jimufctna24

Both have achieved more than I expected. I would have never guessed that Wardley would beat Parker and win a version of a world title. Especially after he scraped a draw against Frazer Clarke. I was also never really on the Dubois bandwagon either. I still don't think he's an ATG heavyweight, but he did a lot better against Joshua and Hrgović than I expected him to. As for their rematch this weekend, I'm picking Dubois. I'm not sure if Wardley's durability will be the same after the beating he sustained during their first meeting, and I don't have much faith in Wardley's team to make the needed adjustments. Always a chance that Wardley lands big and secures a stoppage, but I lean towards that not occurring.

I personally found that the novelty of attending combat sports shows wore off pretty quickly. It was great the first few times, but I didn't really have any motivation to attend further events afterwards. Part of that will be due to me being quite introverted and disliking large crowds, but I also think the TV experience is a lot more enjoyable. As Wand posted above, better view, better and cheaper refreshments, etc.

Over 400 quid to sit in the bleachers at 1am on a December night to see a fight 5 years past its sell by date? Yeah, I'll take my comfy bed and a cup of Yorkshire tea over that.

White has argued in the past that raising fight purses would make fighters lazy. Yet the likes of Canelo and Fury are worth hundreds of millions of pounds and are still boxing. All the other major United States sports leagues have collective bargaining agreements. And boxing, while not subject to collective bargaining, actually pays most of its best talents very well (this could change if Zuffa wins the promotional war) The UFC is not only anti-fan in many ways, it's anti-athlete too.

He was, but now it seems they are trying to book him against Amir Khan on another card.

I watched the Affliction episode of Dark Side of the Cage last night. It was a decent watch. I was unaware (or had perhaps forgotten) about Tom Atencio essentially acting as a front-man for Todd Beard, so all that was new information. The rest of the documentary was old news, but a welcome trip down memory lane. A rumour on Twitter has it that Team Fedor wanted Lashley to step in and replace Barnett on their Trilogy card, whereas Affliction wanted Belfort to replace Barnett instead. Ultimately the card was cancelled and the promotion folded, so neither proposed fight occurred. However, it's interesting to consider why Team Fedor (which is now believed to be Fedor and a band of yes-men) pushed for Fedor to fight Lashley and not Belfort. Did Fedor not trust his chin by mid-2009? Belfort had fast hands and power. Did Fedor think he could deal with Lashley's wrestling? I can't recall how good Lashley was at MMA to be honest, but freestyle wrestlers had traditionally given Fedor more issues than strikers, clinch wrestlers, and submission artists.

I think most boxing fans imagined a Fury vs Joshua press conference to feature the boxers trading plenty of barbs, Hearn and Smith trading barbs with Warren, Big John Fury piping up, and all sorts of tension. Instead we got a brief argument about a sparring session, fan questions, Max Kellerman, and Turki waffling on about gibberish. It's probably going to be the biggest fight of all-time on these shores, but as a spectacle and a sporting contest, it's well past its sell by date.

Some of my favourite work of Slack's are his articles about Fedor's prime. He's kindly done a video breakdown of the Fedor vs Nog fights with updated observations. It's quite brilliant.

Perhaps of interest. It's about an hours drive away from Uxbridge. Lyoto Machida Super Seminar Tickets, Sunday, 14 February 2027 • 10 AM - 1 PM | Eventbrite

There is probably a better example, but Ken Shamrock had a heart issue during his Pride 10 bout with Fujita in 2000. Shamrock, however, didn't collapse or lose consciousness. He just appeared as though he was fatigued and signalled to his corner that he could no longer continue. Shamrock believes this heart issue was triggered by stress. He was going though a divorce at the time. There is nothing official yet, but it does appear that it was a sudden medical issue that caused Barcelos to go limp and lose consciousness (it did indeed look like a heart attack). Previously, it has been speculated that Rosas's hear may have landed under Barcelos's chin as Rosas completed the takedown, and that this had caused Barcelos to lose consciousness. However, from the video I have seen, Barcelos appeared to go limp before Rosas Jr landed the takedown.

A few boxing journos on X have claimed that Fury vs Joshua could be off. Apparently Turki wants Dana to be the promoter, and Joshua/Hearn have it in their contract that he can't be. Replacement fights rumoured are Crawford vs Garcia and Fury vs Benavidez. What a shitshow.

Sweet. I've told this story on here before, but I will tell it again because it always makes me smile. My friend/DVD supplier attended a Cage Warriors show around 2004/2005 time. Freeman was the MC. He bollocked the crowd telling them to "shut up while I'm talking" and performed a unwanted stand-up comedy routine that died on its arse.

How many Cage Rage shows did you attend? And how did you get into one of their afterparties?

I saw that unfortunate Tweet a few days ago. Underneath it in the commments was seemingly an AI generated picture of Amosov's body being removed from the apparant wreckage, and a screenshot of a fake MSN news report announcing his death. I quickly figured out it was bullshit after a bit of Googling and searching X for any other evidence. However, the initial Tweet did appear as though it could be legitimate for a moment. Scummy behaviour.

I liked Quadros. I recall he disliked Rogan's commentary at one point. Some scamp even started a fake rumour that Quadros beat Rogan up in a nightclub.

I don't watch much modern wrestling, but I watched a match from last month featuring Rey vs Chad Gable a few days ago, If you enjoy the Rey vs Angle bouts, you should enjoy greatly. I did. Yep, June 2005 on Smackdown. They are not at their athletic peak, especially Eddie. They focus more on limb work and long-term selling, and it's quite a brilliant match. Their PPV matches at The Bash and Judgement Day that year are very good imo, but the Smackdown match is easily the best of that series. It's probably my favourite match from 2005. Edit: Their match on the Smackdown after WM20 is excellent too.

Oh dear, concerns have been raised about the Ricky Hatton Foundation - https://craigscott209.substack.com/p/cfft-ricky-hatton-foundation-concerns?r=2k7t6i&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true Paul Speak (the dude Billy Graham hates), Adam Smith, and a convicted fraudster are heavily involved in it. The gambling addiction rumour about Smith is doing the rounds again too. Someone is even claiming he attended a help group with Smith.

This was the third episode. They are worth listening to if you can find the time.

@Egg Shen @NeverYield Fill your boots lads.

I raised my eyebrows when Jones vs Gane was announced, because I thought Gane could cause him serious problems. Obviously that didn't happen. Still, it can see why Jones would not want to risk fighting Aspinall, especially at this stage of his career. From what I've seen of Aspinall, he's a tall and rangy striker, who is indeed mobile, and can kick and punch effectively from long range. In other words, Aspinall has similarities to those opponents who have given Jones the most problems in the past (Reyes, Gusty). At his peak, Jones could probably rely on his durability/cardio and adjustments to carry him through after a rough start to the fight (as was the case in the first Gusty bout), but at this stage of his life he may not be as certain his chin will hold up, or that he could turn the tables as the fight progresses. He was very lucky to get the nod from the judges against Reyes in 2020 (the 1 fight I believe Jones lost clearly). I agree it wasn't an unwinnable fight for Jones though. I'm not confident that Aspinall would've had the endurance to win a decision against Jones had the latter's chin held up.

Nemkov returns in November. From the PFL website: I haven't seen any of Bilostenniy's fights, but on paper he doesn't appear to be anything overly special. He lost via decision to Nemkov's stablemate Moldavsky last year, who I don't rate that highly. If the fight is free on YouTube I will probably watch it, but it doesn't really set my pulse racing.

From Sherdog: I mean, at least Coker has chosen a division that is traditionally rich in talent. I'm still very cynical that he'll be able to put together a decent field of fighters though. Choosing to hold fights in a ring rather than the cage is an interesting choice. It'll certainly play well in Asia, who traditionally aren't keen on the cage. The ring also gives those ringside a better view of the fights. As I, and many others, have argued in the past, it additionally favours fighters who want to trap their opponent (those who want to clinch and takedown their opponent, fight on the inside/clinch, etc), and disadvantages those fighters who would rather evade their opponent (stick and move, etc) The only issue with the ring, and it's a long-standing one, is that it isn't very compatible with ground fighting due to fighters falling through the ropes. This issue cropped up in the recent Rizin main event with McKee and Shaydullaev. You don't get that issue with the cage. Anyway, my interest in this project is pretty low, as much as I would like for it to succeed. And dear god, I hope Coker doesn't convince Fedor to fight again.