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GDT: UFC on ESPN: Moreno vs. Erceg

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MMC

MMC

Global Moderator
May 11, 2014
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Orange County, CA
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Date: March 29, 2025
Venue: Arena CDMX
City: Mexico City, Mexico
Time: 7 pm ET/4 pm PT
Viewing: ESPN2, Sportsnet

MAIN CARD (ESPN2, Sportsnet)

Flyweight bout: Brandon Moreno vs. Steve Erceg
Lightweight bout: Manuel Torres vs. Drew Dober
Middleweight bout: Kevin Gastelum vs. Joe Pyfer
Bantamweight bout: Raul Rosas Jr. vs. Vince Morales
Bantamweight bout: David Martinez vs. Saimon Oliveira
Flyweight bout: Ronaldo Rodriguez vs. Kevin Borjas

PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN2, Sportsnet)

Flyweight bout: Edgar Chairez vs. CJ Vergara
Middleweight bout: Jose Daniel Medina vs. Ateba Gautier
Featherweight bout: Christian Rodriguez vs. Melquizael Costa
Women's Strawweight bout: Loopy Godinez vs. Julia Polastri
Lightweight bout: Rafa Garcia vs. Vinc Pichel
Featherweight bout: Jamall Emmers vs. Gabriel Miranda
Lightweight bout: Marquel Mederos vs. Austin Hubbard​
 
Moreno and Dober are usually pretty fun regardless of what direction it goes.

Pyfer is interesting, but I wish he was more active. Hard to build momentum at this stage of his career only fighting once or twice a year.

Rosas is at that stage where the organizational push is running thin. I don't care to see him fight 34 year olds that are 3-7 in the UFC and on 2 fight losing streaks. This is stuff that should be on prelims.
 
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pistolpete11 said:
Moreno and Dober are usually pretty fun regardless of what direction it goes.

Pyfer is interesting, but I wish he was more active. Hard to build momentum at this stage of his career only fighting once or twice a year.

Rosas is at that stage where the organizational push is running thin. I don't care to see him fight 34 year olds that are 3-7 in the UFC and on 2 fight losing streaks. This is stuff that should be on prelims.
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Kids only 20, Morales is a legitimate step up from his last few wins even if he isn’t a world beater. Funky jiujitsu, ultimately I think Rosas will be too physical for him unless he gasses out (Morales is tough so he could hang around long enough for that to happen)

Fav bet so far was putting in Emmers + Torres/Dober u1.5 for even money. Will also look to hammer Dober alive if Torres hasn’t gotten him out of there after 4 minutes


I think Medina might legit be the ufc WOAT (outside of CM Punk, Mike Jackson, etc level). Hopefully the raw kid from Africa doesn’t puke all over himself and give this guy a win.
 
CDJ said:
Kids only 20, Morales is a legitimate step up from his last few wins even if he isn’t a world beater. Funky jiujitsu, ultimately I think Rosas will be too physical for him unless he gasses out (Morales is tough so he could hang around long enough for that to happen)

Fav bet so far was putting in Emmers + Torres/Dober u1.5 for even money. Will also look to hammer Dober alive if Torres hasn’t gotten him out of there after 4 minutes


I think Medina might legit be the ufc WOAT (outside of CM Punk, Mike Jackson, etc level). Hopefully the raw kid from Africa doesn’t puke all over himself and give this guy a win.
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Yeah Morales doesn't have a great record but he's a tough fight for pretty much anybody, him beating Raul wouldn't shock me, tempted to pick him.

Also tempted to fade Gautier, he's incredibly green and Medina is a durable guy, I worry if Gautier can't get an early finish he'll gas out here
 
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MMC said:
Yeah Morales doesn't have a great record but he's a tough fight for pretty much anybody, him beating Raul wouldn't shock me, tempted to pick him.

Also tempted to fade Gautier, he's incredibly green and Medina is a durable guy, I worry if Gautier can't get an early finish he'll gas out here
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Yeah the elevation is gonna be a factor in a lot of these fights. It’s definitely possibly for Gautier to fumble but while Medina is durable he doesn’t really throw back. Lands less than 2 strikes a minute so while he’s technically still hanging around in the fight he’s not really doing anything. Last fight he was taking haymakers and grinning back and that’s about it lol. I could see a situation where Gautier death gasses and Medina just doesn’t step on the pedal and still loses a sloppy decision because of damage taken in round 1 and early round 2

Probably a live bet situation where you throw it all on Medina after round 1
 
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CDJ said:
Kids only 20, Morales is a legitimate step up from his last few wins even if he isn’t a world beater. Funky jiujitsu, ultimately I think Rosas will be too physical for him unless he gasses out (Morales is tough so he could hang around long enough for that to happen)
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Cool, but most 20 year olds are on the prelims if not the regional scene. I don't see him as special enough or entertaining enough to be the one breaking the mold.
 
pistolpete11 said:
Cool, but most 20 year olds are on the prelims if not the regional scene. I don't see him as special enough or entertaining enough to be the one breaking the mold.
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Mexico is a big market for the ufc and Raul has a huge following (1.1 million insta followers)

I was way lower than the public opinion on him, especially after his DWCS performance and first few fights in the UFC…but I do think he is making some serious improvements. His loss has aged well too- basically was just a dumb teen who was way too aggressive in round 1 and gassed himself out against somebody who is pretty talented in his own right (who we will be seeing on the card as well). I think Rosas learned from that. He is more measured in his approach. I think his cardio is better now than it was too. Beyond that he’s a physical specimen at 135, not necessarily the tallest but he’s just big.

I’m thinking I might bet fight ends by sub, I don’t see either guy knocking each other out. Could see a decision too.
 
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pistolpete11 said:
Cool, but most 20 year olds are on the prelims if not the regional scene. I don't see him as special enough or entertaining enough to be the one breaking the mold.
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I think the initial selling feature was that he was the youngest UFC contract signing right? So he instantly got that boost, then everyone leaned into the "Chiwiwis" thing for a bit and got a viral marketing from him.

He has 1.1m instagram followers, the flyweight champ has 350k, middleweight champ has 700k, etc.

I understand his skill level and experience should have him fighting very early on the card but his debut fight was as the featured prelim. He was on the main card of UFC 287. UFC is strategically placing him to get the most out of his followers and what drawing power he has. Whether you like it or not, people recognize his name.

UFC is investing in him, hoping he continues to improve, as well as grow his brand. UFC has 15+ years left out of this guy and he already has a bigger following than 90% of the roster. They want him to succeed, it's good for business. You might not care to see him fight 34 year olds but that's how UFC builds and pushes fighters. It's not any different than O'Malley getting a Wineland on the main card of UFC 250. Strategically using or building fighters is part of the business.
 
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Taytro said:
You might not care to see him fight 34 year olds but that's how UFC builds and pushes fighters. It's not any different than O'Malley getting a Wineland on the main card of UFC 250. Strategically using or building fighters is part of the business.
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Ayy not to nitpick but difference is Wineland was legit good at one point. This just seems like pure can crushing on the main card. Which I get from a UFC perspective but I don't really need to see it.
 
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Taytro said:
UFC is investing in him, hoping he continues to improve, as well as grow his brand. UFC has 15+ years left out of this guy and he already has a bigger following than 90% of the roster. They want him to succeed, it's good for business. You might not care to see him fight 34 year olds but that's how UFC builds and pushes fighters. It's not any different than O'Malley getting a Wineland on the main card of UFC 250. Strategically using or building fighters is part of the business.
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I'm pretty sure I said all the same things about O'Malley until he fought Munhoz (with the exception of the Chito fight).

I understand their logic behind it, but it's not anything I want to see and I think the importance of it is overstated. Guys at this level aren't really draws regardless of their IG followers. I mean, didn't UFC 250 do like 50k PPV buys or something?
 
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16Skippy said:
Ayy not to nitpick but difference is Wineland was legit good at one point. This just seems like pure can crushing on the main card. Which I get from a UFC perspective but I don't really need to see it.
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This version of Morales would murk that version of Wineland imo, don’t even think it would be all that close tbh

He has a bad ufc record but look at who the losses are to:

Elijah Smith (high end prospect with elite athleticism, 2nd generation fighter)
Taylor Lapilus (good fighter)
Miles Johns (good fighter)
Jonathan Martinez (good fighter)
Chris Gutierrez (good fighter)
Yadong Song (good fighter)

His only bad loss is Benito Lopez, and even then Benito was an ok fighter from team Alpha Male (who didn’t go further in the ufc because he had a kid and decided to become a cop)
 
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Morales is a half decent veteran, nothing more nothing less. It's a good matchup to make. C-Rod is a prospect killer so there's no shame in Raul losing to him. Personally I thought Elijah Smith didn't look all that good and fought with really low fight IQ against Morales, so I think Raul should win this handily unless he completely gasses out. Forget about social media attention, he has real ability and his style of fighting usually has success. He's a legit prospect and they're bringing him along the right way.
 
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Rosas by KO is sneaky live too, Morales took some damage in his last fight and it wasn’t that long ago. Could see ground and pound being live too
 
CDJ said:
This version of Morales would murk that version of Wineland imo, don’t even think it would be all that close tbh

He has a bad ufc record but look at who the losses are to:

Elijah Smith (high end prospect with elite athleticism, 2nd generation fighter)
Taylor Lapilus (good fighter)
Miles Johns (good fighter)
Jonathan Martinez (good fighter)
Chris Gutierrez (good fighter)
Yadong Song (good fighter)

His only bad loss is Benito Lopez, and even then Benito was an ok fighter from team Alpha Male (who didn’t go further in the ufc because he had a kid and decided to become a cop)
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Most of Wineland's loses at that point were to good fighters too though, I'm not sure it was clear he was washed until later.
 
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16Skippy said:
Most of Wineland's loses at that point were to good fighters too though, I'm not sure it was clear he was washed until later.
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He was really rigid in his movements and like 35 or 36 at BW, I do remember watching him f*** up Popov before the O’Malley fight so it wasn’t like he was a total can at that point (I remember being alarmed at how bad Popov was too lol). Definitely past it though. I was probably a little strong with saying Morales murks him as he doesn’t really murk anybody but I do think he’d win a decision or get a sub
 
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