Official MMA discussion thread pt 3 UFC 300: Pereira vs Hill, Zhang vs Xionan, BMF Gaethje vs Holloway

j4remi wrote:
HarthorneWingo wrote:Can you do The Lionheart Dance? lol

It immediately took me back to this

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And here's the champ of the stanky leg battles

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HarthorneWingo · Post #1067 » by **HarthorneWingo** » Tue Dec 12, 2023 3:42 am

Looks like a good card for UFC 296 this weekend.

Post #1068 » by **j4remi** » Tue Dec 12, 2023 4:33 pm

HarthorneWingo wrote:Looks like a good card for UFC 296 this weekend.

A really good one! Even the prelims have at least one exciting fighter in each fight and the early prelims have a few quality names too.

HarthorneWingo · Post #1069 » by **HarthorneWingo** » Sat Dec 16, 2023 6:54 am

The theme of the UFC 296 press conference was "Who's Your Daddy?" Jesus, these guys are too much.

MrDollarBills · Post #1070 » by **MrDollarBills** » Sat Dec 16, 2023 8:38 pm

j4remi wrote:
MrDollarBills wrote:I'm excited for this

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Prime is really building up the combat sports portfolio.

Absolutely. In terms of being a streaming platform, Prime is really starting to separate itself from the rest: combat sports, NFL, MLB, movies, seasonal shows that are starting to push near HBO quality, anime, and more than likely they will be pushing for a slate of NBA games.

Prime is worth every cent. The rest of the streamers, I can't say the same. I hope this also breathes new life into the sweet science.

HarthorneWingo · Post #1071 » by **HarthorneWingo** » Sat Dec 16, 2023 10:17 pm

Prelims are on ESPN at 8

Post #1072 » by **j4remi** » Sun Dec 17, 2023 3:29 am

Already a fantastic night of fights. Aldana and Rosa may have had the fight of the year for women's fights. Menifield had a great performance. Josh Emmett just sent Bryce Mitchell to a parallel universe.

MrDollarBills · Post #1073 » by **MrDollarBills** » Sun Dec 17, 2023 8:02 am

j4remi wrote:Already a fantastic night of fights. Aldana and Rosa may have had the fight of the year for women's fights. Menifield had a great performance. Josh Emmett just sent Bryce Mitchell to a parallel universe.

I just saw the Mitchell knock out. That was brutal, dude started having a seizure

HarthorneWingo · Post #1074 » by **HarthorneWingo** » Sun Dec 17, 2023 8:34 am

j4remi wrote:Already a fantastic night of fights. Aldana and Rosa may have had the fight of the year for women's fights. Menifield had a great performance. Josh Emmett just sent Bryce Mitchell to a parallel universe.

Aldana vs. Rosa was epic. Irina showed a lot of guts. He left leg was a mess.

Colby looks finished. He has no power whatsoever. Somebody said that Strickland threw more punches than Colby last night. :lol:

Josh Emmett gave Bryce Mitchell a concussion and a seizure.

Watch on YouTube

HarthorneWingo · Post #1075 » by **HarthorneWingo** » Sun Dec 17, 2023 11:27 pm

Dana sat DuPlessi and Strickland near each other at 296. lol, moron.

Post #1076 » by **j4remi** » Mon Dec 18, 2023 3:01 pm

HarthorneWingo wrote:Dana sat DuPlessi and Strickland near each other at 296. lol, moron.

UFC knew exactly what they were doing with that crap. They even got a full shot of the whole thing going down. It was an embarrassing week to be a UFC fan. Colby mocked Leon's dead father; Dricus mocked Strickland's abuse as a child; The broadcast zoomed in on one fighter seizing on the mat after a KO; then the broadcast replayed a fight in the crowd between Sean and Dricus; and to top it off, you had Joe Rogan and DC going to embarrassing measures to trash a dominant performance from Leon Edwards.

All of this comes on the backdrop of legally released transcripts of Dana White, the Fertitas, and matchmakers e-mails where they actively talk about screwing fighters over and threatening managers to manipulate negotiations. I cannot wait for Dana White to retire.

Post #1077 » by **j4remi** » Mon Dec 18, 2023 3:30 pm

So UFC 296 was the last UFC of the year, and we got some pretty great moments. Here are some notes from the performances.

Leon smokes Colby:
I made some bread on this one. Leon came off two wins over a better version of Colby, and Colby was coming off sitting on his ass for 2 years. People sleep on how fast Edwards really is. Colby was tentative because his strikes were countered with a hair-trigger and he knew lazy entries would get his head taken off. The only round that went to Covington came because Leon went for a submission, but that was also the third time we saw Edwards engage in grappling with Colby and hold his own.

Covington's 2-2 since 2020; 2-3 in his last 5 fights; and scared to fight the best guys in the division (he called out Wonderboy who just got submitted the same night). He's the walking example of UFC ignoring fighters' merit and focusing on "marketability" even when the marketing is just a fighter acting like an a-hole.

Leon's next opponent should be...

Shavkhat steamrolls Wonderboy on one foot:
Some people were disappointed with Shavkhat Rakhmonov's performance, because it was missing the flashy striking of his previous wins. He walked Wonderboy down, pressed him against the cage, then took him down and got the tap. But that's way more impressive then it sounds...Wonderboy has never been submitted, and Shavkhat admitted that he almost backed out of the fight with an injury. His ankle likely needs surgery.

So Shavkhat went in there on one foot and did something that no one's accomplished in 24 prior fights against Wonderboy. Wonderboy's clearly slowed down, and his octagon control has fallen off a cliff. But this was a big win nonetheless. If Shavkhat's out, Belal Muhammad vs Leon Edwards 2 should happen. Shavkhat should get a title shot after, but if he heals fast enough...I'd love to see him beat up Colby Covington and put the nail in that the coffin of that man's overrated career.

Alexandre Pantoja smokes Brandon Royval:
Watching Pantoja completely dominate Brandon Royval puts a big highlight on how good Brandon Moreno and Deveison Figuiredo are. Those three are head and shoulders above the 125 lbs division. Figgy moved up to 135 and immediately established himself. Moreno has cleared so many flyweights, that he's got a prospect next. Pantoja...he's in a good position to hang on to that belt a while.

Pantoja's out of opponents if Moreno beats Albizi. But a rematch with Manel Kape would be a lot of fun.

Emmett and Pimblett surprise no one:
I'm not sure why the UFC decided to put Bryce Mitchell against Josh Emmett. The only worse match-up for Mitchell is Ilya Topuria who dominated Mitchell. It's doubly weird because they're pushed Bryce promotionally, but keep throwing him into match-ups that expose his striking (I swear he closes his eyes when he punches).

I don't think Mitchell beats ANYONE ranked ahead of him. He's 10th now and that's as high as I see him getting. Paddy picked on Tony Ferguson, which was made worse by watching Ferguson's corner full of fitness coaches give him ZERO TECHNICAL ADVICE. Mike Perry got better corner help when he brought his GF to the octagon.

Give us Emmett vs Arnold Allen PLEASE! Paddy's next opponent should be obvious. A rematch with Jared Gordon should have happened already, but the UFC is probably protecting their investment.

Irene Aldana and Karol Rosa with a WMMA FOTY candidate:
Don't sleep on this fight. These women put on a hell of a fight.

HarthorneWingo · Post #1078 » by **HarthorneWingo** » Mon Dec 18, 2023 6:38 pm

j4remi wrote:
HarthorneWingo wrote:Dana sat DuPlessi and Strickland near each other at 296. lol, moron.

UFC knew exactly what they were doing with that crap. They even got a full shot of the whole thing going down. It was an embarrassing week to be a UFC fan. Colby mocked Leon's dead father; Dricus mocked Strickland's abuse as a child; The broadcast zoomed in on one fighter seizing on the mat after a KO; then the broadcast replayed a fight in the crowd between Sean and Dricus; and to top it off, you had Joe Rogan and DC going to embarrassing measures to trash a dominant performance from Leon Edwards.

All of this comes on the backdrop of legally released transcripts of Dana White, the Fertitas, and matchmakers e-mails where they actively talk about screwing fighters over and threatening managers to manipulate negotiations. I cannot wait for Dana White to retire.

Oh wow. I didn't know about that. That's fcked up.

You left out the Ian Garry stuff. But given all of the other crap, that's understandable. :lol:

HarthorneWingo · Post #1079 » by **HarthorneWingo** » Mon Dec 18, 2023 6:41 pm

j4remi wrote:So UFC 296 was the last UFC of the year, and we got some pretty great moments. Here are some notes from the performances.

Leon smokes Colby:
I made some bread on this one. Leon came off two wins over a better version of Colby, and Colby was coming off sitting on his ass for 2 years. People sleep on how fast Edwards really is. Colby was tentative because his strikes were countered with a hair-trigger and he knew lazy entries would get his head taken off. The only round that went to Covington came because Leon went for a submission, but that was also the third time we saw Edwards engage in grappling with Colby and hold his own.

Covington's 2-2 since 2020; 2-3 in his last 5 fights; and scared to fight the best guys in the division (he called out Wonderboy who just got submitted the same night). He's the walking example of UFC ignoring fighters' merit and focusing on "marketability" even when the marketing is just a fighter acting like an a-hole.

Leon's next opponent should be...

Shavkhat steamrolls Wonderboy on one foot:
Some people were disappointed with Shavkhat Rakhmonov's performance, because it was missing the flashy striking of his previous wins. He walked Wonderboy down, pressed him against the cage, then took him down and got the tap. But that's way more impressive then it sounds...Wonderboy has never been submitted, and Shavkhat admitted that he almost backed out of the fight with an injury. His ankle likely needs surgery.

So Shavkhat went in there on one foot and did something that no one's accomplished in 24 prior fights against Wonderboy. Wonderboy's clearly slowed down, and his octagon control has fallen off a cliff. But this was a big win nonetheless. If Shavkhat's out, Belal Muhammad vs Leon Edwards 2 should happen. Shavkhat should get a title shot after, but if he heals fast enough...I'd love to see him beat up Colby Covington and put the nail in that the coffin of that man's overrated career.

Alexandre Pantoja smokes Brandon Royval:
Watching Pantoja completely dominate Brandon Royval puts a big highlight on how good Brandon Moreno and Deveison Figuiredo are. Those three are head and shoulders above the 125 lbs division. Figgy moved up to 135 and immediately established himself. Moreno has cleared so many flyweights, that he's got a prospect next. Pantoja...he's in a good position to hang on to that belt a while.

Pantoja's out of opponents if Moreno beats Albizi. But a rematch with Manel Kape would be a lot of fun.

Emmett and Pimblett surprise no one:
I'm not sure why the UFC decided to put Bryce Mitchell against Josh Emmett. The only worse match-up for Mitchell is Ilya Topuria who dominated Mitchell. It's doubly weird because they're pushed Bryce promotionally, but keep throwing him into match-ups that expose his striking (I swear he closes his eyes when he punches).

I don't think Mitchell beats ANYONE ranked ahead of him. He's 10th now and that's as high as I see him getting. Paddy picked on Tony Ferguson, which was made worse by watching Ferguson's corner full of fitness coaches give him ZERO TECHNICAL ADVICE. Mike Perry got better corner help when he brought his GF to the octagon.

Give us Emmett vs Arnold Allen PLEASE! Paddy's next opponent should be obvious. A rematch with Jared Gordon should have happened already, but the UFC is probably protecting their investment.

Irene Aldana and Karol Rosa with a WMMA FOTY candidate:
Don't sleep on this fight. These women put on a hell of a fight.

What a great fight! Both women are warriors.

Post #1080 » by **j4remi** » Mon Dec 18, 2023 9:53 pm

HarthorneWingo wrote:
j4remi wrote:
HarthorneWingo wrote:Dana sat DuPlessi and Strickland near each other at 296. lol, moron.

UFC knew exactly what they were doing with that crap. They even got a full shot of the whole thing going down. It was an embarrassing week to be a UFC fan. Colby mocked Leon's dead father; Dricus mocked Strickland's abuse as a child; The broadcast zoomed in on one fighter seizing on the mat after a KO; then the broadcast replayed a fight in the crowd between Sean and Dricus; and to top it off, you had Joe Rogan and DC going to embarrassing measures to trash a dominant performance from Leon Edwards.

All of this comes on the backdrop of legally released transcripts of Dana White, the Fertitas, and matchmakers e-mails where they actively talk about screwing fighters over and threatening managers to manipulate negotiations. I cannot wait for Dana White to retire.

Oh wow. I didn't know about that. That's fcked up.

You left out the Ian Garry stuff. But given all of the other crap, that's understandable.

Yeah, the e-mails are more or less a confirmation of what most fans from that era thought. But they're great as a way to hit back against Dana White's typical excuse-making: https://bloodyelbow.com/2023/12/10/emails-texts-show-ufc-nasty-negotiation/

On the Garry front, it's not much of a story. The kid got hospitalized with the flu and Pneumonia. The hush-hush stuff that had fans attacking his family again turned out to be them trying to poker-face how sick he was.