Jakro's MMA Musings

Last weekend we had a 15-fight event, whereas this weekend we have had already short card further shortened through cancellations down to 10 fights. I would like even 12 fights every week, but from time management perspective these shorter cards are better. Anyway this card is pretty thin in name value, but expect highlight KO in the main event. Main Event: Derek Brunson vs. Edmen Shahbazyan Surely this won't be even close? I did go through the motions of reviewing their last fights, but my opinion on who wins is still clear, Edmund's boy will smash Brunson. You are putting a young, rising star with heavy KO power in there with a 36-year-old guy who has already been KOd 5 times in his career. Sure, Brunson managed to beat Heinisch last time around, but even then he got his bell rung in the first round. I do hope Brunson manages to make it competitive though. I mean he is experienced guy with a well-rounded skillset, and if he can test Edmen it would be important for his growth ...

Final fight card from fight island before return to Vegas featured 15 fights and plenty of good action. Main Card Robert Whittaker and Darren Till engaged in a very tense, tactical battle peppered with explosions of action. Whittaker getting dropped in the first seemed like it was gonna prove me right about his durability, but really getting hit with an elbow like that springing forward would put anyone down. If anything the fact that he went on to find a win in the fight shows Whittaker is still very much fit to fight for title in the future. The co-main had seemed like an afterthought in my mind, but Minotauro actually fought very well and made it a tight affair, taking some shots well to the chin and also hurting Shogun. In the end Shogun did just about enough to edge a decision (once again). Alexander Gustafsson's heavyweight return was a big disappointment. Some people said Werdum was a terrible style matchup for him, but I don't really buy it, it's not like eve...

Main Event: Robert Whittaker vs. Darren Till Well my skill-assessment shows this clearly to be Whittaker's fight to lose, but although the gap seems quite large, I have no confidence in it. Till has still relatively little high-level experience and his losses came at a smaller weight class. Even if he looked solid against Gastelum, Gastelum was always gonna struggle with Till's size. Only Bobby Knuckles will help us find out if Till is actually a contender in middleweight division. His skills are well-known, but I actually am bit uncertain of him as well. Those Romero fights were absolute wars, and then on top of that he got hurt in both rounds and finished by Adesanya. Has all of that already taken a toll on Whittaker? You can't say with any absolute certainty, but what little we saw against Adesanya suggests to me that the damage might be catching up to him. At the same time, Adesanya is the highest level of striking there is, and he was catching Whittaker coming in...

Pretty good event, lots of finishes in the main card, particularly leglocks seemed unusually effective, and of course I was left with good vibes cause I snapped my losing streak. Main Card The only thing surprising about the main event was just how uncompetitive it was. I figured Benavidez does not have the durability to survive five rounds with Figueiredo, but I did expect that just like in the first fight, he would at least have some good moments before getting caught with a big shot and getting KOd. It wasn't going to be even that though, as first shot sat him down and if MMA gods had been merciful, that would have been it. He should have just let Figueiredo RNC him immediately after, but instead he toughed it out and got back to his feet only to get knocked back down with the next solid shot that connected. Eventually it was the third knockdown that was too much and he got choked completely unconscious shortly after. Utterly dominant from Figueiredo who will be a tough guy...

I am exhausted, wrote almost all of these straight. Main Event: Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Joseph Benavidez Sometimes when two people rematch there is reasons to think it won't go exactly like it went the first time, such as when Conor fought Diaz for the 2nd time, or the recent Volkanovski v Holloway rematch. This is not one of those times though, it's a fight where first time went pretty much how I called it and there is little reason to think anything changes this time around. Benavidez is the more intelligent, technical fighter, I suppose. He is also 35 years old and got KOd by Figueiredo last time around. Figueiredo is very powerful for the weight class and for his size, and his size is barely able to make 125, indeed which is why we are having this rematch, since he missed the weight last time around. So all the physical advantages are with Figueiredo, who also got chance to figure out the timing of Benavidez last time around, so won't need to feel around so much ...

There wasn't name value on tonight's fight night card from Abu Dhabi, but for what it's worth the fights were decent both in terms of action and technical skill. Let's go through them a little before we shift our focus on the weekend's card. Main Card Main Event went pretty much exactly as it was expected to go. Both guys going at it, but Kattar being the one able to land more damage, which lead to Ige fading towards the end after having been competitive early on. Nothing against him, but am glad Ige's fake win streak is now over. In co-main event Elliot and Benoit scrapped very competitively, hard to say any winner from that but I was leaning towards Benoit myself, seems like he hurt Tim way more than vice versa - cracked him with some hard shots and probably fucked something in his knee up with that leg lock as well. So yeah, I think he is entitled to feel a little hard done by that decision, but either way it was extremely close so I wouldn't exactly...

Multiple events in one week? Kinda like it but its brutal to get these previews done, had to do all nighter to get these done in time. Main Event: Calvin Kattar vs. Dan Ige This card might not be packed with a lot of name value, but this main event at least should be a good one, with two guys who prefer to strike going head to head.  Calvin showed in his fights against Zabit and Stephens that he is definitely top-10 fighter in the division, perhaps even top 5. Ige on the other hand showed in his split decision wins against Bektic and Barboza that he is probably top-10 fighter in the division, but definitely not top-5.  So yeah, I don't see Ige posing too much problems for Kattar. Frankly he was lucky to get the decision against Barboza after seemingly losing two rounds clearly, even that third round was not clearly his. They both are strong boxers and Ige can perhaps throw more volume and get a decision that way, but his problem is that he is the smaller, less powe...

Overall, 251 was a night of great fights that had you on the edge of your seat, but the Main Event fell a little flat despite being exactly what you would expect from it. I am just gonna get straight into it. Main Card The talk that Jorge was on six days notice turned out to be the truth. There were whispers and suspicions that he really had been training and would come prepared, but seeing him gas out like that after one round leaves me inclined to think he definitely wasn't in full training mode ahead of the fight. Mind you, Usman's style is exhausting to fight against, but I would still expect fit Jorge to last at least two rounds. In that one round he had he looked great though, being able to land a lot of damage. Once he got too gassed to properly counter and circle off the fence, it became exactly what you would expect from an Usman fight. As much as it is stylistically ugly, Usman's style is built around his strengths and will be extremely difficult to beat. I d...

It's a top heavy card for the first Fight Island event, but prelims should nonetheless have some good action as well despite not having many big names. Lot of 50/50 fights on the card, but also some that look reasonably clear cut beforehand. As for main events, I still keep flip-flopping around, undecided on who will win. Main Event: Kamaru Usman vs. Jorge Masvidal I keep wanting to pick Jorge here, cause I see a surprisingly many not believing he even deserves the title shot. I do think he deserves it and he is one of the very elite fighters in the world, despite having a lot of losses in his record. Either way, against Usman he will be losing a lot of rounds. I choose that wording cause I do think Masvidal will be the one more likely to hurt Usman. But even when Usman would take damage, he could control position and still end up taking the round. Usman is pretty close to a complete fighter - great wrestling, top control, strong as hell, excellent cardio, good even in stand-u...