GDT: UFC on Fox: Weidman vs. Gastelum

[Avs_19]

Date: July 22, 2017
Venue: Nassau Coliseum
City: Uniondale, New York
Time: 8pm ET/5pm PT
Viewing: FOX, TSN 2

MAIN CARD (FOX, TSN 2)

Middleweight bout: Chris Weidman vs. Kelvin Gastelum
Featherweight bout: Dennis Bermudez vs. Darren Elkins
Light Heavyweight bout: Patrick Cummins vs. Gian Villante
Bantamweight bout: Jimmie Rivera vs. Thomas Almeida

PRELIMINARY CARD (FOX, TSN 2)

Welterweight bout: Lyman Good vs. Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos
Middleweight bout: Rafael Natal vs. Eryk Anders
Welterweight bout: Ryan LaFlare vs. Alex Oliveira
Heavyweight bout: Damian Grabowski vs. Chase Sherman

PRELIMINARY CARD (UFC Fight Pass)

Featherweight bout: Kyle Bochniak vs. Jeremy Kennedy
Bantamweight bout: Brian Kelleher vs. Marlon Vera
Heavyweight bout: Timothy Johnson vs. Júnior Albini
Featherweight bout: Shane Burgos vs. Godofredo Pepey
Lightweight bout: Chris Wade vs. Frankie Perez

Click to read more...

 

[member 51464]

Pretty crazy this could be 4 Ls in a row for Weidman.

 

[Wood Stick]

Kind of a weak Fox card IMO.

 

[Avs_19]

Pretty crazy this could be 4 Ls in a row for Weidman.

Yeah. Gastelum has looked great recently and he's the favourite going in so it's definitely in play.

It's surprising that the UFC, Weidman, and his camp refuse to go with a tune-up fight to get him back on track. They just keep matching him up with top guys and he keeps losing. I think he's far from done and has had good moments in all of those fights but the end result has still been the same.

 

[SoundwaveIsCharisma]

Yeah. Gastelum has looked great recently and he's the favourite going in so it's definitely in play.

It's surprising that the UFC, Weidman, and his camp refuse to go with a tune-up fight to get him back on track. They just keep matching him up with top guys and he keeps losing. I think he's far from done and has had good moments in all of those fights but the end result has still been the same.

It doesn't help that he keeps getting his bell rung, those add up and these losses will come easier and easier.

 

[MD thaivuN]

Good main event. Gonna be the real size test for Gastelum now he's facing a bigger-sized wrestler at middleweight.

Fight pass prelim card is a lot better than the fox prelim. Actually, that entire fox prelim is just likely to be highly boring.


Rivera vs Almeida is a fantastic fight, wished it was a 5 rounder.

Cummins with no striking acumen vs Villante whose fights are only entertaining when he's his opponent's counter striking practice target... this is asking to be bad fight.

Bermudez vs Elkins is the battle of fun fast-paced grinders, which im afraid the matchup might nullify the fun of both men's grinding style.

Overall, predicting this to be a dud

 

[dss97]

Gastelum is just too small to beat a top level middleweight like Weidman imo.

 

[Suxnet]

Hope Gastelum knocks Weidman's ass out.

 

[Vincent Vega]

The Chris should have taken a year off after that Romero KO in November. He just had a tough fight with Mousasi three months ago. Gastelum is certainly a winnable fight. Weidman has a big size advantage, he should be able to take Kelvin down and just go from there but after his last three fights... I don't know, man. Just a bad match up. He should be fighting someone top 15-20 range instead of a guy coming off two fantastic performances.

 

[Wood Stick]

The Chris should have taken a year off after that Romero KO in November. He just had a tough fight with Mousasi three months ago. Gastelum is certainly a winnable fight. Weidman has a big size advantage, he should be able to take Kelvin down and just go from there but after his last three fights... I don't know, man. Just a bad match up. He should be fighting someone top 15-20 range instead of a guy coming off two fantastic performances.

I don't find Weidman to be massive. I think he said recently he barely cuts weight. I think once they're in the cage, we're going to see some similar size MWs in terms of build. Kelvin is 5'9 I think but thick.

 

[MD thaivuN]

Weidman was pretty big, pre-USADA that is.

 

[m9]

Weidman was pretty big, pre-USADA that is.

Sure was. There was lots of talk about him moving up to 205 to fight Jones eventually, and he had a couple of tough weight cuts along the way.

 

[member 51464]

When did USADA get instituted? That seems to be a pretty big marker for the latest generation of MMA when comparing eras. Makes sense for there to be a couple natural monsters (Romero) rather than half the damn roster.

 

[Avs_19]

People often point to USADA and insinuate PED use but I think weight cutting and no longer being able to rehydrate with IVs is a factor for some of these guys as well. Weidman is still a pretty big guy and would probably do well in that shallow LHW division.

 

[m9]

Seeing these two guys yesterday, the size difference was very obvious. One guy should be fighting at 170 and one will probably fight at 205 st some point of his career.

 

[dss97]

Weidman was pretty big, pre-USADA that is.

He looks the same pre and post USADA.

He's just ran into some really good fighters his last 3 fights, as well as made some bad decisions in the cage.

 

[Wood Stick]

Seeing these two guys yesterday, the size difference was very obvious. One guy should be fighting at 170 and one will probably fight at 205 st some point of his career.

I'd say Weidman is a natural MW. He's very, very lean. Tall though. Kelvin should be at MW longer as a punishment. He's missed weight three times and was pulled from a fight taking NY away from Cerrone.

He's done this MW thing, went down after making a promise he'd take control of his diet and nothing.

 

[m9]

Some great finishes on the undercard tonight.

 

[dss97]

I didn't even look at the rest of the main card, but it looks pretty solid for a FN.

 

[MD thaivuN]

I love Rivera's counter punching game so much.

 

[MD thaivuN]

Villante makes bad strikers like Cummins look like comfortable strikers

 

[dss97]

The threat of the takedowns should win Cummins this one.

 

[m9]

I love Rivera's counter punching game so much.

He looked great. Hopefully Garbrandt gets healthy soon so the division can move forward.

 

[m9]

Nice win for Cummins. Crazy that two seriously flawed fighters like that are pushing on the top ten of the UFC.

 

[m9]

Also want to add, no idea why the UFC doesn't push up their events to always start at this time. Not sure why they want their main events pushing past midnight for most of the audience. 8 or 9 EST start time is much better.