Dai

Just getting around to watching this, has anything been said about how legal those elbows were in the Pitbull fight? Surely they were 12-6. Does it matter if the aggressor is on the bottom when doing them? I know Big John called them legal, but not sure how, as there was no angle at all put on them.

Was I the only one to notice how that picture they use for the Cyborg/Smith banner in the cage looks absolutley nothing like Cyborg? I think its been photoshopped to within an inch of its life.

If the main issue for you is weight loss, then 99% of your focus should be on your nutrition, not the exercise. Judging from your post, you seem to think that going to the gym/exercising will fix the weight problem. It wont. At the moment, Id recommend not even worrying about the gym, DDP yoga, personal trainers, the whole lot, its just a waste of time and avoiding the main issue of losing weight. Just go for walks wherever you feel comfortable, and focus all your effort on the food and drink side. Sort that out, stick to a certain amount of calories, and you'll lose weight without even stepping foot in a gym. Once youre on a good path and losing weight from the nutrition (not diet), then you can start to introduce some home workouts to increase fitness.

Agree with everything Wand said. If anyone is not planning on watching this show, do yourself a favour and at least watch the main event. Was an absolute belter. Disgusting KO, it looked like Reyes had been hit with a sniper the way he went down. Reyes showed insane toughness in this one, and went out on his shield for sure. Im sure everyone watching it knew as soon as Reyes didnt finish the choke that it was game over. What's very interesting is that Reyes hit Prochazka with some heavy shots throughout, but midway through R2, Reyes looked like Rocky after 12 rounds with Apollo, and Prochazka looked completley unscathed.

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I get what you’re saying but what does Diaz getting smushed by Chimaev do for Diaz’s hype? He’s been gone for a fucking age. No-one’s saying a Lawler rematch is of any significance in title pictures or anything. But after 6 years away, I think most fans just want to see him in a fun competitive fight. We don’t know how good Chimaev is yet but given his style, he more than likely squashes Diaz and that’ll be that. Diaz’s return ends up looking like Edgar vs Penn 3, Dana’s at the press conference saying he shouldn’t have booked it and everyone just wishes the whole thing never happened. A Lawler fight mightn’t set the world alight in terms of hype in 2021 but it feels like a relatively evenly matched fight at this stage, it’s got the ready made backstory of the first fight and the long journey they’ve both been on since, and stylistically it’s probably going to be entertaining to watch. If Diaz wins great, then maybe you can look at something like Chimaev or whoever. If he loses, at least you got a fun fight out of it and then maybe you can feed Lawler to Chimaev instead. I just don’t think anyone really wanted to see Diaz vs Chimaev right now. Maybe I’m wrong but when talk of Diaz fighting again started up this past week, I heard all kinds of names suggested as his comeback opponent and not once did I hear or read the name Khamzat Chimaev until one of the media asked Dana about it at the post-fight presser. 

Diaz getting smashed does nothing for Diaz's hype, but would certainly do wonders for Chimaev, so at keast youre getting that positive from it. Imagine Dana's post fight presser if Chimaev does indeed squash Diaz? Hed be going crazy on the hype train. I think it still makes more sense to do this match first. You get the intrigue of Diaz's first match back, and the result is win-win. Diaz beating a 2021 Lawler means nothing, and you run the risk of wasting the 'rub' a win over Diaz has on Lawler rather than Chimaev.

Youre right though, we shouldnt be spending so much time on whats most likely a non-starter. Even if it does happen, hes had one fight in 8 years, which is a lifetime in MMA. The hype and popularity of him must have dwindled significantly now.

A passed his prime Diaz beating a passed his prime Lawler in a forgetable match kills Diaz's hype stone dead, and he becomes just another mildly popular UFC fighter. Theres way more upsides to the Chimaev match, in terms of the hype of that actual match, and subsequently the momentum it would give either winner, in my opinion.

Haha, I was going to post the same thing. Why would you do a brag about money and use singles? Floyd Mayweather and his $100k bricks of cash, it aint.

As for the event, part of me thinks that trying anything new and different should be encouraged, but maybe not to the extreme this event did. Having the commentators constantly making gags about one of the main event fighters physique was definitely something unique. Whether its good or not, I still havent figured that out. At least its different I guess.

1 hour ago, Factotum said:

Also, what is a players reason for staying at those other clubs now? Now, a player might stay at Leicester as you have the chance to actually play in the CL and europe. Now? No chance. You'll want to go and play in the ESL and earn a fortune. Its a monopoly. And so what if Everton suddenly finish 2nd? Whats their reward?

Its bollocks. There's no defending it.

Even these days, the allure of playing some group stage matches in the CL probably plays a miniscule factor in whether players stay at a smaller club. Even in your example of Leicester, look at how many players they have lost to the big 6 since they won the league. The CL/Europe factor is almost non existant for these players who left, so again, this new league has zero affect on this in my opinion.

Obviously there are no plans for this new thing yet, but surely if Everton finish 2nd, they probably get into the ESL for the following year, and get to play quite a few of the biggest teams in the world in front of massive audiences, something thats better than what you get if you finish 4th currently. Everton could get knocked out at the group stage of the CL, or they could beat Real Madrid at Goodison Park, which would live on for years to come. Far fetched I admit, but not beyond the realms of impossibility.

4 minutes ago, PunkStep said:

It has, but there's still opportunity for others to gatecrash. West Ham and Leicester vying for Champions League places this season, Everton have had heavy investment to try and make them competitive, Wolves becoming the third biggest team in the world etc. That gap between the big 6 is going to widen much further. These teams will be free from UEFA's paper-thin FFP regulations and the PL won't have the balls to try and put something similar in place because they will need those clubs more than ever.

You'll have two Premiere Leagues in future- one made up of 6 and another of 14. Although despite attracting top talent we'll still spectacularly balls it up and battle with Leeds in mid-table.

I can still see the gatecrashing, ala West Ham/Leicester, even with this new competition. I think everyone is in agreement that the FFP is a complete joke anyway, so being free from it wont suddendly open the floodgates to even greater spending in my opinion. These elite clubs spend what they want even now, so I dont think transfers would be seriously affected if they are free from FFP, therefore the gap wont get significantly bigger I dont think.

7 minutes ago, stewdogg said:

I don't think they will be banned though, unfortunately the premier league, FA, and above all the other 86 clubs need the 'Big 6' clubs more than the big 6 need them. I'd go as far as to say it could be 90 clubs (including Spurs, Arsenal, Chelsea and City) need Man United and Liverpool more than Utd and Liverpool need everyone else. They might get chucked out of UEFA competition but what does that even mean without the biggest clubs (Bayern excepted)?

It's going to create a massive disparity between clubs within the Premier League, no team will ever be able to break the Top 4, probably even the Top 6. Can you imagine if Spurs and Arsenal start spending like the other sides, it will totally destroy who is going to win the league. I guess you'll still have the fun of relegation, but it will be nigh on impossible for a team to break the 'Big 6'.

If these teams do leave the Premier League then the TV rights are gone. I'm sure Sky and BT are already looking for loopholes of what to do if Liverpool and United are not in the league and will try to recoup money from clubs. If the Big 6 give their money back to broadcasters, so what? They've just been given €300,000,000. The other 14 wouldn't be able to function without this money. That's without the foreign TV rights, and if we're honest who on earth, outside of the UK is going to pay (enough subscribers to make it a worthwhile investment) to watch Burnley, Norwich or Brighton? The Premier League IS Manchester United, Liverpool and to a degree Arsenal and Chelsea. The Big 6 know they have the league over a barrel, the league will fold without them, FIFA will relent as they are not going to want the best players in the world to not play at a World Cup, the only ones that may stick to their guns are UEFA, but they couldn't even nail City for blatant disregard of FFP, so they'll probably fall in line too.

Theres not a chance in hell of them leaving the Premier League, for all the reasons youve just stated. As for this 'creating' a disparity between the Top 6 and the others, thats already there and has been for years. I havent got any specifics, but you always hear on the commentary about how the big 6 have one or two players on the bench that cost pretty much combined the starting 11 of the opposition. Look at how much the combined value is of the average subs bench of a Man City or Untied.

Havent they said that 25% of it will be open for all other clubs? The sad fact is, a team like West Ham getting one of these open slots and getting smashed by the elite clubs during midweek would serve them better financially than the CL would, and give them a much more focussed audience on them ( a win against one of these clubs, where the viewing figures would be constantly huge, would surely be far better than getting knocked out at the group stage of the CL).

Unless Im not remembering someone, Arlovski is the last of the 'old school' fighters left at the elite level in 2021 (now that Overeem seems to be done from this group). The fact he keeps winning should make him a huge fan favourate to people the wrong side of 30 such as myself, but his fights are now so bland that it makes it hard for you to root for him. All the credit in the world for him for nearly always making the fights as low risk as possible, but it sort of dampens the inspirational/fanboy aspect from him I think.

Gastelum was outclassed in this fight. The fact hes 5'8 and a Top 10 Middleweight says it all about his talent though. As Wand says, hes not even 30 yet, I think he really needs to focus on his weight so he can have a good couple of years at Welter to finish his career with. Id fancy his chances against the likes of Chiesa, Magny and Woodly, rather than the comparative monsters such as Costa, Till and Hermannson who are all around his rankings at the moment. His best wins at Middleweight were against aging fights like Bisping, Kennedy, Belfot and Jacare. Anyone in their prime at this weight, and hes lost.

Wand, luckily for Dern she is a straweight, so wont have to face Shevchencko for the time being. At the moment she probably doesn't have enough to beat most of the top 5, but give it some time and she could cause some problems for them. I assume there will be a big jump in her ranking soon, but most of the top 6-10 at the moment are decent matches for her (Waterston, Torres, etc). 

Also forgot to mention how huge Amanda Nunes looked when she hugged Dern. Never really thought there would be that much of a size difference

Really enjoyable main card, apart from the main event which ended the night on a downer.

Hollands KO of Jacare was just 4 months ago. Just goes to show you how cruel a beast MMA is, as his stock has crashed from one of the most hyped fighters in the UFC, to a complete after thought now. Plenty of rebuilding for him now. His standup still looked OK during this one, but theres clearly plenty of work to do with the takedown defence. Vetteri gets paid I guess, but this win did nothing for him.

The rest of the main card was cracking, I thought. Perry is as tough as hell and always a good watch. Great little scrap with Rodriquez. Mackenzie Dern recently is looking like a different animal from the one who kept missing weight. Even her standup is looking way improved. She could end up being a big problem for Zhang or Thug Rose fairly soon if the improvements keep happening.

Marquez/Alvey was a belter. Both guys getting rocked multiple times. Plenty of heart shown by both. Allen/Yusuff was a good scrap too.

12 hours ago, Egg Shen said:

The main card is a strange one. Given Bellators recent progress this one feels like a card left over from 2018 or something. The Zingano debut might have felt a big deal a few years ago but i aint sure if anyone cares anymore?

 

Shes already had a Bellator match, it was a very forgetable match with someone who missed weight by 5 pounds. I remember watching it thinking the Zingano of old would have smashed this person, but Cat made pretty hard work out of it.

Cant see anything other than Bader smashing Lyoto in this one, either, despite Baders last outing.

1 hour ago, David said:

You think a Ngannou vs Lewis II PPV would only do "slightly worse" than a Jones vs Ngannou card? Really? Especially considering the absolute snoozefest the first fight was?

I'll tell you what, if you're right, then it just highlights how fucking terrible the UFC are at promoting their fights.

Not a single person would remember the first fight they had by now. That's a complete non factor. 

I think a Lewis/Ngannou fight would do a few hundred thousand buys less, but in the grand scheme of things, that's nothing, and certainly not worth Dana paying 10 million for. Same goes for the Stipe matches 

If you dont pay Canelo $20 mill, then you have no show at all, and no one makes any money. If you dont pay for Jon Jones and pay a few hundred thousand dollars for Derrick Lewis, you still have a show which would do only slightly worse in terms of buys. Not comparable. At this point, the UFC brand is so strong that I dont think Dana gives a shit if theres a "star" popping a big number on the buyrate. UFC fighters have absolutley no bargaining power at all, as evidenced by Dana not giving two shits whether Jones fights or not.

Great performance from big Francis. All throughout the fight you are on the edge of your seat with him. You know at any moment he can end it. Crazy aura he has. The size difference was alot more noticable last night I thought. Stipe didnt even look like a big light heavyweight last night I thought. The perspective may be off as hes in there with someone who's 265lb of muscle I guess. That 30lb difference, especially in the first few rounds, was a big factor in him being able to stuff the takedown and ragdoll Stipe to the gorund as well. I dont do much on social media, but I assume there must be plenty of steroid talk when it comes to Ngannou. The only other heavyweight who looked like that was Overeem I think. I dont know if anyone can screen grab it, but even the picture they used for him for the tale of the tape was absurd.

All good points. I guess Im basing it on some very general assumptions that Ngannou seems like hes got a very good attitude, and even though hes not had much fight time, Im assuming there were full and intense training camps for all of his fights. Again, based on nothing but general vibes I get from Ngannou, youd like to think he had some major training and hours of work in wrestling and ground work in preparation for Cain and Blaydes specifically, which may come to fruition in this fight. Thats going to be the second most interesting part of the fight (the first being if Francis lands the big bomb in Round 1).

As Wand said, Ngannou was as gassed as Dadda 5000 was against Kimbo by the end of Round 2 in their first match, and Miocic still couldnt/didnt submit him. Three years worth of improvements by Ngannou should logically say that if he didnt get submitted first time, its even less likely this time.

Watched the first Embedded, and even after all these years it's crazy to see Miocic working a regular job. The heavyweight world champion washing up and sweeping the floor, and talking about how it's good to have a back up plan. Mental to think that he probably views being one of the GOAT as his side job. There won't be any problems with him adjusting to retired life, that's for sure. 

An enjoyable main fight card I thought. Some nice KO's by Tuivasa, Griffin and Yanez. The Yanez KO is crazy, because if you watch it in normal speed, you almost dont even see the punch as its so quick. Scary speed from him.

The 'Holland talks lots LOL' schtick quickly loses its appeal when hes losing the fight and showing absolutley no urgency. Its like running a joke into the ground. It was funny the first round and when he was talking to Khabib between Round 1 and 2, but quickly becomes shit when you see him doing nothing of note and hanging around in full guard and losing round after round. Very strange fight, as Holland didnt look gassed at all, and seemingly could have done some real damage to Brunson on the feet, expecially in the last two rounds. Im not a fighter and getting punched in the face, but from my very basic/naive viewpoint, it just looked like he knew he was losing round after round and just accepted it. The sort of fight Dana would absolutley shit on, but maybe all the 'hilarious' talking would have given him a free pass.

Following on from the Randleman/Cro Cop post, this one is scary too, Gonzaga Cro Copping Cro Cop:

Rashads KO of Chuck was half shocking half disgusting too:

Suprised this hasnt shown up yet either:

This one is great too, straight from something youd see in a movie. Fedor getting his arse handed to him and nearly getting stopped, and then producing the perfect punch to KO Rogers (remember him? what the hell happened there). Even the way Rogers falls is perfect too.

Pre Gaethje, I think all of us would have bet the house on Ferguson easily handling Dariush. Now though, Im not so sure. Its definitely a great fight to see where Tony stands in terms of championship contender.

Two years ago, Ferguson had just destroyed Cerrone, was on a 12 fight winning streak, and was considered THE guy most likely to beat Khabib. Fast foward to now, the Khabib fight never even happened, and people are not truely confident he can beat Dariush. Crazy how quickly things can change. Perhaps unfairly, but I get Anthony Pettis/Weidman/Condit vibes with Tony now, where the aura has been shattered.

KO's and spinning back kicks in sub 2 minutes I get, but shit loads of arm triangle chokes and armbar finishes within 2 minutes is the strangest part of the record. One just says 'submission' after 34 seconds, and theres plenty of one minute armbar defeats. Impressive!

Flat is definitely the word Id use to describe the main event. Was perfectly fine, but just stayed that way for the whole thing. Had the last round been an 'empy the gas tank' sort of round, it would have made a decent watch a great one, but as soon as Jan got it to the ground you knew Izzy had absolutley nothing to offer at that point, so it fizzled. Size beat speed on this occasion.

Yan/Sterling was building to a great finish I though. After weathering the early storm, building momentum and getting stronger as the fight went on, is Yan's knee the costliest blunder in UFC history? In an instant he went from getting his win bonus and remaining champion, to losing it all. Crazy stuff.

Real Khabib vibes and flashbacks going on in the Makhachev match. Pure dominiation that you dont usually see at the highest level.

What more can be said about Nunes? Unbelievable. It was over as soon as she landed her first punch.

What percentage of people who watched it are even aware of the Xmen teases do we think? Not even 5% I'd guess. I don't think it's that big of an issue to do what they did, as the vast majority are not even aware of what they were doing. 

What happened to the rebooted Vision, too? Isn't he essentially the 'real thing', as far as Wanda is concerned. All the real memories and feelings now. Couldn't they carry on where they left off just before Thanos