Marc Diakiese vs Joel Alvarez

Round 1 (10-9 Alvarez): Diakiese doesn’t look too bad on his feet but does get rocked by a few big shots. Diakiese got to show off the wrestling late in the round that evened it out a bit, but Alvarez gets the round mainly from damage. Though I wouldn’t be suprpised if Diakiese starts pulling away if he can keep wrestling and gas out Alvarez.

Round 2 (SUB Alvarez) : Diakiese is really starting to break out the wrestling. He looks nearly flawless until about 3 minutes in where he gets stuck in Alvarez’s front headlock, gets rocked, goes down due to a clash of heads and gets locked up in the D’arce. It’s disappointing that this win for Alvarez will have an asterisk due to the ref missing the headbutt, but a good performance by Alvarez regardless.

Johnny Parsons vs Danny Roberts

Round 1 (10-9 Roberts): Parsons is hitting like a truck but Roberts striking is clean as hell.

Round 2 (TKO Parsons): Parsons is fast and so powerful. Roberts gets dropped by a clean right hand midway through the round, survives and gets back up. Roberts responds by making it a dog fight and lands a few clean shots of his own but he looks tired and is dropping his hands. Both are just letting the hands go and swinging for the KO, what a great fight. Roberts throws complete caution to the wind until he just can’t take it anymore, gets dropped and the ref calls it after a couple of follow up shots with about 2 seconds left in the round. Its a shame Roberts couldn’t make it to the end of the round but the damage was clearly adding up, so I think it was a fair stoppage.

Great win for Parsons, looks like an absolute nightmare to have a striking war with. Let him beat the brakes off of Paddy Pimblett.

Davey Grant vs Daniel Marcos

Round 1 (10-9 Grant): I have high hopes for this one, Grant’s last performance where he came back and KO’d Assuncao was crazy. The calf kicks are landing hard on both sides early. Grant looks like he’s landing a bit more, Marcos didn’t land any strikes to the head in this round.

Round 2 (10-9 Grant): Marcos lands a big left hook about a minute in that looks like it stunned Grant. The calf kicks from Marcos keep coming. Marcos looks like he’s winning in terms of damage, but Grant is landing his own shots too, including a beautifully timed knee to the head of Marcos about midway through the round. The pace in this fight is insane and both fighters are swinging for the KO, but not much is landing aside from calf kicks. Grant is cut up pretty bad by the end of the round, but I still think he took the round. Seems like he landed more, though both rounds so far could go either way.

Round 3 (10-9 Grant): I love the pressure Grant is putting on Marcos, he looks like he fights best when he’s walking him down. Marcos has been somewhat successful with the counter shots, but it looks like the pace Grant is putting on is wearing on him a bit. He seems to be struggling with Grant’s unpredictable striking style as well. Even though Grant is wearing some damage, he looks as fresh as he did at the beginning of the fight. Marcos, gets a takedown with about 45 seconds left, but Grant does well to pop right back up.

I think the judges messed this one up. I had all of the rounds were for Grant slightly but very close. The damage on Grant’s face probably swayed them, even though Grant was clearly gaining control in the fight as it went on. That was a Grant win in my book.

Lerone Murphy vs Josh Culibao

Round 1 (10-9 Murphy): Murphy looks a little wild early and Culibao is able to take advantage and land a pretty heavy shot about a minute into the round. Culibao does well defending a takedown against the fence. Culibao lands a couple heavy shots through the round but I think Lerone had the most significant strkes in the round with an elbow, then a right hook against the fence toward the end of the round.

Round 2 (10-9 Murphy): Murphy looks dominant in the striking exchanges. Murphy spends some time defending takedowns against the fence, he gets dragged down once but pops right back up and overall shows great takedown defense. Murphy also looks great on his feet, showing movement and faints. He secures a takedown and takes Culibao’s back. Culibao does a good job at controlling Murphy’s hands, however, and survives the round.

Round 3 (10-8 Murphy): Culibao goes back to looking for a takedown against the fence but Murphy defends well. They separate and Murphy lands a clean body kick that sits Culibao down. He barely survives the follow-up ground and pound, ends up giving up his back at a point, turns into him and allows Murphy to hop on a d’arce, but Culibao somehow manages to get out again. Another d’arce, another escape. Murphy doesn’t stop though, gets the back again, eventually gets it to half guard and lands some more ground and pound until the horn.

Overall dominance for Lerone Murphy. After a close first round, he showed that he can turn it up when he needs to. His striking looked fluid and technical, and his grappling looked absolutely relentless. Very impressive performance that now puts him on a 5 fight win streak. I’d like to see him against someone in the 10-15 ranking range; Ige, Barboza or Caceres could all be great tests for him, a significant step up in opponent quality and wildly entertaining fights.

Jai Herbert vs Fares Ziam

Round 1 (10-9 Ziam): Heavy low kicks on both sides. Ziam finds some success with the straight right. Ziam does a good job defending and staying on his feet after Herbert finds a body lock. Herbert then takes his turn defending takedown attempts against the fence. Ziam lands a few nice shots to end the round.

Round 2 (10-9 Ziam): Herbert comes out with great pressure. Herbert lands some nice shots, but Ziam does as well, which all seem just a bit heavier. Herbert gets some control time against the fence.

Round 3 (10-9 Herbert): Herbert keeps the pressure up and has some success. He continues thriving with clinch control until Ziam does a good job countering and getting a it very briefly to the mat to end the round.

Herbert looks like he has the techincal striking ability and clinch work to be a decent contender, but his main problem is that he really lacks power. There were points he was really finding success and landing but nothing seemed to phase Ziam at all. He left the fight looking like he took very little damage.

Paul Craig vs Andre Muniz

Round 1 (10-9 Muniz): First 3 minutes have mainly been just body kicks flying both ways. Craig’s striking looks much better, landing some decent kicks and moving well, though Muniz is does exactly the same. Muniz secures the first takedown not until near the end of the round. Craig does a good job mitigating damage in butterfly guard.

Round 2 (TKO Craig): Paul gets a nice takedown early, in the center of the cage and lands some nice gnp shots. Muniz goes for a triangle, but Craig just continues to land gnp in the lock while also posturing up and defending perfectly. It goes back to Craig’s guard. Muniz gets in some gnp until he gets called for a clash of heads and has to stand back up. Another beatuful takedown for Craig, straight into half guard. Craig defends a choke perfectly and nearly locks up a d’arce from side control. He then works it to full mount with about a minute left and just lays on absolutely brutal elbows until the ref is forced to stop it.

Craig showed exactly how to use bjj effectively in MMA during this fight. Such an amazing performance against a really skilled grappler in Muniz. Craig just outclassed him on the canvas. He had a reaction for everything Muniz tried on him from his guard and just broke him down, advancing from position to position. Amazing performance.

Nathaniel Wood vs Andre Fili

Round 1 (10-9 Wood): Fili sat down Wood just a few seconds into the fight with an accurate right hand. Wood looks like he recovers well and lands a few heavy leg kicks. The range seems to be giving Wood some problems until he absolutely cracks Fili and nearly gets him out of there with ground and pound. Wood lands a huge leg kick as Fili tries to get up that nearly crumbles him. After round 1, Fili looks like he’s taken much more damage, even though they’ve both dropped each other.

Round 2 (10-9 Fili): Wood stings him almost immediately with a quick left hook. Everything is going as its been until Fili cracks wood and significantly hurts him, but Wood somehow survives after Fili takes his back, gets up and takes Fili’s back. What a damn fight. The rest of the fight is spent in Wood’s closed guard.

Round 3 (10-9 Wood): Wood has some more success with that left hook early. Yet again, Wood looks like he’s recovered well. He continues to have success with the calf kick through round 3. Fili lands his own shots through the round, and Wood defends a takedown from him 3 minutes in. With about a minute left, Wood lands a huge hook that seems to sting Fili. Close round, but I think Wood wins mainly from landing the more damaging shots.

Honestly one of my favorite fights this year, you truly had no idea where the fight’s momentum was going at any point in the fight. An impressive performance and gritty win for Nathaniel Wood.

Molly McCann vs Julija Stoliarenko

Round 1 (SUB Stoliarenko): After some striking exchanges Stoliarenko gets a takedown and takes her back. She gets the armbar and makes McCann tap about 10 times before she lets it go, kind of a dick move.

I’m starting to question if McCann deserves to be in the UFC at this point. She was just finished in the first round by a fighter who was 1-4 in the UFC coming into the fight. This fight was clearly set up for McCann to win and try to salvage the “hype” she had at one point, but she still couldn’t get it done.

Tom Aspinall vs Marcin Tybura

Round 1 (TKO Aspinall): Aspinall lands a big head kick early. He’s loose as can be, bouncing and circling. until he lands a big elbow, follows it up with a 1-2 to drop Tybura, and he end the fight with some ground and pound.

Looks like Tom Aspinall is recovered and ready to pick up where he left off before his injury. Tybura is a top 10 heavyweight fighter and it barely took Aspinall one minute to get him out of there. It was no secret coming into the fight that Tybura was going to probably be outmatched if Aspinall was fully healthy, but to run through Tybura so easily shows that Aspinall is ready for that top tier of he3avyweight contenders. I’d love to see him fight either Pavlovich or the winner of Gane and Spivac next.