The tale of two straws (Women’s MMA Vets go to war)- UFC 229 Preview
Disclaimer — reader discretion advised, I get a bit carried away sometimes (contains the occasional harsh language and dumb curse word).
With UFC 229 just around the corner, and the lack of media done by the UFC to promote it (beyond the 34.5 minutes of Conor trying to shove Proper Twelve in Khabib’s face in New York) majority of the main card bouts have gotten as much attention as Bangladesh does when it comes to talking about world politics.
But fear not Michelle Waterson, Felice Herrig, Tony Ferguson, Anthony Pettis, Ovince Saint Preux, Dominick Reyes, Derrick Lewis, and Alexander Volkov, for I am here to save the day… that is if anyone ever ends up reading this shit.
Up first in our discussion (don’t forget to read till the end for our BONUS content on the injury bug striking again)
The war of the Strawweights
Expected rating of contest — A-
Prediction — Michelle Waterson by Decision
The UFC women’s straw weight division has been a clusterfuck of awesomeness in the last few years. With Rose Namajunas reigning the division and Joanna Jedrzejczyk staying on her coat-tales for that 3rd fight, the division is being allowed to play out until that potential fight is signed for and completed. That might be a while though because of the following —
- Rose hates Joanna. Like legitimately cannot be fucked with her. She’s beaten Joanna in their last two fights and most expect her to play hard ball on giving her what would be their third fight in a row. Plus she’s “taking some time off” so everyone relax!
- Joanna is aware of this whole situation and has reportedly signed a contract to face Valentina Shevchenko for the now vacant Flyweight strap at UFC 231. Could she be chasing that infamous women’s double champ strap? Hypothetically she could come down to challenge Rose again after winning so may be I’m a psychic, we’ll have to wait and see.
Do you see what you’ve done Conor? — Tommy Toe Hold
So while that happens, UFC 229 will host the battle between the #8 and #9 straw weights and all round bad ass women, Michelle Waterson (Instagram link) and Felice Herrig (Instagram link). With a combined total professional bouts of 42, both women bring into the octagon a combination of speed, veracity and experience that will kick all the dicks in that night. Let’s take a look at this absolute cracker of a fight to start off the main card —
Michelle “The Karate Hottie” Waterson
This absolute bombshell is a former Invicta Atom-weight champion, karate blackbelt and ESPN Body Issue model and has always been a force to be reckoned with. Fighting out of Jackson Wink MMA in New Mexico, Michelle has had a total of 21 fights in her professional career initially making the transition to the sports from being a ring girl. She entered the UFC in December 2016 at 13–4, beating Paige VanZant in her first fight and simultaneously stealing my heart. She fell short in her next fight though at the forearms of current champion Rose with the same weapon she used to finish VanZant, the good ol’ rear-naked choke!
The Karate Hottie’s loss to Rose was followed by a unanimous decision loss to current #6 ranked Tecia Torres, then followed that up to beat #10 Cortney Casey in a split decision victory. Overall, her time in the UFC has had its ups and downs but on October 6th she hopes to follow up on her last performance with a similar if not more dominant one. The division currently is playing out so a string of victories for the 32 year old southpaw might push her back into the title contention picture by the end of next year.
Felice “Lil Bulldog” Herrig
Next up is Chicago’s very own Felice Herrig. Ms. Lil Bulldog is another veteran of the MMA game, boasting a 14–7 record going into next Saturday. Coming into the octagon with high level professional kick-boxing and muay thai under her jiu-jitsu purple belt, Felice is always one to entertain. She lost her first fight in the UFC in 2015 with Michelle’s first opponent, Paige VanZant, but fuck that because she got back up, dusted herself off and went on a 4 fight win streak run with 1 submission and 3 decision wins, cause she’s a beast!
Her last fight was against Karolina Kowalkiewicz which she lost a split decision to at UFC 223, the same card that hosted Rose vs Joanna 2 and Khabib’s 25 minute mauling of Al Iaquinta. Fun facts about her — she started off her career in kickboxing currently with a 23–5 record and appeared on American Ninja Warrior in 2015. Much like her opponent, this 5 ft 4 straw weight of pure ass kicking awesomeness will need to put together another run to be in the title picture in the near future.
Fight break down
This is sure to be intense fight will be kicking off the main card right after my featured prelim fight of O’Malley Vs Quinonez. Waterson and Herrig both are in hot pursuit of their first attempt at UFC gold, so you know they’ll be kicking, punching and grappling each other into living hell to get this win going.
Michelle has the more aggressive record between the two, finishing 12 of her 15 wins while the Lil Bulldog finishing 5 of her 14. Both fighters have a stand-up base, with Waterson’s karate coming up against the kick-boxing background of Herrig. But they also holding purple belts in jiu jitsu and both of them have utilized this to its maximum effect having 75% or more of their finishes coming from TAP BITCH OR I’LL FUCK YOUR WHOLE SHIT UP! So stay at the edge of your seats for this one and watch out for a spinning face kick of death KO or a snug rear-naked choke or a grueling Khabib style ground and pound.
That being said, I think it’ll go to a decision. Let me explain why — neither have finished a fight in the past year. Michelle last finished VanZant in 2016 and Felice submitted Kaillan Curran in the same year. Hence, I expect this to be a 15 minute saga of who can smash the other’s pretty face in more and give less fucks than Dana White talking to Ariel Helwani while doing it! FUCKING AWESOME!
Herrig representing team Curran comes off a loss looking for bounce back into the win column so it will be interesting to see how she deals with the loss. She has had set-backs before with her first fight ending in a loss and honestly that gets be even more hyped for this contest because the last time she lost, she came back to rearrange faces in the next 4 fights with victories against tough opponents.
Michelle is coming off a win so she comes in with momentum. But the interesting twist is her camp, Jackson Wink, seems to be in a big battle of pointing fingers after Cowboy Cerrone was apparently told to fuck off. Cowboy was the one who helped her transition into MMA initially so it’ll be interesting to see if this affects her at all.
Overall, this is going to be a banger of a fight. Two veterans. Two Badasses. But only one can leave as the winner! Remember to tune into the start of the main card to witness this masterclass in fighting.
BONUS UPDATE!
Apparently our beloved Cowboy Cerrone got into an accident!
“Damn you injury bug!” — Tommy Toe Hold
This was posted just hours ago on Instagram, by Cowboy himself. It’s no secret Donald is a wild man with tastes that are as dangerous as calling your girlfriend the wrong name while giving her the business. Guess his wild life style has got him running into an injured left arm. Knowing Cowboy, he’ll still want to step into the cage as he is set to fight Mike Perry on November 11th, but I’m not sure the UFC or the commission will allow for this. FUCK! Guess we’ll have to see how this plays out.
