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

[Clyde_Style]

Very disappointed in what a schmuck Dana White is. Rolling out the red carpet for Trump, Tucker Carlson and Kid Rock is pathetic

Even if a good chunk of the fan base are MAGA, you don't have to turn the sport itself into a showcase for these criminals. The man tried to overthrow a fair election and you're debasing your platform to give him more free promotion.

I'm done watching the UFC. Dana White can kick rocks

P.S. Bill Burr and his wife sat directly behind them. She flipped off Trump with both hands. Good for her.

[HarthorneWingo]

Very disappointed in what a schmuck Dana White is. Rolling out the red carpet for Trump, Tucker Carlson and Kid Rock is pathetic

Even if a good chunk of the fan base are MAGA, you don't have to turn the sport itself into a showcase for these criminals. The man tried to overthrow a fair election and you're debasing your platform to give him more free promotion.

I'm done watching the UFC. Dana White can kick rocks

P.S. Bill Burr and his wife sat directly behind them. She flipped off Trump with both hands. Good for her.

Black women have that rare combination of confidence and honesty.

Watch on YouTube

[HarthorneWingo]

Now I'm concerned about Remi. Remi!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Where are you???????????

[j4remi]

Now I'm concerned about Remi. Remi!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Where are you???????????

I'm good fam . I've just been busy as hell between work, KFTV, my podcast, and life in general. So, I still haven't even gotten to watch back the MSG card...I bought the PPV just to play it back when I get downtime in a couple days.

Just based on the results I'll say:
- Pereira is a HOF'er in shorter time than anyone I can recall. He's also the kryptonite for Jiri. Jiri is a risk-taker and Pereira is pure technical discipline.

- The stoppage was fine, I've seen it played back, and I see some complaints but it Jiri was in a bad spot.

- Tom Aspinall is a MUCH more interesting opponent for Jon Jones than Stipe. At this point, the Miocic fight feels like a joke.

- Mackenzie Dern seems like a mid-tier lifer. She can never get the win that puts her into contention.

- Loopy Godinez won again...nice run. She's won 4 in a row, 6 of 7, and done all of that inside of 2022/23

- My hatred of inactive title-holders is transferring to inactive number-one contenders. For perspective:
Since Stipe Miocic lost his last fight; Tom Aspinall won two fights, tore his ACL, spent a year recovering, came back and won two more fights to become the interim champion. Stipe's last win over a fighter that's still on the UFC roster was in 2016 over Andrei Arlovski. But Aspinall won't get to fight Jon Jones, as it's already been granted to Stipe.

Another example:
Leon Edwards says after Colby Covington there are no interesting opponents at Welterweight...a damned lie. Colby hasn't fought in 2023, his last two wins are over Jorge Masvidal and Tyron Woodley (both retired). His last win over an active UFC fighter is from 2018 when he beat RDA. Since 2021, Colby is 1-1. In that span, Belal Muhammad is 6-0-1 (the No Decision was to Edwards btw) and Shavkhat Rakhmonov is 4-0.

Leon Edwards hasn't beaten any top-ten WW besides Usman. Colby doesn't have a win over a single top-ten WW. But they'll fight for the title, and Edwards wants to fight for the MW title if he wins . Meanwhile Belal Muhammad has beaten 4 top-ten WW's in his last 4 fights.

[HarthorneWingo]

Make Colby fight Leon.

[j4remi]

Make Colby fight Leon.

I think Colby should have to fight Belal to keep his title-shot. He's done nothing to earn it besides run his mouth.

Belal is the most deserving of the shot (plus he was supposed to fight Leon, but Leon nearly blinded him with the worst eye poke I've ever seen).

Then Shavkhat vs Wonderboy would either line up the next contender or set them up for the next number-one contender fight. So it'd wind up looking something like this:
Colby vs Belal (winner fights Leon)

Shavkhat vs Wonderboy (winner fights Burns/Usman/or the loser of Colby vs Belal for next title shot)

And in the meantime, someone like Geoff Neal or Ian Garry can keep climbing and be positioned to enter the conversation after.

[HarthorneWingo]

Make Colby fight Leon.

I think Colby should have to fight Belal to keep his title-shot. He's done nothing to earn it besides run his mouth.

Belal is the most deserving of the shot (plus he was supposed to fight Leon, but Leon nearly blinded him with the worst eye poke I've ever seen).

Then Shavkhat vs Wonderboy would either line up the next contender or set them up for the next number-one contender fight. So it'd wind up looking something like this:
Colby vs Belal (winner fights Leon)

Shavkhat vs Wonderboy (winner fights Burns/Usman/or the loser of Colby vs Belal for next title shot)

And in the meantime, someone like Geoff Neal or Ian Garry can keep climbing and be positioned to enter the conversation after.

Oh, you mean Ian MACHADO.

Didn’t Usman move up a weight class?

[j4remi]

Oh, you mean Ian MACHADO.

Didn’t Usman move up a weight class?

He fought Chimaev at 185 but that was because of the short-notice. There weren't any indications that he'd stick to MW. Considering the impact that extra weight had on grappling, I expect him to drop back down. But he might not, since he was relatively successful.

On another note. PFL has officially bought Bellator. We'll still get Bellator events for a while, but a lot less. PFL champs vs Bellator champs is already in the works.

[HarthorneWingo]

Oh, you mean Ian MACHADO.

Didn’t Usman move up a weight class?

He fought Chimaev at 185 but that was because of the short-notice. There weren't any indications that he'd stick to MW. Considering the impact that extra weight had on grappling, I expect him to drop back down. But he might not, since he was relatively successful.

On another note. PFL has officially bought Bellator. We'll still get Bellator events for a while, but a lot less. PFL champs vs Bellator champs is already in the works.

Yes, I saw the news of Bellator. Interesting. Hopefully, it stays in free ESPN.

I also saw some new about Khamzat vs. Periera. I assume that it would be at LHW. Can’t Khamzat just pick a weight class and stick with it?

[j4remi]

Yes, I saw the news of Bellator. Interesting. Hopefully, it stays in free ESPN.

I also saw some new about Khamzat vs. Periera. I assume that it would be at LHW. Can’t Khamzat just pick a weight class and stick with it?

I think Khamzat just wants opponents that don't grapple (the Khabib special). I'm not convinced he beats Usman at 170 or Strickland in a five-round fight. Pereira is only intriguing for Khamzat because he's barely been tested on the ground.

Realistically Pereira should run it back with Jan after how close their fight was or face Ankalaev. They've earned title shots at LHW.

[HarthorneWingo]

The People’s Champion! Sean Strickland discusses Ian “Machado” Garry and his wag wife who is 14 years his senior (40 years old and hot). So Garry lives with his wife AND her ex husband! And they have Ian on a vegan diet. You can’t make this shyt up.

Watch on YouTube

[j4remi]

The People’s Champion! Sean Strickland discusses Ian “Machado” Garry and his wag wife who is 14 years his senior (40 years old and hot). So Garry lives with his wife AND her ex husband! And they have Ian on a vegan diet. You can’t make this shyt up.

Watch on YouTube

Honestly, it's kinda effed up what Stickland's doing to Layla. Layla Anna-Lee has been in this MMA game for a long time; she was a cage-side reporter for Cage Warriors. Layla did good work and has always been cool to people commenting and supporting her work. She and Garry were together before he even got to the UFC.

The WAG book and ex-husband thing is sketchy, but now she's getting dogpiled. People are showing pictures of her with other fighters to prove she's been gold-digging forever when she was literally just doing her job.

It's Strickland being a ****. He picked a fight with Valentina Shevchenko for no damned reason either. The dude is overstaying his welcome fast. His honeymoon period with the fans will pass twice as fast as Adesanya's if he keeps up the penchant for attacking women...

[HarthorneWingo]

The People’s Champion! Sean Strickland discusses Ian “Machado” Garry and his wag wife who is 14 years his senior (40 years old and hot). So Garry lives with his wife AND her ex husband! And they have Ian on a vegan diet. You can’t make this shyt up.

Watch on YouTube

Honestly, it's kinda effed up what Stickland's doing to Layla. Layla Anna-Lee has been in this MMA game for a long time; she was a cage-side reporter for Cage Warriors. Layla did good work and has always been cool to people commenting and supporting her work. She and Garry were together before he even got to the UFC.

The WAG book and ex-husband thing is sketchy, but now she's getting dogpiled. People are showing pictures of her with other fighters to prove she's been gold-digging forever when she was literally just doing her job.

It's Strickland being a ****. He picked a fight with Valentina Shevchenko for no damned reason either. The dude is overstaying his welcome fast. His honeymoon period with the fans will pass twice as fast as Adesanya's if he keeps up the penchant for attacking women...

Sean’s definitely a misogynist but I think he’s trolling Garry, no? I mean, c’mon, living with the ex-husband is weird. I know nothing about the Layla Lee person or that Sean attacked Valentina.

[HarthorneWingo]

I think Sean "Robo Cop" Strickland! I think he just redeemed himself. And he did it in flip flops! lol

Watch on YouTube

[j4remi]

Sean’s definitely a misogynist but I think he’s trolling Garry, no? I mean, c’mon, living with the ex-husband is weird. I know nothing about the Layla Lee person or that Sean attacked Valentina.

The problem is people are either taking his trolling too seriously or not realizing that he's trolling. The pile-on is bad enough, but it's also just a bunch of lies.

Living with the ex-husband would be weird...but it's made up. The WAG book is from 2010 when Layla was reporting for the World Cup, surrounded by soccer wives (she was making fun of WAGs). Layla was on the World Cup beat before Ian Garry had a pro fight, but now she's a gold digger. Oh, and Ian didn't take Layla's ex-husband's name. He added her maiden name to his, but her ex-husband is Cullen not Machado.

And news aggregators just pushed out the lies. Hell, Daily Wire has covered the Ian/Layla story as if it's newsworthy...Ian's never even fought a top-10 opponent, how is this a story?

[waya]

Yes, I saw the news of Bellator. Interesting. Hopefully, it stays in free ESPN.

I also saw some new about Khamzat vs. Periera. I assume that it would be at LHW. Can’t Khamzat just pick a weight class and stick with it?

I think Khamzat just wants opponents that don't grapple (the Khabib special). I'm not convinced he beats Usman at 170 or Strickland in a five-round fight. Pereira is only intriguing for Khamzat because he's barely been tested on the ground.

Realistically Pereira should run it back with Jan after how close their fight was or face Ankalaev. They've earned title shots at LHW.

When did Khabib avoid grapplers? He easily beat prime RDA, who's schooled many, many fighters on the ground

[j4remi]

Yes, I saw the news of Bellator. Interesting. Hopefully, it stays in free ESPN.

I also saw some new about Khamzat vs. Periera. I assume that it would be at LHW. Can’t Khamzat just pick a weight class and stick with it?

I think Khamzat just wants opponents that don't grapple (the Khabib special). I'm not convinced he beats Usman at 170 or Strickland in a five-round fight. Pereira is only intriguing for Khamzat because he's barely been tested on the ground.

Realistically Pereira should run it back with Jan after how close their fight was or face Ankalaev. They've earned title shots at LHW.

When did Khabib avoid grapplers? He easily beat prime RDA, who's schooled many, many fighters on the ground

The man has 29 fights, and RDA is the only grappler worth naming. That's my point.

Even the RDA performance was incredibly mid. He took RDA down and held him there, but didn't do much damage and focused on winning the position battle. The next closest thing to an elite grappler that he fought was Gleison Tibau, and that was a debated decision. I guess you could gas up Thiago Tavares' grappling as a third name, but Thiago was barely a .500 fighter in the UFC.

[waya]

I think Khamzat just wants opponents that don't grapple (the Khabib special). I'm not convinced he beats Usman at 170 or Strickland in a five-round fight. Pereira is only intriguing for Khamzat because he's barely been tested on the ground.

Realistically Pereira should run it back with Jan after how close their fight was or face Ankalaev. They've earned title shots at LHW.

When did Khabib avoid grapplers? He easily beat prime RDA, who's schooled many, many fighters on the ground

The man has 29 fights, and RDA is the only grappler worth naming. That's my point.

Even the RDA performance was incredibly mid. He took RDA down and held him there, but didn't do much damage and focused on winning the position battle. The next closest thing to an elite grappler that he fought was Gleison Tibau, and that was a debated decision. I guess you could gas up Thiago Tavares' grappling as a third name, but Thiago was barely a .500 fighter in the UFC.

There not being any other elite grapplers for him to fight =/= him avoiding grapplers.

And calling the RDA performance mid is crazy. He won every round on the ground and on the feet, just not up to his usual standard of dominance (not surprising considering the heater RDA was on). That's a solid win against a guy who became champion less than a year later:

[HarthorneWingo]

Sean’s definitely a misogynist but I think he’s trolling Garry, no? I mean, c’mon, living with the ex-husband is weird. I know nothing about the Layla Lee person or that Sean attacked Valentina.

The problem is people are either taking his trolling too seriously or not realizing that he's trolling. The pile-on is bad enough, but it's also just a bunch of lies.

Living with the ex-husband would be weird...but it's made up. The WAG book is from 2010 when Layla was reporting for the World Cup, surrounded by soccer wives (she was making fun of WAGs). Layla was on the World Cup beat before Ian Garry had a pro fight, but now she's a gold digger. Oh, and Ian didn't take Layla's ex-husband's name. He added her maiden name to his, but her ex-husband is Cullen not Machado.

And news aggregators just pushed out the lies. Hell, Daily Wire has covered the Ian/Layla story as if it's newsworthy...Ian's never even fought a top-10 opponent, how is this a story?

Oh. That's why you're The Best! You need your own YouTube show, bro. Setting The Record Straight with Remi.

[j4remi]

There not being any other elite grapplers for him to fight =/= him avoiding grapplers.

And calling the RDA performance mid is crazy. He won every round on the ground and on the feet, just not up to his usual standard of dominance (not surprising considering the heater RDA was on). That's a solid win against a guy who became champion less than a year later:

RDA was nice, no doubt. It's a good win, better than solid even, but nothing special. Those were the tail end of the lay-and-pray days, and Khabib had hype because he generally didn't get stuck in stall-outs. But the two elite grapplers he faced stood up frequently (Tibau) or stalled him out (RDA).

I'd give Khabib a bigger pass on dodging elite grapplers if he'd gone up to fight GSP. He demanded a catchweight, which always seemed crazy for GSP who wound up at 185 rather than lighter. Islam is doing a lot of the things I'd wanted Khabib to do tbh. He fought an elite BJJ guy and tapped him out; then rematched the dude that gave him his toughest fight and KO'ed him...also Islam BODIED Tibau, but it was an aged version.