UFC 231

[Lord of The Curry]

Main Card (PPV)

Max Holloway vs Brian Ortega- Featherweight Title
Valentina Bullet vs Joanna Violence- Vacant Flyweight Title
Alex Oliveira vs Gunnar Nelson
Hakeem Dawodu vs Kyle Bochniak
Jimi Manuwa vs Thiago Santos

Prelims (FS1)

Claudia Gadelha vs Nina Ansaroff
Jessica Eye vs Kaitlyn Chookagian
Eryk Anders vs Elias Theodorou
Olivier Aubin-Mercier vs Gilbert Burns

Prelims (Fight Pass)

Devin Clark vs Aleksandr Rakic
Brad Katona vs Matthew Lopez
Chad Laprise vs Dhiego Lima
Carlos Diego Ferreira vs Kyle Nelson

 

[Lord of The Curry]

THIS CARD IS THE TITS. DISCUSS.

 

[Gert]

Pretty excited about this card. I feel like any Blessed fight is one you have to watch, that said I think I want to bet on Ortega. I also think that this main card has the best batch of balanced match ups on a UFC card in 2018.

Hoping to make some money betting on this card, but I am torn on a lot of fights.

 

[Lord of The Curry]

Jesse Ronson came into fight week over 20 pounds so his fight against Ferreira is off, apparently the UFC still has an opponent in mind so Carlos remains on the card. Feel bad for Jesse considering he took the fight on short notice I think there should be an allowance for situations like this.

I'm incredibly torn on the main event. Max hasn't fought in a year and has been pulled from two fights in a row so who the fuck knows how he's going to look and Ortega knocking out Frankie and tapping Cub would usually tell you that the momentum for this fight would be in his corner.

Having said that, Ortega puts himself behind on the scorecards in almost every fight he's in and Max gets stronger as the fight goes on. Third Round Ortega might make an appearance here but we're just over two years removed from Ortega almost losing a decision to Clay Guida.

 

[Lord of The Curry]

Just got back from the press conference. Got a thumbs up from Rorion Gracie when I threw him a hang loose hand sign.

I'm not sure how it came across on television but Max looked fucked up. Seemed very distracted and had difficulty with understanding reporters questions. Played up the Toronto love a lot so the crowd popped for it but I was surprised how much support Ortega had, loved his comment about the diversity and multiculturalism the city has. Joanna is quite understandably and obviously the crowd favorite and she looked great in terms of being at a new weight class and just all around smoking in terms of looks.

A lot of the media asking questions seemed like they were holding back on something, that they wanted to ask something they couldn't. Then I come home and see that they were explicitly told to limit their questions to the PPV only so of course nobody got to call Dana out on Greg Hardy.

 

[Lord of The Curry]

https://streamable.com/7k3m5

The dude yelling "Boogeywomannnnn" at around 16 seconds is I.

 

[HSJ]

I honestly believe for the best of the business, we need Joanna and Ortega to win.

 

[909]

Valentina and Ortega.

Max needs to move up and losing would force him to.

 

[HSJ]

Joanna is so much more marketable as a champion.

 

[Mickey Massuco]

disagree.

joanna can't do anything that cool.

 

[Lord of The Curry]

Joanna is more marketable and a more exciting fighter. For all the skill that Valentina possesses she's boring.

Having said that, unless Rose loses to Andrade (which has gotta be the next title fight at SW) Joanna is going to be in limbo at 115 so I'm okay with her staying at 125.

I love Max but I'm rooting for T-City because Max needs to move up to 155 before he really fucks himself up cutting weight, moreso then he obviously already has.

 

[Lord of The Curry]

I'm not trying to start a rumour or freak anybody out but don't be surprised if we get Ortega vs Moicano II on Saturday night and Max gets stripped. Ortega did media today and said that he flat-out asked Max is he was good to go on Saturday and Max wouldn't give an answer. I watched the presser last night after coming home and I wasn't imagining things- Max looked really off and was slurring his words just as bad if not worse then he was when he got interviewed in July.

 

[AA484]

Jesus. Can't say I'd be surprised, though.

 

[Lord of The Curry]

For what it's worth Dana did an interview with TSN today and said win or lose he wants Max at 155 for his next fight.

 

[AA484]

Moicano missed weight. As of right now, Holloway and Ortega are on.

 

[HSJ]

God, I hate watching Elias fight.

 

[HSJ]

Damn it I ordered the card on Standard Def rather than HD and the cable is under my girlfriends name and account, who isn’t here right now. Why do they still offer PPVs in SD? It’s about to be 2019.

 

[HSJ]

How many times can you get punched in the face and not fall down? Brian Ortega is the 145 lbs Homer Simpson, Jesus.

 

[909]

Brian Ortega is the toughest guy I have ever seen.

 

[Brooklyn Zoo]

Yeah doc had no choice

 

[BruiserBrody]

Damn it I ordered the card on Standard Def rather than HD and the cable is under my girlfriends name and account, who isn’t here right now. Why do they still offer PPVs in SD? It’s about to be 2019.

Some of us are cheap fucks. We basically stopped ordering the PPVs this year after the cost went up again in January or whenever.

Before that we had watched pretty much every PPV since Liddell vs. Babalu or thereabouts.

 

[Lord of The Curry]

God, I hate watching Elias fight.

Here's the deal with Elias: I get the hate. I do. He fights to not lose, actively avoids putting himself into the fire and makes no attempt to fight outside his comfort zone to achieve victory. He trains at a world class gym in TriStar yet somehow doesn't know how to throw a jab.

Having said that, I'm morbidly fascinated with watching him fight. I don't know if it's a testament to his skills and his camp or a detriment to the fact that his opponents still haven't solved his puzzle which, considering he's been fighting the same fight since his debut four years ago, is kind of amazing. He employs a fighting style reliant 90% on exiting exchanges throwing looping, weird punches and an extremely kick-focused game (inneffective kicks at that) and somehow the dude is ranked and has a respectful 8-2 record with wins over solid competition.