Paid Members Egg Shen Posted June 16 Paid Members Posted June 16 Whenever the sport throws someone at you that looks unbeatable it has a habit of giving them a painful dose of reality pretty quickly, crazy. Quote
NeverYield Posted June 16 Posted June 16 11 hours ago, jimufctna24 said: Loaded gloves never crossed my mind. I was more amazed by how well Gaethje's chin held up. When I think about it even further I'm over the moon for Gaethje and Topuria got what he deserved, The cheek of him to throw a celebration party the night before, and proclaim they don't have to earn victory, as "its already ours", and mooch up and down with Usyk, pure idiocy, and he got his head punched in for it, literally. Quote
Paid Members Carbomb Posted June 16 Paid Members Posted June 16 I'm not. Topuria may be an cocky sod, but Gaethje is a massive Trumpcunt, with all the arrogance and bullshit that comes with that, and I'm hoping to see Topuria take the belt back off him and avenge his loss. Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted June 16 Paid Members Posted June 16 38 minutes ago, NeverYield said: When I think about it even further I'm over the moon for Gaethje and Topuria got what he deserved, The cheek of him to throw a celebration party the night before, and proclaim they don't have to earn victory, as "its already ours", and mooch up and down with Usyk, pure idiocy, and he got his head punched in for it, literally. Topuria definitely had the aura of a man who believed like he was invincible, he fought that way too. Quote
NeverYield Posted June 16 Posted June 16 7 hours ago, Egg Shen said: Topuria definitely had the aura of a man who believed like he was invincible, he fought that way too. 100%, you never take anyone lightly, you certainly don't celebrate the day before a fight happens. You also don't engage in silly spats on twitter with Crawford telling him he'd KO him in round 1 (he wouldlnt' btw), you focus 100% on your fight. Topuria at times has looked unstoppable, but he's shown himself to be a very arrogant guy and he paid the price for it. Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted June 17 Author Paid Members Posted June 17 (edited) Funny old show this. Obviously all the Trump bollocks and Hokit’s post-fight shite was vomit inducing. But the fights themselves were all mostly enjoyable. Seven fights, seven finishes. Only the main event went past the second round and that was arguably FOTY so far. Watching it on the Monday with the benefit of being able to skip everything but the fights, this was a breeze to watch. Top two fights couldn’t have gone worse results-wise if you’re the UFC though. Their two biggest active stars both getting beat and stopped on a card with so many eyes on it? Not ideal. Gaethje winning the main event was the shocker of the night. Going in it felt like a card where all the fights were fairly easy to predict on paper, oddly apart from Pereira vs Gane. The other six fights were all kind of giving off squash match vibes. I went 6-0 in my predictions until the main event. And that was the result I was most confident about. What a mad old game. You never would’ve called a 37 year old, seemingly last legs Gaethje on the verge of retirement, after a career full of wars, to be the man to dethrone Topuria, hand him his first loss and break his face. Fuck me. It was a hell of a fight and you knew Gaethje was gonna give it his best shot. But I really couldn’t envision any other way for this to end than with Topuria’s hand raised. Especially when you look at Gaethje’s last fight where he didn’t look all that good in his win over Paddy Pimblett. Here he comes out with what was surely the best overall performance of his career against an undefeated guy who was being talked about in the pound-for-pound discussions. He was probably #2 PFP behind Islam Makhachev for most. Gaethje being so effective with the jab was a surprise and something I don’t think anyone saw coming. Topuria included. He busted Topuria up with that and it was only made worse because Topuria kept walking straight into it with his head on the centre line. It’s gonna take something crazy to beat this as the best performance of the year when December rolls around. Shades of Yan unexpectedly putting on a masterclass against Merab in their rematch last year. Didn’t think Gaethje had a showing like this in him, especially this deep into his career with all the miles on him. He didn’t have it all his own way either. These were fucking horrible. Topuria was absolutely hammering him to the body repeatedly in those early rounds and it really looked like Gaethje was done when he folded from one in the second round. That was Topuria’s big chance to finish it and it looked like he was going to. I was a bit baffled when he started going for submissions after that instead of continuing to strike. That was the moment and he let it pass. That’s gonna haunt him watching it back. But at the same time, I’m not sure anyone else but Gaethje would’ve survived that and maybe Topuria spent too much energy in that moment going for the kill. For all the criticisms I’ve seen of Topuria since Sunday night, most opponents would’ve been done after those body shots. I don’t think I’ve seen a MMA fight where a guy survived such a sustained attack to the body like Gaethje did here. Gaethje got his own back at the end though… Absolutely brutal. And those were the last strikes of the fight before they stopped it in the corner before the 5th. Bonkers. I’ve read that both Topuria’s eyes suffered orbital breaks. His body’s gonna be banged up, his nose looked like it got popped. He took a beating. He had his moments but overall, this was the kind of fight that changes a fighter. Physically and maybe mentally. Especially as the first loss. We always say it’s interesting to see how an unbeaten fighter bounces back from their first loss but, like others have said, Topuria seemed to be so wrapped up in that invincible aura, a loss like this is gonna be especially difficult to deal with. In isolation, seeing this picture gave me flashbacks to Ronda Rousey hiding her face behind that big pillow while going through the airport after that first loss to Holly Holm. I don’t think this is gonna be the same and I don’t think Topuria was ‘hiding’ but just in the sense of them both looking absolutely crushed from the loss. He’s already handling it better than Rousey did though… One of the worst bits about this result for me is Topuria’s loss here has effectively killed all the hype and momentum of those possible Tsarukyan and/or Makhachev fights. The Makhachev one is pretty much dead in the water now. Can’t see Makhachev coming back down to 155 and I’ve got no interest in seeing Topuria try to fight at 170. There was a brief window of opportunity to get that fight made when both were considered the top two fighters in the sport, and it seems like the UFC let it close. It’s a weird one because Gaethje finally winning the big one, at the White House of all places, sounds like a great result for the UFC in the moment. A great result for the night. But for the division as a whole, beyond June 14th 2026, it’s shite. Gaethje’s probably got a two or three fights left at most. And he’s already faced most of the top names at 155. But here we are. Not sure what’s next for Gaethje. They might do the rematch with Charles Oliveira. Champ vs BMF champ. They should have Gaethje defend against Tsarukyan but probably won’t. But as fucked up as it is to say, I reckon they’re gonna hold fire and wait and see how this McGregor vs Holloway fight goes. And if McGregor somehow wins, would a single soul be surprised if they give him a title shot? Maybe they won’t because he’s only got one fight left on his contract after Max. But if he somehow beats Max, and I doubt it, I can see them trying to lock him into a longer contract, with the title shot being a carrot they dangle to sweeten the deal. I mean, Max should spank him. But I don’t know what to think anymore. I thought Topuria ironing out Gaethje was a cert and now look where we are! It sounds ridiculous because it is ridiculous, but we’re one bad result away from seeing a Gaethje vs McGregor title fight in 2026/27. What is this shit? As for Topuria, they might as well go ahead and make the Paddy fight at this point, regardless of the result of Paddy vs BSD. I thought the ship had sailed on that when Gaethje beat Paddy but now Topuria’s not the champion, sod it, why not? The co-main, I had a bad feeling about Heavyweight Pereira almost from the off and the whole ‘three belts in three divisions’ thing went up in smoke here. Gane the bastard. Pereira just never got going here. Gane looked good, to be fair. Too sharp, too fast, and yeah, too accurate with the fouls. I’m not sure how much of this was down to Pereira not being suited to carrying the extra bulk at Heavyweight, or if it was more of a case of this specific matchup just being a bad one for him. I think it’s clear Pereira isn’t in his best shape at Heavyweight. I think the cut to 185 got too much for him but I feel like 205 is the sweet spot and where he’s at his best physically. But that said, I think there are a bunch of Heavyweights he could still beat. Gane was just never gonna be an easy opponent to showcase his skills against. Too big, too fast, awkward style and movement, not the easiest to land a clean shot on. But still, Gane just can’t help himself can he? I’ve seen people slow this down and they weren’t all to the back of the head. Some hit the side of the head, some hit the shoulder, some missed. But there were at least two or three really bad ones there and that’s enough isn’t it? Meanwhile Herb Dean once again proved to be a useless big lummox. Just standing there, dopily watching it all unfold. And Rogan calls him the ‘gold standard’ of referees. I felt like Pereira was losing anyway but there’s always these clouds hanging over Gane fights. It’s hard to say it’s accidental when it’s happening every fucking fight. I’ll say one thing though, as much as I wanted Pereira to win, part of me is glad he lost just so all the silly GOAT talk got squashed. All I was seeing during fight week was multiple social media accounts posting some variation of ‘If Pereira wins at the White House, is he the GOAT?’ When anyone with a working brain knows the answer is no. Fans get so hung up on fighters just winning belts in one singular fight. Pereira moving up to HW and beating Gane would’ve been impressive, but take the belt out of it and does one win in the division over Gane make anyone the GOAT? Not to mention the belt in question wasn’t even the proper belt it was an interim. So even if he’d won, he wouldn’t legitimately be a ‘three division champ’ in the full sense. He’s had a great career and he’s packed a lot into a five year run, but Christ, you’re not the ‘Greatest Of All Time’ just because you’ve hopped weight classes and been fast tracked into title fights at every turn. Especially when you’ve already lost title fights in both your previous divisions. It’s like when McGregor moved up to 155 and beat Eddie Alvarez. Fans furiously wank that win off now and act like he did something nobody else could do, but he literally jumped up to 155 and was given an immediate title shot. Easier to do things others can’t when you’re being given opportunities others aren’t. Aspinall vs Gane 2 next then. And it sounds like Aspinall is finally on the comeback trail. He did a reaction video to the fight on his YouTube and it sounds like he’s back fully training again and seemed well up for doing the Gane rematch in Paris in September like Gane suggested in his post-fight interview. I’ve seen people saying it can’t happen on the Paris show because it’s a Fight Night and usually I’d agree. But in the Paramount era, does it matter? Nothing’s on PPV anyway. What’s to stop them just making the Paris card a numbered event and whacking Aspinall vs Gane 2 on there? Still seen twats giving Aspinall shit and it’s pathetic. He’s immediately accepted the fight, on Gane’s home turf, and people are still finding fault? I don’t think there’s a result in MMA I want more than for Aspinall to completely flatten Gane in the rematch. The hate he’s been getting is so stupid and forced. Sean O’Malley had his best showing in a while. Definitely the best he’s looked since before those losses to Merab. And while not flashy, Zahabi is no walk in the park and he’d been on a nice little win streak coming in. Sweet finish, to be fair. Not a fan of O’Malley at all but I can’t really pick holes in this. I do feel like he should’ve been facing someone like Cory Sandhagen here, and there was some talk of that at one point. Petr Yan has also claimed that he accepted to fight O’Malley on this White House card but nothing came of it. Who knows? O’Malley’s pushing for the Yan rematch now, which is to be expected, but I still reckon we’ll get Yan vs Merab 3 first. The Hokit thing. What is there to even say? Proper cunt bag of a man. And this win meant very little and told us nothing really. Other than that Derrick Lewis looks absolutely done. Even the way he went down here, he just looks like he can’t be bothered with this shit anymore. Been a fan of Lewis forever but I’ve got no interest in seeing him again. He clearly doesn’t wanna be in there at this point and is just turning up for the paycheque. Hokit’s a mess though. The Michelle Obama comment was vile stuff. You know it’s bad when ‘Mr Free Speech’ Dana White even has to put out a statement saying he hated it. I even saw a clip of Trump taking off that chain thing Hokit put on him after that comment. When Epstein’s best mate thinks you’ve gone too far, it’s time to reevaluate your life choices and sort yourself the fuck out. It’s all just so desperate. And he doesn’t need to go this route. The Heavyweight division in its current form is complete arse. Just the fact that Hokit fights the way he does and isn’t dull in the cage would be enough to make him stand out. And I’m sure he could find a way to be entertaining enough on the mic without resorting to this type of shit. You know Dana must’ve been fuming. The non-MMA media were already gonna be critical of an event like this happening at the White House. Hokit going on like an absolute cunt just gave them the perfect lead story. At the same time, I don’t sympathise with Dana either. They knew what Hokit was like when they added him to the card. Deal with it. Ruffy smashing Chandler up was how I think pretty much everyone expected that one to go. Ruffy just made a highlight reel out of him. All done and dusted inside a round. Chandler really needs to call it a day. It’s so clearly over but you know he’s gonna hang on and keep begging for that McGregor fight. He looked like such a jobber here. That’s four losses in a row now, 1-6 in his last seven and the only win was over the ghost of Tony Ferguson. Wrap it up Mickey. It’s one of them fights though where, as good as Ruffy looked, it didn’t tell us anything new. Styling on a washed up Chandler is good for the highlight reel but it doesn’t mean much in 2026. Not sure who he fights next but looking at the rankings, he’s probably gonna have to take a fight against someone lower ranked. Everyone above him is either booked or has bigger fish to fry. Wouldn’t mind seeing him against Dan Hooker or maybe Mateusz Gamrot if they wanna test his grappling again after that submission loss to BSD. Can’t see them doing it because they’d probably rather build both up but I wouldn’t hate Ruffy vs Quillan Salkilld at all either. Not much to say about the Bo Nickal vs Kyle Daukaus fight. Alright while it lasted and Bo looked good and got the early finish. Bit disappointed Daukaus wasn’t able to put up more of a fight really. He got off to such a strong start in his first couple of fights since returning to the UFC, but he had nothing for Bo here. Bo’s entered the Middleweight rankings with this win. Of who’s currently available, Robocop Rodrigues seems like the fight to make. Lopes vs Garcia did what it said on the tin. This was never gonna be anything less than a wild shootout. Pretty much the perfect card opener. I thought Garcia was doing well early on, might’ve even won the first round. But Lopes got to him in the end and shut his lights out… What a picture! The UFC clearly love Lopes. He was on UFC 300, the Sphere card and now this White House one. Where next, the moon? Definitely an exciting fighter. I just really hope they don’t force a third Volk fight on us. Surely not right? You’d think not but I’ve given up trying to apply logic to a lot of the UFC’s decisions these days. I’d think it’ll be Volk vs Evloev for the strap next. So at #2 in the rankings, Lopes is gonna have to fight down. Maybe Lerone Murphy? Aljo? Allen? Vallejos? Pico? There’s plenty of fun and fresh fights for Lopes. So they’ll probably book Volk 3 just to spite us. Yeah, purely going off the fights alone, because I skipped or ignored all the other bollocks, this was good. Everything else can get in the bin though. Including this peptide Pygmy and his little pixie tie. Edited June 17 by wandshogun09 Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted June 18 Author Paid Members Posted June 18 On 6/15/2026 at 8:09 PM, NeverYield said: So many idiots online speculating Justin had "loaded" gloves.. Ahh man it’s mental. I’ve seen everything over the last few days. Gaethje’s gloves were loaded/tampered with, or he used the old plaster on his wraps. He used something on his feet, which is why they looked yellow on some pics so he could apparently get better footing on the canvas, allowing him to hit with more power. And my favourite one was that the CIA poisoned Topuria so that the Yank could win at the White House. I actually thought it must be tongue in cheek and people on the wind up at first but then you see them doubling down on it and bringing up stuff like Luis Resto vs Billy Collins and the Margarito thing as examples and you realise that they’re serious and that people this dumb actually do live amongst us. Quote
Paid Members Carbomb Posted June 19 Paid Members Posted June 19 There are clips out online of him blatantly eye poking though. One particular case against Pimblett, which I'm not sad about, but he does it to Barboza and a few others. Quote
jimufctna24 Posted June 19 Posted June 19 On 6/17/2026 at 9:03 PM, wandshogun09 said: ’ll say one thing though, as much as I wanted Pereira to win, part of me is glad he lost just so all the silly GOAT talk got squashed. All I was seeing during fight week was multiple social media accounts posting some variation of ‘If Pereira wins at the White House, is he the GOAT?’ When anyone with a working brain knows the answer is no. Fans get so hung up on fighters just winning belts in one singular fight. Pereira moving up to HW and beating Gane would’ve been impressive, but take the belt out of it and does one win in the division over Gane make anyone the GOAT? Not to mention the belt in question wasn’t even the proper belt it was an interim. So even if he’d won, he wouldn’t legitimately be a ‘three division champ’ in the full sense. He’s had a great career and he’s packed a lot into a five year run, but Christ, you’re not the ‘Greatest Of All Time’ just because you’ve hopped weight classes and been fast tracked into title fights at every turn. Especially when you’ve already lost title fights in both your previous divisions. It’s like when McGregor moved up to 155 and beat Eddie Alvarez. Fans furiously wank that win off now and act like he did something nobody else could do, but he literally jumped up to 155 and was given an immediate title shot. Easier to do things others can’t when you’re being given opportunities others aren’t. Becoming a 3 weight UFC champion would have been a great achievement, but it didn't cross my mind that it would have made Pereira the GOAT. Pereira has beaten some very good versions of some very good fighters (Izzy, Strickland, Ankalaev, Jiri, etc), but his wins do not compare to other great fighters (GSP, etc). It's not altogether his fault. The fighters at 185lbs and above in this era are generally not as strong as the lighter divisions, and the likes of Jones and Cormier were long gone from the 205lbs division by the time he moved up from 185lbs, but still, his record just doesn't measure up compared to other greats. Quote
NeverYield Posted June 21 Posted June 21 On 6/19/2026 at 12:38 AM, wandshogun09 said: Ahh man it’s mental. I’ve seen everything over the last few days. Gaethje’s gloves were loaded/tampered with, or he used the old plaster on his wraps. He used something on his feet, which is why they looked yellow on some pics so he could apparently get better footing on the canvas, allowing him to hit with more power. And my favourite one was that the CIA poisoned Topuria so that the Yank could win at the White House. I actually thought it must be tongue in cheek and people on the wind up at first but then you see them doubling down on it and bringing up stuff like Luis Resto vs Billy Collins and the Margarito thing as examples and you realise that they’re serious and that people this dumb actually do live amongst us. Good grief I hadn't seen that CIA one, people are so stupid sometimes! Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted June 21 Author Paid Members Posted June 21 (edited) On 6/19/2026 at 10:07 AM, Carbomb said: There are clips out online of him blatantly eye poking though. One particular case against Pimblett, which I'm not sad about, but he does it to Barboza and a few others. True but there’s a massive difference between that and these mad conspiracy theories. I think a lot of it is because this card attracted a bunch of new eyes. And whenever you get that, you tend to get people who don’t usually watch crying conspiracy or ‘fix’ about everything after. It’s been the same in big Boxing fights which pull in fans from outside the bubble for years as well. Boxing has apparently been “dead” according to these types for as long as I’ve been watching. While I’m here, has anyone seen Bisping’s comments about the Gane vs Pereira fight? ”Listen, he lost the fight. There is no shame in that whatsoever. Sitting there complaining and crying about it, going on about how he was fouled, it’s just not a good look”. Seriously. Coming from a guy who literally lost an eye, nearly went blind in the other one, as a direct result of foul play, this is mind boggling. Anyone who was a fan during Bisping’s fighting career will remember him constantly moaning about opponents using PEDs. Now the cheating isn’t effecting him, fighters should just keep quiet and move on? What is it with this increasing trend of blaming the guy who was wronged in these situations and siding with the guy who fought dirty? Especially when it comes to someone like Gane who’s got a proven track record for fouls in pretty much every fight he’s had. Imagine basically saying to someone, ‘Yeah, ok, you got twatted multiple times in the back of the head. God just shut up about it will you’. Mental. Shouldn’t really be a surprise though. Did anyone catch Bisping’s recent comments about Tom Aspinall, who was supposed to be Bisping’s mate? ”I know Tom, we used to have a close relationship. We don’t talk these days. He thinks he’s above and beyond fighting in the UFC. I had surgery, recovered, came back and had a fight in a shorter amount of time than what it’s taken with this whole eye poke saga. He’s been very vague about the details. He’s got a YouTube channel, he posts content all the time, you’d talk about it.” The state of it. It’s been common knowledge for years that Bisping’s loyal to the UFC but to see him become this much of a bootlicking company man is genuinely embarrassing. Starting to think he’d disown his kids if they criticised the UFC/Dana at this point. Also, it’s complete bollocks. Aspinall hasn’t been vague. He gave updates saying that doctors advised him not to do full contact training/sparring etc, was talking about upcoming surgeries etc. And what happened? People were giving him a load of shit for “milking it” and, in Bisping’s words, “complaining and crying about it”. Then when he doesn’t speak about it he’s being too vague? What do people actually want? 🤣 All this “it’s not a good look” shite, what’s really not a good look is throwing your mate under the bus and blowing up a friendship because you’re a full-on stooge and shill for the company and want to appease the gaffer. Someone on Twitter found a clip of Bisping talking about the Aspinall thing just a few months ago and he literally said… ”The one thing you can’t do with an eye, is rush back. That is the one big lesson that I learned. Because I did that. I rushed back too soon, I rushed back to sparring, I rushed back to competition, and I never saw out of that eye again. So Tom has got to take his time. And if he’s having surgery, he’s definitely gonna be out for at least a few months.” Fast forward a few months and he’s completely changed his tune. Pathetic. Edited June 21 by wandshogun09 Quote
Paid Members Carbomb Posted June 21 Paid Members Posted June 21 Fucking disgraceful. One of the things I detest most about American culture is this obsession with automatically blaming people for their own misfortune or being wronged, like it would never happen to themselves. The whole individualist, Protestant work ethic bullshit. "Life ain't fair" - then why do we and even "lower" animals have a basic concept for it, fuckhead? Why do we have laws and rules? You work to make it fair where you can, and you don't defend cheats. But then, given the majority kind of people who tend to watch the UFC these days, they're probably trying to defend their own right to be shitty to people, either for things they've done or want to do. Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted June 21 Author Paid Members Posted June 21 1 hour ago, Carbomb said: But then, given the majority kind of people who tend to watch the UFC these days, they're probably trying to defend their own right to be shitty to people, either for things they've done or want to do. I think it’s a bit of this but also it’s usually completely hypocritical bollocks that changes depending on who they’re a fanboy of. Like the whole Aspinall vs Gane mess. I said at the time that I didn’t buy the talk that fans ‘turned on’ Aspinall after the fight. I think there were a lot of (Jones) fans who went into that fight hating and hoping Aspinall would drop a bollock, looking for any excuse to stick the boot in. It just so happened that the way it played out gave them the perfect opportunity to dump on him. But can you imagine the uproar if the roles were reversed and Aspinall poked Gane in the eyes and he couldn’t continue? The same people who are calling Aspinall a pussy and a quitter and excusing Gane would be calling Aspinall a cheater and acting like it was the worst foul ever. It’s all shite. Even this Gaethje vs Topuria thing now, you’ve got Makhachev fans doing a victory lap and acting like Topuria was a fraud, because it suits their agenda and in their eyes seems to elevate Makhachev more somehow. Not that he even needs it! He’s probably the top fighter in the sport right now anyway. It’s almost like the tribalism bollocks of WWE fans vs AEW fans at this point. It’s like hardly anyone just enjoys the fights anymore. They all have to pick a side and if you’re a fan of Fighter A, you have to minimise and tear down Fighter B at every opportunity to boost your guy up. Then they switch their support to another fighter if he’s fighting their favourite’s ‘enemy’ and act like they were always a fan of him. It’s all twisting narratives and context to suit their agenda and it’s so pathetic and tiresome. There’s always been a bit of that in combat sports but I don’t ever remember it being as bad as it is now. Quote
jimufctna24 Posted June 21 Posted June 21 (edited) 3 hours ago, wandshogun09 said: It’s been common knowledge for years that Bisping’s loyal to the UFC but to see him become this much of a bootlicking company man is genuinely embarrassing. Starting to think he’d disown his kids if they criticised the UFC/Dana at this point. I can imagine these pair were petitioning for who would be first to bootlick White's trainers. I've gone back and forth with Bisping over the years. I liked him when he appeared on TUF 3, grew to dislike him as the 2000s came to a close, but then softened towards him in the mid-2010s. I suspect he's always been a bit of a prick though. Andy Geer called Lee Murray a "decent bloke" and seemingly still gets along with some of the other wrong-uns from Cage Rage, so he's clearly not a fussy man. Yet, he described Bisping as an "arrogant wanker". Edited June 21 by jimufctna24 Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.