Official MMA discussion thread pt 2: UFC 268 in MSG Usman vs Colby 2, Rose vs Zhang 2

HarthorneWingo · Post #1441 » by **HarthorneWingo** » Sun Dec 20, 2020 2:39 am

Wonderboy's entrance song? (snicker)

I mean, I like the song enough but an entrance song? Meh.

Stephen is a real class act though and a great fighter.

HarthorneWingo · Post #1442 » by **HarthorneWingo** » Sun Dec 20, 2020 2:50 am

Round 1 - Wonderboy

HarthorneWingo · Post #1443 » by **HarthorneWingo** » Sun Dec 20, 2020 2:56 am

Round 2 - Wonderboy

As good as a tactician Neal is, Thompson is on another level.

HarthorneWingo · Post #1444 » by **HarthorneWingo** » Sun Dec 20, 2020 3:15 am

Wow, great fight. Respect to both fighters.

Clyde_Style · Post #1445 » by **Clyde_Style** » Sun Dec 20, 2020 4:08 am

HarthorneWingo wrote:Round 2 - Wonderboy

As good as a tactician Neal is, Thompson is on another level.

He's an elegant fighter. Easy to watch

You have the Canelo fight on?

Is Callum Smith any good?

HarthorneWingo · Post #1446 » by **HarthorneWingo** » Sun Dec 20, 2020 4:09 am

Clyde_Style wrote:
HarthorneWingo wrote:Round 2 - Wonderboy

As good as a tactician Neal is, Thompson is on another level.

He's an elegant fighter. Easy to watch

You have the Canelo fight on?

Is Callum Smith any good?

No, I don't. Is that on HBO or PPV? I haven't paid for a boxing match since Tyson bit of Holyfield's ear. :lol:

Clyde_Style · Post #1447 » by **Clyde_Style** » Sun Dec 20, 2020 4:11 am

HarthorneWingo wrote:
Clyde_Style wrote:
HarthorneWingo wrote:Round 2 - Wonderboy

As good as a tactician Neal is, Thompson is on another level.

He's an elegant fighter. Easy to watch

You have the Canelo fight on?

Is Callum Smith any good?

No, I don't. Is that on HBO or PPV? I haven't paid for a boxing match since Tyson bit of Holyfield's ear.

check your pm

Post #1448 » by **j4remi** » Sun Dec 20, 2020 5:38 am

My boy Wonderboy! My boy Aldo! My parlay payout to end the year of fight bets!!!

Wonderboy is just a tactician fam, too much movement. I NEED to see him fight Colby. Volume meets volume, pressure meets footwork, wrestling meets striking...so good.

HarthorneWingo · Post #1449 » by **HarthorneWingo** » Sun Dec 20, 2020 5:42 am

j4remi wrote:My boy Wonderboy! My boy Aldo! My parlay payout to end the year of fight bets!!!

Wonderboy is just a tactician fam, too much movement. I NEED to see him fight Colby. Volume meets volume, pressure meets footwork, wrestling meets striking...so good.

Drinks on Remi. :party:

Post #1450 » by **j4remi** » Thu Dec 31, 2020 4:32 pm

Gentlemen...Rizin 26 has concluded which means the last MMA event of 2020 is over and Kyoji Horiguchi is back. Gooch has been out with a torn ACL for about a year and has been my favorite fighter outside of the UFC since they released him. I've been neglecting the thread so lemme fanboy out for a minute and explain to yall why Deveison Figueiredo isn't the best 125'er in the world.

Let's go over Kyoji's career. He came to the UFC in 2013 as a protege of Japanese Legend, Kid Dynamite (R.I.P to this legend). Gooch was a developing young fighter with a fun style built off a karate base and crazy power. He was very raw but explosive as hell with timing that I'd categorize as special, here's early Horiguchi

Watch on YouTube

The 125 lbs division didn't have anyone to fight Demetrius Johnson, so they rushed the super promising prospect into a fight with the P4P top dog at the time. It didn't end well

Watch on YouTube

That's the latest submission in UFC history, Mighty Mouse got it right at the buzzer. So Horiguchi was a dominant striker but got completely outgrappled and dominated for five rounds. I remember being hype though, because Gooch was good enough on his feet that MM had to focus on wrestling.

Around that time, Kid Dynamite's Krazy Bee school started sending fighters over to American Top Team. I'm not sure if this was a direct response to the loss, but Kyoji had discovered his weakness to wrestling and ATT was PERFECT to fix that. Gooch lost to Mighty Mouse in April 2015, by November 2016 he was in the octagon with a top three grappler in the division again...Here's a quick Highlight

Watch on YouTube

My guy Horiguchi, outgrappled a multi-time Sambo champion. He took the unanimous decision, his third in a row and it seemed like the perfect time for a rematch with Mighty Mouse. The UFC let him walk to Rizin instead, Japan wanted its star back :banghead:

So 2017-2019, Kyoji wins 10-straight fights. Every promising 125'er that doesn't have a UFC contract comes through and gets crushed. Gooch is moving up to 135 just for competition, he does a 135 lbs tournament with Rizin's best bantamweights...4 fights including 2 in the same night; Kyoji finishes every opponent.

Rizin brings in former UFC contenders like Ian Mccall and Ben Nguyen for the 125 lbs look; Gooch smokes them in the first round.

Since he already cleared the bantamweights of Rizin, they bring in Bellator's champion at the time for cross promotion. Darrion Caldwell is a BIG bantamweight and a great wrestler, he's twice the size of Horiguchi and a bully style pressure fighter to boot. People think Caldwell's too big for Gooch.

Kyoji is much better on the feet...but Caldwell is able to get some takedowns, he just can't do anything with the positions. Gooch is able to stuff takedowns, do damage and stand up when he does hit his back. The fight ends with some grappling

They blamed that one on Caldwell being in a ring. So the two ran it back in Bellator (in our very own Madison Square Garden!!! I stanned so hard). Horiguchi won a unanimous decision. Gooch was bar none the best 125'er outside the UFC and now he was beating the best 135'ers too. He's at the top of the game in June 2019.

It's August 2019, he promptly goes to fight an up and comer named Kai Asakura in an exhibition for Rizin. The fight isn't even worth putting Kyoji's belt on the line for; that's how thrown together it was. But the mma gods punish fighters that sleep for even a second...

Watch on YouTube

Asakura caught Kyoji slippin' and finished him. Between Caldwell and Asakura, Gooch has been clearly outsized and now people are doubting him. Maybe he's aging or maybe the size has caught up with. Rizin books an immediate rematch...Kyoji tears his ACL.

So from August 2019 to December 30th 2020, we were left with Horiguchi on an L. The ACL tear is scary because Gooch uses a ton of lower body explosion. He enters the cage with Kai Asakura for a rematch Dec. 31st, it's hella early in the morning stateside...

Read on Twitter

So we can wax poetic about the protege of Kid Dynamite closing out 2020 with the same type of Comeback that Rizin is over here tryna stage. We could talk about how ATT's Mike Brown flew to Japan two weeks early and spent Christmas in quarantine to coach Horiguchi. Or we could get into how Gooch slayed another giant in dominant fashion. But all I'll leave with is this...Kyoji Horiguchi is the best 125 lbs fighter on the planet and will never get the chance to prove it, so he's beating up bantamweights instead.

Watch on YouTube

GEOLINK · Post #1451 » by **GEOLINK** » Fri Jan 1, 2021 5:38 am

2021 Season is finally here.

THE KING IS BACK

Post #1452 » by **j4remi** » Sat Jan 16, 2021 8:20 pm

MMA is back and on abc today fam. My guy max Holloway for kattar flr the main event. Great fights throughout the card.

Post #1453 » by **j4remi** » Sat Jan 16, 2021 8:22 pm

Read on Twitter

Post #1454 » by **j4remi** » Sat Jan 16, 2021 9:20 pm

Highlight finish after highlight finish...ponzinibbio looked super rusty. Di chirico fought like his contract was on the line. Jingliang has been improving in recent fights.

Matt brown vs Carlos condit coming up and then max vs kattar.

Post #1455 » by **j4remi** » Sat Jan 16, 2021 9:52 pm

Read on Twitter

NoStatsGuy · Post #1456 » by **NoStatsGuy** » Sat Jan 16, 2021 10:56 pm

what in the flying fk did max just do?????????????

Post #1457 » by **j4remi** » Sat Jan 16, 2021 11:02 pm

Max Holloway just gave abc an all-time striking performance.

HarthorneWingo · Post #1458 » by **HarthorneWingo** » Sun Jan 17, 2021 1:59 am

j4remi wrote:Max Holloway just gave abc an all-time striking performance.

Oh fck, I missed it.

Edit: You haven't been spending enough time around here lately, fam. :lol:

Wassssuuuuuuuup brother? You're not promoting the fights like you should be. Dana is upset.

Post #1459 » by **j4remi** » Sun Jan 17, 2021 2:29 am

HarthorneWingo wrote:
j4remi wrote:Max Holloway just gave abc an all-time striking performance.

Oh fck, I missed it.

Edit: You haven't been spending enough time around here lately, fam. Wassssuuuuuuuup brother? You're not promoting the fights like you should be. Dana is upset.

I’ve been slacking a little. UFC had a three week break, so I didn’t have much to drop for y’all. But we get three cards this next seven days if I include the card today. There’s a decent one Wednesday and the Conor return on Saturday!

But man...I totally missed hyping this max card for you guys. Max is one of my all time favorites and just landed more significant strikes in this fight than any two fighters combined. I’m pretty sure second place is his fight with Ortega too.

Post #1460 » by **j4remi** » Sun Jan 17, 2021 2:35 am

Quick preface: Calvin kattar talked a LOT prior to this fight and a vocal but significant minority of experts was picking him to win. Kattar claimed that he is the best boxer in the mma; that he’s a finisher and max isnt; and called max a rookie.

So this is the fifth round, max has the fight in hand and he is zoning out. Max looks at DC and repeats calvin’s trash talk while landing a punch and then bobbing and weaving through 3 or 4 attempts by kattar. Kattar is legitimately one of the best strikers in the division btw...just not on god tier with max.

Read on Twitter