UFC 239: Jones vs Santos - Jul 6 🇺🇸

[Keith Houchen]

36 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

It was nice to see Raging Panda Julia Avila get the win in her UFC debut

This is the important news.

Great to see after an amazingly explosive card, my boy Jones proper footballing his way to a win and stinking the place up for meatheads. What a man. 

[ColinBollocks]

Can't complain about that, can you? If some mugs paid for it on BT then they definitely got something resembling value for money.

The worst thing about that Jones fight is it gave me some hope we were about to get an upset, but then the judges prove once again that they are all on the same email chain as Alex Jones. As good as Santos was, I thought Jones had a bit of a stinker. Of course Santos deserves credit for that, but Jones' decision to 
A shame Santos' knee went out on him, but Jones deserves credit for making the adjustments which counteracted Silva's initial success - Jones coaches being on the ball and pointing out when Jones pressures forward Silva throws less kicks etc. . I'm definitely up for a rematch. DC v Jones 3 only interests me if it takes place at HW because that's a new twist to the pretty comprehensive reality that Jones is the better LHW.

Pointless being too wordy about Handsome Luke after wand's excellent post about him. Luke fighting with his hands down and chin up will always leave him open to the left counter, and here we are once again. It only highlighted how incredible Jones' head movement was for the majority of his fight.

Add me to the "Masvidal is a tit" list. He's a terrifying combination of killer and douche.

[wandshogun09]

Christ, look at Askren leaving the cage here. 

 

[WeeAl]

What a crazy show that was. Unbelievable. I scored the main event for Santos myself, but feel there could be no complaints with a decision either way. Santos clearly took R1&R2 on my scoresheet, Jones picked up R3&4, then it all came down to R5. I favoured the heavier shots by Santos, but Jones landed more shots. I really didn't expect this fight to be a close decision, so I was pleasantly surprised and was cheering like a mad man for Santos in that fifth round. Fair play to both men for fighting a great fight.

The first round of Nunes Vs Holm went exactly as I expected it would go for five rounds. Similar to the Nunes/Shevchenko fights. Then Nunes waffled Holm and it was lights out. She's an amazing fighter. Clearly the best woman fighter there has been by leaps and bounds, and along with the men she is on a short list along with Jones, GSP and probably DJ. I still can't warm to her though, and don't especially look forward to her fights even though she has been a finishing machine this past while.

Absolutely gutted Askren lost. That he lost so damn violently as well was a real dampener.  It was such a mad finish from Masvidal, he's on a real career surge at the moment, but Askren has grown on me so much I just wasn't on for Jorge winning here. 

Rockhold is done isn't he? This was never a gimme for him, but that he got brutally KO'd was like the final nail in the coffin of a possible career resurgence. I'd have been well on for seeing Jones Vs Rockhold, but that's never happening now. A great win for Jan though, getting back on track after the loss to Santos.

[wandshogun09]

Jones: Ain’t gonna be no rematch. 

Santos: Don’t want one. 

[jimufctna24]

One of the things that I think swayed the judges, particularly in round 5, was that Santos looked like he could be stopped at any moment. Despite exhibiting a great poker face, Santos often moved gingerly on his knee and there were a few times where it looked like it could buckle completely. Whereas Jones, despite having absorbed the heavier shots in round 5, never really seemed troubled. I still could have scored round 5 either way, as Jones did land with more volume. But boy, was it was close. 

A rematch is logical. However, if it happens, I get the impression that Jones and his camp will make the necessary adjustments and have an easier night. Even so, Santos came closer last night than almost everyone thought he would to dethroning Jones. 

Edited July 7, 2019 by jimufctna24

[d-d-d-dAz]

The thing that sucks about Masvidal winning, and Khabib winning to an extent, is that just sucks the fun out of the sport. It legitimizes the bullshit, bravado ‘chat shit, get banged’ philosophy that really puts me off fighting.

The sport is intrinsically brutal and humorless, if the trend becomes that the fighters become the same? ...ugh. Fuck that.

Masvidal came across like a right twat after the fight.

[Keith Houchen]

The good thing about the Askren loss is much like Aldo losing to McG, a flash in the pan one off type thing.  It wasn't lucky or anything like that as the shot was thrown to do what it did, but Askren won't come out looking bad.  Had he been monstered for three rounds, that would be different.

[wandshogun09]

Masvidal at the ESPN desk post-fight. Funny seeing him and Bisping being quite friendly there after their history, but it’s good that’s behind them as it was going nowhere good;

It’ll be really interesting to see how Askren comes back from this. I’ve no doubt he can, for the reasons Keith gave above, but this was a really bad knockout. On top of the damage he took in the Lawler fight. He’s a fantastic wrestler but he can’t keep just expecting to walk through fire to get the takedown. Kind of reminds me of when Demian Maia got laid out by Nate Marquardt in seconds all those years ago, but this was much more brutal. Thing is, Maia went away and worked really hard on his striking after that and, while he was never a great striker, he did improve quite significantly, IMO. I can’t see Askren putting that same focus on striking. It’s just never seemed like something he’s been interested in spending a lot of time on. In that sense he’s basically Brock Lesnar with a perm and a dadbod. This was the kind of KO that could really be a game changer going forward for him. He got switched off and fully disconnected. He legit lost a few minutes. It was scary. I could see him being much more hesitant in fights now, and that could leave him even more open to getting caught. 

[David]

Pretty good fight card in all, although I did skip most of the prelims bar the Arnold Allen fight. He looked good, but by God has Gilbert Melendez been the drizzling shits in the UFC. He came in with a huge reputation, and has gone 1-6. Why he's still around is anyone's guess. He was on a four fight skid going into last night, and hasn't won in over five and a half years.

Michael Chiesa absolutely schooled Diego Sanchez, which should come as a shock to no one. That fight played out as I thought it would.

I have to admit, I enjoyed seeing Rockhold get sparked. He seems like a dick, and seeing Blachovicz stand in front of him with his arms outstretched as handsome Luke sat there trying to grab his own face while his eye twitched was something that got a chuckle from me, especially after seeing him during the fight doing his usual routine of lowering his hands and grinning like a goon.

Masvidal vs Askren. What can you really say? We see that kind of shit attempted quite regularly, but it usually results in a near-miss and an "ooooooh" from the crowd, as the fighter who was on the attempted receiving end smiles and they touch gloves or some shit. 

Sometimes it plays out, and this was one of those times. I still honestly believe that if you match those two up ten times, Askren wins seven or eight of them. As Uncle D would say, "it is what it is." It was a freak KO, and that's taking nothing away from Jorge. He had to throw it to make it happen. I don't see it affecting Askren too much. I reckon he'll eventually do an interview where he says that he got caught fair and square, it happens, it was a freak KO, you move on.

Masvidal is a knob. Right down to his Tony Montana persona and ring music. He seems like the type who'd own a pitbull and wear a white vest every fucking day. Put on a proper shirt and get a haircut, you fucking disheveled looking hippie.

Nunes vs Holm went as I thought it would. Holm is 2-4 since her win over Rousey, and has benefited greatly from the fact that the division is shallow as fuck, and that Uncle D hates Cyborg. I don't really have any great interest in seeing Nunes fight, and I have even less interest in seeing Holm fight. This was playing in the background during my piss break and Pepsi refill time.

Jones vs Santos. My question is exactly what Jones has to do to get told to keep those fucking fingers in check? Every time Santos came forward with a flurry Jones would extend the hands and fingers. Fuck all said by Herb mind you, for whatever reason.

I'm a fan of Jones, but I get the feeling that his time is coming. He's going to lose at some point. He's still very fucking good, but he's not quite so fast any more, and I don't think his style is as radical and perplexing as it was for the older guard. Who's next? Probably DC, but I'd rather see him face big Johnny from Brazil. I hope it's not Blachovicz. Nothing against the guy, but that fight would be as enticing as the Anthony Smith carry-on.

Overall a decent enough card, but I don't really get as amped about them as I used to. It may just be the sheer frequency that they seem to be producing them these days, I dunno.

[jimufctna24]

2 minutes ago, David said:

I'm a fan of Jones, but I get the feeling that his time is coming. He's going to lose at some point. He's still very fucking good, but he's not quite so fast any more, and I don't think his style is as radical and perplexing as it was for the older guard.

If you remember though, he looked average in his win over OSP. Yet, he followed that performance up with arguably the two best performances of his career (DC and Gusty). This was his 3rd fight in the space of 7 months. Perhaps he needs a break to recharge the batteries. 

Unlucky with your £30 wager btw. It looked on after Rockhold got knocked out. 

50 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

I can’t see Askren putting that same focus on striking. It’s just never seemed like something he’s been interested in spending a lot of time on. In that sense he’s basically Brock Lesnar with a perm and a dadbod. This was the kind of KO that could really be a game changer going forward for him. He got switched off and fully disconnected. He legit lost a few minutes. It was scary. I could see him being much more hesitant in fights now, and that could leave him even more open to getting caught. 

Aye.

Askren has always had a decent chin. He's thus never been afraid to take a punch while in pursuit of a takedown/clinch. If last night's knockout does have a psychological effect on Askren, then it could send him on a losing streak. 

Thankfully, Askren has always struck me as being mentally strong. So hopefully he rebounds. 

[wandshogun09]

😂

[Chunk]

Khabib letting his temper get the better of him again ...

https://www.mmafighting.com/2019/7/7/20684896/dana-white-khabib-nurmagomedov-nate-diaz-got-into-altercation-during-ufc-239

[David]

34 minutes ago, Chunk said:

Khabib letting his temper get the better of him again ...

Diaz is just an innocent party of course, sitting there minding his own business, right?

[Ironic Indie Lad]

THOUGHTS ETC.

Thought that was maybe the weakest performance of Jones career. Roughly as uninspiring as the OSP fight. Not 100% sure why but seemed like a combination of the damage from the leg kicks and respect for Santos power. One of those fights that was close, not that exciting and couldn't really be called a robbery regardless of who got the nod. Would rather see Jones hang on to the belt in these circumstances. If he is going to go down, I want to see someone finish him or dominate him.

Genuinely laughed when Rockhold got sparked. I went out of my way to watch as many of his pre-fight interviews as possible so I could absorb his smug delusions. Made the loss all the more sweet. He should probably just go back to being a model, beefing thicc popstars and maybe taking some professional grappling fights (which sounds like a good life tbh)

Wasn't overly impressed with Chiesa. He looked dominant and strong in the grappling but against an aging (in fight years) and very undersized opponent. I don't foresee him being able to ragdoll too many WW's like that. His grappling was good but really feel he needed a stoppage here to make a real statement.

Not sure where Askren goes from here if he fights again. Would like to see him against someone like Maia or Gunni so long as its almost all grappling instead of a bad kickboxing match.