jimufctna24

14 minutes ago, Egg Shen said:

Shit, thats a way off. Thought we may get a show toward the end of Feb.

Aye, they were initially rumoured to be returning in late February. 

Fuck knows what is going on. 

Still, the shows in April should be stacked. 

"Along with news of the offer, AG Fight also reports that Oliveira has declined the bout. Not because he wants more time to prepare, but because he’s solely focused on getting his shot at UFC gold next time he returns to the cage. At the moment, it appears that any path to the title will likely lead through Dustin Poirier—coming off his massive KO of Conor McGregor back on January 24th."

Panorama: Boxing and the Mob will air tonight at 9pm on BBC 1. 

It was a nice thought lads:

From what I have read from Daniel Martin and others who covered Overeem's K1 run, he massively benefitted from K1's oversized gloves. They were a huge part of his defence, as he often utilised a high guard. Moreover, as his opponents used the same oversized gloves, it softened their blows and safeguarded Overeem's weak chin in the process. Cro Cop had success in K1 in the early 2010s for the exact same reason. 

Overeem was also deadly in the clinch, partially because he had a size and strength advantage over K1's heavyweights. He therefore could brutalise his opponents on the inside, as well as drain their stamina by making them work to keep him off them. 

From Sherdog:

"Khabib Nurmagomedov seems to have a different interpretation of his recent meeting with Dana White than the UFC president did.

In a recent interview with Russian outlet Sport24, Nurmagomedov didn’t show much interest in the outcome of the top two fights on Saturday’s UFC 257 card. White, after talking with the lightweight champ last week, suggested that if something spectacular happened in Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier or Michael Chandler vs. Dan Hooker, Nurmagomedov could be lured back into the Octagon for one more fight.

“There must be some motivation, some hunger,” Nurmagomedov said via translated text on the video. “If you’re not hungry, you know, I’ve been in sports for so many years. I’ve been doing it all my life. I have achieved almost everything in this sport, and there isn’t someone who I would like to fight now. “I know that there are many fighters who would like to earn money, who strive for something. What should I do? A lot of people don’t want to understand my side. I don’t see that yet.” “The Eagle” claims that while he will continue continue to train out of love for the sport, he is more focused on his business interests, such as running the Eagle Fighting Championships promotion.

“If we talk about all my business projects, I have so much to do that is planned. And fights are not in these plans,” he said. “I train for myself. The biggest thing that gives me pleasure is training. I enjoy when I wrestle, run, spar, work on pads, when I work on the punch bags. This is what I have been doing all my life, and I will continue to train constantly, as well. “But if we talk about the fights, they are not a part of my plans.”

Nurmagomedov didn’t completely rule out a return, but he did hint that if it happens, it will occur in the distant future — not in the coming months. “They constantly discuss, ‘He will come back, he will not come back,'” Nurmagomedov said. “You know, today we have 2021. A year ago it was 2020. The same time, January, and so much has happened. We don’t know what will happen in 2022, 2023, you know, so let’s not talk about it. No one knows what will happen tomorrow. “I don’t even have any plans for the UFC in the near future. I don’t have any thoughts about preparing for the fight.”

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MMA was better when its fighters were real men, who fed geese:

Mayweather invited McGregor to tee off and show what he had in the opening rounds, something he would have never done with a Cotto or Canelo. In fact, the official punch stats showed that McGregor landed more punches on Floyd than many other world class boxers had done (although most of those punches weren't meaningful)

Imo, either Floyd didn't take McGregor seriously and/or he decided to carry him for the sake of the show. 

Mayweather can still fuck off though. 

A third meeting between McGregor and DP would draw an impressive number.

However, I believe McGregor's drawing power would diminish if DP beat him again. There is only so many times a fighter can lose before they start to lose their appeal. 

He'll probably still remain MMA's biggest drawing card until he retires though. 

I'd rather see McGregor vs Ferguson than McGregor vs Diaz 3. McGregor vs Chandler would be fine as well. 

Sadly, all parties seem keen on McGregor vs Poirier 3. 

8 hours ago, Egg Shen said:

I think it was a combination of fatigue, damage to the leg and mentally realising that the fight wasnt gonna go his way.

I think the damage to the leg was the biggest factor, along with Poirier's improved durability. 

ATT fighters know how to land a decent calf kick. It took 5 calf kicks for Horiguchi to completely decimate Asakura's lead leg last month. I didn't count how many Poirier landed clean on McGregor, but I will assume it was similar.

It only takes a few of those kicks, especially if the fighter is heavy on his lead leg, to massively hinder an opponent. 

This is what Poirier said after the fight:

Quote

“Even when he started checking, he wasn’t contacting with the shin, like a small rotation more, I would’ve been paying for those kicks, but I was still getting the muscle of his leg and that part of your leg and muscle is so small and thin that you can’t take many shots there. After the second leg kick, I knew he was hurting.”

Amosov vs Storley won Bloody Elbow's award for best wrestling-heavy fight of 2020 - https://www.bloodyelbow.com/2021/1/7/22218979/2020-wrestling-for-mma-awards-khabib-nurmagomedov-madsen-amosov-takedowns-technique

Quote

 

"I can say I saw this one coming. Heading into welterweight prospect Yaroslav Amosov’s clash with fellow undefeated fighter Logan Storley, I wrote Amosov’s brilliant wrestling performance vs. three-time NCAA champion Ed Ruth.

I believed that four-time All-American Logan Storley’s wrestling game had been better adapted for MMA, and that he would give Amosov and even stiffer challenge than his more credentialed counterpart. As predicted, Amosov and Storley went to war on the mats, both men refusing to let their game be denied. Storley never stopped attacking, wrestling through exhaustion and showing the kind of savvy and composure that only a lifetime of wrestling can provide. Amosov stayed solid fundamentally, attacking the wrists, hiding his hips, and flowing through positions to keep the fight moving against his toughest opponent yet.

For a wrestling fan, the fight was an absolute masterpiece, deserving of the unofficial title, “Wrestliest Fight of the Year”.

 

It was easily one of my favourite fights of 2020 as well. Certainly the best in Bellator, with the exception of Mix vs Archuleta.

Whittaker vs Costa is being targeted for April - https://www.sherdog.com/news/news/Robert-Whittaker-Paulo-Costa-Targeted-to-Headline-UFC-Event-on-April-17-177345

28 minutes ago, Chunk said:

What confuses me is that he was able to knockout Dustin at FW but landed clean at LW and didn't hurt him. The weight cut for Dustin to FW was enough to weaken his chin that much? We're also talking about a younger Dustin who had less miles on the clock and therefore, logically, a better chin than he does now. What evidence is there that Dustin had a particularly extreme cut to FW? Did he ever miss weight in that division? Visually, he never appeared to be that dehydrated on the scales. Not, say, compared to Mcgregor.

DP cut 40 lbs to make the FW limit- https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:qMIbsHldSGoJ:https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/01/22/poirier-body-ufc-257-preview/+&cd=14&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk

The process left him dizzy and depleted. His current conditioning coach thinks he is far more durable at 155lbs. 

DP has also progressed as a fighter since moving to 155lbs, as this video details:

One of the Fight Site's writers thinks that McGregor changed his style a bit after the first Diaz loss. In that fight, he was smashing Diaz with the same explosive style he used at featherweight, but couldn't quite put the bigger man away. He tried to force the stoppage, which led to him gassing, getting caught, and then eventually submitted. After that fight, he changed his style a bit so that he wouldn't gas out. The writer argued that while McGregor ran through Alvarez at lightweight, he did so with a more measured approach than he used to take out top contenders at featherweight. 

So yeah, McGregor is probably a bit more explosive (and better) at featherweight. By contrast, however, Poirier is a better lightweight than he was a featherweight. So you can make the argument that the two have never fought one other while both were at their absolute peak. 

McGregor's defensive grappling is a bit underrated actually. He defended well against Poirier this past weekend in the first frame, performed a nice sweep on Diaz in their first outing, and managed to control Khabib in the first round of their bout.

Overall, he'll probably win some and lose some against the top contenders at 155lbs. 

13 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

I know a load of people are suddenly on the bandwagon now and I might be wrong on this, but I think we might look back on Chandler’s UFC run and think of this as the peak. The stars aligned for him last night and he put a guy who’s known for his durability away in less than 3 minutes

Agreed.

He's always had power and is still very dangerous in the early stages of fights. His issues are that he gets knackered too easily and his chin isn't what it used to be. When he gets tired and/or stunned, he tries to control his opponents on the mat while he has a breather. But if he can't score a takedown, then he is there for the taking. 

I think DP and Gaethje would stop him after a few rounds. 

11 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

I’ve already seen a fair bit of ‘Chandler’s the man to beat Khabib’. Steady on.

That's been going on for a while. Chandler himself has been beating that drum. 

Of course, the same was said about Ferguson and McGregor. I and others said it about Gaethje. 

I can't imagine Chandler would give him much bother. His gas tank isn't the best and he's nothing special on the feet.

12 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

But yeah, I can already sense a little bit of a backlash against Poirier coming for ‘ducking’ Chandler but you look at the run of killers he’s been in with and that’s ludicrous.

I saw something similar to that a few days ago on Twitter. The theory is that DP's resume at lightweight is overrated because he's not faced many grapplers. And the one grappler he did face, Khabib, smashed him. 

I don't buy it. You can make similar arguments against pretty much any fighter and their record if you try hard enough. 

One of my favourite editions of Rizin Confessions to date!

Sakakibara can still fuck off though.

Moving away from McGregor a second. 

In less than 3 years, Poirier has done the following:

- Stopped Eddie Alvarez.

- Stopped Justin Gaethje in a proper tear up. 

- Won a clear decision over Holloway by showing tremendous heart in the final round.

- Knocked out McGregor inside 2 rounds.

All of these are top-level wins. Funnily enough, it's the Holloway victory, the only 1 of the 4 where he didn't win via stoppage, that's probably his most impressive performance. 

You would be hard-pressed to find a better resume than that over the past 3 years or so. He isn't the best fighter in the world, but he's quite easily in the top 10 and has solidified his position as one of the greatest MMA lightweights of all-time. 

He's also the second best fighter at ATT ;)

20 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

Personally I think McGregor vs Diaz 3 is the fight to make next. Failing that, if Nate doesn’t go for that, McGregor vs Gaethje.

They could also do McGregor vs Ferguson. That fight makes sense (from a sporting perspective)

DP vs Oliveria should be next for the vacant belt. With Chandler vs Gaethje for the number 1 contender. Although I would also be happy if they booked DP vs Gaethje 2 for the vacant belt. 

Of course, they won't book all of these fights, and perhaps even none of them. I think there is an excellent chance they book McGregor vs Poirier 3. 

16 minutes ago, Suplex Sinner said:

What would you recommend in terms of reading/watching so I can educate myself on him? Any fights of his that I've seen he's lost so I don't understand how he's made so much money. Any info or nudge in the right direction would be appreciated. Thanks!

Jack Slack wrote this book about him a while ago - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Notorious-Life-Fights-Conor-McGregor-ebook/dp/B06XNLKMRJ/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=jack+slack+mcgregor&qid=1611482221&sr=8-1

I haven't read it myself, but given that Slack is one of the best MMA writers/analysts in the game, I can imagine it's an excellent read.