wandshogun09

Not exactly him ‘screwing up’ but this is the Jon Jones thread so might as well post it here.

Don’t know if anyone’s seen it but he’s ducking Tom Aspinall hard again. There’s no other way to dress it up. It’s bad enough that the UFC are pushing forward with Jones vs Miocic over Jones vs Aspinall, despite Aspinall being interim champ. Now Jones is throwing Alex Pereira into the mix as well.

So he’s gonna fight Stipe next, then he’s lining up Pereira after. Just delaying the Aspinall thing even more. It’s genuinely pathetic. Talks all this GOAT shit and his arse licker fans bang on like he’s the nailed on GOAT and there’s no debate. He wants to cherry pick and fight anyone but Aspinall. While Jones vs Pereira would undoubtedly be big, and I wouldn’t mind seeing it, it’s so blatantly and unashamedly a case of Jones looking for the easier fight. I thought the whole point of him moving up to Heavyweight was to prove a point that he could beat the best Heavyweights? Now he’s avoiding the interim champ and trying to fight a Light Heavyweight who was at Middleweight not long ago, and has a very limited MMA skillset overall.

Honestly baffles me how I’ve seen some backlash against Aspinall for “crying” and “begging for the fight” yet praise and “he’s the GOAT” talk for Jones despite him avoiding the fight that should be happening next. When did that become a thing? To cheer the guy ducking the fight and criticise the guy who just wants to fight the best?

This gave me a chuckle though. Grabaka Hitman on Twitter (great account, by the way) replied to one of Jones’ tweets and was spot on. To the point he must’ve hit a nerve because Jones actually hid his reply the big wally 🤣

1 minute ago, Gooner said:

Beterbiev  vs. Bivol has suffered postponed due to Beterbiev rupturing his meniscus in training.  Apparently they are hoping to find a replacement to step in and face Bivol on June 1st but the 5 on 5 card that night goes on regardless. Such a shame we have to wait even longer for this fight to take place. 

..

Definitely an all babyface clash. You wouldn’t want it every PPV but it’s a refreshing diversion from some of the toxic bollocks we’ve had in title fight build ups in recent times.

Agreed on Paul Craig. If fights were won on staredowns he’d probably be UFC champion by now. 

Guessing everyone skipped this and I don’t even blame you. Apart from little snippets I caught earlier in the week, I didn’t bother either. Even I was just gonna leave it and I never completely skip cards. Gotta admit, I’m close to tapping out on these Apex cards now. Never thought I’d see the day but they’re soul destroying. Joyless. I think the last bunch of these I haven’t got around to watching until days later and that’s partly been down to being busy but also, I’ve been struggling to even muster up the motivation to watch these cards. But the kids are at the grandparents and Mrs Wand was watching soaps so I caved and stuck this on. Well, bits of it. Friday nights never used to be like this 🤣

In fairness, Perez vs Nicolau was perfectly fine. Yeah it felt like a weak main event going in but I said pre-fight I thought it was still way preferable to a lot of the shite they serve up these days. Certainly better than the lower level Heavyweight or Middleweight main events they usually inflict on us. Flyweights are rarely dull and this definitely wasn’t. I just didn’t know quite what to expect with Nicolau coming off a year of inactivity and Perez stepping in on late notice. Perez reminded everyone that he’s actually quite decent when he wants to be though.

Wiped Nicolau out in brutal fashion. Snaps a 3 fight losing streak and his first win since 2020. Yeah, Nicolau is no world beater but he’s a solid fighter who was ranked in the Top 5 going in. Easily the best Perez has looked in some time. And I think a big factor in that is the quick turnaround. All the injuries and layoffs over the last few years have held him back big time but after losing to Mokaev in March, staying in the gym and coming right back the following month has to have helped. And now he’s already got his next fight booked! Knocked out Nicolau on Saturday, by mid week he’s already signed to fight Tagir Ulanbekov in June. Fair play. He‘s gone from fighting 3 times in 4 years to fighting 3 times in 4 months! Hopefully the pullouts and layoffs are behind him now and he can stay more active going forward.

Bogdan Guskov smoked Ryan Spann after having a dodgy first round. Spann needs to just stop accepting fights with Anthony Smith and any variations of him like Guskov here. It never ends well for him.

Starting to kind of like Guskov. I mean he’s not that good but he hasn’t bored me yet and that’s better than I can say for most of the mid level 205ers these days. Wouldn’t mind seeing Guskov vs Cutelaba at some point. Spann is absolutely floundering now. That’s 3 losses on the bounce for him.

Tried to give the Karine Silva fight a chance because I’d liked what I’d seen of her in previous fights but this one just didn’t hold my interest and I started skipping forward after a round or so. Threw me off seeing Ariane Lipski is no longer called Ariane Lipski now. When did that happen? Decent win for Silva, I guess. But didn’t look like much of a fight.

The Jhonata Diniz vs Austen Lane fight was a mess from what I saw. Started skipping through bits of the first round because life’s too short for Heavyweight Apex bollocks. But it was like they’d stuck the two most uncoordinated men on earth on an ice rink the way they were falling about the place. Diniz mercifully put an end to it in the second…

Won’t be counting the days to either man’s next fight, to be honest. Big knockout but it felt like it was just as much a result of Lane gassing as it was anything Diniz did. Just goes to show, having an NFL background and being “an athlete” doesn’t necessarily translate to the Octagon. It’s the thing people always used to trot out when some fans were oddly insistent that Greg Hardy was a serious prospect. That he was such a great “athlete” and all that. But he’d routinely be sucking wind after 3 minutes as well.

Onama vs Pearce was fun as expected. Never quite got cooking like I’d hoped but it was a good fight all the same. The end of the fight with both just emptying the tank and swinging like madmen was cool. Almost like a poor man’s version of Holloway vs Gaethje minus the actual KO. Good win for Onama, just a shame he put a dampener on it by missing weight. There was no FOTN awarded but this probably would’ve got it had Onama made weight. Hopefully it was a one-off.

Uros Medic kicked off the main card with a bang. Just a shame it came at the expense of Tim Means. Was a peach of a shot though…

Nasty.

Nice return to winning ways for Medic but you have to wonder how much longer Means is gonna keep doing this. 40 years old, 50+ fights and this was a gnarly KO.

Like I said, I skipped most of the prelims. The only fight I watched in full was Victor Henry vs Rani Yahya, which was decent but bittersweet as I like both and was sad to see Yahya get stopped. Henry’s just got more about him though and any pupil of Josh Barnett is someone I’m gonna be rooting for.

Gotta say as well, the stark contrast in some of the corner work on this card was clear as day. Barnett was exactly what you want from a cornerman. Clear in his instructions, gave actual technical advice and made the most of every one of the 60 seconds he had between rounds to get Henry ready for the next round. Compare that to one of the womens fights earlier on the prelims. I skimmed through but caught enough to know that Marnic Mann’s cornerman was fucking useless. Again, you’ve got 60 seconds as a cornerman between rounds and this guy wastes a big chunk of it slowly counting backwards from 10, then imparts such pearls of wisdom as “Look for that throw, it’s there. Left kick’s there. The leg kicks are there. Work your left to the body, straight left is there as well. That throw’s there. Leg kicks are there.” Then as she’s getting up off the stool, bewildered, the next round is just about to start and someone else in the corner chimes in with “the head kick is there. Liver kick”. What the fuck? 🤣 Everything is just “there”, apparently. I know a fighter like Mann is just starting out and she’s gonna have her original corner from the local shows and stuff but Jesus Christ. Hearing this shite on a UFC broadcast is almost comical. Have a listen…

Unsurprisingly, she lost.

What was surprising, the Don’Tale Mayes vs Caio Machado fight looked like a fairly entertaining sloppy brawl from the bits I saw of it. Admittedly not much.

Have it. They’re both still shit but I guess them being about equally shit made it a well matched fight at least.

Not much else to say about the prelims, I can’t remember the last card I fast forwarded through as much as this one. For a card that looked utter wank going in, it wasn’t that bad really. Some nice finishes. It was one of them though where if you missed it…you didn’t miss much. 

I don’t think it’s fair to keep comparing this to 300. They stacked that one up to such a degree that pretty much any card would be a comedown trying to follow it. This isn’t the strongest PPV but it’s not even a bad card.

No press conference is weird but it’s not like there was no talking points here. Jose Aldo’s return alone would’ve made a presser worthwhile, especially in Rio. The main event could’ve benefited from a presser as well and I actually think Erceg has came across well in bits I’ve seen and could’ve been entertaining in that setting. Then you’ve got Michel Pereira who’s an interesting character, Anthony Smith is never short of something to say, Petrino is an up and coming Brazilian prospect who you’d think they’d wanna shine a light on. Even Paul Craig and Caio Borralho could’ve been a fun little clash of personalities. 

But we’ll never know because they just didn’t even bother with a press conference. It’s not the fighters faults and there is some good stuff scattered throughout this card if you can get past it not being 300. But when it comes to lack of promotion, blame the UFC for being lazy cunts. 

Gonna sound harsh and obviously I hope it’s nothing too serious. But this card losing Gomis actually improves it for me. Bloke’s been zero fun to watch in his UFC fights so far. 

Yeah he looked like shit. Not sure what happened there. Usually a bad weight cut sees the fighter miss or barely scrape the weight. Gomis came in a couple of pounds under the weight limit with a shirt on. Must have an illness of some sort. Fully expecting his fight to get cancelled at the last minute now. If not, I can’t see it going well for him against a heavy hitter like Silva.

While I’m here, look at this for a stable. The likability scale just exploded. The Mexzilians? The Brazexicans?

🇧🇷🇲🇽

Dillon Danis just continues to take Ls. Paige VanZant with the 10-8.

Canelo fight week 🇲🇽 

Him and De La Hoya got into it at the press conference as well. 

2 hours ago, air_raid said:

I will never forget that line from his shoot interview where he just said "I was scratching my head from the day I got into the WCW (sic) until the day I left."

“If you asked me to list the things they did get right then I’d really have to scratch my head”. 

Bout order’s been reshuffled. Still not an amazing card but it looks a bit better now they’ve rightly bumped the Despaigne fight and Ferreira vs Rebecki to the main card.

I don’t even think it’s that bad overall for a Fight Night card, it’s the main event that’s dragging it down more than anything. Stick an actual decent headliner on this and it’s fine. All the main card fights minus the main event should be entertaining enough and - even on the prelims - Hooper vs Slav, McKinney vs Ribovics and Hadley vs Johnson could be a lot of fun.

Honestly, if it was up to me I’d have just pulled the trigger and had Lewis vs Despaigne headline. Fuck it. At 35, time is of the essence with Despaigne. Chucking him in there would’ve been better than anything involving this Nascimento ham and egger.

Fight week face-off. Pretty cool.

In fairness, a lot of these guys are coming into Bare Knuckle when their career is already on its last legs. If it was possible put a guy like Thiago Alves into BK when he was at his physical peak and still young and hungry, it might well have been a different situation entirely. Not saying he’d definitely have won but I don’t think he’d have folded as quickly and easily as he did here. Obviously Bare Knuckle is a different game and it’s not for everyone but I think in some of these cases it’s not so much a that they weren’t ever cut out for BK and more a timing thing. Like we said before the show, on this very page, Alves was making all the wrong noises this week and was clearly enticed back purely by the money. Of course they’re all prize fighters and they’re all in it for the money, but to really excel in something as barbaric as this that can’t be your only motivation. I think you almost have to be a bit barmy and actually love it to do well at it. Which is why a knuckle dragging loon like Mike Perry is having the best period of his career right now in BKFC.

I wish Wanderlei Silva was still young and fresh enough to still go. He was bouncing bare knuckles off fools heads in IVC in Brazil when the pay was probably a beer and a hot dog.

He loved it. 

It’s a shame that he’s past it now there’s finally money to be made in this filth. Wandy of 98/99 vs Perry of today in BK would’ve been bonkers. 

Yeah, Francis tweeted this just. Heart wrenching.

This one’s came around quick, hasn’t it?

3 hours ago, WyattSheepMask said:

Once Prime become more widely available I decided I’d try each one and rank them accordingly. 

3 hours ago, WyattSheepMask said:

rank 

Yep.

Saw a quote from Thiago Alves saying he was pretty much retired until the offer for this Perry fight came in and said “money talks”. Doesn’t bode well. Never like to hear that kind of talk going into a fight, especially Bare Knuckle. If you’re only hanging around for a paycheque, there’s gotta be easier ways than BK. I hope Alves proves me wrong and chins him. Always liked him and Perry’s a fucking weapon. But I’ve got a bad feeling about it. 

Even the early start time isn’t polishing this turd for me. Not feeling this one at all.

Sorry to bump this but Max Holloway was on Rogan’s podcast and he talked about the ‘phantom’ knockdown that wasn’t scored as a knockdown for Gaethje. And even Max says it’s bullshit that it wasn’t counted.

First off, again, all class. I get that it’s easy to throw the other guy a bone when you’ve already got the win in the history books. But most fighters wouldn’t have said this or admitted they were legitimately knocked down.

Also shows that the stats are so unreliable. People bring them up a lot when arguing who should’ve won rounds and stuff but those stats are quite often all over the place. Knockdowns not getting counted, takedowns not getting counted, what constitutes a ‘significant strike’ being mostly open to interpretation. They’re not a solid metric to go by. No-one will ever convince me that Gaethje didn’t knock Holloway down. He threw the punch, it landed, Max legs went from under him and he hit the deck. However brief he was down is irrelevant, he was knocked down. I know it’s insignificant now in terms of this specific fight. Max won and it was one of the greatest moments in the sports history. But they need to sort that shit out or just not use stats at all.

Oh and for anyone who wants to watch it, here’s the full episode of Holloway on JRE;

Haven’t seen it in years but I’ll be watching that again later. Cheers Ian!

Buckley managed to get on the card in the end. New co-main…

I’ve updated the opening post and redone the poll. 

This is such a good fight. Taira was supposed to fight Tim Elliott and Van was set to fight Su Mudaerji. Shame those fights fell apart, both sounded fun, but this is still somehow an upgrade in my opinion. 

Really liking these prospect vs prospect matchups they’ve been doing a bit more of recently. Just over the last month or two we’ve had Christian Rodriguez vs Isaac Dulgarian and Payton Talbott vs Cameron Saaiman. Now this. I’m all for it.