jimufctna24

I've been described as a Bellator bummer on here in the past. 

Chandler, Lima and Pitbull have been their 3 most hyped fighters in recent years. Yet, I only really rate one of them (Pitbull) and I'm a fan of none of them. 

I hope Hooker smashes Chandler tonight. 

2 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

A lot is made of McGregor’s wins over Aldo and Alvarez, and rightly so, but I think Poirier’s performance against Holloway is just as impressive. As was the crazy display of heart and the comeback against Gaethje.

100%

The momentum was with Holloway going in the latter stages of the fight, a period of the fight where Holloway is usually at his strongest relative to his opponent. Yet, Poirier managed to rally. He clearly won the final round, which earmarked him as the clear winner of the fight. 

It's the best win at lightweight in recent years, with the possible exception of Khabib's win over Gaethje. 

Lennox Lewis and Emanuel Steward on Vitali Klitschko's awkward style:

Emanuel Steward (2005): “He does have the skill. And he’s very effective in an awkward way. He has an unusual gift that I’ve watched it in training, that really sets him out greatly. Not from being big, he has a little bit of the clumsiness to a degree, he’s not as physically coordinated as his younger brother. But he has this unusual sense of feeling a punch before it comes – but can still move in an awkward direction as far as to neutralize it – and throwing a weird punch at the same time. I saw him do that in the gym so effectively. And its something that can’t be taught. You can just feel the guy getting ready to throw a left hook and he’ll throw a counterpunch, like, from underneath the left hook and move his body at angles that I haven’t seen. And that’s what makes him effective. He’s very effective with that style.”

Lennox Lewis (2012) "His main strength is the fact that he's awkward and he leans back. A lot of boxers think that he’s in punching range, but when they throw their punch he’s leaned back a whole foot further away Then he leans back in and punches you. So that’s a problem I found; one that I started to solve halfway through the fight.”

To add, he could also take a punch. That mega-uppercut Lewis landed on him in their 2003 bout would have knocked most other heavyweights out cold. 

His record and achievements don't measure up to other heavyweights of this century, but head to head, I would only pick Lewis and perhaps Fury against him. I think prime Vitali would spark his brother, Joshua, Wilder, Dubois, Joyce, etc.

At least Tony Soprano didn't have that annoying voice and stupid smug grin. 

14 hours ago, Carbomb said:

Jizzy?

Only when Nemkov fights 😉

It's difficult to get a read on how good McGregor is at this stage of his career. 

His last top-level winner was over 4 years ago against Eddie Alvarez. Since then, he's only fought twice in MMA. The first of which, he was mauled by Khabib, a defeat that has become more excusable with time. Gaethje and Poirier, two top-level fighters, were defeated by Khabib in similar fashion. The second of which, McGregor smashed through Cerrone, who while a decent fighter, isn't anywhere near an elite level fighter at this stage of his career.

Therefore, the Poirier fight will probably tell us whether McGregor still has what it takes to be an elite-level fighter at 155lbs. It's a 50/50 fight in my eyes, but I have picked Poirier, simply because I want him to win and because I have a man-crush on Mike Brown (his trainer). 

I just realised how much I want to see Izzy vs Jiri. 

56 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

He seems more of a striker than most of the Dagestan crew but he looked good everywhere here. Strong kicking game, power in his hands, good wrestling and he finished it with a choke.

Aye, apparently both cousins' (Umar and Usman) game is more striking based than Khabib's is.

I'll be keeping an eye on both. 

Fedor is being treated for COVID in a Russian hospital - https://www.rt.com/sport/513220-fedor-emelianenko-coronavirus-hospital/

From his IG page:

Quote

"Thanks to all who are genuinely concerned for my health "I feel fine, I am going into recovery. I'm grateful to the doctors and medical staff for their care and hard work."

Quote

 

A woman has filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against UFC superstar Conor McGregor for alleged personal injury, her lawyer confirmed Tuesday with ESPN.

Dave Coleman, the attorney for the woman, said the suit, over events that allegedly took place in 2018, was filed Monday in the High Court in Dublin, Ireland. In addition, the woman's mother has also filed suit against McGregor, Coleman said, in a smaller claim. The attorney would provide no additional details on the case. Per the Independent, which first reported the suit, an associate of McGregor is listed as the co-defendant. "The matter is before the court," Coleman said.

This situation was the subject of an investigation by An Garda Síochána, the national police service of the Republic of Ireland, but there were no charges brought against McGregor and McGregor has denied any wrongdoing, the Independent reported. "After an exhaustive investigation conducted by the Gardaí which, in addition to interviews of the plaintiff, included interviewing numerous sources, obtaining witnesses' statements, examining closed circuit footage and the cooperation of Conor McGregor, these allegations were categorically rejected," McGregor spokesperson Karen Kessler said in a statement. "The plaintiff knows the facts contradict the assertions in this lawsuit. Mr. McGregor will dispute any claims and is confident that justice will prevail."

McGregor, one of the most popular athletes in the world, returns to the Octagon in a main event fight against Dustin Poirier at UFC 257 on Saturday in Abu Dhabi. It will be McGregor's first bout since UFC 246 in January 2020. When asked, Coleman said there was "no specific reason" for the timing of the lawsuit being filed. The New York Times reported in 2019 that McGregor was the subject of two sexual assault investigations, though charges have not been brought and it's unclear if those investigations are still open.

McGregor has had several run-ins with the law over the years. He was arrested in Brooklyn after throwing a dolly at a UFC bus after a media day in 2018 and he was fined 1,000 euros in Dublin court in 2019 for punching a man in the face at a pub, an assault that was caught on video.

ESPN's Ariel Helwani contributed to this report.

 

https://www.espn.com/mma/story/_/id/30742557/woman-files-multimillion-personal-injury-lawsuit-conor-mcgregor-attorney-says

Frampton goes in on the McGuigans.

Does anyone actually like Barry McGuigan? He seems to fall out with everyone he crosses paths with. 

It's all subjective, but DC and Rogan bug the shit out of me. 

I don't mind Felder though. 

1 hour ago, wandshogun09 said:

What next for Max? After a fight like this it’s hard to deny him another crack at the gold. But as much as everyone’s understandably on his cock now, I still don’t see him doing this to Volkanovski. There’s a reason he wasn’t putting out the same kind of volume against Volko as he was against Aldo, Ortega and Kattar. Volk doesn’t get enough credit for that. 

Exactly. 

If Volk didn't exist, Holloway would probably still rule the Featherweight division with an iron-fist. He's already beaten Ortega and Kattar, and I see no reason why he wouldn't beat Zabit convincingly, especially considering the issues Zabit has with his cardio. 

Holloway and Volkanovski are both elite level fighters who happen to share the same division. 

Something for @wandshogun09 to sink his teeth into. 

Sad news. 

I thought he was older than 51. I had him pegged as mid-to-late 50s. 

Chuffed that Holloway and Condit both won. 

Cejudo could throw a spanner in the works. 

He could potentially be champion at either Flyweight or Bantamweight by the end of the year if he decides to return. 

UFC:

HW: Miocic. 

LHW: Izzy.

MW: Izzy. (If Izzy vacates after winning the LHW belt, then I think Whittaker will become a 2-time MW champion)

WW: Usman.

LW: Khabib. (I have a feeling he'll return. Still, none of the current contenders are beating him)

FW: Volkanovski.

BW: Yan.

FW: Figgy.

WBW: Nunes.

WFW: Shevchnko.

WSW: Weili.

Bellator

HW: Bader. 

LHW: Nemkov. (Davis and Anderson are real threats, but I am backing Vadim)

MW: Tokov. (I think Mousasi is very beatable at this stage of his career)

WW: Amosov. (I consider Lima to be massively overrated)

LW: Pitbull.

FW: McKee. 

BW: Horiguchi.

WFW: Cyborg.

WFW: Velasquez.

23 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

True, but that reach of his has often made up for that. It's crazy that, even at HW, he has that advantage - apparently Miocic's is shorter by 6 inches (one for the "out of context" thread there).

Jones is at his best when he's striking against come-forward plodders like DC and Rampage. 

He was troubled by two decent, yet very ordinary, boxers in Gusty and Reyes. Miocic's boxing and footwork is a level above imo, and if he's still the Miocic of old, or anywhere close to it, I think he beats Jones.

4 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

The HW choices are definitely an odd one - whilst Jones being virtually undefeated means a bout with Miocic would be difficult to predict, in terms of style matchups I'd say Miocic is not one that favours him like his other opponents were. Jones does particularly well against direct, dynamic opponents, but Stipe is crafty, experienced, and has high fight IQ. I don't think it's a given he'd beat Jones, but his those advantages, coupled with his size and Jones' relative inexperience at HW, might be too much.

I'd favour Miocic over Jones in a striking battle. Jones has never been the best boxer. 

Someone on Sherdog kindly translated a recent interview with Fedor's striking coach.

Some very interesting information:

Quote

This dude has been with Fedor nearly since the beginning alongside Voronov

The most useful bits that I found, while listening to this interview, is his explanation for Fedor's lack of ground game in the latter fights of his career. Basically, he says it's due to his numerous injuries (his back being a big one). He'd often skip certain ground game training sessions because of his injuries and focus on his stand-up instead.

Another interesting thing is how .... unwilling Fedor is to ever discuss/disclose his injuries even with his coaches. While in beginning it was easy enough to figure out when Fedor was injured... later, Mitchkov figured things out not because Fedor would say he had pain in this or that part of his body, but rather by noticing that when his coaches would offer him a bunch of training sessions, he'd simply say that can't do this or that without any further explanation. It's pretty surreal that he wouldn't talk to his coaches, so that they could try to work around his injuries, but there it is. It also puts Fedor's responses during interviews in a very different light - he ain't gonna share any details, no matter how hard you drill him.

Anyways, this helps to explain how Fedor devolved from the best all around fighter into a one dimensional one.

Edit:
Since some people mentioned the Bader fight - Mitchkov says Fedor was really sick for about a week just prior to the Bader fight. People tried to talk him into dropping out of the fight, but he insisted on fighting. Mitchkov says that most of the things he's picked up in the training camp just prior to the fight were all gone due to the illness.

A few other bits - Fedor never watched his opponent's fights prior, during, or after his training - he expected his coaches to do it for him. Mitchkov has never seen any other fighter who would opt out of watching the opponent fights. He's also never seen any fighter as calm as Fedor prior to his fights. The one fight Fedor was visibly excited about, when it was booked, was the Crocop fight (after Crocop KO'd his brother).

Another thing i wanted to mention - watching russian mma youtube interviews is a wonderful experience - they timestamp every question so that viewers wouldn't be wasting their time. Western counterparts with their clickbait titles could learn a LOT from these journalists. Greed and lack of respect for viewers is a vile thing.

Source - https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/an-interview-with-fedors-striking-coach.4156012/

Volkanovski continues to be underrated:

7 hours ago, Egg Shen said:

When Jim posted that link, Fishers name sadly didn't ring a bell. Wasn't until i clicked on the link that it triggered who it was.

I remembered who he was immediately.

But sadly, I remembered very little about his UFC career. I didn't even know that he beat Thiago Alves in his UFC debut until a read the article. 

McGregor is actually underrated by many hardcore fans. His record and ability tend to get overlooked. 

But those odds are insane.

It's a 50/50 or 55/45 type fight. If Poirier was 2/1, the odds would be generous. 

6 hours ago, Egg Shen said:

Chandlers hype coming in has been pretty unique. Its the first time a Bellator original has really moved directly into the UFC from the promotion and its felt like a massive deal. Problem is, as wand. pointed out, it was widely accepted that Chandler was probably on his way down and past his best before he got the UFC shout. All that's been forgotten though now hes made the jump. I hope im wrong in thinking that and Chandler is still close to his prime cause id love to see him do well.

Chandler's reputation is massively flattered by his 2 fight series with Alvarez. Two fights that took place over 7 years ago. 

Beyond those fights, his record is nothing to write home about. He got sparked by Pitbull, lost twice to Will Brooks, and barely beat Bendo the first time. He holds wins over some decent fighters, like the older Pitbull brother and Yamauchi, but that's about it. 

The UFC's Lightweight division is a shark tank and is in another dimension to Bellator's LW class. I expect (and hope) that Chandler will get swallowed up in it.