MMA/UFC Discussion Thread MMA • Page 123

I thought the card was awesome overall aside from the heavyweight fight.

My girlfriend isn’t an MMA fan, but she doesn’t dislike it either. I’ve tried to get her interested in it by tuning into the bigger cards. Every time, it ends up being plagued with injuries and a dud to some degree. We’ve gone out for this card (which only the co-main was awful) and the NY card with the 5-round snoozer between Khabib and Al. We also went to see a card live in St. Louis (that was supposed to have Vitor vs Uriah) and they were all pretty much boring decisions aside from Stephens/Choi.

I’m always like “I SWEAR this sport is more fun than this.”

 

Ooof yeah considering all the best fights of the year (mostly) were like every other card between those haha.

 

LOL whoops.

 

I wonder psychologically what went wrong with Ngannou; why was he so afraid to throw any punches? He went storming through the HW division for two years, and then was just took apart of Stipe in his previous fight, providing no answer to him. Was he just so afraid of losing, or had so much weight and expectations on his shoulders, from MMA media and people back home, that something in his head just wasn't firing and didn't allow him to fight? Always interesting to see how fighters respond when their previous fight didn't go well. He looked like he was in excellent shape, slimming a good 10-15 pounds, to gain to speed and endurance, but still, didn't use any of it.

 

I would say that the majority of the issue is that he became aware of how devastating it is to NOT land the big shot, gas out, and basically become a helpless child in there. Your last point about him slimming down (and also not throwing) aligns with that because it seemed to me like he was overly caughtious about not gassing. The other part was that he seemed to be banking on Lewis coming out wild and being able to counter him. When he didn’t do that, Francis really displayed his low fight IQ because he had no idea how to create that opportunity himself. He literally moved straight backwards when Lewis stepped forward.

So yeah, I’m just speculating but to me it seemed more like the guy just really isn’t a smart fighter and doesn’t know how to make adjustments yet. Not necessarily that he got scared after the Stipe fight, but I think he wanted to make sure that didn’t happen again but didn’t know how lol

 

Dana mentioned in the post fight conference that he started getting a huge ego.

Francis went from getting like 30k a fight to 100k and then got half a million (reported, probably more) for the Stipe fight.

Dude was on the top of the world during that streak. Drawing Tyson comparisons by peers and media. Then it went crashing after the title fight.

I can totally believe his head got massive and he learned he can’t rely on just that power

 

It could be similar to Rousey’s case - being touted as some sort of once-in-a-lifetime anamoly when you’re actually kind of just one dimensional. They get humbled and have no idea how to adjust to being a “normal fighter”. Now that I say that, his performance did kind of remind me of Rousey vs Nunes in that both were sort of frozen and didn’t attempt their go-to strategies.

 

Dana defended Lewis as saying he was having back spasms during the fight.

 

And Lewis said in his post fight interview he could tell Ngannou was waiting the entire time to counter, hoping for him to throw his right like he usually does. His post-fight interview was genuinely surprising. He straight up said something like "that performance was horrible, I don't deserve a title shot at the moment regardless if I just beat the no. 1 contender."

 

Yeah, I think Dana didn't want to bury both guys and ruin both their credibility because he is gonna want Lewis to be a draw still.

 

Ngannou posted an Instagram picture saying he was scared during the fight after what happened in the previous one

 

Damn I don't follow MMA a ton so it's wild to me that people get knocked out in training camp haha. I wonder what the atmosphere is like after that happens.

 

That makes me worried for Lewis because this isn't the first time he's cited back problems. When he lost to Hunt he said he wanted to retire but didn't for whatever reason. I can't imagine his back issues go away anytime soon especially with his frame.

 

Crazy how the mentality of fighters gets effected from loss. It just absolutely snaps their ability to drive in half. Ngannou is broken by a grappling/cardio based fight, returns in great shape with more stamina, yet now is afraid of striking.

 

Joe said it during the broadcast but a sports psychologist might be the route here haha

 

It should be a group session for him Rousey, Aldo, and maybe even Stipe depending on what he looks like upon returning.

 

Has Stipe said anything??

 

Basically just said DC was the better man and he was excited to get home.

I think his wife was in labor or about to go into labor around the time of the fight

 

I’m assuming Cain is basically done as a fighter. I haven’t heard a word about him in a long time

 

Yeah, sounds like he has resorted to just training, DC gave him huge props for helping him this training camp. Also said Cain is one of the best genuine guys he has ever met.

 

I would wait to see Aldo against Stephens before I would say that he had a mental block. He dominated Frankie in their fight and then dropped a couple title fights against Max who appeared to be a bad stylistic match up for him, so I would say the jury is still out there.

Re: Cain - yeah, DC didn't act like Cain had plans to come back and you have to imagine that him even taking a title fight at HW doesn't bode well for a Velasquez return...but he seemed to imply that Cain still kicked his ass every day in training. Might be hyperbole, but DC readily admits that Cain is still better than him.

 

I believe Cain is truly done. I wouldn't ever mind seeing him return as he was a very dominant fighter and truly impressive at HW. I've talked about wanting to see him fight Stipe for a while. DC wouldn't ever fight Cain, so it would be interesting to see Stipe choose to keep fighting (He is 40 after all), and Cain as well with that as his first match back.

He had two posts on social media. "Tonight just wasn't my night." In his post-fight interview he did call DC the better man and said he got caught. "These things happen." Still my favorite HW ever.

 

When he beat Frankie, I said of course that it's a good win, but that it also was not the Aldo we're used to seeing. He's so unbelievably cautious now and was beyond overthinking his fights with Max. He's probably the one fighter i'd say is the easiest to pin a psyche break to in the octagon at the moment. 10 years unbeaten as the reigning champ from the WEC days into the UFC, and then the cockiest, loudest, most antagonizing guy in the game knocks you out with 1 punch 15 seconds in? Later becoming an icon and legend because of it? I'd be amazed if that didn't negatively impact any fighter to some degree.

 

I get that it's probably hard to get past, and I would agree had he not won his next fight - that was a huge feat. I guess my point was more that you don't get mentally broken and then come back to dominate Frankie Edgar. Those two things just don't really align.

You can say that he didn't look the same against Max or Frankie, but I disagree. He looks like he had been gradually declining (yet still very good) for years, only getting more worn out from wars and terrible weight cuts. He only has two finishes in the UFC during that entire run and one of them was due to injury. Maybe you're right and he's not the same mentally anymore, but to me it just looks like all of the mileage he's had in the last 14 years have been adding up. Either way, I'm hoping he comes out firing against Stephens.

 

Likewise, because I actually do like Aldo and I can't stand Stephens haha.