UFC 213: Romero vs Whittaker

[jimufctna24]

8 minutes ago, Noah Southworth said:

It won’t happen, but I would like to see the UFC use the PRIDE system of judging the fight as a whole.

This was exactly what I came in here to post. The idea sprung into my head the second the verdict was read out for the Werdum vs Overeem fight. The PRIDE system is better suited for MMA. The 10 point system is better suited to boxing. 

Oh and kudos to Whittaker. It was his fight from round 3 onward. 

[herbie747]

Really happy for Whittaker - the guy is a warrior.

Overeem and Werdum can both fuck off. Pair of slow lugs.

[Bus Surfer]

Travis Browne, eh? 

Looked a little bit of the old Travis at first, very light on his feet early on, got over confident and then crumbled again. 

That end sequence where he gave up dominant side control and ended up getting submitted... Jesus. 

 

Very happy for Whittaker. That was impressive. You can't knock the resume he's building at the moment. Really looking forward to him and Bisping. 

 

Always hate to see Jim Miller lose, but if it means we got some of the old Anthony Pettis back, then I can live with that. 

[ColinBollocks]

All the credit in the world to Whittaker. Bad leg and all, he managed to take over the fight. The fact his takedown defence was so on point with one bad leg was pretty mental. As a fan, it's a shite result, because clearly the fight is Yoel v Bisping, and I fancy Bisping's chances more against Yoel.

It was fantastic seeing Showtime back looking good. I didn't know or forgot this fight was on the show.

Anyway, blah blah, the real highlight of the show were those three tremendous DC/Jones promos. Particularly this one:

 

Whoever made that deserves PPV points.

[jasmith85]

11 hours ago, herbie747 said:

Yeah, I read that - spot on by Ben.

Dana is a right cunt. My brand loyalty for UFC since the sale is at about 15% now, whereas it used to be around 80% or higher. UFC always had an "us vs them" vibe to it and the UFC were our team. Unfairly treated by mainstream media, NY & Sheldon Silver blocking regulation, Culinary Union, not considering a legit sport, an easy target for politicians, etc. But since the sale I feel none of that loyalty, Dana is just in cruise control collecting a paycheck, no longer does media scrums, doesn't do the press conferences, etc. And the disrespect they show for the fighters is disgusting TBH. 

Here here.

the UFC is only concerned about the contents of their bank balance and screw everyone else in the process. 

I can see Dana hating Amanda for beating the blue hell out of Ronda. Dana had a grudge against Holly she ko'ed Ronda. 

He's just a child and has admitted to taking the low road than the high road. 

[wandshogun09]

Really fucking enjoyed this show. Despite half the results not going how I wanted, I thought it was really entertaining on the whole with only a couple of things dragging it down a bit. 

Romero vs Whittaker wasn't action packed bell-to-bell but I found it absolutely gripping to watch. That's just the way Yoel's fights go. But Whittaker looked just phenomenal here. I always rated him but I never really thought he'd quite get over that top level hump and beat the sharks of the division. Back-to-back wins over Jacare and Romero say fucking otherwise emphatically! I don't think anyone has earned a title shot more than this.

And as much as I love Bisping, him having a pop at Whittaker post-fight for wearing a fake belt and not being the 'real champ'...Whittaker could shut that right down if he wanted to because Whittaker has beaten the real contenders while Bisping was fighting Old Man Dan, doing his podcast and calling out GSP. Don't get me wrong, I was fine with Bisping vs Hendo 2 because of the circumstances at the time and thought the criticism of the booking was shite. But when you're going to call someone a fake champ but they have better and more relevant wins over the real killers of the division, it's not really working as a burn. Jacare and Romero to me were the two scariest 185ers on the planet over the last few years. On the strength of those two wins, I think Whittaker can beat anyone in the weight class. 

Gutted for Yoel though  but I loved his positivity in his post-fight interview. No spring chicken obviously so I don't know how long we'll have him around. Enjoy the nutter while he's here. 

Overeem vs Werdum 3 took its sweet time to get going but it warmed up into a pretty fun fight in the end, I thought. Agree with the 'should use Pride scoring' sentiments in here wholeheartedly. Under the current scoring I actually had this a draw. Overeem taking two 10-9s then Werdum 10-8ing the third round. I thought that was pretty clear cut and easy to score myself. But knowing how the judges are, when it ended I felt like Overeem was going to get the nod but that Werdum won the actual fight in my eyes. 

I know it sounds bad but I hope JDS ends up having to pull out of the Ngannou fight for some reason and we can get Overeem vs Ngannou on instead. I'd much rather see that and I'd be chuffed if Ngannou lays him out. 

Blaydes vs Omielanczuk = shite. 

Pettis vs Miller was great fun. Like Silky said, hate to see Miller lose but it was good to see Pettis looking like his old self in there. When Rogan asked him what was different though and he just said 'I'm not cutting to 145', that can't be it, can it? Because he was looking like crap 3 fights straight at lightweight before he ever dropped to featherweight. He was in a legit slump. It was something more than a weight cutting issue. Hopefully he can put it behind him and build himself back up now. There's still plenty of fun to be had with an in form Pettis. Like imagine this Pettis vs Justin Gaethje? That's just one example off the top of my head. 

Font vs De Andrade was non stop action. Font looked brilliant, I thought. Best I've seen him and it makes me excited for his next fight already. 

I actually loved the Oliynyk vs Browne fight. It was a weird one but I really enjoyed the fuck out of it and it entertained me from start to finish. Oliynyk surprised me a bit with his striking. Yeah, it wasn't pretty or all that good technically but it was better than I've seen it before. Didn't expect to see him putting Travis Browne on his arse at all. Loved how aggressive he was as well. He just kept marching forward.

The finish just showed and confirmed to me that Browne's heart isn't really in it anymore though. Don't get me wrong, having a gorilla like Oliynyk crushing your face and twisting your neck wouldn't be on my bucket list of things to do, but Browne wasn't even fighting the hands or trying to fight the choke. As soon as Oliynyk started working for it, it's like Browne wanted out and just gave it to him. If you watch his arms while Oliynyk is synching up the arm around his face/neck, his arms are out in front of him. He doesn't even bother trying to stop Oliynyk, it's like he's had enough and is just waiting for his opportunity to tap.

I can see Browne being let go off this loss. While Oliynyk looks decent enough, this was a step down in opposition for Browne and he still got stopped. I don't know what they do with him now. I reckon we might see him in Bellator by the end of the year. 

[Shane O' Mac Version 2]

32 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

Overeem vs. Werdum 3 took its sweet time to get going but it warmed up into a pretty fun fight in the end, I thought. Agree with the 'should use Pride scoring' sentiments in here wholeheartedly. Under the current scoring I actually had this a draw. Overeem taking two 10-9s then Werdum 10-8ing the third round. I thought that was pretty clear cut and easy to score myself. But knowing how the judges are, when it ended I felt like Overeem was going to get the nod but that Werdum won the actual fight in my eyes. 

 

They were using the old scoring system, where you have to dominate big time to get a 10-8. With the new rules and more liberal 10-8's, Werdum would have nabbed that draw. These commissions need to get their shit together and accept the new rules.

[wandshogun09]

Were they? Fuck me this thing is such a mess. They really need to get a universal rule set in place across all the commissions. You can't be having scoring criteria be different from state to state and then the knees on the ground thing different from state to state. Fucking joke. When the commissions can't even agree on this shit how are the viewers supposed to keep track? 

[the_mole]

Plenty of states that haven't changed the rules have been giving more 10-8 rounds from what I've seen in The UFC & Bellator, its the added strikes to the head that are putting states off, that or rule changes haven't came up yet, I think some athletic commissions only vote on these things once a year, I know New Jersey are dead set against extra strikes to the head.

[ColinBollocks]

It's Nevada. Utter shite show.

Helwani said that Dana said something like "I'm not sure I want to be in the Travis Browne fight business, anymore" and was pretty much asking him to retire. I really don't like Browne, for a number of reasons, but it's sad his fight career has come to this. He's only 34, which is hitting heavyweight prime years.

[jimufctna24]

16 hours ago, herbie747 said:

My brand loyalty for UFC since the sale is at about 15% now, whereas it used to be around 80% or higher. UFC always had an "us vs them" vibe to it and the UFC were our team.

I don't feel any sort of brand loyalty to the UFC at all. I can give them their due; in that they are the most competent and successful MMA promotion of all-time. Several companies have come and gone, but they have reigned supreme; especially in the past decade or so, where they have been the only real major league promotion in town. 

However, I can't say I am overwhelmed by their presentation or some of the people who run it. Really, the only thing that attracts me to the promotion these days are the fighters. 

[wandshogun09]

I've never really been loyal to a brand when it comes to MMA promotions. The reason I follow the UFC over the smaller orgs is because they have the bulk of the best fighters there. If for some mad reason they went out of business tomorrow and the Big Bollocks Fight League started up and mopped up all the best fighters in the world, then I'd be knocking up event previews for BBFL 1 next month. 

I guess the nostalgic part of me would be sad to see the UFC go away just because it's been there forever. But it's the fights and fighters I watch for, I don't really care what the letters at the top of the poster say. 

Pride was probably the closest I got to being brand loyal to an MMA company. There was something magical about those days. But even then, it was the fighters that made the company not the other way around. I still got pretty much the same buzz when a Wanderlei, Shogun or Big Nog fight was announced in the UFC. 

[herbie747]

Yeah, of course I like MMA as a whole, but UFC was always the 'representative' to the mainstream media (same as WWE is) & it's the first MMA video I ever rented & first promotion I followed. That's the brand loyalty I'm referring to. It always felt like us vs them to the unaccepting mainstream (both the media & fans of other sports who'd dismiss it). I'd always defend UFC and MMA to ignorant fools who couldn't understand it. Dana always had that Paul Heyman vibe about him, and would be able to muster up that sort of loyalty in people. Dana would be tweeting fans & giving out free tickets at shopping centres in each city. But I find it harder to be arsed defending it now. I find myself just defending McGregor & UFC can fuck off.

The fact that Lorenzo & Dana were such big fans, and Lorenzo had put so much of his own money into it, and Dana used to manage Chuck & Tito - you knew these guys loved the sport because they were there before it was a cash cow, and I was happy for everyone that it became a huge success & I was there for the entire journey. We lost all of that with the sale. They're throwing fighters under the bus now. Dana doesn't give a fuck. He's an arsehole.

[wandshogun09]

Anyone seen (clean shaven) Yoel Romero's post-fight press conference? He comes across as a good dude once again. 

Anyway, Ariel Helwani asked him about Bisping ripping up the Cuban flag. 

Quote

Helwani: How did you feel about that? 

Romero: Do you have a flag? 

Helwani: Yes. 

Romero: Do you love it? 

Helwani: Yes. 

Romero: Would you give your life for your flag? It's your country. 

Helwani: So did you feel like he crossed the line? 

Yoel just pauses, does this face...

And then grunts.

[ColinBollocks]

Aye. It instantly made me dislike Whittaker for ruining the fun.