jimufctna24

No one knows who he is - 

I agree with Zach Makovsky's take on Ferguson:

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Zach Makovsky: Disclaimer: I have always had an inability to see Ferguson as a highly skilled and elite fighter, despite his insane win streak. I have, on multiple occasions, incorrectly picked against him. I can’t help it. He strikes me as an agent of pure chaos with no rhyme or reason. Outside of his d’arce series, I find his mechanics, general positioning and tactics to be poor. 

What makes him special are his intangibles: his durability, his endurance and pace, and his iron will. 

These have carried him to many victories as he is willing to push onwards in the face of his opponents dishing out all the damage they can muster. He continuously outlasts them, but this is heavily dependent on his durability. We’ve seen Tony dropped and hurt, legs unsteady under him as he pushes on, almost always unable to be put away. I was pretty shocked he was able to take what he did from Gaethje, but how long can one absorb this kind of repeated damage? 

Oliveira, despite some ups and downs, seems to be hitting his stride. A sharper striker with a highly aggressive and smooth transitional grappling game. As Ben points out, the three rounds instead of five favors Oliveira here, as I see no way he could match the pace of Ferguson over the distance. Luckily, I don’t think he’ll have to. My blind spot to El Cucuy persists and I may end up with yet another piece of contrary evidence I will likely ignore, but Oliveira by TKO.

 

https://www.thefight-site.com/home/256-picks

Sam Eggington is boxing on Channel 5 tonight - https://box.live/uk-boxing-tv-schedule/channel-5/

Coverage starts at 10pm. 

If Kyoji returns to Bellator next year, I don't want him to go anywhere near Magomedov. That guy is a beast of a BW.

The commentators hinted that there could be BW GP next year, which would be tons of fun. Imagine a field consisting of Archuleta, Gallagher, Mix, Horiguchi, Magomedov, Stots, Pettis, etc. 

Elsewhere, while I haven't watched it yet, Lachinov vs Nikaev was apparently a barnburner. Probably worth tracking down if you have the time. 

Don't underestimate Tito's delusion. 

Rumble is going to fight at Light Heavyweight apparently. Splendid, another decent name to beef up Nemkov's resume. 

Oh and Bellator have signed Watanabe from Rizin. 

Main Card:

Ilima-Lei Macfarlane vs. Juliana Velasquez - Bellator Flyweight World Title

Magomed Magomedov vs. Matheus Mattos 

Ronny Markes vs. Linton Vassell

Davion Franklin vs. Anthony Garrett 

Coverage begins at 3am on Sky Sports Arena.

Prelims:

Billy Goff vs. Robson Gracie Jr

Kenny Champion vs. Cody Law

Romero Cotton vs. Justin Sumter

Maurice Jackson vs. Grant Neal

Kemran Lachinov vs. Shamil Nikaev 

Coverage begins at 12:30am on Bellator's Youtube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/c/bellator/videos

Kalle Sauerland would batter Warren and Hearn. 

20 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

Given that I know almost nothing about early MMA, I turn to you guys to ask if he's on the money or not. He certainly makes some excellent points, if I'm taking him at his word.

What do you guys reckon?

This sort of analysis is a dirty science, mostly based on assumptions. That said, while I haven't seen a few of the fights he discusses, I find most of his points reasonable. 

Ken came across as a relic on TUF 3 in 2005/2006. An associate of Ross Pointon's told me that Ken's training was that shit, the UFC had to bring in other coaches to train his team during the show's filming. 

Ken's drawing power kept him relevant in MMA well into the 21st century, but he achieved fuck all of note in the sport after 1996. 

Nice bloke though 😄

Interesting article about the Lion's Den Camp - https://www.sherdog.com/news/articles/The-Lions-Den-and-the-Greatest-that-Never-Were-176656

TLDR: The author believes that Guy Mezger and Mikey Burnett would have been all-time greats had they trained at a better camp. 

16 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

It could be argued that the fact he chose to shoot in on BJJ black-belt Nate Diaz in their first fight after getting smacked around on the feet a bit was him basically admitting defeat.

I revisited that fight a while back. 

I'm not sure whether he did break mentally. Rather, I think he may have blew his load earlier and gassed himself out. He used a lot of energy into stopping Diaz early on, and his style consumes a lot of energy anyway.

19 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

The short notice could’ve been a factor in how the Mendes fight played out as well.

Perhaps, but those front kicks take a lot out of a fighter. For example, Jon Jones wore down DC twice primarily with those kicks. 

31 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

I’m not just talking about the obvious Khabib example either.

McGregor and Poirier both fared about the same against Khabib. 

I don't think either broke mentally as such. In fact, both had their best moments only minutes before they were finished. I just think Khabib's grappling was too much for both of them. 

McGregor is at his most dangerous in the early rounds, but he hasn't always been a front-runner. 

In the rematch with Diaz, he adjusted well enough in the later rounds to eek out a decision win. He also weathered the early storm against Mendes and gradually wore him down with body kicks. 

13 hours ago, Carbomb said:

I think the only other place he can really go, then, is One FC, no? Might be worth a punt either way.

I haven't kept up with One FC, so I am not sure if they are in any position to sign him or not. 

Rizin has entertained signing Anderson Silva recently, so perhaps they could be an option. Or maybe one of the Bare Knuckle leagues will cough up enough cash to sign him. 

Hmmm, I had it in my head that he was going to sign with the PFL. 

49 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

But Poirier put on a masterclass and took the decision in a tremendous fight. Maybe the single best overall performance of Poirier’s career. I said at the time and I stand by it, I know Interim champs aren’t seen as proper champs but, as far as that goes, Poirier’s was as legit as it gets without being the Undisputed strap. For the run he’d been on, the work he’d put in and the guys he beat, he had as real a claim to calling himself champion, if not more than a lot of ‘proper’ champs do.

Poirier was a better fighter at that time than anyone at heavyweight, light-heavyweight and possibly other divisions. 

He was/is just unfortunate that he shares the same division as Khabib, Gaethje (who he holds a win over), and to a lesser extent Ferguson, all of which are/were P4P kingpins, so he doesn't always receive the credit he deserves. 

That said, I haven't decided who I am picking between him and McGregor yet. 

I'll probably ignore this entirely. 

Tyson vs Jones actually turned out better than I expected. But I have little interest in watching retired legends, MMA fighters or celebrities box going forward. The novelty has worn off for me. 

2 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

Collier vs Villante was shite but I expected that going in. Look at this pathetic attempt at spinning shit... 

And that’s the guy who won this mess 30-27 across the board. What does that say about how useless Villante is? Hey, Yoel Romero got sacked but at least we’ve got more of this to look forward to in 2021.

Oh dear 😄

Was it Mauro who used to get a hard-on over Villante?

Marv Marinovich has passed away - https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/30450768/marv-marinovich-captain-usc-trojans-1962-championship-team-dies-81

Marinovich served as BJ Penn's strength and conditioning coach in 2009, which was arguably the best period of Penn's career. 

Mousasi would smash him....................at least in my wet dreams. 

This is a decent little watch if you have the time:

Kape vs Pantojo has been postponed - https://www.mmafighting.com/2020/12/3/22151057/alexandre-pantoja-vs-manuel-kape-scratched-from-ufc-vegas-17

Bollocks.