jimufctna24

4 hours ago, Egg Shen said:

Dan Hardy & Gareth A. Davies, just imagine.

Setanta Sport reunion!

I forgot about Frank Shamrock vs Cung Le in 2008. I was well into that fight as well. 

It was only me, and the fans who attended the HP Pavilion in San Jose to watch his fights, that really cared about Franky Shams in the late 2000s. And even I knew deep down that he wasn't anywhere near a top fighter anymore. 

I barely bothered with Strikeforce between 2006 and 2008. I went out of my to watch Frank Shamrock's fight with Baroni (yes, I know, Frank wasn't really relevant in 2007), but the rest of their shows I could take or leave. 

It was only in 2009 that I started following them properly. 

9 minutes ago, Egg Shen said:

I remember it happening, there was no way of seeing it though. Im not even sure if Strikeforce had a TV deal at that point.

My friend supplied me with a DVD copy about 2 weeks after it happened. 

Even though I have a fetish for Russian MMA fighters, I really hope I am wrong and Sterling wins the rematch. 

Yan is a bit of a knob. 

27 minutes ago, Zebra Kid Mark said:

A DQ should absolutely result in the title changing hands, as Egg Shen points out, if Sterling was up on the cards then no one would be debating this. This is a rule that does not need to be changed or looked into.

Reading everyones thoughts on the fight I think I am in the minority in saying that I think Aljo wins the rematch. Round 1 was all Sterling, Yan was on the back foot and he couldn't quite work out how to attack or defend, Sterling was dictating the pace and getting the better of him. The problem for Aljo arose when that pace became too much for him to keep up with and he completely gassed himself out. His legs were gone with out taking any punishment and he kept throwing ridiculous spinning elbows that came no where close to landing.

He has a lot of things he can take away from this fight and work on and if he manages to pace himself better and cut out the mistakes, I fancy his chances. 

 

I felt round 1 was quite even. It was round 2 that Sterling clearly won. 

A few pundits predicted before the fight that Sterling would look good in the early stages, but fade as the fight progressed. That is exactly what occurred. I just don't think Sterling can pace himself for 25 minutes straight while at the same time manage to keep Yan at bay. 

Thus, if Sterling is to beat Yan, then he needs to stop him early on, perhaps via submission. But I don't see him being able to do that either. 

Yan is just the better MMA fighter IMO.

Sakakibara wants Kyoji to fight in May in Japan and then face the winner of Pettis/Archuleta in the late summer. 

Gonzalez is the dude who beat Tokov's younger brother last year. Although I did think he was fortunate to get the decision, the bout itself was fantastic, and easily one of the best Bellator hosted in 2020. 

If a champion knows there is a chance they can keep their belt by getting disqualified, then surely some will commit a professional foul if a fight is not going their way. 

The challenger should also win the championship if the champion gets themselves disqualified. If the fight had been going Sterling's way on Saturday evening before the DQ, this probably wouldn't even be a debate. It's really only because Sterling won the belt after getting outclassed for 2 straight rounds that him winning the championship is an issue for some.

Huerta is going to get rinsed. Gonzalez is legit. 

Ignore!

I was fooled. 

I think Yan was on his way to a stoppage or lopsided decision before he messed up. Sterling won round 2 and an argument could have be made that he won round 1. Yet, Yan clearly won round 3 and was utterly dominating round 4. It felt like Sterling had done his best work and was now there for the taking. I don't like Yan, but based on last night's evidence he is one of the best fighters in the world. He committed a stupid foul, and he deserved to lose the belt because of it. but he put on an incredible performance before that.

Despite scoring the fight 48-47 to Blachowicz, I felt the scorecards were a bit harsh on Izzy. You could make a decent argument that Izzy won rounds 1, 2 and 3. All three of those rounds were very tight. Still, Blachowicz did some great work, not just on the ground, but also on the feet with his jabs and counter-punching. I rate him much higher now than I did before the weekend began.

Last night also made me wonder what would have happened had Jones stayed at 205lbs a little longer. In hindsight, he probably would have mauled Izzy on the ground and beaten him decisively. I know Jones struggled to take Reyes down, but I think he would've found it easier to get Izzy to the mat. The only chance Izzy would have had of victory would be at range, with Jones choosing not to attempt takedowns/clinches like he did against Santos. 

I wasn't that bothered about calling the main event wrong either. Had Izzy won with style, I would've probably had to concede that he was the best 205lbs fighter on the planet. As it stands, I can carry on claiming that Nemkov is the light-heavyweight kingpin for at least another month or so. Suits me fine. 

Updated Bellator 255 card:

Quote

 

Patricio Freire vs. Emmanuel Sanchez (FW title)

Neiman Gracie vs. Jason Jackson

Mike Hamel vs. Usman Nurmagomedov

Magomed Magomedov vs. Jared Scoggins

Tyrell Fortune vs. Matt Mitrione

 

I could do without Meathead, but overall this card is looking very strong!

I only caught the final round of Gane/Rozenstruik. Bisping had a bit of a meltdown over it so it wasn't just Dana. 

Oh, and Shogun vs Hendo 1 was shit because it went the distance or something. 

12 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

He was walking around them like he was Peter Ebdon playing safety.

😃

A documentary about Pancrase is in the works:

The Bruno vs Tyson documentary will be shown on Sky Documentaries at 10pm on Friday night. 

Looking forward to that one. 

I have a working theory that the light-heavyweight division has been pish for years. The second half of Jones's career has been really underwhelming. Looking back, only his two wins over DC have really impressed me since 2015. Elsewhere, DC was a banged up plodder towards the end of his career. Santos and Smith were journeymen at middleweight, and Gusty was always a bit ordinary really. 

By contrast, I rate Izzy as the best middleweight ever and perhaps even the best ever MMA fighter north of 170lbs. I also really rate Whittaker and Romero, who were Izzy's two main rivals at 185lbs, and consider them to be vastly superior to the top guns at 205lbs. I therefore expect Izzy to make Blachowicz look daft in a few weeks time. The jump from middleweight to light heavyweight is a big one, but I think the differential in skill will more than compensate for it. 

Possibly a KKK member as well:

That was a frightening for a second. 

One of the nastiest knockouts I have seen in heavyweight MMA for a while.