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

[HarthorneWingo]

I just stumbled upon this excellent breakdown of Ali's "phantom punch" against Listen for fight no. 2 between them.

Watch on YouTube

[HarthorneWingo]

This segment on Michael Chandler and his family has me weeping. I had no idea.

[HarthorneWingo]

Derek Minner! Where'd he come from?

That's what you get, Charles Rosita, for not touching gloves. lol

[HarthorneWingo]

The Beast!

[GEOLINK]

Never count Black Beast out! Holy hell!

[bringbackhoffa]

God damn black beast

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[HarthorneWingo]

Never count Black Beast out! Holy hell!

It's unbelievable. He's never out of a fight until the ref rings the bell.

Volkov vs. The Beast?

[bringbackhoffa]

Some interesting stuff can happen in the next 2 weeks. If izzy beats Jan, give Jon Jones the tune up fight at heavy weight vs the black beast. That fight could do between 700k to 1 mil ppv buys. Either way it should be a win win for the ufc. If Jones wins he faces the winner of ngannou v stiepe in another money fight. If Jon loses he can go down and face izzy still in a big money fight at 205.

If black beast win, he faces ngannou likely, since I see stipe retiring if he beats nganou and Jones not next for the pay day. 2 knock out artists and hopefully not boring this time around going for the heavyweight belt would be amazing.

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[GEOLINK]

Never count Black Beast out! Holy hell!

It's unbelievable. He's never out of a fight until the ref rings the bell.

Volkov vs. The Beast?

That would be an interesting one.

Volkov was dominating till the end.

[HarthorneWingo]

Never count Black Beast out! Holy hell!

It's unbelievable. He's never out of a fight until the ref rings the bell.

Volkov vs. The Beast?

That would be an interesting one.

Volkov was dominating till the end.

Of course!

[HarthorneWingo]

The Beast has to be no. 3 contender now. The Weasel says that The Beast should get the winner of the Rozenstuik vs. Gane fight. If that's true, then maybe the loser gets Volkov or Blayes? Or does Blaydes fight Volkov?

[j4remi]

The Beast has to be no. 3 contender now. The Weasel says that The Beast should get the winner of the Rozenstuik vs. Gane fight. If that's true, then maybe the loser gets Volkov or Blayes? Or does Blaydes fight Volkov?

I think it depends on who wins and how he looks. I'm not sure the UFC would rush Rozenstruik up the ladder while Ngannou is potentially champ. Gane is a big upside play though. Regardless of wins and losses, the match-ups I'm most intrigued by for all these guys are
Volkov vs Gane (watching two giants with so much technical striking would be epic)
Lewis vs Stipe (just curious to see how this plays out and if Lewis can find a way through Stipe's incredibly disciplined game)
Ngannou vs Jones (GOAT vs the most powerful puncher we've seen)

Rozenstruik is the odd man out for me. Reem gave him too many problems and Ngannou almost caught a homicide. If he beats Gane, that could pick my enthusiasm back up for him. He's really good but I don't see him making any match-ups more interesting than what we have above.

[j4remi]

I just stumbled upon this excellent breakdown of Ali's "phantom punch" against Listen for fight no. 2 between them.

Watch on YouTube

I love this clip for the lesson in pull-counters that it imparts. It does a nice job of explaining the nuances that go into setting 'em up. Speaking of fighters taking dives, here's a really recent story that i thought was interesting...

https://www.mmafighting.com/2021/2/19/22290992/mma-fighter-leonardo-barbosa-took-a-dive-threatened-gunman-afghanistan

Barbosa took to social media afterwards to confirm he lost on purpose, saying he felt threatened by a gunman. The post has since been set private after receiving several messages from “aggressive” Afghan people calling him a “liar,” he said, but Barbosa spoke with MMA Fighting on Friday to reveal more details.

The lightweight fighter said he signed a four-fight deal with the company after winning 13 of his previous 15 bouts on the Brazilian regional circuit dating back to 2012, and was very complimentary of the promotion’s structure up until fight night, when “fans entered the locker room to celebrate with the winning fighters.”

According to Barbosa, a man entered his locker room that evening and “started screaming things” in his native language. Barbosa couldn’t understand a word he was saying. He did understand the message, however, when this man allegedly showed him he was carrying a gun. The Brazilian said he later spotted that main “in the VIP area during the fight, real close to the cage.”

“He kept screaming, extremely aggressive,” he said. “He got closer to the cage in between rounds and started saying something similar to what he had said in the locker room, only more aggressive. I was winning the fight, I won the first round well, my opponent had a broken nose and needed surgery the next day, and I think I would have won, but I felt unable to do anything in that fight.”

Barbosa flew from Brazil to Afghanistan by himself since his manager, the only person that would accompany him on this trip, tested positive for COVID-19 a day before they were scheduled to leave the country. Barbosa only had an Iranian man in his corner, a person he met during this trip.

“And then that happened. I threw the fight,” he admits. “I came back different for the second round, a series of things were going through my mind. I have a son, I have a family. Him killing me wasn’t my biggest fear because the repercussion would be huge, but, I don’t know, people there are a bit complicated. It’s complicated, really. That region is still at war, there are terrorist attacks going on and people is kind of used to that now. A car exploded while I was there and they simply isolated the street, the army put a detour to another street and that’s it.”

Here's the dive:

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[HarthorneWingo]

Hey. Check this out. 16 years old making her professional MMA debut. Meisha Tate tweeted "The future of MMA"

Watch on YouTube

[j4remi]

Hey. Check this out. 16 years old making her professional MMA debut. Meisha Tate tweeted "The future of MMA"

Watch on YouTube

Her sister Angela Lee is one of the best female fighters not in the UFC and their brother is an absolute beast (harder to rate though).

The Lee family is over here putting One on their backs along with the Fairtex team, though Stamp has fallen off a bit. For women's combat sports, I really like what One has built. If the UFC ever started Atom Weight, they'd need One to help out.

[j4remi]

So i been slacking on write-ups...but i did make some time to record a podcast for UFC 259.

https://anchor.fm/FTESWL/episodes/UFC-259-Podcast-erea42

We meant to make it a quick hitter, but that never happens once we get going because there's so much to talk about lol. Anyway, this UFC is STACKED (all of March is really). Three title fights and quality throughout even the prelims.

We talked a lot on Adesanya vs Blachowicz and Aljo vs Yan. Amanda Nunes vs Megan Anderson feels like a massive mismatch so we kinda flew through that one. Thiago Santos vs Aleksandar Rakic allowed me to gas Rakic a bit, he's slept on. Then Islam "next Khabib" Makachaev fights Drew "from journeyman to potential top 15" Dober. I think both those non-title fights are awesome.

I also put the upset watch on Cruz and Benavidez. They're fighting Casey Kenney and Askar Askarov...Askarov is already ready for a title fight I think. He's that good. Fought Moreno to a draw.

Then others to watch...Song Yadong is back against Kyler Phillips. Phillips has some hype but I've always slept on him and continue to. Yadong is explosive and powerful, but needs to fine tune a few things and expand to really reach his potential. Kai Kara-France is always entertaining and he's got an opponent I'm not familiar with but who has a nice record. Early prelims got Jake Mathews and Tim Elliot appearances.

There's a LOT to like on this card. Makes it even more messed up that Kamaru Usman's PPV got shafted. Usman is among the most dominant champs in the UFC, he's beaten everybody but Wonderboy. But Usman got a super light card while March is loaded top to bottom.

Anyway, for more in-depth looks...podcast is above.

[HarthorneWingo]

Hey. Check this out. 16 years old making her professional MMA debut. Meisha Tate tweeted "The future of MMA"

Watch on YouTube

Her sister Angela Lee is one of the best female fighters not in the UFC and their brother is an absolute beast (harder to rate though).

The Lee family is over here putting One on their backs along with the Fairtex team, though Stamp has fallen off a bit. For women's combat sports, I really like what One has built. If the UFC ever started Atom Weight, they'd need One to help out.

Yeah, I've been learning about the Lee family. I watched a couple matches with her brother, Christian. You think he has the skills to make it to the UFC?

[j4remi]

Yeah, I've been learning about the Lee family. I watched a couple matches with her brother, Christian. You think he has the skills to make it to the UFC?

I think so. The only thing is, he'd probably fight LW which is the UFC's deepest division. I think if he wants to be in the UFC, he'll be able to fight there at some point in his career. He's super young and already legit! With both the older Lees, I just think it's a matter of contract negotiations. One takes care of them.

[Grinditout]

Polish power should probably just wrestle f*ck Izzy to a decision.

Yan and Sterling is the more intriguing matchup to me

[HarthorneWingo]

Polish power should probably just wrestle f*ck Izzy to a decision.

Yan and Sterling is the more intriguing matchup to me

Yan vs Sterling is going to be wild.