10 Things I Like at UFC Vegas 49
Saturday's fight card is laced with things that excite me, and I'm happy to share them with you here.
I’m going to leave the open for this week’s edition of 10 Things I Like up to my guy Brendan Fitzgerald, because he summed it up perfectly:
Let’s get into it, shall we?
Another Chance to See Islam Makhachev Do His Thing
Islam Makhachev is in the midst of a tremendous run of success and incredible display of skill and ability, and every opportunity to see more of it should be celebrated.
What he did last year was special.
Coming into the year on a six-fight winning streak and stepping out of the shadow of Khabib Nurmagomedov, Makhachev showed he was every bit as good as his teammates and training partners had always proclaimed. He earned three finishes in eight months to push his winning streak to nine and establish himself as a legitimate championship threat in the lightweight division.
I think Makhachev is a special talent — an elite competitor and future champion — and I look forward to every opportunity I get to see him step into the Octagon and compete. Even with this weekend’s shift in opponents, I’m still intrigued by the matchup and curious to see how the surging grappler from Dagestan deals with everything that is currently being thrown at him, even though I’m pretty certain he’ll handle it all exceptionally well because that’s just what he does.
You’re never going to hear me bemoan getting to see an elite talent compete because at some point, they won’t be around any longer and we’re going to miss watching them be brilliant.
I think Makhachev is destined to be viewed as that kind of talent, and I’m thrilled to see him compete again this weekend, even if I will have to watch it on Sunday afternoon.
Bobby Green is Fighting
This isn’t some fair-weather position adopted over the last four months, nor is it one forged since the start of 2020, when Bobby Green began competing with increased frequency, amassing a 5-2 record in seven starts and building the momentum that carries him into this weekend’s main event class with Makhachev.
While I was intrigued from the time he crossed over from Strikeforce and posted victories in each of his first four UFC appearances, Green became a must-see competitor for me a couple days ahead of his fight with Edson Barboza.
That day, tucked away in the conference room at the fighter hotel outside of Austin, Texas, Green held court in front of me, John Morgan, and Nick Sharara, engaging in a 20-minute conversation (monologue?) about everything from his chaotic life outside the cage and pondering retirement to how he is presented in the media and his general gripes with MMA media as a whole. It was captivating to stand there and watch him pace back and forth, pulling no punches, and nothing he said was out of line.
We’ve spoken a bunch of times since then and it’s always been the same: honest, thoughtful, occasionally combative, but in a good way, and he fights with the same passion that flows out of him when he speaks.
I’m happy he’s finally getting this opportunity and people are finally coming around to see Green for what he is and has always been — a showman, an entertainer, and a genuinely inspiring human being.
And regardless of how things go this weekend, I’ll be right back here saying the exact same things the next time he fights too.
All hail King Bobby Green.
Middleweight Co-Main Will Answer a Ton of Questions
I’m not going to sit here and try to tell you that the middleweight clash between Misha Cirkunov and Wellington Turman is some kind of outstanding fight that you absolutely can’t miss because that clearly isn’t the case.
For most people, it is a completely skippable scrap between a pair of guys looking to get their footing in a division that constantly feels underwhelming… but I’m not most people.
I like this fight because I have questions about each man, where they’re at in their respective careers, and what the future might hold. I want to see if Cirkunov can make adjustments in his second fight at 185 pounds following a middling effort in his divisional debut. I want to see if Turman takes a step forward after an ugly win over Sam Alvey.
No fight is disposable to me — they’re always going to to tell you something — and given how shallow middleweight always is, even fights like this between a two guys that have shown limited flashes and largely underwhelmed has the potential to provide some information that will be helpful when trying to figure out how things stack up in the 185-pound ranks going forward.
Critical Lightweight Clash, Part I
The fight between Arman Tsarukyan and Joel Alvarez is an absolute must-watch affair and if you don’t already know that, you haven’t been paying close enough attention.
Both men are 4-1 in the UFC and riding four-fight winning streaks into their showdown on Saturday. Tsarukyan’s debut loss came against Makhachev in a fight where he gave the streaking contender a tougher fight that most imagined he would, while Alvarez lost to Damir Ismagulov, an unheralded, but highly skilled talent who has struggled to stay healthy and build momentum over these last couple years.
Tsarukyan is coming off a “you’re not on my level” performance against Christos Giagos last time out and sits at No. 12 in the rankings. Alvarez has earned four straight stoppages, the last three in the opening stanza, but he missed weight in each of his last two outings, which raises some questions and red flags.
In a division where every fight carries a great deal of significance, this is an outstanding matchup between ascending talents that should be occupying the co-main event slot and will absolutely have an impact on how things are booked in the lightweight division in the second half of the year.
I Want to Know More About Gregory Rodrigues
Given that middleweight can be a barren talent wasteland at times, any chance to get another look at a fighter that has earned consecutive victories, trains with a good team, and has flashed power is worth checking out to me.
Gregory Rodrigues is 2-0 in the UFC and enters Saturday’s fight with newcomer Armen Petrosyan on a four-fight winning streak overall. Last time out, he earned a second-round stoppage victory over Jun Yong Park in what was one of the most entertaining low-key fights of 2021, and I’m curious to find out if this string of positive results is the start of something bigger for the 30-year-old Brazilian.
I like that he’s training with the crew at Sanford MMA because there are a bunch of quality middleweights in that room, and the further away from that loss to Jordan Williams he gets, the more I think it was just one of those nights where he made a bad choice and paid for it.
At the absolute worst, “Robocop” should be a solid mid-pack addition to the 185-pound ranks — a guy that puts on fights like the one he had with Park a couple times each year, winning two and losing one or vice versa until he’s five or six years into his UFC career and hovering right around .500 inside the Octagon.
But could he become more than that? I’m not sure, but it’s why I’m eager to see him fight again this weekend.
I Want to Know More About Josiane Nunes As Well
In her first UFC appearance, Josiane Nunes waltzed into the Octagon giving up seven inches in height and reach against Bea Malecki and said, “Who cares?!”
She took the fight to Malecki from the jump, putting her on the back foot and forcing her into the cage. Every shot was thrown with full power and nasty intentions, and wasn’t bothered by anything that came back her way. As the opening round progressed, her pressure clearly began to wear on her unbeaten opponent, and just as the ten-second clackers sounded, Nunes clocked Malecki with an overhand left that landed flush and put her on the deck.
When you have that kind of performance in your debut, I want to see what you can do for an encore, and we get that opportunity this weekend.
Originally scheduled to face Jennifer Gonzalez, Nunes will instead welcome Ramona Pascual to the UFC in a bout that will be contested at featherweight. Regardless of the opponent or the division, I want to know more about this 28-year-old Brazilian who missed two-and-a-half years with myriad injuries, but still carries an 8-1 professional record into the cage this weekend, with her lone setback coming against flyweight contender Taila Santos.
Nunes is a firecracker and I can’t wait to see her back in there on Saturday.
Critical Lightweight Clash, Part II
You want to give me two young lightweights coming off stoppage victories after losing their respective debuts, meeting in a “let’s see which one moves forward matchup” on a random Saturday afternoon in February, and I will say, “Thank you very much” each and every time.
I don’t know how good Zhu Rong or Ignacio Bahamondes are going to end up being once they’re a little more seasoned, a little more experienced, but I am tremendously interested in seeing how this fight plays out this weekend.
The 21-year-old from China has a wealth of experience against the kind of mish-mashed assemblage of opponents we’ve come to expect from fighters emerging from the WLF promotion, while the 24-year-old Bahamondes got a lot of love for his late finish of Roosevelt Roberts last year, but hasn’t exactly set the world on fire through his first 16 professional appearances either.
They’re both young and both clearly still developing, which makes this the right time to pair them off together and see which one takes a step forward. It should be a spirited affair and is the kind of fight I’m always keen on because I’m always about where fighters like this could progress to three, four, five years down the line, not just what they’re going to look like on Saturday night.
Critical Lightweight Clash, Part III
Like a lot of people, I’ve been waiting for Terrance McKinney to make his sophomore appearance in the Octagon from the moment he clocked Matt Frevola with a clean one-two last spring in Jacksonville, Florida, and that moment is finally here.
Saturday evening, “T. Wrecks” steps in against Fares Ziam in a bout that was originally scheduled to take place last year and is genuinely intriguing to me because as much as McKinney impressed me in his debut, the lanky Frenchman Ziam has shown some promising flashes over his last two outings as well. Ziam’s win over Jamie Mullarkey has aged well and while he had to hold on down the stretch to beat Luigi Vendramini, he did, and folks seemed to think it was a big deal with Paddy Pimblett beat him less than three months later, so there is that too.
This is one of those matchups where it feels like a lot of people are expecting to see McKinney run through Ziam, but I think this is going to be a much more competitive matchup that most envision. Maybe I’m wrong and the Spokane native absolutely smokes him, but either way, I was looking forward to this fight when it was booked for November and my excitement to see how things play out between these two has only continued to grow since then.
Another Bantamweight Banger (at Featherweight)
There are fights on every card where most of us have a pretty good idea of how things are going to play out, and then when they happen, it goes mostly how we anticipated.
Then there are fights where 47 different scenarios are in play and I have no idea which one is the most likely, and I feel like Saturday’s clash between tenured bantamweight Alejandro Perez and Jonathan Martinez, which will be contested at featherweight, is one of those “I have no idea” type of contests.
Nobody saw Perez coming out and finishing Johnny Eduardo with a scarf-hold armlock last time; the last time he won a fight by submission was in 2013, before he reached the UFC. Nobody expected Martinez to go on an impressive five-fight run after losing his promotional debut to Andre Soukhamthath either, but there he was, throwing knees up the middle and looking like a potential Top 15 talent before getting cracked by Davey Grant two fights back.
Despite coming in off quality wins, both of these guys still have ground to make up if they want to make real headway in the 135-pound weight class this year, so I’m fully expected an action-packed contest for as long as it last.
In terms of how it plays out, your guess is as good as mine, and that’s why I like this fight as much as I do.
Fighter I Can’t Quit: Ramiz Brahimaj
I’ve spoken to Ramiz Brahimaj ahead of his last two fights — features here and here — and each time, I’ve found him to be an engaging, introspective, compelling interview subject and human being.
Those things resonate with me, connect me to these people, and put me firmly in their corner every time they step back into the fire.
Brahimaj jumped at the chance to get back in the Octagon this weekend, making a quick turnaround after losing to Court McGee on the first card of the year to face Michael Gillmore on Saturday. While he’s struggled to find consistent results through his first three UFC appearances, the Fortis MMA representative feels like someone that just needs more reps, more exposure to fighting top talent before he figures out how he needs to deploy his weapons and operate inside the UFC cage, because he has skills, especially on the ground; now it’s just a matter of figuring out way to show that on a consistent basis.
This is one of those fights where it should be on full display, but regardless of the outcome, I will always be in Brahimaj’s corner. #CharlieMike