UFC Fight Night on ESPN 1: Ngannou vs. Velasquez (2/17/2019) - Phoenix, AZ (Talking Stick Resort Arena)

[Elsalvajeloco]

UFC Fight Night on ESPN 1: Ngannou vs. Velasquez 
February 17, 2019
Phoenix, AZ (Talking Stick Resort Arena)

Francis Ngannou (258) vs. Cain Velasquez (248) - Ngannou, KO (punches), R1 (0:26)
James Vick (156) vs. Paul Felder (155.5) - Felder, DEC (unanimous)
Cortney Casey (116) vs. Cynthia Calvillo (116) - Calvillo, DEC (unanimous)
Alex Caceres (146) vs. Kron Gracie (146) - Gracie, SUB (rear naked choke), R1 (2:06)
Vicente Luque (171) vs. Bryan Barberena (170.5) - Luque, TKO (strikes), R3 (4:54)
Andre Fili (145.5) vs. Myles Jury (146) - Fili, DEC (unanimous)

ESPN Preliminary Card:
Jimmie Rivera (135) vs. Aljamain Sterling (136) - Sterling, DEC (unanimous)
Benito Lopez (135.5) vs. Manny Bermudez (140)** - Bermudez, SUB (modified d'arce choke), R1 (3:09)
Ashlee Evans-Smith (126) vs. Andrea Lee (125.5) - Lee, DEC (unanimous)
Scott Holtzman (156) vs. Nik Lentz (155.5) - Lentz, DEC (unanimous)

ESPN+ Preliminary Card:
Renan Barão (138)* vs. Luke Sanders (135.5) - Sanders, KO (punches), R2 (1:01)
Aleksandra Albu (114.5) vs. Emily Whitmire (116) - Whitmire, SUB (rear naked choke), R1 (1:01)

*Forfeits 20% of purse for missing weight
**Forfeits 30% of purse for missing weight

Event Bonuses ($50,000)
Performance of the Night: Luke Sanders
Performance of the Night: Kron Gracie
Fight of the Night: Vicente Luque vs. Bryan Barberena

Attendance: 14,269
Gate:$1.4 million
Rating: 1.46 million viewers

Cancelled Fights:
Lauren Murphy vs. Ashlee Evans-Smith - Murphy Withdrew From Bout
Jessica Penne vs. Jodie Esquibel - Injury to Penne (Sprained Ankle)

[Elsalvajeloco]

Aleksandra Albu has a biennial UFC career.  She has three UFC fights: one in 2015, one in 2017, and lord willing this one in 2019. She signed with the UFC in 2013 and then promptly pulled out of fight with Julie Kedzie.

She is the YA film franchise of MMA.

[Elsalvajeloco]

Cain won't be getting a Ford sponsorship anytime soon. 

 

[The Natural]

Cain Velasquez fights for the first time since 2016. Be interesting to see how Cain looks.

[Elsalvajeloco]

 

[Elsalvajeloco]

 

[Elsalvajeloco]

 

[Elsalvajeloco]

 

[The Natural]

Are Daniel Cormier and Cain Velasquez in the same fight camp and would they fight one another? You get teammates who will or won't or move into a different weight class to avoid that.

[Elsalvajeloco]

15 minutes ago, The Natural said:

Are Daniel Cormier and Cain Velasquez in the same fight camp and would they fight one another? You get teammates who will or won't or move into a different weight class to avoid that.

Yeah, they're both at AKA and each other's main sparring partners for several years now. DC moved to 205 because Cain was champ at the time. I highly doubt they would ever fight each other. 

[The Natural]

14 minutes ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

Yeah, they're both at AKA and each other's main sparring partners for several years now. DC moved to 205 because Cain was champ at the time. I highly doubt they would ever fight each other. 

Thank you.

[Casey]

So there's 10 fights on ESPN, am I reading that right? ESPN+ has its own prelims, then a handful air on the actual channel, then the main card follows? That's not normal, is it?

[TheVileOne]

Cain Velasquez is one of the main reasons Daniel Cormier moved down to 205 pounds. Dana White was saying he would've been willing to give him a title shot in 2012 if he wanted one.

[The Natural]

 

[Elsalvajeloco]

2 hours ago, Casey said:

So there's 10 fights on ESPN, am I reading that right? ESPN+ has its own prelims, then a handful air on the actual channel, then the main card follows? That's not normal, is it?

Fox had the middle portion of the prelims for most UFC on Fox cards during the NFL/Pac 12 CFB offseason. So it's obviously not the first time this is happening. I think that might be the case for some ESPN cards especially outside football or baseball season. The ESPN+ cards, besides the very first one, will likely be exclusively on ESPN+. Top Rank Boxing for the Alvarez vs. Kovalev II card did the exact same format as the Brooklyn card two weeks earlier where it went ESPN+ -> ESPN -> ESPN+. So there will be some exceptions where ESPN will get the middle prelims for ESPN+ cards. It looks like the PPVs will be Fight Pass -> ESPN -> PPV in the CFB offseason, When CFB comes back, it will likely be Fight Pass -> ESPN+ -> PPV.

The next ESPN card in Philly will be interesting because that card will be early due to Top Rank Boxing having a card the same night at the old ECW Arena at 10 p.m ET. For that one, it's ESPN+ (3:30 p.m. ET) -> ESPN (5 p.m. ET) -> ESPN (7 p.m. ET). Those ratings are going to be telling because Barboza vs. Gaethje and Waterson vs. Kowalkiewicz are way more compelling bouts than Gvozdyk vs. Ngumbu and Mean Machine vs. (not that) Ray Robinson. This is going to be the first time a major MMA card is the lead in for a boxing card. Can Top Rank keep those fans?

Jose Ramirez did 655,000 viewers (avg) last Sunday with a SportsCenter lead in. This card is up against WWE Elimination Chamber and the NBA ASG. However, I expect it to do way better than 655,000 because Cain and Ngannou are more well known to MMA fans than Jose Ramirez is to boxing fans even though SportsCenter is also the lead in for the prelims.

[twiztor]

goddammit. thought the fights were tonight. sunday cards are the worst.

[Jiji]

Especially with the NBA All-Star Game and Elimination Chamber running concurrently. 

[Elsalvajeloco]

2 hours ago, twiztor said:

goddammit. thought the fights were tonight. 

Wrong company. 

Also, the fighters had not even weighed in yesterday so it couldn't be a Saturday card. The 2/17/2019 in the thread title should be a dead giveaway.

[Elsalvajeloco]

Renan Barao, Jessica Penne, and Manny Bermudez all missed weight at the early morning weigh ins (Ashlee Evans-Smith almost missed but got to 126). Penne hasn't won a fight since 2014 so her UFC career is at stake anyway.

[AA484]

Renan Barao smh

[twiztor]

3 hours ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

Wrong company. 

Also, the fighters had not even weighed in yesterday so it couldn't be a Saturday card. The 2/17/2019 in the thread title should be a dead giveaway.

yep. nobody's fault but my own.  but any time an event is not at the standard day/time it throws me off. i try to pay closer attention when they're overseas, but honestly i usually miss that too.

[Elsalvajeloco]

2 minutes ago, twiztor said:

yep. nobody's fault but my own.  but any time an event is not at the standard day/time it throws me off. i try to pay closer attention when they're overseas, but honestly i usually miss that too.

I think I did the date correlated to an event in Australia (or New Zealand) one time (maybe I did it also for one of the UFC cards in Japan before I changed it) because I looked at the poster, but everytime I put the date in the title it's the date it would happen in the U.S. It's always going to be like that unless it's a weird situation like RIZIN last NYE where they had one card broken down into two and the first part started essentially an hour before midnight CST IIRC (three hours before midnight PST). The Pacquiao/Matthysse card was also like that.

[Elsalvajeloco]

Well, certainly no pressure here.

[Jiji]

I want him to succeed more than anybody else in MMA.

[DreamBroken]

Jessica Penne vs. Jodie Esquibel is off the card due to undisclosed injury for Penne.. Sad, I was looking forward to her return as she was always one of my favorites and has been out so long. edit: Apparently she sprained her ankle during morning workouts.