Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted October 25, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted October 25, 2018 Cheers for that. Fuck man, I like Whittaker a lot but he's injured nearly ALL the time. While we're at middleweight, has there been any more word on if they're going to reschedule that Yoel Romero vs Paulo Costa fight? That needs to happen.  Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members WeeAl Posted October 25, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted October 25, 2018 4 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said: Cheers for that. Fuck man, I like Whittaker a lot but he's injured nearly ALL the time. While we're at middleweight, has there been any more word on if they're going to reschedule that Yoel Romero vs Paulo Costa fight? That needs to happen.  https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.news.com.au/sport/boxing/ufc-middleweight-champion-robert-whittaker-eyes-title-defence-on-australian-soil/news-story/ae2f3a4ebba9b0d16bd01b4056f47daf https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bjpenn.com/mma-news/robert-whittaker/robert-whittaker-shares-timeframe-for-kelvin-gastelum-fight/amp/ There's a couple of links to Whittaker talking about his hand injuries. It seems they were pretty severe. He's been dealing with a lot of injuries for sure, I guess it goes to show how hard it is to both hit and get hit by Yoel Romero, considering Whittaker won both of those fights and came out of the other side of them worse for wear than Yoel. It confirms Romero is made of titanium, and that Whittaker is a double tough bastard. It seems like it's all went cold on Costa Vs Romero, which may have a lot to do with the UFC dangling the Gustafsson fight in front of Yoel. Romero may be trying to keep his options open, staying in shape in case one of those two drop out. The idea there though would be for him to push for any kind of fight on the undercard of that show, so that he gets paid whether the main event falls out or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted October 25, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted October 25, 2018 Thanks. Yeah Yoel was after the DC fight as well at one point. I'd like to see what a 205 Yoel would be like actually. No doubt he'd be undersized for the weight but I think he might make up for that somewhat in speed, his unorthodox movement and his weirdness in general. It's clear the cut to 185 is getting increasingly harder for him as he gets older.   Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members WeeAl Posted October 25, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted October 25, 2018 Oh yeah, I'd love to see what a less depleted Romero could do at LHW in the twilight of his career. I could certainly see him being able to hang with and beat the majority of the division, outside of the likes of Gus/Jones/DC. Those fights would be very difficult for him with the size differential, but he could still cause them all problems. Against the likes of Latifi, OSP, Pedro, Rua, Santos, Volkan, Smith, Anderson, Blachowicz and Manuwa though? There are a lot of winnable fights there for Yoel, which could easily leave him in line for a title shot following Jones/Gusty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members ColinBollocks Posted October 26, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted October 26, 2018 Looks like the Askren deal is confirmed, then. Big Ben went on a call out tweetfest this morning. Saying he wants to fight Khabib at 165lbs and going after GSP and the Diaz brothers. Poor Tony and that, but Askren v Khabib is too good to pass up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 Just now, ColinBollocks said: Poor Tony and that, but Askren v Khabib is too good to pass up. I think they'll still go with Tony vs Khabib, as I doubt that Askren is anywhere near a big enough name to come in and get a shot right away at the champ. In UFC terms he's a nobody. Eddie Alvarez was a bigger name and he didn't get a shot until his fourth fight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members ColinBollocks Posted October 26, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted October 26, 2018 Depends. The UFC may see Khabib, after the Conor rub, as someone that can do the business off his own name - is Tony that much of a draw? The UFC may think undefeated Russian v undefeated American is far more marketable. We'll see. Just a bit hard about it, is all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 Yeah, but how does Dana see it? This is a guy who's not really got a name to trade on, who's been retired for almost a year, is 34 years old and who hasn't fought in the US in any meaningful fight in over five years. Also, he's spent the past five years slagging the bald king off in the media. As you'll know, I was a huge Askren advocate in the past, but I think this is too late in the day now. He was red hot when he left Bellator, but not so much now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimufctna24 Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 I think Askren has plenty left in the tank. He hasn't taken much punishment in MMA over the years. His style is pretty risk-averse. Woodley is currently 36 years old and has more career fights than Askren. Yet, he's looking better than ever. Askren's only potential problem is cage rust and perhaps a step up in competition. I think the UFC will go for Khabib vs Tony though. I am not sure who they will pair Askren with.  Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted October 26, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted October 26, 2018 Yeah I can't see them going straight to Khabib vs Askren but you never know what these new owners are going to do. Logic rarely seems to factor in. The good thing is, someone at the top clearly wanted Askren on board if they were willing to trade in a prime Demetrious Johnson to get him. But if they see Khabib vs Askren as a fight they want, it doesn't really make much sense go do it right away. The UFC are all about money fights and Askren has zero name value outside the MMA obsessed geek bubble. It depends how they see him these days. He has the potential to be a bit of a star for them so if they're smart they'll do everything they can to help that along and they'll give him a fight or two to acclimatise. Not jobbers but middle of the pack welterweights to guage where he's at and let him work off some of the possible cage rust. If they're bringing him in to prove some petty point and get him smashed, to win an argument that was tired about 4 years ago, then these new owners are even more dumb and short sighted than I thought. Like Jim says, I think Askren will still have a lot left. For some guys 34 is old. Some 34 year olds have been through the ringer with war after war, suffered some knockouts, loads of injuries and maybe years of hard weight cuts all taking their toll. By 34 they look about 54 and they're fucked. But Askren's not really had any of that. Plus wrestlers traditionally have a longer shelf life in MMA. From Randy Couture to Dan Henderson to Daniel Cormier to Yoel Romero. They seem to be able to hang for longer due to a combination of their style and that ridiculous ingrained toughness that wrestlers have drilled into them from an early age. If Askren comes in and starts losing, I think it'll be more to do with the better competition. He's fought some solid fighters before but nobody can deny the UFC 170 is a different level to the guys he's been beating. And he's never really come up against another really great wrestler/grappler. The UFC's welterweight division is full of them. Askren vs Woodley, GSP, Covington, Usman, Dos Anjos, even guys like Maia and Gunnar. All very interesting matchups. Then of course there's Khabib. I'd give him a striker first. See if he can roll over someone like Condit. A name but someone who stylistically he should match up well against. If he wins that then I'd give him maybe a Gunnar or Leon Edwards. If he wins those two fights impressively, and he'll no doubt be talking shit before and afterwards, then maybe you can start to really look at 'big' fights at the top end of 170, or even a Khabib or Diaz fight or whatever. The good thing is, while he'll come in with no real name value, I don't think it'll take long for him to catch on. Everyone who's familiar with Askren generally either loves him or hates him. I think I've said it before but he's like a mix of Chael Sonnen and Matt Hughes for me. Talks really well but doesn't flat out bullshit 50% of it like Chael does. And he's got a bit of a Hughes-like jock prick vibe about him but he's not as much of a knob as prime Hughes was. I think he'll be great for the UFC. He's exactly the kind of shot in the arm they need right now. 13 hours ago, WeeAl said: Oh yeah, I'd love to see what a less depleted Romero could do at LHW in the twilight of his career. I could certainly see him being able to hang with and beat the majority of the division, outside of the likes of Gus/Jones/DC. Those fights would be very difficult for him with the size differential, but he could still cause them all problems. Against the likes of Latifi, OSP, Pedro, Rua, Santos, Volkan, Smith, Anderson, Blachowicz and Manuwa though? There are a lot of winnable fights there for Yoel, which could easily leave him in line for a title shot following Jones/Gusty. Fuck, see this is what I'm talking about. Just imagine Yoel Romero vs Thiago Santos, Volkan Oezdemir or Anthony Smith! The Latifi fight would intrigue me as well, it'd be like two bulls colliding. Plenty of fun to be had with a 205 Yoel. Just keep Shogun the fuck away from him. I don't want to be doing a RIP thread for Shogun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Supremo Posted October 26, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted October 26, 2018 I’ve never seen Ben Askren fight. All I know about him is that he’s a very good wrestler who the UFC never hired. He always seemed to be a favourite of the pure sports types, so I assumed I wouldn’t like him. I’ve followed him on Twitter for less than 24 hours and he’s already more entertaining than 95% of the roster. Kicking off and calling out everyone. Even if his fights are boring, I already care more about him than I ever did Mighty Mouse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted October 26, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted October 26, 2018 yeah Askren is great, he's not as boring a fighter as some will make him out to be but he has a personality and stubborness to even entertain the thought of altering his style to appease anyone that complains that it makes him great go watch/follow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members ColinBollocks Posted October 27, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted October 27, 2018 10 hours ago, Supremo said: I’ve never seen Ben Askren fight. He's clearly quite smart going by fighter standards. Definitely check out the JRE podcast he did a few months back to get a taste of Funky Ben. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted October 27, 2018 Share Posted October 27, 2018 Here's a question though, with Askren being retired and DJ being an "independent contractor" I don't see how this can an enforced, proper trade in the same way as we see in other US sports? If the UFC release DJ from his contract, what's to stop him saying "cool, I'll head to Bellator," for example? I don't think the UFC can actual enforce a contract termination that stipulates where DJ can or can't fight afterwards? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d-d-d-dAz Posted October 27, 2018 Share Posted October 27, 2018 You can legally transfer contracts. Askren is ‘retired’ but is still under a contract with ONE, that if he tried to un-retire he’d have to honour. From what I understand, there arranging a two tiered deal: one, a legal transferring of terms but two, a renegotiation of terms on both sides on good faith. Its a bit of a fudge, essentially. But they’d still be under contract. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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