UFC 295: Prochazka vs Pereira - Nov 11 ???

[Egg Shen]

1 hour ago, Dai said:

maybe Dana just does the Stipe/Bones match in a years time in Vegas, with the Title on the line. Dana says 'The winner of this fight will fight Sergei/Aspinal/Whoever', and then both men retire and the interim champ becomes main champ. If theres money to be made, then Dana could easily do this I think.

Yeah ideally it would go down like this

Edited October 25, 2023 by Egg Shen

[sirdobbo89]

13 minutes ago, Egg Shen said:

I wouldn't be surprised if Stipe was offered the Interim fight but turned it down to hang on for Jones. He'll have been out of the cage for 3 years by the time Jones returns though, I aint sure they'll revisit it.

This is 100% the plan. 

[WeeAl]

Part of the problem is going to be that Jones will be out that long (again) that Aspinall/Sergei are probably going to want to fight/defend the interim belt as well. Otherwise they are going about a year without a payday. Whilst they are probably both getting some of a bump for this, neither will be on a champion's contract for it until they win the belt. Can they afford to sit out if they aren't injured? I expect one of them defends the IC belt against Cyril Gane in the spring/summer. 

[wandshogun09]

I’m not so sure Jones was just gonna roll over Stipe. I would’ve favoured him but I don’t really know why everyone’s so confident about him just walking through him. Like I said in the opening post (that turned out to be a waste of fucking time now ?), yeah Stipe hasn’t fought in 2 years but Jones has only fought once in 3 years and there wasn’t much to take from it because it lasted 2 minutes, Gane has no grappling defence and he lunged wildly at Jones, leaving himself a sitting duck for the takedown which led directly into the choke. Amazing how quickly everyone forgets those shitty showings against Santos and Reyes. Submitting a Kickboxer with suspect grappling wasn’t half as impressive as the vast majority of MMA fans have made out. The questions that we all had about Heavyweight Jones before that Gane fight are exactly the same after that Gane fight for me. Literally all he showed was he can choke a guy with bad grappling/submission defence. Yet everywhere I read after, people were jizzing all over the performance and acting like that win rendered the GOAT debate redundant and Jones was now the clear #1. I don’t get it. 

Not massively surprised Jones got injured either. He’s older and heavier and all that inactivity can’t have done him any favours. I’ll be honest, I’m genuinely not that arsed if he never fights again. Balls to him. He was only gonna fight once more anyway. We’re never getting the Ngannou fight. The Stipe fight was happening about 3 years later than it should’ve anyway. And he’s already said he’s not interested in facing any of the next generation of Heavyweights. So what’s the point? 

It’s a shame for Stipe that it’s off but I’m quite happy with Aspinall vs Pavlovich myself. I think it was always obvious that was where it was heading anyway. Whatever would’ve happened with Jones vs Stipe, it kind of didn’t matter because they were both most likely retiring after. Even if the fight went ahead, the winner was most likely vacating the belt by the end of the year and Aspinall vs Pavlovich was the only logical fight to make to crown a new champion. Only shite thing now is, once again, like the Makhachev vs Volkanovski 2 and Usman vs Chimaev situations at 294, both Aspinall and Pavlovich are jumping in with just over 2 weeks notice now. I know they’re both in the same boat but it’d be such an interesting fight with both coming off a full camp. The short notice throws it all out of whack, there’s so many variables and unknowns and you don’t know what the fuck’s gonna happen. It’s a great fight but now it’s under really weird circumstances. Why couldn’t Jones have got injured 2 months ago? At least then these two could’ve prepared properly for each other. And I wouldn’t have wasted my time previewing it ?

Edited October 25, 2023 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

Early predictions?

[wandshogun09]

I’ve updated the opening post and poll.

New look 295. 

Edited October 26, 2023 by wandshogun09

[wandshogun09]

It’s not to do with this card specifically but I’m banging this in here anyway.

It hasn’t been made much fuss of but this card marks 30 years since UFC 1. Almost to the day. Just seen this pop up in my YouTube recommendations.

Legends Of UFC 1 roundtable…

Gerard Gordeau, Teila Tuli, Zane Frasier, Royce Gracie, Ken Shamrock and Art Jimmerson reunite!

OK bit of a stretch calling any of them “legends” apart from Royce and Kenny but it’s pretty cool to see them together all the same. Hoping to see a bit more content marking the anniversary over the next week but the UFC don’t really bother celebrating their history that much these days. It’s a small thing but I’d love to see them at least bust out the retro graphics and canvas like they did for the 25th anniversary show. 

[Egg Shen]

There's a new 3 part 30 Greatest Fighters in UFC history documentary/countdown called 'All Time Roster' over on Fight Pass wand.

[Dai]

I remember buying all those first UFC shows on VHS. Was it WH Smiths that stocked them? Cant remember where I bought them from, maybe HMV or Virgin sounds more likely. Between these official ones, and Bob Barnatt's (?) complilations from Japan, my younger self would watch them all seemingly on a weekly basis. The good ol days!

[Zebra Kid Mark]

56 minutes ago, Dai said:

I remember buying all those first UFC shows on VHS. Was it WH Smiths that stocked them? Cant remember where I bought them from, maybe HMV or Virgin sounds more likely. Between these official ones, and Bob Barnatt's (?) complilations from Japan, my younger self would watch them all seemingly on a weekly basis. The good ol days!

I bought the VHS of UFC 1 from Virgin Megastores in Cardiff so maybe that's where you got them from.

[Egg Shen]

I seem to have had the same experience as a lot of old school fans had when it came to introduction to MMA. I rented UFC 2 from a local video shop on VHS (think they had 1 & 2 available). A mate's Dad rented it for us as it was an '18', then we watched it on abit of a sleepover. 

We were completely sold on the "No Rules" advertising on the front cover but I remember being disappointed that real fighting didn't quite look like fighting it did in the movies. 

That have been around '94 or '95 and was a bit of a one off. The next time I got into MMA was during the build up for UFC 40 as it was the first one to really cross over in the Wrestling forums.

[Dai]

2 hours ago, Zebra Kid Mark said:

I bought the VHS of UFC 1 from Virgin Megastores in Cardiff so maybe that's where you got them from.

Used to love that store! Was in a funky glass building and youd have to take the escalator to enter the shop. I assume thats where I got it from too then.

[Egg Shen]

Yeah Virgin Megastore in Cardiff was the boy. My shopping trips to Cardiff consisted of walking from HMV > Virgin > Spillers Records and back again

[wandshogun09]

8 hours ago, Egg Shen said:

There's a new 3 part 30 Greatest Fighters in UFC history documentary/countdown called 'All Time Roster' over on Fight Pass wand.

I’ll give it a look. Although I know it’s probably gonna be a big fat fucking Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey love-in. 

[Dai]

39 minutes ago, Egg Shen said:

Yeah Virgin Megastore in Cardiff was the boy. My shopping trips to Cardiff consisted of walking from HMV > Virgin > Spillers Records and back again

Throw in an Electronics Boutique visit when it was just the old St Davids shopping bit too!