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Bellator 280 - Bader vs. Kongo II (May 6th) 🇨🇵


Egg Shen

Will Cheick Kongo leave as Champ?  

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Yeah I don't know what you are getting at David? no one here is calling Romero one of the top fighters in the world currently, he's winding down his career in Bellator and was matched in a strange fight against a shopworn Melvin Manheof.

To say he hasn't looked a threat in the last 3-5 years as well though? Outside of the weird fight with Izzy he had that epic slugfest with Costa, damn near killed Luke Rockhold and had two fight of night's with Robert Whitaker.

I know you like a hot take David, but this is a weird one.

romero_rockhold_kiss.0.0.thumb.jpg.2b1092aea6af09a709929facf62de87e.jpg

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I don't disagree completely, because he's such a physical specimen its always easy to think he has more in the locker, but to label him a hype job after a 10 year run like he's had is an odd one. 

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Like I said, he's a good fighter. But there's a lot of good fighters out there. The X factor for this guy is his physique and his crazy Cuban antics. 

How many fights have we went into with him where the commentators and pundits are giving it the "This dude is a beast! Don't blink!" carry-on, only for him to jump around for three or five rounds, throw little offence and get outpointed handily? 

I swear, my general feeling when watching him fight is that I spend the majority of it waiting with baited breath for him to actually do something. 

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Yeh but the proof is in the results, you aren't wrong that there were large periods in his fights where not a lot happened, but that's a credit to his skillset, he's arguably the best counter striker the sport has ever seen (definitely in the discussion), not from a technical standpoint but from an explosive and dangerous standpoint..

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56 minutes ago, Egg Shen said:

Yeh but the proof is in the results, you aren't wrong that there were large periods in his fights where not a lot happened, but that's a credit to his skillset, he's arguably the best counter striker the sport has ever seen (definitely in the discussion), not from a technical standpoint but from an explosive and dangerous standpoint..

Meh. It may actually be that I've been frustrated with him more than anything else. I always expected more from him, and with him not delivering that big title win or getting the nod in the big fights it could be that it has tainted my view of him.

I maybe hold him to a higher standard than I should.

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This show had some fantastic fights throughout and caught me off guard thinking this would be a build to a fantastic co main and main event.

It of course in my opinion did not do that at all. 

The yoel Romero fight was fucking terrible, he barely made any effort to push forward or do anything (which is some fighters game plan to have their opponent have no opinion other than move towards them in their guard) but it was so dull and most importantly when yoel had him hurt on a few occasions he did fucking nothing or showed no urgency or energy whatsoever.   Then to make matters worse he somehow gets the win by tko when the bell had fucking clearly been and gone leaving everyone including the fucking commentators confused.

Then the main event was just as fucking boring if not more. Ryan Bader might imo be one of the most boring and uninspired champions in recent history.

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Disagree on the Yoel fight, though he looked about as good as he ever has, at 45 he doesn't look like he's slowing down. It does tie into David's criticism about the guy because it always feels like can be doing more and has the ability to put people away whenever he likes, its just his style. When he attacked though he was lethal, Polizzi to his credit tried, he just had nothing for Romero.

Want to take a moment to put some respect on Romero's sprawl too, it's a thing on beauty. Polizzi is an NCAA wrestler and he didn't get a sniff of a takedown.

The finish was fine though, if a fighter is knocked down before the bell then the bell sounds the ref has to determine whether or not the action would have resulted in a TKO, Polizzi wasn't so he waved it off despite it being after the bell. Think the ref go it right. That last punch was just brutal.

Bellator have rebooked Romero/Manheof for Dublin too 🤦🏻‍♂️

Im happy to never another Ryan Bader fight in my life however. Just one of the dullest 5 rounders in recent memory. It was never going to be a classic but fuck me. 

Kongo's insistence on putting his back to the fence seemed to be intentional, its probably where he feels he's able to defend, but it also killed any kind of offence he could have mounted. Terrible fight.

Few other good fights down the card too. Nice to see Lorenz Larkin get a good win, really feels like a bit of a forgotten man in MMA. Bellator even forgot to rank him when the rankings were brought in. He's now on a 6 fight streak.

 

Edited by Egg Shen
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To expect any kind of excitement from a match involving either Bader or Kongo was an exercise in futility. A match pitching one against the other - is there any point in commenting?

Best thing you can say about it is that it's now done, and we can move on.

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