The MMA thread

MoneyMay said:
Maia and Machida need to retire.
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Yep. Maia somewhat snuck under the radar after that Woodley fight but he looked awful in that as well. He's just such a one dimensional fighter (albeit that one dimension is a ridiculously high level.) Machida should be done as well really...I personally think GSP goes the same way against Bisping and it ends badly for him as well next week.
 
Oggmonster said:
Yep. Maia somewhat snuck under the radar after that Woodley fight but he looked awful in that as well. He's just such a one dimensional fighter (albeit that one dimension is a ridiculously high level.) Machida should be done as well really...I personally think GSP goes the same way against Bisping and it ends badly for him as well next week.
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4yrs out and straight back into a title fight is absurd, tbh.

It's going to be a fascinating fight for a myriad of reasons.

Going to be a terrible sign off if GSP comes back only to taint his legacy and get mangled from almost half a decade out of the game.
 
Maia needs to stop. Looked tired from 3 minutes into round one. Covington isn't as great as he thinks though.

Sad to see Machida get sparked again. Another who needs to stop.
 
Greatest upcoming two months of all time?
Conor v Tony at 219 would confirm it imo, Ill also cheat a little and add in the Lomachenko fight as well
 
217 is strong. 218 not so interesting. 219 is better than 218 but a bit underwhelming for an end of year event, unless of course they add Conor v Tony.
 
Raoul said:
217 is strong. 218 not so interesting. 219 is better than 218 but a bit underwhelming for an end of year event, unless of course they add Conor v Tony.
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I think 218 at the moment is better than 219. I imagine 219 gets a big fight added though.

218 has Holloway vs. Edgar, Overeem vs. Ngannou, Cejudo vs. Pettis which are all good fighters and personally think Alvarez vs. Gaethje could be one of the fights of the year. 219 does havesome good fights don't get me wrong and each to their own but I do think 218 is a really good card.
 
So, predictions for the main card?

Michael Bisping vs. Georges St-Pierre (middleweight title fight)

Cody Garbrandt vs. T.J. Dillashaw (men’s bantamweight title fight)

Joanna Jędrzejczyk vs. Rose Namajunas (women’s strawweight title fight)

Stephen Thompson vs. Jorge Masvidal (welterweight bout)

Johny Hendricks vs. Paulo Borrachinha (middleweight bout)

On paper it looks like an absolutely brilliant card.

Would like Bisping to win but it all comes down to what sort of fighter GSP is after a ridiculously long layoff. If he's anywhere near his best I see him causing Bisping real problems with his wrestling tbh. Expecting it to go five rounds.

Garbrandt/Dillashaw is surely a FOTYC on paper. I don't see how that will be anything other than explosive from the opening bell.

Namajunas is probably my favorite female fighter but Joanna is IMO the greatest female fighter in MMA to date. We'll see how far off Rose is. Honestly tough to say, it wouldn't surprise me to see Joanna tear her to pieces. Big fan of both so hopefully a great back and fourth war. Pumped for this one.

I think Thompson beats Masvidal and Hendricks is surely done when it comes to the main fighters in the division, I see him getting knocked out in a fight that IMO is almost a must win for him.
 
Middleweight Michael Bisping (c) vs. Georges St. Pierre
Bantamweight Cody Garbrandt (c) vs. T.J. Dillashaw
Women's Strawweight Joanna Jędrzejczyk (c) vs. Rose Namajunas
Welterweight Stephen Thompson vs. Jorge Masvidal
Middleweight Johny Hendricks vs. Paulo Borrachinha

The Thompson vs Masvidal is the one I'm not so sure. Hopefully it's a good fight and Masvidal end up winning. Don't want to see Wonderboy anywhere close to a title shot.
 
Michael Bisping vs. Georges St-Pierre - GSP going up in weight and after a 4 year absence, would be embarrassing if Bisping lost.

Cody Garbrandt vs. T.J. Dillashaw - Toss up but TJ is similar to Cruz and we all saw what Cody did to him.

Joanna Jędrzejczyk vs. Rose Namajunas - Too soon for Rose.

Stephen Thompson vs. Jorge Masvidal - Great fight. Can see Masvidal going for the KO as he's lost so many split decisions, which will be a mistake against Wonderboy.

Johny Hendricks vs. Paulo Borrachinha - Big Pig won't make weight.
 
The big question imo is whether GSP comes out with improved boxing skills from his recent time with Freddy Roach. If he does, then Bisping's standup advantage may get neutralized and GSP will have a chance to win.
 
Predictions

Michael Bisping (c) vs Georges St-Pierre
Cody Garbrandt (c) vs T.J. Dillashaw
Joanna Jędrzejczyk (c) vs Rose Namajunas
Stephen Thompson vs Jorge Masvidal
Johny Hendricks vs Paulo Borrachinha

James Vick vs Joseph Duffy
Walt Harris vs Mark Godbeer
Ovince Saint Preux vs Corey Anderson
Randy Brown vs Mickey Gall

Oleksiy Oliynyk vs Curtis Blaydes
Ion Cuțelaba vs Michał Oleksiejczuk
Aiemann Zahabi vs Ricardo Ramos
 
Raoul said:
The big question imo is whether GSP comes out with improved boxing skills from his recent time with Freddy Roach. If he does, then Bisping's standup advantage may get neutralized and GSP will have a chance to win.
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The whole Roach thing is kind of weird to me. He's not the kind of coach historically who transforms fighters. He often times takes genuine top class fighters and works with them. I don't neccessarily says he improves them a lot .No doubting his record, but one training camp with Roach isn't going to yield a lot. There are defo more intelligent boxing minds out there, but wouldn't have Roach's exposure. Plus he's been on the slide for a while now with fighters losing etc. I think his involvement is a bit of a smokescreen tbh. The same way I think when Bisping says he's going to knock GSP in 1 round. Bisping will not come out all guns blazing, he'll look to jab/move and take it into championship rounds and hope GSP tires. I don't think GSP will want too much to do with the standup, he be looking to take down Bisping as much as poss. Bisping take down defence is criminally underrated, but GSP timing on those is impecible. Looking forward to this.
 
poleglass red said:
The whole Roach thing is kind of weird to me. He's not the kind of coach historically who transforms fighters. He often times takes genuine top class fighters and works with them. I don't neccessarily says he improves them a lot .No doubting his record, but one training camp with Roach isn't going to yield a lot. There are defo more intelligent boxing minds out there, but wouldn't have Roach's exposure. Plus he's been on the slide for a while now with fighters losing etc. I think his involvement is a bit of a smokescreen tbh. The same way I think when Bisping says he's going to knock GSP in 1 round. Bisping will not come out all guns blazing, he'll look to jab/move and take it into championship rounds and hope GSP tires. I don't think GSP will want too much to do with the standup, he be looking to take down Bisping as much as poss. Bisping take down defence is criminally underrated, but GSP timing on those is impecible. Looking forward to this.
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Roach has said in recent interviews that the dynamics of boxing in UFC and boxing outside UFC are completely different, so I wouldn't expect GSP to come out like he's Bernard Hopkins circa 2002. Where I think Roach can help him is with his mechanics and timing where even a slight improvement from his old boxing skills could be a massive benefit, as well as Roach cornering him as well.

I think GSP will fare much better than many people think in this fight. He has zero mileage on him for four years and I expect him to come out like a 32 year old rather than a worn down 36 year old. Bisping will have excellent stand up and cardio and will attempt to control the center but he can't come out all guns blazing because George will take him down and control the rounds. Since most of GSPs fights go the distance I think this could likely do the same.
 
Raoul said:
Roach has said in recent interviews that the dynamics of boxing in UFC and boxing outside UFC are completely different, so I wouldn't expect GSP to come out like he's Bernard Hopkins circa 2002. Where I think Roach can help him is with his mechanics and timing where even a slight improvement from his old boxing skills could be a massive benefit, as well as Roach cornering him as well.

I think GSP will fare much better than many people think in this fight. He has zero mileage on him for four years and I expect him to come out like a 32 year old rather than a worn down 36 year old. Bisping will have excellent stand up and cardio and will attempt to control the center but he can't come out all guns blazing because George will take him down and control the rounds. Since most of GSPs fights go the distance I think this could likely do the same.
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if the dynamics of boxing in UFC and boxing outside UFC are completely different, why bring in a man who has strictly only coached in boxing, that's kind of my point. I get your point re "his mechanics and timing", but do you really need to bring in Roach to do that. I think this is all part of the pre fight mind games. He wants Bisping to be unsure about his tactics. The same way Bisping is going on about the world class wrestlers he's had at his camp to prepare. I think ultimately both will revert to type in the end. Not sure I get your point that GSP will fare much better than people think. I think most people automatically think taht he will, and a lot of them think he'll win. It's not like he's some huge underdog. I think late stoppage win for Bisping or him on points. I don't think it will be a classic, think it will very cagey
 
GSP started working with Freddie Roach years ago to mostly perfect his jab. GSP's jab is on another level and he also uses it to disguise his takedowns. Been re-watching a lot of GSP's old fights lately and most of his takedowns come from the jab, he throws it and fools his opponent then steps in with a double leg takedown. Thing of beauty and that comes from working with one of the best boxing coaches around.
 
poleglass red said:
if the dynamics of boxing in UFC and boxing outside UFC are completely different, why bring in a man who has strictly only coached in boxing, that's kind of my point. I get your point re "his mechanics and timing", but do you really need to bring in Roach to do that. I think this is all part of the pre fight mind games. He wants Bisping to be unsure about his tactics. The same way Bisping is going on about the world class wrestlers he's had at his camp to prepare. I think ultimately both will revert to type in the end. Not sure I get your point that GSP will fare much better than people think. I think most people automatically think taht he will, and a lot of them think he'll win. It's not like he's some huge underdog. I think late stoppage win for Bisping or him on points. I don't think it will be a classic, think it will very cagey
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Well I think Roach, despite being from a different sport, would still be far more beneficial than your average run of the mill MMA striking coach. If he manages to improve GSP even by 20-30% in that regard - or even give him the self-confidence that he can hold his ground against Bisping's striking - then that's a win for George.

As for expectations, most fighters seem to think Bisping will win because of GSP's four years off and the fact that Bisping is a bigger fighter, so GSP would seem to be a bit of an underdog coming into this.
 
Tom Van Persie said:
GSP started working with Freddie Roach years ago to mostly perfect his jab. GSP's jab is on another level and he also uses it to disguise his takedowns. Been re-watching a lot of GSP's old fights lately and most of his takedowns come from the jab, he throws it and fools his opponent then steps in with a double leg takedown. Thing of beauty and that comes from working with one of the best boxing coaches around.
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his jab is quality, but it was the one aspect of his game that wasn't evident in has fight v Hendricks. I just watched it last night again, I forgot how little he actually threw the jab that night. That could be one of the reasons he wants Roach in his corner. Hendricks cut the jab off and GSP wasn't able to adapt, Maybe he feels Roach would have been able to suggest adaptions so that he could get his jab going again.
 
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