A little of the beaten track to write an article about a beaten fighter, However i was really impressed with how Lucie Pudilova handled her UFC debut in London tonight. The Judges marked the fight 29-28 to Lina Lansberg but Lansberg was last seen in the back of an ambulance on the way to hospital one assumes to check that there has been no lasting damage done to her face. See below

Remember that Lansberg has stood toe to toe with Cyborg so she is a fighter with some pedigree. This is Pudilova’s second time to come out on the losing end of a fight with Lansberg however there is no doubt that she has closed the gap considerably tonight. It is remarkable to think that she is still only 22 and i would fully expect her to learn from tonight’s experience and win her next UFC fight. I thought some of her striking tonight was quite remarkable and crisp and she seems to understand instinctively distance in the strike zone. However she was a little naive and the was to her cost against an opponent that has over 10 years more experience than her. All in all though this Czech native can be proud of her performance on her debut in the UFC and we will be following her next fight with great interest.

Well that was quite a 48 Hours. Dana White looked like he was gonna fucking cry at the post fight press conference. He had the look of resignation on his face from the moment Khabib Nurmagomedov booked himself in to a Las Vegas Hospital – for what must have been severe dehydration.

2017 has not been at all good for the UFC. I haven’t heard too many PPV numbers being talked about from UFC208 or UFC209 but i would imagine they are pretty dismal reading. I never thought i’d hear myself say this but i wouldn’t be surprised if Dana White walked away from the UFC or they had have that classic ‘ Resignation of mutual consent’.

After the late, late pull out by Khabib , due to his physical inability to make the lightweight number of 155, there was huge pressure on Tyron Woodley and Stephen Thompson to produce a thriller in the other co- main event. What they served up for the first three rounds was tepid, edgy and downright boring. The crowd booing started from the second round. In fact in the first 10 minutes of fighting the duo only landed 9 significant punches apiece. I mean for fuck sake – There is tactics and then there is downright bullshit fighting. I cannot for the life of my understand why Tyron Woodley has such a high opinion of himself. I mean this was not good from him bar that late 5th round sequence where he landed WonderBoy on his ass. As the fight was progressing i was thinking Jesus Christ..Conor Mcgregor could actual take out Tyron Woodley in a similiar fashion to how he handled Nate Diaz.

Khabib is a fucking 5 star idiot for allowing a situation to develop where he could physically damage himself trying to make the weight. I was following the UFC embedded series of Vlogs and i was actually thinking to myself – Jesus he doesn’t exactly strike you as a superb physical athlete. But i put it out of my head thinking what the hell do i know!

This fight was Khabib’s gateway to becoming a bone fida superstar and he fucked it up royally. And Yes i think he is 100% responsible. This is not the first time he has missed weight in his career. Obviously 155 is a tough cut for him but it is a known tough cut for him. He should have prepared with his specialised dieticans and specialised fitness guys. Watching UFC Embedded it was like he brought half the cast from Borat along for the ride.

Epic disaster. One he may not recover from because it’s going to be hard to take him seriously from now on. You can build a PPV around a character that has such difficulty with weight. it is too risky. The trouble for Nurmagomedov is that he is a small welterweight and he isn’t particularly overpowering at his current weight class. So i think a step up to Welterweight won’t bring him any significant benefit and probably a lot of disadvantages. He’s in a tough spot.

On the night the biggest winner was Conor Mcgregor (again!). Since his self imposed sabbatical in December nobody has stepped up to fill the vacuum. Nurmagomedov had a huge opportunity to do so but fluffed his lines. A lot of the Mcgregor family are looking forward to Mcgregor baby arriving in the world but none more so than Dana White

SAO PAULO, BRAZIL - JANUARY 19: [CAPTION] in their lightweight fight at the UFC on FX event on January 19, 2013 at Ibirapuera Gymnasium in Sao Paulo, Brazil. (Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Thiago Tavares; Khabib Nurmagomedov

First things first Khabib Nurmagomedov should destroy Ferguson if he gets him on the ground on Saturday night. End of Story. I’ve been reviewing tape the last couple of days and the ferocity of Khabib’s grappling game is pretty awesome. However Tony Ferguson is no slouch in this area by any means and all his pre-fight comments are talking up this apart of his skillset and that he see’s it as an area where he can win the fight. bullshit. Crazy Talk.

Both fighters are coming off pretty exceptional performances. Tony Ferguson winning a decision against Raphael dos Anjos – but seriously busting up Dos Anjo’s  face in that contest. The #UFC marked this down as fight of the night – which also tells you it wasn’t all one way traffic. In fact Tony Fergusons’s last two fights have been Fight of the nights and the 3 before that were performance of the nights. So it is fair to say Ferguson is in a serious vein of form and fighting at an extremely high level. His movement and unorthodox striking style are to be watched out for on Saturday night.

While Ferguson may believe he can win this fight on the deck i firmly believe the more damage he does on his feet the better his chances are going to be. If Tony  is spending any more than 1 minute per round on the ground he is Fucked. I do believe his take down defence is the best in the Light weight division at the moment and that Nurmagomedov will have to work for these take downs – certainly much harder than he did in his last fight against Michael Johnson.

Ferguson Fight stats – Double Click to View

Meanwhile the Khabib game plan will be to use his superior strength to get quickly to work on Ferguson and get him mauled to the ground quickly. I would love if Ferguson could get some big strikes in early because i think Khabib’s Jaw is glassy and i also would question his cardio if the fight were to get dragged into the later rounds. If you look at Khabib’s overall UFC record it’s not extremely impressive. Certainly not as impressive as some would have you believe. 4 of his 8 fights have been via decision. The ferocity of the win against Michael Johnson is probably glossing over a few deficiencies.

So in short if Tony keeps this fight large on his feet he will have a great shot at winning this fight on Saturday – However i have to say i don’t think Khabib will have any trouble getting this guy to the ground and it will only be a question of when he ends it rather than if he ends it

Khabib Nurmagomedov Fight Stats – Double Click to View