Official MMA discussion thread pt 3 UFC 300: Pereira vs Hill, Zhang vs Xionan, BMF Gaethje vs Holloway

[j4remi]

Max Holloway just had the coldest performance of the year. Picked apart Justin Gaethje for most of four rounds, then slept him in the final seconds of the fight.

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[Deeeez Knicks]

Damn, that was crazy

[matchman]

Max Holloway just had the coldest performance of the year. Picked apart Justin Gaethje for most of four rounds, then slept him in the final seconds of the fight.

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?s=46&t=c7eg_0vf10KosEyBJaEgQw

Feel so good to witness such a classic fight.

[matchman]

We're finally on a good fight week. It's a BIG ONE. UFC 300 is stacked top to bottom, and EVERY fighter will be at the press conference later today. Look at this list of greatness (my picks are bolded)!

Main Card
Alex Pereira vs. Jamahal Hill TITLE FIGHT
Zhang Weili vs. Yan Xiaonan TITLE FIGHT
Justin Gaethje vs. Max Holloway BMF FIGHT
Charles Oliveira vs. Arman Tsarukyan
Bo Nickal vs. Cody Brundage

Prelim Card
Jiri Prochazka vs. Aleksandar Rakic
Aljamain Sterling vs. Calvin Kattar
Kayla Harrison vs. Holly Holm
Sodiq Yusuff vs. Diego Lopes
Jalin Turner vs. Renato Moicano
Jessica Andrade vs. Marina Rodriguez
Jim Miller vs. Bobby Green
Cody Garbrandt vs. Deiveson Figueiredo

That's 12 current or former champions. Even I don't have the patience to do write-ups on all the great fights here, but I'm hoping to actually record some fight discussion and predictions to put up on Youtube for this one. So, I'll get the link here when it's up.

For now my main thoughts are:
- The BMF fight is most likely FotN
- My biggest upset pick is Holly Holm over Kayla Harrison (weight drain concerns and footwork comparison in a big cage being my case)
- The most intriguing matchup is Oliveira vs Tsarukyan
- And I'd argue that the Prelim will probably be better than the main card because there are two clear mismatches on the main card, along with a fighter returning from an Achilles tear way too early for me to trust that he's the same.

Seems like you got the right guess of Fight of the Night.

[j4remi]

Max Holloway just had the coldest performance of the year. Picked apart Justin Gaethje for most of four rounds, then slept him in the final seconds of the fight.

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?s=46&t=c7eg_0vf10KosEyBJaEgQw

Feel so good to witness such a classic fight.

That's gonna be one of those moments that the UFC replays for the next decade. The fact that Max was so far ahead and still invited the risk is *chef's kiss*

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Look at Topuria's face

[HarthorneWingo]

DAYUM!!!!!!!!!

[j4remi]

Weili Zhang wore herself out going for those submissions. This is a hell of a title fight.

[matchman]

Weili Zhang wore herself out going for those submissions. This is a hell of a title fight.

One of my friend saying in a local UFC group before the match, " 'Two champs' is better than one champ from China point of view."

[matchman]

Max Holloway just had the coldest performance of the year. Picked apart Justin Gaethje for most of four rounds, then slept him in the final seconds of the fight.

Read on Twitter

?s=46&t=c7eg_0vf10KosEyBJaEgQw

Feel so good to witness such a classic fight.

That's gonna be one of those moments that the UFC replays for the next decade. The fact that Max was so far ahead and still invited the risk is *chef's kiss*

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Look at Topuria's face

Either he is super confident or he is just a mad dog.

[Buttah304]

Is this AP run one of the best in UFC history? Sort of speechless as to what he’s done in less than 2 years.

[HarthorneWingo]

Is this AP run one of the best in UFC history? Sort of speechless as to what he’s done in less than 2 years.

That left jab/hook was so quick. But the camera angle caught Hill’s facial expression just before it connected. “Oh no!”

[HarthorneWingo]

Weili Zhang wore herself out going for those submissions. This is a hell of a title fight.

[j4remi]

Is this AP run one of the best in UFC history? Sort of speechless as to what he’s done in less than 2 years.

It's incredible in terms of how fast he's made a run to being a double-champ. But I think the KO loss to Izzy takes it down a notch from the all-time great runs. My favorite fighter success streaks are:

1. Jon Jones' run to LHW and first title-reign. This one included a bunch of former champs who were at the top of the sport.He beat, Griffin, Rampage, Rashad, Machida, Rua, Belfort, and DC all in a single run. That's 7 former champs with HoF credentials (and there were other opponents in between those fights).

2. Jose Aldo's 10-year undefeated run. This is more of a "you had to be there" one, but Jose Aldo dominated 145 lbs in a manner that I don't think any champion has owned their division before or after. He'd tie the longest title-defense streak if they counted his WEC title run from before the UFC had a FW division.

3. Anderson Silva has the second-longest title defense streak. Plus, similar to Aldo, he DOMINATED. During that streak, he also became pretty much the first fighter to bounce up and down divisions by beating up James Irvin and Forrest Griffin.

4. GSP's 9-fight win streak included a record for consecutive rounds won. He was defending the belt and opponents couldn't even win a single-round off him. Plus, he never failed a drug test which Silva and Jones did.

5. Conor McGregor beat Max Holloway, Dustin Poirier, and Chad Mendes. Ended the Jose Aldo 10-year run. Then became first double-champ by smoking another all-timer in Eddie Alvarez. Plus, I'd include getting to box Mayweather in this since that was another first for an mixed martial artist even though Conor lost.

6. Demetrius Johnson has the longest title-defense streak, but slips because the strength of opposition isn't as good as the rest.

7. Matt Hughes' title run was the first dominant champ run, and includes a bunch of the best fighters of his era including a win over young GSP, Royce Gracie, Sean Sherk, and BJ Penn who all held UFC gold.

Then I'd put Pereira around 8 with competition from Max Holloway's run-up to the FW belt and Stipe's run through all the best UFC HWs of all time. But MP's got a chance to stack his resume with even more wins to move up the list.

[HarthorneWingo]

Those fighters had great runs.

[Buttah304]

Remi that was an amazing breakdown thank you

[NoStatsGuy]

my take about Max at 155 aged like **** milk and i love it!!

Max is different, just different.
Never been a big gaethje guy, not that i hate him but im glad he got his face smashed in. hes a good dude, but i dont like wittman and i think hes a bad coach for gaethje, also they talk so much **** about Masvidal who im a big fan of. Justin might have the best wrestling credentials in the whole division or even ufc and he never even fakes a takedown, to keep his opponent honest. Gaethje is coached horribly and im so glad max did what he did.

also shoutout to my guy moicano! big fan
And charles got robbed, im dying on that hill

[HarthorneWingo]

my take about Max at 155 aged like **** milk and i love it!!

Max is different, just different.
Never been a big gaethje guy, not that i hate him but im glad he got his face smashed in. hes a good dude, but i dont like wittman and i think hes a bad coach for gaethje, also they talk so much **** about Masvidal who im a big fan of. Justin might have the best wrestling credentials in the whole division or even ufc and he never even fakes a takedown, to keep his opponent honest. Gaethje is coached horribly and im so glad max did what he did.

also shoutout to my guy moicano! big fan
And charles got robbed, im dying on that hill

I’ve never really seen Justin wrestle since he’s been in the UFC.

[NoStatsGuy]

my take about Max at 155 aged like **** milk and i love it!!

Max is different, just different.
Never been a big gaethje guy, not that i hate him but im glad he got his face smashed in. hes a good dude, but i dont like wittman and i think hes a bad coach for gaethje, also they talk so much **** about Masvidal who im a big fan of. Justin might have the best wrestling credentials in the whole division or even ufc and he never even fakes a takedown, to keep his opponent honest. Gaethje is coached horribly and im so glad max did what he did.

also shoutout to my guy moicano! big fan
And charles got robbed, im dying on that hill

I’ve never really seen Justin wrestle since he’s been in the UFC.

yea.. hes a div 1 all american wrestler, in the hof of his school, i think he had a very close match with burroughs, arguably the best american wrestler of all time, hes trainingpartner with kamaru for a long ass time aswell. Like, i get it.. you wanna have that whole "im the most violent guy here"-thing going for you. but damn.. show us some wrestling and ground and pound with those skills, theres nothing not violent about it.

[HarthorneWingo]

I didn’t know that this was a thing.

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[MrDollarBills]

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Ryan Garcia is probably mentally ill but it's entertaining nonetheless