Kamaru Usman is not washed! UFC Atlanta reaction

These are my reactions to the UFC Atlanta main card and noteworthy prelims.

Kamaru Usman vs Joaquin Buckley

Prediction: Buckley KO in round 4

Result: Usman by decision

I initially picked Usman to win this fight but in the past few weeks I changed my mind and went with Buckley. This mostly came down to how long of a layoff Usman was coming off, his age, and the fact that Buckley is explosive enough to catch Usman on the feet especially when he's likely past his prime. From this point forward I won't put any weight on layoffs, because it is so inconsistent whether or not it actually effects a fighter or not. Jack Della Maddalena came back from the longest layoff of his career and an injury and looked the best he's ever looked, while Patchy Mix came back from a year long layoff and looked even worse than when he last fought. In this case, Usman looked very good. He only shot 4 takedowns in the first 4 rounds and got them all, and I was surprised that Buckley had zero success whatsoever regarding takedown defense and getting back up to his feet. Buckley did pretty well in the striking but got controlled for half the round 4 times in a row with no improvements. 

Round 5 was the complete opposite, as Buckley had his best round on the feet, and he defended every takedown from Usman. Had he started fighting like that 2 rounds earlier he would have won the fight and potentially got a finish on the feet. Buckley will improve from this loss though. His striking was really wild but contrary to what people are saying online, I think he needs to keep that wild style as it's one of his strengths. Usman vs Belal Muhammad is the obvious fight to make next; Usman does not deserve a title shot off his first win in 4 years over someone like Sean Brady. 

Rose Namajunas vs Miranda Maverick

Prediction: Namajunas by decision 

Result: Namajunas by decision 

Not much to say. Fight was actually pretty good; Rose was better everywhere other than physicality since she is undersized for 125. I thought the fight was over when Miranda caught her in an arm triangle, but Rose managed to fight out of it. Wish she stayed at 115 but Rose should face Grasso or Jasudavicius next.

Rest of the main card

I don't want to give the rest of the main card individual sections because it sucked. Shahbazyan vs Petroski and Menifield vs Sy were both completely unremarkable. Abdul-Malik vs Brundage was also unremarkable, but the ending was strange with a head clash which led to a technical decision. I don't know why the third round was scored because it lasted about 30 seconds, but other than that it was a bland fight. I want to make mention of Barcelos vs Garbrandt, because I am a fan of Cody and hate seeing him lose after the height he reached previously. He was still fast, but I really don't think he's actually improved upon his flaws whatsoever since he lost the title and it will continue to cost him. Barcelos is 38 but on a win streak so I guess I have been underrating him? 

Prelims

  • Rodolfo Bellato- This was very strange. As time passes and I re-watch the ending to this fight again, I am less and less confident that Bellato was actually knocked out. I would like to think that he would not fake it to the degree he did, especially considering he wasn't doing bad in the fight, but I would be lying if I said I was completely confident he got knocked out. I have no clue why this wasn't a DQ, since the up-kick Craig threw was completely intentional, but that's a whole separate issue with fouls that I don't want to talk about here. While we will never know if Bellato was actually faking or not, if he was faking and it was my decision, I would cut him without a second thought.
  • Malcolm Wellmaker- Incredible left hook KO. I still don't know how his grappling will hold up at the elite level, but he has serious power and smoked Moutinho. I feel bad for Kris as all he was known for is the beating he took in the O'Malley fight, and after going on a 5-fight win streak to get back in the UFC he gets knocked out again. I hope they give him another chance before cutting him.
  • Phil Rowe- Great comeback finish. The ending sequence of the fight where Loosa lost his mouthpiece and was getting teed off on against the cage was brutal. Hopefully Rowe can stay active as he came off a long layoff.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PFL vs ONE Championship: Who is number 2? (Comparison Post)

The Professional Fighters League and ONE Championship are considered the two promotions in the running for being the second biggest MMA promotions in the world. While I personally think that KSW or Oktagon being excluded from this conversation does not make sense, I want to compare the PFL and ONE on the basis of their presentation and where they stand today as companies. PFL The PFL is different from most promotions, as they heavily use a tournament format for their shows. Recently they dropped their original season format, which I think was for the better as it limited matchmaking and took forever to play out. Now they are doing regular fights alongside tournaments in each weight division with the winners becoming champion and receiving 500 thousand dollars. This is down from the previous prize of a million dollars that was awarded for winning their Season. As for their roster, since buying Bellator the PFL has a much stronger roster than ever. They do not have many huge names, but t...
Read more

Conor McGregor career profile (Profile post)

  The inarguable biggest star in the history of the UFC and mixed martial arts as a whole, Conor McGregor’s career serves as a great illustration of how quickly things can change in a fighter’s career, for better and for worse. Getting his start outside of the UFC in regional promotions across Ireland, he eventually made his way to the U.K based promotion Cage Warriors, where he became a two-weight division champion, a trend that would eventually follow him to the UFC. He made his debut in the UFC in 2013 with a first-round finish against Marcus Brimage, which set him up to go on a five-fight winning streak after. Personality wise, he was incredibly confident, yet still somewhat humble and clearly focused completely on becoming the best. This led to him becoming incredibly popular, eventually leading to his first championship opportunity, where he knocked out one of the greatest fighters in the history of mixed martial arts Jose Aldo, in 13 seconds with a single punch. His popular...
Read more

UFC 300: making history (Review post)

For my first review on this blog, I wanted to talk about what is likely the most memorable UFC event from the past year, that being UFC 300. This card was hyped up by the promotion to be the greatest event in their history and was a celebration of 30 years of the UFC. I and many other fans were somewhat let down initially when fights started being announced, especially when the entire card had been announced outside of the main events. Many of the planned main events fell through for this card, so the UFC instead moved the main event from the following pay per view to this card. As the card approached however, the sentiment began to shift once people realized their expectations were likely too high, and the card we were getting still had 3 title bouts and almost all ranked fighters competing. But at the end of that day, all the hype becomes irrelevant if the card does not deliver, and this card absolutely did. The preliminary for this card were alone good enough to be a card by themsel...
Read more