Shane O' Mac Version 2 Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 Nice! It's school holidays here in Australia, so a run of Fight Island events will help fill some of that time nicely. Really keen to see if the Khamzat hype train rolls on. It's so weird watching the build-up to Conor vs. Dustin. In a lot of ways, I feel like I'm watching two completely different fighters when they play the old clips. Poirier was a young guy who let McGregor's antics get under his skin, since then he seems to have greatly matured as both a person and a fighter. McGregor, on the other hand... in 2014, Conor was my guy. Sure, he was a bit of a dickhead, but he was my dickhead. Wait... you know what I mean. As obnoxious as he could be at times, he still seemed like a good dude underneath and he looked like he just mastered the art of fight promotion. Then... McGregor got insanely rich and it was all over from there. After the Mayweather fight, it just seemed like he thought he was untouchable and could do anything without repercussions. We all know his history, popping up in the news for doing dumb shit, each news article painting a worse picture than the last. It just really sucks to see Conor go from a charismatic guy I could get behind, to a complete ass that it would feel wrong to support. So, I guess I'm Team Poirier? I don't particularly connect with Dustin on a personality level (don't know a ton about him outside the cage tbh), but I enjoy his fights. McGregor could probably use the humbling, particularly after his 40 second job on Cerrone last time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted December 22, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted December 22, 2020 reports out there that Hooker/Chandler is gonna be on this show 😲 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted December 23, 2020 Author Paid Members Share Posted December 23, 2020 I said in the opening post I was expecting Chandler’s debut to land on this card but I thought it’d be against Gaethje. This’ll do nicely though. I’ve added a Hooker vs Chandler preview thingy to the opening post now. And redone the poll. If you voted you’ll have to vote again, soz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted December 24, 2020 Author Paid Members Share Posted December 24, 2020 Andre Muniz is out of his fight with Andrew Sanchez. But it’s actually good news because Makhmud Muradov is stepping in. If you don’t know Muradov, he’s the guy managed by Floyd Mayweather. From Uzbekistan, 30 years old, 24-6, 19 inside the distance. He looks a bit of a handful. Oh and he did this to Trevor Smith in his last fight... Don’t think anyone’s seen Smith since. This is a huge improvement on the original matchup. With this and Chandler vs Hooker getting added this week, 257 is suddenly looking a fair bit stronger to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted December 28, 2020 Author Paid Members Share Posted December 28, 2020 SWERVE! Chandler vs Hooker isn’t a done deal. There’s a chance it still might be Chandler vs Gaethje. Either fight would do me but I actually think I’d prefer the Gaethje fight. I just hope we end up with one of them. The card was looking so much better overall with that Chandler main event. And it makes sense for potential main event backup reasons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dai Posted December 28, 2020 Share Posted December 28, 2020 The thing is, this show is three weeks Saturday. Factor in all the fight week nonsense and weight cutting they do, its realistically a two week (maximum) fight prep, which seems crazy for such an important fight. I know they could be training hard currently, but is Hooker, for example, really training to max potential when he knows he could be bumped off for Gaethje at any time? Knowing exactly when your fighting and against who must sharpen the focus of training significantly. Maybe the days of the 8 week fight camp are done? Especially in Covid times. Seems like you see lots more shortish turnarounds now between announcements and fights. Looking at the odds, Poirier has drifted out to 2/1 now, and Conor has shortened to 2/5, which seems crazy to me. Poirier is a beast and I can see some significant cash going on him at these odds nearer fight time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted December 28, 2020 Author Paid Members Share Posted December 28, 2020 Yeah it’s mad really. As much as I’d like to see Gaethje in with Chandler, who knows what he’s been doing since the Khabib fight. Especially at this time of year over there with Thanksgiving then Christmas and New Year. Like you say, even if they gave him the heads up weeks ago, there’s a difference between knowing you’re fighting on such and such date and lasering in on that, lining up your sparring and weight cut and so on to peak for that date. If you just think you might be fighting on that date against opponent A, but it could be opponent B, or maybe it won’t happen at all...it’s got to effect you’re motivation and focus in training. Even the Chandler vs Hooker thing has come together last minute, although I suspect Chandler at least has known this card was the target for him for some time now. He posted this at the end of November so it seems he’s been in camp since then... Still the issue of will he be training to his full potential when there’s uncertainty on the fight going ahead though. None of it is ideal but I guess you make the best of it anyway you can at the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted December 31, 2020 Author Paid Members Share Posted December 31, 2020 Hooker vs Chandler confirmed as co-main. Happy New Year... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted January 2, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted January 2, 2021 UFC have made the first fight free on youtube... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted January 3, 2021 Author Paid Members Share Posted January 3, 2021 I’m back at work tomorrow. Looking forward to lots of this for the next 3 weeks... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zebra Kid Mark Posted January 3, 2021 Share Posted January 3, 2021 (edited) On 1/3/2021 at 9:34 AM, wandshogun09 said: I’m back at work tomorrow. Looking forward to lots of this for the next 3 weeks... The general consensus here is we all want McGregor to lose right? He adds a huge buzz to the sport when he's fighting but without meaning to sound like a grumpy grouch, UFC is a lot more enjoyable with out him and all the fan fare he brings. His constant talk of retirement and then the next night calling out fighters on twitter he has no interest in fighting has made him a complete parody of himself. I love to watch him fight but I think the McGregor story is over for me now. That's my opinion without thinking about the rape allegations, fighting old men at pubs and general drunk behaviour. Edited January 4, 2021 by Zebra Kid Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimufctna24 Posted January 4, 2021 Share Posted January 4, 2021 (edited) He looks about 45 in this picture. Edited January 4, 2021 by jimufctna24 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted January 4, 2021 Author Paid Members Share Posted January 4, 2021 Yeah he looks well haggard there. The shadowy lighting doesn’t help but he’s definitely aged a fair bit in the face over the last couple of years. All that sexual assaulting, coke sniffing, old man punching, phone smashing and bollocks tweeting must really take it out of you. Just seen this on Twitter and completely forgot about it. This was the night of McGregor vs Poirier 1 back in 2014. How things change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimufctna24 Posted January 6, 2021 Share Posted January 6, 2021 (edited) I grew tired of the whole McGregor spectacle in 2017 and grew to loathe him as a person a year or so later for various reasons (the bus incident, punching the old man, etc). Therefore, I am going to ignore everything McGregor related over the next few weeks until he actually steps into the cage. From what I have read, the general feeling seems to be that McGregor has an excellent chance of stopping Poirier early. I can understand why many are predicting that outcome, but only a fool would rule out Poirier, who is at the very least in the top 15 fighters in the entire sport. It gets forgotten that Poirier holds definitive and recent victories over Holloway and Gaethje, two of the very best fighters in the game. And while he was bulldozed by Khabib, so were McGregor and Gaethje. I'll probably make my final prediction the day before the fight, but thinking about it now, I could easily go either way. It's a very interesting match-up. Edited January 6, 2021 by jimufctna24 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted January 6, 2021 Share Posted January 6, 2021 The question is, are we going to get more of the McGregor face turn in the build to this fight? We saw the new, reformed, respectful McG in the build to the Cowboy fight. It wouldn't surprise me if he does the same with Dustin. Then proceeds to completely smash him up in two minutes before going on to challenge Khabib on the mic, claiming that a bout between the two greatest ever lightweights is the best way to honour Khabib's old man, and pledging some cash to a COVID charity of Khabib's choice if he takes the fight. He's then carried back to the locker room on the shoulders of a maskless Dana White, as social distancing is forgotten in a frenzy of brotherhood, respect and determination to make as much money as possible. Warm fuzzies all round etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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