UFC 265: Lewis vs Gane - Aug 7 ??

[Panhead]

I fancy it being a cagey affair with Gane comfortably leading, before The Black Beast catches him with a shot so hard, that he comes to and it's UFC 270. 

[wandshogun09]

4 hours ago, Egg Shen said:

ahh that sucks. I like Kape though, he's clearly super talented, problem is he doesn't do a lot. I think he'd great over 5 rounds but in a 3 rounder he needs to learn to push the pace.

Yeah same. I like him but he’s been disappointing so far in the UFC. He definitely takes his foot off the gas in fights as well, that was his issue in his last fight with Matheus Nicolau. I think I actually had him winning that fight but he left it way too close just by seeming to take spells of the fight off and not do much. It cost him and he lost a split decision. It felt like he could’ve won that fight if he’d just kept the pace up a bit but maybe the weight cut is the issue. Maybe he takes breaks in fights because he’s been struggling to make weight. Him missing weight here would back that up but who knows? Maybe he was juicing in Japan (wouldn’t be the first) and USADA’s making things more difficult for him. Fuck knows. It feels like he’s really got to win tonight though. If you come in with some hype and immediately go 0-3 and you miss weight, you might as well wear a big neon sign saying ‘sack me’ around your neck.

Anyway, been on a bit of a Jose Aldo binge on Fight Pass this week. Just random fights from his career over the course of 4 or 5 days. It’s easy to forget now we’ve become accustomed to seeing him lose more but he really was something to behold at his peak. Pre-WEC Aldo is something that doesn’t get talked about much but he was a beast then as well.

Fucking terrifying. When someone mentions ‘soccer kicks’ in MMA your first thought is Wanderlei Silva and Shogun Rua in the Pride days, and understandably so. But Aldo really went for it with those kicks in a way that looked even more vicious than the Chute Boxe guys. His first love was football and he was pretty nifty with the ball from old clips I’ve seen and originally wanted to turn professional before getting into fighting. So while Wandy and Shogun were scary enough with those kicks and stomps, Aldo had a different level of accuracy with them. He’d suffered one loss in these early days, a submission to Luciano Acevedo in the Jungle Fight promotion in 2005. But he’d rattled off 3 wins since and was 10-1 before deciding it was time to go and see what was what in the US. 

By 2008 he was in WEC. And it wasn’t long before the MMA world started taking notice of this young Brazilian kid who was just buzzsawing through everyone. He stopped Alexandre Franca Nogueira and Jonathan Brookins (future TUF winner) in his first two trips to the blue cage. Then walloped Rolando Perez with a perfectly timed knee for his third win in the promotion. 

I don’t recall if I’d seen him fight at this point but I was definitely starting to hear and see his name pop up. He was being talked about as one of the hottest can’t miss prospects in the sport very early into his WEC run. He was putting guys away with technique and precision but at the same time it was violent. And it wasn’t quite like anything we were seeing at that time. He got another quick win over some poor sod named Chris Mickle and it was time for his toughest test to date. He was matched up with Cub Swanson in the co-main event of WEC 41 in June 2009. Swanson was 13-2 at the time, had just beat Hiroyuki Takaya and had been in with Jens Pulver.

8 seconds. Aldo hit him with both knees, one a split second after the other, cutting him in two places. And it was a wrap in 8 seconds. This was the real coming out party for Aldo. I don’t think the phrase ‘going viral’ was a thing back then but this KO was everywhere in the summer of 2009. And that was a hot period for the sport as it was with UFC 100 and Fedor becoming a free agent after Affliction went tits up and all that. Aldo became a big talking point during a time when MMA was booming. A title shot was inevitable at this point and he got it in November against Mike Brown, who was fresh off beating Urijah Faber twice. Aldo put on a masterclass and stopped Brown in 2 rounds to take the gold.

And so the reign of terror began. In April 2010, WEC put on their first (and only) PPV. They stacked the card up and the headliner would be Aldo vs Faber for the Featherweight strap. And Aldo decided now was the time to unveil another weapon in his arsenal;

Leg kicks. Pinpoint accurate, crippling leg kicks. Over and over again. Faber got fucked up bad. To his credit, he took it for 5 rounds and survived. But was it worth it? 

“He took my legs away from me. I was losing mobility. It felt like I was getting hit with a bat. He caught me with a couple in the first round and they were starting to accumulate. I think he caught me with six or seven in the second round and I went back to the corner. It was all lumped on my legs and I was immobile after that.” - Urijah Faber 

Considering Aldo was a protégé of Pedro Rizzo, this was no surprise. Rizzo basically introduced leg kicks into MMA, or at least was one of the very first to be really effective with them. Aldo learned from the best.

From there he defended the title again, putting Manny Gamburyan away in September 2010. And that was it for WEC. They had their last show in December and the roster got merged into the UFC. The UFC had no Featherweight or Bantamweight divisions at the time so the WEC champs in those weight classes became  the UFC champs. Aldo became the first ever UFC Featherweight champion.

I actually remember some twats moaning about this because he just got ‘given’ the belt. Same when Ronda Rousey was just ‘handed’ the UFC belt when the women came in a couple of years later. But it’s bollocks. Like I said, these divisions didn’t exist in the UFC before this. And Zuffa already owned WEC. Aldo had won that title on merit in WEC and defended it twice. He’d beaten some of the best 145ers on the planet. To act like he’d just been gifted a title without earning it was divvy talk. Same with Rousey and Strikeforce. Those divisions didn’t exist in the UFC prior, they were moving those divisions into the UFC so the champs remained the champs. And regardless, Aldo more than solidified his place and legitimacy as the Featherweight King over the next few years.

I won’t go into every fight here because I’m sure everyone’s well familiar with Aldo’s UFC run. But there’s definitely things I want to highlight in terms of Aldo’s actual skills. Like I don’t think Aldo gets enough credit these days for really raising the bar in those lower weight classes. It’s easy to look now at all these skilled technical fighters we get to watch, from Flyweight through to Lightweight especially, and it’s the norm. But back then, the lighter weight classes were still strong, they always were, but everyone had to up their game when Aldo came along. Everyone knew the damage he could do with his strikes but he really seemed to have all bases covered.

There he is making Mark Hominick hit nothing but air in their fight in 2011. Anyone who saw this fight knows it was a war and Aldo certainly didn’t have it all his own way, but the point stands. Head movement is still under-utilised in MMA really, even in 2021, but Aldo wasn’t an easy man to hit even a decade ago. 

Later the same year, smacking Kenny Florian around. I remember Rogan and Goldberg trying to act like Florian was winning this (the hard on those guys had for the TUF 1 boys again) but he just wasn’t. Everything he tried, Aldo had an answer for and shut him down at every turn. These were really good fighters of the day, and Aldo completely outclassed them. Even more mind boggling is how guys like Hominick and Florian fizzled out and retired years ago yet here we are all these years later and Aldo’s still competing at a high level. 

The first Chad Mendes fight in January 2012 in Rio really highlighted just how incredible Aldo’s defensive wrestling was.

At this time Mendes hadn’t really fallen in love with standing and trading quite so much and was looking to just wrestle Aldo into oblivion. Aldo wasn’t having any of it. Aldo ended up knocking him out with a knee towards the end of the first round. The story of this fight kind of been rewritten over the years as if Mendes was winning and Aldo kept grabbing the cage to stop the takedown. A tale mostly told by Joe Rogan and then repeated by others to the point it became the accepted narrative. I remember buying into that talk myself until I actually went back and rewatched it before the rematch. He definitely did grab the cage at least once, and it was blatant. No defending it. But he was pretty much having his way long before that. Defending the takedowns beautifully and getting the better of the standup. No excuse for the cage grab but it wasn’t anywhere near as repeated a foul as Rogan made out after the fact. Nor do I think it had a huge impact on the overall result of the fight. Mendes in 2012 wasn’t really equipped to give Aldo the problems he gave him in their 2014 rematch. Just my two cents. 

Strong title defences over Frankie Edgar and the Korean Zombie in 2013 and Ricardo Lamas in early 2014 led to that Mendes rematch. 

Mendes pushed him to the absolute limit in a 5 round war. I think most had it as the FOTY in 2014 and it was almost certainly the best fight of both mens’ careers to date. I can’t think of a better fight either have had anyway. It was a wild drama filled battle full of knockdowns and twists and turns. In the end though, despite having to weather some storms himself, Aldo came out on top and once again showed his skills in amongst all the carnage and mayhem.

I love that. The speed in which he slips Mendes’ jab and returns fire with that left hook is just beautiful. Maybe even more impressive though was this.

Insane. Who does that? The way he shifts from hip to hip and pops straight back up. Aldo has/had some of the very best takedown defence in the history of MMA. Up there and maybe even better than guys like Cro Cop, Liddell and Penn in their primes. He’s been taken down but it was usually in the last round of a fight back when his weight cutting wasn’t up to snuff like in the Hominick and Lamas fights. When you look at the success he had stopping the best wrestlers of the division like Mendes and Edgar from putting his back to the canvas, you see just how incredible he was in that area. 

Of course, this is where ‘prime Aldo’ ends. It was a hell of a run but, looking back, that slobberknocker with Mendes in the second fight might’ve taken something out of him that never fully came back. He’s had some top performances since then but I look at that fight as his version of Marvin Hagler’s battle with John ‘The Beast’ Mugabi. He’s never been quite the since since.

Unfortunately, the 13 seconds of disaster against Conor McGregor in December 2015 seems to be all some bring up. He had a crazy run of utter dominance for years before that but the manner of this loss really took away that almost bulletproof aura he had before. He was still a great fighter and it didn’t take away from his overall legacy, but from this point on he wasn’t quite as feared as he once was. 

The years following this loss have been up and down with many seeming to be looking for any opportunity to declare him shot. I’m not buying it though. Lost a couple of steps? Definitely. But a Jose Aldo minus a few steps is still a step or two ahead most of the division. It’s just allowed the rest to catch up a bit. In his very next fight after the McGregor defeat, he completely schooled Frankie Edgar in their rematch at UFC 200. Much more clear cut than their close first fight. And again, the display of takedown defence from Aldo was brilliant. 

This was a high level performance over an Edgar who was still far from done himself. Aldo mightn’t have got the finish but it was a hell of a way to rebound from the loss to McGregor. 

From there though, it was the back-to-back losses to Max Holloway. Those losses age better with pretty much every Holloway fight but still, two losses to the same guy definitely signified a changing of the guard at Featherweight. Holloway won both convincingly but I rewatched both fights this week, for probably the first time since they happened, and Aldo definitely had his moments. They were better actual fights than I remembered, especially the second one. And Aldo showed flashes of brilliance and certainly gave as good as he was getting before ultimately getting overwhelmed. 

He then rallied back with TKO wins over Jeremy Stephens and Renato Moicano. Both clear steps down from the elite level he’d previously been operating on but both still tough and dangerous opponents. The plus for Aldo here was that both these fights were 3 rounders, which I’m sure was a welcome change for him and allowed him to really let loose without having to conserve energy for the ‘championship rounds’ as he’d had to do for years. By this point in his career he’s showing new wrinkles in his game. He doesn’t go the leg kick route as much these days for some reason. Maybe an injury or maybe not wanting to become too predictable. But he’s really increased his use of body shots and it paid off big time in these two fights in particular. He absolutely folded Stephens with a beauty.

When you can make a hard nosed blood and guts scrapper like Stephens grimace like that and just crumble where he stands, you know you’ve got the body attacks down. 

Since then he’s gone 1-3 in his last 4. Not good. He’s definitely slowing down. But if you actually watched those fights rather than just looking at the wins and losses on his Wikipedia page and deciding he’s shite now, you’ll know he’s still fighting on a high level. And two of the three losses were to Alexander Volkanovski and Petr Yan who went on to become champs shortly after. The other loss was to Marlon Moraes and was Aldo’s first cut down to 135. And a lot of people had Aldo winning that one. 

I’m not sure myself. I’m fuzzy on the fight but I think I had Moraes just shading it but it was close enough and enough people had Aldo winning that it got treated as if he did win and he got the crack at Yan off the back of it. And although Yan ended up battering him late in the fight, Aldo made him earn every bit of that win.

Bodysnatcher Aldo was back. 

He last fought in December and got back in the win column with a strong showing over Marlon Vera. He looked really sharp and proved once again that, although he’s not quite at the peak championship level anymore, he’s still in a different class from the guys just beneath that level. Vera’s no pushover, he’s young and he was coming off a TKO win over Sean O’Malley. Aldo took him to school.

And here we are.

Not sure how this goes. Munhoz is a tough cookie. Should be a lot of fun though. Purely skills-wise I think Aldo is the superior fighter by quite a stretch but Munhoz might just be the more durable at this stage in both their careers and might hold up better in the exchanges if he can make it a bit of ugly scrap. I’m leaning towards Aldo though. I still think he beats anyone who’s not elite and, as much as I rate Munhoz, I think he’s a shade below that top level. I think it being 3 rounds is good for Aldo as well. Watch Munhoz spark him now. Should be a good one whatever happens though. Probably the front runner for FOTN.

But yeah, this went longer than intended. Basically, put some respect on Aldo’s name. 

[Egg Shen]

great post wand.

really like that main card, got my eye on Green/Fiziev and Kape/Osbourne further down but im gonna watch this one from scratch.

[Panhead]

Love the Aldo write-up, Wand. 

I'm really looking forward to Chiesa vs Luque. I'd say the winner is fully deserving of a Number One Contender fight next. Maybe against Leon Edwards. 

[Egg Shen]

I dont think either should leapfrog Edwards but the winner is gonna be in a great spot. It helps that either man is a fresh matchup for Usman too.

bit of info for tonight:

[wandshogun09]

10 hours ago, Panhead said:

I fancy it being a cagey affair with Gane comfortably leading, before The Black Beast catches him with a shot so hard, that he comes to and it's UFC 270. 

I’ve gone Gane and Aldo both on points in the poll but fuck knows on both really. Especially the main event. I’m done being shocked by Derrick Lewis landing a bomb out of nothing and I won’t be shocked if he flattens Gane at 4:57 of the fifth round of a fight he’s losing every minute of. I think it might be Gane’s fight to lose but at the same time it’s a big test and a big spotlight very early in his career. Easy to forget this is only his 10th MMA fight tonight. 

[Cousin Jim Bob]

On 8/3/2021 at 9:08 PM, wandshogun09 said:

The side of Derrick Lewis we don’t hear about much. Top bloke. 

 

 

This is great too from his Wiki

"On May 18, 2021, Lewis was returning to his car after a workout when he discovered a man allegedly trying to open the door of his vehicle. Lewis reportedly struck the alleged thief and pinned him to the ground until the police arrived.^[78]"

I'd love to have seen the face of the guy when he turned around from trying to break into the car and he had Derrick Lewis coming at him.

[wandshogun09]

Christ can you imagine? That prick chose the wrong car. 

[WeeAl]

Cyril Gane is operating on such a high level. Lewis just had nothing for him. He couldn't live with Gane's speed, reactions, feints. Like a deer in the headlights. Gane Vs Francis will be quite the interesting battle. 

Jose Aldo looked massive in the cage. Easily looked to be about 155lbs. Sharp as a tack as well. I had him winning 29-28. It's definitely interesting how he has pretty much abandoned leg kicks, considering how big a part of his arsenal they used to be and how crucial they are for most fighters nowadays. Tonnes of fights in this division that I want to see him in still, vs Cruz being one of them. 

Incredibly impressed by Vicente Luque for winning in the manner that he did against Chiesa. I never would have picked him to submit Chiesa. Even less so when Maverick was deep in on those chokes on Luque's back. No problem with him getting a title shot against the Usman/Covington winner. It's either him or Edwards. Burns should get Masvidal.

Rafael Fiziev Vs Bobby Green on the prelims was a fantastic fight. It's strange though, despite thinking that Fiziev looked the more impressive fighter, and technically superior, I scored two rounds to Green and thought Bobby was unlucky not to get the nod here. 

Spare a few thoughts for Ed Hermann's leg. That thing looked like a hamster was trying to escape from under his skin. 

Jessica Penne got a much needed win against a now clearly shop worn Karolina. I think it's time Kowalkewicz moved on, to lower level competition at the least. 

[wandshogun09]

Yeah, Ciryl Gane is a serious problem. You just don’t see Heavyweights who fight like that. The way he moves, his accuracy, his ability to avoid damage himself. HWs just don’t tend to fight that way in MMA. I’ve seen a lot of criticism for his style over his last few fights and it’s not always the most exciting to watch. But he definitely shouldn’t change. He’s a puzzle unlike any other in the division. Let’s face it, a Heavyweight who doesn’t get hit? That’s a massive part of the battle won. In any division obviously but especially at Heavyweight where guys rely on power more than any other weight class. Lewis made it easy for him to not get hit last night because he barely threw anything. Someone at the post-fight press conference said the punch stats were 104-8 for Gane, which is mental. So yeah, Lewis made Gane’s job easier but if you watch any of Gane’s fights he really doesn’t get hit much at all. Before this he went a total of 10 rounds this year with Rozenstruik and Volkov, one a Kickboxer with 80-odd fights under his belt and the other a near 7 footer. And neither of them were able to land anything that meaningful on him either. And remember, this was his 10th pro MMA fight. He’s still adjusting and finding his way and has only been training MMA about 4 years or something. People forget that when they criticise him, he’s this good now and he’s nowhere near the finished article.

I don’t know where Lewis goes from here. He’ll always be a popular figure in MMA but he’s already pretty much fought everyone in the division and he’s hit his ceiling a couple of times now. There’ll always be fun fights to make but I’m not sure how much longer he’ll wanna keep going. People forget but he actually retired briefly a few years back after losing to Mark Hunt. And even during this fight, I hate the ‘quitter’ talk, especially from people who don’t get in there and do it so I’m not saying anything like that. But there were moments in this fight where I was honestly half expecting Lewis to just say ‘No Mas’. He looked frustrated from very early on at not being able to get near Gane, to the point he basically just stopped throwing punches altogether. There were the little distress signals as well, a couple of times he was complaining about eye pokes that didn’t happen and were clearly punches. That’s never a good sign. And just his overall body language in general. There came a point, fairly early into the fight as well, where it seemed like Lewis just accepted the fact he was gonna lose this one. I love the bloke but it was hard to watch.  

It’s funny how fickle MMA fans are though. I couldn’t sleep last night so got up and caught what was left of the show live from the Luque vs Chiesa fight on. During the first couple of rounds of the main event when Gane was just evading and outlanding Lewis, all I was seeing was negativity on Twitter about him being ‘boring’ and ‘running’ and shit. Then he battered Lewis for the finish in the third and suddenly it was all ‘Gane’s so skilled. He’s gonna give Ngannou nightmares. Jones won’t want any of Heavyweight after seeing this’. And so on. He was skilled before, skills isn’t only finishes. Dana’s the same. I can’t remember quotes but I could swear he shat all over Gane’s performance against Rozenstruik a few months ago. He couldn’t have heaped more praise on him after this fight. Again, probably just because he got the finish. If he’d carried on how he was the first 10 minutes and just casually picked Lewis apart the whole fight, Dana would’ve been singing a different tune today. But whatever.

Ngannou vs Gane is gonna be a very interesting one. Ex teammates etc. One of the media at the press conference mentioned that there’s a bit of bad blood there as well, to do with how Ngannou left the team or something. Fuck knows but I’m sure if there is it’ll all come out in the run up to the fight. There’s a couple of videos floating about of them sparring, just light stuff and nothing to read into, but I’m fascinated by how their styles will match up. Ngannou’s got that game changing power like Lewis but I think he’s a better actual striker and he knows Gane from training so you wonder how that will effect things. Hopefully they can get the fight on soon. I saw people calling for it immediately, like throwing it on an October or November card, and I get why. But Gane’s also fought 4 times in 8 months. He’s fought twice in the last 8 weeks or so. He hasn’t taken damage in those fights but he’s basically done 4 training camps back-to-back-to-back since before Christmas. I don’t know, he might want straight back in there to keep the momentum going, but I wouldn’t blame him for wanting a little break either.

Jose Aldo looked class. Probably his best all around performance in a few years for me. And this is what I was talking about when I said I don’t agree when people try to say he’s shot or old or whatever. Typically the first things to go on shot fighters is timing, reflexes, speed etc. Especially guys who compete in lighter weight classes which rely on those things. That’s still all there with Aldo. Only difference these days is the game has caught up to where there are a few guys, at the very highest level, who can match him in those areas, or at least some of them. Watching him outclass a quality fighter like Munhoz here, he looked every bit as sharp and lethal as he did in those fights in his prime with guys like Edgar, Zombie and Lamas.

And this is him cutting down to 135 later in his career. He’s insanely good. Still don’t see him going on a long unbeaten run again just because there’s so many fighters who’ve closed the gap these days skill-wise. But he can still give anyone issues when he’s fighting like this. The WEC fan in me would love to see him against Dominick Cruz before one of them retires. A fight with Dillashaw would be great as well. Or Rob Font. Or Sandhagen. There’s so many fun fights to make. It’s been great to see him getting the praise and respect he’s always deserved this week. And not just from fans. Watching Embedded and fighter interviews and reading social media this week, everywhere I looked there were fighters talking about what an honour it was to be on the same card and how they were star struck and stuff.

Your favourite fighter’s favourite fighter. He was probably the only non American who really got that superstar reaction in Houston last night as well. Even Conor McGregor took a break from being a bellend to tweet that Aldo’s a legend. 

Vicente Luque submitting Chiesa was something I didn’t see coming. Luque’s always entertaining to watch and he’s always had decent submissions but I never would’ve thought he’d catch a grappler like Chiesa like that. Although looking back at his career, for such a strong BJJ guy, Chiesa has a history of getting subbed by fighters you wouldn’t expect to be able to catch him. Anthony Pettis, Kevin Lee, even Masvidal have made him tap over the years. All have solid, slightly underrated grappling but Chiesa has the ground game where you really don’t expect him to get tangled up like that. I think his own aggression chasing the subs is part of the issue. Leaves him wide open to subs himself and that’s exactly how Luque got him last night. Great win though. Luque deserves to be in the mix. 

Can’t be arsed to touch on everything because I’m waffling. Few quick points…

Fiziev vs Green was ace though. Definite FOTN for me and a close one. I’d like to see them rematch at some point, even over 5 rounds. Why not? Rather that than another Holly Holm headliner.

Menifield vs Herman was rough to watch. I’m finding Ed Herman’s fights in general to be that way in recent years. All credit to him for his toughness and longevity but Christ…

His shin looked ready for a Caesarian. Menifield put a beating on him as well. Nice more patient performance from him. 

Penne vs Kowalkiewicz was a real downer for me. My hope was that Karolina would be coming back refreshed after the time off and find some of the form she had a few years ago when she was beating Rose Namajunas and all that. Penne just schooled her on the ground though. Karolina posted a video after the fight and she was in bits crying and sounded like she’s gonna jack it in. It’s a shame to see but it might be for the best. Nothing seems to be working for her. 

Manel Kape saved his job in style…

He badly needed that. Another loss here, especially after missing weight, would’ve probably been it for him. Hopefully the weight thing was a one off and he can build some momentum from this. So many potentially great fights for him in the UFC if he keeps his head on straight. 

Oh and Miles Johns scored an absolute peach of a knockout on Fight Pass…

 

 

[Egg Shen]

Ciryl Gane is like a lighter weight fighter up at heavyweight, he's a different kettle of fish. You can call him boring but that was clinical, and as soon he saw the blood in the water he went after it. Just so calm in the cage too, he's fighting one of the biggest power punchers in the world and Gane was in there like it was a light spar. Special talent.

 

[Dai]

Surely the big question, other than Big Francis, is how does he fare in the wrestling department. Black Beast, Volkov, Rozenstruik and JDS is a great list of victories, but none of those are wrestling-centric in their approach, which has definitely helped Gane. Someone like Blaydes and Miocic would be interesting to watch, to see if his footwork can actually prevent the takedowns.

How cringe was Buffers intro of Chiesa too? Talk about someone who thinks theyre way more important than what they are. Cruz is mind numbingly dull on commentary too, theres no way he should be the first reserve for PPVs.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah the wrestler test for Gane will be interesting. He’s definitely got a clue when it comes to grappling, he’s got almost as many wins by submission as he does by knockout or TKO. Granted against lower level opposition but for a guy from a Kickboxing background, it does at least show he’s been putting in the work and not trying to just coast on his already developed striking. The good thing for Gane is, there aren’t that many really good wrestlers in the division these days. A decade ago you had that era of the gorilla wrestlers like Cain Velasquez, Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin. These days it’s really just Curtis Blaydes. And Stipe who’s good at everything. But even Stipe probably won’t be around too much longer. I’d definitely be interested to see how Gane looks against a wrestler though. Watching him so far, and his 3 fights this year in particular, it’s clear he’s gonna give pretty much anyone fits on the feet. 

[Dai]

The thing is, Gane humiliated Lewis in this match. If there is a scale of defeats, then this one is surely at the top of that scale. Cant think of a UFC PPV main event (in the last 10 years) where someone was outclassed as much over the course of a few rounds. After seeing him do this to Lewis, surely everyone from now on is going down the wrestling path.] with him.

[wandshogun09]

Maybe but the timing of when Gane’s came along is still gonna be a factor and benefit him in that regard. There’s obviously quite a difference between a Cain or Brock or Cormier trying to wrestle you and today’s crop who, for the most part, wrestling doesn’t come naturally to them and isn’t their primary base. I can’t see Ngannou trying to wrestle either. And even if he does, again, he’s not a natural wrestler so his offensive wrestling probably won’t be any better than Gane’s defensive wrestling. With Gane’s movement and management of distance, to wrestle him you’re probably gonna have to be pretty strong in that area. I just can’t see any of the current lot having much success with it even if they try, apart from Blaydes or Stipe. Jones could be an issue when he finally moves up as well but it remains to be seen how he does at Heavyweight.