Over promised and Under Delivered.
September 14th 2024 was a night to remember. A night where Boxing and MMA went head to head, for the right to host a fight on Mexican Independence Day. And September 14th will be remembered…As the day Canelo beat the UFC. A Far cry from the days Canelo had to wait for the UFC to end before he fought.
While the sphere was a success and surprised me and most of the other naysayers online, it just couldn’t surpass Canelo’s fight. With a rumored gate and PPV numbers for the Canelo v. Berlanga being around $22 million gate and 750,000 PPV buys, you compare that to the UFC official gate of $21,829,245. The PPV buys will more than likely never come out, but if you compare it to UFC 292 (O’malley’s first headline fight), he claimed it did 570,000 PPV Buys, while others say more around 350,000. So let’s just assume because of the sphere novelty it did relatively more buys than normal, let’s say the PPV buys are roughly 200k more than UFC 292…770,000 or 550,000 buys…
like I stated previously, if the goal was to compete with Canelo and successfully beat him…spending upwards of $20 million on production, as well as having the Saudi’s bail you out, all just to break even and do identical, if not worse numbers with a boxing fight most viewed as mid, YOU FAILED…Miserably.
The short sidedness of Mr. White to do this in an attempt to dethrone an all time great Mexican while having only one Mexican champion, is head scratching. But…I will say the sphere event was very fresh and I respect the willingness to do this no matter how stupid it was finically. I was more entertained by the fights just for happening in the sphere, even if they were worse than what was happening across the street in T-Moblie Arena at the time.
I think the sphere special and had exceptional visuals. The ideas played out better than explained and made for something that even with a mid card will be remembered. I think a fight or sporting event in the sphere is something that will happen again. Ironically, more than likely as a Saudi boxing event…Canelo v. Crawford???
RECAP
How did our predictions stack up???
Let’s start with Boxing, Stephen Fulton Won as expected but had me worried when he went down in the fifth. Next was Rollys who won a dominant decision over Manuel Jaimes. So far were 2/2, next Caleb Plant battled back after a knock down in the fourth to finish Trevor McCumby in the ninth. After the knock down McCumby was completely outclassed and it culminated with Plant teeing off on him in the 9th for a stoppage as the bell rang. Danny Garcia fell to Erislandy Lara by stoppage also in the ninth. Lastly, the big dawg King Canelo won every round verse Edgar Berlanga winning a unanimous decision. Berlanga came to fight and tried his best but he didn’t have enough to beat Canelo. He was knocked down in the third by a very well timed left hook as Berlanga attempted a right hand, and it spelled the beginning of the end. Berlanga did look poised in the final rounds of the fight and got some good shots in on Canelo, but his defense was too good for Berlanga to do any significant damage. Talley is 4/5 for those at home.
Onto UFC Noche. Raul Rosas Jr won a pretty boring unanimous decision of Aoriqileng. The second round gave him some trouble and Aoriqileng looked like he might be able to stop him, but Rosas did what he need to do to eke out the win. Going forward Rosas needs to get a finish against a guy like that put in there for him to beat. But one off night won’t hurt him in the long run. He’s paying his dues now and working his way up, I look forward to seeing what he does next. Joshua Van and Edgar Chairez put on the round of the year in round two of there fight with both guys stumbling each other. Van had Chairez all but finished until a spinning back fist backed him off. Van went on to get the Unanimous decision win. Keltan Souza had a wonderful knockdown finished with a rear naked choke out of Yazmin Jauregui after a stange low blow in a women’s fight. Go back and watch, she got Knocked down immediately after being kick low.
After that, the finishes continued with Ignacio Bahamondes getting the T.K.O. over Manuel Torres. Bahamondes looked primed for a shot at the rankings, and I believe he will soon. The talley is now 7/9. To end the prelims Norma Dumont got the unanimous decision victory over Irene Aldana. Aldana had probably the worst cut I’ve ever seen, it looks like her skull was about to poke through. I think she should consider retiring she’s up there in age and that was a nasty injury.
Opening the show Ronaldo Rodriguez defeated Ode Osbourne by unanimous decision…seems like there's a theme running here…hopefully there will be some more finishes to come. I honestly think Rodriguez lost the fight, Ode has a great knock down and was very close to finishing him. Rodriguez really didn’t do much with any takedowns or positions, but nor did Ode. Rodriguez ended the fight on top and had more control time, so I can see how Rodriguez was given the win. 8/11.
Esteban Ribovics defeated Daniel Zellehuber in a barn burner. He won by way of…Unanimous Decision…Both are good fighters and Zellehuber will bounce back. Esteban Ribovics seems to be in a similar position as Bahamondes…a ranked fight coming soon. Esteban Ribovics set up a picture perfect over hand right that stunned Zellhuber with a slick jab. He then began to tee off on Zellehuber slugging lefts to the body and right to the head. This all but sealed the fight for him.
Diego Lopes starched Brian Ortega from the opening bell. I heard some one say the the right hand knocked out Ortega and the Left hand woke him up…it sure looked that way as Ortega walked right in to an over hand right. Ortega couldn’t find his rhythm, eating brutal leg kicks and one to the head in the second. He was knocked down twice and takendown once. He tried letting his hands go but Lopes counters proved to be too much. Lopes is in prime pole position of for a featherweight title shot next…We’ll see next month who it will be against…Either way it should be a fun fight. 8/13
The co-main was a snooze fest as Shevchenko held Grasso down the entire fight and she was content to stay there. Grasso was taken down 8 times and controlled for 16 minutes of a 25 min fight. She lost every round of the fight on every judges scorecard That is embarrassing, almost as embarrassing as…
Sean O’malley’s loss to Merab Dvalishvili. Sean was taken down 6 times and controlled for all 10 mins of a 25 min fight. Unlike Grasso O’malley has a big mouth and it cost him. He was dominated for five rounds straight expect for a two body kicks landed at the end of round 5. Sean look demoralized after being taken down in round 2, I think it hurt his ego even more when Merab held him in a guillotine and kisses his neck multiple times. It was an embarrassing performance and proved he should’ve had to work his way through the division before being hand a title shot after a lucky decision over former Champ Petr Yan.
If you still keeping talley, we went 9/15 on the night. If you tailed the prize picks play I’m sorry that crashed the first fight of the night. Probably should’ve bet on boxing.
