Yeah, can't blame the UFC for this one. They tried, but stuff just keeps falling through.
I didn't think I'd care about Sterling-O'Malley, but now that it's here, I'm a little bit excited for it. I'm not convinced that O'Malley beat Yan (I'll have to rewatch that sometime this week), but he did a helluva lot better than I was expecting. I actually like O'Malley's chances against Sterling more than I did going into the Yan fight. I thought Yan would be better than him everywhere. Sterling is clearly the better grappler and his striking is effective enough for his style in MMA, but O'Malley's striking is better and more dangerous. IF he can keep it standing, I think he lights Sterling on fire. Having said that, Aljo took down Cejudo 4 times and O'Malley's TDD is only 60%. I think Aljo gets it to the ground and grinds out the win or finds a sub in R3 or later. I also wouldn't be surprised to see Aljo crack him if O'Malley is selling out to stuff the takedowns too much, a la Khabib-Conor.
There is no doubt in my mind that Weili is a better mixed martial artist than Lemos, but that's not always enough to win. Lemos is as dangerous as they come at SW. Still picking Weili, but it's a fight.
I'm glad to see Weidman make it back. Would hate for a guy to be forced into retirement because of an injury, especially a former champ and someone who seems like genuinely a good dude....but he's 39 years old and was declining long before a devastating injury. Tavares is no spring chicken himself, but still. I hope it's at least competitive and then Weidman retires.
The TUF finales are on the early prelims. I assume this means Conor-Chandler are there this week? I've seen some stuff recently that Dana and Conor seem to be back on board with the Chandler fight. Maybe get an announcement at the press conference or something?
