OT: Official MMA discussion thread pt 3 UFC 319: DDP vs Chimaev, Aaron Pico vs Lerone Murphy

[HarthorneWingo]

I'm really looking forward to these two fights in particular (Islam vs DP and Costa vs. Sean).

303 looks like an insane card. Of course, things can change a lot by the time it comes around.

[HarthorneWingo]

Award winning documentary about the former UFC Middleweight Champion, Evan Tanner. The film explores who Evan really was and the reason behind his untimely death.

Watch on YouTube

[HarthorneWingo]

UFC 302 Preview video with The Count and Lionheart. Smith talk about what Sean is like as a teammate and how well-liked he is by them. He also discusses how Sean is only using 50% of his skill set. Strickland, apparently, is an excellent wrestler but never uses his wrestling skills in fights. His coaches are trying to change that.

In another pre-fight video, Bisping mentions that Khabib has serious financial problems due to tax delinquencies. I wonder if this is going to force him back into the ring? Conor vs. Khabib II? Cha-ching.

Watch on YouTube

This woman is perfect interviewer for Sean.

Watch on YouTube

[HarthorneWingo]

Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson is postponed. Mike suffered a flare up of an ulcer condition while on a flight shortly before landing. Reports are that he's doing fine. My only question is whether this is real or something fishy behind the scenes just because anytime something like this happens in boxing, I always second guess what might be really going on.

If it's real, then truly hope that Mike's okay and that his training hasn't taken a physical toll on him.

[HarthorneWingo]

Islam allegedly has a staph infection.

[MrDollarBills]

Heavyweight mismatch, Wilder was giving up like 60 lbs to this dude. The end result is a god awful knockout

Watch on YouTube

The Saudis got their money's worth here. There were some devastating punches landed

[HarthorneWingo]

Islam vs. Dustin was a helluva fight.

[Guano]

Dustin fan forever. Behind every good man is a better woman.

Read on Twitter

?s=19

[Guano]

Got that dog in him

[HarthorneWingo]

Islam seems like he has an extra layer of back muscles. Incredible.

Lots of respect for Poirier. He fought his heart out. Beautiful retirement speech.

[HarthorneWingo]

Hey, what about that Mickey Gaul? He worked hard on his stand up game and it showed. You think he begins to see more action?

[j4remi]

Man...that card was TRASH. The prelims had a couple of decent scraps, but the main card was four duds and a title fight. It's standing out more and more that the quality of UFC cards is slipping. They've begun splitting between a stacked card and a dud card for their PPV's, but charging 80 dollars regardless (plus you have to have a ESPN+ subscription). The broadcast team has been bad, and Dana's boys, DC and Rogan, are the worst. Even the refs were terrible this time around.

Notes from fights:
- Brown vs Zaleski dos Santos lost all its potential to uncalled eye-pokes. Brown looked alright, but nothing to say he's improved on what we've known.

- Price vs Morono didn't really need to be a PPV rematch. Both fighters are mid and fading.

- Holland vs Oleksiejcuzuk had potential until Oleksiejcuzuk tried to go to the ground...which I warned everyone he's bad at.

- Strickland garnered all this attention, only for the broader MMA community to realize he's a boring fighter. He takes zero risks, only throws the basic strikes, and gets by on having a good chin and jab. But that's only good for point-fighting, which is annoying for a guy who talks as tough as he tries to. The broadcast made it worse by focusing on Strickland's cardio and forward movement because he didn't throw anything worth a damn until the last 10 seconds of a 25-minute fight.

- Islam vs Poirier went similar to how I expected, but was tougher than it shoulda been for Islam. That just reinforces for me that Khabib was better. Islam needs to beat Arman, and then take the WW title to really force his way into the GOAT discussion IMO. That said, Leon Edwards shouldn't get a superfight before he beats Belal and the winner of Shavkhat vs JDM....and I think Shavkhat smokes Islam and Edwards.

The undercard was cool for re-establishing some prospects. Grant Dawson, Roman Kopylov, and Jailton Almeida are good with room to grow and take leaps. But the fights themselves didn't introduce much new to pick apart.

[Ghetto Gospel]

Man...that card was TRASH. The prelims had a couple of decent scraps, but the main card was four duds and a title fight. It's standing out more and more that the quality of UFC cards is slipping. They've begun splitting between a stacked card and a dud card for their PPV's, but charging 80 dollars regardless (plus you have to have a ESPN+ subscription). The broadcast team has been bad, and Dana's boys, DC and Rogan, are the worst. Even the refs were terrible this time around.

Notes from fights:
- Brown vs Zaleski dos Santos lost all its potential to uncalled eye-pokes. Brown looked alright, but nothing to say he's improved on what we've known.

- Price vs Morono didn't really need to be a PPV rematch. Both fighters are mid and fading.

- Holland vs Oleksiejcuzuk had potential until Oleksiejcuzuk tried to go to the ground...which I warned everyone he's bad at.

- Strickland garnered all this attention, only for the broader MMA community to realize he's a boring fighter. He takes zero risks, only throws the basic strikes, and gets by on having a good chin and jab. But that's only good for point-fighting, which is annoying for a guy who talks as tough as he tries to. The broadcast made it worse by focusing on Strickland's cardio and forward movement because he didn't throw anything worth a damn until the last 10 seconds of a 25-minute fight.

- Islam vs Poirier went similar to how I expected, but was tougher than it shoulda been for Islam. That just reinforces for me that Khabib was better. Islam needs to beat Arman, and then take the WW title to really force his way into the GOAT discussion IMO. That said, Leon Edwards shouldn't get a superfight before he beats Belal and the winner of Shavkhat vs JDM....and I think Shavkhat smokes Islam and Edwards.

The undercard was cool for re-establishing some prospects. Grant Dawson, Roman Kopylov, and Jailton Almeida are good with room to grow and take leaps. But the fights themselves didn't introduce much new to pick apart.

islam does seem more beatable after the 1st volk fight and this one. though he did have staph in his leg and i don't think he threw a single kick this fight

[HarthorneWingo]

UFC 303 press conference is allegedly canceled and that the card is in jeopardy. Anyone have any idea what’s going on?

It’s gotta be Conor related.

Edit:

Apparently, Dana flew to Dublin right after UFC 302 purportedly to meet with Conor to address his partying issues. There’s also a rumor that he could be injured.

This fight is over. Not happening.

[j4remi]

islam does seem more beatable after the 1st volk fight and this one. though he did have staph in his leg and i don't think he threw a single kick this fight

I won't blame the staph infection because a crapload of fighters compete with staph (gross but true). I think the lack of kicks had more to do with the stance match-up. Islam and Poirier are both Southpaws. Normally Makhachev faces an orthodox stance, and that means his round kick goes into the open side of his opponent (kicking into his softer spots like the stomach) as opposed to the closed side (kicking toward the back and outer hip).

It kinda exposes that you can take away one of Islam's best striking weapons if you can match his stance...which is funny, because most top LW's fight Orthodox. Mateusz Gamrot is a Southpaw, but the next two threats for Islam would be FW's Ilia Topuria and Max Holloway since they can switch-hit.

Hey, what about that Mickey Gaul? He worked hard on his stand up game and it showed. You think he begins to see more action?

He had arguably the FotN, and gave hell to a dude that gave hell to Jack Della Madalena. But I think it just cements him as a UFC journeyman. I don't see a ranked fighter, but I see a good guy for testing prospects and competing with other vets who can't quite reach ranked status.

[j4remi]

UFC 303 press conference is allegedly canceled and that the card is in jeopardy. Anyone have any idea what’s going on?

It’s gotta be Conor related.

Edit:

Apparently, Dana flew to Dublin right after UFC 302 purportedly to meet with Conor to address his partying issues. There’s also a rumor that he could be injured.

This fight is over. Not happening.

One of my running gags with friends of mine is that we'll only trust a Conor fight to happen after he makes weight the day before the event. Everyone's seen the videos of Conor partying way too hard to be taking his next fight seriously. We'll see though, maybe money talks.

This is an interesting spot to be in now. They've got 25 days until the event, so there's time to find a replacement. But will Chandler take a fight with anyone else? Plus, the rest of 303 is pretty weak without Conor headlining.

Jamahal Hill is fighting a replacement in the co-main event, who isn't in the top-10 of the division. Chiasson vs Bueno Silva is decent, but they're in the weakest and least interesting division in the UFC. Garry vs MVP...we've talked about how that may backfire.

So UFC NEEDS a banger at the top. Especially since this past PPV was so bad that the entire MMA media system has panned the event. But who do you get that's big enough to carry this weak card, and would take it on short notice? And would Chandler be down? My only two guesses are that they rush Volk back from his recent multiple bouts of head trauma, or they promise Max a title-shot with Islam if he beats Chandler and saves the day.

[HarthorneWingo]

UFC 303 press conference is allegedly canceled and that the card is in jeopardy. Anyone have any idea what’s going on?

It’s gotta be Conor related.

Edit:

Apparently, Dana flew to Dublin right after UFC 302 purportedly to meet with Conor to address his partying issues. There’s also a rumor that he could be injured.

This fight is over. Not happening.

One of my running gags with friends of mine is that we'll only trust a Conor fight to happen after he makes weight the day before the event. Everyone's seen the videos of Conor partying way too hard to be taking his next fight seriously. We'll see though, maybe money talks.

This is an interesting spot to be in now. They've got 25 days until the event, so there's time to find a replacement. But will Chandler take a fight with anyone else? Plus, the rest of 303 is pretty weak without Conor headlining.

Jamahal Hill is fighting a replacement in the co-main event, who isn't in the top-10 of the division. Chiasson vs Bueno Silva is decent, but they're in the weakest and least interesting division in the UFC. Garry vs MVP...we've talked about how that may backfire.

So UFC NEEDS a banger at the top. Especially since this past PPV was so bad that the entire MMA media system has panned the event. But who do you get that's big enough to carry this weak card, and would take it on short notice? And would Chandler be down? My only two guesses are that they rush Volk back from his recent multiple bouts of head trauma, or they promise Max a title-shot with Islam if he beats Chandler and saves the day.

One dude said something Dana getting Jiri v. Pereira to replace Conor/Chandler.

[j4remi]

I could picture Pereira and Jiri taking that fight on short notice. They're both built that way. Pereira's run is gonna be hilarious in retrospect, because he flew to the top just by being good and available. Every other champ wants to pick and choose opponents and even where to fight with guys like Islam and Leon.

Pereira has had some luck with opponents stylistically, but he's been down for whoever...and it paid off with one of the fastest rises to the top of UFC ever.

[j4remi]

This rant is so key

Watch on YouTube

[Ghetto Gospel]

another terrible card...?

Read on Twitter