It's interesting that you brought up the HW division, because many think Jones needs to be fighting there instead. I have no idea what his walking weight is, but I saw him and Gustaffson standing next to Cain one time, and they actually looked larger lol.
Skill wise I think Jones could do well at HW, but the size issue remains. Some HWs, like Overeem, have to cut to make 265. These dudes are huge. I don't think Jones would be champ there, though we will probably never have the opportunity to see.
He did express interest in fighting at HW once though, so maybe he'll do an Anderson Silva and take a couple of fights outside of his division.
Last edited by StyleTime on Jan 7th, 2015 at 12:22 AM
I was a major PRIDE fanboy back in the day. We had many Pride fans here, but they've all been mia for a while unfortunately.
It wasn't just the fighters either. The events had better atmosphere. As corny as it sounds, there was a certaic magic to it all.
I watch UFC, but I still don't like the cage and the "rawr we're just so hardcore badass underground" image they want to keep. Also, the shitty nu-metal they play and that terrible pre-fight music with the wanna be latin chorus chanting.
Cliche is a ****.
Last edited by StyleTime on Jan 14th, 2015 at 06:07 AM
i'm not really a fan of MMA at the moment but, word, Pride was awesome! lots of memorable matches. Wanderlei vs Quinton, Quinton vs Chuck liddell, Sakuraba vs Carlos Newton (which to me is still the best display of technical brilliance.)
I miss the Grand Prix. Wish we could have tournament format here in the U.S.
Those were good matches. One of my favorites is Shogun destroying Arona. It wasn't the most technical or evenly matched fight, but Arona was really hated at the time. It was just great seeing him get beat up.
Remember when Crocop vs Fedor was the most anticipated fight in MMA? Whole different world back then.
Man Rumble is an absolute beast. I'm starting to think it's unwise to pick against Jones, but if anybody looks like they have a shot at just blasting him out of nowhere it's Rumble. Mousasi also with a spectacular performance against Hendo, would love to see a fight between him and Anderson depending on how Anderson looks against Diaz.
I am really surprised at the Rumble outcome. His striking is so....dare I say it, wild, that I can't believe he got that counter on Gustaffson. Surprised I haven't heard any "it was a fluke" comments yet.
I know we've said this before, after all Rashad has power too, but I think Rumble has a solid shot of blasting Jones. Rumble is outright more powerful, very fast, and Jones doesn't have one-shot KO power to return with.
On the other hand, Jones has improved his wrestling and strength if the DC fight is any indicator. He's also got Greg Jackson in his corner.
Last edited by StyleTime on Jan 28th, 2015 at 04:49 AM
Well, Silva won. His leg seems back to 100% as he was kicking with it pretty hard. Even threw in some spin kicks. I've never seen Nick so tentative around someone. I mean, he did his usual shenanigans, but in a much smaller amount than normal. He was a good sport afterwards though.
Silva cried after the decision. I guess this comeback meant a lot to him?
Not an avid fan of ring or cage fighting, but watching Arona pound Sakuraba probably turned off a lot of casual fans of MMA.
Arona had a lot of willpower and he performed as if he was fighting in an alley.
OTOH, Jake Butler (a light HW in OneFC) displays the same intensity as Arona. That is a match I'd like to see, however, Arona's ACL injuries keep him away from the ring.
Ronda finished Cat in 14 seconds. Cat was super aggressive for some reason and even willingly took the fight to the ground, where she obviously is at a disadvantage.
Apart from a rematch with Cat, Holly Holm is basically the only woman left to fight Ronda.
Jon Jones has been stripped of his LHW belt, and suspended indefinitely from the UFC for his alleged involvement in a hit-and-run accident that left a pregant woman with a broken arm.
Chad. He's grown into a very good striker and is arguably the hardest hitter in the division. He's more explosive than Conor, he's very quick at closing the distance to find his striking range and is used to fighting guys who possess a reach advantage against him. He mixes his takedowns with his striking very well, and Conor would most likely be less inclined to use much of his kicking game in fear of the takedown. He's got the more proven submission game, and would have the advantage in the tight scrambles on the feet and in the clinch as well. And the closer the distance of the striking exchanges, the more likely we'll see Chad hurt him with a big punch, and possibly knock him out or finish him with a submission or TKO.
I'm not going to also say that Chad would definitely be able to take and hold him down with ease as we really don't know how good Conor's defensive wrestling is in that area, but it's certainly a possibility and something that's happened to a lot of great strikers in the UFC, and as it stands Conor's defensive wrestling is basically untested, and similarly we don't really know quite how much his striking will be inhibited by the fear of the takedown. He's literally going from never having fought a wrestler, to fighting possibly the best wrestler in MMA today.
Conor cuts an absolutely huge amount of weight as well and we haven't seen whether he'll have the cardio to perform in the championship rounds either if the fight gets there. We also haven't really seen him face adversity in the UFC, and don't know how he'll handle getting hit with big shots or being smothered on the ground.
And as Chad has been pointing out, he hasn't had to deal with an entire training camp of trash talk with Conor, which is something that seems to mentally break a lot of fighters going into the fight. And while he indeed hasn't had a full training camp, it is true, and as Chad's been saying, that often fighters overtrain themselves and are usually physically ready a few weeks into it. And Conor has been training for a compeltely different kind of fighter, and now has to completely change his gameplan against a guy who is probably the worst stylistic matchup for him in the division.
For Conor to win, he has to keep the fight standing and at his range, and if he manages to do that he'll probably finish Chad pretty easily (and Conor is similarly a very hard hitter and certainly has as good a puncher's chance as one might hope for - Chad does also get hit, not as much as Conor but Aldo was able to repeatedly rock him in their second fight, and of course KO'd him in their first), but I just don't see that happening. In every other position, Chad has the advantage imo, and he's got the explosiveness, vastly improved movement, experience with successfully combating superior reach and the wrestling to dictate the position of the fight and make it very uncomfortable for Conor.
Edit - not that I don't have huge respect for Conor's skills however. I think that right this second, he may very well be the best striker in MMA. He's simply going up against one of the best, most athletic and most well rounded fighters in MMA today (ever, even), and has an unproven defensive wrestling game. I have him at #4 in my rankings (Aldo, Mendes and Edgar being the top 3). I'd probably pick him over Lamas for example, who's a spectacular fighter.
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Last edited by appletonia on Jul 10th, 2015 at 06:16 PM
This might have been wishful thinking. While Chad was a little tentative on the feet I found, he was definitely doing his thing with the wrestling, but simply didn't have the cardio to last long enough. The main thing the fight proved is that Conor has a pretty mediocre defensive wrestling game imo. You could probably argue that somebody like Clay Guida has a good chance to beat him based off of that fight. Though major props to that guy's chin, he was taking some serious bombs and didn't really look hurt once in the entire fight.
I think a full training camp Mendes would have probably taken it, and I think that Frankie Edgar is absolutely the toughest matchup out there for him. He's not got Mendes's power, but he's got the wrestling, and on top of that he is very active and moves very well, practically impossible to put away, the best cardio in the division, and the mental toughness and fight iq of a champ.
I think Aldo probably has the wrestling to deal with him as well, if he starts getting beaten up on the feet.
I too wonder if Chad's loss was due to the short notice of the fight. I don't think I've seen him gas like that before, and his wrestling took over that fight. Conor didn't have much of an answer for it. On a side note, I think if Mendes was taller, he could be champ lol. Dude is so damn short. I like him though.
Michelle Waterson looked fantastic last night too. Her armbar struggle was epic, and I thought she was done. Glad to see she came back and dominated. Her wrestling is much stronger than people think it is, and she was clearly the superior striker. Overall, she straight up outfought Angela at every range.
Lawler vs Macdonald was a fun fight. Once the feeling out was done, it went off the rails in the best way possible. I smell a third fight in the works for them. Lawler is one of those fighters that finds his peak later in life. He is so much better now in his 30's than he ever was in the past.
Honestly, I think Aldo's leg kicks are going to shred Ian. Without his mobility, I see Ian going down hard.
Last edited by StyleTime on Jul 13th, 2015 at 05:20 PM
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