UFC FN 126: Cowboy vs Medeiros Prediction and Info Thread

[tokeweed]

Date: Sunday, February 18th
Preliminary Card (UFC Fight Pass): 23:00 BCT / 3pm PST / 6pm EST
Preliminary Card (Fox Sports 1): 00:00 BCT / 4pm PST / 7pm EST
Main Card (PPV): 2:00 BCT / 6pm PST / 9pm EST
Live Streams: http://www.fìrstrow.eu/




Main Card (Fox Sports 1)

Donald Cerrone (32-10) vs. Yancy Medeiros (15-4) (Welterweight)
Derrick Lewis (18-5) vs. Marcin Tybura (16-3) (Heavyweight)
James Vick (12-1) vs. Francisco Trinaldo (22-5) (Lightweight)
Thiago Alves (22-11) vs. Curtis Millender (14-3) (Welterweight)
Steven Peterson (16-6) vs. Brandon Davis (8-3) (Featherweight)
Sage Northcutt (9-2) vs. Thibault Gouti (12-3) (Lightweight)

Preliminary Card (Fox Sports 1)

Jared Gordon (14-1) vs. Carlos Diego Ferreira (12-2) (Lightweight)
Brian Camozzi (7-4) vs. Geoffrey Neal (8-2) (Welterweight)
Roberto Sanchez (7-1) vs. Joby Sanchez (11-2) (Flyweight)
Sarah Moras (5-2) vs. Lucie Pudilova (7-2) (Women's Strawweight)

Preliminary Card (UFC Fight Pass)

Alex Morono (13-4) vs. Josh Burkman (28-16) (Welterweight)
Oskar Piechota (10-0-1) vs. Tim Williams (15-3) (Middleweight)

Other

- Humberto Bandenay was scheduled to face promotional newcomer Steven Peterson at the event. However, Bandenay was removed from the event in early February due to an alleged visa issue and was replaced by Brandon Davis on February 8.

Thanks to the Puertorican for letting me use this content.

[Hydrogen]

Notes.

-Yancy Medeiros had a ridiculously crazy brawl with Alex Oliveira around 2 months ago. I hope he's 100% fully recovered from that.

-Sage Northcutt was a full time student for all of his UFC fights except for his last one with Michael Quionnes. Now that he's training full time @ Team Alpha Male he looks a lot better. Don't underestimate him.

-Not certain if Donald Cerrone is nearing the end of his career. Awhile ago he had an accident where a length of his intestine had to be removed. That could be hampering his weight cutting efforts with the new oral hydration rule in effect. Having less intestine could translate to less surface area to absorb liquids and rehydrate after cutting weight. It is possible Cowboy's decline is partially to blame for this.

-Derrick Lewis is an animal. Does anyone know if he fixed the back issues which plagued him in the Mark Hunt fight?

-Marcin Tybura's kickboxing might have declined since he moved to train at JacksonWink for his last fight with Fabricio Werdum. Not certain if he's training there this time around but if he is, that could be a negative.

Welp. That's all I got. What are everyone's feels on this event? 

[debuni]

In Heavyweight Main card, Tybura is a bigger class fighter than Lewis. So I'm expecting from him to beat Lewis and at 1.70+ is a taker.

In Welterweight, Burkman is underestimated and 3.50 is great odd to take.

[bbc.reporter]

@debuni. I hope Derrick Lewis wins so that Dana can set him up for an easy, confidence building fight for Francis Ngannou this year.

Francis, in my opinion, cannot win versus most fighters who posses good wrestling in the top 5 like Fabricio Werdum, Cain Velasquez if healthy and Curtis Blaydes. So he needs to work on his wrestling, and test it versus easier competition.

[notserp]

my pics

Derrick Lewis
Francisco Trinaldo
Thibault Gouti

[nydiacaskey01]

Here's the results for this event

Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone defeated Yancy Medeiros via Technical Knock Out on the 1st round   
Derrick Lewis defeated Marcin Tybura via Technical Knock Out on the 3rd round
James Vick defeated Francisco Trinaldo via unanimous Decision
Curtis Millender knocked out Thiago "Pitbull" Alves on the 2nd round.
This is one of the two knock outs on this event with Oskar Piechota delivering the first knock out with Tim Williams in the preliminary card.   
Brandon Davis defeated Steven Peterson via unanimous decision
Sage Northcutt defeated Thibault Gouti via unanimous decision

[tokeweed]

^  Didn't watch...  Lol. 

But I'm glad Sage Northcutt won.  I think he has a bright future in MMA.  He's gonna be its future poster boy or something if he doesn't disappoint like Wonderboy Thompson did.  The latter had two shots at the WW title but nuthin'...

[nydiacaskey01]

^  Didn't watch...  Lol.  

But I'm glad Sage Northcutt won.  I think he has a bright future in MMA.  He's gonna be its future poster boy or something if he doesn't disappoint like Wonderboy Thompson did.  The latter had two shots at the WW title but nuthin'...

I didn't watch, I just wait for the results online. The schedule is different from the usual fight. The event falls on a Monday here in my country and its a workday so I have no choice but to wait for the bloggers out there who posts blow by blow information and also twitter for fight updates. I was rooting for Thiago Alves to win but I guess being out for a few months and having only 1 fight a year affected his performance.

[tokeweed]

^  Yeah it was ok to watch live, but I wouldn't worry if I'd miss it. 

Anyway, watched the replay, and I wasn't entirely happy with Northcutt's performance.  The first round was good since he did some good take downs/attempts, but watching rounds two and three, I could see it being a split decision for Gouti...

He needs to get back to the gym and get more experience in the lower tier of LW.  Don't think he'll be able to handle the tougher competition in LW's top 10.

[Hydrogen]

Cowboy improved his boxing and punching technique a lot in this fight. In the past he used to rely on his kicks with his hands mostly used to set up his kicking techniques. I don't think Cowboy has hurt or finished anyone with his hands since he fought Melvin Guillard around 5 years ago.

Derrick Lewis looked like he didn't train much wrestling or grappling in preparation to fight Marcin Tybura. Lewis usually has a good wrestling game. He might have cut down on his wrestling training to ease the strain on his injured back. It'll be interesting to see if he opts for surgery in the future (as so many have) or cuts corners on his future training to avoid injuring his back further(assuming it hasn't 100% recovered).

There weren't many surprises on this card which is surprising in itself. Hope I can do better on the next one with my gambling. I barely scraped by to get ahead on this 1.

[bbc.reporter]

@ Hydrogen. I would like to see Derrick Lewis fight a top 5 fighter again after his loss versus Mark Hunt, who was a top 5 fighter during the time they fought. Maybe Curtis Blaydes, Fabircio Werdum or hopefully Francis Ngannou.

A rematch versus Mark hunt would not be that bad too, I reckon.