UFC 221: Rockhold vs Romero

[Kamaras-Tash]

That finish was beautiful  Really fun main card I thought

[ColinBollocks]

I don't think moods can change more severely than the period of time between watching Mark Hunt get impressively wrestlefucked and seeing Yoel Romero explode with mad shit and win. Can't say I blame him for taking advantage of Handsome Luke too.

Yoel Romero fights are just mad to watch. He can go most rounds looking like he's out gunned by opponents bigger and more technical, but then the second dAz's Mum checks flight prices on skyscanner it's over. He's such an interesting fighter to watch, because of this. Smashing Rockhold is as impressive as it gets IMO. Rockhold's shine sort of vanished a bit when Bisping clipped him, but he's still one of the best in the division and was a champion for a reason. Looking at the fight, Rockhold seemed to be fairly comfortable in the 3rd, as he was firing his jab beautifully and regularly, but then Romero does what he does. Folk will have a go at Rockhold's chin (and it's definitely suspect) but that final punch made me cringe.

No shitty interim belt floating around too. Yoel really is sent to us from a higher power.

Mark Hunt fight was only going to go one way, once it became clear the strength advantage on the TK. Even still, Mark Hunt was one misjudged swing away from maybe ending it. Blaydes deserves credit for taking as little risk as possible, as Hunt showed that if you're going to stand with him he's still one of the better HW's about.

I was impressed with Tuivasa. That fight was like an old WWF squash match. He seems to have a load of charisma too.

[wandshogun09]

2 hours ago, ColinBollocks said:

Looking at the fight, Rockhold seemed to be fairly comfortable in the 3rd...

And there's the trap people keep falling into. They get comfortable. Then they get unconscious. 

Saw this on twitter earlier. Just look at it. Look how many good fighters Yoel has put away, all in the 3rd round and mostly after competitive rounds previously or actually being down on the cards himself...

3rd Round Yoel is the scariest fighter ever. Scarier than TRT Vitor, Healthy Cain, Marinovic Penn, He's Got That Look In The Eyes Chuck and Living Death Shamrock. 

[jimufctna24]

 Another thing to consider:

Romero's best wins at 185lbs: Rockhold, Jacare, Weidman.

Anderson's best wins at 185lbs: Hendo, Belfort, Sonnen.

Now, I am not saying that Romero is better than Anderson was in his prime, but his best wins stand up quite well compared to Anderson's. You can argue that the decision for Romero vs Jacare could have gone either way, and Romero was a bit lucky that the judges shone favourably on him. However, you also then have to consider that Sonnen made a massive error in the rematch against Anderson that led to him being stopped, and soundly beat him for 4 rounds in their first duel. Hendo also gave Anderson a rough time before he caught him. 

Romero is now top 5 all-time at 185lbs. 

[wandshogun09]

I know it's not what you're saying Jim, but style-wise I think this version of Yoel Romero might've even been kryptonite for prime Anderson. Maybe. 

Its not a fight I'd have been confident predicting but Yoel's combination of mega high level wrestling, physical strength, explosive power, speed and unpredictability is a combination unlike anything Anderson was faced with throughout his reign. Now Anderson was a ninja back then and despite his wrestling pedigree Yoel stands for most of his fights, so Anderson could've always hit him with some laser beam strike and deaded him. But on paper Yoel could've been a nightmare for him. Better wrestling than Sonnen and more dangerous striking than Weidman. 

[Egg Shen]

despite all the negativity going into 221 (and it was warranted) it ended up being a good show.

The show was very much geared towards letting the home guys shine, so much so that the Tuivasa and Pedro fights felt like glorified squash matches. Both guys are exciting to watch though. The UFC tends to keep certain guys for Oz based shows but im expecting both Tuivasa and Pedro to break away from that.

Jake Matthews/Jingliang had an expected cracker on the main card. Jake Matthews has always been a prospect but he's never shown that kind of fire and bite down on the mouthpiece still grit. Guy looks a tank at 170. Jingliang's eye gouge was fucking shocking though.

Curtis Blaydes basically grapple fucked Mark Hunt. It's always a possibility when Hunt fights a wrestler. The writing was on the wall after that Hunt salvo in round 1, Blaydes didn't want no part of that. Still, division wise this was good. There'll always be fights for Mark Hunt, and now Blaydes leapfrogs him into the top 5 where they need some new names.

Rockhold/Romero was typical Romero fair, not a lot going on and then in a flash it's fucking done. Rockhold started brightly but he was too hesitant and felt like he got lulled to sleep a little. Jimmy Smith said it best on commentary when saying that Whitaker was so effective against Romero because he didn't give him time to re-set and go again, Rockhold didn't do nearly enough to put Romero into his shell. Brutal finish. That after the fight sequence was pure Romero too, what an oddball.

Couple of decent highlights on the prelims...

Israel Adesanya was one of my tips for the year, what a debut! He was matched nicely but it was impressive stuff, great personality too, he's got a bit of a gimmick going. Star potential for sure. Lots of great fights for him at 185.

Time to take note of Alexander Volkanovski too, an absolute machine at 145. 4-0 in the promotion now and completely dominant, i'd be down to see him take on someone like Dennis Bermudez.

Jussier Formiga's spinning backfist KO is worth going out of your way to see too. I wouldn't give Formiga a sniff against Mighty Mouse but he's probably the most deserving of a shot at that belt considering he's milled around the top 10 for so long.

Good night of fights.

 

[Egg Shen]

[Shane O' Mac Version 2]

So, I just got back from Perth! (kinda). Took the red-eye home over Sunday night/Monday morning, then slept until 5pm on Monday, went back to bed at 10pm, woke up again at 7am, and it's 10:37am as I'm writing this sentence. I've got CP, and as fun as the weekend was, there's a big price to pay physically for that level of activity.

The atmosphere was crazy. Perth Arena is designed really well in the sense that there's hardly a bad seat in the venue, and the sound levels were off the charts. Tyson Pedro might have gotten the loudest reaction of the day- even bigger than Hunt's IMO.

Vicious KO by Romero. I know Romero's a beast, but I think it's fair to start asking serious questions about Rockhold's chin now, and possibly even future in the sport. The damage he's taken in his last 3 fights (even some flurries from David Branch) doesn't bode well for him, and he's got a sweet modelling gig outside the Octagon. Gotta think that if Whittaker connected on that chin, it wouldn't have been a good time for Luke Zoolander.

Hunt's loss was depressing. Smart gameplan by Blaydes, but it would have been nice for him to try and make a statement with a finish on the ground. Seemed pretty content to ride it out to me. Might need a re-watch, but it seemed like the only time Blaydes would do anything on the ground was after being implored by the ref.

Those first three main card fights were big time crowd pleasers with the local boys winning in style. I see a bright future for Tyson Pedro, after getting wrestle-fucked in his fight with Latifi, he went away, improved his TDD, and then hit the gorgeous kimura sweep when he did go to the mat. He channeled his inner Brock Lesnar in that post-fight interview too.

Matthews shocked the hell out of me with his heart. Didn't think much of him based on some of his previous fights- especially the most recent one where he blanketed the guy to victory- but he was on fire. Fuck The Leech for that eye rake though. Inexcusable.

On the prelims, Volkanovski and Adesanya stood out. Volko absolutely needs a top 15 guy now. Windang represent! He tries to create the narrative of taking out the "bullies and bad boys", but I don't see Stephens or FIli that way. We all remember what happened last time Stephens tried to trash talk. And Adesanya was impressive in the fight with his TDD and precise striking, and just as impressive in the interview after. He was pissing in the cage, alright. Pissing charisma.

Overall, high quality action show with some local prospects to watch out for. Was a terrific way to spend my weekend!
 

[ColinBollocks]

Happy Valentine's.Day from Soldier of Gay Jesus.

[OzExile]

What a card! I enjoyed pretty much every fight (I missed the first couple of prelims). No idea where that performance from Jake Matthews came from.  Tuivasa - if he takes this seriously - could become a top 10 heavyweight before too long.  He's only 24!   I think it is impossible to not love Yoel.  

[WeeAl]

This show is meant to have done 130,000 buys on PPV according to Meltzer. 

With shows doing such low PPV buys on a pretty regular basis, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the new TV contract include a lot more TV specials on a Network station, and the numbered shows being reduced to somewhere between 4 and 8 per year. 

[ColinBollocks]

So long as the PPV's turn a profit, then they'll keep doing them.

On a similar note, it's surely no coincidence that Joe Silva has seen their divisions and overall star building evaporate. Joe Silva isn't the only factor, of course, but it's interesting how things have tanked since he officially became a baller.

[wandshogun09]

I don't know. Joe Silva was there when they were shitting it up in 2014 and you had guys like Ali Bagautinov and Joe Soto in PPV main events. Don't get me wrong, Joe Silva was great at what he did by all accounts, but a matchmaker is only as good as the pool of fighters he has at his disposal. We've not seen McGregor fight in the UFC since 2016. We've not seen Rousey since 2016 and probably won't see her in the UFC again. We got Brock Lesnar back for one night, two years ago. Jon Jones has fought sporadically in between self destructing. Going without McGregor the whole of 2017 hasn't helped matters. Aside from GSP's return at the end of the year they haven't had their all star team to call on at all. They've actually done alright considering, IMO. 

They are getting desperate though. Understandably so really. There's still no timetable for McGregor to come back. I know September has been chucked around as a possible timeframe but there's nothing concrete yet. GSP its up in the air about whether he even fights again. Rousey's gone forever. Lesnar's probably gone forever. Jones might be gone for ages. Anderson's suspended again. Bisping's finishing up. Cain's falling to bits. Ngannou just got exposed. It's hard to see where the next big star is coming from. Which is why they're trying to claw bits back, whatever they can, with things like the Punk thing until McGregor gets bored and decides to put the gloves back on. Something will come along. When Brock retired after Overeem bashed him around it felt like the fun was over. Same when Chael lost to Anderson the second time. Within a year or so we saw Rousey and McGregor make their UFC debuts and that was that. Now, you're not going to get two stars like that come along often, let alone at the same time. But someone will pop up who catches on enough. They always do. In the meantime there's plenty of great fights to enjoy. The quality of fights is higher than ever IMO. That's one thing this time, PPV numbers might've dipped but the fights themselves are mostly delivering. Back when they hadnt yet 'Gone Big' in 2014, PPVs were down AND there were shitting out some awful cards, sometimes two on the same night, to the point it even tested me as a fan and for the first time I genuinely thought about skipping some cards. It's nothing like that now for me. The quality is mostly there. Even when cards are getting slagged off there's usually a few fights I'm really into on there. But the really big fights and stars will have to work themselves out. It's never going to be all booming business, all the time. 

[jimufctna24]

I am probably going to be a MMA fan for life, so I have learnt to take the rough with the smooth. There have been downsides during MMA's best periods. 

There are days when I miss what MMA was in 2006. Back then, Pride was still booming, the UFC was a ever-growing, and promotions were putting on big shows in California (Strikeforce, WFA). It wasn't a perfect time though. Pride was about to fall apart, some of the UFC's PPV's were piss-poor (UFC 61), and it was much harder to access shows that it is today.

Likewise, I sometimes miss what MMA was in 2009-2010. TUF was still relevant, Strikeforce were knocking out some top shows, the UFC had a lot of stars at their disposal (Lesnar, Rampage, Sonnen, GSP, Penn). There was usually something big going on. Things were by no means perfect back then though. Anderson was public enemy number 1, Mark Coleman headlined a PPV, and the Ortiz vs Liddell season of TUF was quite poor. 

It's the same today really. I can't say I am as passionate about MMA as I used to be, but there is still a lot to like about it. There have been some must-see fights this year. Romero vs Rockhold, Miocic vs Ngannou, and Khabib vs Tony (pending) would have captured my imagination in any era. Yes, none of those fights set any records, but they didn't need to. The Shogun vs Machida fights in 2009/2010 only did modest business for the standards of the time; but I was still hooked by their rivalry. Fedor vs Cro Cop didn't break any attendance or ratings records, but it's still one of the most relevant fights in MMA history. There is stuff about current MMA that I dislike as well. I am a McGregor fan, but the whole Mayweather spectacle did little for me. The interim title mess is tiresome. Jones and Cain's careers are in jeopardy. I can't say I am involved in the social side of MMA like I used to either (other than this forum). 

 

[AdamTH17]

Yeah, I don't think you can really put much blame on the match-makers. If they were continually booking dud fights that were shit then I'd have an axe to grind, but in the last few months alone we've had some fantastic pieces of booking (Miocic/Ngannou, RDA/Lawler, Cyborg/Holm, Romero/Rockhold) it's just that there isn't much interest going on because the UFC doesn't promote these fights or guys as they should do with their enormous wealth of resources. The massive market saturation of shows doesn't help them either, I've watched far less UFC than I would say this time last year because there's a load to keep up on, making it harder for me to invest in the company because there's such a constant influx of shows coming in. It just gets a bit overwhelming when they completely fill up the market. 

That said, it doesn't particularly hamper my enjoyment of the sport. I couldn't really care less about businesses or buy rates, it's not my company to try and run so I'm happy to sit back as a fan and watch. As long as there's MMA on my television I'll be satisfied, I watch UFC because it's the most accessible and because I'm invested in the fighters who work there.