Mixed Martial Arts Thread (UFC and others)

[molson]

Rousey returns at UFC 207 in Vegas v. Nunes.

Her popularity took an incredible nosedive after her loss, but I'm excited to have her back in the picture.

[molson]

Originally Posted by lighthousekeeper

He ended up dying, though not sure of the cause. Drugs probably?

Meltzer said that the police report indicated it was a suspected OD call. And his friend died right next to him, and Samman had a history of drug issues, so ya, that's pretty much confirmed, though nothing official

[CrescentMoonie]

Originally Posted by lighthousekeeper

He ended up dying, though not sure of the cause. Drugs probably?

Yeah, nothing official, but he was known to have drug problems stemming to guilt over feeling like he was the cause of his girlfriend's death. Lots of unconfirmed talk of heroine or fentanyl.

[CrescentMoonie]

Bellator kicked off a really busy MMA stretch tonight with a really fun card. Brennan Ward needs to be in UFC right now. Phil Davis finally got a belt against a clearly rusty Liam McGeary. Bellator has two more title fights coming up in the next two weeks. They've got a series of legit main events through the end of the year before their next ridiculous spectacle fight with Ortiz vs Sonnen.

WSOF cancelled two cards to load up for their MSG debut, and NBC return, on December 31. They'll have 3 title fights with Fitch vs Shields as the headliner.

UFC kicks off a stretch of 9 cards in 7 weeks with a Fight Night tomorrow with Dos Anjos (#2) vs Tony Ferguson (#3) at 155 as the headliner. A one week break will lead to UFC 207 and Rousey's return on December 30.

Should be a fun two months.

[booradley]

Tony Ferguson exposed himself as an asshat during his "Ultimate Fighter" days, mocking a fellow housemate's regret about not being able to see his daughter. Getting drunk and attacking people for no reason. Good fighter, but tops the "Fighters I Love to Hate" list.

[CrescentMoonie]

First FS1 fight of Fight Night 98 ends on a spinning back fist KO.

[PilotMan]

Don't think I can get the main card tonight, after partying for the last 2 days in Columbus, but I am excited for the whole thing. I hope Eddie knocks Connor out. This card is so incredibly stacked I wish I was.

[CrescentMoonie]

I'm sure there are nefarious means of which to acquire it online. I'm heading to a local BWW within the hour to make sure I get a seat at the bar since the big cards can have people standing 4 deep by the time the PPV portion starts.

[EagleFan]

Prelim one on FS1; looking forward to these fights tonight.

As I type that... Luque (sp?)... wow

[PilotMan]

Well Kahbib made a great point. He's been royally screwed by the UFC and McGregor. I totally don't agree with the way they have let Conor dictate his fights over the last 18 months. No way a guy with that resume should be fighting in the prelims and not for the title.

That was another sick, dominating fight.

[CrescentMoonie]

Already a great night with a surprise or two. Meisha did nothing but brag about her camp this time around and got worked.

[EagleFan]

That was a nasty knee.

[CrescentMoonie]

Roid Jesus with a great knee. I seriously wonder if Wiedemann can make it back to title contention.

[PilotMan]

jesus, now we have to deal with 4x as much from him. Give him credit for making it look easy and showing up with the goods tonight.

[jbergey22]

Is MMA betting odd or what?

I took the under 1.5 rounds in the McGregor fight which ended in the 2nd round but was graded a loss. In boxing that would have been a win.

[SirFozzie]

What's that old saying? "It ain't braggin if you can back it up?"

Obviously, Conor can back it up.

edit: And jbergey, I think because there's so few rounds in a MMA fight (and they are five minute rounds), they just judge 2:30 as "Half a round", so you missed by :34

[CrescentMoonie]

It's Conor McGregor's world and we're all just living in it.

[JonInMiddleGA]

"Conor McGregor says he wants to talk to the new owners of UFC. He wants a piece of the ownership along with the celebrities to continue fighting."

I can't help but wonder ... at some point does this guy become SO unlikable that he damages his own brand/value?

edit to add: There's heat ...and then there's X-Pac "just go away" heat. I have to think CMcG is treading close to the latter.

[Calis]

He made Alvarez look like a guy in his first fight. That was Conor's most impressive performance so far. Just a complete dismantling. His clinch game looked improved and his takedown defense was solid(granted Eddie had no almost no ability to close distance on him anyway).

I think when Conor has the reach like that he's going to be hell on anyone right now. Just no idea what he wants to do next. I think he should stay at 155 but he seems bored by the thought of defending titles.

His post fight interview was probably the best trolling he's done yet also. A+ job there.

What're peoples thoughts on Khabib as an opponent for him? I was actually sold less after Khabib's performance again tonight. Sure if he gets a hold of him he's going to maul Conor, but Khabib is wreckless and takes some big shots to get in and that won't go well with Conor. Ferguson might be a more interesting matchup because he has some qualities akin to Diaz.

Was everyone ok with the decision on the Woodley/Wonderboy fought? I need to watch it again because the group I watched it with was all in agreement Woodley had that fought won(and we were all rooting for Wonderboy).

[CrescentMoonie]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

"Conor McGregor says he wants to talk to the new owners of UFC. He wants a piece of the ownership along with the celebrities to continue fighting."

I can't help but wonder ... at some point does this guy become SO unlikable that he damages his own brand/value?

edit to add: There's heat ...and then there's X-Pac "just go away" heat. I have to think CMcG is treading close to the latter.

What heat? He's the most liked, watched fighter UFC has ever had. I didn't hear a single boo last night in a BWW that had people standing 4 deep at the bar just to watch him fight. He just headlined a card that pulled an MSG record $17.7 million gate. He may have heat with Dana/ownership, thought I doubt that anymore, but with Bellator and WSOF already out there it's pretty clear guys can make money without UFC. Conor may be MMAs Mayweather and start promoting himself against guys who let their contracts run out just to fight him.

[CrescentMoonie]

Originally Posted by Calis

He made Alvarez look like a guy in his first fight. That was Conor's most impressive performance so far. Just a complete dismantling. His clinch game looked improved and his takedown defense was solid(granted Eddie had no almost no ability to close distance on him anyway).

I think when Conor has the reach like that he's going to be hell on anyone right now. Just no idea what he wants to do next. I think he should stay at 155 but he seems bored by the thought of defending titles.

His post fight interview was probably the best trolling he's done yet also. A+ job there.

What're peoples thoughts on Khabib as an opponent for him? I was actually sold less after Khabib's performance again tonight. Sure if he gets a hold of him he's going to maul Conor, but Khabib is wreckless and takes some big shots to get in and that won't go well with Conor. Ferguson might be a more interesting matchup because he has some qualities akin to Diaz.

Was everyone ok with the decision on the Woodley/Wonderboy fought? I need to watch it again because the group I watched it with was all in agreement Woodley had that fought won(and we were all rooting for Wonderboy).

Conor will do what Conor wants to do. He's already shown that being part of something like UFC 200 doesn't matter to him and he's blowing PPV records away anyways. If he wants to fight Cerrone at 206, you let him do it. If he wants to fight Woodley, you let him do it. If he wants to defend 145 and 155 on the same night, you let him do it. If other fighters complain, you let them know that they won't be on the card and get the pay bump associated with a McGregor card.

I had Wonderboy 48-47, winning rounds 2, 3, and 5, but can see the argument for a 10-8 Woodley round 4. I can also see the argument for round 3 going either way. Super close fight and it was a wild ride with all the momentum shifts.

[EagleFan]

I could also see round 1 being 10-8. He was out struck something like 50-1 that round and spent most of the time being dominated on the mat.

[CrescentMoonie]

Oh, and one wild idea I heard thrown around last night for Conor: GSP.

[EagleFan]

He wouldn't want any part of GSP if GSP were still in his prime. He would be exposed greatly. GSP wouldn't get sucked into attacks that opened him up to the counter. Once GSP would get him to he ground it would be over.

(and I am not a fan of GSP, never have been)

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by Calis

Was everyone ok with the decision on the Woodley/Wonderboy fought? I need to watch it again because the group I watched it with was all in agreement Woodley had that fought won(and we were all rooting for Wonderboy).

I had it 47-47.

I want to see two counter strikers just stand there and not throw a single punch for 30 minutes, because neither one of them gives in to the other. That's the championship fight I'm hoping for.

If Conor could make that happen I'd watch. Guys like him make a living off of the idea that someone has to be the aggressor. I'd love to see Big John just screaming at these guys to fight and neither does anything, then it ends in a double DQ.

That's my MMA dream.

[EagleFan]

Hope that bogus point deduction doesn't cost Cejudo the fight.

[molson]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

Hope that bogus point deduction doesn't cost Cejudo the fight.

He kicked Benavides in the groin twice, and Yves Lavigne warned him after the first one.

MMA has this bizarre unwritten rule that you're allowed to commit every foul at least twice before your're penalized. It might be the dumbest thing in all of sports but almost all refs do this for some reason.

I think MMA is the only sport where a foul isn't a foul at all unless it's blatantly intentional. But I don't think there's ever been a blatantly intentional grown shot or eye poke in major MMA history. And if there was, if somehow we could tell that a guy lined up and kicked a guy in the balls on purpose, or did a Roddy Piper eye-gouge, that should be a DQ rather than a 1-point deduction. It should be a 1-point deduction when someone fucks up and breaks the rules of MMA, at least when the foul causes obvious harm to the opponent. Those fouls would decrease drastically if that happened.

Elite professional athletes should be able to fight without committing fouls. That should be part of the sport. If you can't fight without committing a foul, you're penalized. Remarkably, Cejudo managed to avoid groin shots once he realized this was the rare case where they were actually penalized. If it's anybody other than Lavigne in there, more guys should go the Uriah Faber route and get your two un-penalized eye pokes in every fight before you start fighting clean. (Or, like Faber likes to do, save your eye pokes for advantageous situations.)

[CrescentMoonie]

Swanson and Choi putting on the brawl of the year.

Forget the year, that's a top 10 fight in UFC history after those last two rounds.

[EagleFan]

He says this is his last fight; will that really be the case?

[EagleFan]

That had to be a 10-8 round for Faber. Good start.

[EagleFan]

Round two to Faber. Pickett has to finish in round three if he wants to win.

[CrescentMoonie]

Great way to go out for Faber.

Really starting to enjoy Mickey "Hype Killer" Gall.

Seriously, why did they do 20 freaking minutes of hype about the main event, causing it to start 5 minutes after the show was supposed to be over? We know UFC, we know. Get it together. If that fight goes the distance then adding 30 minutes to the DVR isn't enough.

VanZant has a future, but she struggles with fighters who have really good technique.

[molson]

Big MMA weekend coming up. Ronda Rousey opened at something like a -320 favorite but is now down to around -140. She might actually be the underdog by fight night if she looks crazy at the weigh-in tomorrow.

And Rizon has two, strange, PRIDE-style shows over the next few days, starting tonight. They're running this "open weight grand-prix" that has King Mo, Cro-Cop, a Sumo guy, a 46-year old Japanese guy that has only fought once in the last 10 years, and Heath Herring. I think they're actually trying to run the final three rounds of that tournament over those 3 shows, with the semi-finals and the finals on the 2nd show. And Gabby Garcia, the giant Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu lady, is fighting a 49-year old former pro wrestler for some reason (after a 52-year old Japanese politician pulled out of the fight).

[CrescentMoonie]

Dana White confirmed today that UFC 207 is Mike Goldberg's last show with the company.

Also this weekend, WSOF 34 happens at MSG on Saturday afternoon (main card starts at 4pm) with 4 title fights. It's also the return of WSOF to NBC as the main card is being shown on the network and not NBCSN. I'm interested in the Shields vs Fitch match.

[dubb93]

They aren't really handing the show over to Jim Rome are they? Rumor I read said they had made an offer to have him to replace Goldie.

[CrescentMoonie]

Originally Posted by dubb93

They aren't really handing the show over to Jim Rome are they? Rumor I read said they had made an offer to have him to replace Goldie.

If it was something other than Chael Sonnen as the source, I'd think those rumors have legs. Instead, two names I've heard mentioned are Stephen Quadros and Mauro Ranallo.

[CU Tiger]

Alright prediction time....
Rousey or Nunez?

I love me some Rowdy...I just hope the fire isnt gone. Here is a "bold" prediction. Rousey submits her in Round 1 or Rousey gets knocked out. I think she get Nunez's arm. But it wouldnt surprise me if she tries to prove she is a kickboxer and gets KO'd

[CrescentMoonie]

If it goes more than a minute it's a KO for Nunes. She's got way more punching power than Holm, it's just a matter of footwork. Rousey's striking coach is still a joke, so she has little more than a prayer of winning on the feet.

My bet is Nunes late in round 1.

[Suicane75]

Step 1: Rhonda kills her.
Step 2: Rhonda eats her face off.

[molson]

I think we're underestimating Rousey. Nunes has lost to three fighters Rousey destroyed in seconds. And Rousey looks more fit then ever. I'm not betting it, but if I was, I'd be thankful for the relatively close odds and take Rousey as a great value. If Rousey survives the early onslaught, she'll catch Nunes, who is prone to fading, eventually. My only concern is that weird Armenian gym cult that she can't seem to escape. It wouldn't shock me if she was just done and shits the bed here, but I wouldn't bet on that.

[Suicane75]

I'm telling you. If you are betting men, put all you have on Rhonda. If you can get exotic odds, put all you have on Rhonda to win in less than a minute, first round, Knockout, etc.

She's going to destroy the poor woman. She may put her in the hospital. This is going to be a slaughter.

[molson]

I'm also oddly looking forward to Cro Cop v. 400-lb Baruto late tonight or early AM (after Cro Cop destroyed King Mo the other night, and Baruto fat-guy-smothered his way to a decision win)

Though, as much as I enjoy the oddball Japan freak show nonsense, this fight makes me a little uncomfortable:

[Suicane75]

I love Japan. Everything about the picture is just so fantastic.

[molson]

Haha. (The Cup of Noodle lady - or guy - is awesome). I think Garcia is talented, but there's just no other 240 lb women to fight. In her last fight, she weighed in heavier than the UFC heavyweight champion in his last fight. So I hope she can make a career out of barely-sanctioned Japanese open-weight fights. Or pro wrestling.

[PilotMan]

Rousey has had a big break. She's got a hunger to win. She's still a world class athlete who's spent the last year and a half recuperating, training. Her camp was quiet, without many distractions.

I'd say that there's very little chance that she doesn't come away with the win. Of course, I said something similar before the Holm fight too, but coming off that loss, you have to feel like her approach to this fight was significantly different.

[CrescentMoonie]

Originally Posted by molson

I think we're underestimating Rousey. Nunes has lost to three fighters Rousey destroyed in seconds. And Rousey looks more fit then ever. I'm not betting it, but if I was, I'd be thankful for the relatively close odds and take Rousey as a great value. If Rousey survives the early onslaught, she'll catch Nunes, who is prone to fading, eventually. My only concern is that weird Armenian gym cult that she can't seem to escape. It wouldn't shock me if she was just done and shits the bed here, but I wouldn't bet on that.

Nunes also beat a fighter who just beat Holm. Nunes also lost to Sarah D'Alelio. Nunes beat Tate faster than Rousey did either time. Past record is mostly irrelevant.

[CU Tiger]

Holm was the perfect fit to beat Rowdy at her peak. Puncher power and length. Ronda had got too cocky and thought she could eat punches to get inside.

I feel like Ronda destroys Nunez, but there is also the chance she is spooked and never the same.

[CrescentMoonie]

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

Holm was the perfect fit to beat Rowdy at her peak. Puncher power and length. Ronda had got too cocky and thought she could eat punches to get inside.

I feel like Ronda destroys Nunez, but there is also the chance she is spooked and never the same.

Holm had 9 KOs in nearly 40 boxing matches. She has very little punching power

[molson]

Originally Posted by CrescentMoonie

Holm had 9 KOs in nearly 40 boxing matches. She has very little punching power

Ya, Holm punched Rousey repeatedly in the face for about 6 minutes before knocking her out. Obviously Rousey can't do that again and survive against Nunes. But hopefully she'll fight smarter. And Nunes isn't the boxer that can do what Holm did. She can knock Rousey out in an instant, but otherwise, there's bound to be some clinch stuff up against the cage, takedown opportunities, and those will only increase the longer the fight goes, and that all favors Rousey. I don't think Nunes can handle Rousey in a longer fight, but it will be damn impressive if she can.

[PilotMan]

That was a helluva performance in the co-main.