Official Mixed Martial Arts Thread

[Corrogate]

15 minutes ago, McFly said:

Cutting that brutal weight he did when ge was young must have fucked up his body. I'm not saying it's why he died or anything but it must damage you.

 

I was just watching some highlights and thinking "this mf used to fight at 170". Such a shame. He was a good dude; remember him taking the Gustafsson win bittersweet. The news might have hit harder than Johnson himself.

[Couch Corpse]

Rumble in Peace ☹️

 

So happy to see Adesanya ousted, he became boring to watch and his attitude stank, haven't these people watched the sport? Everyone falls.

[glb]

Never got my head around Rumble fighting Dan Hardy. Properly gutted by the news to be honest, pretty downbeat end to the weekend after such a good numbered UFC card.

 

The flurry of first-round KOs last night are a weirdly timely tribute to Johnson though I guess. That Glover KO, Jesus wept.

[schmojo]

I was a big fan of Rumble's fireworks in the cage, but he seemed like a less than pleasant dude outside of it in regards to DV and general misogyny.

 

Some sites are saying it was a long battle with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. I hope everyone involved in his occasionally sad story finds some peace.

 

In his prime, he was likely the scariest man in the sport.

[Yobo Ahoy]

Sad news about Rumble. Always thought he was one of MMA's great 'what if's, as mentioned he had unrivalled KO power and it's a shame he spent so long bouncing between the weight classes. 

 

Anyway, Saturday. I can't lie, the finish to the main event totally got me out of my seat, that doesn't happen very often (the last time was probably Edwards Vs Usman)! Adesanya has had it coming for a while, but everyone comes out of this looking pretty good; Pereira looks beatable, and Izzy's gone through most of the contenders already so probably only needs one win, two max before he's in there again.

 

Glad Esparza lost too, honestly one of the most uninspiring champions ever. Chandler / Poirier delivered as expected, I do feel a little for Chandler as he tends to fall at the final hurdle quite a lot despite being a top ten LW for the best part of a decade now. I'm not sure where he goes from here really. 

 

I wasn't too surprised about McCann, she's definitely improved but her increase in status is mostly due to the stellar UK events this year and getting the rub from Pimblett. An MMA glow up, if you will. 

 

 

[Stoppy2000]

This Dana White Power Slap shit - what a terrible idea. I can't see it ending any other way than tragically. 

[Gotters]

Jeez that power slap thing looks like something from the Mike Judge film Idiocracy, even more worrying is that it'll probably find an audience in the US.

 

It wasn't long ago White was chastising Kimbo Slice as not worthy of being in the UFC because he was 'just the toughest guy at a BBQ', now a few hundred million bucks richer he's foisting this shit on the world.

 

Clearly taking a page out of the old school playbook that states 'you never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public'

[glb]

Slapfest or whatever it is feels tailor-made for a niche market of drooling idiots that think things like the NFL has gone soft or MMA isn’t violent enough or woke libs are stealing “are guns”.
 

The format pretty much guarantees a knockout (an unguarded palm strike to the jaw/temple? Fucking hell), which plugs into some wonky primal bloodlust that can also be conveniently shared in social media-friendly snippets.
 

At least in boxing or MMA there is a recognisable element of skill, this is basically a bollock-kicking competition that would have felt outdated in the early 2000s on low-rent cable TV channels. It’ll obviously be incredibly popular and make Dana a few more million he won’t pay fighters.

[McFly]

Prochazka, terrible pulling sorry, is out long term, vacated belt. Glover will fight Ankalaev for belt in couple of weeks 

[glb]

Ah that's a bummer. Pleased Glover still gets a shot but he's going to get marmalised, isn't he?

 

EDIT: oh, looks like Blachowicz is fighting Ankalaev at 282. Confusing as there's conflicting reports. Maybe they should go WWE and have a three-way for the title...erm, so to speak.

[Orion]

Sounds like Jiri's shoulder is completely fucked, hopefully he can come back from this.

 

UFC's Light Heavyweight division is abit of a mess. Sad as I remember when it was the premier division with Chuck, Tito, Randy then the Pride guys rolling in. You could argue Bellators is better nowadays.

[McFly]

4 hours ago, glb said:

Ah that's a bummer. Pleased Glover still gets a shot but he's going to get marmalised, isn't he?

 

EDIT: oh, looks like Blachowicz is fighting Ankalaev at 282. Confusing as there's conflicting reports. Maybe they should go WWE and have a three-way for the title...erm, so to speak.

I maybe read it wrong in the first place, I'm not sure now. I don't get why they'd swap out both fighters, makes no sense.

[glb]

1 hour ago, McFly said:

I maybe read it wrong in the first place, I'm not sure now. I don't get why they'd swap out both fighters, makes no sense.

Just bung the top ten in the Octagon, last man standing gets the belt. Would still be more sensible than Power Slap.

[Yobo Ahoy]

Man, Paul Craig must be kicking himself. If he'd beaten Oezdemir he'd have been a cert for an interim shot (already has wins over Ankalaev, Hill, Krylov etc). Oh well.

 

Bellator's LHWs aren't much better. Nemkov is excellent but below that there isn't a lot, Romero has just been given the next title shot after a win over Melvin Manhoef (mostly a MW) and some no-name guy in Italy.

[McFly]

11 hours ago, Yobo Ahoy said:

Man, Paul Craig must be kicking himself. If he'd beaten Oezdemir he'd have been a cert for an interim shot (already has wins over Ankalaev, Hill, Krylov etc). Oh well.

 

 

Man, that's so true Craig v Glover would an ace fight. 

[McFly]

PFL finals are bones C4 tonight, should be worth a watch with two Brits in the finals, Stevie Rae at 155lbs and Brendan "takedown" Loughnane(sp?) at 145lbs iirc

[Yobo Ahoy]

Well that was a bizarre PPV on Saturday. Boring as fuck main event, Ankalaev is delusional if he thinks that was anything approaching a robbery. For once I agree with White, glad he put them both in their place - Hill vs Glover next month will be a much better fight. 

 

Pimblett was awful too, injury or no injury, a co-main on a PPV and you phone it in like that? Topuria will murder him if they ever actually fight. The judging is getting a bit silly for these babyface types, this combined with O'Malley vs Yan doesn't really encourage thoughts of it being a level playing field. 

 

Till looked pretty terrible, I really don't know what is next for him. Happy for DDP though, he always puts in a good shift.

[McFly]

Till having survived that first round had a good chance because DDP was absolutely gassed. But Till barely threw, when he did he had an impact but just not enough pressure or volume which allowed DuPlessis to recover, well done him.

 

 

 

Topuria looked amazing, glad he won how did 

 

[Girth Certificate]

RIP Stephan Bonnar, only 45. Heart issues apparently  

[Gotters]

got a feeling that anybody interested in the earlier years of MMA is going to see a lot of these stories and go 'oh no not him'

 

they were all juiced to the gills and that doesn't often lead to a long healthy old age.

[glb]

The first Griffin Bonner fight pretty much changed the UFC’s fortunes, right? Sad news, seems apt to post what was a damn fine finale to the first TUF.

 

 

[Yobo Ahoy]

Bellator Vs Rizin live on BBC3 NYE. A nice throwback to the late December shows of old. Fuck the hootenanny! 

[McFly]

5 hours ago, Yobo Ahoy said:

Bellator Vs Rizin live on BBC3 NYE. A nice throwback to the late December shows of old. Fuck the hootenanny! 

Nice one I'd never have known otherwise 

[Orion]

So Dana White was caught on video slapping his wife in the face at a bar a few days ago. The same Dana White who said "if a fighter puts his hands on a woman he is done with the UFC". The same Dana White who was also planning to release a tv show called Power Slap next week.

 

It's network TBS have delayed it and maybe dropped it completely. If this was pretty much any other sport Dana would be sacked/forced to resign but as it's MMA, you have UFC fighters defending him and fans saying "its no big deal" on social media.

 

 

[schmojo]

I don't think anybody's really shocked. The UFC is arguably grosser now than in the Art Davie days.

 

It's pretty great that the company is so lacking for stars that it's really easy to not give him any money anymore.

[krenzler]

 

[Yobo Ahoy]

I never for one moment thought he'd be sacked or whatever but hopefully it'll stop him being such a figurehead for the organisation. Dana White's contender series, slap nonsense can all fuck off.

 

Next bit of madness, Jake Paul has signed with PFL as part of a 'superfight' division. Bizarre. Can't say I'm not interested to see what it leads to though. 

[Orion]

1 hour ago, Yobo Ahoy said:

 

Next bit of madness, Jake Paul has signed with PFL as part of a 'superfight' division. Bizarre. Can't say I'm not interested to see what it leads to though. 

 

Lol I'm guessing that means screw him fighting anybody in his proper weight division and basically adding any rules to suit him. Be quite funny how far they push it and who they bring in for him to fight.

 

CM Punk vs Jake Paul? Or would that be to difficult?

[McFly]

Ariel Helwani going off last few weeks with all this stuff.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Girth Certificate]

I don't want to make light of it, but for fuck's sake, getting filmed slapping your wife in the face a fortnight before your Slapping People In The Face And Giving Them Concussions....League launches on TV. It's like ten thousand spoooons.

 

This and the Phil Baroni thing, just a mingin' week for UFC.