Max got pulled by the doctors, so Al Iaquinta is stepping in. Felder out. Ferguson out. Chiesa out. Artem out. Conor's shenanigans. Pettis and Felder are just kinda screwed as they have no one to fight.
What is happening? Lol
Last edited by StyleTime on Apr 7th, 2018 at 03:13 AM
In spite of the unfortunate happenings, the card wound up pretty solid.
Magomedsharipov/Bochniak was incredible. Glad it got moved up. Zabit is one of those exciting almost video game like fighters, and Bochniak is just a mad man. Great fight, although Bochniak seemed to think this was a boxing match, which is why he lost.
Karolina/Felice. Felice definitely impressed everyone, but Karolina's striking is ultimately more nuanced. Those transitions into clinch knees and elbows before getting back outside made a big difference. Still, split decision, so good on Felice for making it a fight.
Khabib/Iaquinta. Iaquinta is a warrior for even attempting this. I'm really surprised Khabib decided to strike for the last rounds. Khabib's jab was better than expected, and I never thought I'd see him throw a spinning side kick. I've gotta think Conor or Tony are praying Khabib fights them like that though lol
Rose/Joanna 2. It was super close, so I see giving Rose the win...but 49-46? Joanna was tearing Rose's leg up with low kicks, and generally took over the later rounds, as per her usual late start style. I'll have to rewatch the fight, but I just don't see 49-46.
Moicano/Katar. I like Katar, but he's got some things to work on compared to his competition. Katar's legs got destroyed, which opened him up for everything else.
Actually, that was a common theme throughout the card. You can't treat MMA like a boxing match. There's no gentleman's agreement to only throw punches, and the people who did so ate kicks/knees/elbows/spinningbackfists etc all night.
Machida/Belfort. Lovely front snap kick KO from Machida, and it came out of nowhere. Belfort wasn't kicking or anything when on the outside, which made coming in very difficult for him. Both are legends, so it's sad seeing either KO'd, but there is just something special about watching Machida. I feel like we have all been privileged to witness his use of karate in the era it happened. It's art, and he will be a figure of mythic proportions in the future.
Nunes/Pennington. Pennington is tough, but it sort of worked against her here. She really had no answer for Amanda's varied offense. Amanda is far more skilled than people understand, and her feints stop counter strikers. I feel like she will only lose to someone who can put her on the defensive, instead of letting the kick feints put them in a shell.
Kelvin/Jacare: Controversial split decision, but great fight. I'm really amazed by Kelvin's balance. He defended the single leg while hopping on one foot and while Jacare was actively trying to trip him. Jacare definitely scored several takedowns though, with Kelvin landing a knockdown and seemingly harder punches.
Dern/Cooper: Impressed Mackenzie won with striking essentially. While she ended with a choke, she put Cooper into topsy-turvy land with that punch. I guess Cooper was so concerned with the takedowns, she overlooked Mackenzie's hands.
Last edited by StyleTime on May 14th, 2018 at 05:45 AM
Wonderboy/Till was great if you like high level striking. Wonderboy's movement was incredible as usual. Till did have a neat little strategy against the cage though. Wonderboy would adopt that horse stance from karate, hiding which direction he was going to bounce to. Till would open both arms like a hug and not commit to either, which somewhat cuts off both escape routes. Wonderboy still usually got out though, as he's a master at this. Also Wonderboy scored a takedown which was neat since he never does that.
Anyway, controversial decision. Till got the knockdown in RD5 and Wonderboy followed with a double leg. I'm fine giving Till that round, but I still thought Wonderboy won the fight.
Two judges gave it to Till 49/46. Not sure I agree with that, but it was close.
Also, this weight cutting thing is a problem. Till missed weight. Overweight fighters are 7-1 this year and they are still letting this fly. It's rewarding fighters for ****ing up and giving them extea advantages. We really need hydration testing in UFC.
Didn't comment on this before, as I hadn't finished catching the fights I wanted. This event should have been named Reality Check, because we definitely had some eye opening fights. Cool event if you like seeing absolute blowouts.
Tatyana Suarez/Carla Esparza: The next generation has arrived. Tatyana is basically female Nurmagomedov. Carla is a two time All American wrestler and she got utterly outclassed in wrestling. She was getting body locked and slammed repeatedly. She had a few moments, likea nice bump escape in Round 3(?) iirc, but Tatyana's chain wrestling is just too much. Not to mention, she mixes in strikes perfectly. Carla eventually fell to wrestling exclusively just to survive, while Tatyana was able to outposition, control, and still land strikes. Carla's wrestling was already a problem for the other women, so Tatyana will be a straight up nightmare for most of these ladies. I'd love to see her vs Joanna next, Joanna excels in defensive wrestling while also being the most technical striker in that division.
Diego/White: Diego controlled White for a dominant decision. He got nailed with some upkicks but was never in real danger. White couldn't reverse position and his bottom game wasn't threatening enough to keep Diego honest.
Jessica/Karolina:
I like Karolina, but this was a horrible matchup for her. She is technical offensively, but her defense is basically letting herself get hit to return fire. That works against low power, high volume technicians like Joanna, but it gets you knocked out against power hitters like Jessica. This outcome makes sense, and I hope Karolina bounces back. She does have a win over the current champ Rose, so she's got the potential. Women's straweight just has so many stylistic matchups that screw with things though. It'll be a while before anyone goes on a long win streak at the top.
Montano/Shevchenko: Fight cancelled, but they stripped Montano and Shevchenko will fight for the belt with someone else soon. It's a wake up call because Montano I guess saw how UFC treats champs who are big stars. Weight cutting sucks but she needs to fix whatever went wrong with her dietician or camp ASAP.
Davis/Magomedsharipov: Zabit is the future. He was more tentative than normal, but he had a short notice replacement fight. And he still won with a very interesting modified kneebar from back mount. Also, he has really good trips.
Woodley/Till: I didn't pick a winner because I figured this could go either, little did I know Tyron was going to blow Darren out the water. Till looked like he didn't even belong there, and Tyron got a much needed finish. This was definitely a wake up call for everyone at Welterweight. Tyron got this rep for being boring because he was up against Wonderboy and Maia, two extremely dangerous martial artists who are the best in their areas. With Till out the way, I can't realistically see anyone challenging Tyron. Colby and Usman just plain won't be able to deal with his power, and Woodley is in their class wrestling wise too.
Wonderboy, stylistically, is probably the only one who really has a shot at giving Tyron trouble.
Last edited by StyleTime on Sep 11th, 2018 at 11:55 PM
Don't buy Montano's excuses. She made weight 3 times on the show and then once more. She didn't defend for nearly a year and wanted October or November, they gave her September. She accepted. She said the entire camp for this fight was focused on weight cutting, yet she was 144 pounds a few days out? Very unprofessional, the UFC did the right thing in stripping her. People can complain about other champions pulling out and fighters missing weight and whatever, but I don't ever remember a champion doing this a day before the fight. She also is extremely defensive and is taking little to no responsibility for HERSELF, SHE is the one who missed weight, and instead she is trying to point fingers and say it's unfair.
Awesome and welcome. The more the merrier. This thread was actually super active back in the day, but most of the regulars have moved on sadly. It'd be cool if we could get the lively discussions going again, like we use to have. I know we have other MMA fans from posts I see in other sub-forums, so the potential is definitely there.
Definitely. I agree. I meant it was a wake up call to Montano to get her shit in order. I'm not even sure Conor could get away with something like that, and he is the most untouchable fighter in the world right now.
It is interesting for Shevchenko though. At bantamweight, she and Amanda largely neutralize each other because of Amanda's intelligent offense and feints while Shevchenko has perfect counter strikes. Shevy's strikes are more varied, but Amanda has more raw power, and they both space very well. They basically cancel each other out, as we saw. I can't see most of the flyweight women replicating this though. Additionally, Shevchenko has a legit judo background that surprises people, as we've seen from her sub wins and take downs.
She actually hinted at a potential fight with Joanna for the belt, but she's beaten Joanna in Muay Thai 3 times already. Not sure MMA would be much different considering their styles, and Shevchenko is probably larger.
Montano may be fighting Valentina's sister next.
Last edited by StyleTime on Sep 14th, 2018 at 03:50 AM
Let me spit out some of the big potential fights. And see who is the best at picking fights. We can keep track, should keep things lively.
Conor Vs Khabib: I'm calling Khabib 60-40
Pettis vs Ferguson: I gotta go with Tony 70-30
Woodly vs Covington: I think this is Woodly's fight. 70-30
Diaz vs Poirier: Poirier's got this 70-30
Those are just a few big ones. Name some more and lets get the ball rolling.
__________________ "I killed them, of course. Just as I killed the Guardian. Just as I now kill you."
Conor vs Khabib - Gonna bank on Conor catching him and getting the finish over Khabib grinding him out round after round. Khabib is a beast, but he can't finish a slice of pizza. Conor might gas and so he is able to finish, but I think it more likely Conor gets him out of there within the first 2 rounds.
Ferguson vs Pettis - It's a 3 rounder, I think it'd be better for Tony if it was 5. I'll say he starts slow and even drops the first round, but then puts it together in the second and third and just walks through whatever Pettis throws at him and overwhelms him.
Woodley vs Covington - Woodley, not close. Colby has good cardio but Woodley is better at literally everything else. He can't handle that power for 5 rounds.
Diaz vs Poirier - Honestly, I'm not too sure. I'm leaning Poirier, but once in a while, Diaz comes in in shape and seems super motivated and just beats the hell out of guys. The Cerrone fight, the Jim Miller fight, the Michael Johnson fight. On the flip side, Poirier might just piece him up and leave Nate's face hanging off his skull looking like ground beef. Don't think either guy will finish the other, though. I'll say Poirier, what the hell.
Who do you guys think will win the Rockhold-Weidman rematch? Crazy the turn these two guys' careers took. A few years ago, both guys seemed like they were in their prime and came together in one of the most (on paper) competitive fights in UFC championship history. Now Weidman's lost 3 of his last 4 and Rockhold is getting ko'd every other fight. Crazy.
Cockhold has always been kind of chinny. Guy got dropped by Jacare back in the day. I'm not ready to write off his skills yet, plus Romero is an animal.
Weidman looks terrible though. He just sloths around the ring hoping to grab something.
Rockhold will probably light him up. This time without Weidman doing something dumb to initiate it.
Conor/Khabib: Originally, I would have taken Khabib, but I am leaning towards Conor at the moment. He actually frames really well, which helps him prevent takedowns while establishing distance. I know folks like to point to Barboza as an example of Khabib overcoming a striker, but it's important to understand that Barboza is more a kicker. Historically, people who are great at pressure based wrestling(Khabib) are able to shut down kickers because they don't have the distance to actually use their kicks effectively.
Conor, while he has kicks, is mostly a puncher. He can fire his attacks from right in front of Khabib without worrying as much about breaking his balance and giving up takedowns. His ability to frame properly will further assist in this. Khabib eats a lot of strikes coming in, and he just plain can't play that game with a KO artist like Conor. As we saw against Iaquinta, Khabib doesn't move his head well at all, and Conor could still land body shots early on while stuffing takedown attempts if Khabib suddenly learned to slip punches.
At the moment, I feel like this will look a lot like the Eddie Alvarez fight. Conor managing distance so he can drop bombs while his opponent is at a loss for how to get in.
Woodley/Covington: Woodley will knock Covington into an alternate reality. Equally good wrestler, great at executing gameplans, and has out of this world power. Covington can't expect to just grind a decision here.
Last edited by StyleTime on Sep 15th, 2018 at 10:42 PM
@trocity: Conor's cardio being shit is a complete myth. He has only gassed out twice: in a division that is two times above his natural weight class and in an entirely different sport. Alvarez, Mendez, and Poirier rave on about his pace.
__________________ "I killed them, of course. Just as I killed the Guardian. Just as I now kill you."
I exaggerated when I said shit, but he has a good pace when he's in control of the fight. When his opponent can weather the shots and start to come back, and all of a sudden Conor finds himself on the back foot, that's when he seems to have difficulty.
I just think Khabib is too slow and plodding. I used to think Khabib would beat him, but the more I think about it, the more confident I am McGregor KOs him.
Honestly, would a move to LHW be better for both these guys? That super weight cut was killing talented guys like Whitaker, who's now champ, and Rumble.
Additonally, I think Rockhold might be a victim of his ego. He looked annoyed to even have to wake up to fight Bisping in the rematch. It's not like Bisping did some crazy, Glory level feint to open Rockhold's defense up. Rockhold fought like he expected Bisping to knock himself out.
Chris....I actually started to like the guy a little more, at least until his horrible attempts at trash talking began, but I think his skills are better suited for the previous age of MW. He was basically more solid all-around than the MWs of his heyday, but the current MW elites are too much for him. Which is weird to say, since he isn't old. I don't see him ever holding the belt again, outside of some freak events that gives him a favorable stylistic route to a title fight. I'm not even sure he can put together a win streak in the top 10.
Last edited by StyleTime on Sep 16th, 2018 at 05:47 PM
The problem with the UFC is what it has always been, it has fighters under contract. For MMA to grow we need the fighters to have promoters and different almost equal versions of belts like in boxing. It picks who it wants and they are not always the best fighters. It was better when Pride and the UFC were around and Pride provided a better less sanitised MMA.
KMC Community Forums
Apr 7th, 2018 03:05 AM
