UFC / MMA
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What an awesome event. Clearly high on hopium for the main events on my picks. 8/14...So much of this event was decided on size. Ridrigues dwarved Kopylov, Morales dwarved Brady, Valentina/Weili..and even Islam looked bigger than JDM.
How good was the Ewing/Wellmaker match? When they said it was a late notice call-up (48 hours) I'd assumed they just paid the local janitor $10K to get knocked out my the the hype machine Wellmaker.
Nikal looking quality, RDR loss has aged well, guy has a lot of potential still.
How good was the non-main events on the main card?! Some absolute monsters coming through. Masterclass by the Valentina and Makhachev..kinda sucks for the welterweight division. Like we have so make absolutely awesomely skilled highly entertaining athletes coming through..but really do any have even half a chance against islam? Also can't see Tuporia coming up..well at least I hope not, dude is way too small.Maybe Morales might be the best of the lot, guy is an absolute giant with a solid grappling background that I'd previously been unaware of..still give Islam an 80% of a win though
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10-3 for me (one fight didn't happen)
Agree, the Ewing win was tremendous
Nikal could be the real deal. Huge improvement. He's one of the best post-fight interviewees too
Shev and Makh so, so dominant
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Well now that the appetiser is out of the way its time for the real main event of the year
https://www.ufc.com/event/ufc-fight-night-november-22-2025
Hooker's path to UFC gold is clear...assuming Dana doesn't go back on his word. Super important welterweight fight too
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I see Kai Kara-France is taking a year off. He's still contracted to UFC and has fights on his contract.
Seems similar to Brad Riddell who also took a break while still under contract.. 3 years later and I assume that became a retirement
The path to the belt looks difficult for KKF, maybe that improves in the next year? Cynics will note that he's dropping out of the testing pool.
I hope it's not related to the bad concussion he had a while ago
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@Duluth Kinda weird how he or the UFC didn't announce it before hand. Everyone suddenly just saw the flyweight rankings shift massively despite no fights. All sorts of rumours were flying.
Glad he is still about but yeah very tough spot for title aspirations, will be interesting where he moves to in rankings on return, plenty of fighters go for over a year without fights anyway and remain in rankings. Hell you get fighters moving up the rankings regularly without even fighting (Pimblett #8 to #5) for example
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Bit of a shame with the result, he was talking abit about using 'offensive grappling' as opposed to the defensive grappling he used against Gamrot..just not a good idea with someone at Arman's level. Good to see Arman giving him his flowers for fighting, was a real life-line to Arman's title chances.
https://x.com/RedCorner_MMA/status/1992365161064329322 -
Great evening of MMA
Some fabulous finishes
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A shame the Hooker fight went as expected. It’s easy to be wise after the fact, but going for a couple of guillotine attempts didn’t seem like the best tactic. Arman’s striking looked very slick too especially in the first round
Volk v Lopes II is underwhelming
Either the UFC really wants the marketable Lopes to be champ or the other contenders didn’t want to travel to Aussie. Both reasons aren’t great
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Weird matchups alright. Would love to know what is going on behind the scenes. No guarantee Lopes will win..so a loss then volks retirement surely wont see Lopes fight for the title a 3rd time. Cant imagine other contenders refusing a title shot either, doesnt make sense.
Also mental having interim lightweight fight between #4 and #8 ranked fighters (I know Pimblett is 'officially' #5 but they've been pushing him up the rankings from #8 without fighting.
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@Rembrandt said in UFC / MMA:
I know Pimblett is 'officially' #5 but they've been pushing him up the rankings from #8 without fighting.
I don't have a problem with his ranking. He looked very good in April. He's moved because people ahead of him deserved to drop places after recent losses (Gamrot, Dariush etc)
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@Rembrandt said in UFC / MMA:
I know Pimblett is 'officially' #5 but they've been pushing him up the rankings from #8 without fighting.
I don't have a problem with his ranking. He looked very good in April. He's moved because people ahead of him deserved to drop places after recent losses (Gamrot, Dariush etc)
Did he move up before or after those fights? I know he jumped Hooker before hookers fight which suggested he was getting the title shot before the announcement.
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@Rembrandt said in UFC / MMA:
Did he move up before or after those fights?
Yup he moved up a few times. Rankings are subjective but I disagree with the criticism that Paddy is getting for a few reasons
The idea that moving up without fighting is unusual (people move down). The claim that he's been inactive, he just fought in April. The claim that he 'only' beat Chandler from a bunch of people who picked Chandler to beat Paddy (I also picked Chandler)
The basic reasons for the movement is he had an impressive win while the fighters around him have been mixed
He has a 7-0 record in the UFC (5 performance of the night bonuses). Yes only the two most recent fights are against quality opposition
The fighters below him? What are their win streaks: 0, 0, 3, 1, 0
Personally I would have BSD and Fiziev a little higher than where they are but I don' think they demand a chance to step up before Pimblett
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@Duluth Actually don't mind where he is in the rankings now just the way he got there, if he'd moved up after the others dropped fights it would be more palatable. Arman not being involved in the interim title does seem like bs but Paddy has some good points on that which is hard to disagree with.
“On his way out of the cage, he punched a fan. Got banned.
*“UFC probably had to pay a huge f—ing fee for the fella not to sue them. He then got his title shot and ‘oh I’ve got a bad back’ he f—ing got beat by back pain when really he probably just couldn’t make weight.
“Sits out for f—ing 11 months, got offered a fight against Gamrot and says no. If I got offered a fight against someone who has beaten me, I’d be taking that fight immediately. Then fights Dan Hooker, headbutts him at the weigh in, nearly ruined another main event.
“You can understand why he’s not in that position and as much as I like Dan Hooker, he’s sound – he’s s—. He can’t grapple to save his life, he can’t grapple if his mam’s life depended on it. If I had that guillotine on Arman, he’s going unconscious. If Dan Hooker is nearly guillotining you, you’re s— at jits.”*
