MMA/UFC Discussion Thread MMA • Page 653

$500 million is insane (I can see numbers close to this actually happen); UFC fighters will never ever see those numbers unfortunately

 

Ohhhh I like this fight!

 

With people like Bisping reflecting on Rockhold's career, it's weird to think about his and Weidman's careers after they fought each other. They were like the clear #1 and #2 of the division at that point and both looked unbeatable.

Then from that fight forward, Rockhold went 1-4 and Weidman went 2-5. Both got stopped by Yoel and both had failed moves up to Light Heavyweight before they moved back down. It's crazy how quickly the trajectory can change.

 

Many people believe Weidman was using in his prime, and then once USADA became more strict, his size and cardio began to disappear and was apparent in his fights from there on.

Rockhold suffered from the same path that McGregor, Lesnar and a few others wound up going down. Start out as a standout with great skill in the octagon, become extremely popular and champion at the same time, then have too many opportunities and distractions to keep in the gym/octagon regularly enough to keep that skill level/reflex speed/fight IQ that got them there.

Some champs/fighters haven’t been the most people/crowd friendly, so that allows them to stay focused and keep fighting and training consistently while they’re in their “prime” (striking while the iron is hot so to speak. Think Oliveira right now.) The only man I know that had the popularity and title simultaneously that was never wavered was Silva, up until his injury. That man was starching the best of the best 3 times a year for SIX years.

Rockhold became champ, impressed the entire MMA world, but then got caught up in being
a model, dating pornstars, partying, and all the other side stuff he prioritized over staying in the gym.

 

I'd put GSP up there too though. I believe he was more popular than Silva (though it's debatable). He was averaging 2-3 fights per year until around the Carlos Condit fight where he had been pretty severely injured (his knee?) and was on the shelf. Georges seemed to have a lot of celebrities trying to hang out with him and things like that, but he seemed to keep his partying in check and stayed disciplined.

 

GSP was probably the most disciplined guy the UFC has ever had

 

Had some drinks last night with my brother and we were talking about Luke Rockhold and his comments how the UFC never did him any favors with his career


And we got on the topic of Rory and his UFC run, holy SHIT. Going back and looking at who he was having to fight as a young adult was fucking absurd.

He fought basically prime Condit in his second ever UFC fight

 

Rory was a different type for a long while. It was weird not really being a “fan” during the later years of his career but he was very different mentally and in the octagon.

 

This is pretty unfair to Luke. Dude had a super gnarly leg injury off a botched surgery that took forever to recover from.

 

Yeah, I didn't see Lesnar being included in there as well. The guy almost died from an illness and still came back to the UFC, but understandably didn't look quite the same. Not sure if you could make the case for his popularity getting to his head because he was a superstar beforehand.

 

Brock is always an interesting case. He didn’t -need- the UFC but at that time the UFC definitely needed his star power.
And he had the collegiate background to justify being fast tracked along with his popularity from WWE.

PED aside because let’s be real, all those heavyweights were on gas at the time. Mir turned into the Hulk, Carwin looked like a freak etc etc

He had a pretty solid run.

 

Luke’s issues with his leg surgery/infection started around 2018-19 iirc. Certainly didn’t help, but he had already lost the title and then was out of fighting/training for something like 15 months after Bisping beat him. Only 4 fights in 6 years after that, with major gaps and him doing a lot of other ventures in between.

 

Always tuned in for Lesnar fights. How could you not? But yeah. Main point is that having that stardom and other ventures available to you through that, I think it makes the drive and desire to keep training so hard and so consistently less appealing. And then they start to fall behind the young up and coming fighters bit by bit until they call it.

 

Goddamn, that walk off. Speaking of guys that went on long title streaks.

 

Crazy that it was nearly the same move that he got DJ with last time. I can’t think of a time that’s happened in a big fight.

 

amazing how USADA always seems to show up at odd hours when they're not even technically allowed to be there at fighter's homes that the UFC wants to get rid of. almost as though some foul shit might be going on here

 

Morning Report: Robert Whittaker considering a move up to 205 pounds: ‘I think it will be a more natural weight for me’

 

Really don't know how to feel about this. He's young enough to pack on the weight in a smart way, and it's not the strongest division. But Whittaker's what, 6 feet tall? He'll be shorter than everyone in the top ten of that division. He could probably get some wins in the 5-10 range, but those wouldn't be walk overs. I don't think I'd favor him against anyone in top three right now, and not against Izzy if/when he moves back up. So like...idk?

 

Whittaker is only 6 feet tall now, but after he packs on muscle after a while, he might get tall enough for the UFC to list him at 6'2" or 6'"3.

 

Speaking of sizes. Here’s the #1 contender at 185 standing next to Dom Reyes who is a LHW


looks like it should be reversed lmao. Alex is massive

 

Anderson Silva is boxing Jake Paul

 

omg

 

It was just starting to feel like the general public was over the charade of the Paul brother’s boxing circus. Let’s hope this fight happens, sells worse than the last few, and that Silva gets a highlight finish.

 

missed the fight but watched the decision being read. Bobby looked so happy so i would love to see the full fight but I dropped espn when they raised their price this year. This is the only time i regret that.

Is there any way to watch full fights for free right after they aired?

 

That was a super fun fight. Gutted for Tuivasa, but very happy for Gane. He looked like a beast and nice to see him be more aggressive.