Zebra Kid Mark Posted January 5, 2021 Share Posted January 5, 2021 If Lewis vs. Blaydes was a 3 rounder I think it would be semi ok, a 5 rounder will be terrible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted January 5, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted January 5, 2021 I’m not in love with it, nor was I when it was originally set for November. But it could be better than we’re all expecting. I mean, Blaydes last fight with Volkov was shit but it’s not like he’s typically a lay and prayer or a blanket. Of his 14 wins, he’s finished 10. It wasn’t that long ago he finished JDS and his stoppage against Overeem was pretty brutal. He’s not a particularly interesting personality or anything so I get why people are lukewarm or indifferent to him. But I think his rep as a boring fighter is a little bit unfair and a tad unfounded too. Again, I think it’s a case of people going off a fighter’s most recent fight. I get that because it’s the freshest in the memory but it’s not like he’s routinely going out there shitting the place up. And Lewis, while one dimensional, can end a fight quickly even if it’s all going wrong for him. Although I do think this matchup is terrible for him. Like I say, I’m not a huge fan of it. Mostly because I love the Beast and he’s very likely getting dominated and/or stopped here. But we’ve had a lot, lot worse than this as headliner. Especially at Heavyweight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted January 5, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted January 5, 2021 I think I would've preferred to see Rozenstruik vs. Lewis, though. Would make for a much more interesting match, and, much as we love Mr. Balls-Was-Hot, he's at the point in his career where he's probably more an exciting Jobber To The Stars, and someone like Rozenstruik, who's not quite as well-established as Blaydes yet, probably needs it more. Blaydes has got four wins in a row. Give him a title shot, might as well, if they've not got plans for Miocic/Ngannou 2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimufctna24 Posted January 5, 2021 Share Posted January 5, 2021 1 minute ago, Carbomb said: if they've not got plans for Miocic/Ngannou 2. Miocic vs Ngannou 2 is being targeted for March apparently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted January 5, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted January 5, 2021 1 minute ago, jimufctna24 said: Miocic vs Ngannou 2 is being targeted for March apparently. Fair enough. I hope Big Fran has picked up enough to be more of a challenge this time, but, sadly, outside his puncher's chance (which, admittedly, is a much bigger factor than anyone else's, both materially and psychologically), I don't see him being enough for Crafty Stipe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted January 5, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted January 5, 2021 Yeah that’s the thing. Blaydes isn’t getting a title shot anytime soon. It seems the plan is Miocic vs Ngannou 2 around March or April, then the winner against Jon Jones in the summer. I guess we could probably get one last Heavyweight title fight in at the end of the year but I doubt Blaydes gets a look in then either with Miocic, Ngannou, Jones and maybe Overeem in the mix. Dana’s not a fan from what I can tell so they’ll probably Fitch him by just keep making him fight in ‘contender fights’ until he loses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted January 5, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted January 5, 2021 Yeh, no surprise that Dana is being a cock-end again. I bet he's praying Ngannou wins the belt from Stipe so that he can say Blaydes is locked out completely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members WeeAl Posted January 5, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted January 5, 2021 I'm down on the fight not because I think it'll be particularly boring, as I could see it being a fairly early stoppage. I'm down on it because I struggle to see Lewis having anything for Blaydes and I'd prefer to see Big Derrick in something that feels a little more 'his thing'. Quite happy for Blaydes to knock off contenders left and right until he does/doesn't get a title shot. He's damn good, top three or four material really. If Heavyweight title fights happened more than once a year then he'd probably already have had a shot by now and either be champion or at the back of the queue. I'm just not dying at the prospect of seeing him make Lewis look like an upended beetle, before he stops him in the third. ☹️ Blaydes Vs Greg Hardy would have been hilarious if Hardy had managed to win his last fight though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted January 5, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted January 5, 2021 12 minutes ago, WeeAl said: Blaydes Vs Greg Hardy would have been hilarious Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted January 5, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted January 5, 2021 speaking of heavyweights, there aren' many fights id wanna see Andrei Arlovski in these days, but this is one of them: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted January 5, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted January 5, 2021 All I knew about Aspinall was that he was a HW prospect with a decent win-loss record. Looking closer at it, I'm starting to think they chose Arlovski as step-up that favours him. All finishes, including his losses, and all his wins in the first round! And all wins except his debut was a TKO. I'm not looking past Andrei, as he's as experienced and skilled a veteran as you'll ever get, but with his chin, I'm not sure they haven't hand-picked him as an opponent for Aspinall to make his name off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted January 5, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted January 5, 2021 Its an interesting one. Arlovski is a proper top 15 gatekeeper now and he isnt easy to get past. All of Aspinall's 11 wins have come in under 95 seconds which is a pretty incredible stat. The two times hes gone beyond that he's lost. I really hope Arlovski can extend this so we can see what Aspinall really has. Excellent piece of matchmaking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimufctna24 Posted January 6, 2021 Share Posted January 6, 2021 (edited) Given that we are discussing 42 year old Andrei Arlovski and Greg Hardy, these comments from Frank Mir seem appropriate: Quote According to Mir, the heavyweight division doesn’t require the same type of special, determined athletes as say, featherweight or lightweight. There are fewer fighters, thus less competition. Also, today’s heavyweights don’t want to fight in an exciting manner – or do so at all, said Mir. To further prove his point, Mir told a story about a recent MMA event he attended with his wife, before some self-deprecation. “We were at some fights and we were watching two high-level guys,” Mir said. “She looked over at me. One of the guys was in the top ten rankings, right? She looked at me like, ‘Holy (expletive), you’ll be able to fight the rest of your life. This is horrible.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, this is heavyweights.’ “Heavyweights suck, the majority of us. We’re just not very good fighters. They’re like watching polar bears fighting over some food. Balance isn’t great. No one knows how to do submissions barely. Once you get out of the top ten, you’re really scratching the bottom of the barrel.” Edited January 6, 2021 by jimufctna24 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted January 6, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted January 6, 2021 17 hours ago, Carbomb said: Yeh, no surprise that Dana is being a cock-end again. I bet he's praying Ngannou wins the belt from Stipe so that he can say Blaydes is locked out completely. There's being a cock-end and there's being a promoter. As much as Blaydes deserves a crack at the belt, and as good as he is. Nobody wants to watch him fight do they? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted January 6, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted January 6, 2021 17 minutes ago, Egg Shen said: There's being a cock-end and there's being a promoter. As much as Blaydes deserves a crack at the belt, and as good as he is. Nobody wants to watch him fight do they? I've said this before, but setting yourself up as the promoter of the best fighters in the world means you need to strike a balance between pure entertainment and sporting legitimacy. If Curtis Blaydes is one of the best HW fighters in the entire sport of MMA (which he is, he's only lost to Ngannou so far), then after a point it doesn't really matter if nobody wants to watch him fight - he's earned a title shot, and any promoter constantly giving him contender fights in the hope that he'll eventually lose (which is probably an inevitability at HW) is being a cock-end. I'm not naive; I know that sports rely on entertainment factor to make money. But they also rely on people seeing them as legitimate sporting contests between the best athletes in their field, and the UFC in particular has spent years making that their brand. There's a reason why the "freakshow" fights are seen as one-off attractions that nobody takes seriously, and why steroids and other performance-enhancers are banned. As to Blaydes, I've no particular investment in him, beyond wanting to see someone in a combat sport, who puts his body through hell for a short career, actually get what he's earned. I'm not saying he should get title shots left, right, and centre - but someone with his record, particularly on the run he's on, should have had at least one by now. OK, he's apparently not-so-entertaining to watch, but if it's a style that works for him and puts him amongst the elite of MMA, why should he have to change it up just because Plastic Caesar has decided on a whim that he's not worthy? If he's winning with a boring style, then it's on other fighters to beat him before he gets to the belt, it's not on him to start taking risks just to get some yells out of a few Just Bleeders and Two-Can Van Dammes. Ultimately, Dana is a cock-end for one very simple reason: fighters have chosen a very difficult, potentially very damaging career, based on the idea that the more they win, the more they'll earn. They have put their careers in his hands based on that rule, and, instead of taking that responsibility seriously, he's decided he's going to fuck with the careers of those fighters he personally doesn't like. He's behaving like he owns them, which shows it's too much power for him to have. That's why I'd like nothing more than for other MMA promotions to erode the UFC's supremacy and give fighters more options. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.