The Doctor's Stoppage MMA Blog

 If you didn't watch, the PFL had their final card of the year this past Friday where it crowned all of it's champions and debuted some higher profile signings. There was a lot of debate as to whether putting the card on PPV was a good idea and then when the actual cost got announced, it was evident that it wouldn't sell well. If we ever get to know how many buys the event did, then we can have a more complete conversation on the matter. I'm actually not that interested in that conversation, at least not right now. In terms of just the in cage action, I thought it was a very nice night for the promotion and for those who did watch, I imagine that they were satisfied. The biggest talking point of the night was the face of the PFL, Kayla Harrison, suffering the first loss of her MMA career to Larissa Pacheco. Harrison is what has provided the PFL with some legitimacy before their roster started to really take shape as she's been regarded as one of the three best women...

 Because American Thanksgiving just passed, I thought it would be a good idea to do a quick post about some of the things that I am thankful for in MMA, with a heavy emphasis on things that have happened in 2022. I don't really have much of a structure in mind, but I thought it would be fun to take a more positive approach to MMA since it is so easy to be negative in this sport if you really want to be. I'm not going to make this super long and drawn out either. I'll keep it short and to three to five items. Let's do it. The first thing I'm thankful for is title fights delivering with a high rate of consistency. This is one that is much more specific to the UFC than MMA in general, but it is a big one for me. Maybe it's just because this sport never stops, but it really feels, at least from my perspective, that the UFC hasn't had a ton of really awesome PPV cards this year. The last two have been good, but a lot of the others have felt pretty thin. They'...

 This past Saturday's UFC card certainly wasn't the best MMA event of the year and it lost a lot of it's luster when we lost the main event, Derrick Lewis vs Serghei Spivac. This was probably one of the most uninteresting cards of the year for the UFC without that fight, but this is what happens when we get those super stacked PPVs. The surrounding events tend to suffer. We have the week off for American Thanksgiving this weekend, but we'll be back the following week with a great event leading into UFC 282 on the 10th. With that said, we have to put this card to rest and give everyone involved their due.  I actually didn't get to watch the opening fight of the night, but I did see the highlight of the finish. Natalia Silva seems to have a pretty decent ceiling in the UFC so far. She's very young and already really talented. Her striking is fairly solid and she's only going to be getting better with more time in the gym. She picked up a great finish in this o...

 It's felt like a really long week since UFC 281, but we're back and the UFC is back in action, with Bellator currently going as I'm writing this. I have extend my condolences to the family and friends of Anthony Johnson. What a horrible and sad situation. Rumble was a guy who started to gain traction around the same time that I was becoming a more committed hardcore fan of MMA, so to see that he passed away was a shock. Hopefully everyone who knew him is doing well and may we always remember his contributions to the sport and to the world at large. MMA doesn't sleep though, so we're back with another week of picks and bets. It isn't the best card in the world, but there are some interesting fights and spots. Coming off of last week, everything was going to look bad, but, all things considered, it could've been a lot worse. Just to be clear,  my picks will be in the bolded font , and  the real results will be listed next to it in italics  after the fight is ...

 UFC 281 was probably the best card in MMA all year. The first event that the UFC did in London in March was great, but I think the actual competition was better this past weekend. So many of the fights were fun matchups, important for the future of their division, or both. There weren't too many fights that didn't provide at least a little bit of intrigue and the atmosphere matched it. There's a lot of fighters to talk about since I need to get to some of the losers here as well, so let's not mess around. Carlos Ulberg kicked off the night with a bang. It was a mixed bag for CKB on the night, but Ulberg looked tremendous. I had my issues with Carlos and I'm not ready to say he's on the path towards a title shot, but this was the best he's looked in my opinion. Negumereanu was a guy who could pose an interesting style matchup for him, but he had no issues at all. Neg has also been very durable historically, but the power of Ulberg put him out quickly in this...

 The co-main event of UFC 281 saw Carla Esparza in her first title defense since regaining the belt over old foe Rose Namajunas. Unfortunately for her, on the other side was former champion Zhang Weili, who proved to just be too much for her. Zhang came out and just appeared to be a different fighter this time around as she looked maybe the best she ever has. If not for Islam just last month, I think this would be getting a lot more credit as one of the more dominant performances by a challenger in awhile. Zhang had no issues from start to finish. Before I get too deep into her fight, let's get out of the intro. I kind of summarized Zhang's performance above. She was absolutely incredible. I thought Carla was going to have a chance and it really didn't seem that way when it was playing out. Carla was getting to her takedowns a little, but she wasn't able to finish them and Zhang's overall ground game seemed to be much improved. She was scrambling with Carla pretty w...

 Alright, better late than never. I just got a new job, so my posting schedule is going to be pretty messed up until I can get a writing schedule nailed down. I may do away with the full previews, at least in the short term, until I can figure out exactly how and when I'll have time. Because I do the picks and betting, I already preview each fight, just not in long form posts. That's what has me thinking that is the thing to cut for now, but we'll see how it goes once I'm adjusted to this schedule. I have to get to this card though because it was an incredible night. It was all capped off by the late knockout win by Alex Pereira over incumbent champion and long time foe Israel Adesanya. It was really an incredible fight from start to finish and I have a lot to say about it. We'll start with Pereira and he actually looked better than I gave him credit for in the picks post on Saturday. I thought he would be behind Izzy in the striking more than he actually was. The f...