Paid Members Carbomb Posted October 23, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted October 23, 2020 Thing is, I also see it from Edwards' point of view. If he caves and accepts any more fights, he's basically validating the UFC's behaviour. Let's assume, just for the sake of argument, he beats Chimaev. What's to stop Plastic Caesar deciding to leave him waiting yet again, despite beating someone that should've put him in title contention, like the RDA win did? He doesn't have any other means of forcing the UFC to stop fucking about with his career and give him the fights he's earned. Theoretically, they could just keep throwing him fights, making him wait, force him to take more because they say he's been inactive, and eventually he'll hit a banana skin after long enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted October 23, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted October 23, 2020 Theres nothing stopping them from fucking Edwards ever, its the sad nature of the business. The worst thing you can do in the UFC and sulk about what you're not getting, unless you hold some power as a PPV draw. Edwards doesnt have much to offer in that department so hes fucked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted October 23, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted October 23, 2020 9 minutes ago, Egg Shen said: Theres nothing stopping them from fucking Edwards ever, its the sad nature of the business. The worst thing you can do in the UFC and sulk about what you're not getting, unless you hold some power as a PPV draw. Edwards doesnt have much to offer in that department so hes fucked. It's not sulking, though - he's right to be pissed off. Like I say, they're fucking with his career. I get that not having a fan-friendly style makes it difficult, but it can't all be about entertainment. There needs to be a proper balance struck between being a proper, competitive sport, and being an entertainment form - being entertaining makes money, true, but if you want to be seen as the legit no.1 promotion in the world for the sport you're promoting, you also have to be seen to have the best fighters in the world, competing for the top prize in the world. Also, something else occurs: if the UFC really give that much of a fuck about the entertainment value, why not change the rules, so that fights are less likely to be boring? It's all very well giving the grinders the stink-eye, but if you're making it possible for them to not only win but thrive, then it's kind of on you as a promoter to close that loophole. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted October 23, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted October 23, 2020 @Carbomb Which is basically what they did to Jon Fitch years ago. I know I poke fun at him but I did feel a bit sorry for him there. He lost his title shot against GSP in the summer of 2008 but after that he went on a strong 5 fight win streak and probably earned a rematch. Like the current situation with Edwards though, he was kind of buggered by there being more hypeable fights for GSP at the time like Koscheck and Hardy. Fitch had as strong a case for a title shot as either of them, if not more, but they were easier to build interest in and probably did better on PPV than GSP vs Fitch 2 would’ve done. I mean, I totally get it from that perspective but it must’ve sucked for Fitch. Then he had that draw with BJ Penn in 2011 then eventually he ran into Johny Hendricks and got starched in seconds. And that was that. The sheer joy on Joe Silva’s face as he congratulated Hendricks said it all. Like you say, they just kept throwing Fitch into fights until someone inevitably eliminated him from contention. I believe Edwards can and probably still will get his shot. Unless he’s matched with Covington first, that would probably take him out of the race, in my opinion. Wonderboy could be tricky and Khamzat is an unknown quantity for now. Could certainly see one of them derailing him but I think he’ll get his shot eventually with another win or two. But if he were to sit and wait then the only way I could see him getting the title shot is if Burns, Covington, Masvidal etc are all injured or struck down with COVID or something at the same time. And even then Dana would probably just give his new boy Khamzat a title shot just because he loves him. I’d like to see Welterweight play out something like this over the next few months... • Kamaru Usman vs Gilbert Burns for the title • Colby Covington vs Jorge Masvidal • Leon Edwards vs Wonderboy Thompson • Khamzat Chimaev vs Neil Magny • Tyron Woodley (if we must) vs Donald Cerrone • Robbie Lawler vs Mike Perry (already booked) • Michel Pereira vs Niko Price (Malbranque’s suggestion which I’m now in love with) • Demian Maia vs Michael Chiesa • Geoff Neal vs Vicente Luque • Carlos Condit vs Anthony Pettis (Carbomb’s suggestion, I think) • Diego Sanchez (if we must) vs Gunnar Nelson (if we can find him) Something like that. If by some miracle Nick Diaz does actually fight again like it’s been hinted at, throw him in there with Conor. Oh and if we can dig Santiago Ponzinibbio up from wherever he’s been hibernating that’d be cool. Against anyone at this point. Think that’s just about everyone although I’m probably forgetting someone really obvious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted October 23, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted October 23, 2020 18 minutes ago, Carbomb said: It's not sulking, though - he's right to be pissed off. Like I say, they're fucking with his career. Don't disagree, but thats the truth of it sadly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted October 23, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted October 23, 2020 Well... Edwards has been put back in the rankings at #3 as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted October 23, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted October 23, 2020 cant say i didnt call it😉 It makes little sense from a rankings stand point, and its easy to say thats a stupid fight for Leon to take but no other fight in the division right now is gonna get eyeballs on him like this one, and thats what the guys needs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators neil Posted October 23, 2020 Moderators Share Posted October 23, 2020 It makes sense to me. Leon is a forgotten name at this point, but clearly he not only rates himself highly but he has wins over more names than Chimaev. Perhaps Edwards sees this as an "easy" fight and a chance for him to get back in the spotlight by soundly beating someone that people are anointing as the next big thing. The matchup reminds me of Corey Anderson vs Johnny Walker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted October 23, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted October 23, 2020 (edited) ignore* Edited October 23, 2020 by Egg Shen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted October 27, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted October 27, 2020 It’s an agonisingly long time away but... I know there was a lot of talk of Jon Jones coming up to HW but Ngannou has more than earned this rematch. Whether you think it’ll go the same way as the first time or not (I do) you can’t deny he deserves it. Guess we’ll have to wait longer for Jones to Heavyweight. Unless he’s going to take another fight at HW first. Or maybe he pops back to 205 to take the belt back first. Or maybe he’s waiting in hopes the crowds come back. Whatever. Stipe vs Francis 2! Like I said, if I had to put money on it I’d pick Stipe again. But fuck am I putting money against Ngannou in any fight. Those hands can ruin any chin or betting slip on the planet. Favouring Stipe because he’s obviously got more tools but can he weather the storm again? Great fight. Maybe the only one left at Heavyweight for the foreseeable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted October 27, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted October 27, 2020 March😫 im gonna put money on whoever comes in as the underdog there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Dead Mike Posted October 27, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted October 27, 2020 34 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said: Guess we’ll have to wait longer for Jones to Heavyweight. Unless he’s going to take another fight at HW first. Or maybe he pops back to 205 to take the belt back first. Or maybe he’s waiting in hopes the crowds come back. I said it before....Jones vs Overeem in January for #1 contender & have the winner at cageside. Jones doesn't get a free ride at HW. Reem gets his 'last run' at the belt & its a massive HW bout in the interim. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted October 27, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted October 27, 2020 I’d be well up for that @Dead Mike but I’m not sure it’ll actually happen. If I could choose I’d go with that as it’s more appealing to me than Overeem’s other options at the moment like Volkov or whoever. Reem deserves a big fight and this way we’d get two big Heavyweight fights out of it instead of one. But you know what the UFC are like. They’ll probably just keep going back and forth with Jones on money now and by the time they get it sorted Stipe vs Francis 2 will have already happened and Jones will be fighting the winner or something. There’s always the outside chance they actually make this Jones vs Adesanya fight everyone’s on about as well, I guess. If that happened you could just plug Overeem into that spot against the winner of Miocic vs Ngannou 2. A rematch for The Reem either way but it’d be a cool redemption story for him. I can’t think of a better way for him to go out than getting an opportunity to avenge either of those defeats and win UFC gold in one night. Until it all goes wrong and Francis irons him out again 😞 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted October 27, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted October 27, 2020 A slight tangent, but: does anyone know why Blaydes hasn't been offered a title match yet? His only two defeats are to Ngannou, and he's on a four-fight win streak, the same as Big Francis. Just from a matchmaking perspective, surely offering him a title bout before yet another rematch would be wise, as it's a fresh match-up, and a way of keeping the HW division moving? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted October 27, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted October 27, 2020 It’s the old marketability thing I’m guessing. He’s gained a bit of a rep as a boring fighter for right or wrong. I don’t really agree but there’s no doubt Miocic vs Ngannou 2 sounds sexier than Miocic vs Blaydes as a title fight. Fresh matchup or not. I think if Ngannou wasn’t currently on the run he’s on, we’d have seen Blaydes slotted into that position. But Blaydes is coming off a lacklustre decision over Volkov while Ngannou’s coming off steamrolling Cain, JDS and Rozenstruik in seconds. It doesn’t help that Ngannou’s 2-0 over Blaydes either. I know they were Blaydes only losses but until Ngannou’s out of the title picture again, it’s hard to make a case for Blaydes getting the shot before him when the man who beat him twice is right there as well and coming off more impressive and devastating wins. I expect Blaydes to handle Derrick Lewis without too much bother in November so we’ll see what happens then. Even then though, there’s Overeem and possibly Jones lurking who will understandably (from the UFC’s POV) jump ahead of him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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