UFC March 27th - Stipe vs Francis, Ortega vs Volk

[NO-KG-AI]

Gotta say Stipe came in way too light in the ass this time just didnt look right

Looked like a LHW tonight.

I think he was lighter than the first fight which probably wasn’t wise

He was 12 pounds lighter than the first fight, and 29 pounds lighter than Francis.

[Shaazzam]

Wow, that last hammer fist was life ending for 85% of the population.

[cowboyronnie]

A trilogy would be ridiculous. Stipe had a bunch of time here to prove he had anything, any possible avenue to victory, and showed nothing. He was way too little to wrestle and he did nothing but move and juke in the stand-up. He didn't try to counter, he wasn't land effective leg kicks or calf kicks, he wasn't establishing feints. No sign that he could close the distance or hang in the pocket. Forget it.

[cowboyronnie]

Jon will price himself out, deliberately. I don't think he wants this...ever and also certainly not right now. He'll demand $30 million or whatever he knows will push the fight.

LOL if it turns out Jon made a huge tactical mistake going to HW. He might have been way too focused on a Stipe fight. Now it's basically Ngannou or Lewis. Those are the only ones who could bank.

Who would even want this Ngannou fight? Other than Lewis? Volkov or Gane are the only plausible options. I guess Volkov would take it. But Gane might not.

[REDDzone]

Jon will price himself out, deliberately. I don't think he wants this...ever and also certainly not right now. He'll demand $30 million or whatever he knows will push the fight.

He's already saying just give it to Derrick.

[Dupp]

Jon will price himself out, deliberately. I don't think he wants this...ever and also certainly not right now. He'll demand $30 million or whatever he knows will push the fight.

He's already saying just give it to Derrick.

Your twisting his ****. He’s saying he wants this fight but he also wants to be paid a lot more, which he should.

[NO-KG-AI]

Jon will price himself out, deliberately. I don't think he wants this...ever and also certainly not right now. He'll demand $30 million or whatever he knows will push the fight.

He's already saying just give it to Derrick.

Your twisting his ****. He’s saying he wants this fight but he also wants to be paid a lot more, which he should.

People tried to convince themselves that Jon was avoiding Chael Sonnen, Gus 2 and DC2. Don't bother lol. This board is knowledgeable as hell, but the dislike of Jon has made some of the comments about him downright delusional, or really good trolling.

Jon is going to take the fight, and he's going to have a lot of fear all through training camp. He should, and it should make for the best and most sharp version of Jon, so if Francis wins, it won't be the sleep walking version that is bored with guys he thinks offer no threat to him. It'll be the one that showed up for DC and Gus 2, or the one that was crushing hall of famers like cans because he still had a ton of respect for the division.

Super pumped, biggest fight in MMA history in the sense that we get a clear sense of whether or not Jon is the baddest dude of all time regardless of weight class. Maybe Francis is, and his evolution has sealed everyone's fate.

If Jon won't take it ASAP, do Francis Vs Brock to build the Francis legend up and test his wrestling.

[REDDzone]

Jon will price himself out, deliberately. I don't think he wants this...ever and also certainly not right now. He'll demand $30 million or whatever he knows will push the fight.

He's already saying just give it to Derrick.

Your twisting his ****. He’s saying he wants this fight but he also wants to be paid a lot more, which he should.

I'm not twisting anything, read the post I responded to about pricing himself out.

[REDDzone]

People tried to convince themselves that Jon was avoiding Chael Sonnen, Gus 2 and DC2. Don't bother lol. This board is knowledgeable as hell, but the dislike of Jon has made some of the comments about him downright delusional, or really good trolling.

I'll reply to this since you're responding to a post that quotes me. I've never claimed Jon is avoiding any fight, ever (in the past). And certainly not garbage fighters like Chael or Gus. I've also picked Jones in every fight he has ever fought. If there are quotes you want to pull to prove me to be "downright delusional", I'd be happy to see it. It's not hard to find PPV threads on this forum. I do think he used to do steroids and I don't buy the "pulsing" sh*t and I know that annoys you.

I really don't think he's going to take this fight though. I think he started the transition to HW when he thought he was going to fight the winner of Stipe/DC which would be a crazy money maker against a guy not really bigger than him with a GOAT level resume. Francis is different though. Last time Jones bulked up, he didn't look good. And if you're barely beating / arguably losing to guys like Thiago Santos and Dominic Reyes, you probably don't want to fight Francis Ngannou.

I actually disagree with you that Jones is scared. I don't think he's scared at all, I think he's smart. I think suddenly winning back the LHW belt is going to look really appealing to him.

[cowboyronnie]

People tried to convince themselves that Jon was avoiding Chael Sonnen, Gus 2 and DC2. Don't bother lol. This board is knowledgeable as hell, but the dislike of Jon has made some of the comments about him downright delusional, or really good trolling.

Jon is going to take the fight, and he's going to have a lot of fear all through training camp. He should, and it should make for the best and most sharp version of Jon, so if Francis wins, it won't be the sleep walking version that is bored with guys he thinks offer no threat to him. It'll be the one that showed up for DC and Gus 2, or the one that was crushing hall of famers like cans because he still had a ton of respect for the division.

Super pumped, biggest fight in MMA history in the sense that we get a clear sense of whether or not Jon is the baddest dude of all time regardless of weight class. Maybe Francis is, and his evolution has sealed everyone's fate.

If Jon won't take it ASAP, do Francis Vs Brock to build the Francis legend up and test his wrestling.

I will Venmo you $20 if you can prove that "this board" talked about Jon avoiding Chael. (or Gus or DC2)

Like, do you mean when Jon literally turned down a fight with a fat, out-of-shape Chael? And people were, like, "WTF?" That's not us talking about him avoiding Chael, really. He was in fight-shape, in Vegas, on a Thursday or something. And Chael (a MW) was going to have to fly-in and cut weight. The whole event was cancelled. Is it delusional to think Jon is a coward for that??

[REDDzone]

I will say that this is all just my own feeling about this, obviously. His twitter feed today has me feeling better about a fight happening than it did last night, for sure.

[Jasen777]

A trilogy would be ridiculous. Stipe had a bunch of time here to prove he had anything, any possible avenue to victory, and showed nothing. He was way too little to wrestle and he did nothing but move and juke in the stand-up. He didn't try to counter, he wasn't land effective leg kicks or calf kicks, he wasn't establishing feints. No sign that he could close the distance or hang in the pocket. Forget it.

I agree his resume might warrant it, but you simply can't make it after he was completely uncompetitive. He looked bad before the fight even began, I do have to wonder if there was something wrong with him or his camp.

[cowboyronnie]

^^^ I also wondered about his health or injuries. He looked like **** in every facet.

[NO-KG-AI]

Stipe deserves an instant rematch, but he won't get it because they want Francis Vs Jon, and Francis seems super easy to deal with, and is a promoters dream, have to think they want the rub of him beating Jon, who could never avoid trouble, and now is always bitching about money and walked away from the title and all. Plus, the general public just never got behind Stipe, Francis and Jon will obviously push bigger numbers, and could be the the real launch pad for Francis if he murders Jon.

Stipe got execute by DC once, and I never thought he'd get that back, especially 2x over, but he completely proved me wrong, that would be enough already to sell me on him deserving another shot. But it ain't happening.

@redd Oh, Jon probably used steroids, I really don't care. I think he wanted Francis to begin with, and the idea was going up after Francis first, and then Stipe. It's not like talk of moving up to heavyweight, fighting Francis, and putting on weight is all a surprise. The initial move was with Francis in mind. The logic of not thinking fighting Francis was a huge possibility is weird to me. I could buy the argument better about thinking he wanted Francis, and seeing what happened last night and not feeling as confident because of the improvement? But the idea that he never wanted Francis to begin with doesn't fly tbh.

@cowboy, and yea, it's pretty delusional to think Jon is a coward at this point. Are you going to relent on that, or is there some way he is still a coward if he does fight Francis? I'll eat my words if it never happens. He's a douche, he's reckless, and he's EXTREMELY insecure, but he's definitely not scared to fight people.

[cowboyronnie]

Fair. I predict he won't fight Francis. I never, ever said he would avoid Alex or DC or Chael*. Everyone is a victim of discourse now. Lol.

*other than when he had an entire event canceled 3 days out to not fight Chael

[Dupp]

He's already saying just give it to Derrick.

Your twisting his ****. He’s saying he wants this fight but he also wants to be paid a lot more, which he should.

I'm not twisting anything, read the post I responded to about pricing himself out.

Yes and your response was part of Jon’s tweet. That’ was the twisting. The whole tweet says something like let him have Lewis I’ll fight him after a good thing can wait

[REDDzone]

There's no twisting. Jones has been consistent in saying that he will fight Ngannou if the money is right. That is probably objectively true (as in, there's for sure a number). Everything else said is just negotiation.

That said, Dana has to know how much bigger Jones vs Francis is, especially given what a dud Lewis vs Ngannou was. Hopefully he recognizes that and makes it happen.

[Mehar]

There's no twisting. Jones has been consistent in saying that he will fight Ngannou if the money is right. That is probably objectively true (as in, there's for sure a number). Everything else said is just negotiation.

That said, Dana has to know how much bigger Jones vs Francis is, especially given what a dud Lewis vs Ngannou was. Hopefully he recognizes that and makes it happen.

Last May, Dana tried to make the Jones vs. Ngannou fight happen. Dana said that Jones was asking close to 30 million for the fight. It is funny that I never heard Jon Jones talk about his salary demands, when mentioning Stipe as his possible opponent at Heavyweight. It is only against Francis, because Jones seen what Francis can do, now with his improved Take Down Defense and smarter fight strategy.

I am not saying Jon is scared. He is smart. When a fighter asks for a ridiculous amount like 30 Million to fight Francis, he is basically saying he does not want the fight. Frankly, I think Jon just wants to save face and have the UFC be the scapegoat, for not making the fight happen with Francis. I might be wrong, but I do not think we will see him step inside the Octagon again. This might be crazy, but I told my cousin when we were having this talk, that I think Jon Jones was probably bulking up since last Fall to go on another venture.

Jon in a couple of interviews in the past, said he always had the desire to bulk up in the 245 range and not look so skinny, so he can look like his older brothers more. He talked about roles in Hollywood and even interest in WWE, and bodybuilding for the fun of it. So, while people thought his bulking up was to challenge for the HW title, I was more cynical after he asked for 30 million to fight Francis last year. I do not see him shedding 25 pounds of muscle he gained, to walk around at 220 again, and move back to 205 pounds to face Jan, who is a much tougher opponent now than Reyes and Thiago Santos (who Jon struggled with at times).

If he does not fight Francis, I say he is done with MMA, and probably make appearances in WWE to fake fight Brock (which he wanted in MMA). Jones went to a couple of WWE shows and interacted with Brock previously. He will make appearances in some Hollywood movies. Maybe appear in some bodybuilding shows. That would appeal lot more than being pummeled by Francis in the Octagon, and hurt his legacy of being considered "undefeated" except for that one DQ early in his career.

https://www.mmafighting.com/2020/5/31/21275918/dana-white-to-jon-jones-being-the-greatest-of-all-time-doesnt-mean-you-get-30-million

[Dupp]

Dana white is completely full of ****. Jon’s a massive douche but I’d believe him over Dana any day.

[REDDzone]

Did Jones really ask for $30 million? I don't consume a lot of mma content anymore so if that's true I totally missed it. There's no way Dana pays that. Obviously what these guys make is kind of a mystery but didn't it come out once that Anderson Silva was making $4 million when he was on his undefeated streak? $30 million seems unrealistic in the UFC.