[alnorth]

Last weekend I didn't have any kind of a schedule up because of a very unexpected health issue, but I was still able to watch some awesome UFC on FOX fights in the hospital. I don't need to elaborate more than that and I'm feeling a hell of a lot better now.

This weekend we have a PPV whose only real selling point is "hey come on, we're at least better than UFC 221, right?" Whether or not that means you should actually pay for the card is up to you, but it could be a chance to give your wallet a solid 2-PPV break before 223 drags us back in next month. Anyway...

Friday

8pm - (Paramount) - Bellator 195, Caldwell vs. Higo

This one is hard to judge. If you ignore the names and look at the tapology rankings for the last 4 fights its decent, maybe above average by Bellator standards. Then I look at the names and think "ok, outside of the main event, who the hell are these people?" So, I'll just say its an average Bellator card.

9pm - (Fightpass) - Friday Night Fights, Clay vs. Topic

This is not MMA, it looks like this is Muay Thai, but hey Muay Thai is cool. Its not a bad option if you don't have Paramount.

Saturday

noon - (Fightpass) - Glory 51

Its kickboxing, either you are in or you are not.

3pm - (Fightpass) - Cage Warriors 91

Judging from tapology rankings, this is about average by local promotion standards. Its one of the top European promotions so you might see a couple of these fighters in the UFC someday.

7pm TV - (5:30pm Fightpass/7pm FS1/9pm PPV) - UFC 222, Cyborg vs. Kunitskaya

So, I just outright laughed at UFC 221, did not for even a moment think about buying it, didn't care enough to even find a stream, and then read about what happened later. I don't think I even saw a gif, which is how little I cared.

I won't laugh at this PPV, but I am not happy about it either. I'm thinking about getting it anyway but thats only because I'm a crazy fan who is looking ahead at not much coming in March and that co-main fight looks pretty cool. That is in no way suggesting that paying for this is a good idea, because it probably isn't.

Anyway, enough crapping on it, the free prelims are actually pretty good. You could watch the fights with no intention of paying for the main card, shut off the TV at 9pm, and probably come away having had an entertaining evening. The UFC failed to match the good prelims with a worthy PPV though, everyone knows Cyborg will destroy that Russian chick, who was easily beaten by the last girl Cyborg wrecked, so thats not even going to be fun to watch. Edgar vs. Ortega will be great. The rest of the fights are good if they were on TV, but this is just not a good PPV.