The MMA thread

Possible contender for card of the year I thought

Unusual to see tap out from strikes and I'm not sure it was a wise move to put branch in with rockhold. Branch was unconvincing in his first fight back and he came in with a decent amount of hype. May have been better to build him up a bit more.
 
Raoul said:
I think Ronda would do well to come back again, this time with a brand new coaching team. The talent is still there.
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Yeah it definitely is. It's a shame she wasted so much time of her career training under that fraud Edmond. She could've been a much better fighter.
 
How does Andrade and Gahdelia end up on a fight night? Japan I guess will be a big show but that should be a hell of a fight. 2 best females in the division after Joanna.
 
Raoul said:
I think Ronda would do well to come back again, this time with a brand new coaching team. The talent is still there.
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Maybe but that division right now the striking level has gone up so much since she took on Nunes and she has always reacted badly when punched even in her early dominating days. She just stiffens up, chin goes up, and she just looks panicked. It's like she has never taken a punch before.
Edmund filled her head full of rubbish and she believed him. Is Browne still with him or did he leave?

I think it best that really she just calls it a day unless she can get to 125 but even then there will be killers in that weightclass.
 
Randall Flagg said:
I have no doubt they already regret it deeply

Huge loss
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I didn't actually realize how many prominent UFC fighters are now in Bellator. Its quite a few now.

- Check Kongo
- Matt Mitrione
- Ryan Bader
- Gegard Moussasi
- Rory MacDonald
- Lorenz Larkin
- Benson Henderson

(I'm probably forgetting a few more)
 
Raoul said:
I didn't actually realize how many prominent UFC fighters are now in Bellator. Its quite a few now.

- Check Kongo
- Matt Mitrione
- Ryan Bader
- Gegard Moussasi
- Rory MacDonald
- Lorenz Larkin
- Benson Henderson

(I'm probably forgetting a few more)
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Kongo was a long time ago and wasnt a great loss. All the rest in that list would either be top contenders or at least mid card

A few others that I think would have been released sooner if not for Bellator snapping them all up, like Roy Nelson, Josh Koscheck, Josh Thompson and more. But these are no great loss. UFC I think held onto some of them longer than they normally would have though because of Bellator.

Cant blame the fighters, but for me personally I feel like I lose out so I much prefer to see it not happen.
 
Randall Flagg said:
Kongo was a long time ago and wasnt a great loss. All the rest in that list would either be top contenders or at least mid card

A few others that I think would have been released sooner if not for Bellator snapping them all up, like Roy Nelson, Josh Koscheck, Josh Thompson and more. But these are no great loss. UFC I think held onto some of them longer than they normally would have though because of Bellator.

Cant blame the fighters, but for me personally I feel like I lose out so I much prefer to see it not happen.
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Of the above list, UFC should've definitely help on to Bader, Moussasi, and MacDonald - especially at a time when the company is going through transition by losing stars like Rousey, Jon Jones, Anderson Silva, the demise of Aldo etc, as well as going through the sale to new owners where the UFC itself is under pressure to produce more at a time when they are struggling to keep up.
 
Looking through their roster on wiki, here is most fighters I found with a Quick scan through who have either jumped ship or joined Bellator after being released. I am sure I have missed a couple


Cheick Kongo

Matt Mitrione

Roy Nelson

Frank Mir


Chael Sonnen

Ryan Bader

Wanderlei Silva

Rafael Cavalcante

Quinton Jackson

Phil Davis


Kendall Grove

Gegard Mousasi


Ryan Couture

Paul Daley

Rory MacDonald

Lorenz Larkin

Josh Koscheck


Josh Thomson

Benson Henderson


Sam Sicilia


Michael McDonald


Valérie Létourneau
 
Macdonald and the Moose were the worst to lose. Both great fighters, good personalities, have decent fan base etc
 
Its at the point now where if another handful of fighters defect then more and more UFC fans will feel comfortable following Belator as much as they do the UFC.

And I think that may happen since apparently Bellator don't limit sponsorship deals so fighters can make more money from sponsors than they can with the UFC, where they are forced to wear Reebok. That alone could offset any differences in wages and make switching over a lot more attractive.
 
Raoul said:
Its at the point now where if another handful of fighters defect then more and more UFC fans will feel comfortable following Belator as much as they do the UFC.

And I think that may happen since apparently Bellator don't limit sponsorship deals so fighters can make more money from sponsors than they can with the UFC, where they are forced to wear Reebok. That alone could offset any differences in wages and make switching over a lot more attractive.
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Until there's an easy way to watch Bellator live, it will be difficult for them to garner a following.
 
Andersons Dietician said:
How does Andrade and Gahdelia end up on a fight night? Japan I guess will be a big show but that should be a hell of a fight. 2 best females in the division after Joanna.
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They had to put a vaguely interesting fight on the card as most of the other fights involve asian fighters who may sell well over there, but not so much in the U.S.
 
Raoul said:
Its at the point now where if another handful of fighters defect then more and more UFC fans will feel comfortable following Belator as much as they do the UFC.

And I think that may happen since apparently Bellator don't limit sponsorship deals so fighters can make more money from sponsors than they can with the UFC, where they are forced to wear Reebok. That alone could offset any differences in wages and make switching over a lot more attractive.
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The reebok deal is weird. It has potential to pay absolute bucket loads. Connor and Paige obviously get a tonne from it. But if you're say a mid card level fighter then you don't get as much from the reebok deal and you're tied in to that one deal.
Those Bellator fighters can obviously have more than one so they can increase their income but if they were a big name in the UFC then obviously they make bank.

Pretty intresting talks on it on The Fighter & The Kid Podcast, as well as The MMA hour and Joe Rogan.
 
Andersons Dietician said:
The reebok deal is weird. It has potential to pay absolute bucket loads. Connor and Paige obviously get a tonne from it. But if you're say a mid card level fighter then you don't get as much from the reebok deal and you're tied in to that one deal.
Those Bellator fighters can obviously have more than one so they can increase their income but if they were a big name in the UFC then obviously they make bank.

Pretty intresting talks on it on The Fighter & The Kid Podcast, as well as The MMA hour and Joe Rogan.
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It could, but knowing the people who run the UFC, they are not the types who view this sort of thing as an opportunity to spread the wealth evenly. Instead they opt to give a vast majority of it to their upper tier fighters who they feel bring in more money to the UFC. Therefore its little more than Pyramid scheme where the people at the top benefit the most and the people in the middle and the bottom progressively less. In the meantime, no one can have outside sponsorship, so a lot of fighters at the bottom of the food chain will struggle to make ends meet between fights, especially when you factor in the coaching and travel expenses.

Belator on the other hand don't have any such restriction on sponsorships, so its fairly likely that their lower and mid-tier fighters are likely to pull in more money than their UFC counterparts, which is not exactly a promising sign in terms of the UFC's ability to keep its fighters from defecting.
 
Raoul said:
It could, but knowing the people who run the UFC, they are not the types who view this sort of thing as an opportunity to spread the wealth evenly. Instead they opt to give a vast majority of it to their upper tier fighters who they feel bring in more money to the UFC. Therefore its little more than Pyramid scheme where the people at the top benefit the most and the people in the middle and the bottom progressively less. In the meantime, no one can have outside sponsorship, so a lot of fighters at the bottom of the food chain will struggle to make ends meet between fights, especially when you factor in the coaching and travel expenses.

Belator on the other hand don't have any such restriction on sponsorships, so its fairly likely that their lower and mid-tier fighters are likely to pull in more money than their UFC counterparts, which is not exactly a promising sign in terms of the UFC's ability to keep its fighters from defecting.
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Yeah, their whole pay structure is pretty much insentive based. It's actually criminal how little the fighters make the champions are also the only ones that get PPV money.(Maybe top card) but there was another thing I was reading that the other champions in the divisions want to be under card to McGregor as he brings in so much PPV numbers so they get huge bonuses off of that.

I thing I that has to be taken in to account this is still a juvenile sport. It doesn't have the mass following or generate the money of boxing.

Gerrard Mussasi actually said recently that the UFC offered him a bigger contract than Bellator but by that time he was fed up.
 
Relating to this issue, it seems Conor McGregor gonna show up at the US congress and talk in favour of the Ali Act to cover MMA as well.

Doesn't make much sense because it wouldn't benefit him and would put him in direct clash with Dana, but hopefully it's true.
 
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