Dai

I assume Jones is now at least 240lbs of mostly muscle. If the fight ever happens within the next few years, Izzy would be 220-230lbs, with added fat by adding it so quickly, which gives Jones a huge physical advantage 

For a random Fight Night card, I have to disagree with it being very weak. Johnson/Guida is a very solid 'main  event' with two big names, and compared to average Fight Nights over the last few years, knowing 4 fighters on it could actually be above par

The thing is, this show is three weeks Saturday. Factor in all the fight week nonsense and weight cutting they do, its realistically a two week (maximum) fight prep, which seems crazy for such an important fight. I know they could be training hard currently, but is Hooker, for example,  really training to max potential when he knows he could be bumped off for Gaethje at any time? Knowing exactly when your fighting and against who must sharpen the focus of training significantly.

Maybe the days of the 8 week fight camp are done? Especially in Covid times. Seems like you see lots more shortish turnarounds now between announcements and fights.

Looking at the odds, Poirier has drifted out to 2/1 now, and Conor has shortened to 2/5, which seems crazy to me. Poirier is a beast and I can see some significant cash going on him at these odds nearer fight time.

Will add my appreciation for the write ups also. Have been reading them for years, and are a great help in getting me interested and up to date with the events. Its often a thankless task, but there must be plenty of people such as myself who read every one of them, mostly without adding any comments personally, so Ill thank you on behalf of all those people 😄

Badr fight spoiler

Yeah, I agree with all of that. The fact that there was little/no talk from anyone saying that Moreno should have won backs up the point, too.

10 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

But surely if you’re saying Fig ‘clearly’ won rounds 1, 2 and 5 then that’s pretty definitively. Deducted point aside, of course. I’m not arguing one way or the other myself. I need to rewatch it. I remember thinking a draw was fine but admittedly I was knackered by the time that fight started, having been awake nearly 24 hours. My vague memory is of Figgy winning the first 2 rounds then it all became a blur as I got more tired and swept up in the drama of such a great fight. By the end it just had the feel of that point deduction making the difference and it did.

Whatever. Can’t grumble at a rematch. It’s not like the division has a real obvious next contender anyway. Sod Cody Garbrandt. He’s never even made 125 yet let alone done anything to warrant a shot. One highlight reel KO doesn’t change the fact he got ironed out 3 times in a row previously. Figgy vs Moreno 2 is the one. 

Depends on how youd define 'definitively' I guess. Ive recently rewatched GSP vs Dan Hardy and Koscheck. 50-45/44/43 scores is beating someone definitively to me. Even without the point deduction, two judges would have had it 48-47. Guess Im getting bogged down in semantics, but can it be definitve if the general opinion is you won 3-2 in rounds. Maybe Im wrong in thinking of definitive as nearer to something like dominiate or such like.

2 hours ago, David said:

Am I the only one who thought that Figueiredo won that fight quite definitively? Without the point deduction for that ridiculous low blow it would have been a win for the champ and he'd have moved on to the next challenge.

I don't think Moreno is big enough to cause much damage in the rematch to be honest, and think he took a whole ton of punishment that he's not going to want to take too many more times.

I think Figgy Smalls stops him in the rematch.

Definitively is a strong word with regards to this fight, Id say. Theres no doubt Figgy won the first two rounds, but they certainly werent one way traffic. Three was very equal until the groin shot, which gave a Figgy, who was definitely slowing down, a two minute breather. Four is clearly Moreno, and five is clearly Figgy.  Not definitive for me, thninking of it like that.

20 hours ago, Astro Hollywood said:

There's an interesting bit I'd not heard before, about Hogan being a cunt by rubbing Deep Heat in his armpit and starting the match by getting Goldberg in a headlock so it went in his eyes.

I must have watched the end of this match hundreds of times throughout the years, and nearly every time I do, I still cant figure out how 1998 Hogan took probably the best Jackhammer Goldberg has ever done, and also agreed to put Bill over as clean as he did. Everything we know about Hogan from this time would surely have lead to him sandbagging the Jackhammer (or it being shit even with the best of intentions from Hulk), and also having DDP or Malone whacking him with a chair beforehand. Must be a story in there somewhere. Was he paid a 'bonus' for doing it as it were on TV do we know?

Echo the love everyone is giving the show. It was one of those handful of events you get every year where everything just seems to click. A perfect storm where there's something for everyone. There isn't even anything to moan about with Rogan too (slightly more talk about how gassed Figgy was getting and there would have been). 

Most of the replays seemed to miss the first Holland punch that really stunned Jacare (as does the gif above). He was properly out of it even before that massive forehead punch connected. 

32 minutes ago, Kfogg1991 said:

well if ever there is a argument for a ufc ppv solely depending and relying on the main event then look no further folks!!! 

You know full well that with this being headlined with Conor McGregor this will be put on box office and there is literally nothing else on this card anywhere near the calibre of this main event. As it's been said there is still time to build on this event but you have to bloody hope at the very least we get a fairly sizeable Co-main to go with it 

Id say theres a very good chance of that not happening. Just go back and check the McGregor/Cerrone undercard. Dana knows its Conor and Conor only who sells the PPVs, and doesnt need to waste an extra few hundred grand on having a substantial co main.

The McGregor factor, and his die hard fans, are already at play with the odds. Hes currently a 2 to 1 favourate to win. Does anyone on this board see Poirier as a nearly 2 to 1 dog here? Doubt it. Id be very suprised to see Poirier at these odds nearer fight time, as I can see plenty of cash going on him closer to fight time.

Dana has gone down the WWE route of selling the brand and not the fighter, so it's probably got to the point where a Yoel main event on a Fight Night wouldnt do any different ratings wise than an Angela Hill or a Cory Sandhagen main event. The difference would be paying Yoel probably at least 5 times as much (same thing for Anderson) 

Do we think it may be a financial thing? Even though I haven't heard of any news during the covid era, they must have taken a big hit financially over the last few months. This and even the Anderson release may just be some cost cutting measures. Romero must be on a decent wedge, and probably one of the highest non champion earners 

On 12/1/2020 at 12:35 PM, LaGoosh said:

How many times do you reckon Masato Tanaka took that power bomb out of the ring through a table on the floor spot from Mike Awesome? At least seven times. Fucking mentalist. One of the most brutal looking bumps imaginable and he took it over and over on concrete floors. How he isn't crippled I've no idea, the tough crazy bastard.

I just rewatched the ECW matches a few days ago. Worse than the table spot Id say is the chairshots to the head, at least three times, no sell he does in all of them. You get the feeling that those two guys did the exact same stuff on the non recorded shows in ECW, which is insanity. You do wonder how he can still be working shows with all the damage hes done, and to add to the insanity, he was still doing the chair no sell in his match with PCO last year (with added nasty powerbomb through a table too, just not on the outside).

99 was far from their hottest period. It was surely just a case of whoever was in charge at the time saw the ratings continue to dwindle, and thought that a new logo and set would stop the rot.

Five out of the eight fighters on Wand's version of the main card dont even have wikipedia pages. On the wiki's version of the main card, eight out of twelve dont have a page. Must be a record, that.

The Lesnar fight was surely the apex of the horse meat era Overeem. Just checked his record building up to that fight; Werdum, where he was petrified (from memory) of trading with Reem. Todd Duffee and James Thompson, two big jacked up guys who he beat both in 30 seconds. Brett Rogers, who was seen at the time as a scary guy to fight, and Reem just destroyed him. And others like Goodbridge and Fujita (not that impressive, but still). Then he topped it off with owning Lesnar. Isnt it the Lesnar fight with that famous Arianny clip from the weigh in where shes gazing at Reem with his top off?

The testing must have kicked in from that point though, as the body went, and so did the wins. He lost 3 out of 4 to Bigfoot, Travis Browne and Rothwell. Thats when he became way smarter and possibly fully adjusted to a natural body.

Echo the feelings on Rogan. I assume the UFC pay him a pretty penny too. He's in the same boat as Goldberg, where they just seem like they are from a different era. They are not without their flaws, but Felder, Bisping, Hardy and DC just feel way fresher and more natural than Rogan.

If you had to pick a fighter to explain the difference in age and 'fight' age, is there a better example than Shogun? Hes only 38 but looks absolutely ancient in there. All the wars have truely caught up with him. I was thinking Wanderlai as a candidate for this, but he was 36 when he had that classic with Stann, which rules him out. Shogun is only a handful of years older than a load of the recent headliners like Felder, RDA and Uriah Hall, but seems like hes at least a decade apart from them.

Edit: What about the blatent cage grabs by Figueiredo. Could be said they indirectly led to the finish. I think refs are far too lenient with them. Should be a point deduction, or at the very least could they pause the fight and restart it on the ground in the position it would have ended up in.

2 hours ago, neil said:

I feel like there has been a recent trend of not just missing weight but essentially going "nah I'll fuck it off then" knowing you'll miss it by several lbs. No point exhausting yourself desperately trying to lose that weight when its not a title match. You know the opponent is basically forced into accepting because they want their show money and Dana won't be happy if they call the fight off. The fight goes on, sure you're going to lose some money but if you win then its not like you're further penalised, the fight is treated as if nothing wrong happened with it. But now you've probably got a weight advantage, maybe not in pounds of weight but an advantage that you didn't flog yourself cutting weight.

I think the penalty needs to be much harsher, much like Izzy said. Make it 90%.

Agreed. I think the Dana factor is massive, in so much no one would want to cancel the fight because their opponent missed weight, as you know its putting you in Dana's bad books. You dont hear of it too often now, but at certain times before when a fighter has missed weight, they have a maximum weight they can get to before the fight. Maybe that still happens and the commentators just dont bring it up. I think its usually a weight which would still normally leave them not at a 100%, which slightly levels the playing field.

Is 30% of your fight purse enough of a deterrent for fighters? I just checked Mike Perrys official pay for his last fight. It was $90k to show and $90k win bonus. Is his payment $27k for this weight miss? If so, losing that to give yourself a much better chance of gaining an additional $90k seems worth it. Even if he has to give $27k of his win bonus as well, its still worth missing the weight big to get an extra $63k bonus.

GCW Seem to have been doing shows pretty much since the pandemic began. Mostly outdoor shows, but still everyone sitting next to each other. Crazy stuff.

Stumbled across a video of the Necro Butcher from this year on Youtube recently. The comments are turned off, and its easy to understand why. Hes not looking good at all. Plenty from the 2000-ish 'glory days' of deathmatch wrestling are now dead, reading up on it. Justice Pain, Nate Hatred, Trent Acid, Chris Kash, Brain Damage, Supreme, Danny Havoc, JC Bailey, probably other ones Ive not seen as well.

Scott Coker's comments on whether he would sign Anderson Silva were quite interesting. From memory, Ive always had Coker down as quite an honest and realistic promoter, and nowhere near Dana levels of bullshit.

“I have a lot of respect for him,” said Coker to MMA Junkie. (h/t MMA Mania). “He’s definitely one of the greatest fighters in the history of mixed martial arts. I really haven’t thought about it, but I think I’m happy with the way our roster is heading and the fighters that we have now. I think that’s my statement on that.”

Has the money dried up there I wonder? Isnt the general concensous that the new TV deal they have isnt that good? Theres no way he wouldnt want to have Silva on his shows, so it must be a case of money and not being able to afford him. Arent One in trouble with money as well? There might not be alot out there for Anderson who are willing to pay him what he expects.

It was a depressingly predictable result. To be fair, Anderson made it look easy and I thought he looked pretty good, so he does deserve some credit. It was a mismatch, but its still Melvin Manhoef staring across at you when youre on youre feet, and he dealt with him easily.

It only took 30 seconds into the first match for me to remember how bad the commentary is. Josh Thompson starts rambling on. Ive had to go back and listen to it again:

"Those of you guys listening at home, we want you guys to listen to the fight....because theres a lot of things you will not be able to hear once the pandemic is done. Theres corners coming in. Theres us commentaring (thats the word he actually said), youll probably be able to hear us. Youll be able to hear the fighters respond. So we need to give you guys a moment to listen to this type of action and you can hear the punches and the thuds landing". Of course as soon as he finishes this nonsense, they all just carry on talking as normal, not leaving a moment of dead air so you can 'hear the thuds land'.

Yeah, agreed. I think its just classic Dana throwing a shit fit about the comments Anderson made about UFC being more of a family in the old days with Lorenzo (which Dana talked about in this same interview), combined with the lack of output from the fighters. Look at the comments about Hall he made, which are ridiculous. Look at how many fighters Anderson has made gun shy over the years, so it was hardly a suprise that it turned out that way. A guy has just TKO'd one of the GOAT (after dropping him the round before), and his boss craps on him from a great height.

Interesting, but not exactly suprising comments by Dana after this fight about Anderson:

Quote

“Tonight, I don’t feel good about myself that I let Anderson Silva fight this last fight. We’ve treated Anderson with nothing but respect and if you guys knew what Anderson Silva gets paid to fight, you’d sh*t your f**king pants. I think that we’ve treated him like family. I shouldn’t have let him fight this fight tonight.”

While Silva made into the fourth round with the No. 10 ranked middleweight in the UFC, White says that had more to do with Hall’s own problems in the fight rather than the 45-year-old Brazilian discovering the fountain of youth for the better part of 15 minutes.

“He fought a guy that has absolutely zero output,” White said about Hall’s performance. “They’re in a five-round main event on ESPN, they threw 11 punches in the f**king second round. You fight any of these other savages, he’ll be in big trouble and he’ll take a sh*t load of punishment. Uriah Hall threw 11 punches in the second round. Uriah Hall’s one of the most gun shy fighters in the UFC.

“Look at Anderson. When the fight was over, he couldn’t stand to do his interview. He had to sit down to do his interview.”

As much as he wanted to give Silva the chance to go out on his own terms, White admits that he should not have allowed the longest reigning middleweight champion in UFC history to return for one more fight.

“I made a big mistake,” White said. “I shouldn’t have let him fight this fight tonight but out of respect to him, he’s a legend of this sport and a legend of this company, I did something that I disagreed with.

“I knew I was right and tonight proved I was right. Anderson Silva should never fight again.”

During the fight, Anderson certainly didnt disgrace himself, and surely Dana was the only one in the world getting Chuck/BJ Penn vibes from that performance?