ufc/pride

Well, Machida did significantly better against Weidman than Silva did. I look forward to the potential rematch. I do wonder how the fight may have changed had Machida been as aggressive early on as he was in rounds 4 and 5. Good stuff to Weidman though. His early game plan was strong, keep Machida's back close to the cage.

Ronda/Davis was unfortunate. Ronda is clearly number 1 right now, but these flash KO's happen. Maybe we'll get a rematch soon.

Uriah Hall went beast mode. Broken toe with the bone protruding out, and he still won the fight with a beautiful striking display. Borderline video game character fighting style lol. It's awesome to watch.

I gave rounds 1, 2, 3, and 5 to Weidman. Don't really see a rematch going in Machida's favor either. Especially if we take Weidman at his word that he had a terrible training camp. Machida is obviously still very skilled, but he's 36 now, and he isn't getting any younger. I look at him like I do Faber at this point. Good enough to continually challenge for the belt, but not good enough to win it.

That is a fair assessment, and illustrated well with the Faber reference. I guess I am still in awe of the last rounds, and the fact that noone has really done that to Weidman(has Weidman ever even lost a round?). The judges all gave 4 to Machida too.

I'm really bummed about Gus being out of the Jones fight. I wanted him to be the first to beat Jones. 🙁 Oh well, I'll have to settle for DC/Gus for the belt.

Yeah, they had such a good fight last time. Gustaffson really exposed Jones's lack of boxing.

On the plus side, Cormier/Jones is an interesting matchup on paper. I take it you side with DC, judging from your comment?

Absolutely.

Feel kind of bad for Overeem. 🙁

If he had the chin/defence to be able to hang with heavy hitting HWs, I feel like he'd be the best HW in the world. But as it stands, due to that one deficiency, he's getting KO'd by mediocre fighters. It's a real shame. Still think he's a real threat to absolutely any fighter on the planet (only guy I'd say he has no real chance against is JDS), and beats anybody that doesn't possess HW KO power. I think he'd destroy somebody like Jones for example if he ever moved up to HW.

So been out of the loop for a bit, but I have been catching up. Machida destroyed CB Dolloway early in the first round with a body kick, so that was a cool thing to come back to.

Also great to see Dos Anjos beat the hell out of Nate Diaz. Nate, even while getting beat down, was still keeping up his act. Tried slapping Anjos and was even shit talking while getting GnP'd.

Jones vs Cormier is happening on the 3rd so time to get excited.

Literally so pumped for Jones vs Cormier. Think it might be the biggest fight in UFC history, at least for me it is. Early prediction is that Cormier takes the fight to Jones, doesn't allow him to fight his long rangy style of fight, and continuously ragdolls him/beats him up and finishes him with strikes. I truly think he'll make it look easy.

I was initially thinking that Machida basically had nothing to gain and everything to lose in the CB Dolloway fight, but it was cool to see him effortlessly destroy a legit guy and add another great finish to his highlight reel. He and Frankie Edgar seem to be the two former champions that refuse to fall out of that elite level of fighting/title contention. I'm also further convinced that Machida has always been a better fighter than Anderson, and was just fighting at the tougher weightclass. Still can't believe Weidman was able to beat him.

Literally so pumped for the fight! Any last minute predictions?

The ways I see Jones possibly winning this:

1. If Cormier mentally isn't there, and becomes really tentative and gun shy and afraid to close the distance, where Jones proceeds to pick him apart from distance and slowly wear him down.

2. Catching him with something like a flying knee as Cormier tried to close the distance, or an elbow from close distance, that hurts Cormier.

3. Manages to get Cormier down (which I guess is certainly possible) and manages to hurt him with elbows in the brief time he'd have before Cormier gets back to his feet.

But of course I still think Cormier's chances of winning this are far more likely, and that he's going to be able to impose his will on the champ, and manage to land something that hurts him bad. Cormier by 2nd round TKO!

Jones wins by unanimous decision.

I HAVE SPOKEN!

Originally posted by appletonia
Literally so pumped for the fight! Any last minute predictions?

The ways I see Jones possibly winning this:

1. If Cormier mentally isn't there, and becomes really tentative and gun shy and afraid to close the distance, where Jones proceeds to pick him apart from distance and slowly wear him down.

Due to my FLAWLESS prediction I now demand to be refered to as LORD of the MMA thread!

Man this bloody sucks. 🙁

I had it 2-1 for DC going into the championship rounds (with the first round that I gave to Jones mostly being a feeling out process) and thought it was only a matter of time before DC connected with something big that would hurt Jon. It seems DC basically gassed which is what allowed Jones to take over.

I also know people are going to try and make a big deal about the takedowns, but the truth is that Jon got the first takedown from a kick, and the rest when DC was tired as hell and up against the cage. And DC did get to slam him at least once. But yeah was surprised at how good Jon's wrestling looked, he was pretty damn impossible to take down.

Really hope a rematch happens soon, and I still think DC has a really good chance to beat him. What this fight shows is that DC is fully capable of taking the fight to Jones and arguably beat him at it, but that Jones had the superior endurance going into the championship rounds. And what he did at the end of the fight was so lame.

Originally posted by appletonia
Man this bloody sucks. 🙁

I had it 2-1 for DC going into the championship rounds (with the first round that I gave to Jones mostly being a feeling out process) and thought it was only a matter of time before DC connected with something big that would hurt Jon. It seems DC basically gassed which is what allowed Jones to take over.

I also know people are going to try and make a big deal about the takedowns, but the truth is that Jon got the first takedown from a kick, and the rest when DC was tired as hell and up against the cage. And DC did get to slam him at least once. But yeah was surprised at how good Jon's wrestling looked, he was pretty damn impossible to take down.

Really hope a rematch happens soon, and I still think DC has a really good chance to beat him. What this fight shows is that DC is fully capable of taking the fight to Jones and arguably beat him at it, but that Jones had the superior endurance going into the championship rounds. And what he did at the end of the fight was so lame.

Rematch?

Jones dominated that fight in easy fashion. Listening to his post fight comments I believe his "Rope a dope" strategy of allowing Cormier to get those strikes off.

Cormier has at least 3-4 fights to get back into title contention.

I'm basing my opinion off of the fight we saw, not what the fighters said afterwards, and what we saw happen was a super close, gruelling fight in the first 3 rounds that DC absolutely was winning and causing more damage in (he was also able to close the distance pretty easily, and he was the clear aggressor), and a 4th round where DC looked really tired and where Jones proceeded to dominate the championship rounds. The domination happened in the later rounds when DC was tired; when they were fresh, DC was winning.

Cormier was landing a lot of big shots on Jones (as was Jones on DC) and he was starting to look like a real beaten up mess after the 3rd round. If Jones wants to say that he was letting that happen as part of some kind of strategy, I would personally have to believe that he's lying to discredit DC's performance during those 3 rounds, and to heighten his own.

yea i saw Cormier winning it also. Close fight though and i was very impressive by both sides. Cormier was able to hold his own in a striking battle and Jones being able to neutralize the takedowns. good fight.

Originally posted by dynamix
yea i saw Cormier winning it also. Close fight though and i was very impressive by both sides. Cormier was able to hold his own in a striking battle and Jones being able to neutralize the takedowns. good fight.

👆

It's even more impressive when you consider that that was probably the best Jones we've ever seen. Gus, as an example, did great against Jones but I don't think Jones took him as seriously or was anywhere near as hungry for that fight as he was for this.

I think DC lost and I honestly was never convinced he'd defeat Jones. That said, he impressed me. I expected him to pull a Rashad and turtle up the whole time, but he forced Jones to fight, for what it's worth. Jones was much better in the clinch, and on the inside in general, than DC predicted though.

I would watch a rematch but I am way more interested in a Gustaffson rematch right now. Say what you want, but Gustaffson is a better striker and actually outwrestled Jones during their match(something people thought DC would do.) He also doesn't suffer from a 20 foot reach disadvantage like everyone else Jones fights.

I think DC can beat Jones, but Jones winning is just more likely. Judging by this fight, DC needs a KO to win.

Regardless of how that went down, I'm still of the opinion that a healthy Cain would destroy him. He can do exactly what DC was able to, only with a much higher pace and the ability to easily outlast Jones, and I think he's a lot better at mixing things up as well and could sneak those takedowns in.

How do people think Jones would do against Werdum, Weidman, JDS, Overeem and prime Fedor?