UFC Freedom 250: Ilia Topuria vs. Justin Ray Gaethje & Alex Pereira vs. Ciryl Romain Gane RBR.

Topuria lost? Good. People and him were making out like he was invincible.

 

Take aways,

Diego Lopez is so under appreciated. I couldn’t believe so many people had Garcia winning this. Same with the Jean Silva fight

Bo Nickal can still have a decent run in the UFC. Pyfer has come back fantastically after a dreadful loss to jack hermanson. Two very different fighters, but 1 loss to RDR and people are already writing him off, he’s still learning the game

Chandler needs to retire or go to the PFL

Hokit is an actual piece of ****. I hope he gets knocked the **** out immediately

Zahabi was such a lay up for O’Malley. Idk how many more easy fights they can give Sean, it’s beyond a joke at this point. If he beats Yan, which I don’t think he will, they better give him Umar as his first defence.
Knowing the UFC they’ll somehow find a way to give him Mario Bautista

Not surprised with the Gane Vs Alex result. Pray that we get Tom back soon

Ilia staying in range was really really odd considering the reach difference, he needed to flirt just outside of Justin’s jab and come in and attack, rather than sit in the pocket, he just couldn’t work out the right range. Huge win for Justin, would be nice to see him retire on top, not much out there left if you ask me

 

Eddie has offered to apply a variety of impacts to Dana's melon, and thus far Dana has gone quack-quack!

 

How did Topuria's face bust up like that so bad, very strange.

 

Ilia seemed obsessed with an early knockout. Put all his stock in finishing Gaethje. He blew it and paid a heavy price.

 

Derrick Lewis definitely needs to consider retirement ... but, the more I think about it, the more yesterday's fight reminds me of the infamous Ali-Liston "phantom punch" rematch.

No, I don't think Lewis tanked the fight; nor do I think Liston (much) tanked his. What Liston confided later is what I'm reminded of when I view Lewis pre- and post-fight: Liston said he could have risen from the canvas but was so discombobulated by Ali's behavior.

Liston famously said, "That guy was crazy. I didn't want anything to do with him."

 

Surprised about Illia but I had the same feeling of Alex vs Cyril that I had for Prochazka vs Uldberg.
I would love to see now, after sum rest, Illia vs Paddy and Gaethje vs Arman

 

Topuria's face was seriously gnarly. Needs to take a very long time off.

 

Topuria would have KO'd this clown brutally. He still likely will as a tune up. Topuria almost finished Gaethje in the second. Pimblett was never in the fight.

 

The worst thing for Ilia now is that when you lose that bit of confidence, your body starts to do things differently, you saw it with pavlovich after the Aspinall KO, hasn’t been the same fighter for a few fights. Nice to see him be more aggressive against Texaria last time out, but it took him a few fights to get back to that

 

Gane would be a good pro boxer. Better than his compatriot Yoka.

 

Gane would KO AJ. AJ cant handle that K-1 swag.

 

If Ilia went for the ground and pound instead of the arm bar, he probably would have finished Gaethje at the end of the second. Still not sure though as Gaethje wasn't going anywhere.

 

That was a great card. Every fight was literally a KO.

Incredible gameplan and victory by Gaethje, would love to see a rematch.