ufc/pride

Well, now that Elden Ring isn't gripping me so tightly, I finally watched some fights. Plus, this card had some really important fights on it.

Khamzat vs Burns: Finally got some answers on a lot of questions. In a way, both sides were correct about Khamzat. He proved he can take a top 10er, BUT it was an absolutely grueling fight for both of them. He could for sure fight for a title now, but he definitely look as invincible as before.

And I still favor Usman against him tbh. I know it's controversial for some, but I just see Usman beating him. Burns neutralized the wrestling and Usman is on a level above that.
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Yan vs Sterling. Judging really is a hard job, especially in fights like this. Split decision for Aljo, but I would understand picking either fighter tbh. Either way, this builds the narrative for a third fight. And I will totally watch a third fight.

Going by the official scorecards, everyone agrees Petr won rounds 4/5. Aljo won 2/3. The 1st round is the question mark.
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Volkanovski vs Korean Zombie. Good stoppage by Herb Dean. Volkanovski really is just a different breed of martial artist. No need for KZ to keep getting blasted when it was clear he just had no answer in this fight at all.

Volk is already skilled as hell, and seemed like he moved at 3x the speed of KZ. I guess that athleticism is from his years of playing Rugby. He's just got a seemingly unstoppable set of attributes and skills.

👍

Awesome and grueling fight. The big question for chimaev : is the hype over? In a way yes, he was expected to run thru Gilbert but didn't. Gilbert humanized him in a sense. Now he's got another tough task ahead of him in his supposed match with Colby. That's gonna be interesting. .

And the battle continues, honestly I thought petr won the fight, but I give credit to aljo for doing his thing.

Alexander still owes max a fight before he moves up.

Oliveira has been stripped of his title due to missing weight for the Gaethje fight.

If Gaethje wins, Gaethje will be the new LW champ.

BUT, Oliveira will not become champ if he wins. He will simply become the #1 contender again, and have to fight for the belt later.

Gaethje/Oliveira was a very brief, very violent fight.

Rose/Carla was the opposite -- long and uneventful. We have a new champ in Carla though. I was wondering the entire time if Rose realized Carla may be winning. With nothing else to go on, it's not surprising that her aggression and few takedowns sealed the deal.

I'm sure there will be a 3rd match, but Rose can't passively sit behind her defense if she wants the belt back. It just leaves too much to the judges, as we saw.

So, Makhachev submits Charles Oliveira in the first round. I knew Makhachev could win, but I didn't expect it to be so dominant.

I suppose Charles's style had to catch up with him eventually. His recent fights are always back-and-forth wars where he gets dropped along with his opponents. Makhachev wasn't afraid to follow Charles down after dropping him though.

Being Khabib's training partner of 22 years means you don't fear anyone on the ground. And honestly, Islam was doing well on the feet too. It's not the prettiest striking game, but it works.

It's shame about Dillashaw's injury, although congrats to Aljamain. I had him winning either way, but injuries always put an asterisk next to things.

I thought Yan beat O'malley. Weird decision imo, although O'malley made it a hell of a fight.

Izzy vs Alex was a really high level striking fight, but I suppose Alex will always be Izzy's kryptonite stylistically. Izzy is better technically, but Alex only needs to catch you once.

It's weird to say, but Izzy had the grappling advantage here. I wonder if things would have gone differently had he pressed it more.

Also, Rumble has passed away at age 38. Cause of death appear to be Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis and non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.

RIP

Why I hate the ufc in a single video. You don't see this happening to BJJ practitioners anymore against strikers with a strong take down defence.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=899lucj3KvE

That said Sakuraba was good on the ground too but, he destroyed hoyler Gracie here with low kicks and soccer kicks. Delicious!

Jon Jones is making his triumphant return to face ciryl gane in a heavyweight championship fight. What do you think about this fight?
And what will be francis's next move?

Also we have a confirmed rematch between usman vs Edward's

Originally posted by Old Man Whirly!
Why I hate the ufc in a single video. You don't see this happening to BJJ practitioners anymore against strikers with a strong take down defence.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=899lucj3KvE

That said Sakuraba was good on the ground too but, he destroyed hoyler Gracie here with low kicks and soccer kicks. Delicious!

The last time I saw something like this was Matt Hammil (wrestler)vs Thiago silva. (Mauy thai)
Thiago had good wrestling defense and destroyed him with leg and body kicks.

The sport has evolved past strong one dimensional fighters

Originally posted by Old Man Whirly!
Why I hate the ufc in a single video. You don't see this happening to BJJ practitioners anymore against strikers with a strong take down defence.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=899lucj3KvE

That said Sakuraba was good on the ground too but, he destroyed hoyler Gracie here with low kicks and soccer kicks. Delicious!

Originally posted by Booya_69
Jon Jones is making his triumphant return to face ciryl gane in a heavyweight championship fight. What do you think about this fight?
And what will be francis's next move?

Originally posted by StyleTime
The Francis situation is fascinating to me. He's the current best heavyweight, and left the UFC. He's going to make a massive payday where ever he goes, and it will also say a lot about UFC's competitors if they manage to challenge him. The whole "UFC is the best" won't be a given if Francis loses.

So, if Volkanovski beats Makhachev, his p4p #1 status is undisputed, right?

Volkanovski already has a strong claim to p4p#1, even if he loses of course, but a win here would remove all doubt.

Volk was robbed imo
Smh...

The mma gods are spiteful, as they haven't forgotten max vs volkanoski II

Yeah, it was definitely close as hell. Thrilling fight too, with lots of interesting twists. I'll happily watch that rematch.

Even with the loss, this actually added to Volkanovski's credibility. Being the smaller guy, yet performing so well just shows he's truly a p4p great.

UFC actually still has him ranked p4p #1 now. Volk is just incredible.

UFC 285 PREDICTIONS

Jones VS Gane WINNER 3RD 2:58 VIA TKO JONES

Shevchenko VS Grasso WINNER 4RD KO 1:57 Shevchenko

I guess it's just a symptom of heavyweight being so weak that Gane even made it this far with such little grappling ability. The fact that Jones submitted him that quickly does not bode well for that division.

The big shocker was Valentina losing to Alexa though...by submission of all things. Sure, we can blame the missed spinning back kick for giving Alexa the opening to take Valentine's back, but Alexa was competitive the whole fight.

Seems like the division is just plain catching up to Valentina. I'm definitely interested in the rematch, but I think it'll be close like this one.

Did you watch Catching Lightning?