Mixed Martial Arts Thread (UFC and others)

[CU Tiger]

3-1...thats almost long enough to take a Masvidal flyer....
Even though I like Usman even if both are at full camp.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

3-1...thats almost long enough to take a Masvidal flyer....
Even though I like Usman even if both are at full camp.

Masvidal has that intangible and dude genuinely loves fighting. All common sense says Usman methodically wears him down, but then you hear Ben Askren saying hold my beer and get tempted to go ahead and play those odds LOL.

[bhlloy]

Yeah, anything can happen in a Masvidal fight, plus it’s rumored he’s been training like he would be in one of the upcoming cards and he’s got nothing to lose. That’s a very attractive flyer even if he’s definitely not the favorite.

[bhlloy]

Wow... that's one of the worst decisions I can remember. Those first 3 rounds weren't particularly close.

[CU Tiger]

I could see the 3rd going either way, but i do agree I thought Holloway won, but maybe not decisively enough to overcome champ advantage

[bhlloy]

Usually I agree with champ advantage, but I just didn't see it there. Volko didn't do anything even in 4 and 5 to win that fight. I thought Max got robbed.

That was a poor fight - can't help thinking that would have been better put on the next monster card and give both fighters time to prepare. Sucks for Masvidal for that to be his shot as well, you can't think Dana will be rushing to put that particular match up back any time soon.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Usually I agree with champ advantage, but I just didn't see it there. Volko didn't do anything even in 4 and 5 to win that fight. I thought Max got robbed.

That was a poor fight - can't help thinking that would have been better put on the next monster card and give both fighters time to prepare. Sucks for Masvidal for that to be his shot as well, you can't think Dana will be rushing to put that particular match up back any time soon.

I agree, this card was good enough without Usman / Masvidal and the other two championship fights were both very good, minus the decision going to Volko (I had Holloway 48-47). The 3rd round was the decider and total strikes were close, but Max was more effective. I think Volko won the last two, his work rate was better.

I think Masvidal will get another shot by next summer, he should get fights with 2 of the following. Covington, Edwards, Diaz or McGregor and if he wins both will be back in line.

Yan is a beast but Sterling will give him a battle and the Rose / Andrade bout was special. Want to see them go at a third time.

[CU Tiger]

I don't discount Usman 's skills but he is boring to watch.
Same formula. Lay on em pin em to the cage and win points.

Aldo is a warrior, but that should have been stopped at least 20 seconds earlier.

Holloway got robbed, but I get it.

Thug v Andrade was fight of the night for my money.

PVZ...doesn't deserve a main card spot again

[bhlloy]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

I think Masvidal will get another shot by next summer, he should get fights with 2 of the following. Covington, Edwards, Diaz or McGregor and if he wins both will be back in line.

I think he loses at least two of those, FWIW and probably doesn't get another shot. He's an absolute warrior but Covington smothers and neutralizes him like Usman did tonight and he's not good enough to beat Conor.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

I think he loses at least two of those, FWIW and probably doesn't get another shot. He's an absolute warrior but Covington smothers and neutralizes him like Usman did tonight and he's not good enough to beat Conor.

Covington is a rough matchup for him, but if Colby stands he will piece him up, Diaz he destroys again and I give him a better chance against McGregor than most because he can take Conor's shots and pressure him, and wear him down much like Diaz did. Right now Edwards is probably the toughest fight for him, along with Burns, who I left out only because he will get the next shot against Usman.

[CU Tiger]

McGregor is a shell of a joker of o what he once was

[miami_fan]

I was not familiar with Miranda Atkins previous work but she looked like she was absolutely terrified.

A seven-second KO for Seniesa Estrada. pic.twitter.com/hD0DqHVedo

— DAZN USA (@DAZN_USA) July 25, 2020

[BYU 14]

Wow, well her 4 previous opponents, all KO/TKO wins had a combined record of 0-2 (one she beat twice) and this is one issue I have with women's boxing. 4-0 vs 18-0 may look okay on paper, but where those wins come from needs to be looked at. She was like a lamb going to slaughter.

[bhlloy]

Herb Dean is a great ref (and somebody who is a friend of a friend) but WTF was he playing at there? That's a guy who was so out of it and he lets him get three more shots to the face?

Terrible, and that's how the first UFC fatality happens. Hopefully the kid is OK. Dana is going to lose his god damn mind.

[molson]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

I was not familiar with Miranda Atkins previous work but she looked like she was absolutely terrified.

A seven-second KO for Seniesa Estrada. pic.twitter.com/hD0DqHVedo

— DAZN USA (@DAZN_USA) July 25, 2020

Here's a highlight KO from the loser of that fight, against someone who was even worse than her.

Elena Saveleva vs Tatiana Williams Full Fight 15-02-2019 - video dailymotion

If you're a woman who takes boxing, you can apparently get on TV or an internet stream immediately. If you win a fight or two, you can be a champion, as this lady was (she is or was the Women's International Boxing Association International Light Fly Title holder.

Edit:. Sorry, that video featured one of Atkins' prior opponents that she defeated getting knocked out. It still depicts the state of lower level women's boxing and how someone like Atkins got a few wins and became a champion

[CU Tiger]

Who's ya got in the rubber match?

Hoping to see DC pull it off but not very confident in that outcome.

[bhlloy]

Agree. I’d love to see DC go out on top, but I think Stipe is going to be too much for him again. If he’s going to win the fight has to go a very specific way.

[BYU 14]

The thirds was really a brilliant chess match with neither willing to over-commit to things that got them stopped in the first two. Maybe not the most exciting fight, but fin to watch for the strategy and props to the adjustment Stipe made to grabbing that right hand to stop those short overhand shots that DC landed consistently when they would dis-engage in the first two.

Hats off to both guys. though I do wonder why DC didn't change levels more and go for more take downs, at least to give Stipe something to think about.

[bhlloy]

Yeah, I dunno. I see a lot of similar sentiment but honestly, it was a very middling fight. The biggest thing that happened outside of Stipe catching him in round 2 (and if that round had been 30 seconds longer that would have been it) were the two eye pokes. Strategy is great and I can respect that both fighters made a ton of adjustments but ultimately, not a great fight to watch.

And with that out of the way, what a shitty, shitty card. Yes, O'Malley getting injured sucked but even then, he's a way overhyped fighter who got a co-main event because of Snoop Dog and his colorful hair. There have been legit higher ranked prospects who have looked great in Fight Nights and have been way further down the card than that. There's no way that should be co-main event in a $65 PPV. Rosenstruik - Dos Santos was a good fight and UFC gets credit for that match (although how hard is it really to put 5 vs 6) but I waffled on buying this, ended up buying it for sentimental reasons and really wish I hadn't. UFC 253 looks to be more of the same.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

And with that out of the way, what a shitty, shitty card. Yes, O'Malley getting injured sucked but even then, he's a way overhyped fighter who got a co-main event because of Snoop Dog and his colorful hair. There have been legit higher ranked prospects who have looked great in Fight Nights and have been way further down the card than that. There's no way that should be co-main event in a $65 PPV. Rosenstruik - Dos Santos was a good fight and UFC gets credit for that match (although how hard is it really to put 5 vs 6) but I waffled on buying this, ended up buying it for sentimental reasons and really wish I hadn't. UFC 253 looks to be more of the same.

Yeah, not that great outside of the main for sure, though O'Malley is legit and he will be fine. But this is the second time this has happened. He needs to get it fixed. He will be a top guy in that division and would have handled Vera without the injury, just not his time yet.

The next card has a very exciting match up in the main, but the rest is so-so and I am glad I have that Superbox because I would not pay for it. I think UFC is paying now for the glut of cards they have had lately, the roster is just not deep enough to run weekly fight nights and then put on a top pay per view on top of it.

[thesloppy]

That card suuuucked. I tend to watch these events a day late, so when I see this thread get bumped I get excited thinking it's going to be a hot card.....or a very cold one.

[molson]

Disappointing that Cormier wasn't able to use his wrestling. I remember him picking Stipe up, carrying him around for a bit, and slamming him down in the second fight. It was quite the visual. They were on the feet exclusively after that and Stipe is just better there and can outlast Cormier and eventually pick him apart as he did again. People are freaking out about the eye poke, but, this is MMA, you get at least two free instances of each foul before any consequences. And Cormier shouldn't complain too much after this fight was delayed by the damage caused to Stipe's eye by Cormier's pokes.

I really don't get the O'Malley hype. Not his talent (though he hasn't beaten anyone yet), but his personality and star-power. That pre-fight package was kind of cringey. He sounded like an awkward teenager fantasizing about being an A-list celebrity and being "bigger than Conner". But with zero charisma or showmanship or presence. But, he has multi-colored hair.

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by molson

That pre-fight package was kind of cringey. He sounded like an awkward teenager fantasizing about being an A-list celebrity and being "bigger than Conner". But with zero charisma or showmanship or presence. But, he has multi-colored hair.

He just casually tossed Ali and Jordan in there too! I had practically the same reaction and ironically I imagine dude actually lost a significant amount of fans by mischaracterizing himself & his appeal.

...and yeah, dudes ranked 14th and 15th shouldn't be co-headlining a pay-per view.

[PilotMan]

Getting caught up on my Bellator DVR and omg, I saw the saddest thing I have ever seen in MMA, and that included that Kimbo Slice/Dadda 5000 fight.

Bellator 245 video: Raymond Daniels lands one of the worst low blows ever, leaves Peter Stanonik crying - MMAmania.com

The first one was pretty awful. Dude took the full 5 minutes, but the second one, not even 30 seconds later.......it was the worst one ever. No kidding. Ever. It's hard to watch a grown man, all alone in a quiet cage, just sobbing and crying as everyone watches in stunned silence.

He was carried off on a stretcher.

[BYU 14]

Oh fuck, that was cringey.

Among the worst feelings I have ever felt was taking a foul ball in the nuts when I was bright enough to be playing catcher without a cup. I was crying too.....after I was able to breath again.

[molson]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

Oh fuck, that was cringey.

Among the worst feelings I have ever felt was taking a foul ball in the nuts when I was bright enough to be playing catcher without a cup. I was crying too.....after I was able to breath again.

I haven't seen what you're talking about today, but there was a Bellator fight over the weekend where one guy kicked a guy directly in the balls twice within about a minute, he couldn't continue, and it's a no context.

Edit: Ah, I see it's the one Pilotman linked.

To me its the most ridiculous thing about MMA. Why can't part of the sport be be fighting within the rules? As in, that being a desirable and rewarded thing to do? We don't worry about intent in most fouls in most other sports for a reason. The announcers and ref are always so fast to jump in and yell that the ball shot was unintentional (like every eye poke), but, how would they even know? An intentional ball shot or eye poke would look exactly the same as one that isn't. Why not just penalize both, perhaps with an enhanced penalty/immediate DQ in the million-in-one fight where you have a Roddy Piper-esque blatantly intentional foul (which I don't think I've actually ever seen in MMA).

So those two guys in Bellator will fight again I guess, stalling their careers, having to have a whole new camp and all that expense - and the two guys are in exactly the same position as they were before - despite the fact that one was skilled enough to fight within the rules of MMA, and the other was demonstrably not. Should have been a DQ.

Sidenote, I heard Bill Simmons say that MMA is the best sport without fans, and that is definitely true. Even though it's a little more unsettling now. You hear all the pain and agony and thrill of victory and everything else.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by molson

I haven't seen what you're talking about today, but there was a Bellator fight over the weekend where one guy kicked a guy directly in the balls twice within about a minute, he couldn't continue, and it's a no context.

Edit: Ah, I see it's the one Pilotman linked.

To me its the most ridiculous thing about MMA. Why can't part of the sport be be fighting within the rules? As in, that being a desirable and rewarded thing to do? We don't worry about intent in most fouls in most other sports for a reason. The announcers and ref are always so fast to jump in and yell that the ball shot was unintentional (like every eye poke), but, how would they even know? An intentional ball shot or eye poke would look exactly the same as one that isn't. Why not just penalize both, perhaps with an enhanced penalty/immediate DQ in the million-in-one fight where you have a Roddy Piper-esque blatantly intentional foul (which I don't think I've actually ever seen in MMA).

So those two guys in Bellator will fight again I guess, stalling their careers, having to have a whole new camp and all that expense - and the two guys are in exactly the same position as they were before - despite the fact that one was skilled enough to fight within the rules of MMA, and the other was demonstrably not. Should have been a DQ.

Sidenote, I heard Bill Simmons say that MMA is the best sport without fans, and that is definitely true. Even though it's a little more unsettling now. You hear all the pain and agony and thrill of victory and everything else.

If you would have listened to this guys sobbing, as an empathic person, I was like "someone go get his momma He NEEDS his MOMMA RIGHT NOW!"

[molson]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

If you would have listened to this guys sobbing, as an empathic person, I was like "someone go get his momma He NEEDS his MOMMA RIGHT NOW!"

Poor guy deserved the win money. AND his Momma.

[bhlloy]

Dear Lord... Adesanya just took Costa apart. The guy who was supposed to be the most dangerous striker in the UFC and he didn't even get close to touching him. I'm trying to think the last time we saw that kind of dominant in what was supposed to be close to a toss up title fight...

Great secondary title fight as well. Feel really sorry for Reyes, but he feels like the kind of guy who will be just short of good enough to win a title his whole career.

[Edward64]

I wish they would go back to the early days where there was no weight limits and multiple fights & rounds until there is a winner. Things have obviously changed since the Gracie days and there's a lot more money now.

MMA as a "martial art" will likely dominate (especially against those with a weak ground game) but it would be cool to see other martial arts compete close-to-no-holds-barred against each other like back in the early 90s.

[PilotMan]

So I'm kind of excited about today's matchup. I really think that Gaethje has a legit chance to finish Kahbib. So I look at the other fights on the card to see what will make this fight worth the $65 if I want to buy it. I know we've discussed before that the UFC just doesn't put great money cards together anymore. This one is more of the same. Its got a great top heavy fight, the co-main (Whitaker v. Cannonier) is a solid undercard fight, the feature bout (Volkov v. Harris) would be a good opener fight, but that's is. The other main card fights are nothing more than prelim fights. There's simply not enough to make it worth it. I really miss the cards from like 10-12 years ago.

[dubb93]

I’m not saying Khabib is going to lose as he has earned his rep as one of the very best in UFC, but he looked absolutely terrible at weigh in. He had to strip down all the way and needed to grab onto the guys holding his towel to even step up into the scale. Dude looked absolutely horrible. He also probably didn’t even make weight if you listen to the people covering the weigh in.

[PilotMan]

Yep, I saw that. Some controversy over whether the official said he was good before the scale was fully balanced. Clearly one of the best all time. Absolutely, but it's hard to stay on top too. He's got some great skills, but he has looked fallible at times. Gaethje is a wreaking machine, and his stature being smaller and undoubtedly physical, he isn't a tall, lanky fighter, he just presents some unique challenges that Khabib might have a more difficult time with. His power is off the charts, and he'll need all of it in order to win.

[Edward64]

I check out the Fight Commentary Breakdowns once in a while. Some different styles going at it, definitely a MMA slant but sometimes non-MMA also.

Fight Commentary Breakdowns - YouTube

[bhlloy]

Ok, I was excited about this PPV until I realized it was early afternoon. I assume that’s to show it at a decent time in Russia but yeah... that seems a counterproductive decision from the UFC. Am I missing something?

[dubb93]

It’s probably at a reasonable time in Abu Dhabi where I believe it is taking place.

[bhlloy]

The others at fight island have been US time though, and I don’t think there are fans still? Considering the vast majority of fighters are flying in from the US I’m not sure that’s the reason.

[JonInMiddleGA]

From a Yahoo article

The reasons are two-fold, according to UFC COO Lawrence Epstein. First, UFC was hoping to host a select number of fans at the event, which won’t end up happening. Second, and more importantly, UFC is satisfying its local broadcast partners in Europe, Asia and North Africa, which would obviously prefer to have a fight of this magnitude start in their evening, as opposed to the middle of the night.

Basically they needed to throw a bone to the other global time zones. It's expected to cost them roughly 1/3rd of their usual PPV take so keeping 'em happy ain't cheap.

[bhlloy]

Thanks Jon. And yeah I’m surprised it’s only 1/3rd although if they are making it up elsewhere globally it makes sense. I have zero interest in watching a PPV UFC card at 1pm in the afternoon, and I don’t have other commitments, just not how I want to watch.

[thesloppy]

As a West Coaster, I actually prefer this to the usual 9pm (Eastern) start.

[PilotMan]

All I'm gonna say about that is that the man is a sublime fighter.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Thanks Jon. And yeah I’m surprised it’s only 1/3rd although if they are making it up elsewhere globally it makes sense. I have zero interest in watching a PPV UFC card at 1pm in the afternoon, and I don’t have other commitments, just not how I want to watch.

I think the math is that it's because their numbers have been up so much.

(around 700k buys instead of a more recently normal 500k). The article had an estimate that they might top out around 500k this afternoon because there was some previous card that was run at an off time and it managed to do that. Or that was the gist of it.

I think the attitude is one of "consider this card a loss leader, one for the bigger picture"

[cartman]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

All I'm gonna say about that is that the man is a sublime fighter.

Nurmagomedov is incredible. Gaethje knew that the takedown was coming, and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it.

[molson]

I don't believe most MMA retirements, but Khabib saying he promised his mother that he would honor his late father by making this his last fight has more credibility than most retirement announcements.

Still....I think we'll see him fighting again.

[PilotMan]

Hey, with enough money, even GSP came back. I'll be more impressed if he stays retired.

[spleen1015]

Can there be a bigger promise than one you make to your mother? I don't think he comes back.

[molson]

I'm sure Khabib is fully loyal to his mother, but, I don't think he necessarily has to be 100% honest to us (and especially Dana White) about his promises to his mother.

He was talking 3-4 days ago about fighting GSP next, and how it was his father's dream that he have that fight. That seems to be a pretty common tactic with the top guys who are set for life and use retirement as a sincere and legitimate leverage - hype up a fight, retire immediately after your next fight, keep promoting fight possibilities on social media.

I wouldn't be surprised if he stayed out, but, I also wouldn't be surprised if he starts talking about GSP again in the next few weeks.

[PilotMan]

Why would GSP take that fight? He is clearly past his prime, and he fought at 185 last, which he said he wouldn't do anymore, but George surely isn't anything like the George of old, not even where he was for Bisping. That was THREE years ago.

[molson]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Why would GSP take that fight? He is clearly past his prime, and he fought at 185 last, which he said he wouldn't do anymore, but George surely isn't anything like the George of old, not even where he was for Bisping. That was THREE years ago.

I don't understand the GSP stuff at all, but he's never shut it down. There were reports he wanted it last year but UFC wanted to go in other directions.

Even after last night, GSP is still talking about that fight maybe happening.

GSP on Khabib fight: ‘If he wants it, our managers will talk’ - MMAmania.com

Maybe he just likes the attention. There's been SO many rumored fights for this guy over the years, and he came back one time - a hand-picked relatively safe fight that he'd be the big favorite in.

Edit: I think maybe they'd like to do it outside the UFC as their own thing. Khabib has something specific in his contract about a GSP fight, so maybe there's wiggle room if the UFC won't make that fight if they don't think it's worth the $20 million or whatever it would cost to put together.

[molson]

Jake Hager is no Brock Lesnar. If he can't immediately overpower say, an auto mechanic moonlighting as a fighter, he really struggles.