Dai

Aye, not a bad cobbled together fight, considering they have no real incentive to do it and could have just had the Suarez one go last instead.

Its bizarre that it will almost certainly be the end of MVG, as he will be out of the top 16, wont play most of the Euros, and will probably not qualify for the majority of TV tourneys. Unless Anderson has a run at the Worlds then it will be the same for him, which would be a massive shame. @Lion_of_the_Midlands Want to feel old? You and I were talking about MVG on page one of this thread.. 18 years ago. Littler was only just born and we talking about MVG and Robert Thornton, Mardle, Colin Lloyd etc. Bunting is defending a load of money at the worlds too, so could be in danger of being outside the top 16 too. Edit - Being in the top 32 has always been a thing, but does it even mean much now? For nearly everything it doesn't matter now, and its the top 16 that all that matters now. Even going from the low 20s into the 17-20 rankings is a much more significant difference, as it gets you into R2 of all the Euros when the pullouts are factored. I think even Schindler benefited from these recently, and may have even only qualified for the Euro Championship by taking advantage of it. People like Doets have a load to play for now to get the push to be even top 20, as that should mean he makes way more money at the Euros.

Yeah, there are so many variables that its impossible to compare fighters, moreover when they are different eras. I would say, without looking in too much detail, that Volk was above Aldo after the Yair fight in 2023 for me. The two Lopes wins and then this one, in his late 30s, bumps him into a different category completely. With Aldo, everything after the McGregor humiliation doesn't add to his 'status' at all, and unbelievably he was just 29 when that happened. Youre just left with his WEC run and UFC run, with no late in career excellence.

Maybe because its so fresh in the mind, but i don't think its even close between Volk and Aldo with regards to who is the best ever now. Then only question now is where he ranks in the top 5 of all divisions, as i dont think theres even a debate that he shouldn't be in that too. Would be better to compare those fighters rather than Aldo, id say.

Google maps, when you minimise to go onto another app and it becomes small, has now put the 'enlarge' icon right next to the close icon, which is just ridiculously stupid as they are so tiny when you are trying to press it. A cm the wring way and you've closed down the app. You used to be able to click on the small app and click the middle bit to enlarge, which worked perfect. No idea why they got rid of that. One more minor annoyance. When you buy a pack of chicken breasts or thighs and they have a couple of tiny ones and then the rest are all 4 times bigger. With the thighs especially, this is annoying.

38 years old and still doing things like that, unbelievable! Schooled Evloev. Speaking of schooled, how good was the Yan/Merab fight? Outstanding, and Yan out thought and even out classed Merab for the whole thing. Takedown attempt after takedown attempt he kept dealing with, and even when he got taken down he got straight back up easy. A masterclass in dealing with a grappler, just like before. Merab, like discussed earlier, seemingly has no plan B, so when the gas tank depleted toward the middle of the fight you felt he didnt have much chance of winning. Fairplay to Yan, yet another umbelievable performance, with the gas tabk to match it too. Rest of the main was OK, but the top 2 were class, and were two of those fights that remind you of how good UFC can be.

Ah cheers for posting that. A revolutionary AI ranking system, 13 years in the making, where wins and losses make up 95% of the determination. Ground breaking stuff! I know they are a sham and get ignored and/or manipulated all the time so are worthless, but theres no way you should get bonus marks for staying 'active'. Just because you fight more often doesn't make you a better fighter than the guy who fights once a year. Interesting, as we have talked about the pure sporting element recently, that by their own definitions a fighter who wins 3 fights by KO is a better fighter than someone who wins 3 fights by decision.

Whats with the symbols after the fighters rankings? Never seen thay before. Strange as well, as during the PPV announcement, Prates still had his #2 ranking. That's the Meta logo isnt it?

That alternative US dagger reward:

Great main card this! I'm going with Yan. Reading your post is the first time ive seen that Merab quote and basically giving up in R2. Never heard an elite fighter basically say that as their Plan A didnt work then they were just going to enjoy the fight. Wonder if its all bollocks though and hes just using it as a coping mechanism. Yan wont be overwhelmed or intimidated by the Merab aura now, which I think makes him a slight favourite.

I was watching some YouTube earlier and Michael Morales popped up. Remember how much hype, buzz and momentum he had when he stopped Sean Brady? That a was year ago already, and hes not been seen since. Just checked around and it seems like hes not even had any injuries. My random thought is that it is very strange.

Turman is back! And fourh from top on the main card. Strange to me that Suarez is not headlining a show either.

Is it a simple solution? I'm curious, how could my phone know that I am on a bus and not a car? And yeah, the amount of people who would buy a boiled egg in its shell would be a fraction of who buy them now. Even with this option, its not as if the supermarket is boiling the eggs out in the back and can just put them on the shelf in an egg tray. They'd still need the exact same amount of packaging because of the transportation.

Seems like a lot of people haven't read the "small, do-able" part of the brief, when theres been stuff like the following suggested: - Supermarkets to spend 10s of millions every year on bouncers to stop kids and families going in (solution; pay a couple of quid and get home deliveries) - Magic phones that somehow know when youre on public transport and can in real time cap the volume. - Changing every single piece of packaging in the UK, to the tune of hundreds of millions, just so a hanful of people are not confused maybe once or twice a year about where a tiny (in the grand scheme of things) item goes, plastics or general waste. Mine would be to ban all loyality schemes in supermarkets. You shouldn't have to have Nectar or a Club card to get the best price for something.

Could be an interesting debate all in itself. With the UFC model, which is essentially throwaway weekly shows that allow degen gamblers to bet, which has banked them 7 billion dollars, then this actually isnt true in 2026. Fury/Joshua suggests otherwise too. In MMA, I wonder if thats ever been the case.

To be fair, if Option A is to spend millions of dollars and a shit load of time to try and change the ruleset and setup, for absolutely no return (in terms of both fans and money), then its clear why they go with Option B which is to release decision fighters and WhatsApp others to say they dont want them doing it. Basically, the UFC monopoly means good, even great fighters mean absolutely jack shit to the UFC, and are not even considered assets, which has been proven many a time over the last few years. Its their world and the fighters just live in it.

As for last weeks Apex, you have to watch the first two fights of the main card, if nothing else

Ive read that post a few times abd still have no clue as to what the gameplan would achieve. Why/how would they turn on James A? Makes no sense. Doesnt achieve anything either. @BomberPat, the producers of the show have to try and spin that narrative, so probably told Maya to say it. You cant really have them tell the truth that it doesn't matter if its a Traitor/Faithful who gets voted out every time. In the same way Hannah Fry has probably done the maths and figured out you may as well vote randomly at the round table and would eliminate just as many faithful, but they cant exactly show stuff like that either. Two things I think would make the 'normal' version more interesting; Each Traitor voted off off means ten grand less that the Tratiors can win in the end (this should encourage some more interesting TV where they have some incentive to save people). Also, to make the challenges more interesting and not just team building exercises that middle management would do, the Traitors get to pocket all money they cost the Faithfuls, which would hopefully encourage some to sabotage.

Great write ups! Moxley would be another Royal Rumble/TOD guy as well.

From a completely purists/sporting point of view, then getting rid of undefeated, therefore very successful fighters doesnt sit right. The problem is, the UFC lives in its own world, so they set the rules. You said if theres a problem, then thats on the promotion. But the issue there is, they do see this as a problem and their solution is to cut the 'boring' fighters. The problem is, MMA as a sport cannot be compared to any other i dont think, not even boxing. So all the analogies about boring but successful examples cannot be compared to MMA, such is the strength of the monopoly the UFC has. Things like football, there are millions of people who are fans and loyal to their team, who will watch week in and week out regardless of entertainment, because its the result that matters. UFC doesn't have that, and in a bizarre way its not actually the result that is the most important thing any more, its being entertained. When they have spent years stripping away all of the star power/individuality of their fighters as they want UFC to be the draw, they have essentially become WWE, where entertainment overrides everything. Long and rambling post, but I guess it boils down to 'Would the UFC make more money by being purely results based and 100% fair?', and the answer is no. It has also been this way for ages too, so no fighter going into the UFC can be shocked or feel hard done by if sonething like this happens. Unfortunately its not a UFC problem, and they are not going to adapt their attitude to accommodate 'decision guys', to the detriment of their bottom line, just to increase the pure sporting aspect, which 99% of people who watch UFC dont care about

6 of his 7 wins were decisions, so its just another in a long line of examples where the UFC is being loud and clear that they want 'entertaining' fighters over everything else. That is why fighters on big losing streaks stay around, and multiple winning streak fighters dont get their contracts renewed.

Not so much a card of 'Who's who', but more just a case of 'Who?'. Looks like a proper low budget, local type of show. Just was browsing Randy Browns Wiki, and shocked to see hes been in there with quite a few big (ish) names over the years. Must have been seen as a decent prospect around the 2015 time. Didn't pan out for him though really did it. Speaking of names, one of his last fights was against Wellington Turmon. Cracking name!

This card was perfectly enjoyable, mostly forgetable, but who cares when it had one of the best head kick KOs in UFC history with Fili. Unbelievable, and I dont even need to request it from Wand. Was a thing of beauty, and hats off to Kamaka for selling it the way he did. I'm trying to think of how he went down and who it reminded me of. Maybe that Rashad KO? Or maybe that Williams/Coleman classic kick. Those blasts from the past would be my gif request so we can compare and contrast. Speaking of comparing... How gutted is Tanzilovi? He replicated the Holm/Rousey KO, and no one gave a shit 10 minutes later. Was a beauty though, and from memory it looked almost identical in the way it wa set up to the Holm one. This event was Cro Cop approved! The low stakes involved mean the Fili one isnt the best of all time, but does it crack the top 5 do we think? Is the Edwards one top? Or Holm? Trying to think of any obvious ones im missing.

Yeah, this season is the worst ever by a mile. Do yourself a favour and watch the new NZ one, as it has actual chemistry between contestants, and good solid range of people, and even the shit one (Dave) is charming/funny when being crap. Everything that this UK season doesn't. The NZ has also made me wonder, as that has loads of post production editing for some episodes. There was a Dream task where all five contestants had the post production affects. This UK season has had very little in the way of special affects or editing. It's either the contestants are shite and not creative, or the post editing team has been scaled back loads.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/mixed-martial-arts/articles/cmx2dv23e5y8o Looks like Strickland has been doing some accounting during his down time and got the bad news hes not set for life, despite being a 2 time champ who has headlined multiple PPVs. Let's discount the fact its Strickland, but surely its not right and not actually good long term business that someone with his resume isnt set for life. How can you attract the great athletes if you have stories like this? Does it mean the gameplan for up and comers should always be start in the UFC, and then make enough of a name to cash in the boxing money? Seems like if you want to retire in your 30s then thats the only path to do so.