Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted January 6 Paid Members Share Posted January 6 (edited) 7 hours ago, Kfogg1991 said: Iâm really torn with this because of how much I love Francis. On one hand he originally went into that fight with Tyson and had the entire world saying he had no chance to get the opportunity to even throw a punch close to Tyson and only a mind boggling small amount was behind him and knew how dangerous he is. It wasnât about knowing how dangerous he was though, to be fair. Everyone knew how dangerous Francis was. Youâre right that there werenât many saying heâd win but that wasnât mind boggling. People were heavily favouring Fury for good reason going in. I remember the buildup clearly and everyone I saw picking Francis were basically either pinning their hopes on him landing the perfect punch and scoring the upset KO or they were just saying âI donât know, Iâve just got a feeling he winsâ. A feeling. It wasnât some expert analysis that the rest of us were missing or that we didnât know what Francis could do. The fact he did so well means those few who had âa feelingâ can now claim they âknew he was gonna win or do well all alongâ. They didnât. Fury was rightly expected to win going in and the few picking Ngannou were doing so purely out of wishful thinking from what I saw. Nobody called that fight to go how it went. Absolutely nobody. Not one single opinion or prediction I read going in had Ngannou going a full 10 rounds with Tyson and arguably winning a decision. The knockdown wasnât so much of a surprise in itself because Ngannou always posed that threat early. It was the way he handled Tysonâs tricks and the way fought over the course of the fight that was so impressive and surprising. Everyone thought Ngannou was coming in just looking for the KO. A Hail Mary, basically. And if he did that, Iâd say thereâs a decent chance he wouldnât have landed anything. Nobody knew Ngannou could actually box a bit. And by that I mean actually box, not just âboxing for MMAâ. 7 hours ago, Kfogg1991 said: But he said his next fight would be back in a cage and I wanted that so much too because we haven't seen MMA Francis for so so long now it is how this shit goes I know that but the original fanbase suffers and has to wait God knows how long to see him in the octagon again If he fights MMA again (big doubts about that now) itâs gonna be in PFL anyway. Wonât be the Octagon. And while Iâd happily watch Francis wherever he fights, there are no Heavyweights in PFL Iâm dying to see him fight. If itâs a choice between Ngannou vs some interchangeable Heavyweight in PFL or another massive Boxing match against Anthony Joshua, Iâll take the AJ fight every single time. Ngannou is 37 now. He hasnât got time to piss about. These monster fights are coming at the perfect time for him and heâd be absolutely insane to let them slip away in favour of arsing about in PFL for less money, less visibility, less excitement and less to potentially add to his legacy. Depending on how this AJ fight goes (heâll most likely lose but at this point fuck knows?) I wouldnât be surprised if we never see Francis in MMA again. And to be honest, considering weâre never gonna see the Jones fight, the Stipe trilogy decider or bombfests with the new breed like Aspinall and Pavlovich anywayâŚIâm cool with him not fighting in MMA again. Sucks for PFL if he doesnât but as a fan, heâs done enough in MMA and heâs adding to it with these Boxing fights. As much as I wanna see him fight those names above in the UFC, at the same time fuck Dana. He couldâve been part of all of this. He couldâve been involved with these huge Ngannou vs Fury/AJ fights like he was with McGregor vs Mayweather PLUS heâd still have Ngannou on board for whatever fights they had for him in the UFC. But he chose to be a greedy, cantankerous, control freak prick and now he gets nothing from it. Edited January 6 by wandshogun09 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted January 7 Paid Members Share Posted January 7 Ah shit. So Weidman comes back in August, looks terrible losing to Brad Tavares. And the matchmakers response is to then book him against Silva, who knocked Tavares out not too long ago? I know MMA Maths and all that. But considering Dana was publicly saying Weidman should retire after the loss to Tavares, I think itâs obvious what theyâre going for here. I know there was probably also an element of ring rust last time but Iâm not convinced it was all about that. He was in a slump before the leg injury and he looked completely shot in his comeback fight. Havenât got a good feeling about this one at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted January 7 Author Paid Members Share Posted January 7 Yeah, I see him taking some damage in that. What is Weidman even trying to prove at this point? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted January 8 Paid Members Share Posted January 8 Couple of corkers announced to kick the week off⌠And Both kind of surprised me but both great fights. And with Oliveira vs Tsarukyan now booked, that can only mean weâre getting Makhachev vs Gaethje for the title! I like it. Fair play to Poirier for taking that Saint-Denis fight as well. I thought heâd just entered that âbig names and fun fightsâ phase of his career. This is a risky fight for relatively little reward but it should be a hell of a scrap. Never expected any other big fights to get announced for 299 either. It was already absolutely loaded. Just look at this card⌠Sean OâMalley vs Chito Vera 2 - BW Title Dustin Poirier vs Benoit Saint-Denis Kevin Holland vs Michael Page Curtis Blaydes vs Jailton Almeida Petr Yan vs Song Yadong Gilbert Burns vs Jack Della Maddalena Mateusz Gamrot vs Rafael Dos Anjos Maycee Barber vs Katlyn Chookagian Pedro Munhoz vs Kyler Phillips CJ Vergara vs Assu Almabayev Christ! Easily better than 300 at the moment. Not even exaggerating when I say the top 7 fights there could all be main events in their own right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members WeeAl Posted January 8 Paid Members Share Posted January 8 Those are two really, really good fights that I absolutely didn't expect to be coming down the pipe. The Poirier/Saint-Denis one especially. Glad to see it. The Tsarukyan one - somebody in that upper realm had to fight him next, but I was expecting a bit of a sitting out period before there was enough arm wrangling to get a fight like this booked. Chris Weidman being back again? Well, that's not good news is it? đ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted January 8 Author Paid Members Share Posted January 8 That 299 card is ridiculous Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted January 8 Paid Members Share Posted January 8 (edited) 1 hour ago, WeeAl said: Those are two really, really good fights that I absolutely didn't expect to be coming down the pipe. The Poirier/Saint-Denis one especially. There was a fair bit of talk that Saint-Denis vs Beneil Dariush was in the works to headline the Atlantic City card in March. But I read a quote from Saint-Denisâ manager yesterday saying it was either gonna be Dariush or âa mystery second opponentâ and that the mystery one was more likely to happen. As soon as I read that I knew it had to be a big name. Even then though, I didnât really expect Poirier. This all works out nicely now. Makhachev vs Gaethje and Oliveira vs Tsarukyan with the winners facing off later in the year. Thatâs the way to go. Edit - OK, just actually watched Danaâs announcement. Seems weâre not getting Makhachev vs Gaethje after all. Makhachevâs recovering from an injury so the winner of Oliveira vs Tsarukyan will face Makhachev when he returns. Fuck it, do Gaethje vs Holloway for the BMF bollocks belt. Edited January 8 by wandshogun09 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted January 8 Author Paid Members Share Posted January 8 Love that Saint-Denis has got a crack. You just wouldn't expect Poirier to take that kind of fight at this stage, but props to him. Saint-Denis' rise has been great. Started off in the 'too tough for his own good' cateogory and just made it to cult-like BMF territory by just challenging people to out-tough him. What a guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted January 8 Paid Members Share Posted January 8 Yeah he called out Poirier and Gaethje after his last fight and, while I loved the sound of those fights, I genuinely thought Benoit was wasting his time because those guys would be looking for big names only. Chuffed that this oneâs happening. Got to give credit to Dustin. He couldâve held out for a Gaethje rubber match or made another play to reheat the McGregor thing or something. To take a fight like this when heâs coming off a knockout loss is ballsy. A lot of guys in his position would just try to sit on their ranking (heâs still at #3 currently) and fight names but heâs taking a risky fight with a younger, fresher, confident and dangerous guy on the rise. The more I think about it I really love the matchup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dai Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 22 hours ago, Egg Shen said: Yeah, I see him taking some damage in that. What is Weidman even trying to prove at this point? Just checked, and his official pay for his last fight was $426,000. For current day UFC, thats a nice chunk of change that most dont make. To put it into perspective, he pretty much got paid (officially) the same as OMalley, Aljo and Zhang Weili on the same show. Hes sort of cashing in on his previous glories, so is probably hoping to bank those half a mill payouts for however many fights he has left on his contract. Cant blame him for that in my eyes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kfogg1991 Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 Jesus fuck that UFC 299 show is ridiculous. They must be fucking confident with the UFC 300 card after it to stack this one the way they have. Also I do think it needed a big strong co main with it being the first Sean o malley main event as champion card just to make sure it really pulls Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted January 8 Author Paid Members Share Posted January 8 3 hours ago, Dai said: Just checked, and his official pay for his last fight was $426,000. For current day UFC, thats a nice chunk of change that most dont make. To put it into perspective, he pretty much got paid (officially) the same as OMalley, Aljo and Zhang Weili on the same show. Hes sort of cashing in on his previous glories, so is probably hoping to bank those half a mill payouts for however many fights he has left on his contract. Cant blame him for that in my eyes. Fair, but whilst the money ain't gonna hurt, I do get the impression that Weidman believes he can be amongst the Worlds Best Middleweights. I sense its more about glory for him at this stage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted January 8 Paid Members Share Posted January 8 Yeah itâs obviously always gonna be down to the money thing to some degree but I genuinely think Weidman thinks heâs got another run in him. The way he was talking before his comeback fight against Tavares, he was on about getting back to the title and how he thought Adesanya (champ at the time) was a good matchup for him and stuff. It really seemed like he fully believed it. And itâs not like Weidmanâs known for cutting promos or âselling fightsâ. His fight was on the prelims anyway so there was nothing to âsellâ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted January 10 Author Paid Members Share Posted January 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeverYield Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 Belcher hasn't looked bad in BKFC, and JDS put in good performances against De Castro and Werdum so shouldn't be a bad fight  JDS vs Big Country next, make it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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