UFC on ESPN 24 Post-Fight Analysis

The pacing on these 9 fight events is brutal. ESPN is much better than Fox was in that regard, but this few fights still has not reason to take like five hours. Almost makes me wish I was just watching the fights after the event and skipping the in-between parts... Anyway let's talk about the fights.

Main Card

I give it to Waterson, she has some skill and is definitely tough... but the main event was never really competitive. Waterson really struggled with the size disadvantage and only started to grapple too late, getting some decent top control in round four, but it was too little too late as the much bigger girl had laid a beating on her for most of the 25 minutes. 

It still looks to me like any good wrestler will beat Rodriguez, but there won't be much 115ers who will outstrike her. Joanna v Rodriguez would be fun violence. 

The co-main was just a sad event. I guess in hindsight Morono by KO would have been great bet, Cowboy just didn't look great by any chance and he never was the most durable guy even before getting old. Hope he retires, he isn't gonna make any runs any more in any division.

Neil Magny and Geoff Neal had a pretty lackluster match, Magny essentially kept busy to win the rounds for a decision but didn't do anything that special and Neal simply didn't do enough. Neal was technically better, but needs to get more urgent if he is going to win fights. 

Another pretty uncompetitive fight was between Marcos Rogerio De Lima and Maurice Greene. I said Greene sucks, and suck he did, having no bare basics of takedown defence so he was top controlled for 15 minutes. Almost would have rather seen him get flatlined than such a shitshow of no wrestling defence.

Gregor Gillespie and Diego Ferreira put on a banger though. Gillespie's striking looked awful and Ferreira was putting a hurting on him early. So Gillespie went to his bread and butter and wrestled for his life. Ferreira was the more technical grappler though, being able to create scrambles and get up consistently. Gillespie looked badly faded already by end of round one. It looked like there was no way back, especially since Ferreira is also known for his good cardio.

Put Gillespie had no choice but to bite down and keep wrestling since standing up was never gonna end well for him... and sure enough he might have been gassed, but eventually the constant grappling transitions started to gas Ferreira too. Gillespie managed to hold him down by the end of second round and start really pounding him, leading the ref to step in and give a great comeback victory for Gillespie.

Everyone was expecting Daukaus to gas out Hawes, but the opposite happened. Hawes pounded Daukaus' long torso and by end of 2nd Daukaus looked already very weathered. In the end Hawes could not get Daukaus out of there, but won a wide decision either way.

Prelims

Short prelims this time, only three fights. Michael Trizano probably won the fight against Ludovit Klein if scored as a full fight, Klein was pretty much seconds away from being submitted before saved by the bell. However the fact that Trizano won decision seemed bad decision either way, it certainly looked like Klein had two rounds in the bag already. 

Tafon Nchukwi looked like a guy with 5 pro fights going against established UFC fighter... obvious pick in other words but I somehow got it wrong. Jun Yong Park didn't need to do anything complicated to get a clear decision win, just straight shots and staying defensively sound while being much faster than his opponent.

Carlston Harris got an easy submission win against Christian Aguilera in the opener. We always knew Harris would be desperate to grapple, but he also managed to pop Aguilera with some hard shots before choking him out of there. 

My picks

Middle of the road night for me, over half of the pick rights with 5 out of 9 correct, but still ending up taking a small, bit under a bet of loss. Worst pick was by far Tafon Nchukwi, guy looked awful and in hindsight it's obvious he is gonna be losing with so little experience going against much more battle tested opponent. Park was great value as an underdog. 

Best pick was another underdog, Neil Magny putting in a reliable performance. All in all aside Nchukwi I didn't make terrible mistakes, most picks were at least somewhat justifiable. Of course all it really takes is one bad pick to really derail an event for bets.

Next weekend we have the big event again with good mix of high and low level fights and I am hopeful we will do well in that event. 

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