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

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322 was pretty good. The prelims were great and the first three fights of the main card were super exciting. To be honest, I don’t know what’s left for Valentina. She has done everything and is clearly indomitable at this point. She fucks up Kayla Harrison too. The women’s divisions suck dick already but they are totally locked down by Weili and Valentina.

Welterweight is now fucked just like middleweight. No one is beating Islam. No one is middleweight is beating Khamzat. I do think Petr has a chance at Merab, but it’s likely Batamweight is locked down too. No one gives a fuck about heavyweight or flyweight, especially now that Figgy has moved on. Somehow, LHW is the most exciting division in the UFC.

What a mess. The next numbered event looks meh to me.
 
322 was pretty good. The prelims were great and the first three fights of the main card were super exciting. To be honest, I don’t know what’s left for Valentina. She has done everything and is clearly indomitable at this point. She fucks up Kayla Harrison too. The women’s divisions suck dick already but they are totally locked down by Weili and Valentina.

Welterweight is now fucked just like middleweight. No one is beating Islam. No one is middleweight is beating Khamzat. I do think Petr has a chance at Merab, but it’s likely Batamweight is locked down too. No one gives a fuck about heavyweight or flyweight, especially now that Figgy has moved on. Somehow, LHW is the most exciting division in the UFC.

What a mess. The next numbered event looks meh to me.
Pantoja-Van should be good next PPV event.
Val will continue to fight because she has nothing else other than fighting.
Merab is old though and so athleticism reliant that he can't hold on for too much longer.
 
Pantoja-Van should be good next PPV event.
Val will continue to fight because she has nothing else other than fighting.
Merab is old though and so athleticism reliant that he can't hold on for too much longer.
Pantoja is always good for a fight, and Van is great also, but he might get the choke.

Merab may be getting there in ages, but the PEDs he is taking helps the gas tank, and that is what he really needs, just cardio to hold people against the fence.

And the message is clear, if you can't out wrestle a caucasus wrestler who has been doing it since they could walk, then don't bother.

As we saw with Islam and Khamzat, it is just a winning hand, don't bother with striking, just shoot, and if you are against a striker, he will just freeze out of fear of takedown, so just shoot again.

Islam at least tried to get his subs, but all Jack could do is defend it, so position holding was the best next thing.

But that's it really, the skill gap is too great to be closed in a training camp, and as it is, the wrestler has too many advantages over a striker in modern MMA.
 
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Pantoja is always good for a fight, and Van is great also, but he might get the choke.

Merab may be getting there in ages, but the PEDs he is taking helps the gas tank, and that is what he really needs, just cardio to hold people against the fence.

And the message is clear, if you can't out wrestle a caucasus wrestler who has been doing it since they could walk, then don't bother.

As we saw with Islam and Khamzat, it is just a winning hand, don't bother with striking, just shoot, and if you are against a striker, he will just freeze out of fear of takedown, so just shoot again.

Islam at least tried to get his subs, but all Jack could do is defend it, so position holding was the best next thing.

But that's it really, the skill gap is too great to be closed in a training camp, and as it is, the wrestler has too many advantages over a striker in modern MMA.
The thing that really bugs me about MMA as a whole is the degrading of Ground and Pound. These guys are all heavy top pressure, look for subs, don't give anything away. People as a whole used to be much better at beating people up from these positions. Shavkat is actually pretty good at it. Brady is as well I think. Islam? Nope.

This is a guy playing it safe and making the opponent think only of defence, and win slowly. For all the crotch sniffer shit with Khabib, he would fuck someone up, even give up positions to land the hardest possible shots he can when they are more tired. This is just crap to watch.
 
322 was pretty good. The prelims were great and the first three fights of the main card were super exciting. To be honest, I don’t know what’s left for Valentina. She has done everything and is clearly indomitable at this point. She fucks up Kayla Harrison too. The women’s divisions suck dick already but they are totally locked down by Weili and Valentina.

Welterweight is now fucked just like middleweight. No one is beating Islam. No one is middleweight is beating Khamzat. I do think Petr has a chance at Merab, but it’s likely Batamweight is locked down too. No one gives a fuck about heavyweight or flyweight, especially now that Figgy has moved on. Somehow, LHW is the most exciting division in the UFC.

What a mess. The next numbered event looks meh to me.
Yeah, if Weili goes back down to 115 she retakes the title easily. Shevchenko will probably beat Natalya Silva pretty easily, unless her age finally catches up to her. I'd love for Shevchenko to move up and take out Harrison's roided ass, but it sounds like she wants to stay at 125. It's funny that Harrison hates transpeople but she's basically a FTM trans with all of the steroids she's on.

Islam and Khamzat aren't losing anytime soon unless Islam moves up to 185, which I don't see happening. Merab won't lose to anyone except maybe Umar if Umar's broken hand is what caused him to fade after R2 last time. I'd imagine Khabib will really push his cardio, too. Yan could catch him, too.

UFC is losing viewers at a staggering pace and this is only going to accelerate with the current crop of champs. The Paramount+ deal will help but only because the PPVs wont be $80 anymore.
 
UFC is losing viewers at a staggering pace and this is only going to accelerate with the current crop of champs. The Paramount+ deal will help but only because the PPVs wont be $80 anymore.
Sadly they have made their system in a way that isn't reliant on viewers so much anymore. Managed to con Paramount into paying stupid amounts of money for a deal. They get states and countries to pay them for the privileged of holding an event for tourism. They are hand in glove with the current US administration to the point where they have a White House PPV event next year. All of their money making shit does not revolve around the viewer anymore, and PPV dying (or maybe not) is tied to that.

I hope the viewership loss increases and they start pulling their fingers out and try to make some serious stars who aren't Russian men. Get someone exciting.
 
And the message is clear, if you can't out wrestle a caucasus wrestler who has been doing it since they could walk, then don't bother.

As we saw with Islam and Khamzat, it is just a winning hand, don't bother with striking, just shoot, and if you are against a striker, he will just freeze out of fear of takedown, so just shoot again.

Islam at least tried to get his subs, but all Jack could do is defend it, so position holding was the best next thing.

But that's it really, the skill gap is too great to be closed in a training camp, and as it is, the wrestler has too many advantages over a striker in modern MMA.
Just knee them in the face every time they shoot and if you get DQd rake in the donations from grateful fans on Gofundme.
 
I hope the viewership loss increases and they start pulling their fingers out and try to make some serious stars who aren't Russian men. Get someone exciting.
Nope, every single star making attempt from the UFC has been either cringe like Bum O'malley, or a failed third worlder hypejob. I'd rather have muzzies from ACA coming than more underserved, forced cheap bums.
 
Sadly they have made their system in a way that isn't reliant on viewers so much anymore. Managed to con Paramount into paying stupid amounts of money for a deal. They get states and countries to pay them for the privileged of holding an event for tourism. They are hand in glove with the current US administration to the point where they have a White House PPV event next year. All of their money making shit does not revolve around the viewer anymore, and PPV dying (or maybe not) is tied to that.

I hope the viewership loss increases and they start pulling their fingers out and try to make some serious stars who aren't Russian men. Get someone exciting.
Yeah, that's the thing. Financially they're doing great because they conned Paramount+ into giving them $1.1 billion a year. Paramount plans (currently) to broadcast the numbered events (formerly PPVs) on Paramount+ to get more subscribers. I don't think it's a very good move because I can't imagine that they'll get 110 million more subscribers (at $10 each) to cover the cost. Eventually broadcast rights will come back to get them when streaming services realize that they're getting fucked but who the hell knows when that'll happen with these long contracts.
 
Craig Jones in shambles rn
Well just like with DDP, without Craig in his case, the sub defense worked, but they forgot about the takedown defence.

Also is it just me or did it make 0 sense for Weili to vacate the title when they had no real challengers anyway? Most people didn't even realize a title fight happened when she left. I guess one reason could be how inactive she is, so it would take a long time for her to go back down, but still.
 
The only guys I can see beating Islam are Ilia (at lw) and Shavkhat, and only because of the sheer danger they pose, both being nasty finishers. I am interested in no other fight atp.
There is no way Islam goes back to lw, and Ilia is way too small for ww, this fight ain't happening, or Ilia tries to "McGregor" it going to 170 and finds out that he doesn't have the same power he did at LW.

Shavkhat may have a chance, but he's been out for almost a year, and looks like his knee is pretty busted, type of injury you nevel heal a 100%. And Islam wants a 39 year old Usman... for fuck's sake.

The thing is, Islam isn't going to fuck around on WW, he isn't going to stand and bang with smaller guys like Volk or Porier, not when we have Prates and Morales who can drop motherfuckers with one punch, he is going to calf kick and shoot, and none of these guys will have an awnser other than fight the wrists and tuck the head to avoid a choke.

And that leaves us with the same issue we have on MW, what is even the point of making matches when we all know the forgone conclusion, shoot the single, body lock, search for a arm bar, if not the neck, otherwise, position hold and just lay there. You think Khamzat is gonna trade with Imavov, and Imavov has any way to stop Khamzat to avoid the takedown?

And that isn't even a Dagistani thing, GSP did this during his whole reign as a champion, his only finishes being B.J Penn, then he came back to choke Bisping, who sucks, just to immediately fuck off. Now people call GSP a goat because of stats numbers on wikipedia, but back then, fuck, everybody hated the guy, for a good reason.

Still, It is a winning hand, and if you got it, you play it, it is way too good of a pony to not use it.
 
There is no way Islam goes back to lw, and Ilia is way too small for ww, this fight ain't happening, or Ilia tries to "McGregor" it going to 170 and finds out that he doesn't have the same power he did at LW.

Shavkhat may have a chance, but he's been out for almost a year, and looks like his knee is pretty busted, type of injury you nevel heal a 100%. And Islam wants a 39 year old Usman... for fuck's sake.

The thing is, Islam isn't going to fuck around on WW, he isn't going to stand and bang with smaller guys like Volk or Porier, not when we have Prates and Morales who can drop motherfuckers with one punch, he is going to calf kick and shoot, and none of these guys will have an awnser other than fight the wrists and tuck the head to avoid a choke.

And that leaves us with the same issue we have on MW, what is even the point of making matches when we all know the forgone conclusion, shoot the single, body lock, search for a arm bar, if not the neck, otherwise, position hold and just lay there. You think Khamzat is gonna trade with Imavov, and Imavov has any way to stop Khamzat to avoid the takedown?

And that isn't even a Dagistani thing, GSP did this during his whole reign as a champion, his only finishes being B.J Penn, then he came back to choke Bisping, who sucks, just to immediately fuck off. Now people call GSP a goat because of stats numbers on wikipedia, but back then, fuck, everybody hated the guy, for a good reason.

Still, It is a winning hand, and if you got it, you play it, it is way too good of a pony to not use it.
Yeah, Shavkhat gets beat by Islam most likely. Islam is a better grappler and striker than him. Obviously you never know, but I just don't see it as likely that Shavkhat wins. Ilia just doesn't have the size to fight at WW and I doubt Islam goes back down, either. Dude looked thick as hell on Saturday night. Same goes for Middleweight. No one there beats Khamzat. Only way that either of them lose is a fluke or if Islam somehow moves up to Middleweight
 
Yeah, Shavkhat gets beat by Islam most likely. Islam is a better grappler and striker than him. Obviously you never know, but I just don't see it as likely that Shavkhat wins. Ilia just doesn't have the size to fight at WW and I doubt Islam goes back down, either. Dude looked thick as hell on Saturday night. Same goes for Middleweight. No one there beats Khamzat. Only way that either of them lose is a fluke or if Islam somehow moves up to Middleweight
if ian garry can make shavkat look like he's lost, islam will eat him for breakfast
 
There is no way Islam goes back to lw, and Ilia is way too small for ww, this fight ain't happening, or Ilia tries to "McGregor" it going to 170 and finds out that he doesn't have the same power he did at LW.

Shavkhat may have a chance, but he's been out for almost a year, and looks like his knee is pretty busted, type of injury you nevel heal a 100%. And Islam wants a 39 year old Usman... for fuck's sake.
I will throw this on the table: age notwithstanding, Usman is currently the biggest threat to either Islam or Khamzat, because his wrestling is still good enough to match them in the scrambles and deny them good positions, or force the fight back to the feet. As we saw in the Buckley fight, the spirit is still willing. The question is the flesh. Marty from Nebraska's knees are a known liability, but, he's long enough in the arms that people who have tried to kick/stomp his knees paid for it (Masvidal/Khamzat).

As time has passed, Leon clearly burned all of his Luck Points getting and keeping the belt from Usman.
The thing is, Islam isn't going to fuck around on WW, he isn't going to stand and bang with smaller guys like Volk or Porier, not when we have Prates and Morales who can drop motherfuckers with one punch, he is going to calf kick and shoot, and none of these guys will have an awnser other than fight the wrists and tuck the head to avoid a choke.
Yes, Prates throws live rounds, but so does JDM and you saw how well that worked out. Worse still, Prates can't wrestle. When you can't handle Ian Garry 'grappling', Islam is going to eat your lunch.

Morales is still learning on the job. Who knows, maybe zest is the best base for MMA.

And that leaves us with the same issue we have on MW, what is even the point of making matches when we all know the forgone conclusion, shoot the single, body lock, search for a arm bar, if not the neck, otherwise, position hold and just lay there. You think Khamzat is gonna trade with Imavov, and Imavov has any way to stop Khamzat to avoid the takedown?
Khamzat's takedown game isn't complicated. But he's rangy, deceptively strong, and if you close one takedown lane on him, he transitions to another faster than most people can react. Khamzat will stand and bang if forced to, but his instinct is to maul his opponents on the mat until they break (literally or figuratively) and only a few people can stop him from doing it.

The only chink I've really seen in Khamzat's armor is the guard position. Against Burns, he opted to stand up rather than fight for another position or risk getting caught in something.
And that isn't even a Dagistani thing, GSP did this during his whole reign as a champion, his only finishes being B.J Penn, then he came back to choke Bisping, who sucks, just to immediately fuck off. Now people call GSP a goat because of stats numbers on wikipedia, but back then, fuck, everybody hated the guy, for a good reason.

Still, It is a winning hand, and if you got it, you play it, it is way too good of a pony to not use it.
GSP's resume as WW champion is rock solid. The only two fighters he beat who never won a championship anywhere were Thiago Alves and Josh Koscheck.

Yeah, Shavkhat gets beat by Islam most likely. Islam is a better grappler and striker than him. Obviously you never know, but I just don't see it as likely that Shavkhat wins. Ilia just doesn't have the size to fight at WW and I doubt Islam goes back down, either. Dude looked thick as hell on Saturday night. Same goes for Middleweight. No one there beats Khamzat. Only way that either of them lose is a fluke or if Islam somehow moves up to Middleweight
The Ilia-Islam fight happens under one of three scenarios:
1. UFC pays Islam enough money to cut one more time to 155. Some people believe this is 'fairer' to Ilia, but I think this is a smooth-brained take. Islam is already sensitive to the accusation of fighting midgets because of Volk. Plus, he looked very comfy at 170.
2. Ilia and Islam have the fight at 170. Ilia is egotistical enough to want three belts in three weight classes and he will be cutting practically no weight. If you think Ilia is sleeping people at 145 and 155, that 170 pound artillery is going to hit differently. I don't think he will stay at 170, but triple champ for one night better than eventually running into a middleweight in disguise (Morales, Shavkat).
3. Catchweight fight. The lamest and gayest timeline. No belts, no stakes. Very disrespectful to The Donald and America.
 
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