GDT: UFC Fight Night: Lee vs. Oliveira

[Avs_19]

Date: March 14, 2020
Venue: Ginásio Nilson Nelson
City: Brasília, Brazil
Time: 8pm ET/5pm PT
Viewing: ESPN+, TSN 5

MAIN CARD (ESPN+, TSN 5)

Lightweight bout: Kevin Lee vs. Charles Oliveira
Welterweight bout: Demian Maia vs. Gilbert Burns
Lightweight bout: Renato Moicano vs. Damir Hadžović
Light Heavyweight bout: Johnny Walker vs. Nikita Krylov
Lightweight bout: Francisco Trinaldo vs. John Makdessi

PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN+, TSN 5)

Flyweight bout: Jussier Formiga vs. Brandon Moreno
Women's Strawweight bout: Randa Markos vs. Amanda Ribas
Welterweight bout: Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos vs. Alexey Kunchenko
Bantamweight bout: Rani Yahya vs. Enrique Barzola
Women's Flyweight bout: Maryna Moroz vs. Mayra Bueno Silva
Flyweight bout: Gustavo da Silva vs. David Dvořák
Women's Bantamweight bout: Veronica Macedo vs. Bea Malecki​

Click to read more...

 

[Avs_19]

I didn't realize how good this card is until now. Awesome main event and a bunch of interesting fights throughout.

 

[m9]

Yeah, really good card.

Main event is really fun. Have to like Kevin Lee in this one and it's a good opportunity for him to continue to get back on track and work towards the top 5.

I know Maia hasn't been finished in like 10 years, but I think this could be the one. Burns should be able to keep the fight standing and he hits hard. More likely though that Burns outpaces him on the feet to a decision though. Would like to see this one hit the ground instead though given their backgrounds.

Walker v Krylov is really interesting as well. I know people have been big on Walker but Krylov will give him a good test here.

 

[CDJ]

Krylov and Walker both like putting on shows. That will be mayhem

Probably about as good as a non-ppv in Brazil could get. Great card, great match-making

 

[Avs_19]

That's not good.

 

[CDJ]

womp womp


Gonna be a Netflix kinda couple of months it would appear

 

[ZDH]

RIP Khabib Ferguson again

 

[CDJ]

Don’t be sad that it didn’t happen, be happy that we all knew it was never actually going to happen

I think that’s how the saying goes

 

[ZDH]

Don’t be sad that it didn’t happen, be happy that we all knew it was never actually going to happen

I think that’s how the saying goes

Fight Night 170 is a go, no spectators.

 

[CDJ]

Hell yes!

we still got some sports!

 

[I am not exposed]

Definitely going to watch this one, as it could be the last one for a while!

 

[m9]

If the UFC can successfully run their cards out of Vegas (I have my doubts) then this could actually be a pretty good opportunity for them to gain some fans on ESPN+. Nothing much else available for sports for at least a few weeks.

 

[pistolpete11]

 

[pistolpete11]

I have very mixed feelings on this.

Selfishly, yes, I want to see these fights. Even more so now that there aren't any other sports and everybody's staying home. But for the fighters, especially lower down on the cards, these guys and girls need to fight to pay the bills. It would be awesome if the UFC at least paid them their show money if they cancelled the event, but something tells me the UFC wouldn't do that and they'd say they were looking to reschedule the fights.

On the other hand, I think this is a bad idea. It's only a matter of time until someone in one of these gyms gets the virus. You're as close as you can be (without intercourse) to everyone you train with. It would spread like wild fire. They're young and in phenomenal shape, but what happens if they don't know they are infected and then try to cut weight?

 

[m9]

I've seen too much stuff online about how this means the UFC doesn't care about its fighters or the UFC needs to pay their fighters their show money anyway. I don't really agree with that thinking but I also know it's mixing the topic that MMA fans/media have always complained about (fighter pay) along with the biggest issue in the world right now so I'm just going to steer clear from that part of the discussion. I do think it's relevant that other organizations (Bellator, One) are doing similar things.

I'm just going to enjoy the fights we get for now knowing that they could end at anytime.

 

[pistolpete11]

As far as the card, it's pretty damn good for for a Fight Night in Brazil. Most Fight Nights kind of suck outside of the main event and Brazil cards sometimes suck because they cater too much to the local crowd. They are still of course catering to Brazil with this one, but they're good fights. I feel like there have been worse PPV's, especially in Brazil.

Lee in the main event is a pretty easy call for me. Not that Oliviera can't beat him or doesn't have the skills to beat him, but until Oliviera beats a legitimately ranked opponent, I can't pick him to win a fight like this. Plus, I think Lee might be taking off. He was always kind of the 'all the tools, no tool box' type fighter, but now that he's with Firas? Look out.

 

[pistolpete11]

I've seen too much stuff online about how this means the UFC doesn't care about its fighters or the UFC needs to pay their fighters their show money anyway. I don't really agree with that thinking but I also know it's mixing the topic that MMA fans/media have always complained about (fighter pay) along with the biggest issue in the world right now so I'm just going to steer clear from that part of the discussion. I do think it's relevant that other organizations (Bellator, One) are doing similar things.

I'm just going to enjoy the fights we get for now knowing that they could end at anytime.

If they cancelled any of the cards, either by their own accord or by government mandate, they should absolutely pay the fighters something. Maybe not everyone gets their full show money as that could add up pretty quickly for top level guys. But for a company that was already facing scrutiny about fighter pay, they just gave out $300,000,000 in dividends. They can afford to toss their fighters a bone. At least enough to cover their training camps.

As far as the safety, maybe they know weight cutting won't effect it. It's not a new virus, just a new strain, so maybe they already know something. It just seems like some of these fighters are on death's door as is when cutting weight. So to add on a deadly virus seems....irresponsible.

 

[ZDH]

Kevin Lee has missed weight initially, dont know if they are giving him a few hours to drop the extra weight or not...

 

[CDJ]

Docs told him he couldn’t cut anymore. Didn’t even come all that close

last time he said his weight cut went great, wonder if the circumstances impacted him with this one

 

[m9]

If they cancelled any of the cards, either by their own accord or by government mandate, they should absolutely pay the fighters something. Maybe not everyone gets their full show money as that could add up pretty quickly for top level guys. But for a company that was already facing scrutiny about fighter pay, they just gave out $300,000,000 in dividends. They can afford to toss their fighters a bone. At least enough to cover their training camps.

As far as the safety, maybe they know weight cutting won't effect it. It's not a new virus, just a new strain, so maybe they already know something. It just seems like some of these fighters are on death's door as is when cutting weight. So to add on a deadly virus seems....irresponsible.

The company has been getting scrutiny about fighter pay forever and they always will, whatever happens in regards to this situation won't change a thing.

As for the safety side of the weight-cutting while this is going on... well, I have had major issues with how MMA (in particular the UFC) handles this anyway so hopefully they'll be careful.

I have a bad feeling that someone tied to the UFC/Apex/etc will test positive in the coming weeks and then the whole thing will be shut down for a bit - it just seems inevitable. There are too fighters at too many camps flying in from too many places. I really hope I'm wrong though.

 

[m9]

Docs told him he couldn’t cut anymore. Didn’t even come all that close

last time he said his weight cut went great, wonder if the circumstances impacted him with this one

I'm not giving Kevin Lee the benefit of the doubt for anything, he simply shouldn't be fighting at 155lbs.

 

[CDJ]

I'm not giving Kevin Lee the benefit of the doubt for anything, he simply shouldn't be fighting at 155lbs.

yeah it’s not great when the docs shut you down because it’s physically unsafe to cut more and you’re closer to 160 than 155

 

[pistolpete11]

The company has been getting scrutiny about fighter pay forever and they always will, whatever happens in regards to this situation won't change a thing.

Probably true, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't pay them given the circumstances if they end up cancelling some of these cards. They'll lose money, but they can afford to lose money. A lot of these fighters can't. It's the right thing to do.

I have a bad feeling that someone tied to the UFC/Apex/etc will test positive in the coming weeks and then the whole thing will be shut down for a bit - it just seems inevitable. There are too fighters at too many camps flying in from too many places. I really hope I'm wrong though.

Yeah, it's for sure going to happen eventually. And then once you start going through who they may have had contact with and who those people might had contact with and on and on. Pretty soon, it will be too many people to responsibly carry on.

I heard something like it would only take 5 days for all 30-whatever NBA teams to have someone potentially exposed if they kept going. And that's based on just that one guy that has it.

I don't know. Maybe the UFC will be better managing it than world governments, but I doubt they can contain it that well either.

And honestly, for Khabib-Tony, as much as I don't want that fight to get cancelled again, I think I'd rather wait and have it be in front of a full crowd. Fights at the Apex will be kind of neat, but the crowd for that one would be electric and add to the experience in my opinion.

 

[Avs_19]

So with PGA and now Bellator also postponing events, I believe that leaves the UFC as the only major sports organization still moving on as planned. Conversations with Trump and working with and talking to health/science professionals, which every other league also did before suspending operations, were the reasons Dana gave. This is going to end in disaster, isn't it?

 

[m9]

So with PGA and now Bellator also postponing events, I believe that leaves the UFC as the only major sports organization still moving on as planned. Conversations with Trump and working with and talking to health/science professionals, which every other league also did before suspending operations, were the reasons Dana gave. This is going to end in disaster, isn't it?

I may change my opinion at some point, but I honestly think the UFC's approach is perfectly fine as of now. They're limiting interactions and once a guy fights they are easily able to go into isolation for a couple weeks afterwards since they won't be fighting for awhile. Yes there will still be some risk but I don't think it's that much more than what most of us are doing right now ourselves. They are setup uniquely from other sports where that the competing athletes can come in, do their job, and then go home after for a long period of time.

But some UFC fighters are going to get it and then the media will go crazy and they will be forced to shut things down. It's just inevitable.