Transcription
What's up, guys? UFC 317 is over with. Obviously, I was right. I was smart. I made all the keys to victory for all the fighters on the main card. And they all pretty much listened except for Roy Ball.
I mean, it was an amazing fight. Great volume, great war back and forth. He just didn't implement a little bit of grappling, right? He was every shot that Van was hitting with looked like it hurt. He was coming with so much power, but I feel like whoever mixed in a little bit of the grappling, uh, could have won that fight. I was really interested to see how the judges would have picked that fight, uh, if it went to the scorecards when he got dropped. I think that really sealed the deal for Veran.
I mean, it's going to be an amazing fight with, uh, him and Pantoia who looked amazing. He always does his game plan to the tea. I knew if he got the back, it'd be very hard. Benil Darouche looked great. He went with the grappling side of it. I know he got rocked early, but it was two years off. So I think he just needed to get his, you know, feet wet a little bit, and I think his next fight is going to be bigger. He's going to start a lot quicker. If I'm him and his team, I'm getting him wrestling a lot earlier. Him on top is a problem. He's a hard guy to get up from. He's a hard guy to out-scramble. He just looked great.
Payton and Tala looked amazing. It showed how much improvement he had from his last fight. People thought the grappling would be a huge factor, but he defended a lot of the takedowns. I think Lima was doing well in the standup, and I think he just started shooting the takedowns just cuz he was uncomfortable on the feet. If he would have just made him more of a standup fight, I think it could have been, uh, much closer. But shout out to Payton. He did really well.
Obviously, main event Tapora, how good is he? I think he's really good to finish a guy like Aloe Vera in the first round to say you're going to finish him in the first round to post a celebration dinner on Friday saying that it's going to be easy. He made it look easy, right? He said everything he was going to do, and he did it.
Olive, it's tough one, man. It's a tough one to go with. I don't know if it's a vision problem or honestly, I'm going to say I think he's like blind or just had really bad vision because every single one of those fights, he has to move forward. He has to be in your face, and you don't want to be in Tupory's face who has shorter arms, who has heavier punches than him. I think he should have played it longer. And if you were going to be on the inside, you had to grapple. He initiated the grappling. He tried the grapple. I know he played bottom a little bit, but when Tapora let him up, it should have been back to grappling. Playing that game, getting out of the round, you got to feel for his strength. Tapora did a beautiful job of slipping that cross and just reading him. He knew the jab, cross, hook was going to come. Olive is very simple with his combinations. It's just Muay Thai, hands up. But we knew those big looping shots are what catches them.
Tuporia, I don't know who he has next. I know Patty came into the cage if I'm the UFC. I think that's a big fight. But ranking wise, stylistically wise, I think it should be Justin or Marman. I think he would be definitely a fun matchup for Tapora. A guy that's going to bring the grappling, a bigger guy, a stronger guy.
The question everybody's asking, how would it have been if Tapora fought Islam on that day? Obviously, the fight everybody wants to see is him and Islam. He showed that he does have rusting defense. He defended, uh, Oliver's takedowns on the ground. He passed his guard. He got to good positions on the ground. I know people are saying, "Oh, he got up from the ground. He didn't play the guard." It's like he played the ground a little bit, then he got up, and then he knocked him out. So, I don't know what you guys want. Everybody just they're never satisfied. But, I mean, he looked great.
For me, when I look at that matchup and I break it down, I think Islam is very good with defense and with distance. If he's close, he's grappling. He's not staying in that brawling zone that Tapora loves. If he's within grabbing your range, he's grabbing you. And I don't care if Tapori is able to defend a first or second takedown, Islam is going to keep you there. He's going to push you on the cage. If I'm in Islam's corner, that's what I'm doing. I'm keeping him there, especially for the first, second, third round, trying to initiate that takedown. Alo got the body lock pretty early. Islam is really good there with the trips, with the body locks, with the single legs there. I think he would, uh, continued grappling there, and it would have been a lot more interesting. It would have definitely got past the first round, and we would have seen how Tapora held up. He didn't really need to show his cardio. That one's a fun one, man. I'm excited for it. If it does happen, I do think it needs to happen.
Stylistically, I don't think it's grappler against striker. Islam showed his last couple fights that he is comfortable on the feet. He's fought the the shorter guy in Bulganowski, and he's played a little bit striking. He showed moments in that fight where he knocked him out with a headkick. And then the Dustin fight, he showed his boxing. He showed that he's he can hit on the feet. I think with Tapora who does have really good grappling, really good wrestling, he's going to want to push Islam backwards, keeping Islam on his back foot, keeping Islam's against the cage where he's uncomfortable and he really good with his figning. He doesn't really throw a lot of kicks. On the other side, Islam is really good with his kicks. If he mixes the kicks up low, body high, Islam is not going to be in that boxing range unless he's grabbing you. I'm sure both of them are on the call or are on the line right now talking to Hunter or Dana, and they're they're trying to work that fight.
Is the Porter underrated or overrated? I mean, I think he's rated right. Right. He's your last three wins be a knockout of Holloway who's never been knocked out before to knock out Vul who looked great his last fight and then now just to knock out Olivera at 155 up away class. I mean, how can you deny the guy? He talks and he says what he's going to do, and he does it. So, you got to respect him. You got to give it to him. But yeah, I don't think he's underrated at all.
Can Seapora compete at 170? He showed really that his power translated. It went up, and he still had the power in his hands. I know Aloa is not the perfect testing tool at 155 seeing as he's gotten dropped by Gachi. He's gotten dropped by Chandler. He's gotten dropped by Porier. He's gotten hurt a lot, but he would always come back. This one he was out cold. I really want to see him go against another guy at 155 who's, you know, shown that they have a chance, shown that they've really never been dropped. At 170, I think that the size definitely would matter. And at 155 and 170, it's a big difference, especially for a guy that's coming up from 145. But I mean, I welcome him if he wants to come up to 170. Come up. Yeah, let's do it.
That's the recap. That's the breakdown. If you guys got any questions, put them in the comments. I'll answer them. I'll go through them. Yeah, appreciate you guys following. Like and subscribe. Tell your friends about it. We were 5-1 on this main card. Royal was right there.