The Fight Thread

[haunted]

Interesting odds.

[haunted]

Well, I'm a believer now. I can see why aldo wanted to be in tip top shape against Connor, even though mendes still had a shot in that match. Connor's significant strikes were affecting mendes a little more than vice versa, but it actually was a somewhat close fight until the KO. Aldo is a different beast though....but.....McGregor is a different beast in his own way. McGregor is certainly capable of beating Aldo but it is not the most probable outcome.

[|iR|Focalor]

Aldo's probably a slightly quicker grappler too, definitely more dangerous with submissions. I don't think McGregor would've gotten out from under Aldo unless ALDO wanted to let him up. Both Aldo and McGregor's biggest assets are their powerful kicks. McGregor tends to chip away at people with hard kicks to the body and side of the head before closing distance and boxing. McGregor also comes from a boxing background and was highly successful in it. He's young and fucking fearless. But eventually his over-confidence is gonna catch up with him because he doesn't protect himself as well as he should. Someone's gonna take him down like Mendes did, hold him there, and either submit him or hold him there all fight long and win by decision. He's definitely gotta train more with grappling before meeting Aldo... IF that ever happens.

God damn, man. That was just a GREAT main card top to bottom. All the fights were good ones. Can't remember the last time I saw a UFC PPV that had that much awesomeness in it.

[quadz]

No arm bar this time


https://www.facebook.com/bjjgirl/videos/436022146522783/  (ufc 190, rousey vs. correia)

[haunted]

18 million views in 12 hours?! Holy shit. I rounded to 18 because by the time I post this it'll be 18. People talk shit to Ronda every match, and every single time she delivers. Once UFC women's mma develops some more she'll be on her way to competing for most dominant athlete of all time.

[|iR|Focalor]

Yeah, I don't think anyone had any doubts how that fight was gonna turn out. I think the odds on Rousey at fight time was -1600, haha! I can't fathom how Correia actually thought she stood any chance at all. Pure self delusion on her part. I've seen Bethe Correia fight, and honestly she isn't even in the top 5 in the womens bantamweight division in my opinion. Tate, Zingano, McMann, and Carmouche would all probably easily beat her down the same way. The only reason she got a shot at all was because she's undefeated and hasn't faced Rousey yet. And the only reason she was undefeated up until last night was because all the competition she faced was crap. Take a look at her wins on wiki. See? None of them are the better fighters in the womens bantamweight division. In fact only the last 3 fights were in the UFC at all. It's just a list of bottom feeders, and none of them she beat very convincingly. She's a joke.

And I don't think Ronda Rousey is really all that wonderful of a fighter. Sure, she's good. But in my opinion, she's made to look even better by how fucking AWFUL the rest of the womens bantamweight division is. Just watching all the fights, none of them have really solid technical skill like the men do. They just get in there and start winging wildly at each other like 2 high school teenage girls fighting over a boy. I can't understand how these women TRAIN as much as they do and still look as bad as they do in the octogon. They're in the UFC! They make the BIG money! They don't have other jobs, training to fight is ALL they do. And they still ain't that great at it. What the fuck!?!

[haunted]

Barnett favored to beat Nelson. A good combination of bets to make would be Roy with the KO, offset by Barnett winning x individual rounds. Roy KO is +325. Barnett winning round 1 is +300, increasing to +1800 in round 5. It's risky but they really aren't accounting for Roy's ability to take a punch with those odds.

[|iR|Focalor]

UFC 193: Rousey vs Holm on Nov. 15th. Always fun to watch Rousey totally outclass everyone they put against her. This one will be no different. Take EVERYTHING YOU OWN and put it on Rousey to win. It's a no brainer. It's still a risk, shit happens sometimes, but still one of the safest bets you could ever hope to find in sports betting.

UFC 194: Aldo vs McGregor on December 12th. I'm tempted to say things like "HOLY SHIT! MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ME!!! THIS WILL BE THE GREATEST FIGHT EVER!" But... probably not. If McGregor's skill set remains anything similar to what it was in his last fight when he won the interim title, then McGregor's probably gonna get taken down and submitted, or taken down and held there for most of every round until the judges give Aldo the win by decision. On the feet, McGregor "could" win. His boxing is ferocious and smothering when he closes in and starts pouring it on. His kicks are pretty vicious too. But Aldo is known for kicking power as well. As much as I love McGregor and reeeeeeeeally want him to win, I don't think he can do it. I'm hoping Aldo keeps it standing most of the time to give us all a good show, but I think he's probably not gonna take any chances and take him down early and win it on the ground as soon as possible.

[|iR|Focalor]

UFC 193: Rousey vs Holm on Nov. 15th. Always fun to watch Rousey totally outclass everyone they put against her. This one will be no different. Take EVERYTHING YOU OWN and put it on Rousey to win. It's a no brainer. It's still a risk, shit happens sometimes, but still one of the safest bets you could ever hope to find in sports betting.

Glad I didn't take my own advice.

This card was actually pretty good considering the main and co-main fights were women. Particularly, I was anticipating the Mark Hunt vs Bigfoot Silva rematch. The fight wasn't quite as exciting as I'd thought it'd be though. Bigfoot took one stiff shot that bounced over the top of his left ear and it put his lights out.

Their previous fight was ABSOLUTELY FUCKING INSANE though. No shit, probably one of the top 3 best heavyweight fights in all of UFC history. Both guys got pinned on their back for while absorbing some hellacious ground and pound punishment from the other. And by the end of the 4th, they were both completely exhausted and staggering around while trading bombs. Both of them got hit in the head so hard so many times, it was fucking amazing that neither one of them got knocked out.

<span data-s9e-mediaembed="youtube" style="display:inline-block;width:100%;max-width:640px"><span style="display:block;overflow:hidden;position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%"><iframe allowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" style="background:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dqE2AAthWXI/hqdefault.jpg) 50% 50% / cover;border:0;height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;width:100%" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dqE2AAthWXI"></iframe></span></span><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/dqE2AAthWXI" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/dqE2AAthWXI</a>

[|iR|Focalor]

If you missed UFC Fight Night - Magny vs Gastelum, you missed a pretty crazy main event. Went all 5 rds to a split decision for Magny. Some CRAZY GOOD grappling battles all fight long. Had no idea Kelvin Gastelum was that good. Magny had him in all kinds of bad spots and he was able to completely reverse it a bunch of times, and in ways I never would've imagined he would have been able to. Wasn't your typical boring ground position battle either. LOTS of action. Hoping the Maia vs Nelson fight at UFC 194 plays out kinda the same.

[|iR|Focalor]

Aw, nazitube took down the Hunt vs Bigfoot Silva video. Assholes.

Finally got around to watching this past weekends UFC Fight Night from South Korea that I downloaded days ago. Prelims were kinda so-so. Main card wasn't completely amazing either, but it wasn't a PPV or title matchup. The first fight of the main card though, whoa. Doo Ho Choi. Remember that name. This South Korean featherweight has some serious serious potential. He doesn't look mean and scary like a lot of the UFC fighters do, he looks young and fresh faced like a little kid. His opponents probably greatly underestimate him because of that. But this Korean kid put on a display of some of the best technical hand striking you'll ever hope to see. Very deliberate and highly accurate with his punches. Like I said, remember that name. I think one day this kid's gonna be a UFC superstar.

[haunted]

Are you kidding me?

Weidman and aldo both ko'd. Velasquez too. Other than women's and flyweight where the competition is a bit different, those 3 are/were the champions to beat. Except Jon Jones.

I didn't see the fights. I like Luke rockhold, always have, but I can't believe weidman lost. Judging by the stat sheet it looks like rockhold dominated him 3/4 rounds then KO'd him in the 4th. But, I don't know because I didn't watch.

And apparently mcgregor came out swinging, fought a great 13 seconds, and KO'd Aldo. I've never rooted for mcgregor and it's likely the generation. I was entertained by Chael sonnen legitimately, even if not a "fan"... But not conor really. I'm more Irish than anything and enjoy a LOT of Irish things, it's just Conor has never been one of them. But, he beat Aldo and mendes... Two fighters I still feel have a decent chance of beating him. But, I gotta give him credit. Conor is the real deal.

Still, I'm more surprised about weidman. I can only speculate but shit man, after Jon jones went diesel hunting on crack you were THAT guy. What in the fuck happened?

[|iR|Focalor]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

IRE-FUCKIN'-LAND, BABY! I can't fucking believe it! My boy McGregor just made a true believer out of me.

Hell yeah, Conor McGregor is legit. I've said that since the first time I saw him fight. He's got a rock solid world champion boxing base, and he uses it deliberately, accurately, efficiently, and with megatons of power behind it. Guys try to block his shots, and yet he remains calm and sneaks them into the holes to pick opponents apart. Much like Holly Holm, having a high caliber boxing base is one of the best ways to win fights in the UFC these days. ...as long as a fighter can keep the fight standing to where they can use the boxing. So probably priority #1 for any fighter planning to plink their opponent off with some masterful boxing would be practice the living shit out of takedown defense in the clinch and sprawling on shoot-ins.

I went to a bar to watch the fights last night, and when Aldo hit the mat, the whole bar went abso-fuckin'-lutely psycho apeshit nuts. Beer was flying everywhere, people were jumping on their seats and screaming their lungs out, it was awesome. Surely they're gonna plan for an immediate rematch. #1, when someone like Aldo has been champ THAT long, they automatically deserve an immediate rematch, and #2, this was probably one of the biggest selling and most anticipated PPV's in UFC history so it just makes money sense to rake in even more cash with a rematch.

The fight was kind of a toss up, but I agreed with the Vegas oddsmakers the whole time. Aldo is obviously more experienced and prepared for a ground grappling struggle, and on the feet he's fast with his punches and soccer style leg kicks. However, like I've said before, McGregor is sneaky and accurate with his boxing, fishing shots through the holes in opponents blocking and landing them anyway. He's just about as sneaky and accurate with his crazy kicking techniques as well. And I love Conor McGregor, hate the thought of betting against one of my favorite fighters, but looking at it totally objectively, I gave Aldo the edge as the favorite to win based on being a high level BJJ black belt as opposed to McGregor being a mere brown belt in jiu jitsu (and also in light of how Chad Mendes held him on the bottom for so long in his last fight). On the feet, I kinda considered that aspect of the fight to be a toss-up and a question mark. Both guys have legit strengths that slightly differ from one another in the standup striking area. My honest prediction was that if the fight went to the ground, Conor would definitely lose, but if it stayed standing, he'd have a better than average chance of actually winning. Only stayed standing 13 seconds before Aldo involuntarily went to the ground to take a siesta.

As for the Weidman vs Rockhold fight, I was actually less surprised by that outcome than the outcome of the Aldo vs  McGregor fight. Weidman is still a young and relatively inexperienced fighter. Maybe he beat Anderson Silva, but look at HOW he did it. The first time, Silva was being a dumbass and trying to do his flashy hands-at-his-sides slip and lunge counter and he got caught the minute Weidman called him on his bullshit and pressed forward with a lengthy combo. The 2nd time he beat Anderson Silva, he really didn't win on his own. Silva snapped his spindle leg over Weidmans knee on a leg kick block. But the whole time Weidman's been winning fights with his KO punching power, he's still been leaving openings for people. It's kinda been a matter of luck that all his opponents up until now have been too afraid of getting countered with his KO power that they miss out on those chances to exploit his newbie missteps. Losing is probably one of the best things that could happen to Weidman though. I don't think anything else was gonna really teach him the lesson to pay attention to each and every move he makes during a fight.

I'll try to explain what happened from what I remember. Rockhold was starting to get tired, and Weidman was starting to pursue him around the octagon more and more. Weidman was more than likely winning the fight at that point based on controlling the center of the octagon, walking Rockhold down, as well as throwing and landing a higher and higher volume of strikes as time went on. But then Weidman got stupid and careless. For no good reason at all, he decided to throw a lazy backspinning roundhouse kick, which Rockhold grabbed with Weidmans back to him, drove forward, and secured a takedown. When they landed, I think Rockhold was in dominant side-control if I remember correctly, and he quickly moved into full mount, and then just started bashing the living fuck out of Weidman for the last full 35 to 40 seconds of the round, with Herb Dean standing right over them seriously considering stopping it.

And THAT is why I love how Herb Dean officiates fights. Normally, he WOULD have stopped the fight and declared it a TKO right there. But there were 30 seconds left on the clock when Weidman really started bleeding bad. He probably didn't wanna take away Weidman's belt with that little time left on the clock that he could've potentially just covered up and waited out the bell.

So... the bell rang, Weidman staggered to his corner, his face looking like a grizzly bear just mauled him. Next round started, again Rockhold managed to take Weidman to the ground, started battering him with some more ground and pound elbows, and this time there was about 3mins left on the clock. Weidman just covered, Rockhold rained them down, and Herb Dean pulled him off of him before he could kill him deader than shit.

[haunted]

I gotcha. I am definitely more surprised with weidman losing still. Conor I thought had a decent chance, although it's perhaps more surprising when you compare the circumstances with how each match went down-I'll go for that. I guess I said that just in terms of who won. Weidman may be inexperienced but, he didn't give anderson a single opportunity and had the edge over vitor and machida for the entirety of each match. Rockhold's only loss is to vitor if I remember right, his best win over machida then after that it's just bisping and maia. That missed kick really must've screwed weidman up, lol. My first thought was that Weidman didn't do his homework(for a change) and rockhold has been training tremendously.

[|iR|Focalor]

Supposedly Rockhold got some kinda foot injury 2 or 3 weeks ago in his training which turned into a staph infection and he had to take lots of antibiotics to kill it off which left him with less than 100% stamina going into the fight. So he was at a disadvantage already. And Weidman was doing a pretty good job of exploiting it as the rounds went on and he remained the fighter with more energy. But yeah, that one bad decision to throw that single backspinning roundhouse/wheel kick/spinning heel kick, whatever you wanna call it, that was the moment he lost the fight. Rockhold snatched onto him from his back and drove him to the ground. And remember, nobody has ever taken Weidman down before. He isn't used to having someone glue him down to the mat and then start trying to bash his brains out of his ears with ground and pound. Not saying Weidman sucks or anything, because you can't suck and beat guys like Lyoto Machida and Anderson Silva, but he is young and inexperienced with certain things. And the one thing he has the least experience with is defending himself from a submissive ground position in a real fight where the other guy is putting 100% of his power into the elbows and punches he's dropping on him. No way to escape that damage without blocking intelligently and then either getting the fuck up or sweeping and reversing it. He seems to be a very smart and coachable fighter though, which is obviously how he's found so much success until now. I suspect this loss will open his eyes and teach him to pay closer attention to the aspects of his game that he might've been overlooking a little. This is what tends to happen to guys who have really high percentages in takedown defense (except Daniel Cormier maybe, but then again his base is in wrestling, he's got all kinds of gold medals in it, and he even took 4th place in the 2004 Olympics. Weidman, on the other hand, is not an Olympic caliber wrestler.). They convince themselves that they're so good at defending takedowns that they'll probably never have to worry about fighting from the bottom, and then eventually someone catches them just the right way, takes them down and secures a dominant position, and then rains bombs down on them that they weren't totally prepared for.

The main PPV card didn't exactly wow me top to bottom like I thought it would. I was really looking forward to the Demian Maia vs Gunnar Nelson fight as well, but that one turned out to be less exciting than I anticipated. Same for the Yoel Romero vs Ronaldo Souza.

Probably the most "HOLY SHIT!" moment of the night (not including McGregor's 13 second KO of Aldo in the main event) was in the early prelims where this largely unknown Russian lightweight fighter named Magomed Mustafaev completely and utterly obliterated Joe Proctor with some of the hardest god damned kicking I've EVER seen in the UFC. Son of a fucking bitch! This dude kicks harder than a pissed off mule on steroids. Keep your eye on this guy. He's a straight up killer. He's definitely going places in the lightweight division.