MMA/UFC Discussion Thread MMA • Page 366

Sheesh

 

It’s pretty funny as well that Colby, since getting his jaw broken (and literally being the one who pointed it out during the fight that he could feel it was) has denied it, yet only posted b-roll photos/videos from promos he did over a month ago since. Not a single new video of his blabbering, and he blocks negative comments on his page. What a chump. Being such a sore loser makes it even easier to care less about the potential he once had.

 

Ends up Rob Whittaker is donating bone marrow to his baby daughter, every dad would do it but they got a good papa there

 

It's been a whole week and I'm still so salty that Cowboy froze up in there. I feel like we were robbed of a good fight.

I saw Luke Thomas had a take on the whole "Cerrone can't win the big one" thing and basically claimed that it was all a myth and that Cerrone just has impossible expectations with the difficulty of his schedule.... I agree there's a lot more nuance to his career and it kind of depends on how you frame it, but honestly, if this fight doesn't sort of prove that there's some truth to him not dealing with pressure very well, then what else will?

He fought the biggest fight of his life and got absolutely crushed in 40 seconds, didn't land a single strike and got his face crushed in from shoulder strikes because he tried to turtle up in the clinch and refused to adjust his position.... Like, come on. The guy was frozen in there. What evidence would it possibly take to convince you that the guy doesn't show up in the big moments?

 

Yeah, I like Luke, but that was a terrible argument.

Everyone knows that Cowboy fights often and exclusively against tough dudes. That's what makes him great.

He's also 0-4 in WEC/UFC title fights. 4-4 in non-title UFC main events, beating the average to good fighters and losing to the elite ones.

Personally, I don't know if I'd call him a choker or whatever, but if anyone else did I wouldn't argue them on it.

EDIT: Also, he lost to Varner and Henderson(x2) in title fights before he beat them, so I don't know why Luke throws that in there like those are extra special wins. Beating Eddie was legit though.

 

Fuck yeah Blaydes

 

Dos Santos should probably retire

 

Blaydes is a bad, bad man!

 

Dude is hard to deal with. JDS was fully prepared to deal with the takedown attempts but seemed thoroughly confused when he switched to a striking game plan. That lead uppercut was a good weapon to scare Blaydes away from ducking down but it left him wide open for strikes.

Edit: Bisping and DC just basically said exactly what I said on the post-fight show. Ha.

 

Tough spot at HW
Francis and Blaydes are both ready for a title shot and I would put the rest of that division substantially below them

 

It’s very interesting. A champ who’s great, but dealing with real health problems and may be out for a bit. Though, he already has wins on DC and Francis.

Francis who has already fought for it, but quickly earned his no. 3 spot back and has two wins on Blaydes.

Blaydes, who just dropped in as a worthy contender and looks great against everyone in HW so far except Ngannou.

DC, who may not fight again but will be easily handed the shot if he wants it.

Then Rozenstruick, who’s undefeated and looks to jump ahead of everyone if he shocks the world and drops Ngannou.

 

From people that really follow UFC is Daniel Cormier liked?

 

yeah most people love him and everyone respects him as an all-timer

 

He's grown to be more highly regarded, especially after beating Stipe. When everything was about Jon Jones at the beginning of their rivalry he talked a lot of shit and acted silly, but it was pretty par for the course for the company's best. While I wasn't crazy about Cormier for a while, his record is undeniably one of the best in the UFC.

Also found it hilarious listening to him and Bisping bicker all night during Blaydes vs Dos Santos.

 

Also what a victory for Cyborg. The only woman that will ever be a 4 time Champion in all major MMA promotions to have existed so far in the sport's history.

 

For real, it’s a really weird situation with three deserving contenders with different claims for the shot but then a champ who hasn’t had a time table for his return (though I did see his eye was cleared). I feel like they’re all four in a holding position right now. Ngannou is literally just fighting so he can stay active. Haha

 

I hated him more than anyone when he fought Jones the first time and he is now by far my favorite UFC guy. He is the absolute best at commentary and is an incredible human being. I think I didn't like him at first because he was just a trash talker against my favorite fighter at the time, that's all I knew him as. Then I heard interviews and podcasts with him and he began doing commentary and yeah, now he is my fav.

 

My biggest gripe with DC has been that for a long time he would talk down to a lot of his competitors. Maybe rightfully so, since he only lost to 2 of them, but the way he carried himself for some time was pretty off-putting.

Also he's notorious for eye pokes. Still a goat though.

 

DC is great, as a fighter and commentator. He called out JDS for throwing a lead uppercut without setting it up and it was a revelation. His Detail series on ESPN+ is also excellent. I do wish ESPN/UFC wouldn't allow active fighters to commentate, at the minimum, on their own division.

Chiesa looked huge. Dos Anjos is firmly a gate keeper. Blaydes looked good, but needs Francis to lose or something.

Bellator was mostly fine, but they can't pace a show. Thought their whole thing with the veterans organization got heavy handed and weird. I watched the events back to back yesterday and the pacing between UFC and Bellator is night and day.

 

Usman on Rogan today, fuck yeah. 3 hours! Only about 25 mins but he's an awesome interview.

 

This is so good

 

Stephen A. Smith, Dan Le Batard missing the point of Joe Rogan, MMA fan criticism

The last time I'm really going to bring this up, but it's been everywhere the last few days. I feel like this article does a good job summarizing why everyone is pretty upset with Smith's comments, and I especially like the points about how a poor night or poor performance doesn't translate to other sports like you would initially think.

But on the other hand, the articles like this are kind of just saying "you can't technically prove he quit or that he folded under pressure" and kind of hiding behind that argument. It's not really even attempting to evaluate anything that Cowboy did or didn't do in the fight. He got destroyed before he could mount any offense, yes, but watching him freeze in the clinch was the most disappointing part for me. He grabbed Conor in order to slow the fight down and not much else. He got slammed by FOUR shoulder strikes before he even attempted to move, re-position, attack, etc., and by that time it was too late. I still believe there is a distinct difference in how he performed compared to someone like Askren vs. Masvidal where he was REALLY given no opportunity from his opponent. Cerrone was hit by the same strike four times before he decided it was time to move.

I don't know. As a whole, I don't see why any of this matters because, as it's been pointed out, his performance was piss poor however you look at it. He got blown out in the biggest fight of his career, finished in 40 seconds without landing a single strike. Trying to argue that he didn't "quit" or "didn't show up" is pretty irrelevant and unnecessary IMO.

 

Le Batard showing his ass comparing it to cockfighting is uneducated, but he's not wrong when he says MMA fans are unreasonable. But that's why combat sports are a niche. If you've never participated, even just sparring, you're not going to fully understand it. You can't parachute into these sports like you can with others.

At the same time, this is what you're going to get if you want mainstream coverage, so everyone complaining about it is equally as annoying.

Kamaru saying he wants to meet the Trumps is disappointing too.

 

When I saw Stephen A's rebuttal to Joe crushing him on the podcast I just couldn't believe he didn't know it was the 'Cowboy is a quitter' think that Joe was most bothered about. He completely missed the god damn point.

It sounded like he wants to do it ironically? Because right after he showed that picture of him reading Trump Jrs book as a joke. Maybe i'm wrong.