Minor News & Random Shit

[Cousin Jim Bob]

Could be a blink and you will miss him appearance tbh, maybe just in a fight montage. That is an extremely minor character in the world of Street Fighter, and the cast looks really bloated already.

Good payday and beats training though.

[wandshogun09]

I see all the UFC event threads look confused again after the server update 🤣 flags being replaced with ?? all over the shop. 

[Dai]

I noticed it on your one for last nights show as I was just about to watch it (out of habit I have your write ups on hand when watching shows), and I genuinely thought the show may have been cancelled because the Apex had some issues/there was a new post in it. Turns out that for the first time in months an Apex show had a genuine post almost immediately after the show.

[wandshogun09]

There’s a clip doing the rounds of Jon Jones in Chechnya (sucking up to Kadyrov, can he get any worse?) and him and Khamzat are messing about in the street clinching and stuff, and Khamzat gets a takedown. The Middleweight division is absolutely fucked isn’t it? I know it wasn’t an actual fight but he had no real trouble getting the better of Jones in their little exchange. What chance do actual 185ers have of stopping his takedowns? It’s hopeless. 

Edited November 25, 2025 by wandshogun09

[Carbomb]

10 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

There’s a clip doing the rounds of Jon Jones in Chechnya (sucking up to Kadyrov, can he get any worse?) and him and Khamzat are messing about in the street clinching and stuff, and Khamzat gets a takedown. The Middleweight division is absolutely fucked isn’t it? I know it wasn’t an actual fight but he had no real trouble getting the better of Jones in their little exchange. What chance do actual 185ers have of stopping his takedowns? It’s hopeless. 

It feels like the only one whose style might have caused him any problems was De Ridder's, but even then, Chimaev's wrestling is very much of that Caucasus lot - it's suffocating and pressuring, giving submission specialists very little room to ply their trade. It's irrelevant now that Allen's de-railed him anyway.

BTW why the fuck is Strickland still ranked third at MW? Fucking waster.

EDIT: Maybe if Bo Nickal can get himself within range in the rankings? Perhaps that's why White's trying to push him so hard.

Edited November 25, 2025 by Carbomb
Gudni Bergsson

[wandshogun09]

Yeah maybe Bo. But just the idea of Khamzat being able to physically get the better of a Heavyweight Jones makes me wonder who can stop him at 185, no matter how good their wrestling is. There are some guys who have strong grappling who might make it interesting. De Ridder still could be one of them if he can get his shit together but the way he was overwhelmed by Brendan Allen doesn’t fill me with optimism. And Fluffy Hernandez could maybe do something. But I don’t know. I mean, we saw Usman make him look human. He’s not unbeatable just like nobody else is. But the Khamzat we saw against DDP, I’m not sure who can tame that beast. 

[Carbomb]

I would venture to guess that MW is a jump too far for Makhachev. Shavkat? Looking at his record, he's only ever been at WW, which suggests there's potential to jump to 185.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah Shavkat is a big Welterweight. No doubt Middleweight’s in his future as he gets older. But again, that’s a 170er coming up and there are questions on both his gas tank and grappling defence for me after Ian Garry had him in some bother with the choke in the last round of their fight. Not to mention, Shavkat’s proven to be quite injury prone so between that and Khamzat’s habit of getting sick or hurt between fights, as cool as a Khamzat vs Shavkat fight sounds, it feels like a fight destined for multiple cancellations, almost like a new Khabib vs Ferguson.

59 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

BTW why the fuck is Strickland still ranked third at MW? Fucking waster.

They seem to love keeping an arsehole in the top end of the rankings. If you remember, Colby Covington hung around like a bad smell way past the time he should’ve. Beat Masvidal in early 2022 then never fought for the best part of two years after yet was still granted the title shot against Leon Edwards at the end of 2023. And just recently, Paddy Pimblett inexplicably jumped from #8 to #5 in the rankings without even fighting somehow. Dickheads always get that Dana White Privelege. I guess because him and that kind are like peas in a pod. 

[Kfogg1991]

Have you seen the updated rankings following the card last weekend...

JDM is 1..... belal 5..... Usman 8..... Leon 9...... fucking Colby is 13 and his last win was march 2022!!!!!

Some of these are embarrassing and clearly proves how important and respected climbing up and feeling imperative to become champion or unlocking a title shot when earned and correctly placed ect 

 

You look and see some that still feature in the rankings and that detracts instead of backing and showing how hard you work to get the number and considered the best in the world and elite.

[jimufctna24]

 

Rajabali Shaidullaev might be worth keeping an eye on. 

The above videos show highlights of his victory over Mikuru Asakura on New Year's Eve. From what I have seen and read of Asakura, he is a fairly ordinary fighter, who probably wouldn't do much if he switched to the UFC. However, he's a draw in Japan due to his social media presence and appearance in a Yakuza gam). Over 45k apparently showed up to Saitama to watch him fight Shaidullaev. Obviously most of them left disappointed. 

From the highlights above, and a few other bouts of Shaidullaev I've watched this afternoon, he's a wrecking ball. He carries a lot power in his hands, loves to throw overhand rights, loves to ragdoll his opponents with suplexes, and is capable of beating the crap out of his man from both rear clinch (standing) and on the ground. Obviously, the standard of the competition Shaidullaev has been facing hasn't been world-class, but he has beaten some notable names such as Koike-Erbst, Archuleta, and now Asakura. I haven't been able to locate a video of his bout with Archuleta, but Koike-Erbst and Asakura were dispatched by him easily, as was the Russian he fought prior to Asakura. 

He's apparently staying with Rizin and will be moving up to Lightweight, where the Champion is a fighter by the name of Ilhom Nazimov. Nazimov knocked out Roberto de Souza (who I remember from the Rizin vs Bellator cards) in 13 seconds on the undercard of the Shaidullaev vs Asakura bout. If Shaidullaev and Nazimov fight in the near future, I will be watching. 

 

[wandshogun09]

Yeah caught bits and pieces about Shaidullaev on Twitter. Rizin stuff rarely breaks through and appears on my timeline so when I see a bunch of stuff about one fighter I know the guy must have something about him. Apparently Asakura got stretchered out and all sorts.

I’m completely out of the loop now when it comes to Japanese MMA. It’s sad how much I’ve lost interest in it really. Used to go out of my way to make sure I saw most, if not all, of the New Year’s Eve shows. This year I didn’t even look up the card. I find it amusing reading your post though and learning that the Japanese are still up to their old tricks and just straight up sacrificing their draws by throwing them in fights they’re probably gonna get obliterated in. What is it with that? I don’t know anything about Shaidullaev or Asakura other than what you’ve posted there but it’s always kind of intrigued me why Japanese promoters tend to do the complete opposite of fight promoters pretty much anywhere else in the world, where they wanna protect and almost baby their draws with winnable or outright favourable matchmaking. The Japanese just go ‘fuck it’ and chuck them in with killers straight away. Like throwing Yuji Nagata in there with Cro Cop in his MMA debut, he got demolished in 20 seconds so they then put him against fucking Fedor in his very next fight! And that’s just one of many examples. Absolute lunatics.

I guess the exception in America was Brock Lesnar in the UFC. But I guess they were paying him so much money right off the bat that they kind of had to put him in with names. Usually, whenever they see a fighter as halfway marketable or as a potential star, they’re wary of who they put them up against. Hence the bullshit we’ve seen with Paddy Pimblett in recent times. 

[jimufctna24]

@wandshogun09

From what I can tell, as of mid-2025, Asakura was on a 2 fight losing streak and hadn't won a fight since 2022, However, he then pieced together two wins over the summer of 2025. I'm going to guess that Rizin used those wins as an excuse to book him against their exciting new champion on their biggest show of the year. I'm out of the loop also, but I assume 45k in attendance is a good number for a Rizin NYE show.

I agree with your general point. Rizin's bookers surely knew that Asakura was going to get obliterated. Styles make fights and all that, but Asakura went 1 for 1 in his two bouts with Koike, with his win being a split decision, whereas Shaidullev stopped Koike within a minute. Rizin have also booked Asakura and Tenshin to box Mayweather in fairly recent years too, with predictable results, so they have form for booking their top draws in unwinnable fights. 

You are also right that it's a Japanese trend rather than a Sakakibara trend. The Nagata debacles you cited occurred on Inoki shows. And Pride was booking Sakuraba to fight Cro Cop before Sakakibara took full control. I'm not an expert on Japanese culture, but I get the impression that "fighting spirit" matters more over there than wins and losses. 

 

Edited January 2 by jimufctna24

[Dai]

Another great example of the fighting spirit is how popular Takayama became after getting his face turned to mincemeat against Frye. Not overly sure of the timeline but then they threw him in against Sapp and Schilt the following two times, and probably became even more popular after the beatings. It's actually an anti-squash match where the squashee becomes a bigger star. 

[wandshogun09]

Yeah there’s a whole bunch of examples. And it’s not just exclusive to MMA. You mention Bob Sapp there, when he was taking Kickboxing fights in the early 2000s with K-1, after just two fights they threw him in with Ernesto Hoost! And oddly that’s one of the few times it actually paid off and Sapp somehow beat Hoost twice. Which is one of the oddest upsets ever, twice. He got crushed by Cro Cop in his next fight though and the party was over. Right around that same time they did the same thing with Sapp in MMA as well. After just two quick wins they put him against Big Nog who was actually the Pride Heavyweight champion at the time, although it wasn’t for the belt. We all know how that madness played out.

It’s definitely the ‘fighting spirit’ thing but it does make me wonder how much of a part it played long term in the decline of Japanese MMA. Obviously there were bigger issues going on as well with the Yakuza shit. But it can’t have helped that they routinely treated potential big stars as sacrificial lambs. Takayama’s another one. Look at the list of opponents they threw him at right off the bat. Forget the Kimo fight in 96. From his Pride debut in 2001 they put him straight in with Fujita, Schilt and Frye consecutively. The Sapp fight was fair enough matchmaking but by then Tak was probably damaged goods already. 0-4 and that was that for him. Not saying he’d have gone on to be the Japanese Fedor or anything but you wonder what a guy like that might’ve been able to get out of a little MMA run at that time when the sport was white hot over there if they’d just given him a little bit of a chance. Even in those losses he showed he had some qualities for fighting that you can’t teach with his toughness and how game he was. But they just got him battered. Can’t even remember if I saw his eventual lone MMA win in 2013 but I’m sure I heard that was a work anyway. 

[Dai]

As you say, its very much ingrained in the culture, I think. You an even go to the pro wrestling route and they would always have the rising stars do the 7 match series with 7 different wrestlers, and Im pretty sure they would always lose all 7. In terms of pro wrestling logic, that seems completely stupid to do a 7 match series and have them lose every match, but it all comes back to the fighting spirit I guess.

In terms of Sapp and Takayama though, I guess they should be treating more like special attractions and they probably did the best thing in striking when the iron was hot, and putting them in big matches immediately.