Discover Top Posts Tagged with #tuivasa

"As soon as Tuivasa came out from his corner, he launched a left hand that clipped Sakai and that was the beginning of the end for the Brazilian heavyweight. Once Tuivasa had his opponent stunned, he wasn’t stopping until Sakai was unconscious."

It doesn’t always work out the way you want it to but the China, Australia, Argentina and Bellator’s Israel card proves that if you put on a show in a somewhere with people from the somewhere, you can get special kinds of crowds. This was just fun.

#MMA #UFC #JDS #Tuivasa

“Fuck Yeah, This Show Should Be Awesome....I Hope?” UFC 225 Preview

Joey

June 3rd

It's been hard going recently for some of these UFC events. Not since the Fox card headlined by Gaethje vs Poirier have we had an event that seemed to leave everyone feeling equally satisfied with what we got out of the five hour investment. Brazil had some good moments, some cringe and a truly depressing main event. Chile and Liverpool seemed to be going just fine before the main cards began and things got a little strange, both shows ending with main events that seemed destined to test the patience and willpower of their audience. This week from Utica, we were all THRILLED with what seemed like the worst six fight stretch in UFC history before the card eventually righted itself from "Worst show ever" to just being a bad show. All of this is to set the stage for an event that IF it's anything but great, will be a sign from the MMA Gods that this sport is going apocalyptic. This card is fantastic; a PPV event with two damn good title fights, CM Punk defending two titles of his own, two really intriguing HW fights, some damn good stuff in WMMA and good fights at weight classes below 145 lbs. The only bad fight on paper is a really shuntsy HW fight which of course can be forgiven. It's got a great mix of snazzy names, compelling fights, stories and worthy title challengers fighting for belts. You should be all in on this.

Fights: 13

Debuts: 1 (Megan Anderson)

Fight Changes/Injury Cancellations: (BObby Green OUT, Charles Oliveira IN vs Clay Guida/Allen Crowder OUT, Chris De La Rocha IN vs Rashad Coultier)

Headliners (fighters who have either main evented or co-main evented shows in the UFC): 16 (Holly Holm, Andrei Arlovski, Alistair Overeem, Robert Whittaker, Yoel Romero, Colby Covington, Rafael Dos Anjos, Curtis Blaydes, Claudia Gadelha, Carla Esparza, Ricardo Lamas, Gleison Tibau, Sergio Pettis, Joseph Benavidez, Clay Guida, Charles Oliveira)

Fighters On Losing Streaks in the UFC: 2 (Rashad Evans, Chris De La Rocha)

Fighters On Winning Streaks in the UFC: 8 (Robert Whittaker, Tai Tuavasa, RDA, Colby Covington, Andrei Arlovski, Curtis Blaydes, Carla Esparza, Joseph Benavidez)

Main Card Record Since Jan 1st 2016 (in the UFC): 19-13

Robert Whittaker- 4-0 Yoel Romero- 2-1 RDA- 3-2 Colby Covington- 5-0 Tai Tuavasa- 2-0 Andrei Arlovski- 2-5 Megan Anderson- 0-0 Holly Holm- 1-3 CM Punk- 0-1 Mike Jackson- 0-1

Divisional Breakdown: Heavyweight- 3 Welterweight- 2 Featherweight- 2 Lightweight- 1 Flyweight- 1 Light Heayweight- 1 Middleweight- 1 Women's featherweight- 1 Strawweight- 1

Too High Up- Chris De La Rocha vs Rashad Coultier

Don't be a goof and say CM Punk vs Mike Jackson because that's just smart business. As for this, do I have to explain? De La Rocha and Coultier are a combined 0-4 in the UFC. De La Rocha last fought before Conor McGregor was a UFC champion (twice) and Coultier has been KO'd both times. There's just no reason for this to be on FS1 outside of "they're big" which okay and all but they can be big on Fight Pass too, no?

Too Low- Joseph Benavidez vs Sergio Pettis

It's REALLY close between this fight, Oliveira/Guida and Blaydes/Overeem. Either way let's go with this really good fight at 125 lbs between a guy who has yet to fight the champion (Sergio Pettis) and the guy who has twice fought the champ but probably figures to be remain one of the best fighters in the division. Pettis is coming off a loss to Henry Cejduo while Benavidez rides into this fight on a long winning streak and an almost equally long layoff. This fight should be higher but what are ya gonna do?

Stat Monitor for 2018: Debuting Fighters (Current number: 14-17): Megan Anderson

Short Notice Fighters (Current number: 15-7): Charles Oliveira, Chris De La Rocha

Second Fight (Current number: 17-16): Mike Jackson, CM Punk, Dan Ige

Cage Corrosion (Current number: 10-17): CM Punk, Mike Jackson, Joe Benavidez

Undefeated Fighters (Current number: 20-13):

Keeping An Eye On But Not Really:

The UFC Win Check Test The records of fighters who have 4 or more UFC fights (or three full calendar years in the organization) but 0 wins against people still in the UFC: Rashad Evans

Twelve Precarious Ponderings

1- Does the first fight between Yoel Romero and Robert Whittaker even matter? Their first fight was a short notice booking (May 27th for July 8th) and so even if you grant that they had a month to prep, it was a short notice booking for two guys in their first ever title fights PLUS both Romero and Whittaker had only had one five round fight prior to this. Then the day of the event, they were randomly bumped up to the main event which is always added pressure. Making matters worse, Whittaker blew out his knee at the beginning of the first round and Romero admittedly said he was waiting for the right moment to kick Whittaker right in his fucked up leg. There's been so many fluky circumstances that I'm not sure the first fight should hold any weight beyond an acknowledgment that it happened.

2- Given everything that went wrong for Whittaker since the title fight (bad knee injury, flesh eating virus that nearly went after his organs), what condition is he going to be in?

3- A lot has been said about Overeem-Blaydes being on the prelims and Holm-Anderson being on the main card. I don't think it's wrong to suggest Holly Holm is the biggest star on the main card outside of CM Punk nor is that a bad thing. Holm is somebody people want to see fight even if her fights can be really boring with the wrong kind of opponent. Her vs Megan Anderson at the very least is an important fight at 145 lbs which should give it the nod over Blaydes-Overeem since that fight really is JUST another fight at heavyweight. The key is to accept that this division is only going to grow if it's treated like a big deal and putting it on the main card helps it come off as a big deal. I can accept that the main card is weaker now without Overeem vs Blaydes which is the price we pay for trying to make sure the women's featherweight class gets a fighting shot.

4- There are two kinds of MMA fans; the ones who are dreading the idea of Colby Covington as a UFC champ and the ones who are openly anticipating it. I happily fall on the former but if you're on the latter? Well you're absolutely welcome to keep on readin'

5- What makes RDA vs Covington so interesting is that for all the BS about Covington's personality warts; his style has given RDA fits in the past while RDA is the best opponent Covington has faced ever. Guys like Gleison Tibau, Clay Guida, Khabib, Tony Ferguson etc etc have given him problems in the past with their relentless pressure and wrestling chops. If you're versatile (and I bet there's more to Covington's hands than what we've seen so far) with the ability to take RDA down then you'll more often than not have a shot. As for Colby Covington? His best win is an aging Demian Maia in a fight where he ate far too many hooks in the beginning of the fight and looked like a guy who had made a conscious decision to try and prove he could strike. After the first round, he settled down and went back to being a guy who was powerful on top, smothered with pressure and cooked dudes with cardio. There's so many things RDA can do that Maia can't do and at a level by which Covington has never seen from an opponent before. RDA at 170 lbs has been pretty damn perfect thus far and everything that worked at 155 lbs has carried upwards. Don't allow Covington's gimmick to convince you this fight isn't pretty damn great on paper.

6- Who is taking the bigger step up; Tai Tuavasa or Megan Anderson?

7- Let's focus on Tai Tuivasa currently. He's 2-0 in the UFC and his opponents combined records are 2-5 in the UFC (and Asker has ZERO wins vs people still in the organization). He hasn't been out of the first round, has shown some truly ugly aspects to his game which suggests this bandwagon is going to crash really hard at some point. At the same time, there's something crudely enjoyable about Tai Tuivasa's game. Maybe it's the Hunt-esque attitude he has or the fact he has some truly violent tools against the cage or just the fact that HW is in the midst of a bit of a renaissance (seriously!) and he's a pretty enjoyable part of that. He's getting his Arlovski test really early compared to other HW contemporaries. By the time guys like Ngannou and Tybura were tempted with the Arlovski chin, they had fought good quality HWs like Luiz Henrique (both guys) and Curtis Blaydes (Ngannou). This is a big step up for an entertaining young HW with some upside. PRoceed with caution, amigos.

8- Is Arlovski on his 4th career renaissance?

9- On a card loaded with proven established dudes, let's talk about Mirsad Bektic. A forgotten face at 145 lbs, Mirsad's biggest weakness has been inactivity. He's suffered multiple knee injuries on his way up the FW rankings and then came back JUST in time to get beat by Darren Elkins in a very Elkins-y performance. In that fight Bektic abandoned any sort of success with his strikes to try and grapple with Elkins, a bad idea that gassed him out and ultimately led to him getting finished. He took another long break (of course) and re-emerged in Jan of this year to ice Godofredo Pepey. 145 lbs is the sort of division where even the bottom of the barrel is really good and where guys like Ortega, Holloway and Edgar are blasting through names one after another after. Bektic is one of the rare guys who hasn't fought those three and he's really talented. On the other hand, Ricardo Lamas is probably the measuring stick for how good a dude can be at 145 lbs. A loss here doesn't ruin Bektic because Lamas is really good BUT a really impressive performance might start the clock on a Bektic title shot. Assuming he can avoid getting hurt again.

10- We buying this Clay Guida career renaissance? Two straight wins since going back up to 155 lbs, both in dominant definitive fashion. Charles Oliveira is an interesting sort of test for him especially on short notice.

11- Don't act like CM Punk vs Mike Jackson doesn't have a perverse appeal to you. It's better to be honest about all of this than to try and lie. Nobody likes lying to yaself!

12- It's really weird to think the Gadelha vs Esparza winner could find their way into the title picture with one more win.

Five Can't Miss Fights

1- Robert Whittaker vs Yoel Romero

2- Curtis Blaydes vs Alistair Overeem

3- Ricardo Lamas vs Mirsad Bektic

4- Tai Tuivasa vs Andrei Arlovski

5- Colby Covington vs Rafael Dos Anjos

#MMA #UFC #Chicago #CM Punk #Whittaker #Romero #Blaydes #Overem #Lamas #Tuivasa #Arlovski

#ufc #shooey #tai #tuivasa #aussie #nike #heavyweight

Blagoy Ivanov decisions Tai Tuivasa

I am sweaty and full of emotions.

#MMA #UFC #UFC 238 #Ivanov #Tuivasa

So far we can put a check on Tuivasa’s chin and a big question mark on his fight IQ. That said he’s already got JDS fighting his fight; backing him up against the fence and forcing JDS to be defensive. That said, JDS is hitting Tai hard AND clean.