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UFC Fight Night on ESPN+ 24: Blaydes vs. Dos Santos (1/25/2020) - Raleigh, NC (PNC Arena)


Elsalvajeloco

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UFC Fight Night on ESPN+ 24: Blaydes vs. Dos Santos 
January 25, 2020
Raleigh, NC (PNC Arena)

Curtis Blaydes (248) vs. Junior dos Santos (247) - Blaydes, TKO (strikes), R2 (1:06)
Rafael dos Anjos (170) vs. Michael Chiesa (170.5) - Chiesa, DEC (unanimous)
Jordan Espinosa (126) vs. Alex Perez (125.5) - Perez, SUB (arm triangle choke), R1 (2:33)
Hannah Cifers (114.5) vs. Angela Hill (116) - Hill, TKO (punches and elbows), R2 (4:26)
Jamahal Hill (205.5) vs. Darko Stošić (205) - Hill, DEC (unanimous)

ESPN+ Preliminary Card:
Bevon Lewis (186) vs. Dequan Townsend (185) - Lewis, DEC (unanimous)
Arnold Allen (145.5) vs. Nik Lentz (146) - Allen, DEC (unanimous)
Justine Kish (126) vs. Lucie Pudilová (126) - Kish, DEC (unanimous)
Montel Jackson (135.5) vs. Felipe Colares (135) - Jackson, DEC (unanimous)
Sara McMann (135) vs. Lina Länsberg (135) - McMann, DEC (unanimous)
Brett Johns (136)vs. Tony Gravely (135) - Johns, SUB (rear naked choke), R2 (2:53)
Herbert Burns (146) vs. Nate Landwehr (146) - Burns, KO (knee), R1 (2:43)

Event Bonuses ($50,000)
Performance of the Night: Herbert Burns
Performance of the Night: Alex Perez
Fight of the Night: Brett Johns vs. Tony Gravely

Attendance: 14,533
Gate$1.3 million

Cancelled Fights:
Frankie Edgar vs. Cory Sandhagen - Sandhagen Moved to Another Card 
Bevon Lewis vs. Alen Amedovski - Injury to Amedovski 
Brianna Van Buren vs. Hannah Cifers - Injury to Van Buren
Josh Emmett vs. Arnold Allen - Injury to Emmett
Nik Lentz vs. Nad Narimani - Injury to Narimani
 

Edited by Elsalvajeloco
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I think it's interesting that Curtis Blaydes is a pretty decent favorite over JDS. Curtis usually does all his damage from top position, and Junior for all his faults that @Oyaji went over the other day in the UFC 246 thread is a pretty solid defensive wrestler. Does Curtis go the Cain route and just wear Junior out along the fence in the clinch? Because Junior is going to most likely find his back up against the fence either way it goes. That's just his nature. However, despite only losing to Francis Ngannou, I'm not sure if Blaydes can absolutely rely on his durability. Maybe it's just that Ngannou was a much better fighter the second time around and needed a big win to solidify his spot in the HW division, but I was surprised the rematch ended that quickly. Even counting the Stipe fight and using the strange Derrick Lewis bout as an outlier, Blaydes is really the only person who looked halfway decent against Ngannou in a real back and forth encounter. And it was a brutal, war of attrition fight w/o the sloppiness that you rarely see in UFC prelim HW fights which is probably why I said at the time both guys have a bright future in the division. Then in the rematch, Blaydes just got smoked. Well, you can say it's Francis Ngannou and Blaydes got caught cold which can happen to anyone. That leads me to my overall point. At this point in his long UFC tenure, the last thing Junior dos Santos can do is catch people. If Blaydes is susceptible to being caught still, that does give Junior a solid puncher's chance. Ok...maybe I'm just playing the devil's advocate hoping for a slugfest.

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  • jaedmc pinned this topic

How in the blue hell did Colares survive that? (Dan Miragliotta). And now Jackson is completely gassed.

edit: two great scraps so far with that one and Johns/Gravely. Missed Burns/Landwehr and McMann/Lansberg went exactly how everybody thought it would. McMann's upper body is ridiculous for any MMA fighter, but like a hundred times over for a woman. You don't see that sort of muscle definition and mass on a female athlete very often. Between her strength and incredible wrestling and good control, she should have been dominant but that submission defense.

Edited by Oyaji
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Angela Hill is the perfect gatekeeper at strawweight. Probably won't ever challenge for the title, but athletic and talented enough that anyone just on the fringes of being UFC level won't beat her. 

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It is really unfortunate we are not getting 5 rounds here. That was amazing to watch RdA get out of that sticky situation. He remained calm the entire time, and then took advantage when Chiesa was too high up on him, sneaked out the back and got up. Those body attacks were nasty but I don't know if he's got enough time for them to really pay off.

If judges give Chiesa the second because of this half takedown and grappling at the end that accomplished nothing, that's dogshit. Cliched talking point, but 10-9 system sucks for MMA, particularly 3 round fights and how rare we get 10-8s. 

Edited by Oyaji
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16 minutes ago, Oyaji said:

It is really unfortunate we are not getting 5 rounds here. That was amazing to watch RdA get out of that sticky situation. He remained calm the entire time, and then took advantage when Chiesa was too high up on him, sneaked out the back and got up. Those body attacks were nasty but I don't know if he's got enough time for them to really pay off.

If judges give Chiesa the second because of this half takedown and grappling at the end that accomplished nothing, that's dogshit. Cliched talking point, but 10-9 system sucks for MMA, particularly 3 round fights and how rare we get 10-8s. 

Yeah, that should have been a five rounder.  Credit to Chiesa for putting a big name on his resume, but it's clear his gameplan revolved around going full blast with those takedown attempts. Dos Anjos perhaps being too calm was spending a minute to a minute and a half fighting off Chiesa from advancing position or actually getting him down.

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That was a fight in reverse with both guys showing growth but the improved punching technique > defensive footwork to avoid getting pinned against the cage. 

Look at JDS' shoulder tho!

Edited by Oyaji
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And that's what a good contingency plan looks like. Don't get the takedown? That's alright, throw a straight right as your opponent is leaning down for an uppercut. Cormier called it. Junior threw that uppercut at the end of round 1 with no setup. He tried to do it again, and it did not go well. You can't give the play away.

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JDS, like most HW's, really "popeyes" his uppercuts.  His chin may also be shot but the guy is 39 and has been pasted a few times in his career.  A lot of people just think Blaydes is a wrestle-f*cker but they are forgetting that he also HITS REALLY HARD.

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3 minutes ago, AA484 said:

JDS, like most HW's, really "popeyes" his uppercuts.  His chin may also be shot but the guy is 39 and has been pasted a few times in his career.  A lot of people just think Blaydes is a wrestle-f*cker but they are forgetting that he also HITS REALLY HARD.

When Junior was much younger, throwing those uppercuts (the one in round one was from distance really) might not have much of an issue. Once you eliminate that handspeed (and the first one was kinda fast fwiw), I mean...Blaydes was already catching him as Junior was constantly pulling away from him. Once Junior finally sat still for a moment, he was forced to make a decision. Here is where that age shows up. Blaydes says he threw an overhand right, but Junior rose from that uppercut attempt and Junior's eyeline was right in front of the right hand of Curtis. If Junior knows Curtis not changing levels for a takedown, he has to bail on that uppercut.

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6 hours ago, Hail Sabin said:

Someone of you might get a Kick out of this. Tom Lawlor on this week's MLW episode says his stable is now sponsored by Condom Depot. 

You just reminded me of him having Pampers and probably Condom Depot and who knows what the fuck else as ads on his trunks during the last Bloodsport. It was a riot trying to figure out what he had on there with all the movement. 

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The message from this show was, once you're past your athletic prime and you're losing that half a step, it's not a problem if you're really good at Wrestling (Sara McMann) but it really is a problem if you're a stand up fighter (JDS).

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3 hours ago, AxB said:

The message from this show was, once you're past your athletic prime and you're losing that half a step, it's not a problem if you're really good at Wrestling (Sara McMann) but it really is a problem if you're a stand up fighter (JDS).

To be fair, look at the degree of difficulty. Just returning off of maternity leave or not, Sara McMann should dominate Lina Lansberg in terms of grappling anytime they fight. McMann's problems come when sometimes her opponents do stop her takedowns, or she is in a position on the ground she isn't use to. Not only is Lina Lansberg not gonna stop her takedowns, but she isn't going to do the latter by submitting her from her back. I would have serious reservations if McMann was in there with a Holly Holm even if Holm herself is not exactly what she was three or four years ago. That would not be a pretty sight for McMann. Junior, on the other hand, did stop Blaydes from taking him down and wasn't prone against the cage much. The problem is Junior either cannot or doesn't know how to integrate that with his striking anymore. His focus seemed to be on just landing one big punch in an exchange. That would be a not so good strategy as is, but it's even made worse by Blaydes now being the faster fighter. That gave Blaydes the confidence to do with he did. Junior's strategy probably should have been not to focus on the movement as much because it's not like Blaydes is just an one punch KO artist. Even in this fight, Blaydes didn't get a knockdown and it took several followup shots. If you can stop the takedowns and Curtis is allowing you to take the center of the octagon, buddy you need to be throwing. That's the only way you can win. It just seemed to be a ton of hesitation on Junior's part. I believe prime Junior dos Santos would still have a problem with Curtis Blaydes, but his chance to beat Blaydes would obviously be better. He would be more likely to throw in combination. Now, the directive from Junior's team seems to revolve around just don't get caught by a punch your damn self. When you're fighting not to lose, it may be time to think about shutting it down.

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GET THAT BREAD, ANGIE HILL~!!  FUCK YEAH~!!

I am kinda pissed that this event was like three hours from my house, but fucking 1ID in Germany wanted a readiness training event to be held over the weekend so I got put on schedule just as I was about to buy a fucking ticket on Tuesday.

Edited by J.T.
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