Paid Members Egg Shen Posted June 13, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted June 13, 2017 That's a a cracking piece of business, Ranallo will be calling the New York show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members ColinBollocks Posted June 13, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted June 13, 2017 That's exciting. Both men have their flaws, but their voices belong to some of the biggest and best moments in the sport. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimufctna24 Posted June 13, 2017 Share Posted June 13, 2017 Mauro is decent when he lays off the pop-culture references. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted June 13, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted June 13, 2017 it's his schtick, i can imagine it grains with some people but i enjoy it. I always liked it when he'd drop a WWE reference into his boxing commentary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimufctna24 Posted June 13, 2017 Share Posted June 13, 2017 I found it quite forced when he did it in Strikeforce. I've not listened to any of his recent boxing commentary. By pure chance, I've never used a Showtime feed when he's been on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted June 13, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted June 13, 2017 12 hours ago, Carbomb said: As I mentioned above, I always had questions about Lawler and Dos Anjos, because of the shift in form The Dos Anjos shift in form is a bit of a myth. It wasn't some overnight transformation like some would have you believe. He was steadily improving and adding to his game over a span of years and years. I think Joe Rogan and Brendan Schaub are largely responsible for perpetrating that line of thinking because, when RDA was champ, they were always banging on like he went from jobber to champion overnight. Like he was a Brazilian JBL or something. Anyone who watched RDA's entire UFC run will know he was always really good. He just wasn't appreciated for it. Even if you look into his early UFC losses, they all kind of have little asterisks next to them. His UFC debut in 2008 was vs Jeremy Stephens. He was winning that fight, pretty handily, before that uppercut of doom connected at the end. The finish is all people remember now but RDA was looking really good before that. The Tyson Griffin and Gleison Tibau losses were razor close decisions. Then the Clay Guida fight, again he was winning fairly comfortably before he suffered the broken jaw. You can't take anything away from the opponents here, they were all legit wins. But it wasn't like RDA was soundly outskilled or dominated or anything. They were all fights where if you watch them you could easily see them going in Dos Anjos' favour. As for his improvements, he was basically just seen as a BJJ guy when he fought Stephens in 2008. It took him a little while but by 2009 he was dismantling Rob Emerson with one of the most vicious displays of sustained leg kicking in UFC history. By 2011 he was one punch KOing George Sotiropoulous dead. He was showing improvements in his wrestling in the Anthony Njokuani fight in 2012. And of course his BJJ was always on point. I think the first Cerrone fight in 2013 was when he really got into that contenders space. And I vividly remember everyone writing him off going into that one. I specifically remember the Beyond The Octagon lot acting like he was still just that BJJ guy we saw in 2008 and that he'd be fucked if he tried to stand with Cowboy. It's like nobody was watching him in the years after that Stephens uppercut because he'd made big strides since then, especially with his Muay Thai. He dropped Cerrone in the first round and went on to win a decision. The Khabib loss came right after that and that was the first loss where RDA was just decisively beaten by the better man. After that he went on that run to the gold. TKO'd Jason High, stopped Bendo in a round and battered Nate Diaz, again those brutal leg kicks, to a one sided decision. The title win vs Anthony Pettis was Dos Anjos' best and most complete performance of his career. He showed all his skills that night. I think it was a combination of Pettis getting cocky and overlooking RDA, and RDA just being a beast. Either way, Dos Anjos spanked him. The event being in Texas with no testing is often cited by the 'RDA is dirty' lot but 1) how do you explain all his other incredible showings where there was testing? And 2) why do none of the other fighters on the card get these accusations? Nobody on UFC 185 were tested, were they? So why only RDA getting accused? It's a shame. RDA took the hard road to the top. He wasn't exactly a guy the UFC were pushing to the moon or hoping he'd be their champ. The UFC promotional machine wasn't exactly behind him. He didn't get any favours and he did it all the hard way. He fought all the killers on the way up to the title shot. He never failed a test, never had even a hint of failing or a controversy around testing or dodging a test or whatever, never ducked anyone, never missed weight from what I recall. His improvements were gradual and over a spell of 7 years of hard graft. Yet he gets smeared based on literally fuck all but pure speculation and gossip. A lot of it peddled by Rogan and Schaub, which is then sadly accepted and repeated as fact by a lot of people. Sorry for waffling on and it's not even aimed at you specifically Carbomb. But I really hate seeing fighters get tarnished like this when there's no proof to back up the accusations. It's really, really shit form I think. If he failed a test then fine. But i think a lot of it with RDA is just because he did better than people expected, they never saw it coming so there must be something sinister or a conspiracy behind it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimufctna24 Posted June 14, 2017 Share Posted June 14, 2017 Ahhh, RDA beating Cerrone the first time. One of my last great fight picks. I'm usually hopeless at fight picks these days, but I nailed that one. Overall, I agree. Some fighters have been unfairly scapegoated over the years. RDA being a prime example. GSP was another. For years, certain portions of the MMA community were convinced that he was on the juice. If I recall correctly, a few of his peers made comments to that effect as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted June 14, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted June 14, 2017 Well that didn't last long. Bisping said on his podcast that he's heard Rumble is probably coming back and fighting by the end of the year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted June 14, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted June 14, 2017 there's always the old adage of fighting to your opponents level in combat sports, some people just raise their game when they go fight against a better opponent. That again comes down to motivation, focus etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted June 14, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted June 14, 2017 Wand - agree with you 100%. Like I say, that's why I adopted the "innocent till proven guilty" view, because whilst had suspicions, neither RDA nor Lawler were ever flagged once, and as you said at the time, the flagging was happening so frequently around the time of their emergence that it just wouldn't be fair to tarnish guys who weren't failing tests. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members lambyUK Posted June 14, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted June 14, 2017 What also doesn't help RDA is his slump after the introduction of USADA. Now I'm not personally saying I believe the accusations, but it helps fuel the fire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members ColinBollocks Posted June 14, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted June 14, 2017 What's Bisping's batting average for "I've heard this from someone"? I've always thought Rumble was probably going to come back when I read his big business was selling weed. He may make it work, like, but it was nothing like the roles speculated on, which guaranteed him decent income. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted June 14, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted June 14, 2017 UFC 214 takes another hit. Reading that Doo Ho Choi vs Andre Fili is off now. Superboy is injured And Jon Jones' mum has died. Nice to see DC put the beef aside and send his condolences. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_mole Posted June 14, 2017 Share Posted June 14, 2017 Yeah she's been battling Diabetes for a while and she had her leg removed not long before the OSP fight, (which he also spent a small time in jail for in the lead up to that fight) He also had a older sister that died of brain cancer before she was 18, apparently the effects were really bad, as they would be. That's not excusing any of his actions but saying he's been through similar stuff and managed to carry on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted June 14, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted June 14, 2017 Didn't know that about his sister. That's horrible. He's an arsehole but you wouldn't wish that on anyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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