My UFC 218 Overview

One thing I like to do with the guys over at the livestream chat is to do Pick ’ems. In order to spice things up, I’m going to do some of that for this show.

My Picks: Willis, Reyes, Alhassan, Cooper, Herrig, Teymur, Oliveira, Felder, Torres, Alvarez, Cejudo, Ngannou, Holloway

Early Prelims

• Allen Crowder vs Justin Willis (Heavyweight bout)
• Willis lands a left on Crowder that gets him wobble-sauced. It’s that punch that lets Willis finish him off.
• Willis beats Crowder by KO in 2:33 of round 1
• Willis goes cuss crazy in his post-fight interview but the guy’s got that street charisma.

• Jeremy Kimball vs Dominick Reyes (Light Heavyweight bout)
• Reyes lands some devastating elbows on the ground which allows him to choke out Kimball.
• Reyes defeats Kimball in 3:39 of round 1

• Sabah Homasi vs Abdul Razak Alhassan (Welterweight bout)
• Looks like the ref stopped the fight prematurely. Both guys were phone-booth-fighting. Homasi got clipped a few times and fell to the ground but it wasn’t a shot that did it. He may have been going for a single-leg. But from Herb Dean’s vantage point it looked like Homasi could have been turtling up. Definitely a premature stoppage and Homasi has a right to be angry. However, Herb is one of the best refs but he is also a human and humans make errors from time to time.
• Alhassan “defeats” Homasi in 4:21 of round 1

• Amanda Cooper vs Angela Magana (Women’s Strawweight bout)
• Magana fights out of Puerto Rico? That’s cool! I know I’m Dominican and DR/PR are supposed to have some kind of rivalry but honestly, I got love for all of my Latinos.
• Fence grab there for Magana which prevents a takedown. If it successfully prevents a takedown then I humbly believe that there should be a penalty. The ref lets the fight continue.
• Right after that Cooper takes down Magana.
• Cooper is just grounding and pounding to end round one. She continues her assault in round two. It was a total smothering which gave the ref no choice but to stop it.
• Cooper defeats Magana at 4:34 of round 2 by TKO.

Prelims

• Felice Herrig vs Cortney Casey (Women’s Strawweight bout)
• Herrig is one of my favorites. She’s from Crystal Lake so she’ll fuck you up like Jason Voorhees.
• Herrig defeats Casey by split decision after 3 rounds

• David Teymur vs Drakkar Klose (Lightweight bout)
• Teymur is running around Klose who keeps getting annoyed by this. Klose just stops dead in his tracks and puts his arms down like “come on, bro. We gon’ fight or what?” much to the crowd’s delight. The thing is though, Klose wasn’t doing anything either. He just stops and puts his arms down.
• Strategically, Teymur’s not doing wrong here.
• Herb Dean stops the fight and warns Teymur of timidity which I don’t really agree with. Off-night for Herb and I think he’s one of the best. Much like what Joe Rogan said.
• Klose is complaining at the ref. I think he’s saying something about the the tape but he looks frustrated. He’s still stopping and putting his arms down as a way to make it look like Teymur is timid. It kind of looks to me like a strategy on Klose’s part to lure in Teymur whenever Klose puts his arms down. Only Teymur isn’t really going for it.
• David Teymur defeats Drakkar Close by unanimous decision
• No post-fight interview. It was nothing to write home about. Sometimes styles clash and we’re not talking AJ Styles.

• Alex Oliveira vs Yancy Medeiros (Welterweight bout)
• Right off the bat I can tell that this fight is going to be a funner bout to watch than the previous one.
• I just noticed that so far I’m 7-0 on my picks. I’m usually never that good.
• 30 seconds to go in round 1 and this fight is CHAOS!
• I give round 1 to Oliveira
• Another crazy round. This is probably my fight of the night.
• Medeiros stops Oliveira at 2:02 in round 1 by TKO
• Medeiros asks for a bonus. I cringe because they like to not give the bonuses to guys who ask or plead for it.
• I spoke too soon! I take my first hit in my picks. What a fight!

• Charles Oliveira vs Paul Felder (Lightweight bout)
• Looks like Oliveira kneed Felder in the face while on the ground which is illegal. I rewound it and slow-mowed it and there’s a chance that the knee landed on the chest. I’m not sure if that’s legal or not. I’m only a mere fan of this sport and am still learning about its intricacies.
• Wow. I was right there with Jon Anik and Joe Rogan yelling at Felder about entering into Oliveira’s ground game. Felder shuts me right up with a TKO on the grounded Oliveira. Well played.
• So Oliveira tapped out from that first elbow by Felder. My gripe here is with the referee. Oliveira visibly tapped but ate six elbows after the tap out. Off night for the ref squad tonight.
• Felder defeats Oliveira by KO at 4:06 of round 2
• I’m definitely a fan of these announcers that still fight. This dude just crushed this other guy’s face and is going to show up to work all dressed up with a mic. Good show.

Main Card

• Tecia Torres vs Michelle Waterson (Women’s Strawweight Champion)
• Tecia is from Fall River, MA and I’ve been a fan of hers for a few years now. Good to see her doing her thing in the UFC. Even more brownie points for her walk-out music which was the theme to the Mortal Kombat movie.
• Torres defeats Waterson by unanimous decision. Good fight.

• Eddie Alvarez vs Justin Gaethje (Lightweight bout)
• This is the coach’s fight from TUF. I’m a fan of both guys and it’s still feels good to see Alvarez do his thing in the octagon after doing his thing in Bellator.
• I’m on round 3 right now and Gaethje is doing a great job of avoiding takedowns at the moment…
• …and right when I say that, Alvarez BLASTS him with a knee. Looks to be over.
• Alvarez defeats Gaethje by TKO at 3:59 of round 3.

• Henry Cejudo vs Sergio Pettis (Flyweight bout)
• For all my pro wrestling friends, did ya’ll know that Henry Cejudo almost went to the WWE a little while back? What could have been?
• Round 3 is about to end. Looks like Cejudo won this thanks to his wrestling.
• Cejudo defeats Pettis by unanimous decision.

• Alistair Overeem vs Francis Ngannou (Heavyweight)
• Holy smokes. Ngannou just uppercutted Overeem’s head to the moon!
• Ngannou defeats Overeem by KO at 1:42 of round 1.
• They’ve literally replayed that KO clip about 37 times, lol.
• Ngannou brings up the slavery issues going on in Lybia. Hopefully it brings more awareness to a horrific situation out there. Like the man said, FUCK slavery and FUCK racism. It’s all simply fear of the unknown mixed with a dash of insecurity.
• Ngannou vs Miocic is going to be one hell of a fight.

• Main event time: UFC Featherweight Champion, Max Holloway vs Jose Aldo (Featherweight bout)
• I’m picking Holloway to win but it’s the most worried I am over my picks tonight. Aldo is no joke.
• Holloway defeats Aldo by TKO at 4:51 of round 3
• STILL UFC Featherweight Champion: Max Holloway
• I first took notice of Holloway back on UFC 160 in 2013 which resulted in a split decision loss to Dennis Bermudez. Despite the loss, something gravitated me towards Max. Something told me to follow that guy and become a fan even though not a lot of my friends were aware of he was. I’m glad I’ve come along wait on this Holloway train. It’s been a fun ride watching and quite the journey since that Bermudez fight back in 2013.
• As far Aldo goes, it would seem like he has never been the same after his fight with Conor McGregor back in 2015. However, he’s only lost to Holloway and Conor. If you look at his record on Wikipedia, those two names are literally the only two blotches on his record (sans a loss in 2005 in Brazil). He’s not old either. The guy is only 31. I’m merely a year older than him. Perhaps he’s just tired or weathered? I’m interested to see how he does in his next fight.
• Awesome fight. I can’t decide which one I enjoyed more, this one or the Oliveira/Medeiros fight.

Post-Fight Fun

My Fight of the Night pick: Oliveira/Medeiros

My Pick ’em results: 12-1! I’ve only started following MMA full-time back in the Summer of 2013 (It was always a topic of conversation between my friends so I figured I’d randomly start watching to see what I could learn. It’s been a really fruitful endeavor so far. The sport barely interested me back then and now upon following it with an open and eager mind, I’ve come to enjoy it. #TangentFinished). Anyway, It wasn’t long before I started picking my favorites to win before each show. But I’ve never done this good though! I wish I was in Vegas for this one!