UFC Busan, South Korea

UFC 245 Recap

•UFC 245 was unreal, literally every fight was compelling. The main event was full of drama and delivered, a fight of the year candidate. A night full of finishes, not sure you can ask for anything more as a fight fan.

•Colby Covington Vs. Kamaru Usman needs to happen again. Colby ironically broke his jaw after talking so much, but the guy did come to fight. Kamaru didn’t look to clinch and these boys threw down for 5 rounds in what looks like the fight of the year. I want to see it again.

•The Max Holloway era looks to be over at 145 lbs. Maybe all those years of cutting to 145 lbs have caught up with him. Maybe his battle with depression has taken effect. Maybe the damage from all of these fights has caught up with him. I don’t know what it is, but I feel sad, I really like Max. He couldn’t handle those early leg kicks, and I don’t see him winning the rematch. I have this eerie feeling something has caught up with Max and his time is over at 145 lbs, I hope I’m wrong.

•Apparently GDR really can’t wrestle. I figured she’d learn at least a little takedown defense at AKA. Even so, Amanda Nunes was tested, she was lucky to walk away with the win. Apparently someone named Claressa Shields wants to have a boxing match with Amanda Nunes and then fight an MMA fight with Amanda Nunes. That’s a hard pass from me. But who is Amanda Nunes going to fight next at 145 lbs?

•”Mystic Mac” strikes again. When pictures of Aldo circulated the internet and everyone said how bad he looked, Conor chimed in and said his weight cut was being done correct. The guy was right, Aldo looked great. I had Aldo winning the 2nd and 3rd round’s For a 29–28 decision. The judges did not. Henry Cejudo shot a 1980’s Razor Ramon-like promo calling out Jose Aldo in Rio De Janeiro for his 1st 135 lbs title defense. The critique is, Aldo just lost. But you know what? I love it, the guy won that fight and got screwed by the judges. Aldo’s a legend and deserves a little special treatment. It’s 2019, Yoel Romero doesn’t win fights and he’s getting a title shot. Wins and loses don’t matter anymore and I’m okay with it, give me Jose Aldo vs. Henry Cejudo in Rio. And I think Aldo wins that fight.

•Uriah Faber, I remember watching him in high school in the WEC days. I was so sad when Mike Brown knocked him out. Faber looked good but, it’s his time to retire. But if he wants one last ride, I would watch the crap out of Uriah Faber Jose Aldo 2 in Rio De Janeiro.

•It doesn’t look like Mike Perry will ever be the same after that fight with Vicente Luque in Brazil. On the flip side, Geoff Neal looks like a real problem for the 170 lbs division.

•That Chase Hooper kid was impressive. Ben Askren hit a home run with this tweet.

•Brendon “Assassin Baby” Moreno learned how to fight. His last 2 fights have been very impressive. His fights before that, were not. I did not see Moreno beating Kai Kara-France like that.

•”The Irishman” starring a bunch of Italians is terrible. I thought “The Irishman” was going to take deep dive into the Mafia assassinated JFK conspiracy, and “the Irishman” was JfK. But it was 4 hours of Robert De Niro walking around playing Grand Theft Auto.

Korean Zombie (-165) Frankie Edgar (+145)

Korean Zombie is 5’7” with a 72” reach, I like to think he is the head coach of all the Korean guys that fight. The Koreans bring “Mexican Style” to the octagon, I’m always excited to watch the Korean Zombie. We missed out on about 3 years of the Korean Zombie because of his Korean military service obligations. A quick aside, a similar situation happened to Son Heung-min for Tottenham. Son Heung-min literally played in an Asian soccer tournament for South Korea and if he won he earned his freedom to play for Tottenham in the prime of his career. High stakes. He won the gold. I would also like to mention the Korean Zombie executed the 1st twister submission in UFC history.

Here are my notes on the Korean Zombie post military service. Obviously the Zombie has power in his hands, specifically his right. I noticed something I think is unique about Zombie. Zombie is fighting Frankie Edgar so I wanted to look at Zombie’s takedown defense. With the Koreans I usually think, awesome strikers, very exciting fights, but prolly not great wrestling. Zombie is a little different. When strikers fight wrestlers there is usually the dynamic, “I need to keep this fight on the feet so I can strike.” What tends to happen is the striker playing defense gets taken down because they are thinking defensively. Khabib comes to mind, the way to beat Khabib is to put a singlet on and have a wrestling match with him in the center of the octagon. Obviously Khabib is a sensational wrestler and it would take an elite wrestler to challenge him, but I bring it up because Khabib tends to fight strikers that have a defensive wrestling gameplan. “Safe is death.”-John Tortorella. So here I am looking at the Korean Zombie Dennis Bermudez fight thinking, “Okay great, let’s see if Zombie can keep this fight on the feet against a really good wrestler.” Before I can finish my thought Zombie is trying to take Bermudez down. Zombie doesn’t care if your thing is wrestling, he will try and take you down, now you’re on the defensive, now you’re worried about getting taken down. He just topsy turvied this whole thing right back on you.

The Zombie does not have good striking defense. When I watched his fights it reminded me of Justin Gaethje in that, it’s not uncommon to see Zombie balancing on one leg seemingly looking like, well, a zombie. But it’s kind of normal because its the Korean Zombie. When I have seen Zombie hurt he does a really good job at clinching to find time to recover. The Zombie fights out of a stationary stance and doesn’t defend against leg kicks well, but leg kicks have never slowed the Zombie down. I haven’t seen Zombie fight off of his back but in the Moicano fight, after he slugged Moicano in the face, (In The Face!) he did maintain dominant position as Moicano squirmed around on the ground. Zombie used that position to swiftly end the fight with ground and pound. The last thing I want to say about Zombie is he’s on of those guys who just loves fighting. Not like Diego Sanchez loves fighting, no one loves fighting more than Diego Sanchez. But, Zombie loves fighting.

Frankie Edgar is 5’6” with a 68” reach, he fights out of Toms River, New Jersey. Frankie has world class cardio, he’s been training to make 135lbs so he will be in shape, he will not get tired. Frankie has elite wrestling that he likes to set up with his pressure boxing. Frankie can take you down in the center or he can pressure you against the fence. Frankie’s ground and pound is as good as it gets. Frankie does have a problem if he cannot take his opponent down, or in the Ortega fight, doesn’t want to take his opponent down. Frankie’s reputation is a durable fighter, but Frankie has been hit and hurt in his recent fights. Ortega and Stephans both hurt him.

Strength: Cardio, Wrestling
Weakness: Size

Prediction

Frankie is in trouble if he can’t take down the Zombie in Korea. If Frankie does take the fight to the ground, how is Zombie’s Jiu Jitsu off his back? I’ve never seen zombie off of his back so I have no clue. What I do know is that Zombie carries power, he will move forward for 5 rounds and try and knock you out. I also know that Frankie doesn’t look very durable anymore. If you can answer the question of how effective Frankie’s wrestling is going be in this fight, I think you know who is going to win the fight. For me? I’m going with what I saw on tape, at some point in the fight, the Zombie lands a KO right hand.

Betting

From what I saw on tape, Zombie has the touch of death in his right hand. Frankie doesn’t look to be as durable anymore. It’s hard to ignore the possibility of Zombie KO’ing Frankie. Mark me down for Zombie KO’ing Frankie in Korea. Having said that this fight depends solely on whether or not Frankie’s wrestling can be effective, and that is an unknowable question based on the information available. But have some fun and root for the Korean Zombie in South Korea.

• Korean Zombie Wins (-165)
• Korean Zombie Wins by KO (+175)

Aleksandar Rakic Volkan Oezdemir

Aleksandar Rakic is 27 years old, he‘s 6’ 4" with a 78" reach, and he fights out of Austria. It’s clear Rakic has evolved over the years but his natural gift is his quick right hand. He has a nasty habit of swinging wildly that isn’t going to be effective against the upper echelon fighters at 205. The area of his game that has evolved are his kicks. Rakic has a long frame and his kicks are very effective. When he fights southpaw, he likes to use that left body kick. Rakic has decent takedown defence, but can struggle with trips against the fence. On the ground Rakic works to get up, he doesn’t settle. I don’t think he has remarkable wrestling ability but he has strong top position, looks for wrist control and utilizes head position very well. One thing I noticed that concerns me is it seems like Rakic can be overwhelmed when his opponent is attacking. I’m wondering if this is a situation where he’s great at being the hammer, but isn’t used to being the nail. The Devin Clark fight is an example.

Strength: Size, Hand Speed, Kicks
Weakness: Being Pressured, Wild Swinging

Volkan Oezdemir is 30 years old, he’s 6'2 with a 75" reach, and fights out of Switzerland. I’m a Volkan guy, Volkan’s calling card is his power and he has deceptively quick hands. Earlier in his career he did fatigue, but his last couple of fights I have noticed a significant improvement with his cardio. Against longer opponents Volkan likes to work his kicks at kicking range, success with the kicks setup openings for his hands. Volkan has good defensive striking, he gets his hands up into a boxing guard when he is in a potentially vulnerable position, and has a good chin if all else fails. The clinch against the fence is a position where Volkan excels, and his takedown defense is really good. He likes to look for takedowns right after his opponents kick or punch has been thrown, it’s not uncommon to see Volkan catch a kick and see if he can take his opponent down. One concern I have with Volkan is, when he loses, it’s usually after a significant strike has landed. DC hit him with a punch that stopped Volkan from moving forward, OSP needed 10 more seconds and he was going to KO Volkan in his UFC debut, and in the Anthony Smith fight I think I noticed Smith landing a big shot in the 3rd. Volkan can be hurt with punches.

Strength: KO Power, Clinching
Weakness: Cardio

Prediction

The 1st thing I think about with this matchup is how Rakic doesn’t do well when he is pressured. When Rakic is the hammer, he looks great. That Devin Clark fight put Rakic in some bad positions and I didn’t like how Rakic looked. Volkan is very capable of putting Rakic in vulnerable positions. Volkan is also very capable of mitigating Rakic’s size advantage with kicks while he finds his range. Volkan has been training with Cyril Gane this fight game, can you imagine a better training partner for this fight? I can also Volkan taking down Rakic from the clinch against the fence and working his top game.

Betting

It’s hard for me to ignore how Rakic looked in the Devin Clark fight. Rakic will need to sure up his looping punches and bad habits to win vs. Volkan but the tape says Volkan is going to KO Rakic. Last time Volkan fight I bet Volkan wins, wins by KO, and wins in round 2. Lets try that again.

• Volkan Wins (+125)
• Volkan Wins by KO (+320)
• Volkan Wins in Round 2 (+800)

To be honest with you, it was hard to find motivation to dig deep on this South Korea card. But I doubt any other MMA writer is aware of the Superman Punch making its way to the NHL. I’ll let you guys enjoy Kevin Bieksa