UFC 315 Full Card Recap: JDM Wins Title, Natalia Silva Shines, BSD Dominates

Peter Klein

UFC 315 delivered high-level MMA from top to bottom! Peter Klein breaks down the key fights and what they mean for the UFC landscape:  🥋 JDM vs. Belal Muhammad — A striking chess match for the title 💥 Natalia Silva outclasses Grasso in a breakout performance 🚨 Benoit St. Denis handles business vs. Prepolec 👊 Zahabi edges Aldo in a wild, emotional fight — and Aldo retires?  💬 What did you think of UFC 315? Drop your picks and takeaways in the comments!  🎧 Available on Apple, Spotify, & everywhere podcasts live.  #UFC315 #MMAAnalysis #FightBreakdown  🔗 Stay Connected & Support the Show 🎧 Listen & Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/couch-potato-diary/id1564122189  Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/3QgazeHcSKSteZbBIubcuM 🧠 Partners & Promos:  C of Dead Apparel → https://www.cofdead403.ca/  Swift Energy → https://www.swiftenergy.gg/?ref=mriusnqm  🎁 Use Promo Code: PKPrimetime for 25% off! 📲 Follow Me:  Twitter (X) → https://x.com/primetimeklein  Instagram → https://instagram.com/primetimeklein  Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/Couchpotatodiary  Twitch → https://twitch.tv/primetimepk 📬 Business Inquiries & Fan Mail:  Email → couchpotatodiary@yahoo.com

Transcript

00:00UFC 315 is now in the books a new champion has been crowned and a couple legends put on good

00:11showings one successfully one not so much let's dive right in and let's start off the top with

00:18what was a bit a bit underwhelming with Benoit Saint-Denis eventually getting a short or a late

00:25replacement fight as he took on Kyle Preplek and Saint-Denis here takes care of business it's a

00:31second round finish he did what he needed to do against the fighter making his UFC debut on short

00:36notice comes out and treated him as such um you go and look in the first round very strong level

00:43change from from Saint-Denis really solid work on the ground threatening with the submission in round

00:48one eventually getting it in round two now the one interesting part of this fight was that it

00:53turned into a bit of a firefight in that second round and that was bold from Benoit Saint-Denis as

01:00it did kind of show that he has a pretty good chin he is happy to get into those exchanges because he

01:06didn't have to like this all due respect to Kyle Preplek and the regional MMA scene out in Ontario

01:11Preplek is not on Benoit Saint-Denis level right this is a guy making his UFC debut against Saint-Denis

01:18who is a top 10 top 15 fighter in this division so what do you expect right and so Saint-Denis

01:25probably could have kind of picked his spots whatever but he showed that he enjoys getting

01:29into those type of um those type of matchups and he does show also that he has a strong chin also

01:34showed a really strong clinch striking attack that ended up kind of setting things up at the end um

01:41as far as the work on the ground Preplek didn't really show much resistance he was content just

01:47kind of staying there um he didn't didn't threaten uh didn't really even threaten to advance any

01:55positions or advance any defensive positions or anything like that so it was just a little bit of

01:59well I guess I'm here now and trying to to ride that out so that was that was a little disappointing

02:04to see from someone making their UFC debut to I'm not saying his grappling needs to be on the level

02:09of uh Benoit Saint-Denis but to just not try to better your position really at all especially in

02:15that first round was a little disappointing to see but showed he had some pretty good pop with his

02:19hands um does hold them a little bit low which you get a little bit concerned about especially when

02:24you get into those um wild exchanges with someone who is at the level of a Benoit Saint-Denis it did

02:30kind of seem like the punches were a little labored like they kind of come from a little looping area

02:34and and throw that way but they still landed with some pop and felt like there was

02:39quite a bit of power behind them and so again like I'm being I'm being critical here of prep

02:44elect and it's probably well it's certainly not warranted because he comes in against a top 15

02:49fighter in his UFC debut and he just he wasn't on that sort of a level but he like he he shows he's

02:56a UFC level fighter and I think he certainly earns another opportunity by stepping up and um coming up

03:02with a uh at least a performance here against Saint-Denis on short notice also you get uh

03:08Eamon Zahabi as we stick with the Canadian theme on the main card um he edges out legend Jose Aldo the

03:14wild round or the the final round sorry was a wild round and a lot of back and forth both guys landed

03:20some really hard strikes in that one and I think eventually Zahabi does probably get the better of it

03:27but I think the main swing round in this is round number two and I had Zahabi 29-28 I gave him that

03:34second round I was anticipating a split decision I was a little surprised that we got 29-28s across

03:41the board but I mean it's the scorecard I came to I was just because that second round was so close

03:48I was expecting it to be one way or the other on a couple judges scorecards but they were unanimous

03:54in their decision um I thought Zahabi when you watch this fight he was on the wrong end of the

03:59speed power um I guess dynamic of this but his good pressure was enough to get him the victory

04:05on on my card I thought the way that he was able to push forward continue that attack for 15 minutes

04:10while eating some shots as well but able to get into his striking range and kind of put that on and

04:15so when you have a bit of a disparity I guess in the power side you're not going to be able to land

04:23the the bigger shots and when you have a bit of one on the speed side getting that volume is going

04:29to be a bit of an issue so the fact that he was able to crowd Aldo I thought was a really good

04:33strategy by him and allowed him to pick up the victory and pick up what is easily the biggest win

04:38of his MMA career so far um I thought that he was he showed his toughness in surviving the early part

04:46of the third round walking through what he did from Aldo to eventually start to land some bigger

04:50strikes of his own and so I thought this was a great showing here from Zahabi it wasn't a dynamite

04:57dominant okay get this guy a title shot but it showed that he deserves the little number beside

05:02his name and I think it shows that he is ready for a step up in competition he calls out Marlon Vera

05:06after the fight is done we'll talk about fights to make a little bit later on this week but I have no

05:11problem with him taking that kind of a step up in competition on the Aldo side I mean we can break it

05:17all down but he retires after this fight so I mean like it was Jose Aldo right like he he still

05:23he still has the talent to be able to go out and be very competitive in the ultimate fighting

05:28championship but he talks about the issues he had with the weight cut going into this bout and some

05:33of the problems that he was having with motivation and everything like that and so if your mind's not

05:38into it that's how you get hurt very badly and for him to recognize that and acknowledge like look I

05:45just I don't got this anymore that is that that is a great bit of self-awareness that you want to see

05:51from your legends in the combat sports world so a congratulations on one of the greatest careers in

05:58the history of the sport for Jose Aldo who hangs him up here after UFC 315 but again from a fighting

06:04standpoint he still look great he still has that power he still has that speed it is interesting

06:09what happens in the UFC and in MMA in general compared to the sport of boxing where as guys age

06:16in boxing they tend to move up weight classes a little bit right because that's how the human body

06:22works you know it's it is a lot easier to have the pounds just shred off of you when you are 25-26

06:29years old than when you are 35-36 years old and so you see boxers kind of move up those weight

06:34classes as they age we don't we don't see that a lot in MMA like Jose Aldo okay well I'm I've kind

06:41of aged out here at 145 pounds but I could move down and maybe have a bit of a size advantage and

06:48play that way and so now you are asking a body that just the way it works isn't designed to have

06:54the pounds cut off of you now you're trying to cut more of them off and so I I do wonder if there is

07:01a bit of a um well I know diminishing returns when it comes to the weight cutting game and stuff

07:07like that but especially for guys who are on the older side of 30 and and certainly I guess the the

07:12older side of 35 as well and and trying to get that competitive edge of going down I wonder if there

07:18is a little bit more to be had going up and keeping your body fresher when you are facing guys

07:22at some points a decade younger than you are but that's a conversation for another time and and

07:28certainly one that I don't want to overshadow Jose Aldo and his accomplishments because again a

07:33brilliant career and when you're talking about the lower weight class fighters not many resumes beat

07:38that one I will tell you that um speaking of great performances Natalia Silva with the performance of her

07:44career as she picks up a dominant win over Alexa Grasso we'll start with the positives here first

07:50Silva was fantastic on the feet so quick so technical with her hands especially the kicking game

07:57um though like she she has incredible power and it's one of those ones where like it's it's not

08:02the easy power where it's just oh they happen to throw it out and it sends a person flying but it is

08:08one of those ones where they don't have to load up or anything like that it is quick it is powerful

08:13and it really can do some damage and to put on this kind of a display against some other fighters is

08:19one thing against Alexa Grasso was another a former champion who was able to subdue Valentina Shevchenko and

08:25so I thought that it was an all-around fantastic performance from Natalia Silva I thought that she

08:31did a good job countering when Grasso wanted to exchange and she was also very effective in in

08:36landing the first shot beating her to the punch literally and figuratively and just putting on a

08:41fantastic striking display that seemed to really have Grasso off balance the whole time and credit to

08:48Grasso but once again she doesn't really have a strong plan b and that is what really went against

08:57her against Valentina Shevchenko and it is certainly what went against her in this fight like she was

09:01tough as heck she was still coming forward so credit to her for that but there was no there was no way of

09:08slowing down what Silva was doing and again we saw this in the first Shevchenko fight where sorry in the

09:13third Shevchenko fight where Valentina had one game plan going in and you would assume a okay well if

09:19this doesn't work then we'll go to this and if she does this we'll go to this and she never had to go

09:22to any of those she didn't have to go to the if then's it was just okay I'm I'm you're just gonna

09:27let me keep doing okay fine like I hated that performance from her and I kind of hated this

09:31performance from her on Saturday night as well again most of the credit goes to Silva for being as good

09:37as she was but when you have someone who is kind of putting that type of a performance on

09:43their need like nothing that Silva did was a surprising thing right it's not like she came in

09:47on a run of submission wins and all of a sudden okay well now I have to uh start using my hands like

09:53this is what Silva does and for Grasso to not have any kind of a plan b or like honestly even an

10:00effective plan a of what to do here against Silva was really disappointing coming off of that loss um you

10:06could see she would start to have success when she could start to corner Silva and get her up

10:10against the fence that's when she really was able to close that distance and land some very impactful

10:13shots it was easily the best moments of the fight that she had she just didn't get it there a lot and

10:18the fact that there wasn't an adjustment to be made in even the second round after okay you're getting

10:23inside and you're getting wop wopped not great so let's try to do this instead um or just accept like

10:31look it's gonna hurt for a little bit but you gotta get inside let's double up this jab and try to get

10:35there um or something because I mean again there was I can't remember if it was this fight or if it

10:40was the the Shevchenko fight but um we saw a bit of an example and look I I have I have said that that

10:46is my kind of favorite way of seeing the smaller fighter get inside is double up on that jab and as

10:51you are doing that you're moving a little bit closer and a little bit closer so that okay the first

10:56one comes up short but the second one gets there and now we're inside where we want to be and now we can

11:00put together the combinations that we want to Silva's credit when that second jab came it was

11:05a counter and it was a boom and so that kind of puts you off a little bit um recognizing that that

11:11was the way that's that that Grasso was going to want to try to get inside was using that type of a

11:15strategy so it was a great read by Silva a great game plan from her but then for there to be nothing

11:20off of it from Grasso and just kind of accepting that it was target practice for a while was really

11:24disappointing and it um I think it significantly lowers the stock of Grasso here coming out of this

11:31weekend um in terms of where people's stocks are you you look at the rivalry that Grasso had with

11:36Valentina Shevchenko well the champ was on this card as well and it was another good win for

11:42Shevchenko as she beats Menon Fioro um I I thought this was a very close fight I thought it was a very

11:47interesting fight um once again Shevchenko like the the striking game from her the countering game from

11:53her is exquisite she is one of the most talented fighters um regardless of gender in the history of

12:00this sport and especially when it comes to the striking game and what she is able to do in that

12:07sense and this was another example of that she was great and um Fioro to her credit dealt with a lot

12:14of that I thought she had some really solid takedowns in this I thought she did some very good work from

12:18the clinch this was one of those ones where you score it with the 10 point must system and oh this

12:25is a this is a close fight all right this is this is pretty snug if we were to just do it pride rules

12:29like hey who won it's it's not particularly close Valentina Shevchenko was certainly the better fighter

12:35on this night now it does kind of show that the talent gap has closed right between her and the rest

12:42of this division and it is not just her blowing through challengers anymore um she gets the the

12:48submission loss against Grosso a couple of years ago and is able to battle back and eventually get

12:52that win back in a trilogy but we are seeing now that that gap is kind of shortening and shortening

12:58and shortening so I think very interesting to see what happens with the the next challengers here

13:03going forward and then we have um someone going from challenger to champion as uh Jack Della

13:10Maddalena comes away with a victory in uh what I called a wild chess match for the welterweight

13:15championship against Bilal Muhammad just a fantastic fight I thought both guys both guys did well in the

13:22others style and then thrived in their own so I thought this was a really really high level performance

13:28from both of these guys in a really high level fight um honestly JDM um I thought again like you can

13:35see the the striking is at um a pretty top tier I would suggest and the power that he has is quite

13:43effective as well so for him um to to show that here at this type of a level was quite impressive

13:48and was really one of the highlights there but the thing that I think really won him this fight

13:53was his takedown defense and he was able to keep this fight in the areas that he wanted to and we'll

14:01talk about the Bilal Muhammad game plan in a minute and there's been a lot of talk about that

14:04here as this week has gone on as we get further away from fight night but ultimately Della Maddalena's

14:10ability to keep the fight where he wanted to be longer was what gave him the advantage and what

14:16allowed him to uh just mess up Bilal Muhammad's face um if you see some of the the pictures off of

14:22it after that my goodness um but also it allows him to to win this fight and keep it in the area that

14:28he wanted to so brilliant brilliant stuff from him and the other aspect of it was he was able to

14:34handle some of the Bilal Muhammad pressure because Bilal will just keep coming at you right um but he

14:40was able to to do that handle it the very strong takedown offense helps him out as well for Muhammad

14:46um a lot of the talk coming out of this fight was that he stuck with the striking game plan too long

14:52because he wanted to prove that he could do that and admittedly that is certainly where my mind went

14:57as you are watching this fight go on and it's it's very clear that his striking has improved

15:03significantly over the years right but this one to me it is kind of like that this is a stretch of

15:09an analogy but this fight to me was kind of like when you like roll your ankle or something like that

15:15and it starts to feel better and so you mistake better for healed and so oh you know what i can

15:24i can actually i can walk on this a little bit oh well let's go out and play basketball and it's one

15:28jump in it's no no we're not not doing that not doing that i feel like that's kind of where Muhammad

15:33is where Bilal has taken significant strides in the stand-up game and so because of that it's like

15:41well i can win it in this way and we all kind of romanticize the John Jones where he can go out

15:47George St-Pierre had a bit of this as well and he certainly developed it um going from the karate

15:51guy into the dominant wrestler with zero wrestling credentials but to to be able to really showcase

15:58um that you can beat them at their own game is like the ultimate like use your cliche alpha move

16:06whatever dominant champion thing that you can beat them at their own game that that is romanticized

16:11a lot sometimes though it's better to just beat them and i do think Bilal kind of got a little

16:15bit too comfortable in the stand-up and got kind of beat up a little bit too much and it didn't allow

16:23him to get into his strength quickly enough and it allowed JDM to pick up some of these rounds and

16:28ultimately pick up the win again i i don't think Bilal fought a good fight or fought a bad fight sorry

16:32i don't think Bilal fought a bad fight i think strategically there was a bit of an issue with how

16:37long he decided to keep it up on the feet but i do also think that when he started to go for the

16:42takedowns Della Madalena's defense was strong enough that then it has to stay on the feet a little bit

16:48longer right and so i i think that might have been maybe where the tactical um mistake comes from

16:55Bilal is that the assumption that okay we're gonna stand we're gonna hang i'm gonna show him that this

17:00is something he has to be worried about and then i'm gonna go to the takedowns because i can get the

17:04takedowns whenever i want and he wasn't able to to break the glass in case of emergency the hammer

17:08was gone and JDM was then already winning in that fashion and then was able to keep it there when

17:16Bilal was trying to get away from that and so that can be a bit of a helpless spot and again like i

17:20i feel like i am painting a very negative picture of what Bilal Muhammad did it was not a negative like

17:25he lost and he got he got beat up there's gonna be need to some cosmetic damage for sure but he is

17:33um he is also a very talented fighter and he showed that here like he he fought a great fight

17:40he was an excellent fighter in this match he was he was everything you would want to see him be

17:46it's just JDM be him you know it was just it wasn't one thing one guy did wrong or anything like

17:52one glaring whatever it was just these two guys had an MMA contest and one guy came out ahead of him

17:57that's basically what it was um and so that's why you you start to tinker with things a little bit

18:01and you start to we're splitting hairs here is basically what i'm getting at it was still a

18:05very strong fight for Bilal Muhammad so still a little bit i know we're late in the week now but

18:10still a little bit more uh post-fight coverage from UFC 315 coming up here as the week rolls along

18:15um

18:17so

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