UFC 251 Fight Island: Masvidal v. Usman

[Dupp]

Jorge talking a lot about getting back to the title in his post fight presser. A lot different to his fight where it seemed to be a more money centric conversation.

Who makes sense for him next if that’s his direction? He scoffed at the idea of Colby

[Dupp]

Jorge actually looked pretty good this fight just his conditioning wasn’t great.

[NO-KG-AI]

I want to see GSP vs Usman

Really? After watching that, I’m not sure he can threaten GSP from any level. I would bet on him getting outstruck and outgrappled soundly.

[jc23]

Usman is a boring champion.

[Headliner]

Usman is a dink, he’s got such a douche persona
I can’t wait for him to get an L

[cowboyronnie]

Late stoppage. Aldo looked good and made it competitive for 2½ round - just like the two fights with Holloway. Should've never gotten a title shot. Sterling next, Yan by KO. Moraes vs Yan is the fight i want to see.

Yeah, WTF? Aldo clearly was not trying to escape. There were a couple chances where he could have made a move, and he chose to stay turtled and minimize damage. Ref didn't notice. Some of those were thudding.

I had to keep telling myself, "Aldo is a Bolsonaro supporter" as I watched that.

[cowboyronnie]

Thought Max looked awesome in those first 2.5 rounds. He was so loose and using a huge variety. Which is what he absolutely needs to do in order to keep a guy like Volk backing up. But Volk showed incredible fortitude when he decided to turn it on late in the 3rd, he started to push Max backwards with tons of feints and sharp movement.

Overall, I would have say Max demonstrated he's the better fighter and clearly inflicted way more damage. But, scoring wise, that's gotta go to Volk.

[cowboyronnie]

BMFs don't fake low-blows and ask the refs to stop the action cos they're tired.

[cowboyronnie]

Yan is for real. He will smoke Aldo.

In fact, I think all the favorites win and I bet a 3-way on Rose, Usman, and Volk. It doesn't actually make me a whole lot of money but I am confident that all three win.

Made $282 on those bets.

[lobosloboslobos]

felt like 20 minutes of ineffective shoulder shots, ineffective knees and ineffective toe stomps
with a few minutes of ineffective ground and pound, a couple head butts and a handful of decent strikes mixed in
way to go champ

[Nemesis21]

Pretty good card.

LMAO at PVZ wanting more money and get's sub'd round 1.


Good win for Thug Rose.

Ref in Yan/Aldo fight, could have stopped it two minutes earlier. Rookie ref?


No way Volkanovski won that. Could see an argument for 4-1 Max, at worst it was definitely 3-2 Max. One of the worst judging screw jobs that I have seen!


Usman/Masvidal was good, wanted to see some one knocked out though.

[Headliner]

I can’t watch Aldo, I find him so frustrating. He abandons the leg kicks so quickly.
He was killing Yan with them and then just stopped, bah.

[Headliner]

The max fight, I have no idea what happened. I had max clearly dominating the first two, and then my feed went down and saw he lost. I was shocked

[aggerrard]

No way Volkanovski won that. Could see an argument for 4-1 Max, at worst it was definitely 3-2 Max. One of the worst judging screw jobs that I have seen!

Lol - you're one of those?

No, the decision was absolutely reasonable.

[Nemesis21]

No way Volkanovski won that. Could see an argument for 4-1 Max, at worst it was definitely 3-2 Max. One of the worst judging screw jobs that I have seen!

Lol - you're one of those?

No, the decision was absolutely reasonable.

https://www.bloodyelbow.com/2020/7/12/21321588/dana-white-slams-bad-judging-for-holloway-vs-volkanovski-here-are-the-scorecards

[REDDzone]

Burns, Covington 2, Edwards 2, Ponzinibbio - could be the next 4 guys for Usman if he beats the next man up everytime. Dominates Edwards with the wrestling and grappling like their first fight most likely. Covington is a hard fight, we've seen that already. Burrns is a tough matchup on paper and Ponzinibbio can be the same. There are hard matchups for him in the division.

Ya I would rank Burns #1 then Colby #2 when it comes to chances to beat him. Edwards has no chance in my opinion. But when it comes to the business end of it, Colby 2 is the only one that has any kind of chance to get any kind of buzz right now. The UFC is going to have a really hard time selling PPVs with Usman as a headliner. People are bashing him like crazy right now. He is probably the least liked champ right now in the UFC.

Haha I honestly wouldn't be shocked if he beats Burns next, Dana doesn't offer Khabib big money to move up to knock him off. Dana is probably fuming right now. This is not how he wanted tonight to end at all.

Usman has already said he won't fight Khabib.

Hell, I wouldn't want to either if I was him.

[REDDzone]

Masvidal/Usman went exactly as I thought. I was skipping +10 seconds through the last few rounds. Lots of cage pushing. Foot stomps, shoulder strikes. Usman had some good headbutts though. As others have said, Masvidal was tired, probably due to the short notice. He clearly faked the low blow to catch a breather. Whatever.

Max/Volk was one of those weight fights where all the rounds Volk won were tossups, while the rounds Max won were more clear. So you're going to hear cries of robbery even though 3-2 either way was fine. I had it 3-2 for Max live but am fine with whatevs. I also think commentary may have biased some people to think Max won the first 3 handily when in reality the third was super close.

It was great to see vintage Aldo for the first 2.5-3 rounds. His head movement, leg kicks, and body work all awesome. Someone should throw that fat f*ck ref off fight island. Why warn someone not to extend their fingers 10+ times? Just STFU if you're not going to do anything about it. Also, I swear Yan got off a big headshot in round 1 while the ref had a hold of their gloves disentangling them. He didn't do anything about that either. And then let Aldo take an extra 45 seconds of brain damage at the end. Ugh. Yan is good though. The way he throws kind of reminds me of how Lawler used to throw. Like, 185 SF Lawler lol.

Rose/Andrade was awesome. I don't like Rose, and I effing despise Pat Barry (I literally get douche chills thinking of how many times he's going to make uninvited appearances, cut her off, talk over her, and answer questions for her in this week's media rounds). That said, she's just such a joy to watch. Andrade is copy/paste boxer/wrestler that we unfortunately see across all men's and women's divisions in the UFC these days. Rose puts the arts in martial arts and is a pleasure to watch standing or on the ground. It sucks that she pieced Andrade up for 2.5 rounds and Andrade goes to the bar, while Andrade landed some flurries for the last half round and made Rose look like she had just been punched by Ngannou though.

PVZ sucks and Ribas was a nightmare matchup for her designed to give her a loss on the last fight of her contract. Beat her up on the feet, judo and bjj black belt. That inversion into backtake after PVZ slipped out of scarf was beautiful and then finished with a nice armbar. Nice work to take the back when you yourself were about an inch away from having your back taken. I think she could have ended up hitting the same armbar that Ronda hit Zingano with off the initial backtake but I'd have to watch again. Irrelevant anyway, I suppose.

[Duke4life831]

I can’t watch Aldo, I find him so frustrating. He abandons the leg kicks so quickly.
He was killing Yan with them and then just stopped, bah.

He stopped the kicks right when Yan switched stances. Im very curious if he has had some leg injuries from kicks before and just find them too painful to do now. It seemed like the second Yan switched stances, he wanted to take no chance of kicking shin to shin. Hell some of the leg kicks before Yan switched seemed like Aldo was almost pulling some of them. I just think there has to be something physically that keeps him from kicking, since it used to be such a huge weapon for him. It would be like Barbosa all of a sudden no longer using his switch kick.

[Duke4life831]

Burns, Covington 2, Edwards 2, Ponzinibbio - could be the next 4 guys for Usman if he beats the next man up everytime. Dominates Edwards with the wrestling and grappling like their first fight most likely. Covington is a hard fight, we've seen that already. Burrns is a tough matchup on paper and Ponzinibbio can be the same. There are hard matchups for him in the division.

Ya I would rank Burns #1 then Colby #2 when it comes to chances to beat him. Edwards has no chance in my opinion. But when it comes to the business end of it, Colby 2 is the only one that has any kind of chance to get any kind of buzz right now. The UFC is going to have a really hard time selling PPVs with Usman as a headliner. People are bashing him like crazy right now. He is probably the least liked champ right now in the UFC.

Haha I honestly wouldn't be shocked if he beats Burns next, Dana doesn't offer Khabib big money to move up to knock him off. Dana is probably fuming right now. This is not how he wanted tonight to end at all.

Usman has already said he won't fight Khabib.

Hell, I wouldn't want to either if I was him.

Ya both have Ali as their managers so no way that fight would ever happen anyways, I just could see Dana offering big money for him to take him out though haha. 170 probably is the least marketable division (maybe 2nd to 125) right now for the UFC. All the entertaining fighters that the casual fans know and like (Jorge, Nate, Conor) have zero chance at beating Usman. While a Burns/Usman (who I think matches up very well with him) fight has absolutely 0 draw.

[Duke4life831]

I want to see GSP vs Usman

Really? After watching that, I’m not sure he can threaten GSP from any level. I would bet on him getting outstruck and outgrappled soundly.

Agreed. Maybe the GSP pushing 40 who has fought once in the last 7 years Usman could take. But prime GSP? Ya Usman would be nothing for GSP. I mean GSP faced some elite grapplers back in his day whether it was BJJ guys like BJ, elite ground and pound guys like Hughes, elite wrestlers that liked to throw heavy shots like Koscheck, or the elite grind and grit wrestlers like Fitch. I mean GSP kind of made his career on point striking those guys then out grappling them. Not sure what new thing Usman would bring that GSP hasn't already faced.