UFC 332: Silva vs. Wang and Physical 100: Italy

I watched UFC 332, and it was a fun fight card despite not having the best fights on paper for a UFC numbered event. The main event went pretty much how I thought it’d go with Natalia Silva winning the UFC Women’s Flyweight Title against Wang Cong by unanimous decision. Silva has a tae kwon do style of fighting, but she’s not known to be a finisher nor is she known to hit hard. Cong is rather untested against the top of the division in MMA, so I did not expect much from her, and it showed in the fight. The fighters who really showed out were Payton Talbott, Roman Kopylov, Imanol Rodriguez, Damian Pinas, Anthony Wint, Johnny Walker, and Jacobe Smith. Talbott, Pinas, Wint, Rodriguez and Smith look like strong prospects for their respective weight divisions who can all get ranked (if they aren’t already) and potentially fight for the Title in the future. Talbott is someone that the UFC is really getting behind with his fighting style and youth, and Pinas might be in the same boat. Walker may very well be rejuvenated at Heavyweight, but there are still questions about his chin. Esteban Ribovics, Roberto Soldic, Anthony Hernandez, Marcus McGhee got wins and looked good as well. Ribovics is a good fighter who can get far, but I don’t know if he plateaus as a fun, upper-mid level action fighter or gets farther. Soldic had a bad first round against Williams but looked good in the next two rounds, but he already has a lot of MMA fights under his belt. If he is going to make a run to the UFC Welterweight Title, he’d have to do it now while he is still in his prime. The big upset of the night was Roman Kopylov knocking out highly touted prospect, Ateba Gautier, in the first round. Kopylov is a very experienced fighter, whereas Gautier showed holes in his game especially with falling for that straight left over and over.

My wife and I also finished watching Physical 100: Italy. The Physical 100 series is just something that we cannot get enough of and are currently watching Physical 100: Mexico. Emanuele Bruno won the whole thing, and it was well-deserved as he just refused to quit despite any setbacks, pain or injury that he had. Physical 100: Italy also had some great sets that were mainly Roman inspired. I liked some of the little changes that they made such as not being able to hold the ball on the ground for more than five seconds in the Death Match challenge, as there is a lot of “camping” with the ball in previous Physical 100 Death Match challenges. Also, the dynamic with the cast is a lot different than their Asian counterparts as the men and women are much more flirtatious with each other, and they can get really hot-headed as well. Overall, this was a strong season with some really good competitors, personal stories, sets, and challenges.