UFC / MMA
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Had to avoid the internet to not get this one spoiled by the time I caught up. What an absolute cracker of an event. Easily the best since 300..might have even enjoyed it more due to actually knowing a few of the fighters and their history now than I did back then.
From the ones I remember:
Leal was robbed, such a rough start to the pre-lims, I don't know what causes these extremely bad judging calls thankfully it wasn't indicative of the rest of the day.Basharat was awesome still taking that match despite Hugo appearing to not even try to make weight.
First time I've seen Barnett, damn he looks like fun..a shame the fight ended the way I would have expected from such a physique.
Gutted the Orolbai lost, hell of a fight, I wonder if he could actually see out of that eye? Something so likeable about him, looks like Gengus Khan reincarnated.
Aslan looks like a monster, hopefully see him on some main events now.
Magomedov's double spinning backfist was incredible. The dude looks like a hell of a Bond villain, one eye?
Thought Murphy might have been fortunate on the decision but it was close enough to not be a concern.
So weird Rakic's corner telling him he was 2 rounds up coming into the 3rd when he was clearly at least 1 down if not 2..final scoring showed that, could have made for a hell of a 3rd round if he'd tried to outscore or put Ankalaev away.
I now get the hype about Chimaev...feels like it just a matter of time before he is defending the title from the rest of todays current contenders.
So gutted that Holloway went down, become a huge fan of his since 300. Thought he was well on top of Tuporia in that first round, clearly outboxing him..but damn once Tuporia got his timing right that power was not to be denied. Showed some class after the win which was great to see after all the dumb shit he'd been drumming up of the last few months.
309 is going to be a huge let down after this one.
@Rembrandt said in UFC / MMA:
Had to avoid the internet to not get this one spoiled by the time I caught up. What an absolute cracker of an event. Easily the best since 300..might have even enjoyed it more due to actually knowing a few of the fighters and their history now than I did back then.
From the ones I remember:
Leal was robbed, such a rough start to the pre-lims, I don't know what causes these extremely bad judging calls thankfully it wasn't indicative of the rest of the day.Basharat was awesome still taking that match despite Hugo appearing to not even try to make weight.
First time I've seen Barnett, damn he looks like fun..a shame the fight ended the way I would have expected from such a physique.
Gutted the Orolbai lost, hell of a fight, I wonder if he could actually see out of that eye? Something so likeable about him, looks like Gengus Khan reincarnated.
Aslan looks like a monster, hopefully see him on some main events now.
Magomedov's double spinning backfist was incredible. The dude looks like a hell of a Bond villain, one eye?
Thought Murphy might have been fortunate on the decision but it was close enough to not be a concern.
So weird Rakic's corner telling him he was 2 rounds up coming into the 3rd when he was clearly at least 1 down if not 2..final scoring showed that, could have made for a hell of a 3rd round if he'd tried to outscore or put Ankalaev away.
I now get the hype about Chimaev...feels like it just a matter of time before he is defending the title from the rest of todays current contenders.
So gutted that Holloway went down, become a huge fan of his since 300. Thought he was well on top of Tuporia in that first round, clearly outboxing him..but damn once Tuporia got his timing right that power was not to be denied. Showed some class after the win which was great to see after all the dumb shit he'd been drumming up of the last few months.
309 is going to be a huge let down after this one.
Yes to all that
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The weakest PPV for a while with a couple of fights dropping off
I hate how the main event has held up the HW division. Any HW title fight should involve Aspinall
Jones should win, I'll be cheering for Stipe though. If Jones wins I hope he doesn't retire. He should fight Aspinall, and if he gets past him, fight Pereira. That would make an unbeatable record on paper
Chandler has been screwed over by waiting around for Conor. I assume Oliveira will be too good again
Nickal v Craig is the fight I'm most looking forward too. Craig, despite being on slide, is better than what Nickal has faced so far. Specialist wrestler v specialist BJJ. I hope Craig gets the upset but I think Bo gets a KO.. he's not subtle with his striking but he has natural power and Craig is really hittable
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The weakest PPV for a while with a couple of fights dropping off
I hate how the main event has held up the HW division. Any HW title fight should involve Aspinall
Jones should win, I'll be cheering for Stipe though. If Jones wins I hope he doesn't retire. He should fight Aspinall, and if he gets past him, fight Pereira. That would make an unbeatable record on paper
Chandler has been screwed over by waiting around for Conor. I assume Oliveira will be too good again
Nickal v Craig is the fight I'm most looking forward too. Craig, despite being on slide, is better than what Nickal has faced so far. Specialist wrestler v specialist BJJ. I hope Craig gets the upset but I think Bo gets a KO.. he's not subtle with his striking but he has natural power and Craig is really hittable
@Duluth My feelings exactly. Most annoying part is the stars have aligned and I have the house to myself so can finally watch one live.
Can't tell if Jones is just trolling everyone trying to get as much hype as possible for an eventual Aspinall showdown..or whether he really is just ducking.
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The weakest PPV for a while with a couple of fights dropping off
I hate how the main event has held up the HW division. Any HW title fight should involve Aspinall
Jones should win, I'll be cheering for Stipe though. If Jones wins I hope he doesn't retire. He should fight Aspinall, and if he gets past him, fight Pereira. That would make an unbeatable record on paper
Chandler has been screwed over by waiting around for Conor. I assume Oliveira will be too good again
Nickal v Craig is the fight I'm most looking forward too. Craig, despite being on slide, is better than what Nickal has faced so far. Specialist wrestler v specialist BJJ. I hope Craig gets the upset but I think Bo gets a KO.. he's not subtle with his striking but he has natural power and Craig is really hittable
The weakest PPV for a while with a couple of fights dropping off
I hate how the main event has held up the HW division. Any HW title fight should involve Aspinall
Jones should win, I'll be cheering for Stipe though. If Jones wins I hope he doesn't retire. He should fight Aspinall, and if he gets past him, fight Pereira. That would make an unbeatable record on paper
Chandler has been screwed over by waiting around for Conor. I assume Oliveira will be too good again
Nickal v Craig is the fight I'm most looking forward too. Craig, despite being on slide, is better than what Nickal has faced so far. Specialist wrestler v specialist BJJ. I hope Craig gets the upset but I think Bo gets a KO.. he's not subtle with his striking but he has natural power and Craig is really hittable
Can't argue with any of that
Oban Elliot on the early Prelims could be a good one. He's due a performance
Gall v Brahimaj is a good match up
Tybura v Diniz could be interesting. Big noise around Diniz but Tybura is canny
Miller v Jackson could be a barnburner. Come on Jim
Weidman v Anders could be Chris's last hurrah
Nickal will be too good for Craig
Oliveira too good for Chandler
A good young 'un will beat a good old 'un but would love Stipe to win
Jones is a brilliant fighter but the drug shit always rankles
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Turns out it was a great card
Cracking finishes from Oban Elliot, Brahimaj, Tybura, Miller and Jones
Nickal needs to show more to fight for the belt
Charles v Mike was one for the ages
Jones picked Stipe apart
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Turns out it was a great card
Cracking finishes from Oban Elliot, Brahimaj, Tybura, Miller and Jones
Nickal needs to show more to fight for the belt
Charles v Mike was one for the ages
Jones picked Stipe apart
@MiketheSnow said in UFC / MMA:
Turns out it was a great card
Cracking finishes from Oban Elliot, Brahimaj, Tybura, Miller and Jones
Nickal needs to show more to fight for the belt
Charles v Mike was one for the ages
Jones picked Stipe apart
Yeah some fun fights
The gap between Jones and Miocic was huge but Stipe was disappointing. He looked his age. Good decision from JJ to attack the body so much
Aspinall will be confident against Jones, he's considerably quicker and he's larger. I'm picking Jones will drag out negotiations and then try to talk up a Pereira fight.. I'm sure he could make that fight mostly happen off the feet
Charles was great but Chandlers resilience made that fight. The last round was an unbelievable effort
We know where Bo Nickal is at now. I thought he might be reluctant to take Craig down but I expected him to have more success with his striking. Unfortunately we had a kickboxing match between two limited kickboxers. The UFC have done Nickal no favours by talking him up so much.. who do they match him up against next? Maybe 15th ranked Michel Pereira?
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@MiketheSnow said in UFC / MMA:
Turns out it was a great card
Cracking finishes from Oban Elliot, Brahimaj, Tybura, Miller and Jones
Nickal needs to show more to fight for the belt
Charles v Mike was one for the ages
Jones picked Stipe apart
Yeah some fun fights
The gap between Jones and Miocic was huge but Stipe was disappointing. He looked his age. Good decision from JJ to attack the body so much
Aspinall will be confident against Jones, he's considerably quicker and he's larger. I'm picking Jones will drag out negotiations and then try to talk up a Pereira fight.. I'm sure he could make that fight mostly happen off the feet
Charles was great but Chandlers resilience made that fight. The last round was an unbelievable effort
We know where Bo Nickal is at now. I thought he might be reluctant to take Craig down but I expected him to have more success with his striking. Unfortunately we had a kickboxing match between two limited kickboxers. The UFC have done Nickal no favours by talking him up so much.. who do they match him up against next? Maybe 15th ranked Michel Pereira?
@MiketheSnow said in UFC / MMA:
Turns out it was a great card
Cracking finishes from Oban Elliot, Brahimaj, Tybura, Miller and Jones
Nickal needs to show more to fight for the belt
Charles v Mike was one for the ages
Jones picked Stipe apart
Yeah some fun fights
The gap between Jones and Miocic was huge but Stipe was disappointing. He looked his age. Good decision from JJ to attack the body so much
Aspinall will be confident against Jones, he's considerably quicker and he's larger. I'm picking Jones will drag out negotiations and then try to talk up a Pereira fight.. I'm sure he could make that fight mostly happen off the feet
Charles was great but Chandlers resilience made that fight. The last round was an unbelievable effort
We know where Bo Nickal is at now. I thought he might be reluctant to take Craig down but I expected him to have more success with his striking. Unfortunately we had a kickboxing match between two limited kickboxers. The UFC have done Nickal no favours by talking him up so much.. who do they match him up against next? Maybe 15th ranked Michel Pereira?
Yeah Pereira would be a good call. Or Hermansson.
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The Macau fight night is tonight
Yan v Figueiredo has potential to be a good fight. I suspect Yan will be more in control the longer it goes.
Huge night for kiwi Carlos Ulberg. Oezdemir is a really dangerous opponent with plenty of power. The odds have Ulberg as a healthy favourite (3.1 v 1.32) I think it's closer than that. I'm picking Ulberg to make less mistakes and finish it with another KO
I don't think the UFC has much interest in Pereira going to HW so they are looking for fresh LHW opponents. A good win will have Ulberg close to a title shot.. maybe one more fight away. You can see how the UFC would market it "Adesanya's teammate vs.."
The Ulberg fight should start around 12:45am
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Oezdemir is dangerous and back on the up
Want Ulberg to win but can easily see the opposite
Should make for a great fight
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UFC 310
On paper not a bad fight all night
Lots of old dogs in the mix
From the bottom
Nzechukwu
Hooper
Chiesa
Van
Anders
Battle
Evloev
Luque
Smith
Landwehr
Mitchell
Volkov
Rakhmonov
Pantoja -
UFC 310
On paper not a bad fight all night
Lots of old dogs in the mix
From the bottom
Nzechukwu
Hooper
Chiesa
Van
Anders
Battle
Evloev
Luque
Smith
Landwehr
Mitchell
Volkov
Rakhmonov
Pantoja -
Some very good fights and a couple of daylight robberies
Smith needs to retire
Was sad seeing him loseChoi was excellent
Mitchell impressive
Volkov was robbed
Shak v Garry was excellent
Toughest fight both have hadPantoja was magnificent
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Navajo Stirling makes his UFC debut this weekend.
I'm confident this guy will have a good career. Another quality kickboxer but according to Bareman he's more advanced as a grappler than some of the other CKB fighters were when they first arrived
Here's his KO in the Contender series
UFC on Sky was mostly about him this week
Also Ulberg is fighting Blachowicz in March. The winner likely gets a title shot
2025 might be a very good year for Kiwi fighters. Not saying all of this will happen but:
- KKF probably has the next title shot v Pantoja
- Ulberg is probably one win away from a title fight
- Adesanya is probably one win away from another title fight
- Hooker might be one win away from a title fight (prob needs an impressive finish though)
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Cool to see these guys training together. The chances of them fighting again is slim.
Makes sense for Whittaker to spend some time with CKB too. He's been talking about moving up to LHW and there's a couple of quality LHW's at the gym to compare himself with
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Finally got around to 311. Merab / Umar and Jiri /Jamahal were pretty awesome. Others although finishes just seemed kinda forgettable, not entirely sure why. Aside from Holland didn't really know of any of the others and even he's lost so much its hard to be excited about his fights. Great to see Pereira / Ankalaev announced after what looked like on social media that it wasn't going to happen..starting to think they might have been planning to milk Pereira with weaker easier style-fits while they can rather than against an actual threat.
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Merab took him to deep water
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Rumours are Kai Kara-France will be facing Pantoja for the title at UFC314...no idea how accurate rumours are but surely he's the most likely candidate left
@Rembrandt said in UFC / MMA:
Rumours are Kai Kara-France will be facing Pantoja for the title at UFC314...no idea how accurate rumours are but surely he's the most likely candidate left
It's almost certain. KKF has been talking about that date recently. Hopefully we get the official announcement at the event this weekend
It's a big few months for CKB
This weekend - Adesanya v Imavov
A tricky fight. I'm interested too watch Izzy's cardio, Bareman was critical after the last fight. He was in control against DDP then made an error that Bareman blamed on tiredness. We're at the stage where age might be becoming a factor. Maybe a change in tactics and he'll go for a stoppage earlier?If Adesanya wins he'll probably fight the winner of DDP v Strickland for the belt
March 8th - Hooker v Gaethje (UFC 313)
5 rounds. I expect Hooker to get a title challenge if he wins. This fight should be funMarch 22 - Ulberg v Blachowicz (London)
Ulberg might get a title challenge if he wins. He probably needs to do it in style thoughApril 12 - Probably Pantoja v KKF (UFC 314)
For the titleMaybe Volk in April too?
