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How many of this month's B-league main eventers do you recognize without googling? This poll is closed. |
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| Logan Storley |
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16 | 9.20% |
| Brennan Ward |
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17 | 9.77% |
| Chingiz Allazov |
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13 | 7.47% |
| Marat Grigorian |
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7 | 4.02% |
| Bubba Jenkins |
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21 | 12.07% |
| Jesus Pinedo |
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4 | 2.30% |
| Renan Ferreira |
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7 | 4.02% |
| Maurice Greene |
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24 | 13.79% |
| Clay Collard |
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22 | 12.64% |
| Shane Burgos |
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43 | 24.71% |
| Total: | 46 votes | ||
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one of the tshirt dudes I follow that does drops mostly does movie stuff. but today he dropped a PRIDE/Blood Meridian shirt that’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen: https://andafterthat.net/products/pride-tee
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Aug 18, 2023 18:22
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 08:21 |
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   very exciting fighter. He reminds me a lot of Conor as evidenced above, but he has a little more of Chuck + Jardine in him. his angles are weirder like them and he has really tight hooks like them. I have no idea what to call the style, but it's much less straight karate like vintage Conor was.
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Aug 20, 2023 21:00
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kimbo305 posted:Aljo going up in weight really fucks with his legacy imo. They’re gonna protect O’Malley from Merab even if he’s now unclogged to fight. he's got an absolutely bizarre legacy. won the title completely deservingly by the rules--illegal strike rules are there for a reason--but completely undeservingly in the eyes of probably 99% of fans. then he won a razor-thin coulda-gone-either-way split decision, then beat a one-armed guy, then won a razor-thin-but-probably-the-right-call split decision against a guy who hasn't fought in three years. then got slept by a guy who everyone rightfully thought got an easy push to the title fight. he's a great fighter, but its gotta be the weakest title reign ever in the eyes of most of the public.
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Aug 20, 2023 22:39
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beep by grandpa posted:Disclaimer: this post isn't meant to be disingenuous/inflammatory, genuinely asking for those who remember better, ty! it's mostly that you can (rightfully) see how drooling Dana + the UFC are about him being champ. So they treated the Munhoz fight like it was a win, they treated the Yan fight like it was a clear win, they hype him up and market him endlessly. Which is not entirely illogical. He's a flashy champion with media skills and a unique look and a very compelling style with a great highlight reel and an Irish name, which is especially important for the huge Irish diaspora in America that feels like they can claim citizenship with 5% blood. They're definitely going to promote him more and give him an easier path to the title than like, Belal Muhammad. It probably makes sense. The same marketing push behind someone like Belal Muhammad would most likely return less. It's the ugly business side of the sport. It's why he's going to fight Chito next almost guaranteed, and they're gonna try to give a bad matchup to Merab and hope that he loses, and we're all gonna angry post. Or they're gonna try to get Merab to step in to fight him on like three weeks' notice and then use that as an excuse to not give Merab the fight if Merab declines. Which, y'know, they're a public company. The value of O'Malley being champ instead of Merab is presumably massive. So Dana and Ari literally have a fiduciary responsibility to try and maximize that. So they gotta walk this tight rope of "it's a real sport, we swear!!!" and "of course we don't give people easy paths!!!". And it's true. He DID have to knock Aljo out and have at least a close fight with Yan and blah blah blah. But like, as a comparison, in hockey, the very best teams have an expected goals ratio of like...56-60%. At the highest levels of MMA, even if they're tilting the percentages in Sean's favor a little bit, that could potentially swing things quite a bit. It's better than boxing, where they literally fix fights or have people fight absolute cans en route to mostly fake titles. But it kinda sucks if you're into the whole "this is a real sport" type of thing. We bitch about it in the same way NBA players bitch about reffing in NBA elimination games. gotta make that bread
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Aug 20, 2023 22:55
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Bantamweight has an incredibly strange history in the UFC/WEC. Miguel Torres was the first guy to win it and defend it multiple times, but he got KOed to lose it and then bounced around for a couple of years before going to the B and then Z leagues. Lot of mileage on him. Went from being 37-1 to losing to someone named Pablo Alfonso in four years. Brian Bowles, who (I mean this lovingly and respectfully) has the most "been in gay porn" look of anyone who's fought in the UFC (even more than that one TUF guy who was literally in gay porn), KOed Torres to win it, then immediately lost to Dominick Cruz after getting mostly beat up for two rounds. But it was a doctor stoppage due to Bowles breaking his hand. He was out of fighting three years later after popping for testosterone. Cruz we all know had a very exciting fighting style that people said was THE FUTURE, but his legs were so repulsed at the thought of needing to do that for the next ten years that they repeatedly broke in every possible way. He lasted two fights while remaining a "if he was healthy..." ghost that hovered over the division. Renan Barao started his career 32-1 and was incredibly exciting and quick, like a mini Jose Aldo from the same camp. He was also THE FUTURE, with great striking, a great gas tank, and great takedown defense. He beat erstwhile uncrowned champ Urijah Faber twice, including finishing him, but then fought Dillashaw at the height of his juicing-and-Duane-Ludwig powers. Dillashaw beat the absolute poo poo out of him twice and made Barao look like a b-league can, and Barao then did his best BJ Penn impersonation and lost to guys like, uh, Luke Sanders. And Andre Ewell. And Brian Kelleher over the next 5 years. Dillashaw was promptly regarded as THE FUTURE, with Duane Ludwig seemingly having figured out how to take the roids, wrestling, homoeroticism, athleticism, and striking power of a Team Alpha Male athlete and give them striking technique, strategy, and gameplanning. As mentioned, he beat the poo poo out of Renan Barao, then was supposed to fight Barao again but Barao had to go the hospital because of his weight cutting and so instead hosed up Joe Soto on a day's notice. Then he fought Barao again and hosed him up. He then fought Dominick Cruz, fresh off getting a genocide's worth of cadaver ligaments surgically implanted into every part of his legs. Cruz of course beat him in a razor-thin decision that a lot of people disagreed with. The media scores were 12-10 Cruz with one draw, lol. The UFC, giving Cruz some Dana White privilege, treated this as a dominating win for Cruz, mainly because they wanted to give Urijah Faber another crack at the title, since he and Cruz were 1-1 and Faber was the biggest star at Bantamweight. Cruz won a clear but close decision, more clearly than his Dillashaw win but not as clearly as you would want to end a trilogy. Cruz would then get matched up against Cody Garbrandt and everyone thought this would be more of the same--another Team Alpha Male fighter trying to take out camp enemy Cruz, but of course Cody Garbrandt, one of the p4p dumbest fighters in combat sports, somehow figured out the insane cerebral footwork and pacing of Cruz and easily smoked him. Garbrandt was promptly regarded as THE FUTURE--a man who was so dumb that he couldn't be bamboozled by more advanced fighters. At 11-0 and seemingly the final form of a Team Alpha Male fighter, even incorporating unintentional verbal homoeroticism, who knew how long he could reign? So of course he immediately got KOed in back to back fights by juiced up viper TJ Dillashaw. Dillashaw was now king of the world again and back to being THE FUTURE. He was sponsored by a gym. His heat with Garbrandt made him marketable. He was seeing everyone else try for double championships, so despite beating only two different guys twice (and Joe Soto) in BW championship fights, he decided to drop down and fight Henry Cejudo at flyweight, who himself had just won a razor-thin coulda-gone-either-way decision (the media scores were 13-12 Cejudo) against one of the MMA GOATs in Mighty Mouse and had not defended the Flyweight belt against anyone in his division. Cejudo promptly knocked Dillashaw out in 32 seconds and said "I'm coming up to Bantamweight to get that belt!". And then Dillashaw popped for EPO (a sick rear end drug for fighting) and got stripped of his Bantamweight belt, too. The UFC allowed Cejudo to challenge anyway, pitting him against Marlon Moraes, an import from the b-leagues that had lost a split, won a split, then had three straight first-round finishes (including against Aljamain Sterling). Could Moraes be THE FUTURE? No. Cejudo beat him so bad that Moraes has lost every fight since, including most recently to a Wikipedia-less fighter in the PFL named Gabriel Alves Braga. He technically won against Jose Aldo immediately after, but IIRC that was a robbery. I could be wrong about that, but either way he got knocked out 4 straight times right after and then cut out of the UFC after. So now Cejudo was THE FUTURE, a triple champ counting his gold medal in wrestling. So of course he beat eternal divisional ghost Dominick Cruz, actually managing to finish him (in a finish Cruz immediately disputed) and then promptly retired for three years. The UFC, seeing the strength of the division, pitted Petr Yan against Jose Aldo, who was coming off of one loss against Moraes (as mentioned that he probably actually won) and one clear loss at featherweight against Volkanovski. Despite all that, it was seen as a pretty good matchup. Everyone likes Aldo, he's moving down in weight, and despite having a lot of mileage, he had only really cleanly lost to Conor, Max Holloway (who was torching everyone at the time), and Volkanovski, who was a very strong up-and-comer. Yan of course proceeded to gently caress Aldo up and finish him, moving him to 15-1 with victories over longtime should-be champ Urijah Faber and one of the inarguable GOATs in Jose Aldo. Finally...we had someone who was actually THE FUTURE, with his dizzying display of power, cardio, Russian steroids, and wrestling. Petr Yan immediately started his reign by losing a fight he was winning by kneeing Aljamain Sterling so hard and so illegally that he lost his title. Which I think was the first and still only time that happened in a title fight? Yan then followed it up by winning an interim title against Cory Sandhagen but then immediately losing it in the Aljamain rematch in a close but probably right decision. The media had it 11 Sterling, 5 draw, 2 Yan. Dana White thought that Yan had won. Yan proceeded to lose another fight that he thought (and probably actually this time) won against Sean O'Malley, then got dominated by Merab. Aljamain quieted some of the haters with the Yan rematch, but it still was a split decision. No one really thought he was THE FUTURE, but people thought he'd still be a good style matchup for most of the division, as he was big and a great grappler with finishing skills. So of course the UFC matched him up with TJ Dillashaw, fresh off a two year suspension for roids and a very close split over Cory Sandhagen. This was a pretty good matchup, as Dillashaw was still technically the Lineal champ of the division, and he was a Team Alpha Male guy coming up, so a lot of people thought TJ would be able to stuff the takedowns and gently caress up Aljo on the feet. Unfortunately, one of his shoulders was not connected to the rest of his body for any of the time leading up to the fight, and he lasted about 5 seconds in the fight before his shoulder was like a wet noodle. Aljo very easily finished him and we all considered the futility of filing a consumer complaint against the UFC for somehow allowing Dillashaw to compete with one arm. I'm amazing the betting markets didn't have more to say about that. Or maybe the right people made a lot of money. Aljo then fought Cejudo and beat him in a correct-but-very-close 48-47 split decision. But most people saw it as correct-but-very-close, and with the division's three strongest wrestlers out of the way in Yan/Dillashaw/Cejudo, and the 4th in Merab being unwilling to fight him due to them being teammates and friends, he was set for a long reign just even on stylistic matchups. Was he, in fact, THE FUTURE? Nope, he got smoked in two rounds by Sean O'Malley. And now Aljo's leaving the division. O'Malley got definite Dana White Privilege in his run to the title, but he did look good against Yan at least. He didn't look great against Munhoz, but the UFC treated that as a win, but everyone else he fought, he smoked. Except for Chito Vera, who is stylistically a good matchup for him. But Vera hosed up his leg with a kick and gave O'Malley drop foot and TKOed him. With his takedown defense, mic skills, incredible striking, footwork, and media presence, he's the most popular bantamweight champ ever already, even surpassing Faber. He has a chance to break into the mainstream in a way not seen since Conor or Rousey or Khabib. Unfortunately, he's a hilariously bad style matchup for the next big contender in Merab, so the UFC is currently praying to God that Merab will accept a fight against Sandhagen so that Sandhagen can hopefully beat Merab. I don't think the Chito Vera rematch or Sandhagen are easy matchups for Sean, so he's THE FUTURE for now. But given history, he's probably going to defend once, go fight Gervonta Davis, lose all his MMA skills like Conor, and come back and lose a close unfulfilling split decision to like Song Yadong or something in three years. And on this thing of ours rolls.
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Aug 21, 2023 22:36
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Shumagorath posted:That was like reading a short Carl post if you first made him snort crushed Essence of Manyak i try and crank out a "what if Carl had 70IQ" post every so often. appreciate it brother Tom Clancy is Dead posted:FWIW, it was a close fight but the media had it 50-50. I also think it would've been a close but clear win for Moraes except for the love of Aldo and seeing him perform better than expected at BW. I remember being convinced he'd lose when the Yan fight was announced because while he body punched Moraes like vintage championship Aldo he was the one who slowed down the stretch in the 3rd. Yeah. I'm probably biasing it in my own mind because Aldo looked competitive until the end of his career but Moraes just started getting starched, so he had that thing of "how was this guy ever that much of a favorite?". Same thing happened to BJ Penn and now Chris Weidman, despite them both of them being favored maybe every other divisional GOAT contender in a hypothetical "prime vs. prime" matchup IMO.
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Aug 22, 2023 00:07
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Scapegoat posted:So why is Merab going to be able to close the distance unlike Stirling against O'Malley? Is how they get their takedowns significantly differant? Or is more a 9/10 times Aljo wins when he doesn't throw caution to the wind. in this case, the height disadvantage for Merab is probably useful. He's a little fuckin hedgehog who stays tighter and more like a little ball of hate coming in. Aljo's bigger and stronger but slower, and it's easier to hit him. There's a chance that O'Malley-Merab looks like a much faster, higher level version of Conor vs Marcus Brimage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HelivOF6vI8 but even in that, Brimage did hit Conor. Conor just had/has a hell of a chin. O'Malley's chin seemed to be pretty good against Petr Yan, and Merab doesn't have devastating power, so O'Malley will probably be fine with taking a few knocks on the chin to put more focus on takedown defense and landing his own shots. In the above fight, Conor quickly realized that Brimage was doing the tiny-guy-armadillo thing of just tucking his chin and putting up a high guard, so he pivoted into doing a looping uppercut that hosed Brimage up. (Side note: I miss this Conor drat. A true MMA striker.) Brimage also was trying to strike with him and didn't mix in takedowns. Merab could do the same gameplan and try to stun Sean in the beginning of the fight by forcing him to think about the takedown and then coming over the top with his hands, but that's kinda dangerous. Although having said that...that's kinda what Ray Longo had Matt Serra do in the first GSP fight, and Merab is coached by Serra-Longo. Matt Serra is a great example of how to strike as a hedgehog phenotype, but O'Malley is frankly a much better and more creative striker than GSP was at that time. You can see Serra basically tucking his chin, biting down his mouthpiece, and throwing hooks. GSP doesn't throw any uppercuts or counter knees or anything up the middle where the opening is. He just tries to headkick him and hook and jab him, which doesn't take advantage of the big holes Serra was leaving. O'Malley has kind of a Chuck/Jardine thing going on with the angles of his punches and his timing, and he's also got as good distance control striking as prime Conor, especially against shorter guys. It's a very compelling and dangerous combination, but Chuck had the takedown defense and Conor had the insane striking IQ that allowed him to instantly diagnose how to hit guys. Sean's going to need one of those (or great gameplanning) to get past Merab. I think the odds on the fight are going to be like 60-40 Merab or 65-35 Merab (well, maybe not given how disproportionately love Sean, but that's probably how the initial line will be set), but I honestly think it's closer to a toss-up. If Sean can identify and land a knee or uppercut, he wins. If he can stop the takedowns and pick Merab apart, he wins. But Merab wins by grabbing a hold of him, surprising with a Matt Serra power hook, or by wearing him down with cardio.
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Aug 22, 2023 18:52
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LobsterMobster posted:Apparently there is a new stipulation in UFC contracts that says UFC gets a cut from any business ventures the fighters undertake on their own insanely vile. it's cool that the Republicans have Dana White and Vince/Linda McMahon and both them + the Democrats have Ari Emanuel. the Ali act was partly intended to expressly forbid this exact kinda poo poo, but Endeavor's literal business now is operating as a promoter + manager across UFC and everything else. considering the only guy in Congress who has appeared to talk about this is Markwayne Mullin and considering the Fertittas no longer own it and so we don't even have the Culinary Union to gently caress with them, I can't imagine we'll have any type of change to this soon. with how much of a propaganda/free-PR arm of the Republican Party the UFC has been lately, you'd figure at least someone on the left would want to gently caress with them a little. at least an FTC investigation or something, drat. whatever happen to loving with your political enemies, gently caress
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Aug 22, 2023 19:13
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CarlCX posted:This fuckin' ruled and it made me think again about how much of the MMA consciousness Miguel Torres used to occupy as the guy pointed to as one of the absolute best in the world, and it's not just that he lost and retired, it's that his failure to figure into the UFC's adoption of the weight classes at all just paved so thoroughly over his memory that he's a total afterthought now. yeah, I remember being really excited to get to see him more given his record and how people talked about him. but he started his slide like right as I got into MMA and then it was always "...that was the guy?" which seems to happen to like every single BW champ, even moreso than the normal "[fighter] was always bad" that happens in all divisions
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Aug 23, 2023 22:53
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LobsterMobster posted:I am not allowed to express my opinion on the new ownership group of PFL out of fear of retribution by the regime i'm convinced Endeavor has read years of posts from this thread saying "yeah Dana and the Fertittas suck but compared to Bob Arum, Don King, literal Yakuza, Dutch organized crime, etc., a couple of Italian guys from Vegas with mob ties are somehow the best promoters in combat sports". and now they are having increasing difficulty keeping that dynamic as Dana keeps being more and more of an idiot.
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Aug 31, 2023 00:00
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 08:21 |
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someone at some point is gonna go to Thailand and teach those guys how to defend a takedown, and it’s gonna be Dagestan 2.0 except way cooler. a lot of guys named like Kiewpayak Lumpineestadiumgym giving people compartment syndrome on fight night cards
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Sep 1, 2023 18:41
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