The Fight Thread

[haunted]

I wonder if mcgregor will move up if he beats Aldo again. He's said he's always wanted to if he wins out the featherweight division. Also, the lightweight division is not the juggernaut it once was. Benson is a mixture of washed up and outclassed, Gil Melendez fading away as well, khabib has ANOTHER injury which he states may be career ending(this really sucks, this kid is bad to the bone), etc.... So that leaves dos anjos, Pettis, and cerrone as the main threats. With khabib out of it, it's a lot more doable.

[|iR|Focalor]

I hope not. He's still got plenty of guys in the featherweight division that he hasn't beaten yet, and I'd love to see him do it. (A Connor McGregor vs Cub Swanson fight would be AWESOME) He's still pretty young too, so weight cutting isn't as hard on him as it will be once he approaches 30.

I'm kinda liking how belts are getting taken from people here in the last few months. For the longest time, so many of these champions went unchallenged. Nice to see some shuffling going on that's gonna create better matchups amongst the top ranked contenders in all the divisions. The way it was with all these longstanding champs, it made it harder for the guys inside of the top 10 to gain ground towards a title fight opportunity. Also made it impossible for guys outside out of the top 10 to move INTO the top 10. Shit's breaking loose now and there's more than just one single path to the belt.

Now if we can just find someone besides John Dodson and Joseph Benavidez to fight Mighty Mouse Johnson, then maybe some more interesting shit could happen in the flyweight division too. But Jesus fucking Christ, I swear Johnson is a god damn machine. Flyweights don't have the one-hit KO power like other divisions, so it's unlikely anyones ever gonna get lucky and KO Demetrius Johnson. And it ain't like anyone is good enough to tackle him, pin him down and then pound him out either.

[|iR|Focalor]

Missed UFC 195 last night because of the college bowl games, had to wait until this morning to download it and watch it.

Anybody else catch it? First of all, Michael "Mayday" McDonald. Wow. Did you see that submission finish? Holy shit! That guy had him dead to rights in a head and arm choke! Had he been positioned on the left side AWAY from the cage rather than up against the cage, he would've been able to spin out away from McDonald's body and cinched up that choke to finish it. Instead, he gets his legs out, kicks off the cage a tad to give his hips space, throws the leg back over the back of Tanaka, takes his back, hooks him in, grabs the neck, and BADA-BOOM, it's over in the blink of an eye! McDonald's first fight in 2 years, as well as first UFC PPV of the year, and ALREADY we have a submission that's gonna be tough to beat for the Submission of the Year award.

Co-main event: Stipe Miocic vs Andrei Arlovski. I kinda feel bad for BOTH fighters, even though Miocic got a nice 1st rd KO. Arlovski was riding high after that INSANE fight vs Travis Browne not long ago, thought maybe he was making his way up the ladder to a title shot soon. But he got KO'd in kinda un-spectacular fashion and that ended that. I feel bad for Miocic too though. He's been waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting to find a way to the top of the heap, and now he's gotta wait on whatever happens between Velasquez and Werdum in the rematch.

I'm starting to think that the UFC needs to impose rules about rematches. I don't think these people need to be getting immediate rematches like the UFC keeps on doing up and down the weight classes. It makes it take way too long for fighters to progress up the ranks into contendership. They need to say that the ONLY way an immediate rematch will happen is if one of two things is true:

1. If someone has fought one fight to win the belt and then 2 consecutive successful title defenses afterwards, THEN they qualify for an immediate rematch offer.

2. If a fighter has just lost his title, but his age and fight history dictates that his MMA career is going to end sooner than he will likely rise back to challenger status, THEN they qualify for an immediate rematch.

Cain Velasquez keeps getting clocked and losing the belt, and they keep giving him a rematch to gain it back, which is holding up the progress of fighters farther back in the ranks. It's stupid. I don't like it.

Which is probably what's ALSO gonna happen with the welterweight division. Lawler and Condit are probably gonna get a rematch before Lawler has to fight anyone else. Tyron Woodley... maybe by fucking December 2016 or sometime next year in 2017 he'll finally get a title shot, who the hell knows.

[|iR|Focalor]

God damn! How good is Dominic Cruz? He oughta change his nickname to "The Ghost", he had Dillashaw swinging away at empty air over and over and over again. Usually when fighters sit out as long as he did, they often come back soft and with slower timing, like Velasquez against Werdum not long ago. Fuck Anderson Silva, NOBODY slips and dodges like Cruz. HE AIN'T FUCKIN' HUMAN!!!

[|iR|Focalor]

FUCK A TIT! Was so looking forward to Dos Anjos vs McGregor. But apparently Dos Anjos stubbed his little toe on the coffee table in the dark and has pulled out citing a "broken foot".  Of course next they called Aldo back to offer him a rematch, and he declined. Then they called Frankie Edgar up to offer him a shot at the title, and he declined citing a groin injury (aka MY PUSSY HURTS).    So who's left to salvage this massively anticipated card? Nate Diaz. Hmm... No eyeroll smilie for this one. This might actually be an interesting matchup. Not ideal, not feelings of "OH MY GOD I'M LOSING MY SHIT JUST THINKING ABOUT THIS FIGHT", but interesting nonetheless. Both are loudmouthed pricks. But both of the Diaz brothers are actually pretty great boxers. Not to mention, they're damn good at jiu jitsu also, something I suspect that McGregor is pretty shitty at compared to them. For the 11millionth time, I'm gonna cite McGregor's fight vs Chad Mendes as an example of how useless McGregor probably is as a grappling submission fighter. So again, this won't be a Don King fix-it special kinda fight like McGregor's first few fights in the UFC could be considered. He actually could lose this fight. But if he does, hopefully he won't go on Ellen like Rousey did and boo-hoo like a bitch and say embarrassing shit about how he thought about killing himself over it. And here's another eyeroll just for Ronda Rousey, the silly bitch.

And yesterdays UFC Fight Night 84 in London. Jesus Christ. The fix was fucking IN on that one. Most of all, the judges totally scored the Brad Pickett fight wrong. SKEWED MUCH? Pickett lost, period. Had that fight gone down in Vegas and not in England, any judge not named Stevie Wonder would've clearly seen that Pickett didn't win one single round of that fight.

Probably the same for the Silva vs Bisping main event. It was an excellent fight on an otherwise depressingly boring card, both prelims and main card were snooze-worthy. And Bisping seemed to be connecting more with punches. So I can kinda see how the judges called Bisping the winner. Silva just kinda pisses me off to watch now. He's still an excellent fighter, even at 40. But he fucks around too much. And he nailed Bisping with a front kick to the chin and that sent him halfway across the octagon... but then he just stood there staring at him like a doofus. He should've jumped on his ass like an inmate murdering a prison guard in a riot and he would've KO'd him. Dude just lost his chance of getting the belt back before retiring.

[haunted]

Ya know, I honestly considered the idea of putting 10k on mcgregor Diaz going past the 1st round to win 5.5k. Lmao. I should have.

[haunted]

Lmfao, I also considered parlaying miesha and Nate both wining. Wow. Those were my two bets, I chose not to though. Unreal.

[|iR|Focalor]

Neither one surprised me much in the outcome.

Miesha Tate, for whatever faults she otherwise possesses, is not stupid enough to NOT take a fight 200% serious and formulate and STICK TO a realistic gameplan whereby she could possibly win... unlike Ronda Rousey, who was far too concerned with her "image" and the theatrical fight-hype bullshit to the point where she felt like it was necessary to bullrush and brawl and prove that she was a peerless striker. She's a fucking expert judoka, not an expert boxer. Anyone else (cough cough, like Miesha Tate) would've realized that Holm is an accomplished very high level women's boxer, and without exception all the highest level champion boxers do one thing better than everyone else ALWAYS, and that's counter. They wait for their opponent to throw hard punches where their arms away from their face so they can't block, and then they either parry or slip and blast one back at them on the jawline. And when boxers can do that with consistency, they don't always need to throw all their power into the shot because the forward momentum of their opponents head as they overextend on a missed punch will amplify the power of the counter shot. Miesha Tate played it smart, as I expected she would. She didn't go schoolyard bully on Holly Holm and run face first into the counters like Ronda did. She was cautious, she moved, she forced Holm to be the one to initiate, and Tate was patient enough to pounce back at her for a takedown when she was off balance and vulnerable.

Kinda sucks for the upcoming highly anticipated UFC 200 ppv though. Nobody's said anything about the card yet, but you know they had every intention of putting a Holm vs Rousey rematch on that one to try to top attendance and ppv sales of the one back in November, which were fucking ridiculous. So if Rousey makes her reappearance at UFC 200, which is highly likely given the already stated timetable for her return, she's gonna be facing Tate again for 2nd time in the UFC... not to mention the time she already faced her back in Strikeforce. Yeah, definitely youtube that one if you wanna see what happens when a ref doesn't stop a submission soon enough. CRUNCH! Anyway, I bet NO ONE is more excited to see Tate win than Rousey. Honestly I think Tate would be an easier win for Rousey than Holm. Holm hits way harder than Tate, and even if Rousey DID play it smart the 2nd time around vs Holm, she'd still run the risk of getting coldcocked and KO'd a 2nd time as she shot in to take her down, whereas that probably wouldn't happen vs Tate.

As for McGregor vs Diaz, figured the submission was a possibility. I think McGregor got his black belt in jiu jitsu not long ago (less than 2 yrs), but he didn't study under the Gracie clan like Diaz did. McGregor's a masterful boxer. His head movement is damn near second to none (except for maybe Dominick Cruz), and his counter speed and precision of them from a universe of unpredictable angles are the 2 biggest weapons he possesses. However... he's an arrogant hotdog. He doesn't use traditional boxing style blocking with his hands up high in front of his chin, he uses a wide open Bruce Lee stance, and that's how Diaz snuck through and stunned him. He's one of those guys who I really WANT to love, but it drives me apeshit to see him intentionally doing shit wrong like that, especially when his entire foundation is irish boxing.

See, it ain't the Madden curse. It's the fucking EA Sports curse! Everyone who gets put on the cover of an EA Sports game falls. First Ronda, now McGregor. Last time it was Jon Jones and Alexander Gustaffson on the cover. And Jon Jones... did what he did. And Alexander Gustaffson lost AGAIN, this time to Daniel Cormier.

Speaking of which, looking forward to Cormier vs Jones II in a month or so. I'd love to see DC legitimately beat Jones this time, but we all know it probably ain't gonna happen. People are psyched for the Light Heavy title fight, of course. And then there's the Fly title of Mighty Mouse vs Cejudo. But the Anthony Pettis vs Edson Barbosa fight before the main and co-main could quite possibly be the best fight of the entire card.

[Sgt. Dick]

Any thoughts on McGregor's retirement 

[|iR|Focalor]

Who the fuck knows. Supposedly he watched another fighter who was a friend of his receive head injuries during a fight that ended up causing his death days later. But I don't think McGregor's the kind of guy that would ditch his VERY LUCRATIVE mma career over a depression feuled change of heart/come to jesus moment. All the obscenely excessive trash talk he's done before fights in the past... I could kinda overlook, because he always makes sure everyone knows for sure after the fight that it was all done basically in fun and was just a good way to promote a fight and create buzz. So if this retirement shit is another one of his fucking retarded "acts", then I'm not impressed, and I'm in fact pretty annoyed by such attention whoring.

[|iR|Focalor]

The glorious return of the Jon Jones! Notsomuch. He suffers from the same shit mexican't Cain Velasquez did. Fighters sit out of fighting for too long and they often get soft, overly cautious and hesitant to throw the volume of strikes they used to. Cormier was obviously so disappointed he got injured and had to drop the fight. He was thinking to himself, "THIS is what he comes back with? Holy shit, I would've ABSOLUTELY TRASHED this punk!"

And speaking of Cain Velasquez, I don't think he should hope to get the heavyweight belt back. Nobody in the heavyweight division should hope for it. Because sooner or later, Derrick Lewis is gonna get a shot at it. Have you seen this guy? HOLY FUUUUUUUCK, this dude hits harder than anyone I've ever seen in my life. I've seen Roy Nelson knock the living fuck out of people before throwing overhanded punches at opponents heads with his cinder block fists, and this guy makes every Roy Nelson knockout look gentle. Derrick Lewis throws punches like he's trying to LITERALLY MURDER the other guy with a sledgehammer.

[haunted]

I didn't watch Jon jones v. OSP so it's hard for me to pass judgement and it's still hard for me to believe DC has a greater than expected chance against JJ than last time.

As for Conor mcgregor...like I've stated beforehand, me as mostly Irish descent, second to scotch-Irish and Portuguese equally, I've never felt that Irish connection with mcgregor nor was I was a fan of his. But, I was starting to appreciate him more and more as his fighting actually caught up with his mouth. That being said, I think Conor has made it clear that he cares a lot about promotional stuff, advertising, and anything that makes him money in general. It's seen through his behavior and actions, and I don't blame him.

Then he decides to turn over a new leaf and skip out on promoting ufc 200. Whatever excuse or reason, even if it makes sense, we all know what's up.

[|iR|Focalor]

Conor McGregor is set to rematch Diaz at UFC 201 in August. A little weird that a non-title catchweight "just for bragging rights" bout like this one has this much precedence and priority to get an immediate rematch when there's not a damn thing at stake other than... the bragging rights. But whatever, I'm still anxious to see it. Hopefully tasting defeat will prod McGregor into take his fights more dead serious. Not to take anything away from Diaz, he's a terrific boxer, but I personally think McGregor has a better talent for accuracy. He's got plenty of power to go along with that accuracy too. If there's any part of his game he REALLY needs to work on, it's his wrestling, grappling, and submission defense. He's a well trained boxer, but unfortunately he's lost sight of the DEFENSE end of boxing since he's been able to dominate all his previous opponents so much. One fight I'd love to see eventually go down would be Max Holloway vs Connor McGregor for a title. But I assume Jose Aldo will be in line ahead of him. Another Aldo vs McGregor fight would sell big, but if Aldo loses to Edgar (I think that fight's supposed to happen), then Holloway might be the next challenger in line.

Just finished watching mp4's from torrents of last night's UFC ppv. If you missed UFC 199 and haven't heard any of the results from it, I don't wanna spoil it (other than the Holloway fight, obviously he won), but you NEED to watch it. Get it from UFC Fight Pass or torrent it. The whole thing, top to bottom - early prelims, prelims, and the PPV - it was one of the best start to finish UFC events I've seen in the last 5-10 years. Not really any boring fights on the card, all of them were pretty damn good. The main card was spec-fuckin-tacular.

They obviously want UFC 200 to be a barnburner for the ages, but they have a really tough act to follow from UFC 199. Honestly I'm not as excited to see Cormier vs Jones 2 as I was to see Henderson vs Lombard, Cruz vs Faber and Rockhold vs Bisping. Supposedly they're gonna have Brock Lesnar on the UFC 200 card. Not even really all that excited about that one either. Lesnar's got health problems, probably from all the steroids he's QUITE FUCKING OBVIOUSLY been taking his whole career. When we wrestles in the WWE, he sweats like an alcoholic in a sauna, turns beet red, and looks like he could fall over dead from a heart attack at any moment.

[Sgt. Dick]

MMA fighter Kimbo Slice dead at age 42
http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2016/06/07/mma-fighter-kimbo-slice-dead-at-age-42.html?intcmp=hpbt4

[|iR|Focalor]

He was not a "legit" MMA fighter in my opinion. He could street brawl with random untrained idiots, and looked to have some boxing basics, but nothing else. He got destroyed in UFC competition against BJJ practitioners who weren't even trying that hard. He had NO grappling and wrestling skills AT ALL, which is why he shouldn't be considered a mixed martial arts guy at all. He had no grasp of multiple fighting disciplines, just one: drunken brawling.

Cause of death was probably heart failure due to complications from steroid abuse. I bet he was on drugs too. Ex-UFC and WEC fighter Brian Bowles lives up the road from me, and the cops have raided him once or twice for using and selling meth and a few other illegal substances. Ever since UFC cut him for testing positive for PED's, he went stupid and got busted slinging meth and now no mma promotion anywhere wants a fucking thing to do with him. He was the pride of the local high school where he graduated, but they sho'nuff don't celebrate him anymore. He had everything. Fuckin' sad.

Nobody ask me to get his autograph for you. Last thing I wanna do is fuck with a tweaker who's been trained professionally to break peoples bones. Most sane folks around here don't dare go near that crazy little fucker.