MMA & UFC General - Featuring Bellator MMA & Rizin Fighting Federation

[naffatune]

I'm a little bit tardy to the party here, but Hall VS Strickland was a little bit irritating to watch; it was clear that Hall was the sharper striker since he was showing Strickland his fast body jab multiple times, but in my head, I constantly urged him to follow up. If he did, he might've won a decision.

To his credit, Strickland was showing solid defense. He's probably one of the only guys that uses a philly shell in MMA.

Something I like much more than Strickland's defense is his mentality. He just loves to fight, and a guy who enjoys the process in every way is hard to take out. I would just like him to stop being sloppy with his punches (Uriah was obviously right) and to stand a little bit wider for some balance.

Oh and also, I'd like to congratulate Melsik Baghdasaryan on his debut. It's always nice to see guys from boxing and kickboxing coming into MMA and having success.

 

[Slimy Time]

Upcoming card tomorrow actually looks good, even without all the big names. Aldo and Munhoz, banger. Luque and Chiesa, potentially another murder by Luque. Angela Hill tends to force slightly more exciting fights out of the women's division. Bobby Green and Raphael Fiziev on the feature prelim should be very good, and then there is the main event, which is the stereotypical Derrick Lewis matchup. He's going to get the shit kicked out of him by someone more technically sound until he either lands the one punch that flips the momentum of the fight, or he won't and will gas out by round 3/4, and then lose.

Edit: Also, who is going to be the one this time to break something? I hope to God that it's not Aldo.

 

[I.B. Niggin]

Well, I don't think Ngannou is going to be champ for too much longer.

 

[Slimy Time]

Houston on suicide watch. Their Texas boy lost to a baguette eating Frenchman. Overall, perfect game plan and execution by Gane. I don't think he ever got touched seriously. Pretty bad showing, even for Lewis. Nice that it was a finish rather than a 25 minute deconstruction.

Aldo turning back the clock and putting on a masterclass in how to completely nullify and take away his opponent's tools was great. By round 2 Munhoz looked like he didn't know what to do. Wasn't the banger I thought it was going to be, but a very good performance.

Chiesa Luque was fun. Chiesa's gameplan as described worked exactly as planned. Skip around, don't stand infront of him, throw jabs and straights and draw out Luque's response, which is to plant and fire hard. When he does, shoot and submit him. Almost had Luque several times, but then made one mistake that completely fucked him over and lost him the fight. He did the wrestler's standup of going onto his stomach and using all four limbs to stand up while Luque was by his head and got subbed.

Torres and Hill was typical WMMA bullshit, and typical Angela Hill of getting a better fight out of her opponent, and then losing.

Song Yadong and Casey Kenny just made me think Kenny is a retard for jumping on the cage and thinking he won. I don't know how that was a split decision or how one judge gave Kenny 2 rounds. Guess it's Texas judges, they are retarded there.

Green and Fiziev was as entertaining as it was meant to be. Very exciting and high level fight between them. Also, shoutout to that woman in the very early undercard for breaking her arm so that none of the big name fighters fell to the bone break curse that seems to have plagued all post covid live events.

Well, I don't think Ngannou is going to be champ for too much longer.

Wouldn't be surprised if they stripped him for not playing ball. The whole interim shit happened to spite him for not fighting Lewis in Houston.

 

[Swiss46]

Gane was impressive tonight and deserves the real title shot. The first like 5 fights ending in finishes was really entertaining and a good way to open the night.

 

[trent]

Heavyweight mma once again proves to be trash.

Seriously, there's like 5 decent fighters in the entire division across all promotions so it just ends up being: slightly better than average guy strings together a few wins against utter bums, he gets matched up against actual-decent-fighter and loses horribly, rinse and repeat.

 

[Slimy Time]

Heavyweight mma once again proves to be trash.

Seriously, there's like 5 decent fighters in the entire division across all promotions so it just ends up being: slightly better than average guy strings together a few wins against utter bums, he gets matched up against actual-decent-fighter and loses horribly, rinse and repeat.

The official stats were great. 98 to 16 strikes. There is that meme photo going around of when the UFC put up their strikes counted and Lewis was at zero, and then another one where he was at 1 strike to the head, body and legs each.

Gane though, that guy is beyond decent. He's making all these other longtime fighters look like complete ass by outdoing them with 2 years of professional MMA experience.

 

[I.B. Niggin]

Heavyweight mma once again proves to be trash.

Seriously, there's like 5 decent fighters in the entire division across all promotions so it just ends up being: slightly better than average guy strings together a few wins against utter bums, he gets matched up against actual-decent-fighter and loses horribly, rinse and repeat.

Honestly, the heavyweight division has really always been that way, even during the heyday of Pride. I don't think there's ever been six elite fighters in a single heavyweight division at once.

 

[Slimy Time]

Honestly, the heavyweight division has really always been that way, even during the heyday of Pride. I don't think there's ever been six elite fighters in a single heavyweight division at once.

Pretty much this. UFC has Ngannou, Gane, Stipe (assuming he's not shot and old), Blaydes, Volkov...the rest have one trick, and if it doesn't work, it goes to shit. I'm sure there might be a few more like Aspinall who show promise but have to climb the ladder.

I'm not putting Lewis in there because he is everything bad with heavyweight MMA, while also being good. Same with Rozenstruik, who looked like garbage against Reem just because Reem went southpaw.

 

[naffatune]

Heavyweight mma once again proves to be trash.

Seriously, there's like 5 decent fighters in the entire division across all promotions so it just ends up being: slightly better than average guy strings together a few wins against utter bums, he gets matched up against actual-decent-fighter and loses horribly, rinse and repeat.

Spot on, obviously.

All of the heavy divisions (e.g. heavyweight, light heavyweight, cruiserweight, etc.) in MMA and boxing are just trash, regardless of time period. Most of the guys at that division aren't athletic, and thus, can't maintain a consistent, fast output of attacks through 15+ minutes. It's sad because heavyweights are known to get more attention than the lighter guys simply because casuals find it more exciting when two physical titans clash, even if they aren't technically perfect.

The only guys in heavyweight UFC that are worth watching include Gane, Stipe, Ngannou (now that he's more skilled) and Tanner Boser. You know a division is full of doodoo when you can't stand watching anybody outside the top 5.

 

[Slimy Time]

The only guys in heavyweight UFC that are worth watching include Gane, Stipe, Ngannou (now that he's more skilled) and Tanner Boser. You know a division is full of doodoo when you can't stand watching anybody outside the top 5.

That reminds me of one of the fight nights where they put old man Oleinik against young 26 year old Sergei Spivak. Holy shit that was fucking awful. Oleinik is basically fighting in slow motion and has one round of gas. You would think after one round this young, big Moldovan would just flatten the 40+ year old grandpa. Nope, the motherfucker is gassed as well. We now have a 3 round snoozefest of fatass Spivak lying on top of Oleinik and not doing much to a decision. Spivak is now the number 14 guy in the division. It is legit awful outside the top guys in the division.

I would add on Aspinall as someone interesting, but he has some work to do to climb the rankings. Used to be an amateur boxer and one of Tyson Fury's sparring partners. His dad ran a BJJ school which he started while young. He now trains with Darren Till. The result? A fairly quick heavyweight with good footwork, hands and feints, and who has wrestling/submissions in his back pocket.

 

[naffatune]

I would add on Aspinall as someone interesting, but he has some work to do to climb the rankings. Used to be an amateur boxer and one of Tyson Fury's sparring partners.

Aspinall is not bad. I do agree that some guys outside the top 5 are good, and have the potential to climb up to the top ranks. Tanner Boser isn't a top 10 guy, but he has the speed and the technique of a typical lightweight, making him a hot prospect.

Speaking of lightweights, Fiziev impressed us once again. I have a folder full of exchanges that I clipped while watching fights. As you'd expect, I found some nice nuggets from his match with Green.

EDIT: Although Fiziev's technique is mostly sharp, he does need to remain more efficient. I remember Dom Cruz pointing out that Fiziev's constant kicking ended up tiring him out, which I think is true, since Fiziev's punches started looking sloppy during the last round.

 

[Slimy Time]

Aspinall is not bad. I do agree that some guys outside the top 5 are good, and have the potential to climb up to the top ranks. Tanner Boser isn't a top 10 guy, but he has the speed and the technique of a typical lightweight, making him a hot prospect.

Speaking of lightweights, Fiziev impressed us once again. I have a folder full of exchanges that I clipped while watching fights. As you'd expect, I found some nice nuggets from his match with Green.

EDIT: Although Fiziev's technique is mostly sharp, he does need to remain more efficient. I remember Dom Cruz pointing out that Fiziev's constant kicking ended up tiring him out, which I think is true, since Fiziev's punches started looking sloppy during the last round.

That's what you would expect from Petr Yan's striking coach and sparring partner at Tiger Muay Thai. That fight was great, but classic Green showboating and being defensively slick while not doing enough output in the early rounds to win the fight. Great to see them in clips being buddy-buddy after the fight.

 

[You're a Big Guy]

Brendan Schaub is a god DAMNED HERO.

 

[Slimy Time]

Brendan Schaub is a god DAMNED HERO.

Is this him saving people from a car crash?

Edit: Anyways, tomorrow we have Jared QAnonnier, possibly the most based and redpilled black man on the UFC roster (no seriously, look into this guy, if he wasn't in the gym training for fights he could potentially be found on a thread here screaming about how pyrite crystals power him with vibrations and how Obama is a "filthy paedophile Freemason who should be killed") fighting Kelvin "watch me almost miss weight again because my mum's cooking is too good" Gastelum.

I've got Tha Killa Gorilla winning this one and keeping the American border safe from those Mexicans.

 

[naffatune]

EDSON BARBOZA DOES IT AGAIN!!!

 

[Slimy Time]

EDSON BARBOZA DOES IT AGAIN!!!

Prelims were fire this week. Please let this be a sign that next week Barboza comes out on top.
Also, our proud American patriot QAnonnier got the job done, he defending the boarder and his division from the Mexican invasion. What does that make Gastelum, 5-1 in his last 6? 4-7-1 in the division overall? He going to either get cut or be relegated to gatekeeper.

Pantoja vs Moreno is likely a go. Be interesting to see if Moreno can beat the guy who has always had a one up on him in their 3rd meeting.
---
Oh oh, good old Michael Chandler just made an enemy of the entire MMA subreddit and probably most of twitter.

 

[naffatune]

Prelims were fire this week. Please let this be a sign that next week Barboza comes out on top.

Back then, I was really looking forward to Chikadze's rise to the top, and I still am, but I always thought that, being a Glory kickboxer, his hands were kind of lacking since he prioritized kicks (especially the giga). I thought that this fight would end in a split decision victory for Chikadze, but to my surprise, he showcased his hand speed and caught Barboza. I even saw him counter with an overhand as Barboza jabbed at one point. With the hand speed and counterpunching in mind, and think Chikadze's boxing has improved and it's definitely better than the hands of most guys in the UFC.

Don't know where Barboza goes from here. I personally think that Barboza simply cannot compete with the top guys because his fighting style is outdated. It's a kicking-heavy style that is energy inefficient and can easily be countered with punches because the kicks themselves are slower and compromise your balance. Like all losing fighters, Barboza needs to adapt or die.

 

[Slimy Time]

@immovable object, Agree that his hand speed was surprising, however I still think his "pocket boxing" is something he isn't comfortable with. Round 2 iirc had a lot of Barboza doing the tactic that works against him and pushing Chikadze to the fence and using the boxing he showed in the Burgos fight, and I remember thinking that Chikadze really looked like he wanted space and to be "boxing on the outside", instead of exchanging in the pocket.

Credit where credit is due, after that round he did push forward hard and hurt Barboza, and in classic Barboza fashion, once his back touched the fence he fell to shit. Either he was skipping around with his hands down like he always does and was getting caught by punches, or when he decided to cover up, he stood still, allowing Chikadze to tee off on him and the holes in his guard. He really can't move and cover against the fence well, if at all.

Max callout was funny to me, because if I had to pick one matchup which would be a disaster matchup for him, Max would probably be it. Nothing better than seeing someone willingly play the Tyron Woodley styled game of "fight on the fence" against probably the best pressure and volume fighter in UFC/MMA history, who's best work comes from pocket striking, which Chikadze seems to dislike/not be so strong at.

 

[Hollywood Hulk Hogan]

Injecting copious amounts of black market PEDs, with god knows what in them, is totally cool, but a FDA approved vaccine? Oh no!