UFC 223 is McFucked

[d-d-d-dAz]

I can get on the train, because his defences are working. He’s dominating people for 5 rounds at a time. And he’s doing it to elite strikers too; who’s to say Edson Barboza isn’t a better striker than Tony or Conor? It’s arguable, at least, and look how he took Edson’s soul away.

Its not like Khabib hasn’t shown his skill against an elite striker, so I don’t think it’s a case of waiting for him to get knocked out.

And, sure, Al stuffed a few takedowns before succumbing to others but it definitely felt like there was gears left unexplored by Khabib.

His whole style is proven to work. But it also guarantees the builds to his fights will be fun as there’s always that question about whether someone will catch him.

[Supremo]

Delighted for Rose. She’s so likeable.

Yeah, I think Tony and Conor would have no trouble finding Khabib’s chin.

[the_mole]

I think Rogan was way over the top, it's hard getting takedowns and Khabib easily won the last 3 rounds  on the feet, Rogan was playing it up like he was in trouble, he even said himself he felt much faster than him, so stayed on his feet.

[wandshogun09]

I think it's at the point now where Khabib has been so dominant that if he doesn't look superhuman for every single nanosecond of a fight then those human moments get magnified and some people decide he's actually not that good. I get people looking for the chinks in his armour, it's only natural with a fighter who's been unbeaten and dominant for so long. But it's going to be a lot easier said than done to capitalise on those small openings on the feet. I mean, don't you think the likes of Rafael Dos Anjos and Edson Barboza knew that his weakest area was the striking? Didn't do them much good. He'll lose one day like they all do but you're not going to be seeing Conor McGregor stuffing Khabib's takedowns. You're just not. So unless Khabib fights him like an idiot and just stands and brawls with him, McGregor's probably going to have about 30 seconds max at the start of each round to land something meaningful before he's dumped on his back. It's not a good fight for him at all. If it was a kickboxing match, yeah it's Conor's all day. But outside of the old punchers chance, Khabib's game and set of skills shuts down Conor's game and set of skills more often than not. Ferguson is a trickier one for Khabib IMO. If that fight ever actually materialises. And that's a big if. 

Also, any judging of Khabib's performance last night has to factor in and allow for the absolute mayhem and disruption he's put up with this fight week. He started the week thinking he was fighting Ferguson. Then Ferguson dropped out. Then Holloway stepped in, Khabib accepted it. Then the McGregor shit happened. Then Holloway couldn't make weight and got pulled. Then Khabib said yes to basically every name the UFC threw at him from Pettis to Felder to Iaquinta to a rematch with the fucking bear he rolled around with as a kid in Dagestan. All this while also having to juggle doing media and making weight. I don't know of many examples of a fighter having a more chaotic fight week than Khabib's had this week. Do you think if Floyd Mayweather had a fight week like this he'd perform as perfectly as usual? You have to put everything in perspective. 

And it's not 'a train' if you call an awesome fighter and awesome fighter. If someone says they're not as impressed with Khabib as most fair enough. I don't really get it and think the criticism is pure straw clutching but opinions are opinions so whatever.  But the phrase 'train', which often gets overused when a fighter gets popular, suggests the fighter is being unjustifiably hyped up and I think Khabib's shown on more than one occasion that he's more than a hype job. To go 26-0 and barely drop a round and maintain that at this level despite layoffs, injuries, bad weight cuts and in this case the fight week from hell, it's more than a train. I don't even particularly like the man but you have to recognise what an animal Khabib is as a fighter. 

[the_mole]

McGregor has more chance of knocking him out than Tony Ferguson, who has more weapons but a lot of those are on the ground, I really don't see him as a guy who will come in and knock you out.

[wandshogun09]

He probably does but I think Ferguson won't fear the takedown, which is big and could potentially have a knock-on effect to everything else. It's not the same thing but think Werdum vs Cain. Werdum wasn't some big KO artist but because he didn't fear the threat of Cain's takedown, he was free to strike in combinations. The threat of Cain's takedown is what often allowed him to land strikes so when that threat was taken away I think it helped Werdum big time.  

McGregor will know that if Khabib takes him down he's fucked for that round. I think Ferguson will have enough confidence in his ground game that he'll be able to let loose on the feet more. Plus he has the potential to do damage on the ground from underneath with elbows and stuff whereas I think Conor would just be holding on from the bottom like he was against Mendes.

I mean, Ferguson might well be wrong to not fear Khabib's takedown. I could easily see Khabib taking him down and dominating him. But Ferguson's just got more weapons to at least try to give Khabib issues than McGregor IMO. McGregor's got one thing. He does that one thing very well but if that fails he's got nowhere to go. And we've seen his cardio isn't the best. I think unless he KO'd Khabib in the first 2 rounds, Khabib's style would sap him of his energy fast and he's getting fucked up all night. The problem with that also though, is that Conor's punchers chance is at its best in rounds 1 and 2, but that's also when Khabib's fresh himself and his takedowns will be harder to stop. 

If Conor had killer takedown defence then I'd see the logic in fancying him to KO Khabib. But he's never looked particularly good in that area. So that limits his KO shot to very small windows of opportunity. Anything can happen, I'd never completely count him out, but I just don't see it. 

[WeeAl]

Considering the crazy week Khabib ended up having, I thought it was a very impressive performance from him. Iaquinta was game as could be, did his best, and put in a commendable performance, but ultimately, he was out of his depth. I still really want to see Khabib Vs Ugly Tony, perhaps even moreso. It has to happen someday, even if it takes another three years. I don't feel any differently about how fights between Khabib, McGregor and Ferguson would go, providing we're talking about a focused, disciplined and prime McGregor (which I don't think we are going to get to see again unfortunately, the hunger is gone). Khabib edges Ferguson, McGregor finishes Ferguson, Nurmagomedov smashes Conor. However with where McGregor's head is these days, I feel he would struggle with any fight that isn't against a stationary vehicle. 

I expected five rounds and a 48-47 score to be the outcome of JJ Vs Rose. However, I got the winner wrong. To me, this fight was about the fifth round. I had it even going into the fifth, and Rose won the fifth round. Joanna has nothing to be annoyed about. She had two fights against Rose, and she came out the decisive loser across both legs. Great performance by Rose, to win what was essentially a kickboxing match, against Joanna. 

Fantastic fight between Zabit and Bochniak. Both the winner and loser of this fight came out of the night as guys who will be remembered, and I liked the call out of Yair. That would certainly be an interesting matchup.

[jimufctna24]

I also had it 48-47 to Rose. The first two rounds clearly for Rose. The 3rd round clearly for J.J. The forth round was closer, but I felt J.J nicked it. I had the fifth round a bit closer than most. I gave it to Rose as she landed the much better shots, but J.J was landing with volume as the on-screen graphic showed. In the end, the right fighter prevailed. 

I found the main event hard to read. Khabib won every single round and was dominant throughout most of the fight. However, he did leave some clues for other fighters to follow. I'm not sure what they mean for future match-ups though, if anything at all. What I will say is that if Khabib and Ferguson meet next, the fight is likely to be explosive. Ferguson is an offensively-minded fighter, albeit one that generally has his best moments in fights after the first round. That could lead to a fairly quick demise, or a stunning victory against Khabib. Right now, I am not sure which one. 

[wandshogun09]

Oh yeah, there were definitely some things there with Khabib where we've got a little bit more data on him now. Nobody is perfect and everybody has weaknesses. The thing with Khabib is, his weaknesses are just harder to exploit. Everyone knows the standup is where he's lacking. He's got some offence but as Jim Bob says, his defence is glaringly poor. He gets away with that against most because he's near enough ALWAYS able to get the takedown. But it's something he'll have to work on, obviously. 

I was wondering if cardio was starting to become an issue as well. If you notice, the rounds where Iaquinta was able to have a bit of success defending the takedowns were mostly rounds 4 and 5. They were also the rounds where Khabib showed most of his sloppy standup. Maybe that was because he didn't fancy wasting energy shooting and really fighting for takedowns unless Iaquinta left himself wide open for them. 

It's not much to go on but it's something. Maybe. Possibly. He still dominated though. And again, that's in spite of the clusterfuck of a fight week. 

Iaquinta deserves all the praise he's getting today though. His fight week wasn't exactly disruption free either, was it? It wasn't quite as mental as Khabib's but he still had a nutty one. And he gave it a good go. To switch from a striker like Paul Felder to one of the best grapplers in the UFC on one day's notice and manage to take him the distance tells you a lot about the kind of fighter Al Iaquinta is. On the strength of this fight I think you could put him in with any of the Top 10 guys next and he's got a good chance. His stock went up for me, despite losing a lopsided decision. 

Rose vs Joanna 2 solidified Rose big time. Like you guys, I had Rose by a round. It was competitive throughout and Joanna wasn't far behind but Rose just seemed a step ahead for me at crucial times. Joanna is one my favourite fighters in the game so I was sad to see her lose again but it couldn't happen to a nicer woman in Rose. Guessing they'll do Namajunas vs Kowalkiewicz 2 next. 

Zabit vs Bochniak was ridiculous. Loved it. I said it the other day but the one silver lining to the shitty Conor McGregor shaped cloud hanging over this event was that all the fight cancellations meant this fight got bumped up to the PPV. To think this would've been tucked away on Fight Pass only to be seen by the few instead of the many. If they have Zabit curtain jerking again after this I give up. Bochniak held up his end of the fight as well. It wasn't all ZM Punk. Zabit won handily but Bochniak channeling Diego Sanchez and his refusal to fuck off just pushed the fight up a few gears. 

Good show. Even Olivier Aubin-Mercier wasn't boring for once. Although he's got to sack off this 'Canadian Gangster' shit he's throwing at the wall and trying to make stick. No-one's buying that. It's like Mr Bean throwing up gang signs. 

[jimufctna24]

29 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

I was wondering if cardio was starting to become an issue as well. If you notice, the rounds where Iaquinta was able to have a bit of success defending the takedowns were mostly rounds 4 and 5. They were also the rounds where Khabib showed most of his sloppy standup.

If so, that could seriously hurt Khabib's chances against Ferguson. One of Ferguson's biggest strengths is his cardio. If you look at the trio of the Conor, Khabib and Ferguson collectively, it could be a case of rock,paper, scissors. Tony has the game to shut Khabib down. Conor has the game to beat Ferguson. Khabib has the game to blitz Conor. A great example of styles making fights, or at least heavily influencing the result of them. 

Of course, that is just my read on those fights at current time. In practice, the outcomes could - and probably would - be a lot different. 

[wandshogun09]

The cardio thing might be bollocks to be fair. It's not like Khabib looked particularly tired or owt. But it just seemed like Khabib choosing to stand more and Iaquinta having a little bit of success defending the takedown seemed to coincide with the 4th and 5th round. Whatever that's worth, probably nothing. 

I guess it would kind of make sense if Khabib does feel the pace a bit in the later rounds though, because we know he doesn't make 155 easily. Could be the case that the weight cut takes it out of him a bit in the championship rounds. 

[ColinBollocks]

Rogan was doing my nut in during the stand up rounds of the main event. Fair enough, we all know Khabib's head movement is pretty poor, but despite his limitations I thought he won the stand up battle pretty handily. Plus, anytime Al connected with anything Rogan was acting like it was Tyson swinging a hook at CM Punk - just willing this narrative about Khabib being a shit show on the feet to be legit. Al connected a few times, but Khabib never really stopped coming forward, which is what he always does.

It was a far more exciting fight because of it too. Al didn't really connect with anything to slow down Khabib, but there was the anticipation he might.

The Rose fight was pretty insane. Just as no one expected Rose to win the first fight the way she did, I'm sure few were picking her to get the better of a stand up 5 round fight. She clearly won 3 rounds, I thought. Joanna was looking really good in the 3rd and 4th, but Rose just dug in and got it done.

Zabit vs Bochniak. What brilliant and mad fun it was.

[wandshogun09]

7 hours ago, ColinBollocks said:

Plus, anytime Al connected with anything Rogan was acting like it was Tyson swinging a hook at CM Punk

 

He is bad for that. Once he goes down that path of how he thinks a fight is going, it's like he can't, or just refuses to deviate from it and he beats the point to within a millimetre of its life. 

I always remember him during JDS vs Stipe 1;

JDS lands a big punch = silence.

Stipe lands a glancing blow = "OHHHHHHH".

JDS lands an uppercut = silence. 

Stipe lands a jab = "HE'S ROCKED! DOS SANTOS IS HURT, MIKE!" 

He was making a razor close fight sound like Ivan Drago vs Apollo Creed, FFS. 

[the_mole]

Khabib has said he choose to stay on his feet despite what his camp was saying, he knew he was faster and he said he wanted to get more rounds in, he did say he had been watching Ali-Frazier fights in the lead up and wanted more of an epic fight but knows he doesn't have that striking but thought he had enough for Al Iaqunta. 

He was talking to both Iaqunta & Matt Serra during the fight, so at no time did he look rattled.

[jimufctna24]

Rogan was annoying during the Rose vs J.J fight. 

Rose is one hell of a fighter and fought a great fight. But I could have done without Rogan cheerleading for her. 

39 minutes ago, ColinBollocks said:

Plus, anytime Al connected with anything Rogan was acting like it was Tyson swinging a hook at CM Punk

"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"