UFC 285: Jones vs Gane - Mar 4 🇺🇸

[Bruce85]

That was very impressive, Jones made that look very easy! Stipe up next then by the looks of it. 
 

Very good card overall, really enjoyed that! 

[Panhead]

6 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

I’ll post more later but for now @Panhead give me that humble pie! 😂 crazy scenes.

Look at this from just after she let go of the choke. Your girl’s got some squeeze…

She gave her a 5 o'clock shadow! 

Genuinely hope this doesn't come across as bragging, but I really did believe that she'd beat her. I thought she'd out-box her to claim the decision, and after the first round I was still pretty confident in that. Obviously the following rounds were Valentina's, but I thought Alexa still looked like she was in there. I don't think anyone would have predicted a submission though. She was incredibly humble in victory and seems like a good egg. I had to be out of the house by 9 this morning so I got up at 6 to watch the fights. Not ashamed to say I was jumping around the living room when Valentina tapped 😄 I know it's an obvious comparison with their shared nationality and weight class, but there was definitely shades of when Brandon Moreno submitted Figgy to take the title. It's nice to see nice people winning championships. It's been a mad couple of years for title changes in the UFC. 

We'll always have our boy Dricus @wandshogun09. He's so entertaining to watch. Just a ridiculous, and completely unsustainable, approach to fighting. It was interesting what they said about his nose being fucked but him delaying surgery to take this fight. I assume he'll fight one of the top five next. That might just be when he gets found out, but I'm sure it'll be entertaining. 

I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again, best sport in the world. Nothing comes close. 

[wandshogun09]

I apologise in advance for the length I’m about to hit you with.

Fucking prick. Got this all wrong. Just had no confidence in Jones after the way he looked in his last few fights plus the massive 3 year layoff. I really thought Gane would be able to stay at a distance and crack Jones repeatedly. Turned out to be a complete disaster though. I really like Ciryl Gane, or “Cereal Gain” as Jonny Bones calls him, but this is twice now he’s absolutely shat the bed in title fights. And he’ll be kicking himself watching it back.

Sloppily overcommitted to that left hand, threw himself out of position and that’s all the opening Jones needed. We always knew Jones would hold a big advantage if he could make it a grappling match but Gane just made it so much easier for him by carelessly lunging in like that. Maybe the biggest blunder from a challenger in a big title fight since Chael Sonnen threw that baffling spinning backfist in the Anderson Silva rematch which led to him getting crushed. I’m seeing all this GOAT talk today and all this praise being heaped on Jones but, I don’t know. It’s gonna come off as sour grapes because I don’t like him but I felt like this was as much Gane fucking up as it was Jones capitalising on it. He might’ve won anyway, but it being such a squash was on Gane. It’s still a cool achievement for Jones regardless. But hearing media sucking him off at the press conference and acting like this proves he’s the GOAT and that there’s “no argument for anyone else” now made me heave. As if GSP doesn’t exist. Or Anderson Silva. Or Mighty Mouse. Or Volk. Jones is in the convo but there are definitely arguments for other names.

Jones vs Stipe next then? In typical Stipe fashion, he couldn’t have looked less fussed by the callout 😂 I think I touched on it in the opening post but as much as I’d be well up for seeing that fight, it’s a shame it’s coming along about 2-3 years late. If that fight happened in 2019/20 it would’ve been absolutely fucking mega! It’ll still be big now but Stipe turns 41 this year and hasn’t fought in 2 years himself. In fact he hadn’t seemed interested at all in fighting again until Jones’ comeback was announced. There’d been no talk of his return before that and I think he was ready to just quietly retire. That makes me wonder if his heart is even really in it anymore and would he be coming back for the right reasons or just to tick the Jones fight off the bucket list and get one last nice payday? Either way, call me a cynic but I can’t help thinking part of Jones taking so long to come back was specifically by design to let Stipe get older and past his prime. Then the cherry on top was now Francis Ngannou is gone so his biggest threat is no longer there.

Yes Francis!

Jones was asked about this tweet by the media post-fight and responded with something like “Francis Ngannou is a big ol’ pussy! All that muscle and a big ol’ pussy!” It’s sad to see the narrative that everyone’s just bought into that Ngannou is running scared now. Dana’s saying it and Jones is saying it because it suits their story. Dana is trying to save face and play Francis down and Jones can act like Ngannou bottled it and left because of him rather than that he was fighting for better money and benefits. I can understand why Dana and Jones are spouting that bullshit to an extent but now there’s so many dumb fans parroting it that it’s becoming the accepted narrative. There’s as much evidence to support Jones being scared of Ngannou as there is vice versa. None. But if you wanted to you could counter Jones argument by pointing out that Jones dragged his feet on a return for 3 years, then Ngannou’s contract expires in December, he leaves in January and suddenly Jones’ return is announced. What’s sad is that Jones was at loggerheads himself with the UFC on fighter pay not too long ago and he even tweeted in support of Ngannou doing the same at one point. Now he’s back suckling on the UFC tit he’s changed his tune and Ngannou’s a fanny?

I know it’s no newsflash to anyone but Jones is still as much of a dick as ever. He was saying all the right things at times at the press conference. All the humble talk and God squad stuff. But who’s buying it at this stage? The mask has slipped too many times and even this week he’s been a knob about Gane who’s been nothing but a gent to him from everything I’ve seen. I’ve seen mentions of July for Jones vs Stipe. We’ll see. God I hope Stipe clobbers him. If it happened 2-3 years ago I’d be fairly confident he would but fuck knows now. Unfortunately I think Jones might just have played a blinder here timing-wise. With Ngannou gone, that left Gane and Stipe as his biggest threats and he’s just took Gane out. And he’s waited so long that Stipe was half out of the game so now he’s probably nowhere near the threat he once was. If he beats Stipe I think Jones might call it a day then. He’s not gonna hang around for Blaydes or Pavlovich is he? So unless hell freezes over and Francis comes back, I think that’ll be it for Jones.

Alexa Grasso shocked the shite out of me. Genuinely never saw a realistic path to victory for her. This was almost the Flyweight version of Pena vs Nunes to me in terms of the result leaving me gobsmacked. Only almost though because I did actually rate Grasso a bit more than Pena. And unlike Pena vs Nunes, this was a shock upset that I can actually enjoy!

Incredible. Never would’ve called it. We talked about Shevchenko possibly showing signs of slowing down recently and after the iffy performance against Santos and now this in back-to-back fights, I do think we can say there’s probably some truth to that. Maybe it’s burnout or complacency or an actual decline. But at the end of the day, Grasso had to go in there and execute the gameplan and in the end she was able to make the absolute most of her opportunities in the fight and make her moments count. And fuck me did they count! I know hindsight and revisionism is a lovely thing but when you look back at that Santos fight and how Shev kept getting careless and ending up in bad positions in the grappling, and in particular how she left herself vulnerable to having her back taken more than once, it’s clear Grasso and her team did their homework for this. It wasn’t some weird result like Pena vs Nunes where Pena just rolled the dice and it paid off. This wasn’t a gamble. Grasso had clearly seen a hole in Shevchenko’s game and prepared for it. It wasn’t like she outclassed Shevchenko from start to finish. Far from it. People are gonna go on like Shevchenko is shot now but she still looked the same as ever for big chunks of the fight. But I just think Grasso got it spot on and I’ll happily admit she exceeded my expectations big time. That big punch she wobbled Shev with in the first round was maybe the first time I’ve seen her look legitimately troubled by a single strike but she got back in it and won some rounds after that and then I just expected another run of the mill decision. I thought that punch would end up being the high point for Grasso. Wrong. Chuffed for Grasso.

No doubt it’ll be an immediate rematch next and you can’t really grumble at that given the length of Shevchenko’s reign. Grasso has immediately said she’ll happily give Shevchenko the rematch. And Shev obviously wants it. No brainer. I’d love to see them go back to Mexico and do a double header with Moreno and Grasso title fights. Would be cool to see. I’d say do Volk vs Yair on that one as well but might be a bit rough having Volk wreck Yair in front of his countrymen. The UFC are idiots if they don’t do a Mexico card on the back of this though. They’ve always wanted Mexican champions to properly blow that market up. Now they’ve got two and they both did it against the odds and are both extremely likeable. Not going to Mexico at this point would be promotional malpractice. They shuffled shit around to come back to the UK when Leon Edwards won the belt, Moreno and Grasso deserve it. Plus Mexico has been waiting years for a card anyway. It’s time. They’ve got two champs now, if not now then when is a better time?

Shavkat Rakhmonov vs Geoff Neal was fantastic. What a battle. Finally someone gives Shavkat a proper fight! Really enjoyed this one. It obviously wasn’t in the same league as Makhachev vs Volkanovski from last month but it’ll probably be on my list of favourite fights of 2023 by the end of the year.

I’ve seen mixed reactions and opinions on this. In some ways it reminds me of the fallout from Khamzat Chimaev’s fight with Gilbert Burns last year. Some are acting like this exposed Shavkat and now he’s not as impressive but if anything I’m even more sold on him now. It’s easy to look like a beast when you’re having it all your own way. This was a firefight and Neal looked bang up for it and Shavkat met him head on and only thrived as the fight got rougher. There were moments in the fight when you could see he was actually having fun in there. And for a guy who never shows any kind of emotion, good or bad, it tells you what he’s about. He’s not without flaws, no fighter is, but it’s gonna be very interesting to see how far he can go. It feels like this year is gonna be a big one for him. It has to be. He’s just beat and stopped Magny and Neal, and Neal was ranked #7 going into this one. Shavkat’s getting up there now. Can see them giving him Belal Muhammad next, in an attempt to get rid of Belal from the title mix. That would be an intriguing and different kind of test for Shavkat. I still really wanna see Shavkat vs Khamzat but I doubt we see it yet because they obviously want both in the title hunt and that fight just eliminates one of them. If they do make that fight though, I won’t be upset at all.

Gamrot vs Turner was good but never really got going like I thought it would. Nothing wrong with it but I thought you could kind of tell Gamrot hadn’t had a full training camp going in and he sort of played it safe for big spells of the fight as a result just to get that win. Can’t really blame him. It was a close one and I’m not 100% sure I agreed with the decision. If you had Jalin winning, I wouldn’t argue with you. Decent enough fight and there were points where it was threatening to catch fire but they settled into a bit of a pattern and Gamrot just edged him on the cards, likely because of the takedowns and control. Smart tactics from Gamrot really because he knew Turner was originally training for Dan Hooker who’s predominantly a striker. And Gamrot usually mostly strikes as well. So Gamrot going the wrestling route probably threw Turner right off.

Bo Nickal had just about the perfect showcase UFC debut. Well nearly. There’s a lot of talk that he hit Pickett with a knee to the balls which led directly to the takedown, which led directly to the finish.

You can see Pickett grimacing there and, to be fair, I have seen other angles where it does look like Bo knees him square in the sack. Apparently Pickett’s team are gonna appeal the result but whatever. I know it must suck losing under those circumstances but I don’t think he was ever getting much luck out of this matchup. Doubt he has any joy with the appeal either and they’re not gonna give him a rematch. The buzz on Bo is real and they’re gonna want to crack on with moving him along. He’s got bigger fish to fry than getting stuck in a two fight series with a jobber. That’s the harsh reality. Had that groin shot not happened they’d almost certainly have just released him as this was his third loss in a row and he’s been finished in all of them. But maybe they’ll give him another shot to appease him a little bit. Either way, they chose him as the first opponent for Bo for a reason here. They wanted a squash match and that’s what it was always gonna be.

Cody Garbrandt finally got back in the win column and you know what that means, don’t you? We’re now gonna be subjected to months of talk of him being ‘back’ and how he’s gonna be champion again and people clinging to that one night against Cruz where he looked amazing. That one night that was over 6 years ago before he ate 4 bad knockouts! I know I’m a Cody hater and I make zero apologies for it. But I wasn’t as impressed by this as many seem to be. Yeah, he never got knocked out or battered this time. That’s progress. But Trevin Jones isn’t much good, isn’t known as a particularly big hitter and was taking this on short notice. The fight wasn’t good to watch, Jones didn’t do much and Cody still had to just play it safe to get the W. A bunch of fans will hop on his dick again now for a few months until he inevitably reverts to form and gets chinned again. Rinse and repeat. Honestly he’s up there with Kevin Lee for me as far as the unwarranted faith fans have in him. He’s done as a top fighter and has been for a long time. Fuck him and his dog mutilating shit.

Du Plessis vs Brunson was the typical barmy wild scrap we’ve come to expect from DDP. I think I’ve said it before on here but it’s mad when you watch him because he really doesn’t appear to have any outstanding skills yet he just dogs his way through to win these fights. He’ll not go much further. I think his last few wins have flattered him a bit more than is warranted really. Till was on his last legs and Brunson is pushing 40, seems to be falling off a cliff now and was talking retirement not too long ago. Don’t mean to put a downer on it, Du Plessis is a lot of fun to watch and Middleweight isn’t the strongest weight class. He’ll have some success and there are a few more fun fights you can make with him. DDP vs Vettori, Dolidze or Costa? Sign me the fuck up. But i think he’ll settle around where Vettori has. Maybe gets a title shot at some point but he won’t beat the likes of Pereira, Adesanya or Whittaker.

I think Brunson might be done. Like I said, he was talking about only having a couple more fights in him before he lost to Cannonier last year. I think the plan was obviously to beat Cannonier then get the Izzy rematch and go out on a title shot. That’s all gone tits up and here we are. The Cannonier loss was brutal as well, then he’s out a year and comes back for this. Quite worrying how he completely just stopped responding at the end there. Thankfully his corner had the sense to throw the towel in before it got any worse.

Always a good time seeing Amanda Ribas win but it wasn’t the best of fights to watch. Ribas had a few dicey moments though. Any time she’s striking I’m just expecting her to get waffled into oblivion. The striking is always gonna be her downfall. She managed to get through it here though and I felt like she won the fight pretty clearly overall. I think she’s already levelled out and hit her ceiling though sadly. This is about as good as it’s getting for her going forward, I reckon. As much as I like her, I haven’t really seen any noticeable improvements in her game, the standup especially, since Marina Rodriguez smashed her up a couple of years ago. And women’s Flyweight is looking a bit stronger than it ever has now, she’s not getting anything good from a fight against anyone in the Top 5.

Who put 50p in Marc-Andre Barriault? What was he on? Like a man possessed last night. Battered Julian Marquez in Julian Marquez’s type of fight. Just took it to him and bombarded him with a non-stop assault until he wilted and the ref had no choice but to wave it off. I think I’ve been unfairly harsh on Barriault in the past. He bored me shitless his first few fights in the UFC and it’s taken a while for him to get rid of the stench of that with me. But fair‘s fair, he’s been much better to watch in recent fights and this was probably his best showing in the UFC yet. Marquez is gonna completely crash and burn soon, or maybe he has already? Pretty much every fight he has is just brutal. It’s gonna catch up and this is two bad losses on the trot for him now.

Ian Garry came through with another win. Wasn’t all plain sailing and he got cracked good in that first round. But he stayed cool, recovered, had a strong second round and then gave Song an absolute shellacking in the third.

Loved the finish. He’s had a couple of really sweet finishes now. Really liked the combo at the end and, as you can see there, Song’s face got all kinds of messed up. Garry‘s growing on me. I never disliked him but a combination of the constant mentions and references to Conor McGregor and me just not being fully convinced by him has had me a bit slow to warm to him. I’ve been watching bits of him outside the cage in the lead up to this show though and he really seems like a genuinely very nice guy. One of those people who you just want to see succeed. But then he went and did the Conor McGregor walk after the finish and I’ve got to knock points back off for that shite. Just stop. Nah I like him though. Still not completely sold on him going too far, and getting rocked like this by Song isn’t the best sign. But these things happen. Fighters do tend to get hit in fights. Garry responded well. Hopefully Garry gets back on the main card next time.

Another win for Cameron Saaiman and he is looking promising. Only just turned 22 and he already looks ahead of his years. He’s really gonna have to start choosing his weapons more wisely though. In both his UFC fights so far he’s committed some pretty bad fouls. I don’t think it’s deliberate, seems like it’s just errors in timing or whatever. He’s got away with it so far, got a finish in his debut so the point deduction there didn’t matter. And he won the rest of this fight clearly so he still did enough to get the decision. But it’s something he’s gonna have to look at because it’s gonna cost him eventually. And no-one wants a rep as a dirty fighter. Well, except Rousimar Palhares. He didn’t give a single fuck.

Tabatha Ricci completely schooled Jessica Penne.

I’ve never rated Penne much at the best of times and at 40 she’s past her prime anyway (such as her prime was) but can’t fault Ricci’s performance. She beat Penne how she should’ve been beating her at this stage of both their careers. Also, Ricci might’ve overtaken Norma Dumont for me in the MMA Bumcheek Olympics. Big fan.

The Farid Basharat vs Da’Mon Blackshear fight was alright, nothing special. Felt like Basharat took the first couple of rounds and his takedowns were the difference a lot of times but he had to survive that submission scare in the third. Glad to see Basharat pick up a win in his UFC debut though. Quite liking the Basharat brothers so far. Big bro Javid tweeted this after the fight.

Don’t know the details of that, obviously we’re getting one side of the story, but if true Blackshear is a cock and I’m glad he lost.

If you missed it, the Loik Radzhabov vs Esteban Ribovics fight which was the Fight Pass opener was really good. First time seeing both and I enjoyed it a lot. Nice performance from Radzhabov in his Octagon debut, especially as he’d stepped in on late notice. Although he’d have been in shape anyway because he was supposed to be on TUF which is currently filming. Happy to see it’s worked out for him though after he was apparently bumped off TUF to make room for one of Conor’s boys.

Phenomenal card all in all. Wasn’t happy with the main event - the result and the way it played out - but Jones winning like that opens up the Stipe fight and that’s something at least. Rest of the card was ace. Had a bit of everything from the shocker of Grasso dethroning Val to Shavkat and Neal knocking lumps out of each other to Bo’s debut and so on. Fantastic card top to bottom with loads of talking points coming out of it. Hence this post taking longer than Jones’ return. Rogan’s still fucking shite though. Sooner he pisses off the better.

And…breathe.

Edited March 5, 2023 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

barmy old sport

[David]

17 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

Jones was asked about this tweet by the media post-fight and responded with something like “Francis Ngannou is a big ol’ pussy! All that muscle and a big ol’ pussy!” It’s sad to see the narrative that everyone’s just bought into that Ngannou is running scared now. Dana’s saying it and Jones is saying it because it suits their story. Dana is trying to save face and play Francis down and Jones can act like Ngannou bottled it and left because of him rather than that he was fighting for better money and benefits. I can understand why Dana and Jones are spouting that bullshit to an extent but now there’s so many dumb fans parroting it that it’s becoming the accepted narrative. There’s as much evidence to support Jones being scared of Ngannou as there is vice versa. None. But if you wanted to you could counter Jones argument by pointing out that Jones dragged his feet on a return for 3 years, then Ngannou’s contract expires in December, he leaves in January and suddenly Jones’ return is announced. What’s sad is that Jones was at loggerheads himself with the UFC on fighter pay not too long ago and he even tweeted in support of Ngannou doing the same at one point. Now he’s back suckling on the UFC tit he’s changed his tune and Ngannou’s a fanny?

The thing is, both Jones and Dana can say what they want in public, but it's enough for me to simply know that when they both switch that light off at night they know the truth.

Dana because he never loses fighters. He discards them when he's done with them. The inability to sign Fedor still annoys the fuck out of him, and he's secretly seething that he couldn't get big Francis to sign again. The sheer amount of cash he offered the guy shows how highly he rates Ngannou, and his meaty dome probably couldn't compute why he didn't accept the lucrative financial deal. 

This isn't just a fighter leaving at the end of his deal. This is the UFC undisputed heavyweight champion walking away while he still holds the title. That never happens. And most likely never will again. But Francis did that, and Dana won't like it.

Jones can also say what he wants, but we all know he wants that legacy. He cares about that stuff. How many times did we see him Tweet out about being the GOAT whenever Khabib won a fight? Or Volkanovski? His ego is fragile, and he knows deep down that while he's the UFC heavyweight champion, he beat the guy who lost to the actual guy. 

Ngannou is the man at heavyweight, and while the company has to move on without him, Jones knows that the question will hang over his head forever that he didn't actually beat the champion. That will absolutely be killing him. 

And I love every single second of it. 

[Egg Shen]

Mark Hunt still salty...

[David]

He isn't far wrong though, is he? Especially about Jones. Still, a broken clock and all that!

[wandshogun09]

Hunt can say what he wants. Love the fat grumpy vat of dripping. I still occasionally randomly remember the time he said Dana was a “thieving grubby cunt” and chuckle to myself. There, it’s just happened again. I’d pay actual money to see Powerslap if we could see Dana White vs Mark Hunt. 

[Carbomb]

6 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

I’d pay actual money to see Powerslap if we could see Dana White vs Mark Hunt. 

Failing that, White vs. Big Fran.

[Egg Shen]

6 hours ago, David said:

 

Ngannou is the man at heavyweight, and while the company has to move on without him, Jones knows that the question will hang over his head forever that he didn't actually beat the champion. That will absolutely be killing him. 

 

I dunno if I fully think that's the case. I think Jones carries a certain level of prestige and a record that will make most people see him as the man at heavyweight. It doesn't hurt that he cut through Gane a lot easier than Ngannou did, and that'll now get to fight and probably beat a pretty shopworn Stipe Miocic who'll get the full on 'best heavyweight of all time' treatment by the UFC machine. Jon Jones basically solidified himself as the GOAT on Saturday night, I don't even think it's a discussion anymore and think Jones' ego is big enough that he won't be too affected by the Ngannou thing.

[wandshogun09]

17 minutes ago, Egg Shen said:

Jon Jones basically solidified himself as the GOAT on Saturday night, I don't even think it's a discussion anymore 

[David]

16 hours ago, Egg Shen said:

I dunno if I fully think that's the case. I think Jones carries a certain level of prestige and a record that will make most people see him as the man at heavyweight. It doesn't hurt that he cut through Gane a lot easier than Ngannou did, and that'll now get to fight and probably beat a pretty shopworn Stipe Miocic who'll get the full on 'best heavyweight of all time' treatment by the UFC machine. Jon Jones basically solidified himself as the GOAT on Saturday night, I don't even think it's a discussion anymore and think Jones' ego is big enough that he won't be too affected by the Ngannou thing.

Oh, "most people" who follow the UFC see exactly what Dana White tells them to see, so that doesn't even come into it. But I really do think that Jones will privately be bothered that he didn't get to beat "the man" in the division.

We saw how fragile he is whenever the GOAT discussion would come up around Volkanovski and Khabib. He'd be tweeting all butt-hurt about it. Did you see his reaction at the presser to someone asking about Ngannou's tweet? Big Frank is living rent-free in Jones head.

[Egg Shen]

Perhaps, but that GOAT discussion is tied up now, if Jones beats Miocic and retires (which he's hinted at) its going to be some time before anyone knocks him off that perch, if ever.

[Carbomb]

Not sure why it's "tied up now" - yes, Jones has just won a title in a second division, but so did GSP. 

For me, he'd have to defend it at least once to beat GSP for the GOAT title.

[David]

10 minutes ago, Egg Shen said:

Perhaps, but that GOAT discussion is tied up now, if Jones beats Miocic and retires (which he's hinted at) its going to be some time before anyone knocks him off that perch, if ever.

Not for me it isn't. 

The fact he was done for PEDs twice suggests to me that he's had some help during his impressive run. I mean, whenever other fighters are busted for shit we hear about how it throws a shadow on their claims, don't we? 

Well, Jones was busted. Twice. Yet it's all forgotten about? Nah. That throws an element of doubt on there, not just once, but twice.

The GOAT in my opinion is still GSP.