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Classy response to his loss by Masidival, that gained a little more respect from me.
If you talk smack, you gotta be able to be humble, so good on him.

I'm actually the one guy on this board (in mma fandom?) who doesn't like Rose. She's the best though.

Dupp wrote: Noticed just before round 1 started Zhang put her hand up as to say do you want to touch gloves at the start of the round and rose shook her head no. Never noticed this kind of communication at the start of a round but it must happen.

lol this happens like every other fight. It's funny you never noticed that. To be fair I think I noticed it first at in-person fights and then noticed it happens on TV.

Masvidal was one of my favorite fighters at one point for years and years. He lost me in recent years with the bathrobes and sucker punches but still, the one hit wonder thing isn't fair at all.

He literally started fighting on the streets with Kimbo, made his way to Bodog, Strikeforce (even the playboy mansion card!) where he eventually fought for a title, Sengoku in Japan, pre-Coker Bellator, and then his current UFC tenure with about a dozen other organizations in between. He has fought everyone between the two best divisions in the sport in lw and ww.

He might have the most iconic MMA highlight ever in the Askren KO and tbh he's been on the other end of highlight reels just as dazzling in the Imada inverted triangle and the Usman KO. He's not UFC WW champion material IMO but he's an OG and its actually crazy he's still fighting at such a high level in one of the very best divisions in the sport after almost 20 years in the game. He's that dude you either love or hate but you can't ignore, and either way when he leaves the sport, you will miss him because he brings it every time.

REDDzone wrote:Masvidal was one of my favorite fighters at one point for years and years. He lost me in recent years with the bathrobes and sucker punches but still, the one hit wonder thing isn't fair at all.

He literally started fighting on the streets with Kimbo, made his way to Bodog, Strikeforce (even the playboy mansion card!) where he eventually fought for a title, Sengoku in Japan, pre-Coker Bellator, and then his current UFC tenure with about a dozen other organizations in between. He has fought everyone between the two best divisions in the sport in lw and ww.

He might have the most iconic MMA highlight ever in the Askren KO and tbh he's been on the other end of highlight reels just as dazzling in the Imada inverted triangle and the Usman KO. He's not UFC WW champion material IMO but he's an OG and its actually crazy he's still fighting at such a high level in one of the very best divisions in the sport after almost 20 years in the game. He's that dude you either love or hate but you can't ignore, and either way when he leaves the sport, you will miss him because he brings it every time.

You gotta respect the hustle. He's been around the game for a long time. But as you said he's not quite in that elite category. That's why it's important to not get overly excited about this fight. Masvidal is a very flawed fighter and runs into problems every time he fights an elite fighter. This was a fight that shouldn't have happened given what we saw in the first fight.

Is welterweight really a good division? I think it's one of the worst divisions in the entire sport. Leon Edwards is fighting a guy in Nate Diaz who barely fights and is a career LW and people are saying how a win over Diaz puts Edwards in line for the next title shot. Wonderboy is 38 years old, Burns, Chiesa and Masvidal were all LW's who moved up to WW. The fact that Masvidal got a rematch after getting UD'd less than a year ago is a testament to how bad the division is in my opinion. I think Usman and Colby are levels above these guys.

I think Edwards could give Usman some problems on the feet but the question is his wrestling good enough? And Usman would be an awful matchup for Wonderboy. Colby and Edwards are the only guys Usman should be fighting.

Yea I think it is a good division tbh even if it's slightly down at the moment. I also think anytime there is a dominant champion that it makes a division look worse.

Usman, Colby, Leon, Wonderboy, Burns is a solid top 5.

Masvidal and his fans kept saying that "Full Camp Jorge" fighting Usman would be different. Fact of the matter is I like Masvidal, but people need to look at his fight record. He is a good fighter, but is not great. He never beat a top 5 guy in his career in either LW or WW. He lost to Maia and Wonderboy, before he got 3 wins a row against Till, Askren, and Diaz.

Diaz fought for LW in his career, who also had no top ten wins at WW. Masvidal gets a title shot beating Nate Diaz, who was coming off one win (Pettis), after 3 years. The knee Masvidal threw at Askren was great, but that was primarily "luck" against Askren, since Masvidal said afterwards he did not think he would really knock him out. Till was coming of a loss, and gifted decision over Wonderboy. Till was a good fighter, but who cut a lot of weight to make WW, and he moved up to 185 after that.

So, Masvidal gets a second crack at the WW title, with no top 5 wins at 170. Somehow, his fans thought Masvidal was the greatest thing since sliced bread. People are forgetting that for this rematch, Usman was getting a "full camp" also, and his striking is getting better each time. Betting on Usman last night was easy money and Super Necessary.

REDDzone wrote:Yea I think it is a good division tbh even if it's slightly down at the moment. I also think anytime there is a dominant champion that it makes a division look worse.

Usman, Colby, Leon, Wonderboy, Burns is a solid top 5.

I'd say that's a pretty mediocre top 5. Wonderboy is 38 years old and is 2-2 in his last 4 fights. His two wins coming against Neal and Luque who I don't rate too highly.
Burns is a LW who moved up to WW and found success but his two biggest wins are against two guys that are/were on the tail end of their career in Maia and Woodley.
Leon has fought once in 2 years and his best win was against RDA who although a good fighter was simply a gate keeper at WW. I like Leon and he's had some bad luck but none of these guys have fought each other and most of them clinging onto wins against fighters that are well past their prime.
HW and LHW are the only divisions that are worse in my opinion. WW is in an awful state right now.

Damn, I was wrong about Usman vs Jorge. I had Jorge countering over the top of a jab. But he was super, like, arrogant in his stand-up. A reversion to his stand-tall slap punching style of 5 years ago (e.g. against Wonder Boy). He didn't think Usman had a chance, he was smirking and overconfident.

It is great that he got really doinked unconscious. I would have liked to see a little more super necessary action. Why does Herb Dean let us down when we really need him?

Los_29 wrote:I'd say that's a pretty mediocre top 5. Wonderboy is 38 years old and is 2-2 in his last 4 fights. His two wins coming against Neal and Luque who I don't rate too highly.
Burns is a LW who moved up to WW and found success but his two biggest wins are against two guys that are/were on the tail end of their career in Maia and Woodley.
Leon has fought once in 2 years and his best win was against RDA who although a good fighter was simply a gate keeper at WW. I like Leon and he's had some bad luck but none of these guys have fought each other and most of them clinging onto wins against fighters that are well past their prime.
HW and LHW are the only divisions that are worse in my opinion. WW is in an awful state right now.

Well first off flyweight is for sure worse (should be abolished). Is JoeB still top 5? lolz.

Secondly this is all tangential to my point tbh. Masvidal spent the majority of his career at LW which for my money is the best division in the sport. That said, he spent the last 5 years at WW and has had a winning record in that time. I don't think we can argue the division has been sh*t that whole time, although admittedly 1-2 of his wins in that time were against blown up LWs.

I love Rose. Her reaction to winning was so wholesome and adorable.

As far as Mazvidal, last night clearly was a wake up call for the dude. At 36 now, where do you really go from here? Do you call it quits? I can’t wait to see Covington-Usman. Unlike everyone else in the division Covington legitimately has a chance, though with Usman’s improved striking Colby needs to be more prepared as well.

Man, Chris Weidman now has one of the saddest, most heart-rending career in the sport. The loss to Rockhold was crazy punishing. Then, 0-2 in NY state after all the fanfare centring around him. Including the flying knee to Yoel and whatever happened with Gegard. That's seriously humiliating stuff. Then a win followed by 2 one-punch KOs. Now, this. (Which was preceded by a cancellation after Chris got Covid)

The amount of times he has had to recover emotionally and psychologically from this **** is just too much. So many devastating losses.

Where was Matt Serra to credit Uriah with "you did that to him! put your **** hands up!" They celebrated mercilessly after the Anderson win.

jake_swivel wrote:

Prez wrote:Okay I'll ask it - what does Usman have to do for it to become a real discussion between him and GSP?

Maia-RDA-Woodley-Colby-Masvidal-Burns-Masvidal is an absolutely insane run. Literally all killers. If he beats Colby in a rematch and then whoever is after that (Leon or Wonderboy?), idk man. The discussion gets interesting

I think at this point GSP is done. He's 39 and that's ancient for any non-heavyweight. He's fought once in 8 years. He would've had a big size advantage on Khabib and would have taken away Khabib's crown as P4P of all time. I don't think the risk/reward is there for an Usman fight. It doesn't add to his legacy as much as a Khabib fight would, and Usman is just as much of a monster.

If anything, Khabib keeps saying he wants a challenge. Go fight Usman. That's a damn challenge and would sell huge. Not as much as GSP, but in the same universe at this point. Especially if Usman runs through Colby or puts on another thriller like the first fight.

Love Khabib but he would have no chance against Usman. Usman is just too big. Usman can’t make 155 so Khabib would have to move up to 170. Khabib walks into the octagon at 178 and Usman probably comes in at 190+. Then you have the 6 inch reach advantage and 2 inch height advantage on top of Usman’s superior stand up striking. And as good of a grappler/wrestler Khabib is, against Usman at that weight he no longer has the advantage.

The Rose KO was sorta flukey, I have to say. Zhang thought it was a body kick, made a move to let it go past her, but held her hands out to balance the movement. The foot snuck through that opening. The issue is I don't think Rose intended it as much more than a strike to keep Zhang honest.

Dupp wrote:Jorge didn’t respect his power at all. At one stage in the firs he almost let him hit him with a right And brushed it off. In the end that lack of respect cost him

He didn't respect any part of Usman's striking. He looked chagrined every time Usman landed on him. Which was plenty. Usman won a bunch of exchanges.

Jorge tried to counter that right hand with a counter hook so lazily. Like he was sparring a novice.

And that's just not even a good technique against a guy who throws their right hand w the full forward momentum of their body. Usman throws it like he's Superman taking off...straight-forward. I don't think you can use a pocket technique against that. It's not a boxing punch.

cowboyronnie wrote:Where was Matt Serra to credit Uriah with "you did that to him! put your **** hands up!" They celebrated mercilessly after the Anderson win.

I worry that this is going to really mess Uriah up. He's always seemed super conflicted about many things, and based on comments over the years I think you and I may be on the same wavelength as to what one of them is. That said, I think another one is that doubt he actually likes to hurt people, and I think he was just accepting that fact if he wants to be a killer in the division. But this? I think this might be devastating to him and will totally mess his head up.

yoyoboy wrote:I love Rose. Her reaction to winning was so wholesome and adorable.

As far as Mazvidal, last night clearly was a wake up call for the dude. At 36 now, where do you really go from here? Do you call it quits? I can’t wait to see Covington-Usman. Unlike everyone else in the division Covington legitimately has a chance, though with Usman’s improved striking Colby needs to be more prepared as well.

Loved the Rose moment. It looked like she endeared herself to everyone last night with the performance and the post-fight interview.

I wouldn’t expect Jorge to call it quits. There’s still some interesting things there for him in the division, even if he’s not in the title picture. A rematch with Wonderboy could work its way into the equation and be a great fight. We could see the Edwards fight finally happen — which would be good for both guys at this point. If Usman waxes Coby in the rematch, maybe there’s an angle to get Coby/Jorge especially after their history and the callouts.

Hard to say what his stock will be like, but I suspect it won’t have dropped all that much (in terms of fans desire to see him).

Amare_1_Knicks wrote:

yoyoboy wrote:I love Rose. Her reaction to winning was so wholesome and adorable.

As far as Mazvidal, last night clearly was a wake up call for the dude. At 36 now, where do you really go from here? Do you call it quits? I can’t wait to see Covington-Usman. Unlike everyone else in the division Covington legitimately has a chance, though with Usman’s improved striking Colby needs to be more prepared as well.

Loved the Rose moment. It looked like she endeared herself to everyone last night with the performance and the post-fight interview.

I wouldn’t expect Jorge to call it quits. There’s still some interesting things there for him in the division, even if he’s not in the title picture. A rematch with Wonderboy could work its way into the equation and be a great fight. We could see the Edwards fight finally happen — which would be good for both guys at this point. If Usman waxes Coby in the rematch, maybe there’s an angle to get Coby/Jorge especially after their history and the callouts.

Hard to say what his stock will be like, but I suspect it won’t have dropped all that much (in terms of fans desire to see him).

It was pretty ridiculous that they panned to Colby moments after the KO. a) Not Colby's moment, b) I think Colby gave the neck slash motion. Right, buddy. You really want that? It sounds about time for you to price yourself out of the re-match, I think.

That fight is going to be a slaughter. Colby can't possibly show up with confidence. And what is his gimmick now? Marty Snoozeman has finished 3 of 4, including Colby himself, in super dramatic fashion. Colby won't have finished a fight (minus injury) in 5 years.

Shaazzam wrote:

cowboyronnie wrote:Where was Matt Serra to credit Uriah with "you did that to him! put your **** hands up!" They celebrated mercilessly after the Anderson win.

I worry that this is going to really mess Uriah up. He's always seemed super conflicted about many things, and based on comments over the years I think you and I may be on the same wavelength as to what one of them is. That said, I think another one is that doubt he actually likes to hurt people, and I think he was just accepting that fact if he wants to be a killer in the division. But this? I think this might be devastating to him and will totally mess his head up.

Then he can watch Anderson Silva's leg wrap around Chris's knee and then remember that he fought Anderson and realize that Chris will more or less be ok after all of this.

Gruesome, yes but knowing what we know about this game that these guys play with their bodies and mind it's truly par for the course. He just checked a leg kick, he didn't do anything spectacular even.