jimufctna24 Posted July 28, 2018 Share Posted July 28, 2018 Wandy is an odd character. I always got the impression that he was a complete psychopath in Pride. Cro Cop made it sound like he was a a hooligan who used to rampage around backstage at Pride events. There was also that story about him knocking out Shogun over a dispute over a dog. However, Don Frye really liked him. He met Wandy thinking that he was going to be a complete helmet. Yet, he found him to be a gentleman when they did a photoshoot together for Pride. I really liked Joanna up until her first fight with Namajunas. Her comments in the build-up to fight were a bit much for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted July 28, 2018 Author Paid Members Share Posted July 28, 2018 OK, today's the day. The big question, and one I really should've included in the poll...who on this card is going to go for the cheap pop and walk out to Bret Hart's music? Someone did it last time they were in Calgary but I can't remember who, and of course Nick Ring even walked out with Bret himself. Wonder if Bret will be there tonight? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RancidPunx Posted July 29, 2018 Share Posted July 29, 2018 Bret is cageside apparently . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RancidPunx Posted July 29, 2018 Share Posted July 29, 2018 http://www.ringsidenews.com/2018/07/28/bret-hart-appears-tonights-ufc-calgary-event/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted July 29, 2018 Author Paid Members Share Posted July 29, 2018 Well, Ion Cutelaba answered my question above. Walked out to Bret Hart's music as well. Of course, Cormier was all over it. And yeah Bret was there. They showed him on camera during the main card. He looked about as happy as Bret Hart can look. I'd say mildly content. Good to see him there though. Really enjoyed this show. Poirier vs Alvarez 2 was fantastic. Didn't really go into that FOTY status for me but it was an incredible back and forth fight. I think you could put these two in there 20 times and there'd not be a dud to be found. Thought Alvarez looked great early on in the fight. He had a strong first round and I thought he was getting the better of most of the exchanges. Poirier did well to bounce back in the second with the guillotine attempts but Alvarez still seemed to be in control in mount and stuff. Everything after that 12-6 elbow though was downhill for Eddie. That was a costly mistake. Goddard was right to restart them on the feet and that was the turning point. Poirier was all over him. I thought Goddard was good about giving Eddie all the opportunity he could to stay in the fight but he was right to step in when he did. Eddie was still conscious just because he's nails but he looked done and it was only getting worse after that. Huge year for Poirier. Big wins over Pettis, Gaethje and Alvarez all in great fights. He's more than earned a crack at the title but the timing cocks that up with Khabib vs McGregor surely next. If I was Poirier though I'd sit out now for a bit. He's had two fucking wars in the space of 3 months so a rest is well deserved. Plus you know what Khabib and McGregor are like. There's a good chance one of them either gets injured or fucks up before they can fight, so Poirier could easily jump in there. For me, nobody is more deserving than him now. Saying that, I wish Tony Ferguson was healthy because Poirier vs Ferguson would be nuts. Tough position now for Eddie Alvarez. That was the last fight on his current contract. He took the gamble and it nearly paid off but that's the risk you take, I guess. I hope they come to an agreement and he stays in the UFC. His last 2 fights alone have been brilliant and he's one of those guys whose presence really adds to the division for me. But if it doesn't work out then I suppose a return to Bellator could be an option again now with Coker running things. Was chuffed to see Aldo get that big finish. He needed something like that. I said going in, some people were way too quick to write Aldo off or declare him shot or whatever. Losing to Max Holloway doesn't mean you're done. That body shot was nasty. I can see why Stephens thought the stoppage was a tad early. I don't think Aldo was going to let him recover regardless but a fighter will always think they can come back so I got Stephens' complaints. Don't really know what might be next for Aldo. How many fights does he have left on his deal? Is it 2 more now or 3? It sounds like he's going to do them then retire from recent interviews so he wants one last run at the title. If Holloway is out a while I could see Aldo vs Ortega but from what Dana's saying it sounds like Holloway is coming back sooner rather than later so Aldo's not getting a look in. Joanna looked decent, she looked OK. It was a win she badly needed coming off the two losses to Rose so that's the most important thing. Wasn't her strongest showing though. Just think Torres' grinding style made Joanna a bit more cautious. Still wish Joanna would've gone up to 125 instead. That division needs all the depth it can get. If Joanna went up she'd likely get an immediate shot against the winner of Nicco Montano vs Valentina Shevchenko. There's just not much left to do at 115. She's 0-2 to the champ and she's schooled pretty much everyone else. Ion 'Hitman' Cutelaba vs Antigulov was a fun way to kick off the FS1 prelims. Really entertaining one rounder. Cutelaba has definitely got something, hasn't he? Exciting fighter in the cage, bit of a personality outside it, seems to understand that it helps to make yourself stand out, but at the same time he has that killer aura and intensity about him when it's fight time. I like him. Not expecting him to be a champion or anything but he's exactly the kind of new blood a division like 205 needs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members ColinBollocks Posted July 29, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted July 29, 2018 A bit of justice in the main event. Alvarez was caught cheating at least three times in that 2nd round. Grabbing the fence, hooking the ear and then the elbow. I thought Marc Goddard again showed exactly why he's the best in the game today, he was spot on with his calls and was on top of all the cheating. Good fight too. I guess we can stop all the talk of Aldo being on the slide. Folk on here were quite quick to call it after he lost to Holloway, but that speaks more to how good Holloway is that he ran through Aldo twice. In this fight, Aldo showed not only does he still have a chin, but he's still one of the deadliest strikers in MMA - that body shot is all the evidence you need. I'm delighted it was against Stephens too, there is just something about him that I don't quite like, whether that be his shit beard, fake trash talk confidence, or "who the fook is that guy?". Again, highlights what a Don Holloway is. Joanna looked alright in her scrap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted July 30, 2018 Share Posted July 30, 2018 22 hours ago, ColinBollocks said: I'm delighted it was against Stephens too, there is just something about him that I don't quite like, whether that be his shit beard, fake trash talk confidence, or "who the fook is that guy?" I've never liked Stephens really since all this shit came to the fore. I know the charges were dropped, but it's not as though he just happened to be walking past when it happened, there's something there. Just wasn't solid enough evidence to prosecute. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d-d-d-dAz Posted July 30, 2018 Share Posted July 30, 2018 This show, somehow, did the lowest rating in the history of the Fox shows. That's genuinely crazy. For all the talk of the UFC spoiling the product with joke fights, interim belts, big names etc... this was a card that delivered the exact opposite of that - it was a card that looked custom made for the core audience and... they didn't really turn out for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_mole Posted July 30, 2018 Share Posted July 30, 2018 7 minutes ago, d-d-d-dAz said: This show, somehow, did the lowest rating in the history of the Fox shows. That's genuinely crazy. For all the talk of the UFC spoiling the product with joke fights, interim belts, big names etc... this was a card that delivered the exact opposite of that - it was a card that looked custom made for the core audience and... they didn't really turn out for it. Might still be true but those are overnight numbers, they count what was on Fox at that time 8- 10 (UFC would be 5-7) in the west coast, numbers usually go up and the longer the main event, the numbers usually go up but it was the lowest over night numbers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimufctna24 Posted July 30, 2018 Share Posted July 30, 2018 Jon Snowden raised a good point: Quote JE Snowden The problem with UFC is that the fights have no athletic context and no stakes. They should develop a series of small tournaments with a clear reward for the winner, whether it's an opportunity or just plain cash. No one is watching just because it is on. Now, I am not advocating the UFC continue down their road of interim titles. However, they could, as Snowden suggested, create a series of mini-tournaments for cash. How about a tournament between ex-champions at a special weight? Or something similar. Mind you, it could just be that MMA on TV has lost its appeal in general. It's not 2005 anymore. It is no longer a novelty to see two people fighting in a cage. It's possible that people have just moved on to other things and only take interest when McGregor is fighting (or 1 or 2 other fighters) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_mole Posted July 30, 2018 Share Posted July 30, 2018 Every sport except NBA's ratings are down, including wrestling, WWE raw a few weeks back was the lowest rated Raw in history, I don't know about holiday episodes though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guy Bifkin Posted July 30, 2018 Share Posted July 30, 2018 No doubt the highlight of this one was the look on Jeremy Stephen's face when that liver shot kicked in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted July 30, 2018 Author Paid Members Share Posted July 30, 2018 More tournaments? Is Bjorn Rebney running Snowden's twitter these days? I don't think the UFC needs tournaments for the sake of tournaments at all. Fuck me. We're already moaning about them busting out interim titles all over the shop to create fake stakes, having a load of tournaments would just be more of that. Tournaments are great as an occasional thing when there are legit reasons to do them or they're an ingrained thing like they were in Japan when that scene was thriving. But doing them just because devalues the whole point of them, IMO. If less people are interested in giving up their Saturday night to devote 4 or 5 hours to MMA these days, it's probably because there's so much MMA on these days. If the equivalent to a card as good as this was on Spike in 2006 I'm sure there would've been more buzz for it. In 2018 though, the UFC is on probably 3 weekends out of the month. The weekend it's not on you'll have Boxing or Bellator or GLORY or maybe even something to do in real life! I just think people feel like they can miss a show here and there now, there's always next weekend. It does seem mental choosing to skip this one but oversaturation will do that. You can have too much of a good thing. That and it's summer and normal people aren't sitting in on Saturday night to watch sweaty men in their pants like we do. I don't think throwing tournaments at the problem is the answer. I think it's something we have to accept as a side effect of there being shitloads of MMA on now. The hunger for UFC content isn't there like it was when we started watching because they constantly keep feeding us. Our bellies are full of the stuff. It's the old saying 'how can you miss it if it's never gone?' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members ColinBollocks Posted July 30, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted July 30, 2018 Their rankings make tournaments extra pointless too. The UFC may not always stick with them, but your top 10 are all sort of in a tournament for top spot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted July 31, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted July 31, 2018 I cant recall such a legendary fighter have their stock unfairly fall like it has for Jose Aldo. Not in a historical sense, but just in active terms. Getting whiped out by McGregor and the two losses to Holloway has made everyone (including me) thats he damaged goods, yet in between those defeats hes beaten two top 5 145lb'ers. Really is a weird situation. It does show how fucking good Max Holloway is though. Id imagine we get Ortega/Aldo for an Interim or the vacated title next. Gutted for Alvarez, but that was some fight. Poirier will never be a favorite of mine but hes never in a dull fight, hes earned a crack. Alex Hernandez has a bit of the Colby Covingtons about him doesnt he. Not as outrageously heelish, but hes embracing the jeers before he's even being jeered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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