UFC Seattle Preview

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Greetings, I'm Luca Fury, and welcome to my main event
preview for UFC Seattle going down this Saturday. Headlining that
is Henry Sahudo taking on Song yet Dong interesting matchup
between the former double champion Sahudo and a somewhat perennial

(00:21):
contender Song here, he's sort of been a prospect slash
contender for an extended period now. He keeps trying to
break through and make it to that next level as
being a legitimate title contender, but he just has not
quite been able to do that yet. Obviously, a win
over former champion like Suhuda would be a nice notch
in his belt. However, Sahudo obviously at this point in time,

(00:44):
certainly not the fighter he once was.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
He is thirty eight years old.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Song meanwhile twenty seven years old, so massive age gap here.
Not only that, but in the lowerweight divisions such as
bantamweight one thirty five as this one is, the fighters
don't do very well when they get up there in age.
It's not like heavyweight, for example, where thirty eight is
almost like the prime age for a heavyweight or light heavyweight.

(01:11):
In middleweight even as well, you have some older fighters
who are very good for those divisions because the overall
fighters are slower, less athletic, and because of that, when
your reflexes and your athleticism and your speed slows down,
you're not actually at that big of a gap compared
to say one twenty five or in this case one
thirty five, where everyone is so fast so athletic that

(01:33):
if you start falling behind in those areas, the difference
is quite noticeable and makes a serious difference in terms
of the results wins versus losses. So Shudo being up
there in age, very very old for the bantamweight division,
that is a big knock against him, and that is
probably the biggest single factor for why you're seeing him

(01:54):
be such a decided underdog here currently sitting at plus
two twenty five best of able price you dog meanwhile
minus two fifty. If this fight had taken place just
a few years ago, or I guess a handful of
years ago, at this point in Sahudo's prime, this line
would have not only been flipped, but even more drastically

(02:14):
so in the favor of Sahuto. He'd be a massive favorite,
so prime Sahudo would mop the floor with Song here
I mean, it's not even a competitive matchup. Really, the
prime version. If this was prime Henry Suhudo versus the
best version of Song, which is basically the current version
of him, Basically the style matchup would be Yadong has
a puncher's chance, he can maybe get lucky with a

(02:37):
big shot.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Other than that he is absolutely ft.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Like that would be the prime style matchup for Henry
sehudo versus Song, Like, he's not going to defend the takedowns.
He's not going to out Cardio and pace him. He's
might not even actually outstrike him, because Henry actually added
some nice striking towards the tail end of his career.
But obviously Song is a more dangerous striker, though Shudo

(03:03):
is certainly dangerous in his own right too. But my
point there is even the striking wouldn't be any kind
of home run for Song. I want to be like, oh,
as long as he can keep it on the feet,
he's on a massive advantage. Now he'd actually be endangered
there as well, even if he did ultimately have the advantage.
So prime version of Suhudo again, very very easy style matchup.

(03:24):
He would crush Song. However, obviously, as I mentioned, Suhudo
has fallen off a bit. And it's not just that
he has that number there, the thirty eight years old
next to his name.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
It's more than that.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
You look at his recent fights, he has shown that age,
and that is something that is the main concern here.
If you look at his last two fights, they were
against Marob pioblash Billy. Now Morob is now the champion
and has looked quite good and fairly dominant. So that
loss in hindsight isn't as bad as some people thought
it was at the time. But then before that he

(03:58):
lost a split decision to al Jabaine Sterling. The Morob
one was a three rounder, and then the Sterling one
was a five rounder. His last fight before that was
all the way back in twenty twenty when he retired
as the champion, and then of course he vacated the
title and then obviously retired for a few years, returned,

(04:19):
lost to Sterling and lost to Marob as I mentioned.
So going over those two losses. For the Sterling one,
it was a very close fight, I thought the judges
got it right there. I was on Henry Sufhudo. I
think I actually bet him there. I believe if I
recall it correctly. I still thought the judges got it
right there, so no issues with that, so hudo. He

(04:41):
did show some issues with his pace, with his cardio.
Even his wrestling did not look as good as you
would expect. He certainly did not look anywhere close to
the prime version of himself. He was just noticeably a
step worse and almost every facet of the game. So
that one, being his first fight back, obviously big fight
there five rounds for the title to kind of a

(05:03):
tough spot, Okay, maybe give him the benefit of the
doubt and hindsight. Though the Sterling loss doesn't look so great,
not as good as the Morab.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
One, which was as a next fight.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
Of course, as I mentioned, however, the Mirab one, what's
bad there is? Okay, Yes, Morob cardio freak, pace freak.
You'll hear me always compliment him for having some of
the best pace in.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
Cardio probably an MMA history.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
And if that was a five rounder, I would actually
be like, Okay, I kind of kind of understand how
that's that. The fight went how it did, however, it
was a three rounder, and a big reason for why
the fight went the way it did is because Morob
did not gas, and Henri Sajudo did gas, and again

(05:47):
compare that to prime Henri Sajudo, he had great cardio.
This is someone who went to decision with Mighty Mouse
and won a very close competitive one over five rounds
Mighty Mouse who is a cardio freak and great pace himself.
So prime Henry Sahudo even against a guy like Marob
Dubalashvili over five rounds. Okay, maybe you guess that Morod

(06:10):
can make just about anybody tire out over five rounds,
But over a three rounder, I just I don't think
that a prime Henry Sujuda would be tiring out there. Now, Henry,
he did get taken down five times there, which is also,
at least you know, on paper, not a good thing,
of course, especially considering his whole Olympic gold medal wrestling background. However,

(06:32):
if you actually look at how the takedowns transpired there,
one was in the first round, two in the second,
and then two in the third. The later ones were
largely in part two Sahudo being tired and so again
him tiring out, and only a three rounder that is
concerning tiring out enough that a significantly inferior wrestler on paper,

(06:54):
also inferior athlete was able to take him down repeatedly
five times.

Speaker 2 (06:59):
That is not good. That is again not.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
Just like Okay, look, he was huffing and puffin, he
was breathing heavy, but he still went out there.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
You No, he won the fight clean.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
No, he was showing signs of cardio and then that
signs of cardio directly led cardio issues, say, signs of
cardio issues directly led to him losing a fight.

Speaker 2 (07:18):
So again, this is just not the same guy that
he was in his prime.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
And on that note, have to say one of the
most poorly mismanaged careers literally in UFC history is Henry Sahudo.
As I mentioned earlier, this man was the champion when
he retired.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
He was a double champion.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
He used to go by triple C because he had
the flyweight title, the bantam WEIGHTE title, and then of
course his Olympic gold medal, So three championships granted kind
of at different times, but still it's a legitimate, I
guess self anointed title.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
He was legitimately a champion in three different ways.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
He then retires in his prime for seemingly no reason,
could have kept making some money. Maybe could have moved
up eventually and had gone for the triple champ status
in the UFC at one forty five. There was plenty
of things that he could have potentially done. He seemed
to think he had some sort of incredible John Jones
or Connor McGregor type leverage, ended up sitting out the

(08:16):
prime of his career, comes back, loses, So say he
just retires and never comes back. Okay, it was bad
enough he retired in his prime, but you could say
it was the Kabib thing. He didn't fight that many
top guys, but he did fight a few, and obviously
he had a good record, was a champion, and retired
before he regressed it all and kind of was a

(08:37):
wetef story in a way, where you go, man, what
if he had stuck around, would you have set all
sorts of different title defense records and all that. That's
what people think Kulbie would have done, But obviously time
would have told if he had actually stuck around. Well,
that's why people would have looked at Suto would have
been kind of a one if what if situation where man,
what if he had stuck around through those prime years? Well,
instead he didn't stick around during the prime years, but

(08:58):
then came back when he was cool clearly regressed, Like
did this not do not not know that he was
dis regressed when he was training in the gym? Or
did he think that even with the regression he could
still go out.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
There and.

Speaker 1 (09:11):
Be the number one guy? Or did he just need
the money that badly? I mean, he has just completely
shifted his legacy. Like I said, he would have been
thought of as a kid Beb Kabib has no business
being in the goat goat conversation when you really think
about it.

Speaker 2 (09:27):
And yet so many.

Speaker 1 (09:28):
People actually consider him one of, if not the goats,
because oh, the undefeated record and.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
The dominance and all that.

Speaker 1 (09:36):
So people would have said things like that about Sue
Hit his legacy would have been much better than it
actually deserved to be because people would have assumed he
would have gone on to better than he actually would have.
And so just in so many ways, retired at the
wrong time, came back at an even worse time, just
all sorts of bad stuff. Imagine if he now loses
his third fight in a row, probably retires that. I mean, dude,

(09:59):
his legacy is so shot, especially with how many double
champs we have now. I mean, it is actually kind
of crazy how this dude has just sabotaged his legacy.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
But we'll see. Maybe he can go out there and
get the upset this week.

Speaker 1 (10:12):
I will say as much as so Huno has clearly
regressed for the reasons I mentioned, there is still some
signs of life for him here in this matchup. In
the case of Song Yadang, he is, as I mentioned,
in his prime, it'd be basically he has a puncher's chance,
and that is for a couple of reasons. One, he's
a striker first and foremost. He's worked on rounding out

(10:33):
his game, of course, but his wrestling and his defensive
grappling still needs work.

Speaker 2 (10:39):
For example, his.

Speaker 1 (10:40):
Last fight against primarily a striker and Pyotr Jan got
taken down twice. Fight before that did not get taken down.
A fight before that against Ricky Simone, who, yes, overall,
Song kind of battered him, I will admit, of course,
eventually stopped him in the fifth. Still got taken down
twice before that twice in that fight for that against

(11:00):
Cory Sandhagen taken down there as well.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
You go back a little bit earlier there.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
Was Spice Trees taken down three times, two times, five times.
And these are guys like Cody Stam and Marlon Vera,
Kyler Phillips, not elite takedown artists. Now, yes, he was
younger back then, those are a few years ago, or
well really handful of years ago. Down I've talked about
five years ago for some of those. But my point
is you go back farther, to go back earlier in

(11:27):
his UFC career, or you're talking about his recent bouts.

Speaker 2 (11:30):
This dude's getting taken down by like almost everyone.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
Like opponents shoot takedowns, they're usually taking him down. If
they're any kind of a decent wrestler, they're pretty much
surely taking him down. So now we have Olympic gold
medalist Henri sa Hudo. You're telling me he can't take
him down. Peoter Jan can take him down, Cory Sanagan
can take him down. Ricky Simone just a couple of
fights can go to Go, can take him down multiple.

Speaker 2 (11:54):
Times, even despite getting battered. But Henri sa Hudo can't.
Of course he can't.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
And on the feet, as I mentioned, Prime Pseudo would
still actually be a threat to Song now at this
point in time, I would say that on the feet, yes,
there's the puncher's chance now for Sahudo, he does have
some speed and power in his shots, but overall now
the striking has definitely shifted in the favor of Song.
He should have a somewhat comfortable striking advantage outside of

(12:22):
again Suhudo's ability to dart in with some explosive shots
one or two strikes at a time. He kind of
has that macheetah kind of karate in and out movement
darting in with the.

Speaker 2 (12:31):
Occasional one too.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
So outside of landing a bomb like that, it's probably
gonna be a pretty comfortable time for.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
Song on the feet.

Speaker 1 (12:40):
But obviously Pseudo is still dangerous now if he can
go for the takedowns again. All these other guys, including
just his last fight against striker Yoder Janes, I fail
to see why Pseudo just can't take him down unless
suhodos that regress. Now, maybe he has regressed even further.
He's even up there more in age. He's obviously has
even more fight years him as well a couple of losses.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
Who knows where his motivation is?

Speaker 1 (13:03):
Is he really like man, my back's against the wall,
can't lose three in a row. I gotta win now
to start another title run. Is he really thinking about
doing that at thirty eight years old? That doesn't seem
like it. He's talked about retirement and interviews, seems like
he's maybe just trying to get one more win or
two and then you know, go out on a high note.
I just I don't really know where his motivation, where
his head is at. He might be completely regressed, even

(13:25):
more beyond what we had seen in his last couple
of fights. So I do think he can get the
takedown if he pursues it here, But is he gonna
get the finish? Probably not. Let's be realistic here. Possible,
but probably not. And therein lies the rub. And that
is why you're seeing him be such a big underdog,
because if he doesn't get the finish, and even if
he does get two, three four takedowns in the first

(13:47):
half of the fight, let's say, well, what does it
matter if he's gassed for the last three rounds. And again,
he gassed in a three rounder against Brob. He slowed
down also in the five rounder against Stirling. He kind
of got his second wind at times. It's kind of
like his cardio is a little bit weird there, but
it certainly again wasn't like his prime Well, this is
a five rounder, so if Sahudo is getting takedowns early

(14:11):
or maybe even landing some good strikes, it doesn't matter
if he doesn't have the cardio to go five. And
so maybe he's found a way to improve his cardio,
maybe he's worked on it after what happened last time out,
or maybe because he's even older and even more shop born,
maybe he looks just even more ancient in there. So
ultimately it is tough now for Suuto because again you
look at the prime version of this matchup, the stylistic

(14:33):
matchup there is Song basically has a puncher's chance other
than that competitive on the feet big advantage in the
wrestling cardio, if anything advantaged Sahudo likely advantage for him.
In fact, so overall again basically punchers chance for Song.
The way that shifted now is cardio advantage actually goes
to Song. Strikeing advantage overall goes to Song in addition

(14:56):
to his puncher's chance.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
Now also now it comes down.

Speaker 1 (14:59):
To basically just Sahuto a puncher's chance and nothing really
more on the feet now and then in the wrestling yes,
so Hudo still probably has a wrestling advantage, but without
the cardio to keep it up, it doesn't really matter.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
He'd basically need to finish on the on the mat.
So how does Henry Sahuda win this fight?

Speaker 1 (15:14):
Either he turns back the clock and has significantly better
cardio than we saw in his recent two bouts, or
he lands a hail Mary shot on the feet at
that point, yeah, he probably should be an underdog, like
I would be if the line was flipped, or if
he was a favorite, I'd be like, well, what that
doesn't really make sense considering all the factors here. Now

(15:34):
that said, is that to say he can't turn back
the clock or that he can't land the big shot?

Speaker 2 (15:40):
Of course not.

Speaker 1 (15:41):
As it mentioned, even if he looks like garbage here,
he should still probably be able to get some takedowns,
So he might have moments where he's actually looking really
good here. I just don't know if he can keep
it up over five rounds, and I would lean towards
the nose, so not to mention, he might just get
bludgeoned from the onset with some big shots as well,
So who knows where his chin is at at this
point as well.

Speaker 2 (15:59):
So he's definitely up against it.

Speaker 1 (16:02):
Now that being said, do I want to be laying
two and a half to three to one on song here, No?
Not really Do I also at the same time want
to be like, oh Man, Dogger pass spot. Not really,
It's not like the Cannoneer spot where Canonear. I also
I didn't bet him, just to be clear, but I
was more tempted to say Dogger passed there because, as

(16:24):
I mentioned, yes, he had regressed like like Sahudo had
for obvious reasons, and you know, it went over in
depth about that. However, he was going against someone who's
still very flawed, someone who isn't really deserving of being
in that kind of like real contender type of spot
in RoboCop, And so canon Ear even at this point

(16:45):
in time, could still show up and have all of
his issues and everything and still find a way to
win against someone who's incredibly flawed and basically is only
a one and a half two round fighter. And that's
exactly what we saw. He was done after basically one
round robo cop. In this case with Sahudah. Again, the
path is much harder where Sahudo he basically has to
actually change himself as a fighter, otherwise he just has

(17:07):
to get lucky with the big shot cannoneer. Even with
the regressed version of himself, he still had a clear path. Again,
not trying to take credit or anything for calling that
I did not bet him. It's not what I'm trying
to say, but in my breakdown I did say, you know,
there's still a clear paths for him. That's why I
definitely was not on the RoboCop train there with Sahudo.
There's not a clear path unless he shows up showing

(17:30):
something different than what we saw before.

Speaker 2 (17:32):
Does that make sense?

Speaker 1 (17:34):
Cannonir could be the same regressed guy still had a
clear path against RoboCop at a similar price. Shudo cannot
be the same regressed guy and go out there and
get the win over Song. He has to turn back
the clock in some way or land one of the
biggest punches of his career. So it is a similar
situation with the aging veteran to Cannonear, but a tougher

(17:54):
spot for Sahudo. That being said, would I be shocked
or blown away if he got the when?

Speaker 2 (18:00):
Absolutely not. Yadag is a flawed fighter.

Speaker 1 (18:03):
He does have issues in the grappling, his chin is
not iron his striking defense has some flaws. He's much younger,
as I mentioned, of course, twenty seven and ever improving,
so we will likely see the best version of him
and probably the worst version of Henry Sahudo. Again, this
is not your typical, oh, two fights in a row,
he's lost back against the wall situation, because when Sahudo

(18:24):
returned and is fighting for the Bantamate title, that's already
peaked ten out of ten.

Speaker 2 (18:29):
Motivation for him.

Speaker 1 (18:31):
Well, then when you lose and now your legacy is
now in question and you're just in a regular contender
matchup against Morab, that's like eleven out of ten motivation.
If it's anything, If there's even any possible higher motivation
than the title fight you just had, it would be
the Morob fight. There's no way that there's even higher
motivation now for the song fight, where all of a sudden,

(18:51):
oh man, he didn't take those last two that seriously.

Speaker 2 (18:54):
But this time we're gonna see the real Sahudo. I mean,
maybe he.

Speaker 1 (18:57):
Took some extra special supplements, maybe he did find a
way to improve himself. I'm not going to say it's
totally out of the question, but all things do point
to him showing some life, maybe even actually doing very
well early on, but eventually probably just falling apart at
some point, maybe even getting caught with some big shots,
possibly even getting TKO'd here. So Song Ya Doong will

(19:20):
be my official prediction, however, not going to be one
that I will in all likelihood bet on either side,
either the favorite or the underdog. That said, does potentially
present a good opportunity for live betting. As I mentioned,
Suhuto might start out strong. If that happens, we know
he's likely to fade. If it's a situation where it's like,
oh man, he's trucking here, just dominating that at that point,

(19:45):
maybe he's actually going to finish song well, then maybe
don't live bet against us Suhudo at that point.

Speaker 2 (19:50):
However, if he's.

Speaker 1 (19:51):
Just like, okay, he's getting takedowns, not doing a lot
with them songs, getting back up making him work, that's
actually kind of bad for Suhuda. Okay, he won the round,
but he's just gonna gas himself out doing that. That's
when you live bet against him, because he's likely to
tire out and then go on to still lose the fight,
and as I talk about all the time, it's just crazy,
how whoever they have these jackasses doing the live lines.

(20:14):
They don't know the fighters. They just look at, Oh
who's winning the fight. Oh this guy won the round.
Jack him up to minus three hundred. Oh he's winning
the second half or the half of the second round.
Jack him up to minus five hundred. When everyone else
who's like actually educated, is like, yeah, the guy has
two rounds of cardios. So I'm gonna bet the other
side at plus four hundred, and then as soon as

(20:35):
this round ends, basically it's gonna be one way traffic.
The other guy and then my guy that I bet
at plus four hundred, it'll be minus four thousand and
no time. Like that happens all the time. I'm not
exaggerating that that's like a weekly occurrence. Live betting is
so ripe for the picking. I don't know why the
odds makers the sportsbooks are not doing anything to change this.

(20:57):
Maybe for whatever reason, the way the doing it, they
are just making a killing on it. I mean, I
guess obviously they must be profitable on it if they're
offering it, but I just I can't see how they
would not be more profitable if they've had someone who
actually knew what they were doing and understand when there
is fighters who gas and have cardio issues and the
dynamic is very likely to shift even if one guy

(21:18):
is dominating. So this fight potential for live betting certainly,
but pre fight not something I'm jazzed about. But again,
official prediction will be on Song Yadong and that will
do it for this episode of my main event preview.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
Remember though, I do have a bunch more.

Speaker 1 (21:34):
Content available over on my Patreon that is patreon dot
com slash Furies Fight Picks. They have a bunch of
official bets are actually already up now for this UFC
card and as well as some other nime events this week.
Also be having the rest of my fight breakdowns in
the podcast form as well as a bunch of written
content going up as well, and of course the postfight

(21:57):
show following the card on Saturday too, so be on
the lookout for all of that. Hopefully you'll be joining
us over on the Patreon again Patreon dot com slash
Fury's fight picks for all of that. Otherwise, until next time,
or we do have believe it's eight straight weeks of
UFC here, so I will be back just next week
for another one of these free podcasts. Hopefully again you

(22:17):
join us in the meantime over on the Patreon, But
until next time, I'm Luka Fury and thank you for listening.