10 Things I Like: UFC Vegas 15 Edition
A look at elements of Saturday's fight card that pique my interest and are worth paying attention to when the action kicks off
If you’ve followed my work over the years, you know I’m a fan of cards like this — low-stakes events where the consensus is that you’re not missing much of anything if you opt to sit this one out — because cool shit happens on these kinds of cards all the time.
If you’re just tuning in for the first time, I love cards like this — the ones everyone else seems to downplay and dismiss — because a year from now, someone from this card is going to be a contender and everyone is going to be scrambling to figure out where it all started and talking about how that person came out of nowhere and I’ll know that they came from that random Saturday night event at the Apex at the end of November everyone overlooked.
With that said, here are 10 things I like about this weekend’s UFC Vegas 15 fight card.
The Ongoing Evolution of Curtis Blaydes
Curtis Blaydes arrived in the UFC as a good wrestler with very raw skills. He was training out of a UFC Gym in the Chicago area, largely figuring things out himself, and he was so clearly talented that he managed to secure an opportunity to compete on the biggest stage in the sport.
Five years later, he’s one of the five best heavyweights in the world and an absolute problem for everyone he shares the Octagon with not named Francis Ngannou.
The 29-year-old heavyweight is 14-2 (1) for his career and enters this weekend’s main event showdown with Derrick Lewis on a four-fight winning streak. While he wisely plays to his strengths (and correctly makes no apologies for it), Blaydes has become a well-rounded threat in the heavyweight division, as exhibited by his TKO victory over Junior Dos Santos earlier this year.
A couple years back, the idea of Blaydes out-striking JDS was unfathomable and the notion of him standing with the former champion would have sounded like a strategic failure — why not just wrestle him into oblivion? — but over the years, the crew at the Elevation Fight Team have built Blaydes into a more than capable striker, which makes him a more formidable threat overall.
This is the kind of stuff we always hope for from young talents when they burst on the scene as an unrefined, but clearly talented prospect — that they’ll find the right coaches and teammates to help them maximize their potential and develop into the best versions of themselves.
Blaydes has done that and it has been an absolute joy to watch.
Derrick Lewis Energy
There is a different kind of energy that courses through my body whenever I watch Derrick Lewis fight because he’s one of the only fighters who genuinely has the potential to end a fight at any time and that just hits in a different way.
Think about his fight with Alexander Volkov at UFC 229:
Lewis basically 14 minutes on the wrong end of things, unable to connect, yet everyone in attendance, everyone watching at home, and the announce team calling the fight was still all the way engaged because everyone knew it only took one… and then he landed that one and turned a sure loss into a stoppage victory with 11 seconds to spare.
That potential exists every time Lewis steps into the cage, and what’s more is that he’s actually healthy now and training properly!
I know there are people who will scoff at that notion and dismiss his years of “I never trained” as some combination of him making excuses and being lazy, but having spoken with Lewis multiple times over the years, I can tell you that dude was rarely healthy and severely limited in what he could do in advance of his fights.
All of that is behind him now and while he’s still acting a fool on his Instagram, you have to admit, “The Black Beast” looks tucked up and quicker than in previous fights and that is a scary, scary proposition for Blaydes and the rest of the heavyweight division.
Plus, as my guy Shaheen Al-Shatti said earlier this week, this matchup has weird stylistic potential that excites both him and me:
Anthony Smith at a Crossroads
At the start of this year, Anthony Smith was a Top 5 lightweight heavyweight and less than a year removed from challenging Jon Jones for UFC gold.
When he enters the Octagon this weekend, Smith does so on a two-fight skid and facing a bunch of serious questions about where he fits in the division and his fighting future as a whole.
My old friend Duane Finley and I used to talk all the time about the impact some of these grizzly, drawn out beatings would have on athletes and how they would respond the next time they stepped into the cage.
Smith was on the business end of one of those thrashings in May when he was mauled by Glover Teixeira in a fight man, myself included, believed should have been stopped earlier, either by the official or Smith’s corner. He returned to action 15 weeks later against Aleksander Rakic and turned in a lacklustre performance in a losing effort, prompting him to question his future after the bout.
Saturday night, the 32-year-old takes on Devin Clark in a bout that will go a long way to answering the questions he’s been asking himself and everyone else has been asking at the same time.
Clark is a strong wrestler and a physically powerful individual on a two-fight winning streak, but he’s never beaten anyone in the Top 15, yet alone a former title challenger. That being said, his arrow is pointing up, while Smith’s is pointing down, and the potential is there for this to turn into a real “two guys going in opposite directions” kind of moment this weekend.
Smith is one of the last guys I’m going to write off without extensive evidence of his demise because he’s endured more than a couple ugly stretches already in his career and still rose to challenge for the UFC light heavyweight title. However, he was a younger man then and there were obvious changes he could make, and did make, while this feels a lot more like the wear and tear of a 13-year, 49-fight career starting to pile up and I’m not sure there are any obvious fixes.
We’ll see what “Lionheart” has left in the tank on Saturday night.
New Heavyweight Alert
Josh Parisian is someone I think fight fans are going to like a lot, and I’m not just saying that because I profiled the UFC newcomer in advance of his fight this weekend against Parker Porter:
The Michigan resident made two appearances on the Contender Series, winning each of his fights by first-round stoppage. Following his win on Season 2, he was offered a spot on The Ultimate Fighter, where he was bounced in the opening round and came away without an invite to the finale. After stringing together a bunch of wins on the regional circuit, he was back on the talent search program this summer and this time, his violent finish of Chad Johnson earned him a contract.
So why do I think fans are going to like Parisian? This is why:
“I want to be exactly who the company wants — somebody that goes out there, is a stand-up fighter who is looking to be violent, looking to get finishes, and be entertaining. I want to be exactly what the company and the fans are looking for — I want to be a showman.”
He’s earned 12 of his 13 career wins by stoppage and got finished in two of his three losses. Dude has no interest in hearing the final horn and is focused as much on entertaining and chasing bonuses as he is securing victories, and that kind of approach resonates with fight fans.
I also think that whenever a new heavyweight with a little upside shows up, they’re always interesting for a least a couple fights while we all try to figure out where they fit in the division, so there’s that too.
“The Guy Who Beat Matt Brown” Returns
Speaking of emerging talents I profiled in advance of this week, Miguel Baeza is set to make his third trip into the Octagon on Saturday night in a sure-fire barnburner against Takashi Sato and if you’re not excited about seeing “Caramel Thunder” do his thing again, I just don’t know what to say.
Baeza is an ultra-talented, unbeaten welterweight prospect who, like Parisian, matriculated to the UFC via the Contender Series. Last time out, he went shot-for-shot with veteran Matt Brown in a wild first round where both of them were hurt at different points before he came out and finished “The Immortal” just 18 seconds into the second round.
Now, you can make all the “… but Matt Brown is washed” arguments you want and I’m not going to try to argue he’s the same fighter he was three or four or seven years ago. What I will say, however, is that there are a ton of young, relatively inexperienced fighters that wouldn’t have been able to weather the shots Baeza took or shown the wherewithal to grapple and shake out the cobwebs, yet alone rally to swing momentum back in their favour before the round expired and then promptly finish things early in the next round.
Those are the kind of moments that easily get lost in the shuffle during the non-stop crush of events, but they’re also the crucial little moments that tend to stick in my head and stand out when I’m assessing newcomers.
I’ve been waiting to see Baeza return to action since that fight and think this matchup with Sato will further establish where he’s at in his development and help forecast what his future may hold.
I Want to Know More About: Norma Dumont
This will end up being a regular subheading in this series because, well, there are a lot of fighters I simply want to get another look at before making any real type of judgment about them.
This week, that fighter is Norma Dumont.
The 30-year-old Brazilian debuted back in February and promptly got bounced from the ranks of the unbeaten by Megan Anderson in a featherweight contest. This weekend, she’s venturing down to bantamweight, which feels like a much better fit, where she’ll take on veteran Ashlee Evans-Smith.
Getting thrown in with Anderson out of the gate was rough and you knew right away it wasn’t going to be a good night for the relatively inexperienced Dumont, who entered with a 4-0 record and having last fought on August 5, 2018.
But now that she’s returning to action and changing divisions, it’s a chance to see her in the cage with someone who isn’t a top-end talent, but still has enough of a history inside the Octagon to where drawing conclusions from how this one shakes out is valid.
And at the end of the day, that’s one of the many reasons I’m here and why I operate with an “every fight, every event has value” mindset: I want to make evidence-based assessments and have a solid frame of reference to draw from when I’m writing about these competitors.
I don’t have that with Dumont at the moment and Saturday affords me the opportunity to change that.
Another Chance for Gina Mazany
You’ll hear fans question why so-and-so is still in the UFC given their recent run of bad results and part of the answer is that not all results are created equal.
Gina Mazany is one of those fighters who has landed on the wrong end of things more often than naught throughout her on-and-off run in the UFC, but some of that — probably a lot of that — has to do with timing and whom she’s fought.
She made her debut on short notice, losing to Sara McMann. After getting a solid win, she lost a decision to Lina Lansberg six months later, then sat for almost 10 months before getting fed to recent TUF winner Macy Chiasson in her first post-TUF appearance. She got a regional circuit win in January, then took another short-notice assignment against Julia Avila in June, and promptly got finished in 22 seconds.
Yes, she’s lost three straight heading into her matchup with Rachael Ostovich on Saturday, but it’s not like she’s had an easy go of things. On top of that, Mazany has relocated to Missouri and started training with “The” James Krause & Co. and I think the benefit of a full camp and quality coaching will have a positive impact on her performance.
Fighters like Mazany — the ones who grind it out, accepting short-notice opportunities and tough assignments because that’s all they’re given — always deserve a couple more chances in my books.
I’m happy to see her get another one this weekend and eager to see how it shake outs.
Random Interesting Featherweight Fights
Yes, I know that I’m an outlier when it comes to caring about these things, but this is my column about the things I like about this weekend’s fight card and I like the hastily put together featherweight fight between Kai Kamaka III and Jonathan Pearce.
Both guys are making their second appearances in the UFC cage — Kamaka after scoring a win over Tony Kelley in a fun little scrap this summer; Pearce after getting thrown to the wolves against Joe Lauzon in his debut more than a year ago — and it feels like one of those fights that has the potential to produce a “Well I’m going to make sure to watch that guy’s next fight” kind of reaction.
Pearce has a crazy backstory, as detailed by Nolan King of MMA Junkie, and looked good in his contract-earning win on the Contender Series, while Kamaka is another tough Hawaiian kid who has strung together six straight wins and gives me a little “what’s this guy going to develop into?” vibe.
People will say I’m reach for things to like about this card, but I honestly love these types of cards and these kinds of fights.
I know that makes me a weirdo, but hey, you’re the one reading the writings of a weirdo, so what’s that say about you?
Note: I greatly appreciate you reading. Yours truly, The Weirdo.
Sumudaerji
Again, I’m not going to claim that everyone has to be excited or intrigued by the same things, but me, I’m intrigued by Sumudaerji, who makes his third UFC appearance on Saturday against Canadian veteran Malcolm Gordon.
The 24-year-old debuted in the Octagon at the end of 2018, coming in off a loss and promptly getting tapped out by the returning Louis Smolka. But then last August, “The Tibetan Eagle” looked outstanding in his sophomore showing against Andre Soukhamthath, a guy everyone was excited to see Sean O’Malley beat less than 18 months earlier, and now he’s making his Las Vegas debut against a seasoned regional competitor like Gordon and I can’t wait to see it.
There is a crush of talent starting to emerge from China and Sumudaerji is one of the young fighters from that region that I want to keep a close eye on going forward because he’s already logged 16 appearances in his career and his potential for growth and improvement is tremendous.
Now, he might max out real quickly and show that he’s not capable of hanging on this level, but his win over Soukhamthath gave me reason to believe there is legitimate upside there and as I’ve said throughout this piece, I’m all about spending part of my Saturday night getting a second or third or fourth look at promising youngsters that I haven’t made my mind up about just yet.
The Return of Luke Sanders
Luke Sanders arrived in the UFC at the start of 2016.
He was 10-0 and coming off a victory over Terrion Ware where he successfully defended the RFA bantamweight title. He’d fought quality competition on the way to the Octagon and in his debut, he moved up to featherweight and submitted Maximo Blanco, earning an 11th consecutive victory, a Performance of the Night bonus, and “One to Watch” standing with most observers.
Saturday night, Sanders makes the walk to the Octagon for the seventh time in his career and the first time since defeating former bantamweight champ Renan Barao on February 17, 2019. His career has been derailed by injuries and inconsistency, but every time he returns to action, I’m curious to see if this is going to be the moment when Sanders starts the run of success that has yet to happen during his UFC run.
Sanders is definitely on my “Guys I Can’t Quit” list that I would be talking about in an MMA Support Group if one existed (shouts to the three people, including Zac Pacleb, who get that reference) and this weekend’s matchup with Nate Maness is a tough one, but here I am, a couple days out, already looking up what time the early prelims kick off so that I can be sure to see “Cool Hand” stride to the cage and compete one more time.