We are livee! entertaining first fight so far.
The MMA thread
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Weidman gets a win after what feels like years.
Harsh, but agree with Weidman. You can’t go to ground after an eye poke. You have to let the ref stop the fight after each poke.
Great performance from Manon. The striking was a class above and nullified the grappling completely.
Blanchfield really needs to work on her striking, it's so bad.
Congrats to Fiorot. Wonder if she's happy to sit for a year for a title shot. Wouldn't mind a Rose rematch to be honest over 5 rounds.
Congrats to Fiorot. Wonder if she's happy to sit for a year for a title shot. Wouldn't mind a Rose rematch to be honest over 5 rounds.
Have the French always produced decent mixed martial artists? They seem to have quite a few good fighters at the moment
We’ll have to rethink the old “cheese-eating surrender monkeys” line
We’ll have to rethink the old “cheese-eating surrender monkeys” line
Yeah was really stiff and choreographed. She kept spamming the one two and finish with a kick. Still a fan of hers but plenty to work on.
Ronda Rousey said a couple things about her losses.
Basically she was concussed before the Holly Holm fight and the weight cut was terrible aswell.
She felt the fans turned on her. The MMA media didn't help her. And she thinks she's the greatest fighter that ever lived.
Just curious in regards to your thoughts on this.
Basically she was concussed before the Holly Holm fight and the weight cut was terrible aswell.
She felt the fans turned on her. The MMA media didn't help her. And she thinks she's the greatest fighter that ever lived.
Just curious in regards to your thoughts on this.
I think she meant after the fight. She's probably still concussed.
Certainly up there especially when you consider what she did for the sport, I do somewhat agree that the fanbase turned on her instantly and meme'd her when she'd done a lot for women's MMA in particular being a pioneer of sorts and opening up the pathway for others, but she also sort of brought that on herself with her aggressive personality.
Brilliant at what she specialized in but simply far too limited on the feet to have ever, ever beaten a peak Nunes.
Is by all accounts an awful person to be around and this interview doesn’t convince me otherwise
She still appeared concussed from the Holly Holm fight when she faced Nunes.
I wonder how many of her followers before the loss were actually fans ? Maybe some just followed for entertainment sake.
No doubt she was a giant star even outside of MMA but perhaps some were just waiting to see the winner losing.
Think she definitely was up there in the GOAT conversation before these losses but given the limited quality in the division it's hard to tell how great she truly is.
How would she have done against Cyborg, Valentina, Alexa Grasso, we'll never know. Beating Tate twice the way she did, definitely impressive.
No doubt she was a giant star even outside of MMA but perhaps some were just waiting to see the winner losing.
Think she definitely was up there in the GOAT conversation before these losses but given the limited quality in the division it's hard to tell how great she truly is.
How would she have done against Cyborg, Valentina, Alexa Grasso, we'll never know. Beating Tate twice the way she did, definitely impressive.
Most of the best fighters have a certain arrogance, over-confidence about them. They need that to perform at their very best.
Surely she felt alot of pressure from a young age to be perfect.
She was an early pioneer who has probably the best judo the sport has seen, period. But that's where it ends; she was a perfect ambassador for a raw, fledgling basically semi-pro level female circuit, but extrapolated, to the names you mentioned, it's lucky for her she got out when she did.
Her stand up wasn't only bad, it was dangerous for her health against proper strikers and without the wrestling to at least keep her body low and her chin tucked, she would have been primed for KO's as devastating and dangerous as that which made her quit.
Sure I can see that. It's just that the way she was winning her fights in twenty seconds and all of it by armbar plus the media treating her like a once in a lifetime athlete...
It was shocking seeing her lose as I thought she was in the middle of a Anderson Silva-like type of title run.
At the same time, it was clear her stand-up needed alot of work and Holm just had the perfect skills to take advantage of it.
Still women's mma haven't seen a star as big as her. Wonder if that day will come. It's so rare to appear a new Ronda or Mcgregor these days.
The moment she thought she was dangerous with striking - and whoever had gassed her head up to give her ideas way above her station about that - was the moment it became unsafe for her in there against anyone with good to great standup. Rousey also had no real idea what it was like to get hit and be in a war, so she would shoot her body and head up into even more vulnerable, wide open positions which were primed for her to get really, really hurt if any of the striking monsters had their time in there with her.
Her judo really is exceptional and nobody can take that away from her, but compare that to an exceptional martial artist like Valentina, as an example, and there is a chasm between them, a really dangerous one for Rousey because she literally has no idea what to do or what she's being set up for.
I'm glad she quit when she did because women's MMA took leaps that she wasn't equipped to deal with and it would've ended up with her really badly slumped on more than one occasion if she had persisted. Also, once Rousey felt what it was like to get duffed up, she didn't want any part of it anyway. Compare to someone like Makenzie Dern who is also a grappler with terrible standup, but has more heart than is probably good for her, and again there's a massive different in constitution - the lionesses that came up after her had far more heart, far more appetite for combat and were in another stratosphere where full-on MMA was concerned.
Agree about Dern. If she could make her stand-up just barely effective offensively, she would be a difficult matchup for the division in general.
Toughness is something that some fighters just have more than others I guess. Jon Jones, Tony Ferguson and Marlon Vera are probably the toughest fighters i've ever seen. (That's not always a good thing if there's a big skill decline...)
On the female side, though she isn't active anymore, Joanna was incredibly tough and had the skills to match it, maybe that first Zhang Weilli fight took it out of her...
On another note, why isn't Valentina a bigger star ?
She has been one of the great champions of the sport, even appeared in one or two interesting movies (Thinking that one with Halle berry), she travels all over the world and seems to be a good role model.
I thought maybe because her fights can be boring sometimes, given the gap in skill to most of the competition and her risk-averse style and she also doens't have a brash personality on the mic, but Fedor was also quite quiet and was still a massive star for example. Chuck Liddel aswell. They were KO artists, sure, but just wondering why someone like Shevchenko has not really filled that Ronda spot in star power.
She has been one of the great champions of the sport, even appeared in one or two interesting movies (Thinking that one with Halle berry), she travels all over the world and seems to be a good role model.
I thought maybe because her fights can be boring sometimes, given the gap in skill to most of the competition and her risk-averse style and she also doens't have a brash personality on the mic, but Fedor was also quite quiet and was still a massive star for example. Chuck Liddel aswell. They were KO artists, sure, but just wondering why someone like Shevchenko has not really filled that Ronda spot in star power.
she could make an argument for being the most influential female fighter (so far). But best is laughable. The best retired her
Tarverdyan
Fedor, Chuck etc were before McGregor's time. He's set a new benchmark and it's a huge shadow.
So if we were to guess what the next big star will look like...
- Needs to have exceptional ability either KO artist or incredibly skilled striker.
- Really good on the mic, probably as a heel.
- Either top contender or champion for an extended period of time
- Big social media activity
- Either undefeated fighter or if he/she were to lose, have a big rematch/trilogy...
It's so hard to put all of these together. If O'malley was better on the mic maybe he could be that star.
Problem is that most (not all) of these things just point to a McGregor wannabe (or Clubber Lang
), which makes me believe that it will be a McGregor clone who is also a dominant champ, where people tune in by the bucket loads to watch him/her lose. Sean O'Malley seems the closest but I don't think he has the wide appeal that McGregor had. Or it will be something entirely new that captures the imagination, although I have no idea what that is.I think a key factor will also be where the fighter comes from. Americans love UFC so they will jump on board and if the fighter is from another nation, it gets them mainstream appeal across waters. That was a huge part in McGregor's pull. He became big in USA, Ireland and a lot of Europe too.
Ngannou could have been the guy. Has the look, the underdog story, frightening in the cage etc. Him vs. Bones would have been huge and the winner of that would have become immortal. Shame Dana fecked that right up.
Problem is that most (not all) of these things just point to a McGregor wannabe (or Clubber Lang
I think a key factor will also be where the fighter comes from. Americans love UFC so they will jump on board and if the fighter is from another nation, it gets them mainstream appeal across waters. That was a huge part in McGregor's pull. He became big in USA, Ireland and a lot of Europe too.
Ngannou could have been the guy. Has the look, the underdog story, frightening in the cage etc. Him vs. Bones would have been huge and the winner of that would have become immortal. Shame Dana fecked that right up.
Maybe Ian Machado Garry... he's irish got good striking is young and brash so you never know...
Yeah Ngannou X Bones is the one that got away... maybe if Jon beats Stipe he can try to convince the UFC to let him fight Francis in boxing....lol.
That reminds me of Tom Aspinalll... maybe he will become bigger than we can foresee right now.
You've missed out probably the most important one as far as global appeal goes - massive charisma and/or presence. It's not just MMA: cite boxing, Muay Thai, kick-boxing and the superstars follow the same template, in fact, McGregor is just a bastardised version of some of the great boxing showmen.
All avenues/lanes have been done there and are carryovers in MMA from the silent, brooding killer, to the mouthy, skilled types and everything in between.
Another big part of legacy and superstar appeal is who your rivals are as they write the story alongside the star. Aldo is just as much part of McGregor's story as he is, for example, so too Khabib and even Pourier as well as Diaz - these fighters also bring their percentage of fans and eyes to the fight and build the hype, and irrespective of outcome, the showtime event is just waiting to be played out.
Very few in combat setting carry superstardom solely by themselves. Tyson and Anderson Silva fit that category as fighters it didn't matter who they were up against as all people wanted to see was them do their thing. Tyson was at his career apex in the mid 80's, before he even had his fights against the legends of the 90's, and Silva was a walking highlight reel even for knocking out relative nobodies, but such people are the rarest of all. N'Gannou might have got there, but I'm not sure.
I’d love it to be Tom, but he doesn’t have the ‘bad guy’ appeal. He seems a genuinely nice and humble bloke, his interview after knocking out Pavlovich was amazing, he was asked something like how did you feel in the cage, and he said “more scared than I’ve ever been”
Which is beautiful to me but probably not suitable for being that megastar
Garry hasn't got KO power and fights too cautiously.
Also most people hate him and find him extremely cringe (which he is).
To be a star you have to divide the fanbase at a minimum IMO and have at least a section of core fans rooting for you, not just have 99% of people think you're a joke.
You're right. Some are good trash talkers but don't really have that appeal to people. It's hard to be a heel and be likeable...Bisping was so hated before people started loving him.
Definitely the rivals matter, Jones has not always been a huge draw but with Cormier and maybe Gustafsson the numbers have gone up.
It was noted above how the nationality of the fighter can matter too... GSP carried Canada into MMA map just as Mcgregor did with Ireland...
When you put together that he was Canada's posterboy, very likeable as a person and pretty much undefeated through his career if you exclude the early losses, I can see the formula there...
Silva was so big in Brazil during 2011-13... the KO of Belfort first made him really known to the general public over here, then he had a fantastic performance against Okami, the peak of the Sonnen rivarly...
He was even signed to Ronaldo's phenom talent agency for a brief while if i recall correctly and was Burger King's posterboy in Brazil aswelll...
By the time the first Weidman fight came along, there was talk of him potentially fighting Jon Jones and being the Pelé of MMA...
I wasn't around during Tyson's peak but the numbers for the Brian Nielsen fight and the Lennox one were really good still, no ? even looking at the hype for the Jake Paul fight, no matter his age, Mike just walks into the star spot.
I’d love it to be Tom, but he doesn’t have the ‘bad guy’ appeal. He seems a genuinely nice and humble bloke, his interview after knocking out Pavlovich was amazing, he was asked something like how did you feel in the cage, and he said “more scared than I’ve ever been”
Which is beautiful to me but probably not suitable for being that megastar
Well, he is english, and a heavyweight. If he can stay winning for a long time, has the right rivals and tries to be entertaining even if not a heel, I can see the star potential there.
Probably not a good idea to fight Jon Jones because people's careers are never the same after losing to him. Maybe Tom is ''the special one'' but let's get that Stipe fight out of the way ASAP and hope Tom doesn't lose in between haha.
Khamzat would be a better example then ?
He can be a legit star. If his English keeps improving, then the world is his oyster.
Great ambassador for the sport.
He is a despicable little shit. And it’s weird as when he was an active fighter in strikeforce and UFC ( albeit he failed bad when he moved over) he always appears to be quite soft spoken and almost meek if anythingGreat ambassador for the sport.
Great ambassador for the sport.
A piece of shit. Blocked him eons ago.
ps. Fights starting in 20 minutes!
https://www.mmafighting.com/2024/4/...ng-drug-testing-agent-threatening-to-kill-her
Never a dull day with the junkie.
Never a dull day with the junkie.
Where’s the good fights here? Over the next 2 hours anyway
I’ve got Leinster vs Leicester and Catalan vs Saints. Got to be selective!
First fight of the night is Nora Cornolle! Wouldn't miss!
3 fights in, 3 quality finishes.