The MMA thread

George Owen said:
We are live!

Decent card to end the year.

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Not watched anything the last couple months, but just checked into the ufc website.
My first thought was "wow, Jones have actually had a fight!" - and then the second was about how Colby can still be the main event.... when was his last win? I can only remember losses.
Oh and Mitchell won a fight, that's a bit fun since he was sent into coma the last time - bet his interview was very intelligent and thought through.
 


Can this guy feck off already? "The rumours about Topuria are false" as if McGregor has any business being in the octagon with him right now.
 
RobinLFC said:


Can this guy feck off already? "The rumours about Topuria are false" as if McGregor has any business being in the octagon with him right now.
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In fairness Topuria definitely would have taken it, easy win and probably make more money than he's made in his entire career combined.

311 will be a great card.
 
tomaldinho1 said:
In fairness Topuria definitely would have taken it, easy win and probably make more money than he's made in his entire career combined.

311 will be a great card.
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Convincing comment imo, but indeed if it would materialize, I think he might consider it since it would be a huge purse (and easy win).
 
Is anyone a bit...bored by MMA these days?

Everyone at the top nowdays are practical replicas. Technically sound, orthodox, all round great fighters, excellent wrestlers and strikers with no holes in their game and therefore many of the top level fights are incredibly boring.

The only questions are

"Can someone blast double Alex P before they get KO'd"

and

"Can Aspinall K0 Jones"

I miss the days of El-cucuy (Looks like he's getting battered before finishing his opponent), Mcgregor (his striking countered by his TDD), Israel (can a top level wrestler smash him), your explosive wildmen like Romero, your BJJ specialists like Werdum and Jacare. Your emotionally underdeveloped stand and bangers like Cody Garbrandt.

There just isn't the same...Romance to it.
 
AfonsoAlves said:
Is anyone a bit...bored by MMA these days?

Everyone at the top nowdays are practical replicas. Technically sound, orthodox, all round great fighters, excellent wrestlers and strikers with no holes in their game and therefore many of the top level fights are incredibly boring.

The only questions are

"Can someone blast double Alex P before they get KO'd"

and

"Can Aspinall K0 Jones"

I miss the days of El-cucuy (Looks like he's getting battered before finishing his opponent), Mcgregor (his striking countered by his TDD), Israel (can a top level wrestler smash him), your explosive wildmen like Romero, your BJJ specialists like Werdum and Jacare. Your emotionally underdeveloped stand and bangers like Cody Garbrandt.

There just isn't the same...Romance to it.
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Agree with you completely. Still love watching but yeah, not as great as it was with prime McGregor, Khabib, El Cucuy etc.

I also feel like a lot of cards are either filled with filler fights or a bunch of uninteresting fights with a half decent co-main and good main event.

I would rather they did less cards and stacked the PPVs more.
 
RobinLFC said:


Convincing comment imo, but indeed if it would materialize, I think he might consider it since it would be a huge purse (and easy win).
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I think he posted after McGregor which is telling, more reactive. If he was first then yes.

@AfonsoAlves same as with all sports as more money enters, Dana clearly is trying to keep it exciting but the wrestling heavy guys (who also are generally the most boring fighters) are becoming worryingly dominant. Before the UFC needed the wild personalities to sell the brand and grow the sport but they don't really need them as much now, it's all a bit more professional and less exciting. Though, when I think of the personalities who have been the poster boys for that period and made the most money, McGregor and Bones, maybe it is for the best given their backgrounds.
 
tomaldinho1 said:
I think he posted after McGregor which is telling, more reactive. If he was first then yes.

@AfonsoAlves same as with all sports as more money enters, Dana clearly is trying to keep it exciting but the wrestling heavy guys (who also are generally the most boring fighters) are becoming worryingly dominant. Before the UFC needed the wild personalities to sell the brand and grow the sport but they don't really need them as much now, it's all a bit more professional and less exciting. Though, when I think of the personalities who have been the poster boys for that period and made the most money, McGregor and Bones, maybe it is for the best given their backgrounds.
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It's not the wild personalities that sell it, it's the fighting styles.

Nobody knew jack shit about Shogun Rua - the man showed up, fought, and then went back to Brazil and nobody in the media really knew anything about him there.

What did anyone know about Jacare Sousa? Or Werdum other than the troll-face? What did we know about the likes of Ricardo Lamas, or Clay Guida, or Diego Sanchez (funnily enough his increase in "personality" directly correlates with his decrease in fighting abilities). Machida was just this mysterious karate dude who had some amazing finishes.

I don't think there's a single fighter as exciting as Diego Sanchez, Clay Guida anymore.
 
AfonsoAlves said:
Is anyone a bit...bored by MMA these days?

Everyone at the top nowdays are practical replicas. Technically sound, orthodox, all round great fighters, excellent wrestlers and strikers with no holes in their game and therefore many of the top level fights are incredibly boring.

The only questions are

"Can someone blast double Alex P before they get KO'd"

and

"Can Aspinall K0 Jones"

I miss the days of El-cucuy (Looks like he's getting battered before finishing his opponent), Mcgregor (his striking countered by his TDD), Israel (can a top level wrestler smash him), your explosive wildmen like Romero, your BJJ specialists like Werdum and Jacare. Your emotionally underdeveloped stand and bangers like Cody Garbrandt.

There just isn't the same...Romance to it.
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Sounds like standard sporting nostalgia. I think everyone gets jaded with any sport after a while. I definitely find football less interesting than it used to be and I found MMA started getting boring for me before a lot of those names you mentioned were headliners. I found it way more interesting when the likes of Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture, Tito Ortiz and BJ Penn were still fighting.
 
AfonsoAlves said:
It's not the wild personalities that sell it, it's the fighting styles.

Nobody knew jack shit about Shogun Rua - the man showed up, fought, and then went back to Brazil and nobody in the media really knew anything about him there.

What did anyone know about Jacare Sousa? Or Werdum other than the troll-face? What did we know about the likes of Ricardo Lamas, or Clay Guida, or Diego Sanchez (funnily enough his increase in "personality" directly correlates with his decrease in fighting abilities). Machida was just this mysterious karate dude who had some amazing finishes.

I don't think there's a single fighter as exciting as Diego Sanchez, Clay Guida anymore.
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Seems like a bit of a contradiction - viewing figures for the time you are referring to would be paltry, how did the UFC not need the personalities to sell?. You couldn't find more entertaining fighting styles across the divisions than early days UFC but it really wasn't that popular. Also the poster mentioned much more recent names than those above.
 
Thoughts on this new MMA promotion that has been signing former UFC champions/fighters all over the place ?

Even Paige VanZant has signed for them.
 
Luke1995 said:
Thoughts on this new MMA promotion that has been signing former UFC champions/fighters all over the place ?

Even Paige VanZant has signed for them.
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A lot of big, albeit older names, will be interesting. I do think Dana's matchmaking leaves the door open for another organisation to rise up with the USP of simply having fighters forced to fight their No1 contender. They should break bank to get Ngannou and then try and get Apsinall to defect for a true super fight which would basically kill the UFC's HW division.
 
tomaldinho1 said:
A lot of big, albeit older names, will be interesting. I do think Dana's matchmaking leaves the door open for another organisation to rise up with the USP of simply having fighters forced to fight their No1 contender. They should break bank to get Ngannou and then try and get Apsinall to defect for a true super fight which would basically kill the UFC's HW division.
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I do wonder about the sustainability of the promotion though.

If it doesn't end up being acquired by the UFC (Pride, Strikeforce) then it either spends years as a B-league (Bellator) which could even end up being acquired by another one throwing big money (PFL)

Or, it just throws alot of money into these fighters and ends up without the ability to actually pay some of them.

It looks like MMA is not a good bussiness to have many big names under the same place.
 
It's unlikely they would be able to sign Aspinall though, the UFC doesn't typically allow top contenders to leave.

They could in theory sign someone like Phil de Fries. As it stands, I guess they can always make Ngannou X Bader.
 
Fortitude said:
Jones wants $30m to fight Aspinall.
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Depends if he means payout or payout plus points. Lesnar currently has the highest ever payout at 8m, but that of course doesn't factor in how many back end PPV points he negotiated into his contract. If Jones wants a $5-10m payout and the rest through points, then that wouldn't be so unreasonable.
 
Raoul said:
Depends if he means payout or payout plus points. Lesnar currently has the highest ever payout at 8m, but that of course doesn't factor in how many back end PPV points he negotiated into his contract. If Jones wants a $5-10m payout and the rest through points, then that wouldn't be so unreasonable.
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Do you think it will happen?
 
Fortitude said:
Jones wants $30m to fight Aspinall.
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For me, not happening. Jones don't want that smoke and Dana neither. Jones losing (and brutally at it) is probably a biggest loss than several hundred millions to the UFC and Jones himself.

Just like with Ngannou, Jones is pricing himself out to save face for ducking.
 
Fortitude said:
Do you think it will happen?
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Probably not, unless Dana and the UFC execs decide there's something in for them as well. In ordinary terms, Jones fighting the #1 contender would make all the sense in the world. But as Jones is now 37 and probably looking at what could potentially be his final fight, he will want to squeeze as much money out of the UFC as possible.
 
George Owen said:
For me, not happening. Jones don't want that smoke and Dana neither. Jones losing (and brutally at it) is probably a biggest loss than several hundred millions to the UFC and Jones himself.

Just like with Ngannou, Jones is pricing himself out to save face for ducking.
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Feels like it’s a ‘even if this ends disastrously, I walk off into the sun rich and fancy free’ good point about the UFC perspective, but then I guess they’d try and make a superstar out of Aspinall. They really need contingency anyway, given Jones’ age.
Raoul said:
Probably not, unless Dana and the UFC execs decide there's something in for them as well. In ordinary terms, Jones fighting the #1 contender would make all the sense in the world. But as Jones is now 37 and probably looking at what could potentially be his final fight, he will want to squeeze as much money out of the UFC as possible.
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Is Aspinall a big enough deal in the US to push heavy PPV numbers?
 
Fortitude said:
Feels like it’s a ‘even if this ends disastrously, I walk off into the sun rich and fancy free’ good point about the UFC perspective, but then I guess they’d try and make a superstar out of Aspinall. They really need contingency anyway, given Jones’ age.

Is Aspinall a big enough deal in the US to push heavy PPV numbers?
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It would be Jones who does the heavy lifting on PPV numbers, but in terms of an opponent, Aspinall probably wouldn't be a giant draw, mainly because he's a non-controversial nice guy - much as Rob Whitaker has been over the years. Its harder to draw audiences being that guy, as opposed to if he were a controversial dickhead.
 
My friend that trains BJJ with some UFC fighters in Miami, told me that Mackensie Dern is looking like shit as of late, being finished by blue belts at her gym (Atos).

Not looking good for her rematch vs Rivas, but i hope she wins because that walk out by Rivas was cringey as feck.
 
George Owen said:
My friend that trains BJJ with some UFC fighters in Miami, told me that Mackensie Dern is looking like shit as of late, being finished by blue belts at her gym (Atos).

Not looking good for her rematch vs Rivas, but i hope she wins because that walk out by Rivas was cringey as feck.
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That is no surprise whatsoever given it's Atos.

Atos is notorious for sandbagging blue belts, to a point where half a decade ago they were winning all the lower belt competitions across the world. Many of the Top end Atos Blue Belts could win Purple/Brown belt absolute category comps in regionals or like Naga Qualifiers/ADCC qualifiers.

Friend of mine who was a Purple Belt at Roger Gracie Academy under Cristinel Tilvar went to the USA and got absolutely demolished by the Atos Blues.

There are even memes on BJJ subreddit about Atos blue belts:





You have people like Jared Wade who wins Blue Belt IBJJF tournaments for fun and then is very competitive on absolute no-gi national competitions. It's just pretty bad sandbagging :lol:
 
AfonsoAlves said:
That is no surprise whatsoever given it's Atos.

Atos is notorious for sandbagging blue belts, to a point where half a decade ago they were winning all the lower belt competitions across the world. Many of the Top end Atos Blue Belts could win Purple/Brown belt absolute category comps in regionals or like Naga Qualifiers/ADCC qualifiers.

Friend of mine who was a Purple Belt at Roger Gracie Academy under Cristinel Tilvar went to the USA and got absolutely demolished by the Atos Blues.

There are even memes on BJJ subreddit about Atos blue belts:





You have people like Jared Wade who wins Blue Belt IBJJF tournaments for fun and then is very competitive on absolute no-gi national competitions. It's just pretty bad sandbagging :lol:
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Fair enough then :lol:

The humbling experience must been helpful for her because she went back to her roots and put a Bjj masterclass last night.

She spoke before the fight about coming with a different kind of confidence this time around.
 
George Owen said:
Fair enough then :lol:

The humbling experience must been helpful for her because she went back to her roots and put a Bjj masterclass last night.

She spoke before the fight about coming with a different kind of confidence this time around.
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There are some women BJJ black belts out there though who are pretty meh.

For example, I tapped out Kyra Gracie in an open mat once, and I was a intermediate blue belt at the time with around 5 years experience, without full time training capability as I was being sent on deployment all over. Granted, she tapped me about 6 times - but I should not even come close to tapping a legit black belt.
 
Reckon Islam will have a bit too much for Arman again, they've both improved since that first fight but I think Islam can look to his stand up more now and wouldn't be surprised if we see a KO. Merab and Umar is one I don't know how to call, Merab is so relentless with those takedowns and pressure that I'm interested to see how Umar and his team game plan this one, will he try and impose his own wrestling on Merab or just stuff as many takedowns as possible and then separate in the hope he can catch him as he pressures again. Nice test for Talbot in the prelims too, he's looked imperious so far and Barcelos is a good step up. Lots of good fights though.
 
Looks like Tsarukyan is out, replaced by Moicano.
 
2cents said:
Looks like Tsarukyan is out, replaced by Moicano.
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Shame. Moicano would have been a decent last minute replacement if he'd pulled out a week ago as he would have rocked the mic at the presser and created some hype, but missing that element - it's not a great fight let's be honest.

Not much the UFC could do with a days notice and at least we still have a title fight, but Islam should smash him.

Strange that Arman has a back injury the day before the fight though...
 
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