UFC 257: Poirier vs McGregor 2 - Jan 23 🇦🇪 🏝

[Panhead]

I wouldn't be mad at Poirier vs Charlie Olives for the title and Gaethje vs Chandler for the first shot at the champion. 

I wonder if Poirier is more interested in the money fights than the strap? I don't say that as a negative thing either. Surely there's more brass in fighting Diaz or McGregor than there is Oliveira? Obviously he'll be wanting what's best for his family but there's also The Good Fight Foundation. 

He's an all round good egg and I'm made up for him. 

[wandshogun09]

I’ve already seen a fair bit of ‘Chandler’s the man to beat Khabib’. Steady on. It was a hell of a debut but people don’t half lose their shit off the back of one performance. 

I can see Poirier maybe just looking for the ‘money fights’ now but if anyone’s earned that it’s Dustin Poirier. Go back to that list Jim posted of his recent run of fights. The Holloway and Gaethje fights were wars. Then add in the two with Alvarez, Pettis, even going way back to the Zombie scrap. There mightn’t have been a more consistently entertaining fighter to watch bell to bell in recent years. Seriously, he’s been a bit of an Arturo Gatti figure for the UFC. And a real class act. He’s what they try to paint McGregor as when they’re ignoring his latest racist or homophobic tweet or his most recent brush with the law and falling over themselves to tell us about all the charity work he does. Poirier’s a legit good egg. Carries himself like a champ, speaks well, never a hint of controversy regarding drug testing or getting in bother outside the cage. And in the Octagon he delivers every time.

If he sticks to this insistence to bypass Chandler and fight McGregor again or Diaz or something, it’s not ideal for the title picture but I can understand it given where he is in his career and with how many full on slobberknockers he’s been in. If that’s the case they can always do Chandler vs Oliveira instead. I’d be all over that. The good thing with Lightweight is there’s always options. And with a pool of Poirier, McGregor, Diaz, Chandler, Oliveira, Gaethje, Ferguson, Hooker etc you can’t really go wrong with any combination. Most divisions would’ve been fucked over by a champion like Khabib retiring out of the blue. And while it’d obviously be a better division if he was still around, it says it all about how strong 155 is that it’s just rolled on and hasn’t suffered at all.

But yeah, I can already sense a little bit of a backlash against Poirier coming for ‘ducking’ Chandler but you look at the run of killers he’s been in with and that’s ludicrous. I’d love to see Poirier vs Chandler or Oliveira next. Those are the fights to make ideally, to crown a new champion. But I don’t blame Dustin for looking for the biggest fights possible at this stage either. We’ll see how it all plays out in the coming months.

Thing is, this was a perfect opportunity to crown a new Lightweight champ last night. But Dana’s insistence on trying to force Khabib out of retirement put the kibosh on it. I’d say it was pretty clear after Dana’s big meeting with Khabib last week that he probably wasn’t coming back. At that point they probably should’ve just pulled the trigger on this being for the strap. Belt or not I think most see Poirier as the uncrowned champion now. He certainly feels like ‘the man’ in the division anyway.

This is how UFC 257 should’ve ended. But with a much sadder looking Dana, obviously.

[jimufctna24]

11 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

I’ve already seen a fair bit of ‘Chandler’s the man to beat Khabib’. Steady on.

That's been going on for a while. Chandler himself has been beating that drum. 

Of course, the same was said about Ferguson and McGregor. I and others said it about Gaethje. 

I can't imagine Chandler would give him much bother. His gas tank isn't the best and he's nothing special on the feet.

12 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

But yeah, I can already sense a little bit of a backlash against Poirier coming for ‘ducking’ Chandler but you look at the run of killers he’s been in with and that’s ludicrous.

I saw something similar to that a few days ago on Twitter. The theory is that DP's resume at lightweight is overrated because he's not faced many grapplers. And the one grappler he did face, Khabib, smashed him. 

I don't buy it. You can make similar arguments against pretty much any fighter and their record if you try hard enough. 

[wandshogun09]

3 minutes ago, jimufctna24 said:

The theory is that DP's resume at lightweight is overrated because he's not faced many grapplers. And the one grappler he did face, Khabib, smashed him. 

Yeah, that’s nonsense. I mean, he hasn’t faced a ton of grapplers but there actually aren’t that many grapplers at the top end of 155. Until recently anyway. Still, Anthony Pettis is no walkover on the ground and Poirier did just fine there. And you’re going back years but Carlos Diego Ferreira is BJJ black-belt and silver medalist at the world level and Poirier stopped him in a round. And that was at a bad time for Poirier. Ferreira was actually his bounce back fight after the McGregor loss in 2014. He could only fight who was available and he’s fought a steady stream of the toughest guys in the deepest weight class in the sport.

Quickly touching on the rest of the card, because it’s understandably been lost in all the drama of that glorious main event...

Yeah, Michael Chandler couldn’t have asked for a better UFC debut. I’ve never been a fan. He’s a good fighter but he just annoys me. It’s the same thing I had with the Team Alpha Male lot. Just don’t warm to that American jock bro type. He reminds me of Chad Mendes and I never really took to him either. Can’t knock this debut though. And although I kind of cringed throughout his post-fight interview, it was memorable if nothing else. Shame he probably won’t ever get to face the names he mentioned but I think the Poirier fight will happen at some point.

I know a load of people are suddenly on the bandwagon now and I might be wrong on this, but I think we might look back on Chandler’s UFC run and think of this as the peak. The stars aligned for him last night and he put a guy who’s known for his durability away in less than 3 minutes. Easily his best win since Alvarez 1 in 2011 for me. Fair play. But I’m still struggling to see him putting a series of these type of performances together in that division. His next fight is going to be one of the very top boys. Either Poirier, Oliveira or Gaethje you’d imagine. If he does this to any of them then I’ll happily eat my words but I just can’t see it getting any better than last night for him. And it feels a bit harsh and like excuse making now but I was saying before the fight how Hooker had been more tested at the high levels and was coming off 10 rounds vs Poirier and Felder in his last two fights. But was that a good or bad thing? Obviously he’d been mixing at a higher level than Chandler in recent fights but on the flipside how much did those battles take out of him? Like I say, I was using that to argue the case for him winning going in, so it seems wrong to use it as an excuse after the fact. But I don’t know. I guess time will tell with how both Hooker and Chandler look in their next fights. This win could age better or diminish a tad depending on Hooker’s next few outings, I guess.

Was made up to see Joanne Calderwood beat Jessica Eye. It was a good night for the babyfaces! As if I didn’t find Eye dull already, hearing the commentators say ‘Eye has been training with Jake Shields’ sent a shiver down my spine. Thankfully, Calderwood was able to fend off or at least do damage in the clinch for the most part and I had her winning the second and third rounds fairly comfy. Wasn’t a bad fight either. Nothing amazing but a bit better than I expected. It’s a W for Calderwood and a L for Eye so that helps. 

Makhmud Muradov continues to come along nicely. That’s a 14 fight win streak now, nearly all finishes. And he’s really started to look at home in there now.

Sanchez was dancing like me at my sister’s wedding at the end there. What makes Muradov even more impressive is that all 3 of his UFC fights so far, he’s filled in on short notice. He hasn’t had a full camp for any of his UFC fights so far. I’ve been wrong plenty of times but I get the feeling we’re just scratching the surface with Muradov. He deserves a full camp and a decent name next time.

Gutted with how Rodriguez vs Ribas went and I wasn’t really expecting it. I said Rodriguez was probably the better striker but she’d never really shown devastating fight finishing abilities in her previous fights. Ribas got fucked up.

Shame. I thought she was looking good early on as well, but credit to Rodriguez for coming out in the second round like that.

Really enjoyed Tsarukyan vs Frevola. For a fight cobbled together at the eleventh hour and with both guys preparing for different opponents, I thought this was an excellent fight. One of my favourite fights on the card, to be honest. Good action everywhere but the grappling especially was ace and that’s becoming a theme with Tsarukyan fights. I hope these two got a bit extra in their envelope for not only both taking a last minute opponent switch, but delivering a fight that good. 

Julianna Pena had a decent win over Sara McMann but Christ, that post-fight promo. Yeah, I’m sure Amanda Nunes (the woman who put away Cyborg in a round!) is ducking Julianna Pena. Get in the bin. Nunes and Ansaroff were all over it immediately;

I mean, I get what Pena was doing, trying to bag herself a title shot. And with Nunes running low on challengers, maybe she’ll get the shot now after Nunes is done with Megan Anderson. But Pena was coming off a loss and just beat a 40 year old Sara McMann and she’s going on like this. She’s always been the same. Wins one fight and starts talking shite and getting the big head before swiftly being slapped back down in her next fight. She’s the female Kevin Lee. Loved the commentators going on like she’s some killer grappler as well, after she got subbed by a Kickboxer in De Randamie last time out. OK then. 

Beyond that, Rountree vs Prachnio was fun for what it was. Decent scrap. Movsar Evloev looked really good again beating a crafty vet in Nik Lentz. And I really liked the look of Amir Albazi in his win over Zhumagulov down on Fight Pass. That’s two times he’s stood out to me on the prelims now. Looking forward to seeing more of him this year.

Really good show all in all. I don’t think there was anything I’d call bad on the card, there were some standout performances from a couple of prospects, some big finishes, a couple of surprises, no Joe Rogan really helped, and of course the main event was the cherry on top. It’s early but this’ll probably be up there with my favourite cards of the year by UKFF Awards time in December. 

[jimufctna24]

13 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

I know a load of people are suddenly on the bandwagon now and I might be wrong on this, but I think we might look back on Chandler’s UFC run and think of this as the peak. The stars aligned for him last night and he put a guy who’s known for his durability away in less than 3 minutes

Agreed.

He's always had power and is still very dangerous in the early stages of fights. His issues are that he gets knackered too easily and his chin isn't what it used to be. When he gets tired and/or stunned, he tries to control his opponents on the mat while he has a breather. But if he can't score a takedown, then he is there for the taking. 

I think DP and Gaethje would stop him after a few rounds. 

[wandshogun09]

 

[neil]

1 hour ago, wandshogun09 said:

 

LOL, these Conor fans are up there with Trumpers and election fraud for their detachment from reality - if Conor ain't motivated by this then he should retire. The ring rust excuse is perhaps valid, although even that is hilarious because that is his own choosing - three fights since 2016!

[wandshogun09]

Even the ring rust thing, wasn’t Conor’s thing always ‘I stay ready so I don’t have to get ready’ or something?

It’s been a year since the Cerrone fight but all we’ve heard since is that he’s been training, he’s looking more ‘focused and motivated’ than he has in years etc. And the fact there’s been no new controversy outside the cage did lend credibility to the talk that he’d refocused and was knuckling down in the gym again. Until he got battered, of course, and now all that talk is going to be rewritten.

This is an ESPN quote from Dana before the fight;

”The questions are always, ‘This guy is so rich, how hungry is he?” White said. “There’s nothing more exciting or fun than a motivated Conor McGregor, when his head is in the right place. And you can tell when he is and when he isn’t, and right now, he’s in. My conversations with Conor, I know when the real Conor is here and the other Conor is here, and believe me when I tell you, the real Conor is here.”

Dana quote after the fight;

”This is like Rocky III. When you get off a 310ft yacht, you know what I mean, you’re living that good life, it’s tough to be a savage when you’re living like he lives and has the money that he has. On his way up he was a young, hungry kid. Didn’t have any money and he wanted nice things, wanted nice suits, nice cars, nice houses. He’s got everything he ever wanted.”

How the tune changes. 

[Panhead]

Rodriguez smashing Ribas had completely slipped my mind until I read your review @wandshogun09. I think Ribas will bounce back. It was a bit weird with Herb stepping in but not touching them. 

[Lenin]

15 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

It’s all worth watching, reading and looking into but I think with MMA stars that really catch on, it’s hard to really explain what the fuss was about unless you experienced it at the time yourself

Thank you for your thoughts on this. You make a very good point about needing to experience things in real time, at the time. You're part of their journey, good or bad, so as a fan/viewer that's you invested in the outcome, good or bad.

I'm interested to find out more about the circumstances and how we've got to this current crossroads with Connor McGregor in particular. 

[Dai]

14 hours ago, Panhead said:

Rodriguez smashing Ribas had completely slipped my mind until I read your review @wandshogun09. I think Ribas will bounce back. It was a bit weird with Herb stepping in but not touching them. 

I think it was very lucky for Herb's sake that she managed to finish it quickly after. A ref cant step so far into the action that his legs are bascially touching the rocked opponents head and his arms are touching the aggressors back of head when they are fighting on the ground, and not expect the fighter to think hes ending it. Taking steps foward into the action is as good as stopping it for me.

 

Maybe I havent been paying attention, but when did they change the Tale Of The Tape graphics for certain fights? First time Ive seen them like this I think. They did it for the first and last fight on the main card. They're abysmal, especially the weird shadow behind the "Weight Bout" graphic, and the constant panning backwards of the camera during it. If I were that sponser on it as well, I wouldnt be best pleased about the viewer needing a magnifying glass to see my logo during the main event of the show too.

 

Pleased for Chandler too, as hes been a great watch for years over in Bellator. Nice to see him having success on the big stage. Just having a glance of his Wiki bio too, and noticed he lost two in a row to Will Brooks. Cant remember them fights at all, but I assume they were grappling heavy matches where Brooks dominated, which may be of interest if he does face Khabib. Granted, they were in 2014, but he was already in his late 20s by then so not exactly a rookie just devloping his skills.

[Carbomb]

16 hours ago, Panhead said:

Rodriguez smashing Ribas had completely slipped my mind

That's funny, having trouble thinking of anything else now

Edited January 25, 2021 by Carbomb

[TildeGuy~!]

19 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

 

True Geordie covers practically all big fights and never has a clue what he’s on about.

[Egg Shen]

was Chandler debut's the best in UFC history? in terms of maximising pre-fight hype, the platform it was on, the actual performance and the post-fight interview i cant think of any better? 

[WeeAl]

If you take into account all the factors, then it's certainly up there. If we're just looking at in cage performance, then Anderson Silva is bound to have the old "Ahem, excuse me. . ." feeling about that.