22 minutes ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

Everyone thought the Randa Markos fight was going to be the breakout performance for Karolina, but it ended showing that Markos' run on TUF wasn't a fluke if anything. Clark is a more friendly matchup, but it will be telling how they use her after this fight. Like I said in the UFC Tampa event thread, they need someone to occupy that contendership role. If the UFC takes their time with Namajunas, they can't really be expected to do the same with Kowalkiewicz. If Karolina wins 3 or 4 fights in a row, a fight with Joanna is their biggest selling regional based fight that isn't something like Aljamain Sterling vs. Jimmie Rivera. That can probably sell out an arena in Poland easy.

Agreed on that. I'm a huge fan of Randa and thought she might have won that fight at the time.

[Hail Sabin]

I want to see a Penne vs. Markos rematch from the TUF finale.

Markos vs. Cookie Monster would work as well.