UFC thread

[redblood]

All UFC discussions in here

 

[RavenBish]

McGregor's good fun isn't he.

 

[Nath]

McGregor is great.

Clearly a very intelligent guy who has soared to great heights in such a short space of time. Undoubtedly he talks a good fight, but until now he's always backed his words up in the Octagon. He's great for the sport. Gets everyone discussing the sport and has opened the door for many promising Irish fighters. I know Dana has stated the Aldo fight will be in Las Vegas, which is disappointing as a fight in Croker would have been unbelievable.

 

[Shank]

He was superb to watch on Sunday. In and out of the ring.

Benson Henderson was unlucky. Thought he'd landed a lot more.

 

[Nath]

Henderson was very unlucky. I really like Cerrone, but he did not deserve that fight. I do think McGregor should fight Mendes or Frankie Edgar before jumping to Jose Aldo. The step up in calibre is substantial. Saturday 23rd May, McGregor v Aldo. Records will be smashed.

 

[Renegade]

Dana White is an absolute cock. I know everyone already knows this, but he pretty much raised the expectations of the entire nation when building the McGregor vs Aldo fight, only to denounce it immediately after McGregor became a viable number one contender.

When asked about football stadiums in Ireland, he declared "why not?" and let McGregor peddle the line for months. As soon as McGregor dismantled Siver - "I can guarantee you it's going to rain." Because a company that once had a stadium built in the UAE for an event couldn't figure a way to put a roof over the Octagon in four months? It probably won't be raining in May anyway. Smart business, but still, what an absolute shithouse. The man bleeds green. Not celtic green obvs.

It would have been unfair to Aldo to have to travel to Dublin to be booed by an 80,000 strong partisan crowd, but still such a shame for Ireland. It would have been amazing. If McGregor beats Aldo, I'm sure we'd see it in the future, but that's a big if.

As for McGregor, I thought Aldo would eventually beat him when the two eventually meet, but he's been ridiculously impressive the last few fights. He barely broke sweat against two top ten fighters and his movement does seem unparalleled in the division. If he slips like he did a couple of times against Siver when he faces Aldo though, he will be punished on the ground.

I can't wait.

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

What do you expect him to bleed. He's a fight promoter. And raising expectations by loudly pondering nebulously enticing hypotheticals is about 50% of the job description, just like all those impending "Brazilian soccer stadium" shows that we've been hearing about for ~3 years (and I'd bet my left nut that Zuffa didn't pick up the bill for Yas Island, either).

Aldo vs McGregor must be high up the list of $$$ matches the UFC have on deck at the moment too, so they'd need an exceptionally good reason to take it outside the US (or US friendly timezones), and the wager of putting ~80,000 in a stadium at 4am local time is not that, if it's even practicable to begin with.

Of all the things to fulminate about this is a very odd one.

 

[Renegade]

I'm not that annoyed by the actual decision, I know it made business sense, more with how Dana White conducts himself. You are right though, it is his job to promote the sport, through whatever (nefarious) means possible. There was a real sense of anticipation over here, MMA fans showing up everywhere and a lot of people believed that they were coming to Croke Park. I was clinging onto that possibility, I thought it would have done wonders for promoting the sport further in Europe. It would have been less annoying if he told us that it didn't make sense from a business perspective, instead of laughing off the possibility after stringing a nation along.

 

[Nath]

Yeah, he could have went about it a bit better. Hope he explains his decision well because there will be a lot of disappointed MMA fans here. There was a real sense here that we'd be getting one of the biggest MMA events in history at Croke Park.

Dana White generally doesn't handle anything well. His defence of Jon Jones cocaine use was a joke. Showed a real level of inconsistency allowing a fighter to tarnish the reputation of the organisation. Fighters removed from UFC for smoking cannabis, Jon Jones praised for entering rehab after using cocaine..

 

[Gilly?]

Has anyone seen the video of Anderson Silva sparking out his sparring partner? His striking is mad.

 

[Nath]

https://vine.co/v/ODH0EVLEZVI

Bit unnecessary what happens after. If Silva doesn't beat Diaz he needs to retire.

 

[Craig]

Gustavsson - Johnson about to start.

 

[Craig]

And that's the end of that.

Johnson battered him.

 

[Renegade]

I don't think I've ever felt more uncomfortable watching MMA than the last minute of that fight in front of that crowd. The poor bastard just got completely embarrassed. That was fucking impressive though, looking forward to Johnson vs Jones.

 

[RavenBish]

Rumble's gooood for a guy with such a weird career.

 

[Craig]

The finish was brutal. Not a big follower of UFC but was led to believe that fight would have been much closer.

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

Johnson/Jones presents the same formula we've seen so many other times. Ie. how do you get past the length. I suspect Jones will be happier with this match up than another go round with Gustafsson, with his similar body type.

(all assuming Jones' septum aint gonna fall out and ruin him Samson style, obv)

Also I kno it would be a shitty way to go out, but still retire please, Dan Henderson.

 

[Nath]

Jones will beat Johnson. He will fight smart keeping the fight at distance, use his superior reach and win on points.

But yeah, brutal knockout last night.

 

[TomPNE94]

That Johnson fight is the first fight I have ever watched. It's pretty cool watching someone get the shit kicked out of 'em. Will look out for more!

 

[Craig]

Silva-Diaz tonight.

Don't know if I'll make it to the main event but I'm hoping to catch some of the undercard.

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

This is some turn of the century Vuelta a Espana shit.

 

[RavenBish]

Big fan of how Silva's tested positive for a ton of things ending in 'one' and 'ane' and Diaz has just been on the pot.

The fact Silva had the test 3 weeks ago yet it was only returned now is a bit convenient though.

 

[Anon]

Big fan of how Silva's tested positive for a ton of things ending in 'one' and 'ane' and Diaz has just been on the pot.

The fact Silva had the test 3 weeks ago yet it was only returned now is a bit convenient though.

Such a shame. After the Weidman losses and the comeback win, with Silva saying he was thinking about retirement the 'retiring on a win' narrative would have been good to see, and not go down the route of getting progressively bigger beatings and losses.

Now his ending is sullied... and as you say the convenience of the tests being 'delayed' doesn't put the UFC in a good light either.

 

[Renegade]

I wish we could have Silva vs Belfort for the interim steroid middleweight crown. I don't think going out with a dull points victory vs a former lightweight would have been a good ending to Silva's career, whether he tested positive or not.

I think he still has the ability to compete for the middleweight crown (both of the Weidman losses were bizarre) or at least have a few more catchweight bouts vs big name fighters. The steroids will probably ruin that possibility though.

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

MMA is a sewer for this stuff, and as the pre-eminent promotion the UFC/Zuffa need wear a lot of that, but the tests were administered by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

Which does not rule out a conspiracy ("convenient", "bad look") but does at least make it less Occam-y.

 

[Nath]

The reputation of the UFC has taken a massive hit this year already. Two of its biggest stars getting caught up in drug scandals. Jones was just stupid, Silva's is more sinister. Not good at all for MMA.

Silva has released a statement: "I have not taken any performance enhancing drugs. My stance on drugs is, and will always be, the same. I’m an advocate for a clean sport".

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/anderson-breaks-silence-testing-positive-steroids-001747212--mma.html

 

[Craig]

Pink bobble.

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

Wimmens main and co-main tonight. Kind of cool, no?

MMA aint exactly a model for progressive sport (AFFLICTION T-SHIRT BROOOOOO etc), and it's somewhat undercut by the marketing of half of em doing SI swimsuit shoots...

...and the fact that any fight promoter worth his (/her) salt would sell his granny's corpse if it'd draw...

...but all that said...

...a major TV/PPV and 5 figure attendence box office event headlined by women and then more women happens exactly nowhere in the entire sporting world outside of tennis grand slams and track and field, that I can think of.

 

[RavenBish]

fuck her up Ronda

 

[Anon]

Well that didn't last long...

I can't think of any MMA fighter with a scowl more menacing than Rousey, she looks proper evil when she's about to fight.