UFC 262 Post-Fight Analysis

Honestly the expectation for UFC 262 for me was so high it was almost impossible for the event to live up to it. The event had it's share of snoozer fights but few absolute bangers and crazy moments, so all in all very satisfying night.

Main Card

Main event was just as violent and crazy as we could have hoped for. Charles Oliveira showed some balls stepping right into range with Chandler, not respecting his power at all and got the back control early, but it started to quickly look bad when Chandler managed to scramble out and then started to lay waste on Oliveira. In all that barrage guess Chandler gassed himself a little, cause instead of standing up and finishing Oliveira on the feet, he stayed in guard to work the ground and pound until the round ended.

In the second I thought Oliveira had to be in survival mode, but if anything he had fully recovered and it was Chandler that was in trouble, getting immediately dropped with Oliveira's punch and the GnP that followed was the finish. Incredible comeback for one of the good guys of UFC, glad to see him get the title and hopefully he can defend the belt a couple of times too, although I do think he is too hittable in the long run to be a long-standing champ, but would be glad to be wrong.

The co-main... well not only did Tony get completely dominated again, it also seemed he sustained some pretty severe damage... You can trust me I was yelling at the screen for Tony to tap but that crazy fucker... Well, that's why he is the El Cucuy we love, for better and worse. Tony the type of guy to rather fuck up his knee than tap. He is far gone and I am not sure if he could beat even a low-level lightweight at this point, and I don't see any point in testing that theory, please just retire.

Bontorin was supposed be one round or bust, especially on short notice, but somehow Schnell managed to fight at such a plodding pace that Bontorin not only didn't gas, but did well in all rounds. No point in commenting the judging which was horrible all night, but at least the Bontorin decision was probably right in the end.

Chookagian somehow won UD against Araujo in a fairly forgettable fight in which it looked Araujo had two rounds in the back, but gassed late on... I don't know, it's MMA judging, so fuck it, but feel like we got robbed there.

Edson Barboza and Shane Burgos started the PPV with an absolute banger. Burgos is known for his iron chin, but it finally crumbled as Barboza brought his A game and kept dealing constant damage through the fight until it was finally too much with Burgos having a scary, delayed collapse. I thought Burgos has good head movement but guess I'm wrong cause it seems like he absorbs 30 powershots every fight, so it looks like this will have him washing out. Does this make Edson title contender? Featherweight is so stacked but he arguably beat Ige so he should be up there for sure, and he doesn't have too much time if he is gonna get to the title.

Prelims

Andre Muniz said he is better grappler than Jacare. We all laughed, but he had the last laugh. Jacare didn't randomly die, he just purely got outgrappled and had his arm gruesomely torn off. Wish he retired two fights ago, we didn't need to see the legend get destroyed like this by middling level fighters at best in Holland and Muniz.

Lando Vannata classed Mike Grundy who doesn't really do much in fights, but somehow one judge had him winning every round. Embarrassing split decision, but at least right guy won in the end. 

Lot of people were writing off Jordan Wright after seeing him wilt in his last fight, but he showed he is at least much more of a fighter than Pickett is, but that doesn't really tell us much about how good Wright really is, just that some of these guys coming through the Contender are rough as fuck.

Andrea Lee was everyone's favorite bet for the event and she did live up to that status. I was expecting her to squeak a split decision like she usually does, but instead she just proved to us that just because Ariane Lipski is awful didn't mean that Antonina suddenly developed a ground game. Second round submission, a good win for Andrea Lee.

I thought Cachoeira is awful... and yeah, she isn't very good. But I guess I have to give her her due, she is a violent girl, and that's what got her the win. Mazany engaged too much in the wild pocket trading and faded with all the grappling, but I still think Mazany might have had a miniscule chance of holding out for a decision win via top control if ref didn't stand them up prematurely. Either way guess we all should be happy in the end that fight ends via finish rather than decision via stalling.

Tucker Lutz put in a solid performance against Kevin Aguilar, pretty much what we expected, being slightly better everywhere and pulling clearly away in the end. Christos Giagos opened the night by submitting Sean Soriano, who to be fair fought well while it lasted and definitely did enough to warrant a second chance. 

My picks

I got 7 out of 12 right and ended up with a marginal win of about one bet. Best pick was probably Lando, but I did bet big on Dariush who didn't have any trouble with Tony so guess that is pretty close to tying, and Lee wasn't a bad pick either as an underdog. Worst pick? Ehh, two that really stands out, picking fucking Mazany as biggest favorite of the card and picking Schnell also as a pretty big favorite. It stings to pick unreliable fighter with poor odds and then lose. 

It wasn't bad, but definitely having seen some guys absolutely kill it leaves you feeling a bit like it was missed opportunity. Either way we take some new lessons forward and move on to the next week, unfortunately next weekend's card seems pretty horrible, but at least that usually means easier reads.