UFC Fight Night: Holloway vs. Korean Zombie

The official Tapology discussion thread for the event!

Holloway vs. Jung
Max Holloway, DEC
MAX ALL DAY

Smith vs. Spann II
Ryan Spann, SUB, R2
Spann better improvement

Chikadze vs. Caceres
Giga Chikadze, DEC
EZ for GIGA

Nakamura vs. Garcia
Rinya Nakamura, DEC
FUN ONE

Blanchfield vs. Santos
Erin Blanchfield, DEC
Cold Blooded get the job done

Tafa vs. Porter
Junior Tafa, DEC
TAFA so fresh

Cortes-Acosta vs. Brzeski
Waldo Cortes-Acosta, DEC
Waldo will win

Kazama vs. Armfield
Garrett Armfield, DEC
Armfield get W

Njokuani vs. Oleksiejczuk
Michał Oleksiejczuk, TKO, R1
EZ for Poland

Song vs. Bedoya
Rolando Bedoya, DEC
Younger get the win

Kino****a vs. Goff
Billy Goff, DEC
Goff will win

Liang vs. Aldrich
JJ Aldrich, SUB, R1
JJ inside winner

Damn, didn't realize how nice of a card this was until now.   

Definitely worth waking my ass up at 5 am on a saturday

@rukiddingme 

**** prelims start at 2:10 where im at Gonna be a long ass night 😂

yup gonna be up until like 8AM. at least you get to see the sunrise 

For anyone that usually has to stay up till 2am to watch a card that ends at 7am this card is a blessing. 
Thank you UFC 

Holloway vs. Jung
Max Holloway, DEC
Super hammer

Smith vs. Spann II
Ryan Spann, TKO, R2
Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

* Edited at 08.24.2023, 3:29 AM ET *

Chikadze vs. Caceres
Giga Chikadze, DEC
Giga should dominate this fight, Alex isn't really great anywhere he is just decent at everything very well rounded with a lot of experience. I bet on Caceres his last fight & i'm gonna bet against him in this fight. Giga isn't a reckless come forward striker Giga is technically sound, has power to put your lights out & has 5 knockdowns in his last 5 fights Giga is gonna pressure, defend takedowns & hurt Alex.

Nakamura vs. Garcia
Rinya Nakamura, TKO, R1
Nakamura is the way better prospect here, Garcia hasn't showed me with anything for expect getting hit lol. Garcia hasn't gotten finished yet though but he will here Easy KO for Nakamura

Blanchfield vs. Santos
Erin Blanchfield, SUB, R2
Blanchfield is really good & only getting better this is the challenger fight for the Flyweight tittle. Blanchfield has great experience for her age & is stroming her way to the top. Don't get me wrong Santos is a great test for Blanchfield Santos has fought & some may argue beat Shevenchenko but the reality is she didn't & just because she lost too Valentina don't mean she's gonna beat Blanchfield. Santos had a huge controversy with her past training partners that helped her get too that championship fight as well.

Tafa vs. Porter
Junior Tafa, TKO, R2
Tafa should be able to KO Porter, Porter isn't really good at anything just sort of well rounded. Tafa is a really really young Mixed martial artist though, he only has 5 fights and 4 of them are Cans i can totally see Porter winning but Tafa is my pick

5.00 For the Chinese Na Liang. Yes, she is bad, but its still wmma, and JJ Aldrich is trash also.  location definitely in favor of the Chinese. I dont bet on wmma, but this time i will try.
 Did aldrich even fought outside usa? Jetlag is gonna take her strong i guess.

Holloway vs. Jung
Max Holloway, TKO, R4
TKZ is tough as hell but I have a feeling Max is gonna put on one helluva pace and get a standing TKO

Smith vs. Spann II
Anthony Smith, SUB, R2
Hopefully Anthony has been working on checking leg kicks bc Spann will chop into them. But I see this going to the ground and ending by RNC

Chikadze vs. Caceres
Giga Chikadze, TKO, R2
Ends with a Giga kick in the mid to late 2nd round

Blanchfield vs. Santos
Erin Blanchfield, DEC
Wasn't sure if I wanted to pick sub or decision, but Santos is pretty durable so I went with decision and I'm sure that since I picked it she'll win by sub lol.

Tafa vs. Porter
Junior Tafa, TKO, R1
If it makes it out of the 1st it'll be tough to watch. Hopefully we don't have to watch gassed out big boys whiff their shots

Njokuani vs. Oleksiejczuk
Chidi Njokuani, TKO, R2
Should be an exciting one

Cortes-Acosta vs. Brzeski
Waldo Cortes-Acosta, TKO, R2
Brzeski isn't UFC level yeah he hasn't gotten finished but he stinks Brzeski is a pretty light Heavyweight, Acosta is big & has wins at the UFC level i think Acosta gets his first finish here and Kicks Brzeski out the UFC !

I’ve been going travelling and I’m missing the UFC in both Singapore and Paris by a week

Kinda suck because I would like to go to a good ufc card

Tell you guys one thing. I am going to make a bet on Na Liang.

Cannot lie.

They wouldn't let you in. UFC has a no animals policy

Chikadze vs. Caceres
Giga Chikadze, TKO
GIGAChad Chikadze has nasty body knicks and Caceres is vegan. That lactose intolerant stomach is not meant to take damage.

Fernie has never been finished, ever. Not saying Rinya can't do it, but this one will get interesting if it's extended. 

Errens vs. Choi
Errens, SUB, R1 
Getting stopped by Trizano in the fashion Choi did is just awful. Errens has skills, debut was a mess but Gomis is a tough test. I think Choi can lose to a lot of guys at this point. 

@Rah123 

Hope you're lying. 

@brandonk 

His durability could be legit.  I just don't know that he has ever fought a real killer before.  I certainly don't think he has faced a guy with crazy KO power.

 
Chidi vs Michal  Michal KO RD 2 
Crazy fight right here. Can’t believe this is buried on the prelims because this is one of the best fights on the card (imo). Two really good strikers with crazy ko power yet both have really bad grappling. As a result, both guys should just meet in the center and trade. Chidi has really disappointed me since coming to the ufc. In his post-bellator run & his first few fights in the ufc, chidi looked like he had finally turned a corner. He showed improved cardio, tdd, and grappling awareness, all things he had struggled with throughout his career. Once he fought rodrigues, all those bad qualities showed up again. In Chidi’s defense, idk how rodrigues survived some of those shots + the pace of the fight was insane. Regardless of these factors Chidi did still show that once he is forced to be the nail he just falls apart. I think chidi beat duraev but he fought so poorly. When duraev got him down round 1, Chidi was just frozen for the rest of the fight. He showed no urgency and just let duraev stand in front of him and “win” on volume. Chidi was afraid of being taken down but duraev also stopped wrestling after round 1. Early on, Chidi is a force. He has a massive frame for the division and is insanely fast. His muay thai is very crisp and he has one punch ko power. His takedown defense is decent early but if you try hard enough you can get him down. If you push a high enough pace or eat chidi’s best shots, he fades hard after round 1. Its something hes struggle with his entire career, so its not like this is something hes gonna magically fix inbetween fights. Michal on the other hand has looked totally rejuvenated at 185. He had always shown flashes of potential at 205 but struggled to find consistency. Since going to 185 he has looked much better. His power has translated very well but what really shocked me was his takedown defense. In hus fught against brundage, it looked terrible. Brundage was getting hom down with ease and i dont think michal defended a takedown once. Byt then, he fought caio and defended almost every takedown, while also giving caio problems on the feet. I dont think we need to worry about grappling here but thought i should point out michal is making improvements. This is a pretty close fght but im taking michal because he is younger, more durable, and has better cardio.
Kenan vs Bedoya  Bedoya KO RD 3
This is one of the more under the radar fights this week; I think this is gonna be a slugfest. Scoring that knockdown on garry was a good look by kenan but outside of that moment, he really hasnt done anything in the ufc. I mean, hes got some cool finishes but they are all against very very bad ufc fighters or guys who were far too inexperienced. Every time hes fought a ufc level guy hes gotten the floor wiped with him. Granted, hes only lost to good fighters but still it shows the level he is at. Kenan is a pretty good kickboxer but he struggles in a lot of areas. For one, the output. Song just throws nothing ever. He is decently active in round 1 but his output falls off of a cliff later in the fight. I dont think its a cardio thing either, he just freezes up when he faces adversity. The best example of this was when he fought alex morono. All morono did was stick to the basics, attacking jabs and low kicks. These low kicks were really throwing off kenan & had him second guessing everything he threw. Another thing with song is his chin. Song takes a lot of damage every fight & eats punches on his chin. Then we have bedoya, who I am having a very hard time getting a read on. Bedoya comes from chute boxe & we know what we’re getting with these guys. Theyre always super durable, always have insane cardio, always in crazy brawls & they are always in good shape. However, bedoya’s regional tape is pretty underwhelming. For starters, he looks in really bad shape; theres no muscle definition and he looks out of shape in every fight. Despite that, bedoya has the good cardio we expect from CB guys. He doesnt really appear to hit that hard & isnt usually in insane brawls. Another thing with bedoya is he gets rocked badly a lot. When he gets rocked, its almost like he wakes up but, thats not a quality i really like to see in fighters. Bedoya’s debut was odd. He was booked against khaos in what seemed like a clear mismatch, yet he made it competitive. Despite looking good, it is important to note khaos also looked a career worst in that fight. Bedoya made it competitive and fought a good gameplan but at the same time khaos was just winging bombs with no set up wile bedoya just dodged them and threw calf kicks & jabs. He looked very comfortable in there against a scary fighter whos deep in the top 25 so that shows a lot, even if khaos himself looked awful. We saw ho badly morono’s leg kicks messed up kenan’s gameplan so I think that will be a good weapon for bedoya to go to the well with. Also the volume and cardio will be big here; bedoya throws a ton of output & even though he doesnt hit that hard, its a nonstop onslaught of punches. I think the constant output & the inability to go away is going to give kenan a lot of issues. Even if bedoya isnt hurting him, we’ve seen that kenan struggles hard with his output so I think hes gonna get drowned and eventually koed. 




Goff vs Kino****a  Kino****a KO RD 1
Love both guys so it sucks one has to lose here. However, I think this is phenomenal matchmaking by the ufc; these guys are gonna throw down until someone gets ktfo. Despite having one of the worst debuts in recent memory, I think yusaku is going to look very good in this matchup. How could someone with wrestling that bad win this fight? Well, because goff is going to give him the fight he wants. Goff is a brawler; every fight of his is just chaos. A trend in his fights is every round 1 he either gets dropped, rocked, or put in a compromising position, fights out of it, then finishes his opponents later in the fight. Its awesome to watch but, not sure how he will fare at the ufc level. The reason this matchup is so good for yusaku is because of goff’s willingness to brawl. When he gets rocked or dropped, he doesnt try to wrestle & let himself recover, instead going right back to his feet & goes right back to throwing heat. For example, against gary balleto he got sat down & balleto jumped on a failed guillotine attempt. Instead of going to the ground & taking time to recover, goff stood right back up, still rocked and continued to throw down. Goff does have a wrestling background but he rarely uses it. Should he fight smart for the first time in his career (i doubt he starts now) he could give yusaku issues but again, seems highly unlikely. Goff is very fun to watch but his style of “take my opponents best shot and break them” is not sustainable, especially when its low level regional guys doing this to him. In a pure standup fight, yusaku is far superior. I love his striking; its so crisp and powerful. He is so good at slipping his opponents punches and countering back. I really like yusaku in this spot & think its a buy low, sell high spot because of how bad his debut was. 
Liang vs Aldrich  Aldrich KO RD 2 
This is a pretty funny one. Loser goes home fight except both girls are on VERY different career trajectories. Aldrich is on an L streak but against two great fighters and liang has just never been close to ufc level. Aldrich’s last fight was so strange to me; she **** the bed hard which was odd because I’ve always thought her to be very consistent. She had the right idea with wrestling but would stop the takedown attempt after every shot. Part of this could just be lipski having improved a ton but aldrich still was not going 100% on her shots. I think the blanchfield fight fooled everyone (myself included) into thinking aldrich is a really good wrestler. She did manage to get erin down & somehow defended all of her tds but, I think it was just simply a good performance. In her other fights, JJ doesnt really wrestle that much. She only really grapples when her opponents engage in it such as robertson or demopolus. Despite being on a bad L streak, its nothing compared to her opponent. Na Liang has been one of the worst wmma fighters pretty much since she joined the ufc. Every fight of hers goes the same way; she comes out guns blazing, keeping a pace she can’t maintain & then death gassing before getting finished. Shes like the female daniel da silva; super chaotic & spams all sorts of submission attempts. She has a pretty big frame for the division & actually possesses some power (announcers said she placed first for tests at the China PI) however, she doesnt know how to use any of her physical skills. She has a good question mark kick and throws fast & powerful shots but has no defense at all. As the fight gets extended, her cardio declines & she turns from hittable into a punching bag. Shes gets so exhausted to the point she just takes an ass whooping just to get a takedown. When she does get you down, she has very bad control. She can be reversed or swept very easily & she gives up position all the time to attack armbars. As long as JJ weathers the 2 minute storm this will be the easiest win of her career. Liang fights hard for all of three minutes & then looks for a way out. JJ has no finishes in the ufc but I think she gets her first here; it is so easy to finish liang she basically gives it to you on a platter. 

Errens vs Choi  Choi DEC 
Starting off the card with a pretty tricky one (imo). I dont think it should be that difficult to pick but, choi is super unreliable and finds a way to lose every fight. IM honestly a little shocked the ufc is even giving him another chance. Choi is fun but like hes on a 3 fight L streak and is pulling losses out of his ass every fight. From watching his current losing streak, I have come to the conclusion that choi loses fights when he starts to lose focus. Choi starts out every fight very composed but once things stop going his way, he completely and utterly falls apart. Lets look at his losing streak for example. First, he put on an incredible performance against caceres. He was seconds from a brutal finish but threw an illegal knee. Shortly after, choi made a mistake in a grappling exchange and got his back taken & subsequently tapped out. Then, he was looking pretty good in the striking against culibao but, his blitzes were too predictable and culibao kept o****ering him. After every knockdown, choi’s gameplan went out the window and he started brawling. Same thing with trizano, after the double knockdown choi stopped trying to win and kept brawling like his life depended on it. Its really annoying because I think choi is far superior to errens but one counterpunch and Choi's gameplan will disappear. Then we have jarno; jarno is also a striker. His kickboxing is decent but nothing special. He is mostly a point fighter but he does have deceptive power. In the gomis fight, he was losing for the majority of the fight but jarno was able to find two counter shots that rocked gomis badly. I could so totally see a scenario where choi is outpointing jarno & then gets caught with a counter shot. I dont think jarno will put him out, but i could 100% see him dropping choi. I wish choi would grapple because jarno has bad tdd and doessnt get up off of his back, but i cant rely on choi to fight smart ever. Ultimately, im leaning choi based on the fact hes never lost to anyone on this level but super low confidence because choi always finds a way to lose a fight.