UFC 273: Volkanovski vs Zombie - Apr 9 ??

[Egg Shen]

on initial viewing i thought round 1 was cut and dry for Yan, pretty uneventful but a Yan round, going into round 5 i really thought it was winner takes all so was genuinely shocked when that decision was read. It was odd old fight, but i'll have to rewatch round 1.

Volkanovski just seems on a whole other level. This felt like irresponsible matchmaking as it was playing out. Im a huge fan of Volkanovski, the guys all class too, him purposely waiting around to let Zombie leave the cage before him and show respect was a lovely touch. As was him verbally asking Zombie if he was ok at the start of round 4, "are you ok brother?", "you sure?". Guy should be a fan favorite.

Chimaev/Burns was great, and as much as i'd like to have seen Chimaev mow through Burns to keep the run going, this fight answered so many more questions. Chimaev may not beat Usman, but he's right there, he just beat the #2 ranked fighter. Anyone questioning his legitimacy after that is pissed.

[wandshogun09]

21 hours ago, neil said:

Yeah that is a fair point and perhaps me interpreting "ready" for "win" there. Given he beat the highly ranked Burns, personally I wouldn't mind seeing him vs Edwards for the next Usman challenger.

Edwards vs Chimaev needs to happen at some point. Think it was 3 times they were scheduled to fight, in a couple of months spell, between late 2020 to early 2021. Unfinished business. Don’t think I’d wanna see it next though just because that’d really leave Usman with nobody to fight. If he’s not defending against Edwards or Chimaev next, I’m scratching my head who he could face. Barring injuries, COVID etc, I think we’ll be seeing Usman vs Edwards 2 and Chimaev vs Covington over the summer. Hopefully Chimaev does win that one, setting up a title fight at the end of the year with the winner of Usman/Edwards. So probably Usman. Like Ebb says, I’m not convinced he’s ready for Usman just yet but he’s right up there. If you beat Gilbert Burns, there’s really only Covington, Edwards and Usman above you at that point. Based on what we saw on Saturday, I probably wouldn’t pick him to beat all of them, but I wouldn’t count him out in any of them myself. 

16 hours ago, Egg Shen said:

Im a huge fan of Volkanovski, the guys all class too, him purposely waiting around to let Zombie leave the cage before him and show respect was a lovely touch. As was him verbally asking Zombie if he was ok at the start of round 4, "are you ok brother?", "you sure?". Guy should be a fan favorite.

Yeah, I think part of it is that he’s spent much of his title reign beating really popular fighters. Ortega aside. The two wins over Holloway, now the Zombie, and even before he won the belt he beat Aldo. That’s 3 of the most loved fighters in Featherweight history and Volk beat them all. 

I think a lot of the lack of appreciation still stems from unwarranted backlash from the second Holloway fight as well, which is stupid. And part of it is probably that he’s not a big shit talker as well. Seriously, I think some MMA fans don’t even watch the actual fights, they’re just there for the drama. Even a dullard like Sean Strickland has a bit of a following these days because he talks himself up as a serial killer in 4oz gloves. Never mind that his fights are the definition of ‘all bark, no bite’. Same with Pimblett being talked up as the second coming off wins over Luigi Vendramini and Kazula Vargas. Volkanovski is a joy to watch and seems a class act with it. Maybe if he tweeted racist shite, beat his wife and maybe raped someone he’d get more love. He’s played the game all wrong. 

Edited April 12, 2022 by wandshogun09

[David]

The sheer hatred from certain sections of the MMA fanbase towards Sterling is absolutely amazing. That he won, and won quite handily in my opinion, makes it all the sweeter. 

Chimaev looked very good. I could see him possibly getting past Covington mainly due to his size. It's hard to outwrestle someone who's so much bigger, so that could be an issue, especially in a 5 round fight.

No way he beats Usman though. People are rightly commenting that Burns was legit. He is.

And look at what Usman did to him. Chimaev is too easy to hit. Usman would smoke him inside of three frames. 

[wandshogun09]

21 minutes ago, David said:

The sheer hatred from certain sections of the MMA fanbase towards Sterling is absolutely amazing. That he won, and won quite handily in my opinion, makes it all the sweeter. 

This was class.

The shit he’s had since the first fight has been ridiculous. As we’ve all said numerous times, the whole mess with how the first fight ended was all down to Yan and his dirty knee. And not only did that fact seem to get lost, with Aljo bafflingly copping nearly all the flack in the year since, his skills as a fighter have been massively overlooked as well. I thought Yan was gonna win, mostly based on how the first fight was going before that knee and the fact that Sterling had been out a year and had the ongoing neck issues. There was that bit of uncertainty there for me. To see most of the opinions going in though, Sterling was a bitch and Yan was just gonna walk right through him. The man ran through Sandhagen in 90 seconds and people were talking like he was some jobber. 

[neil]

People giving Sterling shit from winning via DQ is the same moronic logic as those who say a fighter is scared if they don't take on a the fight against a fighter who missed weight.

[Egg Shen]

Vinc Pichel is a bad loser

[Carbomb]

I hate shit like that. Calling someone a coward is not a legit defensive wrestling tactic. If you're not happy with being taken down and grappled, either get better at defending against it, or fuck off to kickboxing.

[Egg Shen]

if you're not happy with being taken down and grappled you're probably better off not signing on to fight a 3 time Olympian to begin with.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah saw that. What a twat. You never see grapplers lose to strikers then go ‘He fought like a pussy. All he wanted to do was strike, he wanted none of my ground game.’ It’s so stupid. We’re nearly 30 years into the UFC existing and fighters are still crying that wrestlers wrestle. Seen a good few people I follow on Twitter liking Pichel’s nonsense as well. That and anyone saying goofy shit like ‘that should’ve been a split decision’ are good indicators you’re following the wrong people. 

[Egg Shen]

18 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

This was class.

The shit he’s had since the first fight has been ridiculous. As we’ve all said numerous times, the whole mess with how the first fight ended was all down to Yan and his dirty knee. And not only did that fact seem to get lost, with Aljo bafflingly copping nearly all the flack in the year since

Aljo basically fed the trolls though, his own merchandise had a picture of an Oscar trophy on it ? 

I do understand the backlash to the win, the toxic segment of the MMA fans have been waiting to stick the knives in for a long time and Aljo just shoved it up their ass. The fact that he did it in such a controlling and damageless way to Yan in a way makes it all the more sweeter because it just fanned the flames further. If Sterling has come in and KO'd Yan i think the doubters would have been silenced but the nature of the win just stirred the pot.

 

 

Edited April 13, 2022 by Egg Shen

[Carbomb]

Aljo has basically become a Bret Hart of sorts to MMA - heel to the Two-Can Van Dammes, face to the those with a modicum of intelligence. I'm here for it - I'm not quite where Houchen's at, where all shithousery turns them face, but this is one instance where it delights me, and I hope to see more of him basically telling the rage-wanking bros to get it up them on a regular basis.

[David]

The hilarity of American MMA fans in Jacksonville booing the shit out of Sterling, cheering Yan the Russian, then breaking out into chants of "USA! USA! USA!" really added to the fight.

I wonder if they knew Sterling was born in New York? Or assume he's a Jamaican freeloader? 

[Carbomb]

23 minutes ago, David said:

The hilarity of American MMA fans in Jacksonville booing the shit out of Sterling, cheering Yan the Russian, then breaking out into chants of "USA! USA! USA!" really added to the fight.

I wonder if they knew Sterling was born in New York? Or assume he's a Jamaican freeloader? 

They were really chanting that?

Man, it's like Trump Tower - idiocy on so many levels.

[David]

I see Sterling has had to put up with the kind of shit that guys who look like him seem to get hit with a lot in MMA:

Quote

"People want to be malicious and talk about your family, talk about all this stuff, call me monkey, dropping the N-bomb, a whole bunch of s***. I dealt with a lot, and it’s a good thing I have thick skin, because that probably would’ve broken a lot of people, but not this guy. This guy came prepared, ready for battle, and I came ready to win.”

I also see a lot of people claiming he's going down "the Tyrone Woodley route" of making it hard to like him, and being "narcissistic," which only seems to apply to certain guys.

If Sterling or Woodley do it, they're "hard to like" but if McGregor or Pimblett do it, they become stars and have entire events built around them. 

Depressingly, the racist shit in MMA and from the MMA fanbase has become so normalised that it isn't even considered a big deal anymore. 

[Carbomb]

Hence why I'm happy for him to keep on winding up the herp-derps who boo him and slag him off. He's a relatively likable guy anyway, and more so than Yan, so even if there wasn't this dimension, I'd be rooting for him in this rivalry anyway. I know Yan isn't 100% white, but he has passing privilege in this regard.

Not saying it would be all it takes to stamp out that kind of racism in the sport and its fandom, but I really wish people like White and Rogan would just fucking say something meaningful and emphatic about it. It's not enough to just hire black fighters or have black people on your podcast; if you know this shit is going on, and you have a fanbase amongst the kind of dickhead who'd perpetrate it, you should challenge it directly. 

Edited April 14, 2022 by Carbomb