#masvidal

I like lists! It’s my thing these days I guess. I started doing this particular list because my attempt at creating the top 10 boxing welterweights of the 2000s was pretty much DOA given how most of the guys you’d expect (Cotto, Mayweather, Pacquaio, Mosley) all jumped around weight classes so frequently in that era that I’d either be left removing Floyd (who fought thrice at the weight) or Pacquaio (twice) or trying to justify how Carlos Quintana and Louis Collazo were actually really genuinely top 10 welterweights. I figured I could extend that to just 140 and 147 lbs but at that point I gave up. Instead let’s jump sports and go right to MMA which I’ve been chronologically bullshitting about on here since 2012. Just HOW good was the UFC’s welterweight division from 2010 to 2019? Well let’s do the hard work!

Couple of caveats here:

-This is strictly based upon 1) your fights at WW only and 2) your fights ONLY in the UFC. Guys who were fighting outside the organization don’t have those fights count against your record.

-There’s a FIVE fight minimum to be eligible. This is primarily due to not wanting to have to deal with “What about Conor/Nate/Nick?!” questions. 

-Unless a fighter actually popped positive on a drug test, I did not try to  dock anybody who I suspected of being on PEDs. We know the UFC was the wild wild west for most of this era so rather than be the equivalent of the guy who swears RDA is on steroids because “Well he started winning then he lost!”, I stuck to the facts. 

Honorable Mentions:

Colby Covington- As much as we all may dislike Covington for what he does and says, the fact of the matter is that Colby Covington is a genuinely good welterweight. Wins over Robbie Lawler, Demian Maia and Rafael Dos Anjos are his two big punctuation marks but this is also a guy who gave Kamaru Usman hell for an extended period in their title fight and holds a bevy of solid under the radar wins over the likes of Max Griffin and Dong Hyun Kim. I could see somebody putting Covington on their top 10 and I wouldn't begrudge them at all. I just couldn't cross that bridge on my end.

Rafael Dos Anjos- RDA is probably a top 10 all time lightweight and one of the greatest fighters of the 2010s but I still think I prefer RDA's dominance as a lightweight. As a welterweight he got off to a tremendously hot start in the weight class punctuated by a win over Robbie Lawler but from then on? It's been a pretty dry run. Since the Lawler fight, RDA is 1-4 and the pattern is pretty much out there. If you pressure him early and prevent him from getting a good feel for the space and pace of the fight, he's a pretty easy touch. He's gritty and durable but he basically exists now to test if you're ready for the big step up. I'm not a big fan of the gatekeeper label for dudes like RDA so I prefer the term mini boss. He's the guy who checks to see if you're ready for the big boss.

Leon Edwards- Leon Edwards is 10-2 and coming off a career defining win over RDA and yet he's not in the top 10? Against fighters who have better records than him?! To begin with, Edwards has a looot of dead air on his resume. We're talking about guys who weren't even relevant at the time of their fight. A green Vicente Luque and Bryan Barberena were his good wins but not exactly top 10 worthy, especially given the UFC roster bloat. There's also only one guy on the top 10 list who did NOT get at least an interim title shot and that guy beat him up in a backstage fight so it's not like I could squeeze him in. I also have to admit (unfortunately) that Edwards is sort of a dull fighter who tends to get overlooked on lists like this.

Jake Shields- I don't think there's anything wrong with Jake Shields sneaking onto this list. Shields' run as a welterweight in the UFC was a 4-3 jaunt (that felt like the 100 year war) with wins over some damn good fighters but mostly in close contested score card-y fights. On paper though wins over Woodley and Maia SHOULD get you into the top 10 though so again, if he's on yours then fine. No shame in losses to Hector Lombard, GSP and Ellenberger.

Jake Ellenberger- If you remove the last five fights of his career when he was just sort of being trudged out there because “He hit hard so he can always win a fight!”, Jake Ellenberger has a spiffy record of 9-6 with wins over the likes of Jake Shields, Josh Koscheck and a not exactly cooked Diego Sanchez while his losses are to the likes of Rory Mac, Robbie Lawler, Wonderboy and the generally underrated Martin Kampmann. Not a top 10 for the decade even at that point but the rise of the elite four in Colby, Masvidal, Usman and Woodley and him continually getting fights over and over and over haven’t been kind to him. Ellenberger, Kampmann and Carlos Condit are the three guys who will always be sort of forgotten by modern fans who deserve their just due.

Joey

October 28th, 2019

The UFC's first two showcases in MSG were based entirely around putting on insane title fights that flexed the UFC's superior depth as an organization. Conor/Alvarez in a battle of champions with two title fights and a host of big names (Edgar, Stephens, Romero, Tate, Weidman) underneath it followed up by GSP/Bisping with Dillashaw/Garbrandt and Rose Najamunas/Joanna underneath it. 2018 signified a change as big fight after big fight fell through and the UFC was left just aiming to put on a crazy deep card with high levels of violent potential on it. It succeeded on that but the card felt a step behind the other shows. This one feels more like a return to old with hints of the more modern formula sprinkled in. There's no Conor and no Khabib, there's no big title fight, there's no real fight of divisional significance either. What there is a big main event pitting two big stars against one another with a fake belt on the line (but aren't they all really if we're being honest) with an undercard that doesn't showcase the UFC's depth and isn't loaded with big superstars but has a litany of really fun action fights on tap. Nate Diaz vs Jorge Masvidal for the BMF title feels like the UFC doing the rare thing; giving the fans what they want while also giving themselves what they need. Under that you have just a rush of really freaking good action fights that maybe won't matter in a year from now but combine to create a very appealing way to spend a Saturday night, Let's talk about it.

Fights: 12

Debuts:

Fight Changes/Injury Cancellations: 2 (Colby Covington vs Kamaru Usman CANCELLED/Krzysztof Jotko OUT, Brad Tavares IN vs Edmen Shahbazyan)

Headliners (fighters who have either main evented or co-main evented shows in the UFC): 11 (Jorge Masvidal, Nate Diaz, Stephen Thompson, Kelvin Gastelum, Darren Till, Blagoy Ivanov, Derrick Lewis, Kevin Lee, Corey Anderson, Brad Tavares, Andrei Arlovski)

Fighters On Losing Streaks in the UFC:  4 (Stephen Thompson, Derrick Lewis, Kevin Lee, Darren Till)

Fighters On Winning Streaks in the UFC: 14 (Jorge Masvidal, Jair Rozenstruik, Vicente Luque, Corey Anderson, Johnny Walker, Blagoy Ivanov, Johnny Walker, Jennifer Maia, Chance Rencountre, Hakeem Dawodu,Edmen Shahbazyan, Shane Burgos, Mawkan Amirkhani, Gregor Gillespie)

Main Card Record Since Jan 1st 2017 (in the UFC): 31-17

Nate Diaz- 1-0 Jorge Masvidal- 3-2 Darren Till- 4-2 Kelvin Gastelum- 2-2-1 Stephen Thompson- 1-3 Vicente Luque- 6-1 Derrick Lewis- 4-3 Blagoy Ivanov- 2-1 Kevin Lee- 3-3 Gregor Gillespie- 5-0

Fights By Weight Class (yearly number here):

Welterweight-  3 (67) Heavyweight- 2 (36) Middleweight- 2 (42) Featherweight- 2 (55) Light Heavyweight- 1 (40) Lightweight- 1 (70) Women’s Flyweight- 1 (32)

Women’s Strawweight- (28) Bantamweight- (53) Flyweight-  (15) Women’s Featherweight- (8) Women’s Bantamweight-  (18)

2019 Number Tracker

Debuting Fighters (38-59-1)-

Short Notice Fighters (29-36)- Brad Tavares

Second Fight (56-35)-

Cage Corrosion (Fighters who have not fought within a year of the date of the fight) (22-38-1)-

Undefeated Fighters (40-37-2)- Gregor Gillespie, Edmen Shahbazyan

Fighters with at least four fights in the UFC with 0 wins over competition still in the organization (12-9)-

Weight Class Jumpers (Fighters competing outside of the weight class of their last fight even if they’re returning BACK to their “normal weight class”) (29-23)- Darren Till, Kevin Lee

Twelve Precious Ponderings

1- Anyone else we still had buyrates to pour over for this one? Imagine being able to comp this to the Conor/Nate fights or Conor/Khabib or the bigger Jones fights to see where these two really rank in terms of buyrates.

2- So what's the end result when this is over? Are we going to pretend the BMF thing is real? Are we going to retire it? Is this like when the WBC has some new title made for Floyd's next big fight then he just keeps it in his attic in his 50 room mansion? I'm just perplexed what the long term plan is for this title that allegedly costs thousands to make.

3- One of the more interesting things about this fight is that Masvidal;s pretty much changed how he fights going up in weight. I don't know if it was just more confidence in himself without nixing off 15 lbs or if he made a concession that he needed to change to adapt to his weight class but he went from not having a stoppage via strikes at LW for six years to stopping 5 of his 6 WW wins. Nate Diaz is notoriously durable but he's also been hurt in the past at 170 lbs and I think Masvidal's pop is legitimate up at WW. Conversely we've seen Masvidal dropped by guys like Till and Larkin only to rise up and get right back to doing what he does. I'm curious if Masvidal will come out fighting Nate like he has every other welterweight or if this turns into a cautiously fun fight where nobody really gets a serious edge and it's a respect filled slodge down the stretch.

4- How does Conor wiggle himself into the main event conversation before all's said and done.

5- What could Darren Till and his camp possibly see in Kelvin Gastelum that this is the fight they wanted for his debut?

6- Derrick Lewis is undefeated against big Eastern European dudes. Just want to keep that in the conversation.

7- Speaking of weird matchups that don't make any sense on paper, Kevin Lee opted to drop back down to 155 lbs and his first fight is Gregor Gillespie. This after we just saw two straight fights where Lee struggled to get off the fence against grapplers with more strength and a better understanding of control than he does. Now to his credit, Lee beat Michael Chiesa who is similar but I'd argue Chiesa is more of a big slug muk type LW whereas Gillespie is a fluid mover with quick enough pop in his hands to survive fights at range if need be. I don't know if Lee made the right call here unless he's  got a secret escape route vs Gillespie. It is fair to point out that Gregor Gillespie has never faced a guy with Kevin Lee's overall skillset but if this turns into a battle of wills and cardio, I gotta bet on Gillespie.

8- They're not the sexiest of names on a card like this but both of these featherweight fights are great fun. Hakeem Dawodu vs Julio Arce is a great striking contest where you have two hittable featherweights sort of trying to scrap their way out of the bottom half of the ranks going at it. Arce has the better resume but Dawodu has crazy upside and promise. Arce tends to fight his opponent's fight so chances are this is going to be a pretty fun back and forth all kickboxing affair. Makwan Amirkhani vs Shane Burgos should be a hilarious striker vs grappler fight as Burgos is one of the best featherweights at controlling range and pace while Amirkhani probably beats every featherweight who he can get to the ground (minus Arnold Allen who JUST edged out a decision). Amirkhani's hands haven't taken the next step the way a lot of folks expected but beyond that, he's a lot of fun. Burgos is one of the many dudes who adopted Conor McGregor's stalk and strike style and I'd imagine it's going to be pretty tense in the latter rounds to see Burgos chasing with this being a takedown vs knockdown style chess match. Good fights on the prelims.

9- Andrei Arlovski vs Jair Rozenstruik is going to be a happenin'. There's a good chance Rozenstruik is going to be racing Ciryl Gane for most impressive UFC newcomer down the stretch.

10- Corey Anderson is the guy the UFC doesn't ever want to give a title shot to because nobody would possibly care about Anderson vs Jones. Johnny Walker is in a small circle of fun LHWs who the UFC believes will be big pieces of their puzzle once Shogun, Glover and company clear out the middle of the division. This is a very strange yet kinda appealing risky fight from the UFC.

11- Brad Tavares grinded and scrapped his way up the UFC rankings to get one main event slot and now he's back on the prelims testing prospects. Life is tough in UFC land. They also clearly think he's cooked because they're handing him over to the Ronda promoted prospect who has two first round finishes in three UFC fights.