I think we got ourselves a pretty decent triplet of fights with recognizable names at the top of the main card.
Stipe is a beast; but, Francis has had more time to really assemble the entirety of his MMA style instead of relying on power counters. I still think Stipe's eye for boxing defense and mixing in the wrestling with the defensive boxing movements will prove to be a very key factor in the fight if he's able to use it well.

Tyron Woodley says that he's going to come back stronger this time; but, it's just hard to ask a man to do the opposite of what's he done his entire career, imo. His whole career has been built off of fighting tougher opponents off the back foot and finding angles with his back to the cage. Vicente Luque is no easy task and can definitely step inside the pocket to bang in some punches on Tyron, I think.

Thomas Almeida was a legit 135er once upon a time ago and was known for being a really good finisher. Primarily working off of that inside slip and counter to the jab; but, finds trouble against switch hitters and rangey fighters. I think it really should be one in the bag for Sean O'Malley but we'll see if glass ankles attack again.

Discuss below

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I was gonna come back to this thread this morning to respond back xD.


That was crazy though. I thought Francis would tighten up his game but not that solid in that amount of time. The way he defended, moved to quarter back mount and then even engaged in the wrestling himself to show that it's not wrestler vs striker but wrestler vs wrestler in the engagements. What a tremendous improvement on his entire MMA game. To time the low kick + parry. To be able to outbox the Golden Gloves champ in Stipe, amazing. Truly amazing performance.


And Vicente Luque? Gotdamn bro, I was really distressed when Tyron started throwing mid-range uppercuts with no set-up in the middle of his combos. And to fire it twice against a man who is KNOWN for being able to hit that cross counter or left hook response even when he's getting nailed hard to turn around the fight, such a rookie mistake. That shit made me so upset and to see a black belt get submitted and put into disadvantageous positions consistently like Tyron has makes me hurt. That being said, the d'arce was such a thing of beauty after such a grueling final encounter. It really tears at me to see someone try so hard and to go out on their shield like Tyron did last night. But good for Luque, maybe he can get some more marquee names in the division to build his stock. That dude deserves to be in the spotlight before his fire burns out.

SUGAAAA SEANNNNN WITH DA COMEBACK. I'll have to study it closer again before giving my final thoughts; but, what a masterful showing of stance switching and tempo manipulation. Thomas Almeida has a history of blundering against similar opponents with Sean's type of strategy however, so I think it was more of a "gimme" fight than anything in the eyes of the matchmakers. But with a mark back in the win column, maybe he can even schedule a rematch with Chito Vera. Exciting implications from this card for sure.

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