Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted January 31, 2025 Paid Members Posted January 31, 2025 (edited) Yeah Maia proper pulled rank on Gunnar. As good a grappler as Gunnar is/was, Maia showed the difference in levels. Belal’s a weird one. I completely forgot he lost to Jouban. That’s a loss that looks mad in hindsight but it’s kind of like Stipe getting chinned by Struve then going onto bigger things. The 3 losses on Belal’s record - Jouban, Luque and Neal - I don’t think any of them would’ve done half as well against the Belal we’ve seen over the last couple of years. Edited January 31, 2025 by wandshogun09 Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted February 5, 2025 Paid Members Posted February 5, 2025 Nice addition to the London card next month. Vucenic getting Kutateladze on short notice for his debut was a rough assignment for his first night in. Looking forward to seeing him back in there with a full training camp. Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted February 9, 2025 Paid Members Posted February 9, 2025 Sorry for the triple post but Mexico headliner confirmed and it’s a doozy… Only just dawned on me that Gaethje vs Hooker is next month! Now we’ve got this to look forward to as well. Throw Pereira vs Ankalaev and Edwards vs Maddalena in and March is looking pretty sweet. Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted February 13, 2025 Paid Members Posted February 13, 2025 (edited) You know how we’ve been saying we can’t see this GFL thing actually happening? I fucking hope it doesn’t happen. What sick mind thought this one up? Edited February 13, 2025 by wandshogun09 Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted February 14, 2025 Author Paid Members Posted February 14, 2025 Dear me, it isnt going to be pretty. The Rockhold/Weidman fight is a bit better. The show isn't happening though is it. Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted February 20, 2025 Paid Members Posted February 20, 2025 Dana’s dumped a bunch of fight announcements overnight. • Leon Edwards vs Sean Brady is the new main event for London next month. Jack Della Maddalena has been pulled from the fight. • UFC 314 on April 12th in Miami has a main event of Alexander Volkanovski vs Diego Lopes for the vacant Featherweight title. As far as I can tell Topuria’s relinquishing the belt and moving up to 155. Gotta be Makhachev next for him. 314 co-main is Michael Chandler vs Paddy Pimblett over 5 rounds. And also announced for that card is Yair Rodriguez vs Patricio Pitbull (yep, he’s signed), Geoff Neal vs Carlos Prates and Dan Ige vs Sean Woodson. Interesting card. • UFC 315 on May 10th in Montreal has a headliner of Belal Muhammad vs Jack Della Maddalena for the Welterweight strap. Not sure what’s going in with Shavkat but that’s why they’ve moved JDM from the Edwards fight in London. Co-main is Valentina Shevchenko vs Manon Fiorot for the Flyweight belt. Guessing the winner faces Zhang Weili later in the year. Gilbert Burns vs Michael Morales is also on this card. It’s all happening. Quote
Dai Posted February 20, 2025 Posted February 20, 2025 Loving the three main fights on 314. All three are very interesting for different reasons. Can Lopes step up to the next level and beat someone as good as Volk? Can Iron Mike spark out Paddy (hopefully)? How good will Pitbull be? Much rather go to that show than 315. That main event looks more of a Fight Night main event rather than a PPV to me. Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted February 20, 2025 Author Paid Members Posted February 20, 2025 Its all happening!! Quote
Bruce85 Posted February 20, 2025 Posted February 20, 2025 It’s all going on! Volk v Lopes is a tough one, I love Volk and don’t want to see him lose again, but I also really like Lopes and don’t want him to lose! Quote
Paid Members Carbomb Posted February 20, 2025 Paid Members Posted February 20, 2025 I'm surprised at Topuria vacating the FW belt so soon. I'd have thought he'd defend it a few more times at least. Besides, there's nothing to stop him going for the LW belt while holding it, is there? (Or have they changed the rules to prevent divisions being held up now?) Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted February 20, 2025 Paid Members Posted February 20, 2025 (edited) 6 hours ago, Carbomb said: I'm surprised at Topuria vacating the FW belt so soon. I'd have thought he'd defend it a few more times at least. Besides, there's nothing to stop him going for the LW belt while holding it, is there? (Or have they changed the rules to prevent divisions being held up now?) Yeah, it’s a weird one. From a pure accomplishments perspective, as mad as it sounds there really isn’t much more for Topuria to do at 145. Personally I’d have loved to have seen the Diego Lopes fight somewhere down the line but, really, once you become champ and KO Volk and Max in back-to-back fights in the same year, there’s really no way of topping that. I guess his next goal at 145 could’ve been to just rack up defences and try to break Aldo’s record for most title defences in the division. But that would’ve taken years and he doesn’t seem to wanna fuck about. The thing that does surprise me is that once you’re a defending champion, that’s when the big money is supposed to start rolling in and you start getting a cut of the PPV buys and all that shite, so Topuria effectively giving that up after one defence is a strange one. I know Dana’s saying Topuria was struggling with the weight cut and maybe he was, but I’d never heard even a whisper of that before now. Not sure why he wasn’t allowed to chase ‘champ champ’ status when so many others have in the past. Unless it was 100% his choice and he just knows he’s done with Featherweight. It’s quite refreshing actually. At least he’s not holding 145 up and just holding the belt hostage (fuck Jon Jones). He’s let it go and moved on. Tell you what though, if Topuria moves up and fights Makhachev for 155 gold next and wins…seriously, name me a better 3 fight stretch than Topuria beating Volk, Max and Islam at that point? You can’t. And there’ll still be wallies saying Pereira ‘saving cards’ and fighting the 8th ranked guy in his division makes him Fighter Of The Year. Edited February 20, 2025 by wandshogun09 Quote
Paid Members Carbomb Posted February 20, 2025 Paid Members Posted February 20, 2025 (edited) 18 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said: Yeah, it’s a weird one. From a pure accomplishments perspective, as mad as it sounds there really isn’t much more for Topuria to do at 145. Personally I’d have loved to have seen the Diego Lopes fight somewhere down the line but, really, once you become champ and KO Volk and Max in back-to-back fights in the same year, there’s really no way of topping that. I guess his next goal at 145 could’ve been to just rack up defences and try to break Aldo’s record for most title defences in the division. But that would’ve taken years and he doesn’t seem to wanna fuck about. The thing that does surprise me is that once you’re a defending champion, that’s when the big money is supposed to start rolling in and you start getting a cut of the PPV buys and all that shite. So Topuria effectively giving after one defence is a strange one. I know Dana’s saying Topuria was struggling with the weight cut and maybe he was, but I’d never heard even a whisper of that before now. Not sure why he wasn’t allowed to chase ‘champ champ’ status when so many others have in the past. Unless it was 100% his choice and he just knows he’s done with Featherweight. It’s quite refreshing actually. At least he’s not holding 145 up and just holding the belt hostage (fuck Jon Jones). He’s let it go and moved on. Tell you what though, if Topuria moves up and fights Makhachev for 155 gold next and wins…seriously, name me a better 3 fight stretch than Topuria beating Volk, Max and Islam at that point? You can’t. And there’ll still be wallies saying Pereira ‘saving cards’ and fighting the 8th ranked guy in his division makes him Fighter Of The Year. Nearest I'd come to that is maybe Volkanovski beating Mendes, Aldo, then Holloway twice. Not quite, I think. But you're right; looking through the rankings for potential opponents, the only one that seems worthwhile is Evloev. Other than that, it's maybe Gaethje and Yair, but they're well within his capabilities. EDIT: Ooh, maybe Lerone Murphy! Guy's undefeated, why he's not further up the rankings I've no idea. Edited February 20, 2025 by Carbomb Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted February 20, 2025 Paid Members Posted February 20, 2025 (edited) 1 hour ago, Carbomb said: Nearest I'd come to that is maybe Volkanovski beating Mendes, Aldo, then Holloway twice. Not quite, I think. That’s a good shout. Although Mendes was in dodgy form at the time if I recall right. Still a great win and it was Volk’s first breakthrough against a top name. But I don’t think that’s near the level of Topuria’s aforementioned wins. Plus the way the fights were won factors in. As awesome as Volk is/was, the win over Aldo was a bit of a snoozer and he never finished Max in the 15 combined rounds they fought. Topuria’s chinned both of them in less than 4 rounds combined. It’s crazy. I don’t have a clue how a Makhachev vs Topuria fight goes but if Topuria won that one, and especially if he stopped Makhachev, we’re talking all time great status already for Topuria just based off those three wins. Oh and on Evloev, it’s mad how Diego Lopes made his UFC debut against Evloev on short notice, they had a fantastic fight which Lopes lost, now we could be looking at Lopes vs Evloev 2 for the title if Lopes can beat Volk. That’s a big if, obviously, but what a full circle moment that would be. Edited February 20, 2025 by wandshogun09 Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted February 22, 2025 Paid Members Posted February 22, 2025 Sandman vs Figgy, 5 rounds and not at the Apex? Get in. Quote
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