Lionheart rising?

The battle between Anthony smith and Jimmy Crute had something of the Francis Ngannou about it. Smith looked great early but we haven’t really learnt a much about im from this, the fight just didn’t last long enough. 

With that said, his jab was dynamite, he set Crute back on one occasion and was causing serious damage to the right eye of the Australian. The accuracy was excellent and he was able to maintain real length, on what was a fairly minimal reach advantage. It was helped by Crute coming in and angling off to the left in order to dig at the leg kick which he was landing effectively. It left him open however, to Smith catching Crute coming in as well as being able to keep him at range. The exception that proves the rule was after he delivered the leg kick which clearly stuck a nerve in the back of Crute’s knee. Smith clearly didn’t expect it to have the level of effect it did and he left himself in the in between range that enabled Crute to launch a strong and low panicked double leg and get Smith to the floor. 

However there is little to say overall about this fight, both men had moments and it opened as a great deal of fights do with a battle between the jab and the low kick. But the low kick landed nearly as often as the jab, ultimately it was a shame that we didn’t get to see this unfold past the first round. 

Saturday prediction: Anthony Smith by Unanimous decision 

Result: TKO R1 Doctor’s Stoppage 

Poetic pain 

Boy am I glad I wrote a long form article about this fight. 

This was sad. No other description is really appropriate. The leg break came on the first strike thrown and that was all she wrote. Silva’s leg break obviously comes to mind not least because Weidman was involved in both. Ultimately this is one of the curses of combat sports: freak injuries happen and its very unfortunate that it had to be Chris on the bad end of it. 

Prediction: Chris Weidman by Unanimous decision 

Result: TKO R1 Injury 

Good god women’s flyweight is bad

…Or maybe Shevchenko is just transcendent?

No its definitely the first thing. All the talk in the build-up was about power and wrestling ability being in Andrade’s favour. She looked lost against Shevchenko, and not just in the way she started slow and couldn’t keep up, in the clinch she looked weak and technically lacking. She couldn’t consistently base herself in the clinch which as the shorter fighter is essential to controlling the clinch. 

Credit where credit’s due Shevchenko clearly saw a either prior to the fight, or felt it in the fight that Andrade was lacking in the clinch. She used her height advantage well and worked her throws off the cage. Some interesting shifts in the clinch including a feinted throw over the back leg to an inside trip stood out for Shevchenko, but ultimately when you can put your opponent in the crucifix without any resistance you’re not fighting someone on your level.

Where does she go from here? Well there’s an obligatory match with Amanda Nunes that doesn’t feel necessary so much as being a result of both of their divisions being cleaned out. So let’s throw them in their again and hopefully get a vaguely competitive fight out of it. 

Prediction: Shevchenko by Unanimous Decision  R5

Result: Shevchenko by TKO R2

Thug Rose, Thug Rose, Thug Rose 

Feeling like a broken record as I write this, we didn’t learn much about either side in this fight. However that was emphatic, it opened much like the light-heavyweight bout on the card low kicks against jabs. What followed was emphatic, the high kick was gorgeous off the lead leg. It was a closer to a question mark kick, extending the leg once it was already in the guard. She set it up well with a hip feint and a retreat and was able to rapidly close the distance with a step up lead leg kick. It did look like at least the concept of feinting with a step in attack with the lead side was in the game plan, which would align with the Trevor Wittman coaching, particularly with Gaejthe and his lead left hook. Again there’s only so much on the table here and a rematch seems as likely as a fight with Joanna does so the intrigue really starts now.

Prediction: Zhang Weili by KO R2

Result: Rose Namajunas KO/TKO R1

Trevor ‘the maestro’ Wittman 

Well if you watched just the last two fights on this card it would be hard to understand why anyone trains with anyone other than Trevor Wittman. Usman looked strong as he always does in the wrestling exchanges and avoided taking risks in the first round. Interestingly he did look a little slow in some of the trading moments in the pocket and Masvidal’s head movement did give him some serious headaches at moments.

Jorge was carrying his head high in the fight trying primarily to keep distance, unfortunately you chose your poison on that front and Usman got the body jab working early. His dip into the body jab was very pronounced and was clearly setting up the overhand/cross. With the threat of the takedown already established by virtue of him being Kamaru Usman it left Jorge in a serious bind. Either take the shots to the body all night and lose a slow and painful decision, or keep the hands down and risk the right hand. He picked his poison and ultimately Kamaru Usman found the chin. 

For Usman now it is important that he doesn’t fall in love with his hands, especially against the looming Covington who will take more risks on the feet with his wrestling credentials and won’t need to necessarily commit as much defensively. In between podcast segments Cormier made the very salient point that Covington would always be Usman’s toughest test and its had to argue with that and hopefully a rapid turnaround for Usman will give us that fight before the end of the year.

Prediction: Kamaru Usman by KO R3

Result: Kamaru Usman by KO R2