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thesportssoundoff · 7 years

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“Figures a Cowboy’s last stand might happen in Texas” The UFC Fight Night From Austin Preview

Joey

February 12th

The downside of the UFC's hectic, frenetic fight a week schedule is that sometimes really good free cards blend in with the schedule. Even with name value, the volume tends to smoosh everything into a fine paste and this card in Austin, Texas carries that sort of feeling to it. The UFC always tries to make these Texas cards special and this one is no exception as a very intriguing main card with plenty of stories to digest is headlined by two important fights. The headliner is Donald Cerrone in the midst of his first career losing streak vs Hawaii's Yancy Medeiros in the midst of a career changing three fight winning streak all by finish. The crazy durable Hawaiian has been a different guy since his move up to 170 lbs, showcasing his trademark toughness with increased cardio and fight stopping power. This is the perfect sort of fight where a fighter on a skid gets a step back in competition while we also get to test how "real" another fighter is. The main event pits two HWs who had their winning streaks snapped in the face of a step up in competition; Marcin Tybura (who lost to Werdum) and Derrick Lewis (who lost to Mark Hunt) duking it out. Throw in a really compelling 155 lb fight between James Vick and Francisco Trinaldo plus the return of favorites like Super Sage (!) and Thiago Alves and there's something for everybody here. IF this card still had Livia Souza vs Jessica Aguilar on it, I'd say I couldn't imagine a free fight night topping it for depth and action fight potential. The prelims are headlined by a 155 lb fight pitting Carlos Diego Fierrera vs Jared Gordon in a genuine test of what Gordon may truly have to offer but the preliminary slate is mostly here to have action fights with Stephen Peterson vs Brandon Davis figuring to be an early candidate for FOTN plus an intriguing battle between the law office of (Joby) Sanchez and (Roberto) Sanchez at flyweight.

Fights: 13 (12?)

Debuts: 5 (Curtis Millender, Stephen Peterson, Geoffrey NEal, Joby Sanchez, Tim Williams)

Fight Changes/Injury Cancellations: 4 (Humberto Bandenay OUT, Brandon Davis IN vs Stephen Peterson/Ray Borg vs Brandon Moreno CANCELLED due to injury to Moreno/Marion Reneau vs Tanya Evinger CANCELLED due to injury to Evinger/Livia Souza OUT vs Jessica Aguilar)

Headliners (fighters who have either main evented or co-main evented shows in the UFC): 5 (Marcin Tybura, Derrick Lewis, Donald Cerrone, Thiago Alves, Sage Northcutt)

Fighters On Losing Streaks in the UFC: 4 (Donald Cerrone, Jessica Aguilar, Brian Cammozzi and Josh Burkman)

Fighters On Winning Streaks in the UFC: 3 (Yancy Medeiros, James Vick, Jared Gordon)

Main Card Record Since Jan 1st 2016 (in the UFC): 28-16 Donald Cerrone- 4-3 Yancy Medeiros- 3-1 Derrick Lewis- 6-1 Marcin Tybura- 3-2 James Vick- 4-1 Francisco Trinaldo- 4-1 Thiago Alves- 1-1 Curtis Millender- 0-0 Jessica Aguilar- 0-1 Sage Northcutt- 2-2 Thibault Gouti- 1-3

Too High Up- Brian Camozzi vs Geoffrey Neal

Everything that should be on the main card is on the main card so this isn't about that. Camozzi vs Neal is not a bad fight by any stretch of the imagination but it's essentially a showcase fight. Chris Camozzi's lil bro is 0-2 in the UFC and he's been finished both times. Geoffrey Neal is a Dana White Tuesday Night Contender Series dude (who I admittedly forgot about which shows the imprint he left on me I guess) who got his contract because he had fought twice in two weeks and showed up on three days notice to KO Chase Waldon. He has the ability to fight between 170 and 185 lbs and he's a Texas native. I'm fine with this being on the FS1 prelims but in a perfect world, this is on Fight Pass.

Too Low- Sarah Moras vs Lucie Pudilova

In a division where Rocky Pennington can earn a title shot, everybody who has NOT already fought Amanda Nunes is fair game. That means that Lucie Pudilova and Sarah Moras deserve a little more attention. They're opening up the preliminary slate on FS1 which is fine but if they don't find somebody for Jessica Aguilar then this fight more than any other fight deserves to get the step up to the main card. Moras is a pretty popular fighter while Pudilova IMO should be 2-0 in the UFC.

Stat Monitor for 2018: Debuting Fighters (Current number: 1-4): Curtis Millender, Stephen Peterson, Geoffrey NEal, Joby Sanchez, Tim Williams

Short Notice Fighters (Current number: 2-2): Brandon Davis, ?

Second Fight (Current number: 3-9): Brandon Davis, Roberto Sanchez, Oskar Piechota

Cage Corrosion (Current number: 4-5): Carlos Diego Ferreira

Undefeated Fighters (Current number: 4-8): Oskar Piechota

Twelve Precarious Ponderings

1- A lot of people laughed with the total of lack of American flag on Yancy Medeiros but let's.....well let's gingerly try to walk through this. For starters, the UFC has had a tendency to try and market Hawaiians almost as if they're not Americans. It's not anywhere near as bad as the "Samoans have thick skulls and eat raw meat" levels you saw in old school territory wrestling but one really only has to look at how BJ Penn has been marketed to understand that Hawaii is unique to any other United States fight market. Outside of the way they talk about New York fighters, Hawaiians really are their own denomination. You never hear them market dudes as "a proud Missourian" or a dude embodying the fighting spirit of Oregon or whatever. Hawaiian fighters like BJ Penn and Max Holloway are always depicted with Hawaiian flags in UFC promotional materials. Hawaii might as well be its own continent in UFC parlance. It MAY as well be American Brasilia at this point. LASTLY there is NO doubt that if the average UFC fan was presented with Yancy Medeiros and Donald Cerrone, they'd say Cerrone is an American and Medeiros is Hawaiian as if it's not a state. I guess what I'm getting at is that be it cause and effort or a self fulfilling prophecy, the poster just reinforces the UFC (and fight fans) belief that Hawaii is the 8th unofficial continent.

2- There are a lot of things Yancy Medeiros does really well that will parlay him toward success in this fight with Cerrone. His kicks when he commits to them tend to be powerful, he mixes up his techniques well, he's unorthodox and willing to try different things and obviously he hits hard and has heavy ground and pound. Like Cerrone, he tends to not let guys off the hook when he has them hurting either (I believe only Francisco Trinaldo has really ever made it through the rough patches with Medeiros). The problem is Yancy's biggest strength also plays into Cerrone's biggest strengths. Medeiros is fantastic at taking the best someone has to offer, recovering from it, regrouping and getting them back. Against Oliveira and Erick Silva especially, Yancy Medeiros was able to take serious punishment and buckle down en route to the rally stoppage. Against Francisco Trinaldo, he was basically dead in the first round before springing to life and beating the fuck out of Trinaldo in a wild second round to give himself a chance. The problem with being a blood, guts and balls type comeback artist is that it's dependent almost entirely on who is trying to finish you. Donald Cerrone NEVER lets guys off the hook. When he hurts them, he finishes them. When Medeiros has tried that blood and guts style vs more talented guys like Dustin Poirier, he's eaten the short end of the stick. If he gets hurt and tries to play desperation mode, Cerrone probably snatches up his neck.

3- Given his history and given the amount of fights he's had, it is worth wondering whether or not Donald Cerrone is simply cooked as a top level fighter. Even if you believe he beat Robbie Lawler, Cerrone has been hurt in four of his last five fights. He's still an offensive marvel (it wasn't too long ago he uncorked one of the greatest combinations of all time vs Rick Story) but his propensity to freeze up vs body shots and his struggles with straight shots haven't gotten any better. He'll be 35 this year, he's fought top level competition for the better part of the last eight years and he's fighting guys who hit way harder than he's used to when he was active at 155 lbs.

4- I wonder if Medeiros has the style to go five rounds? It's worth pointing out again that Cerrone has been doing five round fights for the better part of eight years.

5- Derrick Lewis vs Marcin Tybura feels like a fight that should be getting more attention than it is. Both are young by HW standards (Lewis just turned 33, Tybura is 30) and both have similar set ups into how they operate. Both are patient, at times overly so, strikers who do their best work with heavy top control and tend to use their size in an attempt to wear down and wear out their opponents. Both are surprisingly athletic guys who are really good kickers especially Marcin Tybura. Both are prisoners of pacing as neither man handles an uptick in tempo well and in the case of Derrick Lewis, it almost feels like a lack of confidence at times. Both are coming off fights where they essentially got checked by the elites of the division and fights where both left questions unanswered about their ceilings in the division.

6- Francis Ngannou vs Derrick Lewis has to happen, doesn't it?

7- The middleweight division takes a lot of knocks for being old and rightfully so but let's shine some light on a nice reverse trend for the 185ers in 2017:

In October; 29 year old Brad Tavares picked up his third straight win in dominating Thales Leites, 27 year old Antonio Carlos Jr picked up his 2nd straight sub win and Thiago Santos while not young at 33, took another step up the ranks by pretty much ruining the life of Jack Marshmann.

In November; 26 year old Paulo Costa ended Johny Hendricks' UFC career with a 1st round TKO, 27 year old kickboxer Karl Roberson made his debut and choked out Darren Stewart, the eternally frustrating but under 30 years old Elias Theodorou decisioned Judo Dad Dan Kelly and 26 year old Kelvin Gastelum presumably ended the career of Michael Bisping to end a December to December stretch with a 3-1 record at middleweight.

In December; 29 year old Gerald Meerschaert continued his Jake Ellenberger-esque career renaissance with a TKO win over Eric Spicely to run his UFC career mark to 3-1, under 30 year old Markus Perez made his UFC debut while 30 year old Eryk Anders took another step forward with his undefeated record in tact, two under 30 Italians (Alessio Dichirico and Marvin Vettori) picked up big wins.

The pattern hasn't quite kept up into 2018. Thus far we've only been greeted to a select few MW fights but the one pattern that's come up is age is conquering all. Jacare, Romero, Thiago Marreta and Machida were older middleweights who picked up wins while guys like Eryk Anders and Anthony Smith (29) suffered set backs. The reason we went through that entire walk on the mild side is that MW Oskar Piechota is back and he draws Tim Williams in a fight that has me both intrigued and concerned. Piechota showcased some really impressive grappling skills and power in his hands in his UFC debut. He's a former Cage Warriors champion and at a time where "the local draw" is a big deal, a young Polish fighter under 30 could be worth his weight in gold as the UFC aims for expansion. At the same time, it's his first fight outside of Europe and while Tim Williams is not a guy who I would believe to be UFC quality (this is like his third attempt at trying to break through to the other side), this has all the makings of a spoiler fight for an undefeated fighter. LEST we forgot undefeated dudes are really struggling as we head to 2018.

8- If James Vick was a middleweight, would he have fought for the title by now?

9- I wonder if Joby Sanchez has a chance to still compete for the title. Sanchez was probably bought into the UFC a smidge too early and struggled across three fights before ultimately getting released. He lost to Wilson Reis in his debut on short notice, barely got by Tateki Matsuda in a controversial decision win and was beating Geane Herrera before he got dropped and stopped. Since then the Jackson-Wink product has done nothing but win including back to back wins on Dana White's Tuesday Night Contenders. He's back in the house and draws local guy Roberto Sanchez in what should be at the very least an exciting fight. Sanchez is an LFA product who lost his debut.

10- Is this Sage Northcutt vs Thibault Gouti fight an unfair one? I've seen some "soft matchup!" calls on social media but let's be fair and realistic; Sage Northcutt really is on THIS kind of a level. That's not to say Gouti can't win (he's a good striker who can throw some shit together at you) but Sage is bigger, stronger, more athletic and there's no doubt that Gouti is here to be "the opponent" in the fight. Having said all of that, why is this a bad thing? Sage Northcutt isn't ready for the elites of the MMA or even guys above the bottom rung. View Super Sage as a long play and realize that these fights are more about checking off boxes than they are about getting him ready to fight for the title. This fight will test how he reacts to an aggressive guy who throws a lot of kicks in combination. We've seen Sage habitually freeze up in the face of pressure so let's see how he handles it this time.

11- So it IS worth pointing out that Dana White's Tuesday Night Contender Series has hit a bit of a skid in 2018. 2017 saw them get off to a very hot start when the fighters started to filet in (Allen Crowder was the only original night winner who didn't win his debut fight) but since then it's been a pretty rough patch. Matt Frevola and Brandon Davis both ate losses in their UFC debuts while Dan Ige got plasted (by fellow DWTCS candidate Julio Arce). That doesn't even count Austin Arnett who lost on the Contender Series and then lost again in the UFC. As such I've got my eyes on Geoffrey Neal and Brandon Davis, two guys who won their original night Contender Series fights and got contracts that night. Davis is a big of a weirder situation since he's facing a guy who got signed on short notice in Stephen Petersen out of DWTCS. That said the winners are the guys they wanted and so Davis takes precedent in this instance.

12- Should Josh Burkman still be fighting at this point?

Must Wins

1- Donald Cerrone

I LOVE what Donald Cerrone has brought to the UFC. He's been the model of consistency, the sort of guy who would fight AND win 3-4 times a year. Cerrone has been a UFC road warrior but at this point, you wonder what's left. Pushing 35 off three straight losses at a bigger weight class would lead you to believe that Cerrone's time could potentially be up. Yancy Medeiros is a guy who he is equal to stylistically.

2- Derrick Lewis

This isn't about Lewis having to fight for his job. He signed a new deal, he's very popular, he's normally good for a big finish and he will always keep himself involved. Consider that Nannou is probably the #2 most popular HW currently and the two have been going back and forth. Lewis needs to win to set that fight up in my eyes even if you can still do L vs L. I dont think the UFC wants Ngannou vs Lewis with both guys coming off losses and so Lewis HAS to win.

3- Joby Sanchez

If you've never fought Mighty Mouse, you've got to really REALLY go out there and impress because you could be only two wins away from snatching up a big title fight. What's more, Joby Sanchez has a bit of a ready made story. He got to the UFC too early, got cut and had to work his way back the hard way. He needs to win and win impressively.

Five Can't Miss Fights

1- Donald Cerrone vs Yancy Medeiros

2- Derrick Lewis vs Marcin Tybura

3- Roberto Sanchez vs Joby Sanchez

4- Carlos Diego Ferreira vs Jared Gordon

5- Thiago Alves vs Curtis Millender

#MMA #UFC #Fight Night #Austin #Cowboy #Medeiros #Yancy Medeiros #Marcin Tybura #Derrick Lewis

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booksfriendsnews · 4 years

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daltechforce · 5 years

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Friday Night Lights: Norwegian SIMRAD GN1 – Biocular NVGs

It has been a personal goal of mine to get my hands on a Thales LUCIE NVGs. However they are not that common and not normally sold to civilians. Just a couple weeks ago my friend Warren came across someone selling a SIMRAD GN1. While it is not a LUCIE, it functions the same and […]

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La Commission interministérielle pour l’étude des exportations de matériels de guerre (CIEEMG) a ainsi tout récemment repoussé un dossier de vente d’obus de 155 mm. Décision qui n’a fait l’objet d’aucune annonce. Il s’agissait, semble-t-il, de « recompléter » les stocks de munitions de batteries de canons tractés TRF1 et surtout d’automoteurs d’artillerie Caesar de Nexter. Cet engin acquis à plus de 130 exemplaires est en dotation depuis 2010 dans les unités de la Garde nationale, tout particulièrement celles qui sont positionnées à la frontière entre le royaume et le Yémen. Officiellement, ceux-ci ne font l’objet d’aucun emploi offensif contre les Houthis. En réalité, ces matériels d’une portée supérieure à 40 km ont été largement utilisés contre les forces rebelles positionnées sur le front nord, notamment autour des villes de Saada et de Dammaj. En outre, les personnels qui les utilisent s’appuient sur des relevés cartographiques et du renseignement de terrain. Ce qui implique de recourir à des mini-drones de reconnaissance, comme les Tracker (Airbus Defense) et les Spy’Ranger (Thales) également proposés à l’état-major saoudien. Un marché sur lequel les Italiens de Leonardo ont, eux, placé plusieurs dizaines de drones Selex ES.

Les obus de 155 mm – vendus entre 2 000 et 3 000 euros l’unité – sont produits par Nexter dans son usine de La Chapelle-Saint-Ursin près de Bourges. Par deux fois au moins au début des années 2017 puis 2018, alors que les conseillers des ministres des affaires étrangères et de la défense se divisaient sur l’opportunité de prises de commandes et de livraison, l’Élysée avait tranché favorablement. Ce n’était donc plus le cas cet automne.

La décision des autorités allemandes, annoncée en mai par le porte-parole du gouvernement, Steffen Seibert, de suspendre toute licence d’exportation de matériels de guerre vers l’Arabie saoudite explique pour partie le revirement. Alors que le « couple franco-allemand » est mobilisé pour développer des capacités communes de défense européenne, il était inopportun d’ouvrir un contentieux avec le gouvernement Merkel. Des pièces d’origine allemande sont en effet utilisées dans ces obus, que les élus du Bundestag peuvent désormais refuser de voir livrer à Riyad. Notamment, des composants de Junhans Mitrotec servant au système de correction de trajectoire « Spacido » utile dans les premières secondes d’un tir.

Cette contrainte nouvelle n’inquiète toutefois pas vraiment des industriels comme Nexter, désormais associé à l’allemand KMW dans la holding KNDS, ou Arquus (ex-Renault Trucks Defense), même si certains de leurs engins (les VBCI, et les PVP par exemple) intègrent des pièces d’origine allemande, notamment pour leurs boîtes de vitesses. D’ailleurs, en espérant que les blocages politico-administratifs ne seront que passagers, les prospections de leurs équipes commerciales n’ont pas été suspendues.

L’enjeu est d’importance alors que de nouvelles gammes de matériels inscrites dans la nouvelle loi de programmation militaire nationale peuvent être désormais proposées à l’export. En l’occurrence des blindés de reconnaissance et de combat Jaguar, des véhicules de combat légers Griffon, des nouveaux véhicules blindés multi-rôles (VBMR), ainsi que des véhicules blindés d’aide à l’engagement (VBAE). Leur vente à l’étranger permettra de rentabiliser les investissements consentis pour lancer leurs productions en série. En la matière, avec ses achats compulsifs, Riyad reste le client idéal : le budget de la défense saoudien devrait en effet passer de 32 à 48 milliards d’euros d’ici 2020 pour permettre au régime d’être à la hauteur de ses ambitions régionales.

« Nous avons acté de plusieurs sujets qui suscitent beaucoup de sensibilités »

Cette trajectoire explique qu’en 2016 et 2017, les livraisons à Riyad se sont respectivement élevées à 1 085 et 1 381 millions d’euros. Avec une enveloppe de 764 millions d’euros en 2016, le niveau des prises de commandes validées par la CIEEMG a lui aussi progressé par rapport à la moyenne des livraisons réalisées depuis 2011 (552,3 millions d’euros par an, mais à peine 10 % des dépenses du pays auprès des États-Unis…). La baisse relative observée en 2017 (626 millions d’euros de livraison) est, quant à elle, liée à la création d’une nouvelle structure centralisée de contrôle des achats, la Saudi Arabian Military Industry (SAMI), qui permet désormais à MBS – et à ses proches – de contrôler directement toutes les procédures d’achat militaires. Cela conduit aujourd’hui le PDG de Thales, Patrice Caine, à travailler en direct avec le prince héritier pour tenter de renouveler, en 2019, le parc de la défense sol-air de courte portée du royaume, avec notamment des radars de défense GM200 et GM400 ainsi que les systèmes de commandement de l’ensemble.

Principale source d’informations ouvertes dans ce domaine, le rapport 2018 au Parlement sur les exportations d’armement de la France ne dresse que des bilans généraux adossés à la nomenclature des 23 « military lists » consignées par l’Union européenne. Pour autant, une lecture attentive permet d’en extraire quelques données significatives et de les confronter à d’autres sources. Cela vaut, par exemple, pour les deux « licences spatiales » accordées en 2017, d’une valeur globale de 137 millions d’euros, qui permettent la fourniture d’imageries militaires, de logiciels d’interprétation et des formations évoquées plus haut. Sur le même registre, on lit que l’Arabie saoudite a été cette même année le plus gros pays client de la France en fusils de précision (520 au total). Difficile, là aussi, de ne pas faire la relation avec l’engagement de forces spéciales saoudiennes au Yémen.

Pour 2018, les chiffres semblent repartir à la hausse grâce notamment à deux contrats traités lors de la visite de trois jours de Mohammed ben Salmane à Paris en avril. L’un (évalué à 550 millions d’euros) assure la vente de trente-neuf patrouilleurs HSI 32 du chantier naval de Cherbourg CMN détenu par Iskandar Safa, selon La Tribune, quinze de ces navires devant être fabriqués à Dammam par le groupe saoudien Zamil, partenaire de CMN. L’autre contrat porte sur la vente de canons tractés LG1 Nexter de 105 mm. Conclu au terme d’une longue négociation entre officiels des deux pays, celui-là reste tenu secret. Et pour cause : ces engins sont conçus pour des unités à vocation de déploiement rapide, avec un emploi possible au Yémen donc. « En matière de défense, nous avons acté de plusieurs convergences et de plusieurs sujets qui suscitent parfois des commentaires ou beaucoup de sensibilité », s’était contenté de dire Emmanuel Macron, dans son style inimitable, lors de la conférence de presse conjointe organisée à l’Élysée, le 11 avril.

À défaut d’un « marché du siècle » à gérer, les livraisons en cours s’organisent principalement depuis deux ans autour du Saudi Fransi Military Contract (SFMC), dont la première tranche établie à hauteur de 600 millions d’euros a commencé à être réglée fin 2016 aux industriels par le ministère des finances du royaume. La mise en œuvre de cette tranche est supervisée par l’office français d’exportation (ODAS). En matière d’armement terrestre, des missiles sol-air très courte portée Mistral figuraient sur la shopping-list, ainsi qu’une centaine de véhicules Sherpa et de transports de troupes VAB Mk3 (produits par Arquus, par ailleurs fournisseur des véhicules Bastion Patsas aux forces spéciales du royaume). Une seconde tranche d’un montant égal doit en principe suivre, actuellement discutée entre la DGA et ses interlocuteurs saoudiens ; les négociateurs de cette liste complémentaire tablent notamment sur le transfert de vingt-cinq autres canons Caesar de nouvelle génération pour la Garde nationale, sur des hélicoptères Cougar, sur des drones SDTI Sperwer et sur de nouveaux patrouilleurs maritimes.

Ces matériels, financés par Riyad, devaient à l’origine équiper l’armée libanaise par l’entremise d’un contrat validé en 2015 et appelé DONAS. Cela, avant que Mohammed ben Salmane ne se ravise un an plus tard et décide finalement d’équiper ses propres forces en faisant adapter ces armements à leurs besoins spécifiques (climatisation renforcée, postes de communication, etc.). Rétrospectivement, après l’épisode de la prise en otage du premier ministre libanais Saad Hariri en novembre 2017, on comprend mieux ce revirement : c’était la première pression exercée par MBS sur le dirigeant libanais accusé de soutenir trop mollement sa politique régionale guerrière. Pour faciliter cette bascule, les dirigeants français sont allés loin. Selon nos sources, Paris aurait par exemple accepté en 2017 que l’Arabie saoudite réexporte certains des matériels commandés : ainsi, l’utilisateur final d’une partie du parc des transports de troupes VAB Mk3 serait en réalité l’armée égyptienne à laquelle les djihadistes infligent de grosses pertes au Sinaï.

Les conditions d’adaptation du contrat au client saoudien laissent aussi quelque doute. Selon des sources diplomatiques, les lourdes procédures administratives préalables aux réunions décisionnaires de la CIEEMG ont été « aménagées pour éviter les pertes de temps ». Cela, entre février 2016, date de l’annulation des fournitures au Liban et de la décision de MBS de les récupérer à son profit, et le mois de décembre 2016, date des premiers paiements des matériels. Avec l’accord de François Hollande, son ministre de la défense Jean-Yves Le Drian s’est de facto contenté d’apporter trois avenants techniques au contrat initial DONAS destiné Liban. Dans ce parcours administratif accéléré, le ministère de la défense a largement profité de l’effacement du nouveau venu au Quai d’Orsay, Jean-Marc Ayrault, qui avait succédé à Laurent Fabius le 11 février 2016. Avec son directeur de cabinet Laurent Pic, un spécialiste des affaires européennes, celui-ci aurait accepté sans renâcler les arrangements voulus par son collègue de la défense.

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