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HarthorneWingo wrote::D

I don’t recall seeing Evoloev fighting in the UFC. Is this his first fight for the organization!

He's been under-promoted but actually came to the UFC 4 or 5 years ago. I remember him beating Enrique Barzola while he was in the UFC, and Barzola's been in Bellator for years.

But the fights to look up for Evoloev are his fights with Hakeem Dawodu and Dan Ige. You'll get an idea of how seamlessly he goes from sharp striking to high-level grappling. Plus, those are two really good fighters that he pretty much ran through.

Evo reminds me of a Baby Khabib.

And how about Neal Magney?

Congrats to Rocky. Seems like she's been around for ages yet still looks like a college student. Didn't she fight during the Rousey reign over in Strikeforce?

Edit: Congrats to Dricus. Both fighters fought their hearts out. Dricus's cardio was there as, oddly enough, he seemed to get better during the fight. I guess it's Izzy vs. Dricus next?

Great close fight had it 3-2 Dricus

So Dana said that he thought that Strickland won. I wonder if this means a rematch?

I don’t know how much significance the judging rules give for simple takedowns but Dricus really did no damage for the short stints he had Sean down.

HarthorneWingo wrote:So Dana said that he thought that Strickland won. I wonder if this means a rematch?

I don’t know how much significance the judging rules give for simple takedowns but Dricus really did no damage for the short stints he had Sean down.

As long as the China man doesn’t get a title shot for no reason

HarthorneWingo wrote:So Dana said that he thought that Strickland won. I wonder if this means a rematch?

I don’t know how much significance the judging rules give for simple takedowns but Dricus really did no damage for the short stints he had Sean down.

I edged it to Strickland in the moment, but I also had 30 dollars riding on Strickland to win by decision.

The new rules reward damage, and things like control only come into play if damage is equal. I think the takedowns deserve a bit of credit, but not much. I was really impressed at how well Strickland did to get up fast, even Whitaker had trouble getting up from under Dricus. Strickland's problem was that all his volume came in jabs. Dricus would land a single haymaker worth 5 of Sean's jabs. So it was hard to measure Sean's 12 jabs against Dricus' 3-power punches.

I suspect that UFC will try to get Chimaev in there for the next title shot. I'd give the next shot to Jared Cannonier (who beat Strickland a lot more convincingly recently and matches up well with Dricus).

I'll tell you what, neither fighter impressed me last night. I didn't trust Strickland to keep the belt long, and it's ditto for Du Plessis.

Strickland fans are so extra that Jon anik is talking retirement with co-signs from other mma media about their behavior. That’s wild since this sport is always had its share of blowhards and tough guys.

j4remi wrote:

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Strickland fans are so extra that Jon anik is talking retirement with co-signs from other mma media about their behavior. That’s wild since this sport is always had its share of blowhards and tough guys.

Read on Twitter

SS is riling up his gay-hating MAGA fanboys.

I wish the video had Florian's response to Anik's comments.

I stumbled onto this video

j4remi wrote:

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Strickland fans are so extra that Jon anik is talking retirement with co-signs from other mma media about their behavior. That’s wild since this sport is always had its share of blowhards and tough guys.

Read on Twitter

what i read between the lines, could be totally wrong, is that the UFC is obviously in the Trump/Rightwing camp and so are many of the UFCs fans, while Anik is probably more left leaning. I think Anik gets a lot of terrible DMs on social media.

And i gotta be honest, im very far off being a woke guy, but some of the things they say and the way they (strickland, dana, etc.) talk about politics and all that is very off putting. while they have some good points for sure, the way they present them is not it. And i think thats one of the major gripes lots of people have these days with the ufc. i personally find it very sad, that the UFC has become so political. almost every press conference, every interview drifts towards a political discussion sooner or later. And i think many of Seans fans are his fans because of his politcal views, not specifically because of his fighting skills or otherwise funny personality.

im just assuming and as i said, it could be totally wrong. but thats how i percieve it

NoStatsGuy wrote:what i read between the lines, could be totally wrong, is that the UFC is obviously in the Trump/Rightwing camp and so are many of the UFCs fans, while Anik is probably more left leaning. I think Anik gets a lot of terrible DMs on social media.

And i gotta be honest, im very far off being a woke guy, but some of the things they say and the way they (strickland, dana, etc.) talk about politics and all that is very off putting. while they have some good points for sure, the way they present them is not it. And i think thats one of the major gripes lots of people have these days with the ufc. i personally find it very sad, that the UFC has become so political. almost every press conference, every interview drifts towards a political discussion sooner or later. And i think many of Seans fans are his fans because of his politcal views, not specifically because of his fighting skills or otherwise funny personality.

im just assuming and as i said, it could be totally wrong. but thats how i percieve it

Yeah, the UFC owners/Dana/etc. are genuinely friendly with Trump and co, which is understandable to some extent. Trump embraced the UFC when it was struggling and most venues wouldn't host its events. But the crazy thing is that the reason they were banned from so many venues was because politicians trashed it as not a sport. They considered it some savage stuff, John McCain called it Human cockfighting, and a lot of states outright banned it for one reason or another (New York banned UFC into the 00s thanks to lobbying from the Culinary Union of all things).


UFC History Rant coming, feel free to jump to the more modern section:
So, for most of the early days in UFC, they fought to look legitimate. Nick Diaz and Joe Riggs were popular fighters who got into a scuffle at a hospital after an event, and they were banned "for life" from the UFC. The image actually meant something. MMA fans wanted it to be treated like a sport, and it took a bunch of rules changes and effort to earn any respect at all.

That makes UFC embracing controversial figures a bit tough to deal with. There have been bad guys all along, from Kimo Leopold at UFC 2 to Tito Ortiz beefing with the Lion's Den at the dawn of the TUF era. But the drama over talent thing really kicked off post-McGregor. Conor was actually a genuinely great fighter before the fame got to him. But his press conferences drew fame and infamy that exploded his popularity. Since then, the UFC loves a drama troll and the sport has hinged closer to WWE with hints of boxing self-interests disrupting the best fighting the best.

So for a while you'd have one or two truly bad people. Chael Sonnen insulting Brazilians; Michael Bisping embracing the hate from Americans as the Foreign bad guy. But they were genuinely elite fighters who had fought the BEST and beaten many of those guys. Bisping was the only clean fighter in a division full of juice-heads. Sonnen was the only fighter honest about TRT (if y'all ever want to hear a rant about the legal steroid era, I could tell you some stories).

Back to the modern era:
Now you've got examples of unranked dudes like Cody Durden yelling "Go back to China" after his first UFC win. Colby Covington and Sean Strickland are quality fighters, but they were pretty famous for being boring in the octagon until they got controversial. Suddenly, they had fans clamoring to watch and a UFC push for ratings.

It's personality over substance...to be fair, my guy Nate Diaz also got overrated over his personality but at least he was always an exciting fighter. Colby almost got cut for being so boring. Sean's got 4 finishes in a 20-fight UFC career. Colby has 2 finishes in his last 11 fights (aka: since he moved up to decent competition). There are examples of popular fighters who didn't get a ton of finishes, but they were typically earning fight bonuses or beating ELITE guys. Sean and Colby's resumes are mid, with very few bonus-worthy performances. Nobody used to hype up those kinds of fighters.

All that is to say, I don't necessarily think politics is the problem. It's courting controversy. But the controversial stuff sells, and UFC is done worrying about its image. Dana White's promoting Slap Fights on his offdays

Tough men calling each other ladies. Gee, where did Dana come up with brilliant marketing strategy? Lmao

Conor's coming back to the UFC?

Anik is the best in the biz.

Would be terrible if he was chased out of the ufc by goons. But I get it. He has to do what's best for him and his health/peace. Suffering constant harassment has to be exhausting.

Guano wrote:Anik is the best in the biz.

Would be terrible if he was chased out of the ufc by goons. But I get it. He has to do what's best for him and his health/peace. Suffering constant harassment has to be exhausting.

It's funny because just imagine someone going "I can't deal with the toxic fanbase...I'm moving on to the NFL"

I'd love to see PFL and/or ONE FC start poaching some of the broadcast talent, though I assume the pay from UFC/NFL would dwarf what those companies can offer.

j4remi wrote:

Guano wrote:Anik is the best in the biz.

Would be terrible if he was chased out of the ufc by goons. But I get it. He has to do what's best for him and his health/peace. Suffering constant harassment has to be exhausting.

It's funny because just imagine someone going "I can't deal with the toxic fanbase...I'm moving on to the NFL"

I'd love to see PFL and/or ONE FC start poaching some of the broadcast talent, though I assume the pay from UFC/NFL would dwarf what those companies can offer.

I've seen enough mma comments on twitter and mmamania to know they're the worst of the sports fans.

?s=20

Topuria chasing a money fight and looking past P4P Volk, P4P Max, and former contenders Yair and Ortega....Idk who he expects to fight beyond steroid infused Conor McGregor. Plus, I know Volk's head probably hasn't recovered, but it's nuts to be planning your future fights already. Beat Volk kid...you sound primed to be humbled.

Well folks, we had a couple of duds for cards recently. Joe Pyfer got rushed up the ladder too fast and lost to a vet last week, on a card where none of the other fights felt worth discussing beyond Tavares vs Rodrigues being a guaranteed banger (and it was).

But now we're finally on to the good stuff. UFC 298 starts a string of three straight really good PPV's. I'll jump in to fill in more info as time permits. For now, Notable Fights:

Volk vs Topuria: I've never seen a P4P top dog be so underestimated. Volk just got knocked out and I've had Topuria as the guy to dethrone him for a while, but people are doubting Volk a little too hard.

Robert Whitaker vs Paulo Costa: Both these guys are 1-2 in their last three, so this fight feels more important for them than it normally would.

Ian Garry vs Geoff Neal: Everyone hates Ian Garry and Geoff Neal hits really hard. So, this it'll be all eyes on Garry and he can either earn some respect or get laughed out of the prospects discussion.

Merab Dvalishvili vs Henry Cejudo: Both of these guys are licking their chops at the prospects of fighting for a belt against O'Malley or Vera (neither guy is a great wrestler). But Merab has been hugging his way to decisions for a while now and Henry looked shaky against Aljo plus split with his long time coach.

Amanda Lemos vs Mackenzie Dern: Woulda been better if Tatiana Suarez hadn't got hurt. But Lemos KO's people and hasn't shown much ground game. Dern submits people and hasn't shown much striking. So, expect a finish!