UFC FIGHT NIGHT 125: MACHIDA vs. ANDERS 3 February 2018 | Arena Guilherme Paraense | Belem, Brazil MAIN CARD FS1, 10 p.m. ET Lyoto Machida vs. Eryk Anders Valentina Shevchenko vs. Priscila Cachoeira Michel Prazeres vs. Desmond Green Tim Johnson vs. Marcelo Golm Thiago Santos vs. Anthony Smith PRELIMINARY CARD FS1, 8 p.m. ET Sergio Moraes vs. Tim Means Alan Patrick vs. Damir Hadzovic Douglas Silva de Andrade vs. Marlon Vera Iuri Alcantara vs. Joe Soto PRELIMINARY CARD UFC Fight Pass, 7 p.m. ET Joseph Morales vs. Deiveson Figueiredo Maia Stevenson vs. Polyana Viana
Eryk Anders is 2-0 in the UFC and is coming off a decision win against a guy who doesn't have a Wikipedia page. Main event!
Apparently John Dodson will get a "portion" of his fight purse because he declined to fight Munhoz. Dodson says Munhoz came in closer to 5-lbs heavier than 4. With Elliot and now Dodson having this happen to them the UFC is making it clear to either fight the guy who couldn't or wouldn't cut the weight, or lose out on the money associated with it. I think that is ridiculous. Why should Dodson be punished because Pedro couldn't or wouldn't cut weight properly? Unfortunately that appears to be the WME-IMG UFC way now, because I do not remember stuff like this happening under the Fertitas.
Shevchenko takes full mount and landed more unanswered shots. Cachoeira rolled to her back and let herself get choked because apparently the ref had no desire to stop the fight.
Anders is scared of Machida's striking. Every time Anders lands a solid strike he dives for a takedown. If dude followed up with more punches this fight may already be over.
Anders is the exact opposite of Stefan Struve. Struve gets hit and decided he wants to brawl. Anders lands a power shot and decides he wants to grapple. Makes no sense.
Reaults Lyoto Machida def. Eryk Anders via split decision Valentina Shevchenko def. Priscila Cachoeira via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2, 4:25 Michel Prazeres def. Desmond Green via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28) Timothy Johnson def. Marcelo Golm via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28) Douglas Silva de Andrade def. Marlon Vera via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) Thiago “Marreta” Santos def. Anthony Smith via TKO (strikes) – Round 2, 1:03 Sergio Moraes def. Tim Means via split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28) Alan Patrick def. Damir Hadzovic via unanimous decision (30-25, 30-27, 30-27) Polyana Viana def. Maia Stevenson via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 3:50 Iuri Alcantara def. Joe Soto via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 1:06 Deiveson Figueiredo def. Joseph Morales via TKO (punches) – Round 2, 4:34
The Prazeras vs Green fight is exactly why Dodson should not be forced to fight the heavier fighter or lose his purse. Prazeras came in flagrantly over weight and dominated because he was bigger. Now Green is half the way to getting fired because he lost a fight and is not a top fighter.
Yamasaki facing a lot of criticism this week. Not only did he let Cachoeira get outstruck 230-3, he missed it when she tapped out the first time. Some are saying she gave up her neck to get the fuck out of that fight. She also wrecked her ACL in the fight to boot. With that being said the matchmaking was abysmal. "Zombie Girl" was debuting and her 8-0 record was pretty sus. Shelby et. al. need to take some of the blame.
I agree with the sentiment, but to be fair, at that weight class they do not have a lot of options at the moment. The champion has only 6 career fights on her resume and 2 of them are losses. So it will be a colossal mismatch on paper if they fight as well. And it really did look to me like Cachoeira purposely let herself get choked. She just went flat and stopped offering up any fight. No hand fighting or anything. Just wanted that to end. I think she also wanted her corner to throw in the towel between rounds when she told them about the knee. So, a lot of blame for everyone involved.
