Dai Posted March 9 Posted March 9 (edited) Well that was rather depressing, wasnt it? Super disappointing fight. Did anyone in this thread at any point mention the potential of Max being undersized and over powered? Dont think so, and I didnt really give that any thought before the fight either. Max was completley ragdolled on the feet, and those takedowns were easy. Wasnt expecting that! Complete dominance, and completely forgettable....two things I never thought Id be saying about this. The rest: - Michael Johnson did what Michael Johnson seemingly always does. Looks great, and then just gets sparked out by a huge shot. - Robocop had a pretty sweet KO, and it was a good way to start the main card. - Rosas schooled Font. Cant remember much about this one already, but I feel Font had a shocker. this one was essentially the same template as the main event. Rosas looked decent to be fair. - Cant even remember anything of note about the RDR/Borralho fight. Lots of clinching (I think?) and some half hearted standup. Just cancelled each other out, and RDR certainly didnt look good in this one. Edited March 9 by Dai Quote
Paid Members Carbomb Posted March 9 Paid Members Posted March 9 15 minutes ago, Dai said: Well that was rather depressing, wasnt it? Super disappointing fight. Did anyone in this thread at any point mention the potential of Max being undersized and over powered? Dont think so, and I didnt really give that any thought before the fight either. The thought occurred to me, because of what happened when he stepped up for the first time to LW in the UFC, and got beaten pretty convincingly by Poirier. But I dismissed it, because, as time went on, it seemed like he'd got used to the weight. Beating Gaethje at 155 seemed pretty good proof that he wasn't out of his depth. But then I suppose grappling is where weight really makes a difference. Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted March 9 Paid Members Posted March 9 On 3/8/2026 at 11:10 AM, Cousin Jim Bob said: On the plus side, Dana must be absolutely fuming, and it made the daft BMF title look even more stupid. He seemed surprisingly ok with it at the presser. Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted March 14 Author Paid Members Posted March 14 (edited) Been a bit of a hectic week but truth be told I couldn’t even really be arsed to post anything about this card until now. So disappointed in that main event. It was one of those cards where you were underwhelmed looking at the whole lineup but you always thought ‘well even if everything else is shite, that main event is gonna deliver’. Never expected to feel like a fight between Max Holloway and Charles Oliveira could ever be a letdown but here we are. Happy for Charles all the same. And I’ll make it clear, I didn’t hate the fight. I didn’t think it was as bad as a lot of fans seemed to. But it was far, far, far less than I expected. I kind of had flashbacks to Carlos Condit vs Nick Diaz watching it. Completely different fights obviously but I mean just in terms of me expecting so much from it and it falling way short. I’ve seen a load of doom and gloom with fans criticising the UFC for this. I’m not one to jump to the UFC’s defence at all and there’s plenty you can criticise them for in 2026 but this isn’t one of them. All they can do is book the fights. And this was one everyone was buzzing for. Who would’ve predicted it going like it did? No fans did and I doubt the matchmakers did either. They put two guys in there who have been consistently exciting to watch over about a 15 year period. It seemed like a fight that couldn’t possibly be a disappointment. They can’t control how the fight plays out. It’s sport. Sometimes it just goes that way. I don’t wanna say ‘I told you so’, and I can’t anyway because I ended up picking Max. But I did touch on the fact earlier in the thread that Max really hadn’t fought a lot of grapplers in his career so it was kind of a question mark. Charles looked great. It’s gonna sound weird when he’s coming off one of the best wins of his career but I almost feel bad for him. He was so dominant and won so clearly that all talk since the fight has all been about how it was boring and one-sided. I almost feel like he’d have got more love if he’d stood and traded the whole fight and lost than he did in victory here. But none of it’s his fault. He did his job. He obviously recognised there might be a weakness in Max’s grappling and he exploited it beautifully. You can’t knock him for that. I love Max but this fight not being as exciting as we all expected is mostly on him and his inability to do anything about the skill discrepancy in the grappling. On 3/9/2026 at 1:43 PM, Dai said: Did anyone in this thread at any point mention the potential of Max being undersized and over powered? Dont think so, and I didnt really give that I can’t say I thought about that much myself going in either but I did briefly mention Charles being the naturally bigger of the two in the opening post… On 2/6/2026 at 11:25 PM, wandshogun09 said: Part of me thinks that Oliveira being the naturally bigger guy and more settled in at 155 might give him the edge. I think he’s probably got the heavier hands as well. But then I think Max is the better actual boxer and he’s looked refreshed since moving up in weight. But I never really saw it as a deciding factor. Mostly because I didn’t think Charles would be coming in with such a tunnel vision approach on the grappling. I thought this one was mostly gonna play out on the feet and, while size matters there as well, I think it’s more of a factor on the ground. I’m not sure this was a case of Max being too small for 155 though. I’ve seen a few people mention that over the last week but I’m not sure I buy into it. Charles has fought for much longer at 155 so his body is more in tune with the weight class but it’s not like they looked a lot different in size in there on the night. Charles has five inches of reach on him, Max is actually listed as being an inch taller. There’s not a huge difference in it. And nobody thought Max looked too small when he was walloping Gaethje into another dimension and Gaethje isn’t a small Lightweight. Same when he fought Poirier again last year. Not to mention his punches were clearly having more of an effect at 155 in those Gaethje and Poirier fights than he showed in most of his Featherweight run. I’ve seen people talking like this loss proves he doesn’t belong at 155 but I’m not having it. I just think he ran into a guy who had the skills to dominate him and Charles fought in a completely different way than Max, or anyone else, expected him to. It was actually a genius tactical move from Charles. It made for the least entertaining possible matchup between them but all that talk from Charles about standing toe to toe, to then just dominate on the ground, you could tell it was the last thing Max was expecting. I don’t think it’s so much a size thing as it is a case of Charles just being a way better grappler and exploiting that to the fullest. Imagine if that Khabib vs Holloway fight had happened back in 2018 like it was supposed to? Christ. The only criticism I’d have for Charles’ performance really would be that there were a couple of rounds where I think he could’ve done a bit more on top, been more aggressive in chasing a submission or doing damage. But to be fair, Max defended well. You look at Oliveira’s last fight, Gamrot is considered a grappling specialist and Charles got him out of there in two rounds. For Max to survive 25 minutes with Charles on top of him for most if it, that’s no joke. He just couldn’t stop Charles from getting dominant positions and the longer the fight went the deeper Charles dragged him into that quicksand. On 3/8/2026 at 11:10 AM, Cousin Jim Bob said: On the plus side, Dana must be absolutely fuming, and it made the daft BMF title look even more stupid. The convo around this on social media this week has been absolutely dire. There are fans out there who seem to genuinely think there should be a different set of rules for BMF fights where you can’t grapple or anything. I don’t know if they realise that sport already exists. It’s called Kickboxing. And the actual quality of the striking is better than in MMA as well. And yet they’ll continue to watch MMA and cry about grappling and act like it should be banned. The fight wasn’t anything like I expected it to be but if it’s done one thing it’s really highlighted the absurdity of the BMF title. Not that it wasn’t always goofy as fuck. But the reaction to this has really hammered it home. At the end of the day, the pay structure in the UFC means that if you lose, you get half the money you could’ve got if you won. So BMF gimmicky bollocks or not, first and foremost you have to win. I’m sure if Max had answers for the grappling and was able to stop a bunch of takedowns, we’d have seen a totally different fight and I don’t doubt Charles would’ve been more than willing to get into a firefight under those circumstances because when hasn’t he in the past? The fact people are talking about Charles Fucking Oliveira like he’s Jake Shields now is comical to me. But he started the fight grappling and obviously quickly realised that it was gonna be easier than he probably even thought. So why would he just stand and give Max his best chance of winning? Just to uphold some stupid ‘code of honour’ for a fake belt? Nah. Even Cormier on commentary started with the ‘was that BMF?’ shite. Like the fighters should be expected to fight in a reckless way just because of a meaningless gimmick belt. What’s next for both do we think? Charles is ranked #3 now, just behind Tsarukyan and Gaethje. Obviously Gaethje is next for Topuria. I’ve seen some suggestions of doing Tsarukyan vs Oliveira 2 and I wouldn’t be against it. We all know it should’ve been Topuria vs Tsarukyan for the gold next but Gaethje being interim champ now muddies that. Plus the first Tsarukyan vs Oliveira fight was a three rounder at UFC 300 and close from what I remember. Doing a rematch over five rounds with the title shot at stake wouldn’t be a bad idea. The winner of that would be head and shoulders the most deserving challenger at that point. As for Max? There’s a bunch of fights you could make. Dan Hooker might be a good shout as a bounce back. You could give him either Chandler or Ruffy after they fight at the White House. You could do Max vs Benoit Saint Denis. Maybe even the Paddy Pimblett fight. One thing I don’t wanna see, is Max going back down to 145. A lot of people are on the ‘Max was too small’ thing at the moment, I hope he doesn’t listen to that noise. Last thing he needs at this point is to reintroduce that weight cut to add to his problems. Yeah, Borralho vs De Ridder was very forgettable. Not even a week since I watched it and it’s all fuzzy memories of poor striking, a dead crowd and a kick to the bollocks leading to Rogan’s obligatory rant about Thai steel cups that he has to shoehorn in on every single card he works. Just a really flat fight to watch. Mad how quickly a fighter can lose all their momentum. Late last year it seemed like De Ridder was almost a lock to challenge for the title in 2026. That’s all gone well and truly down the shitter in his last couple of fights. Don’t know what you do with Borralho next but I wanna see De Ridder vs Du Plessis next. Fuck it. Might be horrible but it’s almost definitely gonna be piss funny to watch. The UFC giving Strickland the title shot has kind of muddied the waters a bit though. If they’d stayed on track and done Khamzat vs Imavov next for the strap, you could’ve done Strickland vs Borralho and De Ridder vs Du Plessis. Not sure what they’re gonna do now though. Maybe Borralho fights DDP but no idea where that leaves Imavov. He’s really the big loser in all this. I got Rosas vs Font all wrong. It was always gonna be one of those crossroads types of fights because it was clear going in that Rosas at 21 was still a bit green and it was clear that Font at 38 was past his best. The question was where they’d meet in the middle and I wasn’t convinced Rosas was quite ready for a veteran like Font. I wasn’t confident either way but I was leaning towards Font jabbing his head off for the decision. Fair play Raul won clearly. It’s not looking too good for Font now though. That’s two straight losses against up and comers and he looked pretty bad in both fights. Nice win for Rosas but he’s already getting ahead of himself saying he’s “ready to be champion” and stuff. Calm down. I get having to have confidence but this was literally his first win over a ranked opponent and it was a Font who’s pushing 40 and on the decline. Nice win but it was one step on a long road before he’s even close to being talked about as title shot ready. Drew Dober absolutely starched Michael Johnson. Nasty KO and, yeah, this was after Johnson had a pretty solid opening round. Typical MJ. Vicious. Don’t know if anyone saw but there was actually some controversy going into this one. Involving betting lines again. “Extreme line movement” was how Helwani worded it. It got taken down from betting sites. I’m surprised they let the fight go ahead, to be honest. Especially given the recent scrutiny there’s been on this stuff. Not accusing him of anything but this is the second straight Michael Johnson fight to have the cloud of weird betting line movement hanging over it. There was all sorts of mad rumours last weekend that Johnson’s nephew had been held hostage and he was gonna lose in the second round to pay the ransom. Sounds too far fetched and there’s probably zero truth to it. But fuck knows anymore. All that said though, if he was planning to throw the fight, he can’t have planned on getting his jaw spun like that. Much easier and less brutal ways to lose if you’re gonna do that. I was happy to see Gregory Rodrigues get his revenge in the main card opener… Nothing against Ferreira I’m just a fan of big Greg. On a card that had otherwise been quite boring up to this point, it was the perfect way to kick off the main card. With them tied at 1-1 now and both fights ending violently in the first round, I wouldn’t mind seeing the trilogy decider somewhere down the road. Probably won’t be next, and really shouldn’t be, but I definitely wouldn’t be against it. Looking at the rankings, Robocop is at #12 now and there’s no real obvious fight that stands out for him next. Maybe Fluffy Hernandez or something? Really nothing to talk about from the prelims. Just a collection of nothing happening fights mostly. The Cody Garbrandt vs Xiao Long fight was a complete and utter shambles. Just a foul filled mess of a fight. When that is the most noteworthy thing on the prelims you know it was a load of arse. I watched every fight and already barely remember any of them. Ending on a positive note, I was made up to see that Zhang Weili and Joanna Jedrzejczyk are going in the Fight Wing of the Hall Of Fame for their classic first fight in 2020. Couldn’t be more deserving. For me, by far the best fight in women’s MMA history and I’d rank it highly among great MMA fights full-stop, regardless of gender. One of my favourite fights ever. The Hendo vs Shogun or Hunt vs Bigfoot of the women’s game. Edited March 14 by wandshogun09 Quote
jimufctna24 Posted March 14 Posted March 14 38 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said: Imagine if that Khabib vs Holloway fight had happened back in 2018 like it was supposed to? Christ. Slack mentioned this on his podcast too. I have to agree with you both. At least it probably eliminates a massive "what if" that has bugged me (and presumably others) for years. It's not that I would have picked Holloway to beat Khabib, but at the time I did think it was an interesting match-up, for which Holloway could have caused Khabib issues. Obviously not. Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted March 14 Author Paid Members Posted March 14 11 minutes ago, jimufctna24 said: Slack mentioned this on his podcast too. I have to agree with you both. At least it probably eliminates a massive "what if" that has bugged me (and presumably others) for years. It's not that I would have picked Holloway to beat Khabib, but at the time I did think it was an interesting match-up, for which Holloway could have caused Khabib issues. Obviously not. Probably would’ve been even worse for Max back then as well because I do think he was much more a 145er then, he hadn’t even had that war with Poirier up at 155 yet, which he lost. And I think Khabib’s top game would’ve been much more devastating for Max. Charles did strike a bit on top but he seemed much more interested in looking for submission openings. I think Khabib would’ve not only been much stronger, he’d have got that wrist control and hammered Max with punches until the submission presented itself. A lot of people today have retconned just how frightening Khabib was. I was also intrigued by Khabib vs Max in 2018. But yeah, in hindsight I think it would’ve been a fucking terrible matchup for him. And on top of all that, when the fight was gonna happen, it was gonna be on stupidly short notice. Wasn’t it just a few days notice when Ferguson dropped out? Insane. Looking back, I’m glad Max dodged that bullet. Quote
jimufctna24 Posted March 14 Posted March 14 (edited) 48 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said: And on top of all that, when the fight was gonna happen, it was gonna be on stupidly short notice. Wasn’t it just a few days notice when Ferguson dropped out? Insane. Correct. Khabib eventually fought Iaquinta, in what was one of Khabib's weaker performances iirc. Iaquinta was seemingly the 4th opponent proposed for Khabib after Ferguson, Holloway and Felder were all pulled from the event for various reasons. For some reason I had it in my head that this all occurred during the early stages of the pandemic in 2020, but you are right it all occurred in the spring of 2018. The daft incident that involved McGregor lobbing a steel dolly at a bus with Khabib on it also occurred a few days before the event. 48 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said: I think Khabib would’ve not only been much stronger, he’d have got that wrist control and hammered Max with punches until the submission presented itself. A lot of people today have retconned just how frightening Khabib was. Agreed on both accounts. Khabib is one of the most frighteningly good top grapplers I have ever seen in MMA. Edited March 14 by jimufctna24 Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted March 15 Author Paid Members Posted March 15 Feb 6th. You think Charles was trying to tell us something? The signs were there all along, we chose not to read them. Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted March 16 Paid Members Posted March 16 We'll all fell for the BMF marketing Quote
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