UFC on ESPN 9 Post-Fight Analysis

UFC's return to action has been solid with action-packed cards left and right, this one was one in that series. Let's break down the fights as usual.

Main Card

Tyron Woodley just is not all there any more. It is not just the age catching up with him though, the same seemingly mental issues of not really going for it was there, albeit not as bad as against Usman. Either way, his reflexes seem to be slowing down as Burns clocked him with bunch of hard shots and even had him rocked a few times. Something that you would not have expected to happen to prime Woodley.

Of course take nothing away from Burns who seems to be putting it together excellently. That improvement from him combined with Woodley's obvious decline made for a very one-sided fight in the end.

In the co-main we did not see much fireworks, but Augusto Sakai at least showed that he is a solid fighter. He did not manage to knock out Ivanov like he did to so many of his recent opponents, but either way the winning streak continues.

Billy Quarantillo and Spike Carlyle had a back-and-forth, action-packed fight that Quarantillo just about edged in a decision. Could have gone either way, but it probably went right considering how badly Carlyle faded towards the end of the fight.

Roosevelt Roberts very predictably put away Brok Weaver, but at least Weaver did not take a bad KO this time around. Mackenzie Dern returned to the winning column despite having a rough start against Hannah Cifers. Cifers did not have the discipline to disengage when there was a scramble and that cost her the fight as she was soon leglocked.

It's amazing to see how big of a difference in level the Shevchenko sisters have. Valentina made really easy work of Chookagian, but Antonina was completely dominated from bell to bell. She simply had no answer for the grappling.

Prelims

Gabriel Green was as game as they come, but all his pressure did against Daniel Rodriguez was make his head absorb over 100 strikes. He was unable to establish any grappling game and was hopelessly outlanded on the feet.

Jamahal Hill had Kledson Abreu hurt couple of times despite the fight only lasting for 90 seconds. The guy has plenty of power and is able to find the shots to hurt the opponents, ceiling is very high for him.

Tim Elliott was doing great against Brandon Royval, but set a pace that he simply did not have the stamina to keep, andt thus faded before second round was over and was shortly subbed. Casey Kenney made quick work of Louis Smolka with a tight guillotine, and in the first fight Chris Gutierrez put a leg kicking clinic against Vince Morales who refused to adjust in any way to having his leg massacred. In the end Morales was unable to stay on his feet and ref had to wave it off.

My picks

6 out of 11 right does not sound too bad, but really I am disappointed with my picks, and having a losing night was the least concern in that regard. It just bothers me when some picks were so clear that you could have seen them ahead of time, but I did not see them. Tyron Woodley's decline at 38 was one such thing. Backing him after the awful display against Usman was the wrong decision, especially after such a long layoff.

Another bad pick was Antonina Shevchenko. When your pick loses with a 30-25 scorecard, you know something went awfully wrong. Guess I was just blindsided by how easily Valentina dominated Chookagian, but Valentina really is another level and Antonina already showed her deficiencies against Roxanne Modafferi, who is an inferior fighter to Chookagian.

Chookagian and Burns would have been great catches as underdogs too. So it is annoying to get those wrong. As for my best pick, there was not anything particularly good, most of the picks that went right were big favorites anyway, so I guess just Roosevelt Roberts was the best pick, considering he dominated his fight so clearly.