#hermansson

[thesportssoundoff]

Jack Hermansson says promotion working on him vs. Darren Till for UFC London main event

Jack Hermansson says the UFC is working on a fight between him and Darren Till for the main event at UFC London.

[thesportssoundoff]

“A little solid regional afternoon card” UFC Fight Night in Denmark Preview

Joey

September 23rd

What to call this fight card. Hmm. Does weirdly good apply? It feels like a weirdly good card. UFC events in the middle of the day tend to have this extra level of good or bad on them. If it's good then it feels even better because it'll be done before 11 PM and you can go about your day happily. If it's bad then it feels extra bad because mid day MMA almost feels like having to be in school on a Saturday. This card is headlined by a pretty damn good fight at 185 lbs which feels weird given that its a dude who flamed out at 205 lbs vs a guy who got swamped by Cezar Mutante. Jack Hermansson vs Jared Cannonier being a) a headliner and b) a genuinely compelling fight tells the story of how quickly shit turns around at the higher weight classes but also how good fighters can find their way to adapt and evolve with time. The whole main card is pretty damn spiffy; you got two solid fights at 205 lbs with under the radar Polish LHW Michał Oleksiejczuk getting the big step up vs OSP, Ion Cutelaba vs Khalil Rountree figuring to be violent if nothing else, Gilbert Burns vs Gunnar Nelson the sort of short notice wacky fight at 170 lbs that people might be surprised by and an interesting fight pitting Brazil's Alex "Cowboy" Oliveira vs Denmark's Nicholas Dalby. There seems to be some confusion on what the fifth fight on this main card is as I've seen Alan Omedovsky/John Phillips, Mark Madsen/Danillo Belluardo and Macy Chiasson vs Lina Lansberg all listed but here's hoping it's the WBW fight since it's a fine challenge for Chiasson and a "prove it again" for Lina. Prelims are pretty good too with Lando Vannata vs Marc Diakiese and the return of Siyar Bahadurzada as stand out stuff. It's not a great card but something tells me this fight night will be more than alright.

Fights: 13

Debuts: Nicholas Dalby, Mark Madsen, Makhmud Muradov, Jack Shore, Giga Chikadze

Fight Changes/Injury Cancellations: 3 (Peter Sobotta OUT, Makhmud Muradov IN vs Alessio Di Chirico/Danny Henry vs Mike Davis CANCELLED/Thiago Alves OUT, Gilbert Burns IN vs Gunnar Nelson)

Headliners (fighters who have either main evented or co-main evented shows in the UFC): 8 (Jared Cannonier, Jack Hermansson, Gunnar Nelson, Cowboy Oliveira, Lina Lansberg, Ovince St. Preux, Lando Vannata, Khalil Rountree)

Fighters On Losing Streaks in the UFC: 2 (Ovince St. Preux, John Phillips)

Fighters On Winning Streaks in the UFC: 5 (Jack Hermansson, Jared Cannonier, Michał Oleksiejczuk, Gilbert Burns, Macy Chiasson)

Main Card Record Since Jan 1st 2017 (in the UFC): 32-19

Jared Cannonier- 3-3 Jack Hermansson- 6-1 Gunnar Nelson- 2-2 Gilbert Burns- 5-1 Ovince St. Preux- 4-4 Michal Oleksiejczuk- 2-0 Khalil Rountree- 4-1 Ion Cutelaba- 2-1 Mark Madsen- 0-0 Danilo Belluardo- 0-1 Nicholas Dalby- 0-1 Alex Oliveira- 4-4

Fights By Weight Class (yearly number here):

Middleweight-  3 (35) Welterweight-  3 (55) Lightweight- 2 (62) Light Heavyweight- 2 (37) Women’s Bantamweight-  1 (18) Bantamweight- 1 (50) Featherweight- 1 (48)

Women’s Strawweight- (24) Flyweight-   (14) Heavyweight- (27) Women’s Flyweight- (29) Women’s Featherweight- (7)

2019 Number Tracker

Debuting Fighters (27-52-1)-  Nicholas Dalby, Mark Madsen, Makhmud Muradov, Jack Shore, Giga Chikadze

Short Notice Fighters (25-35)- Makhmud Muradov, Gilbert Burns

Second Fight (49-29)- Allen Amedovski, Nohelin Hernandez, Danilo Belluardo

Cage Corrosion (Fighters who have not fought within a year of the date of the fight) (20-33-1)-

Undefeated Fighters (31-34-2)- Jack Shore, Macy Chiasson, Mark Madsen

Fighters with at least four fights in the UFC with 0 wins over competition still in the organization (11-8)-

Weight Class Jumpers (Fighters competing outside of the weight class of their last fight even if they’re returning BACK to their “normal weight class”) (26-18)- 

Twelve Precarious Ponderings

1- Is Hermansson about to become the latest victim of MMA chaos?

2- The story of Jack Hermansson is a fun one and another example of why activity will never burn you as a fighter. Hermansson was one of the guys who was winning impressively against not so impressive competition until the UFC put him against David Branch in March. He subbed Branch without much issue and his reward for that was a short notice replacement opportunity after Yoel Romero pulled out a fight with Jacare Souza. The UFC thought so little of Hermansson as an opponent that they not only promised Jacare a title shot if he won (for taking the fight) but ALSO moved it off of ESPN and to ESPN+. Despite the short notice call up and the quality of competition, Hermansson proved himself over five rounds as he pretty much effortlessly kept Jacare's crazy ground game at bay while taking the Brazilian down and boxing him up on the feet en route to a decision. Hermansson, like the ultimate "Just keep fighting" dude Michael Bisping, never had lingering losses because he always seemed to be fighting the next week. In so many words, Hermansson outfought his losses and kept a steady stream of wins coming so he was always in the radius. Now he's potentially one fight away from a title fight. Crazy sport sometimes.

3- So Hermansson should look in the mirror for every reason why he needs to take Jared Cannonier with 100% seriousness. Hermansson was looking to fight Kelvin Gastelum or Paulo Costa and both fights fell through, opening the door for him to basically HAVE to fight Jared Cannonier in order to fight at home. Cannonier has "earned" this fight by way of smelting David Branch and beating up on an aging Anderson Silva so there's really not much to his resume at 185 lbs that would give him a main event opportunity. That's basically what folks said about Hermansson when it came to the Jacare fight.

4- Are we officially out of the "Gunnar Nelson is a future title contender" phase? What say y'all?

5- Speaking of potential bandwagons, how about this Khalil Rountree one? We on it or off?

6- Gilbert Burns had a pretty impressive return to 170 lbs when he edged by Alexei Kunchenko on short notice in a pretty contentious fight. He gassed out late but he looked as fast as he normally does and his strength was impressive. I have no idea if he will stand much with Gunnar but this could be a pretty fun grappling contest if it comes down to it.

7- Nicolas Dalby was once compared to Martin Kampmann by folks prior to his UFC debut. After making said debut, Dalby just never found a way to make good on that upside. He looked like his so-so athleticism was exploited at the UFC level and he became more and more hittable as his tendencies were found and broken down. Unfortunately for Dalby, a 1-2-1 run against the likes of Elizeu Zaleski and Darren Till led to him being released---where he immediately lost to Carlo Pedersoli. Since that fight, Dalby's gone 3-0-1 and wound up getting signed on what seems like it's more about where Dalby's from than anything. HE draws Alex Oliveira on the main card open.

8- Speaking of which, do we have ANY update on Cowboy Oliveira's legal issues?

9- How is John Phillips still in the UFC? That just seems weird. He's 0-3 and been finished twice.

10- We all might've gotten a bit ahead of ourselves on Ismail Naurdiev but I'm not hopping off the bandwagon just yet. He shocked the world as a short notice fill in vs Michel Prezares but then came up short against wrestle happy 170 lber Chance Recountre. The holes in his game got exposed and his lack of substance to balance out the sizzle stood out down the stretch of that fight. He's back vs a similar-ish guy in Siyar Bahadurzada although Siyar hits way harder than Chance Recountre.

11- The UFC signed Giga Chikadze to fight Mike Davis but then Mike Davis got yanked off the card so the solution to that was to just keep Giga and have him fight Brandon Davis. MMA is weird. Chikadze is sort of not good at MMA but he vs Davis should be violent while it lasts.

12- How many wins away is Macy Chiasson from getting the Aspen Ladd treatment where she's put in a #1 contender fight that may be way above her preparedness level?

[thesportssoundoff]

“The Oreo Cookie of MMA Shows, ignore the top and the bottom and focus on the killer middle” The UFC Fight Night From Florida

Joey

April 21st, 2019

April has been a pretty hectic month overall for MMA and we end...on a pretty so so note. If you view the main and co-main event on its face, this card is a TOUGH ask. Jack Hermansson vs Jacare Souza feels like the third fight on one of these Strikeforce cards from 2011 while Greg Hardy vs Dimitry Smolyakov is a really bad co-main event designed to once again milk off of whatever name value Greg Hardy has at this point. Look beyond those two fights and there's PLENTY to really take in. Fights 3 to 13 are really interesting from a divisional relevance standpoint to just flat out "There will be violence" standpoint. You have fighters like Mike Perry, Cowboy Oliveira, John Lineker, Cory Sandhagen, Jim Miller, Andrei Arlovski, Gilbert Burns, Angela Hill and then familiar people like Ben Saunders, Dhiego Lima, Carla Esparza and Court McGee.  This is NOT the worst card in the world, you just gotta be willing to stomach what's at the top of the helm. ESPN made a really honest decision moving this card down to ESPN+ but now it's just a really solid ESPN+ card to take in on a Saturday night. If you can handle some filler and a yucky co-main of course.

Fights: 13

Debuts: Mike Davis, Thomas Gifford, Takashi Sato, Virna Jandiroba

Fight Changes/Injury Cancellations: 7 (Paulo Costa vs Yoel Romero CANCELLED/Jacare Souza vs Paulo Costa NEVER SIGNED/Yoel Romero OUT, Jack Hermansson IN vs Jacare Souza/Jessica Penne OUT, Angela Hill IN vs Jodie Esquibel/La Jingliang OUT, Mike Perry IN vs Alex Oliveira/Eric Wisely OUT, Mike Davis IN vs Gilbert Burns/Livia Souza OUT, Virna Jirandoba IN vs Carla Esparza)

Headliners (fighters who have either main evented or co-main evented shows in the UFC): 9 (Jack Hermansson, Jacare Souza, Mike Perry, Alex Oliveira, Carla Esparza, Greg Hardy, Glover Teixeira, John Lineker, Andrei Arlovski)

Fighters On Losing Streaks in the UFC: 4 (Andrei Arlovski, Ben Saunders, Jodie Esquibel, Carla Esparza)

Fighters On Winning Streaks in the UFC: 5 (Jack Hermansson, Gilbert Burns, John Lineker, Cory Sandhagen, Ion Cutelaba)

Main Card Record Since Jan 1st 2017 (in the UFC): 25-11

Jack Hermansson- 5-1 Jacare Souza- 3-2 Greg Hardy- 0-1 Dimitry Smolyakov- 0-0   Mike Perry- 3-3 Cowboy Oliveira- 4-2 Glover Teixeira- 3-2   Ion Cutelaba- 2-0 John Lineker- 2-0 Cory Sandhagen- 3-0 Roosevelt Roberts- 1-0 Thomas Giffords- 0-0

Fights By Weight Class (yearly number here):

Welterweight- 3 (26) Lightweight-  3 (26) Heavyweight- 2 (13) Women’s Strawweight- 2 (11) Middleweight- 1 (12) Light Heavyweight- 1 (16) Bantamweight- 1 (20)

Women’s Flyweight-  (13) Featherweight-  (18) Flyweight- (7) Women’s Bantamweight- (2)

2019’s Records We Keepin' Track Of:

Debuting Fighters (9-24): Mike Davis, Thomas Gifford, Takashi Sato, Virna Jandiroba

Short Notice Fighters (8-11): Jack Hermansson, Mike Perry, Mike Davis, Angela Hill, Virna Jandiroba

Second Fight (26-6): Greg Hardy, Roosevelt Roberts, Augusto Sakai

Cage Corrosion (Fighters who have not fought within a year of the date of the fight) (10-14): Dimitry Smolyakov, Jason Gonzales

Undefeated Fighters (13-18): Virna Jandiroba, Roosevelt Roberts

Fighters with at least four fights in the UFC with 0 wins over competition still in the organization (6-5):

Weight Class Jumpers (Fighters competing outside of the weight class of their last fight even if they’re returning BACK to their “normal weight class”) (14-8):

Twelve Precarious Ponderings

1- If Jack Hermansson finds a way to beat Jacare, is he officially legitimate?  I mean I can't imagine a lot of dudes topping Jacare and David Branch back to back in terms of big fights at 185 lbs. Those are two high quality tough dudes at middlewieght and to do them both in back to back months? Hermansson is pretty young, surprisingly tough and showing off some versatility in how he can get things done. At the very least, he becomes somebody to remember going forward.

2- How likely is it that Jacare is allowed to sit out until a title fight opens up for him? Jacare has been promised (suggested) a title fight IF he beats Hermansson and so now I'm left wondering what happens if Whittaker gets hurt again or there's some controversy in Adesanya vs Whittaker in August or September.

3- Let's get the elephant out in the open. Greg Hardy is not a co-main eventer----but kinda he is. Let's be fair and point out that the draw on this card isn't Jacare or Hermansson or a surprisingly good undercard BUT Greg Hardy who brings in perhaps a bit of a freakshow audience. Let's be entirely 100% fair, Greg Hardy is the closest thing the UFC has had from an in cage perspective to Kimbo Slice. There's an appeal there; a charisma and yes a freakshow factor that other dudes lack. While Kimbo was a freakshow gimmick by one of the nicest people ever, Greg Hardy's a freakshow full stop. In a perfect world where contrition is legitimate and guys do the hard work to earn their way back into the good graces of the public, we may not even be having this discussion because Hardy is not in the UFC but as Joe Blanchard once said in the wrestling biz, "You can draw people to a gutting if it's for the right guy." People want to see Greg Hardy lose and until that loses its luster, he will be featured prominently.  Also again, Shakur Stevenson JUST fought on Saturday and nary a mention of his issues based on a fight he allegedly instigated by catcalling women which led to a dude getting dropped. "Keep the same energy" as a fella I know would say.

4- How much longer does the Greg Hardy experiment last if he loses? CM Punk got two fights, James Toney got one, Kimbo got two and so on so forth. How tight is the leash here before they pull the plug?

5- I don't know who is going to make me more uncomfortable on this card, Andrei Arlovski or Ben Saunders.

6- Mike Perry vs Cowboy Oliveira seems like a microcosm of what 170 lbs is. Win enough fights and eventually you're going to get somebody who is out of your league. Win that one and you get a title shot because who else exists to get one? Lose and they discard you into the mid tier shark tank of action fighters. Mike Perry went from Max Griffin to Paul Felder to Donald Cerrone and his "bounceback" from Cerrone is another Cowboy who is just weirdly violent in all facets of the game. Cowboy Oliveira violenced dudes like Carlos Condit and Andre Pedersoli before getting Gunnar Nelson and now HIS bouncback is a violent as hell Mike Perry. There's a purgatory at 170 lbs between numbers 20 to 10 and most of these poor dudes are living in it. 170 lbs feels like the one division where "action fighter" is a detriment designed to suck the life out of your career.

7- So what can Cory Sandhagen do to vex John Lineker? The dudes who have given Lineker problems have to be a) tremendous movers who can dart in and out of the line of fire and b) really good wrestlers who can convince Lineker that there's danger in pressing forward because the threat of the takedown is real. I don't think Sandhagen is THAT kind of wrestler and I don't think his offense which is very flashy is going to fit well with a dude who just marches you down, cuts off your escape routes and then throws his entire existence into combinations. That said if you go REAAAAAAAAAAAL deep into the memory banks, Jose Maria Tome found success with knees when he could commit to them. It didn't stop the rain so to speak but it kept him dry long enough to not be a human speed bump.It's been a long while since Lineker looked suspect to submissions and I get the feeling that if the gameplan is to sub him, it's going to require something real deep in the arsenal.

8- So the UFC is going to keep feeding Glover Teixeira to young dudes until he finally gives up, right? Ion Cutelaba is just really violent and really aggressive and not much else so this is a fight Glover would've won five years ago but now it's going to be very, very hit or miss. Ion can wrestle a touch as well although the one fight I saw him use a takedown heavy gameplan, Jared Cannonier was just like "Take me down see if I give a fuck" en route to Cannonier just pasting Cutelaba for a late surge decision win.

9- If there's an honorary wing for "Small Tough Dads", Jim Miller has to be in there. He may not be in the riding lawnmower division but that's because he's too small to reach the steering wheel. Miller's last seven opponents are absolutely insane; Charles Oliveira, Alex White, Dan Hooker, Francisco Trinaldo, Anthony Pettis, Dustin Poirier and Thiago Fuckin' Alves. All of those dudes are still in the UFC, two of those dudes are champions, FIVE of those dudes are competent top 15 lightweights (Hooker, Pettis has position flex, Poirier, Trinaldo and Do Bronx) and two of those guys are active welterweights. That's a man's man right there. He gets a bit of a breather in the dangerously flawed Jason Gonzalez. Gonzalez is a tremendous kicker with so-so fight IQ, so-so takedowns, so-so submissions and fights at a so-so pace. He feels like a guy who could be better than he is but just might be IN that range of good but not great.

10- So let's talk about what I'm calling "the UFC Fast Pass Fuckery" for a bit. The UFC found Marcelo Golm, gave him a super gimmie fight and then turned around and put him in there vs Tim Johnson. Johnson isn't "good" but he's big, committed to a gameplan and just kinda knows what he can do and knows how to do it.  Golm lost a decision to Johnson and his career hasn't recovered. Junior Albini? He KO'd Johnson in his debut and then the UFC turned around and gave him Andrei Arlovski. Arlovski is another quality competent big dude who knows what to do and how to do it. He Muk'd his way to a decision over Albini and Albini's career hasn't recovered. Arjan Bhullar lost HIS second fight after the UFC gave him a big time step up in competition. Sometimes winning fights early in your career, especially at HW, is a detriment. The UFC might've found a fun violent HW in Augusto Sakai so OF COURSE two fights in, he's fighting a very faded but kinda not really bad Andrei Arlovski. It's a dicey proposition but again, this is kinda what the UFC does.  Best of luck, Augusto Sakai.

11- Court McGee vs Dhiego Lima is the sort of fight that you normally see on a show that  has the stench of being thrown together at the last minute. It's the ECW spotfest tag match opener from 2000.

12- It's an AWFUL matchup but Mike Davis making his UFC debut is intriguing. It's short notice vs Gilbert Burns (two big issues off the jump) but Davis is a really exciting prospect whose sole loss is to the damn good Sodiq Yusuff. He's got pretty much every tool you'd want from a young up and coming prospect. The problem is he's a natural 145er fighting at 155 lbs against a dude who really should be at welterweight.

[thesportssoundoff]

Jack Hermansson decisions Jacare Souza!

Jacare’s history on its own argues that he had a round to get this thing done. He held up very well though all things considered but it definitely felt like his best shot was early when he and Hermansson were cold and Jacare could get him at the very least off balance. Instead he got hurt, dropped and then nearly subbed which took him out of the equation entirely.

@theanticool talks about this really consistently and I absolutely like the way he frames this: You can never concede any aspect of a fight. You can be cautious/wary but you simply can’t say “I won’t win there” because chances are you just won’t win. Jack Hermansson threw kicks despite the fear that if you kick vs a BJJ guy, you’ll wind up getting taken down and subbed. He took Jacare down and made it clear that he had no fear of the guard. He struck with Jacare both as a counter striker and the guy going first. There’s something to be said for the confidence building philosophy of “I can win this fight anywhere” and for being able to shock the system of a guy by virtue of taking it to them in their house. Hermansson also seemed to take breaks a lot better within his fighting style compared to his other famous Swedish contemporary (sup Gus) which enables him to fight strong into rounds 4 and 5.

As for Jacare? You gotta wonder if this is the end of the line for him. He was very honest that he ONLY took this fight on guarantee of a title shot. It’s unfortunate that opportunity is gone from him but he also looked old and disinterested until about halfway through the third round. I wish he was a few years younger because his offensive improvement with his hands combined with his usually world class grappling and LESS of a decline of his athletic prowess would’ve made for a hell of a fighter.

[thesportssoundoff]

“Jack Hermansson vs David Branch as a co-main event, huh?” UFC Fight Night In Philly Preview

Joey

March 24th, 2019

The majority of these ESPN+ Fight Night cards lack a big juicy main event but hit you with card depth and quality, bull rushing you with great fight after great fight with evenly matched matchmaking up and down the marquee so you can shrug aside a blegh main event for depth. The two ESPN cards? Not quite the same cup of tea. These cards give you a big main event and then a lot of decent fights featuring names you'll know and plenty of padding. This card from Philly is not the strongest you'll ever see from the UFC, a decent enough showing with a major main event to drag you in MUCH like how the debut from Arizona had good but not great stuff and THEN the big HW main event. Here you have Justin Gaethje vs Edson Barboza in a really good lightweight main event and a bunch of intriguing filler for the most part with some interesting prospects fighting each other and some names you might know on the undercard. It's not the most delicious of appetizers but it's good enough to get you to the main course which is going to be well worth it however long it lasts.

Fights: 13

Debuts: Sabina Mazo, Kennedy Nzechukwu, Kyler Phillips

Fight Changes/Injury Cancellations: 2 (Pingyuan Liu OUT, Kyler Phillips IN vs Ray Borg/Alexa Grasso OUT, Jessica Aguilar IN vs Marina Rodriguez)

Headliners (fighters who have either main evented or co-main evented shows in the UFC): 9 (Edson Barboza, Justin Gaethje, David Branch, Karolina K, Michelle Waterson, Ray Borg, Ross Pearson, Josh Emmett, Michael Johnson)

Fighters On Losing Streaks in the UFC: 1 (Maryna Moroz)

Fighters On Winning Streaks in the UFC: 6 (Michael Johnson, Michelle Waterson, Jack Hermansson, Sheymon Moraes, Enrique Barzola, Mark De La Rosa)

Main Card Record Since Jan 1st 2017 (in the UFC): 22-19

Justin Gaethje- 2-2 Edson Barboza- 2-2 Jack Hermansson- 4-1 David Branch- 2-2 Josh Emmett-2-2 Michael Johnson- 2-2 Karolina Kowalkiewicz- 2-2 Michelle Waterson- 2-2 Paul Craig- 1-3 Kennedy Nzechukwu- 0-0 Sheymon Moraes- 2-1 Sodiq Yusuff- 1-0

Fights By Weight Class (yearly number here):

Featherweight- 3 (16) Lightweight-  2 (18) Bantamweight- 2 (17) Women’s Strawweight- 2 (9) Middleweight-  2 (9) Light Heavyweight- 1 (11) Women’s Flyweight- 1 (11)

Flyweight- (6) Welterweight- (19) Heavyweight- (8) Women’s Bantamweight- (2)

2019’s Records We Keepin Track Of:

Debuting Fighters (8-15): Sabina Mazo, Kennedy Nzechukwu, Kyler Phillips

Short Notice Fighters (6-7): Kyler Phillips, Jessica Aguilar

Second Fight (20-5): Kevin Aguilar, Soqid Yusuff, Marina Rodriguez

Cage Corrosion (Fighters who have not fought within a year of the date of the fight) (7-11): Ray Borg, Josh Emmett, Maryna Moroz

Undefeated Fighters (10-11):  Sabina Mazo, Marina Rodriguez, Kennedy Nzechukwu

Fighters with at least four fights in the UFC with 0 wins over competition still in the organization (5-5): (Three different fighters have 1 fighter still in the UFC on their record though; Ross Pearson, Gerald Meerschaert and Des Green)

Weight Class Jumpers (Fighters competing outside of the weight class of their last fight even if they’re returning BACK to their “normal weight class”) (9-5): Ray Borg, Alex Perez, Maryna Moroz

Twelve Precarious Ponderings

1- So what necessarily are the ratings going to be for this card? We can acknowledge that thus far the UFC/ESPN deal has been a smash hit for the UFC at least in terms of ratings. Numbers have rebounded for PPV prelims and the few times ESPN has put the UFC on in primetime, they've delivered. That said this card is likely going head to head with March Madness games (which wasn't much fo a problem on FS1 but diff network/circumstances etc etc) and perhaps more concerning, Justin Gaethje has thus far not proved to be a numbers mover. His fight with Michael Johnson did pretty poorly, UFC 218 was a surprisingly poor number PPV wise, the fight with Poirier did poor numbers on Fox and James Vick vs Justin Gaethje was one of the lower rated FS1 primetime showings ever. Something about Gaethje has not resonated with audiences and I don't know if it's because he's kinda weird or if he's just a victim of circumstance fighting during an overly packed calendar schedule. Either way Gaethje feels like one of these dudes who could probably really benefit from the split of the UFC and Fox because whatever they were trying was not working.

2- Obviously spilled milk and all that but I wonder if this show might've been a hotter deal if this was Alvarez vs Gaethje 2 instead of Alvarez vs Barboza. I don't necessarily think it would've made that big of a difference.

3- Is Justin Gaethje beats Edson Barboza, COULD he leapfrog Tony Ferguson in the pecking order at 155 lbs? It's worth remembering that Gaethje is also sort of kind of petitioning for a new contract as well currently.

4- Currently Justin Gaethje is the underdog here (+135 on the site I frequent). Should he be?

5- I've given the fight a lot of shit so let me be real enough to point out what's actually good about this fight between Jack Hermansson vs David Branch. For starters, David Branch has clearly carved out a niche IMO as a solid 185 lber who can live comfortably in the top 15, even if it's just as a rebound fight for top guys like Jacare and Luke Rockhold. I actually think his value may be as a swing guy who can do something at 205 lbs while campaigning primarily at 185 lbs.  He has a well earned and deserved spot in the UFC and on a main card. Jack Hermansson is one of those dudes who you almost feel a bit bad for; the sort of guy who gets dug up for shows in Brazil or Europe and then put on ice until the next one. He's coming off a great come from behind win over Thales Leites where he tore up his ribs en route to a third round comeback finish. Hermansson is still kinda young at 185 lbs and while he's limited athletically, he's sound enough and a big time finisher who is well due for a main card slotting. It's the co-main event problem I have here and I imagine most people would agree. This is a fine 3rd or 4th fight on a main card but instead it's your co-main event ON ESPN. That's a tough one to swallow.

6- If Michael Johnson gets by Josh Emmett, do we have to take him seriously as a contender at 145 lbs? Since dropping to featherweight, he lost a Michael Johnson-y fight vs Darren Elkins where he pounded Elkins for five minutes before imploding under Elkins' pressure and then picked up decision wins over Andre Fili and Artem Lobov. Neither performance was all that spectacular but it seemed to showcase a diminished Michael Johnson fastball replaced with some off-speed stuff against some not so great competition (Fili is a fine featherweight but it's not like either guy really pushed the issue there). Josh Emmett was sort of a budding face at 145 lbs after two straight wins including a smelting of Ricardo Lamas and then he ran into Jeremy Stephens on short notice on FOX. He's been out for a year and approaching 35 years old so who knows what he has to offer now. This is still a dude who most people figure is a top 10 featherweight SO a win for Michael Johnson would probably sneak him into the top 10 riiiight?

7- Is Sodiq Yusuff vs Sheymon Moraes the best prospect vs prospect fight you could put together at 145 lbs?

8- Is three wins in a row enough for Michelle Waterson to sneak into a title fight with the winner of Andrade vs Namajunas? You gotta figure WME-IMG is getting a bit antsy now.

9- Do NOT be surprised if Kevin Aguilar vs Enrique Barzola makes a strong case for FOTN given how their respective styles match up. Could be VERY similar to Rick Glenn vs Kevin Aguilar in terms of back and forth action.

10- Given everything that went sideways for him since October of 2017, It's going to be nice to see Ray Borg again after nearly two years off. Bit of a shame he's buried on the prelims here but at the same time, I don't think the UFC is wrong to lack confidence in Borg making it to fight week.

11- Justin Gaethje, Jessica Aguilar and David Branch means all we're missing is Lance Palmer and Marlon Moraes to have a full on WSOF All Star Game.

12- Kevin Holland is a superb middleweight prospect and this fight vs Gerald Meerschaert is an intriguing challenge for him.

[thesportssoundoff]

BUZZER BEATER KO BY THIAGO SANTOS!

MY GUY! MY DUDE!

THERE GOES MY HERO!

[thesportssoundoff]

Jack Hermansson finishes Alex Nicholson in the first round!

Takedown, side control, ground and pound, mount, ground and pound, back mount, ground and pound and then DONEZO to a really, really loud pop from the crowd!