Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted June 20 Author Paid Members Share Posted June 20 (edited) 1 hour ago, Dai said: Your quotes of Volkov are crazy though. Sounds likes he just cant be arsed with this one and just doesnt want to do it. Still looking foward to it a lot, as Pavlovich is a wrecking ball. He’s doubling down on that talk during fight week as well. I don’t know what to make of it. To go so hard on this point, basically talking down his own chances, it almost feels like he’s bluffing everyone. But I’ve never had Volkov down as the type to play mind games. Seems like he’s genuinely going into this one accepting that he’s probably gonna get an absolute pasting. It’s one of the strangest build ups to a fight in recent memory but I’m oddly intrigued to see how it plays out. Is he killing Sergei with kindness? Talking himself down so Sergei takes him lightly maybe? It’s either that or, as his quotes in the opening post suggest, he didn’t wanna fight a former training partner (who it sounds like got the better of him) but feels like he had no option to back out of it. 1 hour ago, Dai said: As you said, it just doesnt seem possible that Gastelum is only 32. Thats insanity. In my head I think of Gastelum being on TUF when everyone still watched it, and fighting on the old TV channels like Fuel and stuff. His KO of Bisping seems a lifetime ago, and even for that I think of him as already being there for years. Yeah he feels like a bit of a relic from a past era these days. At 32. Speaking of Gastelum, his fight with D-Rod has had to be changed to 185 now because Gastelum couldn’t make 170 and then apparently said he couldn’t even make a Catchweight of 180. Edited June 20 by wandshogun09 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted June 20 Paid Members Share Posted June 20 To be fair, Shogun seemed to be on the edge of shot at 32. Amazing how long some fighters are around for. I daresay Rosas Jr. will be similar towards the end of his career. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted June 20 Author Paid Members Share Posted June 20 (edited) Yeah, although I guess because Shogun achieved more in his career, by the time he was washed up in his early 30s at least he’d already had the Pride GP win, the UFC title, ending Machida’s streak, the classic with Hendo etc. Gastelum’s peak was a loss (in a great fight) to Adesanya and a KO win over cyclops Bisping who was on the rebound 2 weeks after the GSP loss. It feels like Gastelum’s been around donkeys years but always at the same level. Even now, the weight cutting issues rearing their head again. Just feels like his last decade or so has been Groundhog Day. Edited June 20 by wandshogun09 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted June 22 Author Paid Members Share Posted June 22 Don’t forget the early start time chaps… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weevil Posted June 22 Share Posted June 22 is this the beardiest card ever? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted June 22 Author Paid Members Share Posted June 22 Gotta be up there. I hate it but I’ve picked Aliskerov over Whittaker in the poll. Really hope I’m wrong about that but got a bad feeling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted June 23 Author Paid Members Share Posted June 23 23 hours ago, wandshogun09 said: I hate it but I’ve picked Aliskerov over Whittaker in the poll. Really hope I’m wrong about that but got a bad feeling. Yeah, about that… Over the moon with this. Very happy to be wrong. I didn’t know enough about Aliskerov to be confident in him winning, and I wasn’t confident, but as fight week went on I had a bad feeling about the whole thing and kind of talked myself into it. It felt like everything was lining up for the upset but Whittaker showed his class here and just steamrolled him quick. Completely walked through him. It’s a win that’s probably gonna get dismissed and I’m already seeing twats calling Aliskerov a “fraud” but this was a risky fight for Whittaker to take under the circumstances, plus the fact not much was known about Aliskerov and it didn’t really offer much for Whittaker. To be honest, as much as this card would’ve been fucked, I wouldn’t have blamed Whittaker if he declined this fight just because he had everything to lose while Aliskerov had everything to gain. If you’re Whittaker though, this was the perfect way for it to go. Seen some suggestions of doing Whittaker vs Strickland next, possibly on the Aussie PPV in August as co-main under DDP vs Adesanya. Providing Whittaker would be up for the quick turnaround, that sounds like a good idea, to be fair. Not only would it serve as a bit of a mini tournament where you could have the winners face off at a later date, it’s also a good idea as an insurance policy in that you’ve got choices for backups if either DDP or Izzy drop out. I’ve also seen the idea floated of Whittaker just sitting out as the official backup and getting the next shot outright. Dana was asked about that and seemed to like it. So maybe Whittaker is getting a title shot next regardless. In that case, maybe you do Khamzat vs Strickland if Khamzat’s healthy. I know, big ‘if’. I got Volkov vs Pavlovich all wrong. Did Volkov fool us all? All that talk about Pavlovich terrorising him when they sparred and stuff, how he never won a round against him and he’d be seeing stars and the room would go dark when Sergei hit him. Was he fucking with us? He definitely had me convinced he was shook coming in but he didn’t look like a man who was spooked at all in there last night. It wasn’t quite the slobberknocker I expected but that’s because Volkov didn’t allow it to become that. Thought he actually put in one of his better performances here. This cracked me the fuck up watching live. I wasn’t looking at the screen at the time and just heard my wife chuckling at something, I looked up and saw that and it killed me. Pavlovich wasn’t enjoying much though, was he? You could almost see his frustration building as each round passed and he couldn’t get anything going. The knock on Volkov earlier in his career was that he didn’t ‘fight tall’ and use his height and range to his advantage as much as he should. He did a better job of that here. Had him winning every round. Shame to see the pushing and shoving post-fight and Pavlovich came off as a proper sore loser there. Seems any friendship they had is over. Gastelum vs Rodriguez just kind of came and went. Wasn’t a terrible fight but I didn’t pay it much attention really. Was rooting for D-Rod though. The whole thing this week with Gastelum’s weight really left a bad taste for me. Can’t help but to think it was a deliberate tactic on his part to get an edge. With all the pullouts and card changes, he’ll have known full well they couldn’t really afford to lose another main card fight so I think he just took advantage of that and didn’t bother cutting weight. The fact it was supposed to be at 170 yet he wouldn’t even try to do a Catchweight at 180 and they had to agree to 185 was ridiculous. A whole weight class difference. There’s Kelvin vigorously cutting weight. Saw a few comments that situations like this should see the fighter who missed weight automatically docked a point in the fight, or even made ineligible to win. They should definitely do something about it because it’s taking the piss and the fines obviously aren’t enough of a deterrent. Now Gastelum gets a win but he did it in a snakey way. Felt bad for Rodriguez. That’s 3 losses on the bounce for him now but hopefully given the circumstances here they don’t hold it against him. Shara Bullet got his first stoppage in the UFC and showed a little bit more in the way of defensive wrestling but I’m still not convinced. Just feels like all his hype is based on his weird look and the fact he does spinny shite. Trocoli’s attempts to grapple weren’t the best either though but some of that might’ve been down to him coming in last minute. Didn’t help though that the one time Trocoli’s wrestling almost worked, Shara blatantly grabbed the fence and Marc Goddard didn’t punish him for it. I really rate Goddard as a ref but that was a rare fuck up from him and a bad one. If Trocoli gets that takedown (and it looked like he was definitely gonna complete the takedown if not for the fence grab) who knows what happens? Could’ve changed the whole course of the fight. Don’t get me wrong, the finish was good and I still think Shara can have entertaining fights with the right matchups. But if we’re talking potential and where his ceiling is, I just don’t think he’s got enough about his overall game. Good kicker and he’s got some power in his hands but I think he’s gonna get found out badly sooner rather than later. Dana was saying he probably can’t fight in the US either so that limits him. He’s gonna have to be kept on the Saudi/Abu Dhabi cards almost exclusively. Bo Nickal called out Shara on Twitter. Of course he’d wanna fight someone with dodgy grappling ? Man, Volkan Oezdemir straight murdered Johnny Walker. What a way to kick off the main card. And finally a clean, legit KO with the new gloves. ‘No Time’. Absolutely devastating KO. And once again, Walker just had to get sparked in the most ridiculously cartoonish fashion. As amusing as it is, how many more of these can Walker take? Him turning into a slinky every time he gets cracked is all we focus on but the man’s been brutally switched off a bunch of times now. Don’t know where he goes from here but, while I never expected him to touch UFC gold or anything, something about this loss feels like the final nail in the coffin to me. Good win for Oezdemir though and he’s had his ups and downs himself over the years. For a while that ‘No Time’ nickname started to feel like false advertising but he’s won his last couple of fights quick now. A return to form but I’m not sure what’s next. Him name dropping Jan Blachowicz and Jamahal Hill as potential opponents sounds about right though. Haqparast and Gordon had an enjoyable, spirited scrap. Wasn’t pretty but the effort was there and it was far from boring. Just a gruelling battle all the way. Kind of lost track of the scoring. It felt really close though and I wouldn’t have had a problem with either man getting the decision. This time it went to Haqparast. Felt bad for Gordon though. It was nowhere near a bad decision like the Pimblett fight was but it was close enough that Gordon probably feels like every judge hates him. The last couple of decisions he’s gone to haven’t been kind to him. If you’re gonna watch anything off the prelims though, make it the debut of Felipe Lima. Thought he looked the dogs bollocks considering the short notice. Coming in for your debut on just a few days notice, on a big card and against a tough opponent in Naimov, it felt like a big ask but he fought his arse off and got it done. It had been a hard fight as well through the first 2 rounds, and a close one. And the judges scorecards reflected that. Going into that last round, one judge had Naimov 2-0 up, one judge had Lima 2-0 up and the third judge had them tied at 1-1. The scores were all over the place and it was still all to play for. But I liked the urgency in Lima’s corner before that last round. They weren’t telling him he was ahead, they weren’t even telling him it was close, they were telling him to go 100% for the kill. He listened, came out in the third like a man possessed and got the finish. Really liked his performance. If he looked this good under these less than ideal circumstances, I can’t wait to see what he can do when he gets settled in on the roster, is more active and gets a full camp in. And this wasn’t even his weight class! I’m assuming he was at 145 here just because of the late notice but he’s a Bantamweight usually. I’m guessing he’ll be dropping back to 135 next time, adding even more depth to what’s become my favourite division. The rest of the prelims weren’t anything to write home about. Fakhretdinov vs Dalby was alright, I guess. Although Fakhretdinov faded towards the end. Gafurov vs Kang didn’t really liven up until it was pretty much over. And that Road To UFC fight with the two Asian lads was awful. Bit of a mixed bag of a show really but it picked up from the Lima vs Naimov fight on. Onto 303 then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dai Posted June 24 Share Posted June 24 Was a pretty good main card. Agree with you about the Gastelum thing. Left a bitter taste in the mouth. His post match interview made things even worse, as when asked by DC why it happened, he literally had no excuse at all. Couldnt even make up a half decent lie either. A 20% fine is bugger all, and I still dont understand why the percentages dont go up to 50-60%. Coming up 15 lbs heavier and not even making it public to the last moment and being rewarded for it just doesnt sit right. Thought Volkov was outstanding, and completlety shut down Pavlovich. Perfect display, and showed Pavlovich needs to become much more well rounded so he can have a Plan B. It was a Brutal KO of Walker, and one that shouldnt have happened, as the ref should have jumped in as soon as Walker went to the ground. Very nasty, and definately one that should have been avoided. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted June 24 Paid Members Share Posted June 24 (edited) Interesting about Volkov. Where does he go from there? He's got four wins in a row, now. He's got the longest streak out of anyone in the contenders' pool - hell, he's got a streak; everyone else in the top ten excluding Aspinall is on one win right now, with a loss before that. EDIT: Also, perhaps coming in over weight should be a graduated scale - for every pound you come in over, you lose 20%. Edited June 24 by Carbomb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted June 24 Author Paid Members Share Posted June 24 33 minutes ago, Dai said: Agree with you about the Gastelum thing. Left a bitter taste in the mouth. His post match interview made things even worse, as when asked by DC why it happened, he literally had no excuse at all. Couldnt even make up a half decent lie either. A 20% fine is bugger all, and I still dont understand why the percentages dont go up to 50-60%. Coming up 15 lbs heavier and not even making it public to the last moment and being rewarded for it just doesnt sit right. Yeah I meant to mention the post-fight interview. The bullshit with the weight had already soured me but then to see him grovelling and basically begging to keep his job was embarrassing. Especially when, as you say, he never even bothered to come up with a halfway acceptable excuse. I think maybe a fine the first time a fighter misses weight isn’t too bad, but for repeat offenders like Gastelum there definitely needs to be harsher punishment. I think anyone missing weight should at least get a point deducted right off the bat. And serial weight missing fatties like Gastelum should be ineligible to win because fuck them. Like even if they ‘win’ the best they can get is a No Contest. I feel like that would take away the whole incentive to come in heavy because you literally can’t win if you miss weight in that scenario. If Gastelum knew he had nothing to gain, I guarantee he’d have stuck to lettuce and done more road work during fight week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kfogg1991 Posted June 24 Share Posted June 24 After hearing dana speak about kelvin I won't be shocked if he gets fired he's done this too often and management are fed up with let's be honest his unprofessional and not caring behaviour. Shame he had alot going for him and was a name in the company. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted June 24 Paid Members Share Posted June 24 7 minutes ago, Kfogg1991 said: After hearing dana speak about kelvin I won't be shocked if he gets fired he's done this too often and management are fed up with let's be honest his unprofessional and not caring behaviour. Shame he had alot going for him and was a name in the company. At first I thought you were talking about Dana - that bold bit describes him just as much as Gastelum Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted June 25 Paid Members Share Posted June 25 Why did we ever doubt Bobby Knuckles? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted June 25 Paid Members Share Posted June 25 To be fair, our faith was shaken a little by his loss to DDP, as most people just didn't see Dricus as having the quality to beat him, but, in fairness, that loss now looks so much better with age. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted June 25 Author Paid Members Share Posted June 25 Just to make Whittaker’s performance even more impressive, he was dealing with a severe abscess in his mouth and had to have emergency surgery just before he left Australia. As someone who’s had a bad abscess in my gob, it was one of the most miserable and painful experiences I can remember. I didn’t wanna move for fear of aggravating it further, the idea of feeling like that and still getting on a plane to Saudi Arabia to go and fight some Russian bloke is absolute madness. I’m not made from that stuff. All things considered, I hope he does just get the next title shot after DDP vs Izzy now. I get the idea of doing Whittaker vs Strickland but I think Whittaker might just be next up after this. You can see why Dana and Hunter Campbell would go that direction as well. Whittaker not only accepting a last minute replacement, but now also knowing the shit he was going through and then to still wreck Aliskerov the way he did, how do you tell him no? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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