MMA/UFC Discussion Thread MMA • Page 457

Bellator just isn’t worth it for the UFC to bother with. They probably wouldn’t even want it for the tape library.

Pride + Strikeforce was worth it alone for the library.

 

It was wild. Justin spent the whole first round reacting to Khabib’s movements and swinging big to time him. Plus circling like crazy to stay off the cage. Khabib’s style already had him worn out.

Yeah exactly. I’ve been waiting years for MVP to fight literally anyone I’ve ever even heard of. They were forced to move him up when they had that tournament, he got KOed, then they put him back into can smashing mode. The only exception was Paul Daley but that basically didn’t even amount to a fight.

 

And when you think about how good Nemkov is, you remember the UFC just signed Jiri, the only person to finish him lol.

 

Lots of MMA GOAT talk happening right now. Don't think Khabib is on the level with Anderson Silva or Jon Jones; just hasn't fought long enough. Crazy talented, but hasn't fought enough fighters to cement that status

 

I would only rank GSP above him, if at all. Jones and Silva both have tainted legacies now. Jon has arguably lost his last 2, in addition to the Gus fight. And the PED’s on top of that as well.

The only knock on GSP would be the Hendricks fight if I had to nit pick, redeemed the Hughes fight so that wouldn’t be an issue.

Retiring undefeated, having only ever lost 2 rounds and recency bias will have Khabib at the top of many people’s list for a good while.

 

I don’t think Khabib has the longevity at the top for me to put him as the GOAT.

GSP is at the top for me. I’d probably slide Khabib in at #2. Mighty Mouse deserves to be up there too. Fedor in his prime.

Silva and Jones have tainted their careers.

But Jones from 2010-2013 is probably the most dominant fighter I’ve ever seen.

Anderson from his UFC debut all the way to the Vitor fight is just as dominant.

 

It's apples-to-oranges for me. I don't think his resume is comparable to some of the other GOATs even if skill-wise he might be the greatest we've ever seen. Of course, never getting a scratch on him is incredible and there's currently a lack of challengers for him, so I'm all for him going out on top.

But, to play devil's advocate, how many times have we seen someone "clear out a division" or look invincible to the point where we thought no one would ever come along and beat them? You can't just assume Khabib would look like this forever and say "good enough" to put his resume on par with the others (as tempting as that might be).

• Rousey looked unstoppable and was talking about retiring undefeated while Nunes was getting stopped by Cat Zingano and Holm was having a lackluster debut against Pennington. We saw how that eventually played out.
• Mighty Mouse broke the title defense record but got dethroned by Cejudo who he had previously stopped so we definitely didn't predict that.
• Santos was getting blasted by people like Mousasi at Middleweight and no one had really ever even heard of Reyes until recently, so who was predicting that these guys of all people would arguably beat Jones?

Point being...there were points in all of these fighters' careers where they could have walked away and let everyone think they were invincible (same with Cruz, Aldo, Silva, GSP, Fedor, Cyborg, Nunes now, etc.) It's just not the same as proving it for years and years to come. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with Khabib and I don't expect anything else out of the man (especially at the moment), but it's wrong to say no one would come around in a few years to make him look human.

 

I shit on Bellator just as much as the next guy, but come on, they're owned by Viacom. We're far more likely to see Viacom buy UFC than UFC buying Bellator.

Matchmaking is the least of their issues. Coker builds from the bottom up, he's never been shy about it. He goes slow with it, but I don't think that's any worse than having six Contender Series alum filling out UFC undercards.

Their presentation though is terrible. Name is terrible. Pacing is terrible. Ring walks are terrible. Announcers are mostly terrible. Viacom would have been smart to rebrand it when it moved to CBS Sports Net, but whatever.

 

Jiri has a fight. Announcing it soon.

hopefully it’s Rakic

 

Feels like 205 is kinda mapped out for a bit.

Jan vs winner of Santos/Glover then the winner of Rakic/Jiri


Then insert Rumble if he’s going back to 205

 

Lot of names cut by Bellator. Mostly dead weight though.

 

I am not saying there aren’t “goats” but it’s all pretty redundant outside of divisions. Is retiring 29-0 impressive? Absolutely. But 4 championship fights and winning the title that was vacant from a fighter who couldn’t win it and took the fight on two days notice are things to consider. So I call Khabib the greatest lightweight of all time we ever saw in the UFC, but not greatest fighter per se.

His most impressive wins are over Conor and Justin no doubt, but I don’t think we ever saw anything different come about because we watched him fight the same type of fighter 13 times in a row. There were no lightweights that offered anything different outside of Al, but even he was pummeled.

If you think what if Khabib stopped cutting weight and his dad was still here, do we really think Khabib could do that to GSP or any top welterweights? Maybe, but I don’t think he’d look as dominant.

 

looks like it’s Reyes

 

Reyes about to get another L

 

Tough fight for both. Prochazka is the most interesting opponent for Jan in my eyes right now.

 

Honestly surprised they didn’t go Rakic.
But I guess that’s a decent enough layoff for Reyes.

I definitely do not like that fight for Dom though

 

I think it’s a toss up. Jiri has some pretty bad defense lmao but he’s got some fucking dynamite in his hands.

 

He can eat a punch like it’s nbd too.

 

I’m curious if whether or not Jones’ plan is to fight the winner of Stipe vs Ngannou 2 or fight a top Heavyweight first? Weird not seeing him in the no. 1 p4p spot or LHW champ spot for the first time in a long time.

 

I think Jones is probably waiting for a title shot and he’ll definitely get one.

Heavyweight is weird for me when I look at Jon in that division. I could see him beating Stipe but I could also see him struggling against someone like Blaydes or even Reem.

I would’ve liked to of seen him fight Overeem tbh. That’s not a bad name to add to your resumé. And I feel like he’s the perfect ‘gatekeeper’.

I fully expect to see Overeem fight Gane if Ciryl gets past JDS.

 

What the fuck is Rakic gonna do now lmao


Fight down and rematch Volkan that’s coming off a loss?

If it wasn’t for Santos/Glover, I’d assume he’s getting a title shot.

 

Junior dos Santos vs. Ciryl Gane added to UFC 256 fight card

 

That’ll be a fun fight. Good add to 256, which needs another good fight or two.