Bellator 222 (Friday, 6/14): 2 titles, Chael-Machida

[REDDzone]

Ruth was ko'ing multiple respectable MMA fighters on the feet, made a run in the bjj Pan Ams, was a 3-time d1 wrestling champ, and is a special athlete for even the modern era. Neiman Gracie beat him both standing and ground. He was also 9-0.

You're right, this isn't UFC 4. Neiman Gracie isn't Royce Gracie and Ed Ruth isn't Ron Van Clief. You can't confidently say how Rory should have beat this Gracie with what he has done otherwise, especially if Rory's employing a "smart" gameplan instead of gambling to finish while risking giving up his back or ending up on bottom.

Ruth is one of the most well credentialed wrestlers in MMA today, but fyi I'm pretty sure his "pan am run" was at blue belt LOL. Just fyi.

[AirCanadaMouse]

Yup. Given how you neglect the points I’ve made, and the questions I’ve asked , you’re now clearly misinformed which is why you aren’t impressed and are grasping at straws at this point.

Was a good discussion though, seriously!


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[cowboyronnie]

It’s so subtle how great he is.

As you said, Rory showed no issues with Neiman. He was just subtle and smart. Then, all of a sudden, in a single fight out of nowhere with no forewarning at all could not be predicted who could have seen it certainly nothing evident in the Neiman fight where he was a master of subtlety, he lost that greatness.

[AirCanadaMouse]

He’s very inconsistent, even with my bias aside, it’s hard for me to rank him these days. One fight he looks elite, or least capable of beating the elite...then another fight looks completely off. Even now, I thought he performed very well against Lima the first time....then a bad performance against Fitch. Then a great performance against Neiman...then A fight which was nothing like the first one with Lima, just doesn’t have the same instinct.

Yet It’s not crazy to think he can could beat an Usman, Covington, Masvidal, and Diaz (again). Always gonna root for him, lol.


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[cowboyronnie]

One explanation is that he's wildly inconsistent. Completely random whether he shows up or not. But how does that explain that almost everyone knew he was going to perform like garbage Saturday night? I haven't missed a Rory fight since I watched him beat Condit. But I skipped Saturday and didn't think twice about it. Either, his downfall was evident during the Neiman fight or I'm in perfect synchrony with the Universe's random flux. Oh ****, that's really spooky.

[REDDzone]

His problem is the jesus stuff IMO. When asked about recent subpar performances, he was just like I think people have the wrong perspective, my life is richer than ever due to jesus.

IDK obviously that isn't a direct quote but the gist I got from it is that he doesn't give a sh*t anymore. This is the guy they used to call the Canadian psycho because he just wanted to hurt people, now he draws with Jon Fitch because he'd rather wrestle with him than punch him because he doesn't want to hurt his opponents.

[Bernman]

I saw plenty of venom from Rory in the Fitch fight. Fitch was holding onto him and getting beat up surrounding.

Rory basically fought the same as the first fight. He was trying to hold Lima up against the cage then and avoid damage. It was an easy adjustment for Lima, like he adjusted in the subsequent fights against Koreshkov, which was more complex. All this required is showing a little urgency getting off the cage. He did after the first rd. And he won. Would have won the first time, but was tactically naive and the judging criteria doesn't follow the scoring criteria. Lima effed him up worse that fight, and over 3-4 rds.

[cowboyronnie]

Same Rory, yep. He's just finally facing good competition. He had been coasting in the UFC's chicken**** WW division too long.