The new MMA general news, events and thoughts thread

[jimufctna24]

10 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

I've always felt like Ferguson is a tricky fight for McGregor. He's granite tough, pushes the pace constantly, has a unique style that won't be easy to replicate in sparring and his ground game is phenomenal, on top and off his back. I'd go as far as to say I think he's a better version of Nate Diaz, just smaller. I wouldn't count McGregor out at all though. Ferguson is hittable as we've seen in a bunch of his fights and if there's a flaw to his game maybe it's that he's too up for a scrap. That could play into McGregor's hands, it'd certainly present him with more opportunities to catch him. It's a great fight on paper, I really hope it comes off.

Yep, that's my rationale for slightly favouring a McGregor victory. That and McGregor's power being more of a factor at 155lbs than it was at 170lbs against Diaz. I wouldn't blink if Ferguson beat him though. 

[WeeAl]

By the time they could potentially fight, I'd make McGregor the clear favourite for beating Ferguson, and the huge underdog against Khabib. 

Khabib is just a dreadful match up for him, and I think McGregor would only have the time between the bell and the point where Khabib takes him down for the first time, in order to finish him. And he will get taken down if he doesn't stop Nurmagomedov almost right away. I can't see Conor's game off his back being good enough to avoid being finished, for long enough to give himself another crack in the 2nd or 3rd round. 

While Ferguson may be, as was brilliantly described by Wand, a better Nate Diaz, I see timing being a wonderful thing. If McGregor ends up fighting Tony, it'll be after Tony suffering recent damage, that we know he has taken, at the hands of RDA and Kevin Lee. As well as damage that I'm sure he'll absorb against Khabib. He takes a lot of damage to deliver his own. In that time period McGregor would only have had the Floyd fight putting dents in his chin. 

My guess is McGregor doesn't make the same mistakes he did against Diaz in the first fight, that he paces himself a little better, and that at 155 rather than 170, he'll not tire as quickly. If McGregor doesn't run out as quick as an IKEA battery, then he's in a better position on the feet to end proceedings than Ugly Tony. Should McGregor make the mistake of following Ferguson to the mat, then he's toast I'd imagine.

[wandshogun09]

While I can see your point on Ferguson taking more damage recently, the flipside argument to that is that Ferguson's been active. Plus the damage thing, valid as the point is, might not be the strongest argument to make. You can't always go on stuff like that. If you based fights on that then an Eddie Alvarez coming off a first round KO over RDA should've smoked  a McGregor coming off back-to-back wars with Diaz. McGregor isn't exactly known for his slick defence either, he gets hit a fair amount himself. I definitely agree that I'd give McGregor the better shot of scoring the deathblow in a shootout but it's not like Ferguson's easy to put away either plus his striking offence is good enough that McGregor will need to be mindful of what's coming back at him. And if McGregor doesn't put him away early on, I'd expect Ferguson to run away with it down the stretch. He didn't fade one bit against RDA over 25 minutes and that was in Mexico at high altitude and RDA is an animal. I think people sell Ferguson short way too often personally. I'm not sure who I'd pick to win that fight. I think the first 2 rounds would be a bit of a tossup, slightly leaning towards McGregor, anything beyond that I'd strongly favour Ferguson. Especially when McGregor starts getting tired and sloppy, that's when Ferguson ups the pace and overwhelms opponents and usually you end up tangled up and tapping to something. I think it's a way more interesting fight than a lot of people make out. 

I've also seen people throw out the point of 'well when Conor comes back to MMA he's going to have all this new boxing training under his belt' and that kind of thing. I think that's shite myself, with a dash of wishful thinking. Admittedly it's mostly Dickface Scuaub trotting this out but I've seen it a few times here and there now. He had one training camp. The camp sounded disjointed and a bit of a shambles and he barely brought anyone new in. His camp mostly consisted of the usual SBG crew. And Paulie Malignaggi, and yeah that didn't exactly work out. Sparring Artem Lobov in boxing gloves and a ring isn't going to be a massive difference from sparring Artem Lobov in MMA gloves and a cage. People expecting McGregor to return to MMA looking like an Irish prime Manny Pacquiao are going to be disappointed. It takes more than one boxing camp to make any significant gains in that area. Just like Bigfoot Silva won't have gained masses of kickboxing skills because he fought Rico in GLORY. Proper dopey talk. 

[WeeAl]

16 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

While I can see your point on Ferguson taking more damage recently, the flipside argument to that is that Ferguson's been active. Plus the damage thing, valid as the point is, might not be the strongest argument to make. You can't always go on stuff like that. If you based fights on that then an Eddie Alvarez coming off a first round KO over RDA should've smoked  a McGregor coming off back-to-back wars with Diaz. McGregor isn't exactly known for his slick defence either, he gets hit a fair amount himself. I definitely agree that I'd give McGregor the better shot of scoring the deathblow in a shootout but it's not like Ferguson's easy to put away either plus his striking offence is good enough that McGregor will need to be mindful of what's coming back at him. And if McGregor doesn't put him away early on, I'd expect Ferguson to run away with it down the stretch. He didn't fade one bit against RDA over 25 minutes and that was in Mexico at high altitude and RDA is an animal. I think people sell Ferguson short way too often personally. I'm not sure who I'd pick to win that fight. I think the first 2 rounds would be a bit of a tossup, slightly leaning towards McGregor, anything beyond that I'd strongly favour Ferguson. Especially when McGregor starts getting tired and sloppy, that's when Ferguson ups the pace and overwhelms opponents and usually you end up tangled up and tapping to something. I think it's a way more interesting fight than a lot of people make out. 

 

You're quite right man, the damage thing probably is a fairly loose element to base things off of, when the activity versus inactivity will be a pretty large factor. It's certainly a very intriguing and compelling style match up. 

The build up for Khabib Vs McGregor sounds like all the fun we could wish for in the world. Tony Vs Conor probably would be the more competitive, exciting fight on the night.

Speaking of exciting fights, there have been some corkers announced this week/in the process of being finalised. Jacare Vs Gastelum, Moraes Vs Rivera and Kevin Lee Vs Barboza all look like cracking affairs. 

[wandshogun09]

Yeah, it's all speculation until they close the cage door. Nobody's right or wrong. The fact that we've came up with so many counterpoints to each others' points just shows that McGregor vs Ferguson would be a fascinating clash of styles. 

And yeah, I love those fight announcents. Especially Jacare vs Gastelum. Interested to see how Kevin Lee looks as well. Can't stand him and I was one of his biggest detractors on here saying he was unproven and stuff going into the Ferguson fight but I thought he fought valiantly that night. Especially considering he had staph infection in the lead up to the fight. It was his biggest fight to date, against his toughest opponent to date, and everything went wrong but he still looked really good in that first round. I'm a bit more of a believer now. But my biggest issue with Lee was everyone (and mostly Schaub. Again) bigging him up as this next huge superstar/next McGregor etc. I thought that was bollocks and way premature and I still wholeheartedly stand by that. 

[the_mole]

McGregor has been saying a few things about Max Holloway & Frankie Edgar (says he offered to fight Edgar at 222) Edgar's coach and manager spit the dummy out with that idiot Ali saying Edgar would beat everyone in Ireland (yet got beat pretty easily by Aldo at UFC 200) With Khabib & Tony being massive light weights, I don't see him shutting the door completely at 145 and it gives him more options.

[Egg Shen]

Paul Daley has posted online saying he'll be fighting MVP in Bellator in the Summer. He also mentioned he'll be fighting human highlight reel Jon Fitch in May...also in Bellator.

[wandshogun09]

Fucking hell. Say what you want about Daley but he'll fight absolutely anyone. You couldn't really get two more opposite fights for him. Fitch is a bit of a nightmare matchup considering Daley's wrestling allergy but I think MVP is a great fight and one I can definitely see Semtex winning. 

[David]

Roll on May when the uncrowned welterweight champ steps back into the cage. Can't fucking wait.

[Egg Shen]

Id usually say the Fitch fight wouldnt be worth the risk but the MVP fight is gonna be there whatever happens in that fight.

Saying that, Fitch is on a finishing streak of 1 (his longest in 11 years) he may fuck Paul Daley up.

[TildeGuy~!]

Amanda Nunes Vs Raquel Pennington has been announced for the title at UFC 224

[WeeAl]

Israel Adesanya Vs Marvin Vettori is booked for the Big Fox show in April, according to MMA Fighting. Adesanya is wasting no time getting back in there. While speaking of kickboxers recently debuting for the UFC, has anyone heard anything about Gokhan Saki lately? 

[TildeGuy~!]

11 minutes ago, WeeAl said:

Israel Adesanya Vs Marvin Vettori is booked for the Big Fox show in April, according to MMA Fighting. Adesanya is wasting no time getting back in there. While speaking of kickboxers recently debuting for the UFC, has anyone heard anything about Gokhan Saki lately? 

He’s been teasing on Twitter that a fight announcement will happen soon.

[wandshogun09]

Funny you mention that @WeeAl I was going to get the thread up for that FOX show (and the London show) sometime over the weekend and the card as a whole is just outstanding. The one-two punch of Poirier vs Gaethje and Condit vs Brown on top would be enough for me but the card under that has filled out very nicely as well. 

As for Nunes vs Pennington, my initial thought was 'why Pennington?' But when you look at the division, Nunes has beat almost everyone else either on the way up or as champion. And in fairness to Pennington she's won 4 in a row, including retiring Miesha Tate in her last fight. She's as deserving as anyone of a shot. Problem is I don't see her having anything for Nunes, which obviously takes a lot of the interest out of it. Hopefully Nunes wins and Cat Zingano wins at 222 and they can set up Nunes vs Zingano 2 over the summer. The first fight was great and Zingano won so they've got some history there. 

[WeeAl]

56 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

Funny you mention that @WeeAl I was going to get the thread up for that FOX show (and the London show) sometime over the weekend and the card as a whole is just outstanding. The one-two punch of Poirier vs Gaethje and Condit vs Brown on top would be enough for me but the card under that has filled out very nicely as well.  

Looking forward to reading it! It looks like an action packed card, with tonnes of fights on it that should be very exciting. You would expect most of them should have no problem delivering the excitement that would be anticipated. I can't pick a winner in the Gaethje Vs Poirier fight, but I'm picking Brown to beat Condit at this point.