#ufc288

[theanticool]

Kron Gracie really went away for 4 years and came back a worse striker and less athletic. Hero. Jourdain is in target practice mode.

[theanticool]

Aljamain Sterling gets the split decision over Henry Cejudo

Had Sterling winning out right. Was surprised so many people had Cejudo winning.

Sterling was the more fluid dude on the feet. The kicks were on point from Sterling as he kicked at Cejudo’s leg and body. Cejudo was just content to react to Sterling for way too long. Really loaded up on counters that he could just not complete. Got better when he started kicking himself. Cutting the cage off and trying to capitalize on the times Sterling completely dropped his defense to turn and run or spin away. But by then it was the end of the fight and I thought Sterling had a pretty wide lead.

Everything about the post fight was fucking amazing. Everybody booing Aljo. Them bringing Sean O’Malley into the cage only for everyone to boo. Sterling trying to show Jersey love and then getting mad when everyone just booed louder. O’Malley and Merab getting into it only for Jersey to boo even louder. Amazing job everybody.

[theanticool]

Yan Xiaonan KOs Jessica Andrade in the 1st!

Xiaonan picks apart Andrade with straight strikes from range and frustrated Andrade enough that she just rushed forward trying to get her back. Just like she did against Zhang. And she ends up running into a right hook that puts her down and out. Some GnP and Yan gets the win!

Huge huge statement win for Yan who needed a big win to justify a title shot. I don’t know if that does it for her but she’s definitely in the convo now!

[theanticool]

Movsar Evloev takes decision over Diego Lopes.

Lopes made a good account of himself. Really aggressively sought out the submission. Attacking for kimuras, armbars, triangles, and kneebars. Evloev fought them off though and was doing well with the GnP when he could settle Lopes into a position. But even then, the fight ended with Lopes locking out a kneebar on Evloev that had him grimacing.

Andrade vs Xaionan in the UFC is next.

Canelo vs Ryder happening soon as well.

[theanticool]

Khaos Williams takes split decision over Rolando Bedoya.

A fun fight! Definitely don’t agree with the decision.

Knew nothing about Bedoya heading into this one and now I’d definitely interested in seeing more of him on future early prelims. Guy has a game that I feel fits right at home with the mid-tier violence welterweight guys. Needs to work on punch mechanics but he was in there moving well and rolling with punches to take the sting off.

[theanticool]

Belal Muhammad takes UD over Gilbert Burns.

And that’s why you don’t make two elite fighters fight on two week’s notice. Especially when one of them is coming off a completely different fight.

Still, I appreciated Belal’s performance. The stance switching into the body kicks from open guard were money for the first 3-4 rounds and he had Burns completely neutralized. Granted, Burns was hurt with his lead arm being basically unusable but still.

[theanticool]

Kennedy Nzechukwu chokes out Devin Clark in the 2nd!

The perpetually undersized LHW Devin Clark deciding that he is going to repeatedly get into clinch and wrestling exchanges with guys who are like 20+lbs bigger than him is never not going to confuse the crap out of me.

Clark hurt Nzechukwu in the 1st and proceeded to go for the worst “get him out of there” cage striking I’ve ever seen where he’s kind of just slapping at Nzechukwu. Nzechukwu recovered and ended the round by turning Clark to the cage and wailing on him with elbows and uppercuts. Clark keeps pushing the cage clinching in the 2nd and goes in on the hips only to get his neck snatched by a power guillotine.

[theanticool]

UFC 288 bout order and start times

Looks to be a good show.