The Doctor's Stoppage MMA Blog

 UFC San Diego ended up being a pretty fun event and the crowd made it feel even bigger. It was all building up to what was a huge fight in the bantamweight division. We were going to get the first domino to fall in what is going to be a long series of them over the next few months. The main event lived up to the hype and the fans made it feel even bigger. Both Dominick Cruz and Chito Vera had huge fan bases in attendance as both come from Hispanic backgrounds and there was obviously a large Hispanic representation there. Cruz was also born in San Diego, so there was a nice buzz in the arena for both that honestly made it feel like a big PPV fight. Then the fight itself was extremely interesting and ended with a Vera left high kick that landed right on Cruz's nose as he was dipping his head down. Cruz somehow didn't go out completely and a few follow up shots later, Vera had the biggest win of his career. I didn't want to say too much in the update to my picks and betting p...

 The UFC is back today and in front of a full crowd in San Diego to put on what should be another solid event. We have a bit of an extended event as a few fights that were cancelled in the last few weeks were added to this card. We were even given an earlier start time than normal, so everything is working in our favor for this one. Last week wasn't a great showing for the picks, but the bets finished nicely, so I'll take it. We've finished up money in 3 of the 4 weeks since I started tracking, so we'll look to keep that up and get back on track picking fights out right. 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 official. Official bets will be at the bottom. Youssef Zalal defeats Da'Mon Blackshear          Result: Majority Draw          We have an interesting fight right off that bat here and I slightly lean Zalal's way. If w...

 The UFC is back on the schedule for tomorrow and is also back on the road as they'll be in front of a live audience in San Diego. In the post pandemic era, the UFC has been loading up the cards that are in front of fans, but this is a much more ordinary Fight Night card, but the main event makes it all worth it. At least for me, this is one of the more interesting Fight Night main events of the year with Aspinall vs Blaydes and Gamrot vs Tsarukyan coming to mind as well. I'm excited to see this fight play out because I think the margins are very thin on each side. It should be a very close and competitive fight that I'm pumped to see play out. Bantamweight is also my favorite division in the UFC and all of MMA, so any chance I get to see a big and meaningful fight in this division, I'm already sold. Let's get right into it. Dominick Cruz comes into this fight ranked lower and will be in the blue corner. To start, I have to admit that I am a fan of Cruz, so just kee...

 This past weekend we saw the finale to The Ultimate Fighter season 30. Juliana Miller and Mohammed Usman became the season winners after securing knockout victories, but I think the general consensus surrounding those two fights was that neither was really all that impressive. If you're a returning reader, you know that I try my best to keep it as respectful as possible because at the end of the day, I'm just some guy and not a fighter or coach or anything of the sort. However, there comes a time when things can drift too far into sugar coating territory and I'm not going to do that here. I don't think anyone watched those fights on Saturday and looked at Miller or Usman as someone who is going to compete for a title any time soon. To be frank, those were the equivalent to entry level fights in LFA or Invicta. There was once a time when being The Ultimate Fighter meant something, but that time is long gone. I don't think even the biggest MMA fans could name more th...