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David

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Moraes is gonna get frozen out for a while, the winner of Aldo/Yan will then likely get the winner of Sterling/Sandhagan. 

I get where they are coming from though considering Aldo was going to fight Cejudo. 

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Look at that list of talent:

Yan, Aldo, Sterling, Sandhagen, Moraes, Faber, Assuncao, Garbrandt, Edgar, Munhoz, Cruz, Rivera, Cody Stamann.

Then you have the likes of Font, Yadong, Dodson, Simon, Marlon Vera and Sean O' Malley, further down the rankings. 

Plus, CCC whenever he decides he's not retired anymore and Dillashaw in about 6 months if he wants to come back. There are some old names in there that may not be around in a year or so, but for now? What an absolute shark tank of a division. It's possibly deeper throughout than 145, which is excellent as it is. 

Edited by WeeAl
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I like it. Also seen Dana saying Korean Zombie vs Brian Ortega is being rebooked. Hopefully it happens this time. It’s an amazing fight but at this point we’ve been teased with it so many times I’m holding back on getting too excited.

Presumably, that also leaves Zabit Magomedsharipov to face Yair Rodriguez too! Don’t know who that would leave Calvin Kattar with though. Like we were saying about Bantamweight the other day, Featherweight has really turned out to be a fantastic division. 

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I aint into the pointless fantasy fight/crossover talk when there's little to no chance of it happening. I felt the same about Dillian Whyte and Francis Ngannou but Eddie Hearn is doing an e-press conference between the two:

Sky Sports has been posting about the fight prior to that announcement above. It's probably Eddie Hearn having a bit of fun and trying to create content but this one seems to have more legs than most.

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Gaethje was saying on Rogan’s podcast that he’s looking to fight Khabib, McGregor, then avenge the loss to Poirier then “get the fuck out of here”. Obviously a loss to any of them probably throws the whole plan out but imagine if he pulled that off? Consecutive wins over Barboza, Cerrone, Ferguson, Khabib, McGregor and Poirier would be some fucking exit.

I’d say he’s got a decent-good chance against all of them as well. Khabib’s going to be the biggest hurdle. McGregor and Poirier are pretty much tossups to me but on current form I think Gaethje has a better chance now than he did before of beating those two. Could just as easily see him going 0-3 though, which is what makes it such an exciting time in the division. Feels like anything can happen. 

Shame we’ll most likely never see an Eddie Alvarez rematch as well but you can’t have everything. 

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Poirier? Gaethje fights differently now than he did when they first fought. He's tightened up a lot of holes in his game. I'd fancy him to beat Poirier in a rematch. 

Khabib? Has the game to beat him (IMO). 50/50 fight. Currently leaning towards picking Gaethje, but might change my mind before fight night.

McGregor? I'd give McGregor a decent chance of catching him early. But again, I would probably lean towards picking Gaethje. 

Edited by jimufctna24
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I would fairly heavily fancy Gaethje against McGergor or Poirier but would still have Khabib 75/25. I think the variety of ways he could get  Gaethje to the mat will be key.

Saying that I would have far more confidence in Gaethje beating him than I did Ferguson.

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Poirier’s no mug. I think he still gets slept on a bit. I wouldn’t count him out of giving Gaethje another war despite Gaethje’s improvements. I’d probably lean towards Gaethje as well at this point, and he nearly beat Poirier the first time in 2018. But Poirier is one of the few in the division who’s insanely tough enough to possibly make it through to the later rounds and drag Gaethje into deep water. I could see Gaethje getting to him early or just damaging him so much early and stopping him later. But Poirier doesn’t go away easily. You’ve got to either completely flatten him with a clean KO or buckle up for a war.

McGregor could outclass him as well. As much as I loathe the prick, he’s got a good chance against any 155er that stands with him. That’s pretty much a 50/50 to me. Gaethje could make it easier if he wrestled but I think it’d end up playing out on the feet. “Feetwork”. It’s a tough one. I could see either ending it early. Whoever lands the first clean connection might close the show. Where I’d favour Gaethje is if it goes late because I honestly don’t think McGregor has the stamina, heart or desire to do what has to be done to gut through what Gaethje brings in that kind of fight. I don’t see him being able to go to whatever dark place Alvarez and Poirier had to go to to outlast Gaethje in Gaethje’s type of scrap. McGregor is a great fighter but he’s probably one of the biggest frontrunners in MMA for me.

Khabib vs Gaethje...fuck trying to work that one out. I think we’re going to have to see a different Gaethje than we’ve ever seen for him to win that one so a lot of his previous performances probably don’t apply so much. 

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18 minutes ago, ElCece said:

I think the variety of ways he could get  Gaethje to the mat will be key.

If Khabib can find a way to get Gaethje to the fence, he will win. 

The funny thing is that the improvements Gaethje made to his striking game that helped him beat Ferguson - learning to fight strategically and make more of his counter punching - won't be needed against Khabib. Instead, it is probably best if he reverts back to how he fought earlier on in his UFC career, where he marched forward and was willing to take one to give one. That approach would appear to be the best way to put Khabib on the backfoot where he is thought to be at his most vulnerable. 

Sriram Muralidaran made this point a few weeks back and it makes a lot of sense - https://www.thefight-site.com/home/gaethje-vs-ferguson

Given Gaethje's comments on the JRE earlier in the week, it would appear he is aware of all this as well. 

Edited by jimufctna24
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