The new MMA general news, events and thoughts thread

[David]

20 hours ago, the_mole said:

Mighty Mouse hasn't been called boring by the UFC or the majority of the MMA media. Dana wanted the TJ Dillashaw fight because if you are going for a record, someone the fans have heard of is probably both best for business and probably his toughest challenge but he's fighting Borg and people will not care.

Woodley put back to back Snoozers and was booed out the building both times, especially the Maia fight only a small amount of people will find that fight exciting and it wasn't just Woodleys fault but throwing the least amount of punches in a five roubd fight is always going to be talked about more than defending takedowns.

Smaller weight classes in Boxing that don't feature Mexicans are usually on Boxing undercards or at least the co-main event, just ask Guillermo Rigondeaux why he isn't a big superstar despite being one of the pound for pound best in Boxing and HBO or whoever don't want him main eventing their events because they know he won't draw.

None of that changes the fact that the success or failure of a fighter is determined by one erratic and thin-skinned bawheid though, does it? It's like the fucking Roman colosseum these days! You win a fight? Doesn't matter worth a fuck unless Dana "Julius Caesar" White gives you the thumbs up!

Tyron Woodley has, in his last six fights, earned two performance of the night awards, and fought in a FOTN. That's a 50% success rate with regards to either being considered one of the best performers on the card or being in one of the best fights of the night.

A 50% success rate.

And his fucking promoter verbally kills him after he faces a human Rubiks cube and manages to beat him quite convincingly? "Oh, you didn't throw enough punches"! Fuck you, fat boy! Woodley goes in there throwing for the fences and Maia ducks under one of those shots before dragging Woodley to the ground and strangling the fuck out of him! What then? Here's your $600,000 T-Wood, and maybe a $50,000 bonus if Caesar deems your performance worthy of his spare change. Oh, and your next fight? It's a curtain jerker on a FOX show in Boise, Idaho against Warlley Alves for $120,000, you dig?

Let's not kid ourselves here that he was ever in contention for the fight with GSP, because he wasn't. Ever. Dana was never giving him that fight. Ariel Helwani was correct on that score.

The current welterweight champion of the world, and one of the best fighters on the planet today will likely be sitting home watching the former, undisputed champion make a step up in weight that he wasn't keen on when Anderson Silva was top of the division. But now? Sure, no problem! Now that a mouthy Manc with one good peeper is champion he's interested.

The whole thing with Woodley stinks. Anyone can see it.

[lambyUK]

4 hours ago, Noah Southworth said:

On The MMA Hour, GSP said that it's written into his contract that he must defend the UFC Middleweight Championship if he beats Michael Bisping, and that if he does win, he expects to fight Robert Whittaker next.

The situation in the middleweight division really has worked out for GSP hasn't it?

Initially when this Bisping fight was announced everyone thought there was no way he would defend the title if he won it. 

There were beasts everywhere you looked waiting to face the winner. 

Now Mousasi is gone, Romero is a couple fights away from a crack at the title, Rockhold is facing David Branch and Weidman still has a long way to get back to where he was.

In the mean time we've got an interim champion who once competed at Welterweight so isn't too much bigger than GSP. 

[Egg Shen]

Bobby Green replaces Abel Trujillo against Lando Vanatta at UFC 216, better fight in my opinion.

[Tamura]

14 hours ago, David said:

And his fucking promoter verbally kills him after he faces a human Rubiks cube and manages to beat him quite convincingly?

That's being rather generous. If it was football it would have been 0-0. You can stop as many takedowns as you like, you need to land with your own offence to beat someone "quite convincingly". 

[Noah Southworth]

2 hours ago, Tamura said:

That's being rather generous. If it was football it would have been 0-0. You can stop as many takedowns as you like, you need to land with your own offence to beat someone "quite convincingly". 

I'd say the more accurate assessment of the fight would be that Woodley convincingly neutralized Maia. I don't believe you can call it a convincing victory because Woodley, despite neutralizing Maia, had very little offense of his own. Woodley didn't beat Maia as much as he stopped Maia from beating him. Calling it a 0-0 draw is a fair analogy.

[David]

7 hours ago, Tamura said:

That's being rather generous. If it was football it would have been 0-0. You can stop as many takedowns as you like, you need to land with your own offence to beat someone "quite convincingly". 

I think Woodley won that fight quite convincingly, and the scorecards reflect that. A unanimous victory of 50-45, 49-46 & 49-46 is far from a 0-0 draw in my opinion. He won a minimum of four rounds on every judges card, and was given a complete shutout on one of those cards.

[jimufctna24]

Tony Ferguson vs Kevin Lee for the interim Lightweight title is in the works for UFC 216 in October. 

Quote

Jordan Breen‏ @jordanbreen  37m37 minutes ago

The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world Khabib Nurmagomedov didn't exist.

 

[David]

That should work, because obviously Khabib is fighting McGregor in Russia, right? Right?!?

[Egg Shen]

hmmmm, could be. There's no real reason to not go with Khabib here unless he'a injured. 

[WeeAl]

Hasn't Khabib said mixed things recently about when he's ready to fight? On one hand he and Ferguson were talking up things looking a spot on the MSG show and then I thought he also said that he wouldn't be ready until after November. 

One reason to not go with Khabib as well just yet is it's risky to book him vs McGregor, have him miss weight but for the fight to go ahead and Khabib to have the chance to win a non-title fight against McGregor. That would be a shit show. After his last weight cutting disaster he shouldn't be rewarded with a title fight in my opinion, but I'm still surprised they don't seem to be going down the route of Nurmagomedov vs Ferguson.

[Noah Southworth]

Apparently the problem with Khabib is getting him to commit to a fight. I take that as Khabib wanting the Conor fight and being willing to sit on the sidelines until Conor returns. If that is the case, Khabib could be shooting himself in the foot, especially if the UFC go with Tony Ferguson vs. Kevin Lee for the interim title. An interim title fight would result in at least one fight, maybe even two or three before Conor is free to face Khabib, and I don’t think the UFC would let Khabib sit out for that long without fighting.

If Khabib wants the fight with Conor and the UFC are going with the idea of an interim title, then Khabib needs to roll the dice and throw his name into the ring for that interim title fight, otherwise he may never get the Conor fight.

[Egg Shen]

not that it matters when it comes to Conor but if he does return later in the year shouldn't his first fight be against the Interim Champion? so really he should fight the winner of Ferguson/Lee

 

[Noah Southworth]

2 minutes ago, Egg Shen said:

not that it matters when it comes to Conor but if he does return later in the year shouldn't his first fight be against the Interim Champion?

It should, which is why Khabib needs to put himself forward for that fight. It's a risk in that Khabib could lose, but if he wins, Khabib guarantees himself the Conor fight when Conor comes back.

[Egg Shen]

has it come out that Khabib turned the Ferguson fight down?

[Noah Southworth]

I don't believe Khabib has outright turned down the Tony Ferguson fight but given that the UFC are moving towards putting Ferguson with Kevin Lee for the interim lightweight title, it does suggest they don't think the Khabib/Ferguson fight is happening any time soon. The UFC have wanted to make Ferguson/Khabib for a long time. They’ve booked it twice already and whenever it falls apart, they always go back and try and make it again, but it never seems to come together.

I believe the current problems with the Khabib/Ferguson fight all come down to Khabib. As much as he seems to want the Ferguson fight, and the online spat suggests he does want to fight Ferguson, I think Khabib wants the Conor fight next and he isn’t interested in taking any other fight before then. I can see why Khabib would take that view but he’s in real danger of missing out on what would be, by far, the biggest payday of his career.

Let’s say Tony Ferguson fights Kevin Lee for the interm lightweight title, and, for the sake of argument, Ferguson wins. If Conor returns to the UFC then his first fight back will be against Ferguson. If Conor wins, Khabib is golden because he’ll probably be next in line, assuming the UFC don’t skip over him as a way to punish him for sitting out. But if Conor loses to Ferguson, there is a real chance that he gets an immediate rematch. So what does Khabib do then? Does he stay on the sidelines, thereby running a real risk of pissing off the UFC and ensuring they’ll go with any other viable alternative before giving Khabib a chance at Red Panty Night?

And Khabib could be in for an even longer wait if Conor/Ferguson II goes to a draw or has some kind of disputed ending, because the biggest money fight to make after such an outcome would be Conor/Ferguson III, and given the mindsets of both WME and Conor regarding big money fights, Conor/Ferguson III would be the fight I’d expect to see get made next in that scenario.

Khabib taking the interim title fight is a risk, especially if he’s facing Ferguson, but it’s his quickest and really his only guaranteed path to the fight with Conor. Continuing to sit on the sidelines not only delays the Conor fight but it runs the risk of ensuring it never happens at all.