UFC 235 (3/3): Jones vs. Some Guy

[lilfishi22]

The Jones fight was so **** weird. I put it on to watch this afternoon with random relatives around. I didn't know exactly how to explain that this was fighting and not some weird man-intimacy. Just pinning Smith in a ball and leaning into him? WTF is going on?

Yeah there were plenty of times when I thought he could've gone for the finish but it seemed like he was kind of content to keep Smith against the fence and using him as a punching bag or one of those grappling dummies. Credit to Smith though for the punishment he endured. A lot of guys would've crumpled taking some of those shots and no one would've blamed them for it.

[cowboyronnie]

Jones pops for MDMA, watch.

That was 90 percent just non-penetrative intimacy.

[Bernman]

Dream ascent for who? I'm not an Askren fan. I've rooted against him for much of his career, said I figure he'd lose against many of the top ww's in UFC because he's too one-dimensional, and am merely interested in how he'd fare against those different fighters after all this time when we were curious. We've just seen him against Lawler. There's not enough impetus to see the same fight again, imo. His UFC career will probably be brief. He came out of retirement.

And I'm asking for consistency here from Dana/the UFC. You see random match-ups and title fights run back right away, but contendership matches immediately? There's not much precedent off the top of my head. For example there were a couple fights between Poirier's rematch w/ Alvarez.

[NO-KG-AI]

If a choke/squeeze sinks and a guy's arm goes completely limp and he's just sitting there, the ref has to stop it. That's not a bad call in hindsight, either you were out for a second, or playing opossum, either way, not our problem. I love Robbie, but damn.

[lilfishi22]

So Cody has lost 3 straight by (T)KO and every time he lost in moments where he threw caution to the wind to trusting the brawl more than the movement he showed off in the Dom fight and got dropped. Where does he go from here? He doesn't turn 28 until July and has only been a pro for about 7 years

[Headliner]

So Cody has lost 3 straight by (T)KO and every time he lost in moments where he threw caution to the wind to trusting the brawl more than the movement he showed off in the Dom fight and got dropped. Where does he go from here? He doesn't turn 28 until July and has only been a pro for about 7 years

He goes the Bararo route into obscurity

His chin is gone now
He should try for one more money fight if possible if not retire and save his brain

[cowboyronnie]

Look back at Lawler's career and tell me he doesn't deserve an immediate rematch. The dude is first ballot HOF. Some of the greatest fights of all time. Manhoef, Rory, Hendricks, etc. 4 time defending champion. 18 years in the game
Meanwhile, hed just laid down a beating on Askren, his only error falling into a schoolyard headlock.

[REDDzone]

So Cody has lost 3 straight by (T)KO and every time he lost in moments where he threw caution to the wind to trusting the brawl more than the movement he showed off in the Dom fight and got dropped. Where does he go from here? He doesn't turn 28 until July and has only been a pro for about 7 years

He's been KOed brutally like 4 times now at age 28. Doesn't bode well for his long-term prospects of not eating from a straw.

[REDDzone]

And I'm asking for consistency here from Dana/the UFC. You see random match-ups and title fights run back right away, but contendership matches immediately? There's not much precedent off the top of my head. For example there were a couple fights between Poirier's rematch w/ Alvarez.

There was a narrative that the UFC and Dana were sending Robbie in to take out Askren because of Dana's dislike of him. Who knows what is true, but it was enough of a story that Ariel was asking Ben about it in interviews. It's not surprising Dana would be salty about it. It is kind of funny though that he's much more butthurt than Lawler himself is lol.

[cowboyronnie]

So Cody has lost 3 straight by (T)KO and every time he lost in moments where he threw caution to the wind to trusting the brawl more than the movement he showed off in the Dom fight and got dropped. Where does he go from here? He doesn't turn 28 until July and has only been a pro for about 7 years

He's been KOed brutally like 4 times now at age 28. Doesn't bode well for his long-term prospects of not eating from a straw.

He's been drinking from a straw intellectually for years. What does he have to lose? He's not going to pivot to an MBA. He needs cage fighting.

[Headliner]

Look back at Lawler's career and tell me he doesn't deserve an immediate rematch. The dude is first ballot HOF. Some of the greatest fights of all time. Manhoef, Rory, Hendricks, etc. 4 time defending champion. 18 years in the game
Meanwhile, hed just laid down a beating on Askren, his only error falling into a schoolyard headlock.

For sure, but really what’s to gain for either.
Just ignore the loss as a loss in regards to match making and give Lawler the loser of Till vs Masidival and Askren the winner.

[NO-KG-AI]

Just do Askren Vs Usman now.

[13th Man]

Lawler wasn't getting out of that choke. I'm a BJJ brown belt and this is a great assessment by the Gracies:

Watch on YouTube

[Headliner]

Love that breakdown. Those guys are did a great job.

Askren for Usman, let's do it.

[REDDzone]

Askren was like "Ariel I smash watermelons with my bare hands and I had 1:40 left in the round." LOL.

[TroyD92]

Dana is proving Askren right in trying to set up the rematch already. There's nothing in it for Ben or the UFC if they want to sell him as a draw/contender. Otherwise they'd be moving forward with his career, controversy or not. They've done it before. The stoppage wound up to be the wrong call in hindsight, but without the benefit of that it was the correct one, and Lawler has himself partially to blame for not listening to instructions.

But who is the better **** fighter? Lawler has proven that his listening & response skills are not elite of the elite, that's about it. Other than that, he slammed Ben stupid and was close to stopping him moments earlier.

This is a competition and last night resolved nothing. It was a fluke circumstance. Run it back. If that interferes with a dream ascent of Askren, so be it.

Askren doesn't want to fight Lawler, never did. He's 34 with a dad bod, let him fight the Masvidals, Usmans, Tills of the world. People he actually has heat with before he retires.

[Headliner]

Ya, Askren is an interest case. He's more so interested in head hunting than he is climbing the ranks and earning the title.
I think him and Woodly had the idea that Woodly would win, then fight for 185 and relinquish the title, and that's when Askren could fight for it.
Now that's all up in the air, and he might be more interested in just getting the names on his record as a validation to himself that he is/was always elite.

[cowboyronnie]

Dana is proving Askren right in trying to set up the rematch already. There's nothing in it for Ben or the UFC if they want to sell him as a draw/contender. Otherwise they'd be moving forward with his career, controversy or not. They've done it before. The stoppage wound up to be the wrong call in hindsight, but without the benefit of that it was the correct one, and Lawler has himself partially to blame for not listening to instructions.

But who is the better **** fighter? Lawler has proven that his listening & response skills are not elite of the elite, that's about it. Other than that, he slammed Ben stupid and was close to stopping him moments earlier.

This is a competition and last night resolved nothing. It was a fluke circumstance. Run it back. If that interferes with a dream ascent of Askren, so be it.

Askren doesn't want to fight Lawler, never did. He's 34 with a dad bod, let him fight the Masvidals, Usmans, Tills of the world. People he actually has heat with before he retires.

But why??? Why curate him the perfect career? "Let him" get what he wants and "doesn't want"? The guy hadn't fought once in the God damn organization before Saturday. We're curating him a perfect cap to his career, despite him having decided to spend the majority of it out of the UFC?

If this is what you're calling for, don't complain about any non-competition decisions the UFC ever makes.

Analogy: Arvydas Sabonis decided to cap his career in the NBA at like 36 after years in Europe. The NBA didn't then delegate head-to-head playoffs so that we got to see Sabonis vs Robinson, Sabonis vs Shaq. Ohh, you know what would be great, Sabonis vs Jordan as his final season? The two GOATs!! Switch Portland's conference, if you need to, I want to see that!!!!!

Meanwhile, a Robinson of MMA - Lawler - just got jacked out of a legit competition. And we're letting Sabonis step over him because Sabonis "doesn't want" a re-match but would prefer to test himself against Shaq for a big payday.

**** that.

[cowboyronnie]

The UFC may not make the competition-value decisions. But why would the fans not? Askren got knocked around, slammed on his head (a wrestler), and pounded stupid. The odds on him winning a re-match with Lawler would surely be lower than his original odds on beating Lawler. He won because of what we all acknowledge was a fluke and an act of God. Not really anyone's fault. But let's not run it back because Askren - a loud-mouth whose biggest win is, like, Lima by UD in Windsor 7 years ago - doesn't want to?

[Headliner]

This is MMA though, fights are allowed to be rejected. No on has to fight anyone, you can't force anything. In this case Askren is 34, and doesn't have a ton of time in the sport left. He already had his fight postponed and pushed back two months, now they want to run it again which means another bunch of months missed. let's say 3-4 months. Why should Askren be punished for the refs early call? If Askren wants to do it again, fine, but if he doesn't want it, he doesn't have to he's the only one in the situation that is at zero fault. There's interesting matchups to be made and the UFC can easly give Lawler another fight and look at the fight as a NC for match making purposes if they want to.