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Memento
Aug 25, 2009


Bleak Gremlin
UFC - Science Stuff Marches On

Alternate title: UFC March - Now Boneless!

Last month's thread is here. Thanks to CommonShore for throwing it together. February was a pretty cool month for fights and a loving hilarious month for out-of-cage shenanigans.

Let's get to the important stuff first: Jon "Bones" Jones is a stupid motherfucker. At his CSAC hearing on the 27th, all sorts of bullshit came out about him. The most important thing is that it is now extremely apparent he does not realise that the things he does are wrong. He also threw his management under the loving bus, which to be honest is no less than they deserve. Dunc summed it up well for us after the hearing:

Triticum Guzzler posted:

to review:

jon jones admitted to not doing the online seminars for usada, and having malki kawa forge his signature
jon jones said he signed an nda that he could not disclose the amount he gave to the woman he crashed into. minutes later he says he gave her a million dollars.
jon jones brought somebody with him to give public comment and say he shouldn't get any punishment except a fine

Choice quote from the hearing from the moron himself

Jon Jones posted:

I've had some science stuff happen to me

The whole video of the hearing can be found here. If you want to follow along with the thread's live reactions from the hearing, the conversation started here.

UFC in February

The first weekend of the month saw the UFC head to Belem, Brazil for the first time ever for UFC Fight Night: Machida vs. Anders. While there were a couple of decent fights on this card, the main event wasn't one of them, and the co-main was one of the most brutal, mis-matched, unjustifiable booking decisions ever made. Valentina Shevchenko1 beat Priscila Cachoeira2 into a bloody mess. The fight was not remotely competitive at any point in time, and Shevchenko landed 203 significant strikes to her opponent's 2, before mercifully choking out the outmatched Brazilian.

1 25 years combat sports experience, Master of Sports in Taekwondo, Muay Thai, Boxing, Kickboxing and Judo, black belts in Taekwondo and Judo, 58-1 kickboxing record, 18-3 MMA record, multiple time K-1 and Muay Thai world champion.

2 some tae bo classes, former crack addict

The next weekend saw another first for the UFC with the newly-opened Perth Arena hosting UFC 221. The main event was scheduled to be an Interim Middleweight Championship fight between Luke Rockhold and a late-replacement Yoel Romero, however Yoel's weight cut didn't pan out for him. Coming in at 188.3, he was given an hour to try and make the rest of the weight. He ended up tipping the scale one final time at 187.7, nearly three pounds over the exact weight requirement of the championship bout. The fight went ahead, with Rockhold earning 30% of Romero's purse before he even stepped into the Octagon, and Romero not being eligible for the championship.

The fight went fairly evenly with Romero using some interesting chops to the thigh in an attempt to negate Rockhold's kicks, and Rockhold having some success behind his jab without setting up too much else along with it. Then partway through the third, Romero bounced his left hand of Rockhold's temple, and as Rockhold was trying to pull his wits together leaning against the cage, Romero shut his lights out with a massive left hand uppercut.

https://i.imgur.com/bo2blqT.mp4

The brakes are now well and truly on Rockhold's attempt to get the Middleweight championship back around his waist, and even though Romero wasn't eligible for the Interim title, he will almost certainly face Whittaker for the belt in the first half of 2018.

Looking at the undercard, Tyson Pedro put a very nice Kimura submission on Saparbek Safarov late in the first round that has garnered him some nominations for Sub of the Year.

https://i.imgur.com/Z8JyRlb.mp4

Another fight to watch was Israel "The Last Stylebender" Adesanya making his UFC debut against local man Rob Wilkinson. The first round was competitive but the diverse and unpredictable striking style of the Nigerian-born New Zealander was enough to get him a solid victory in the second. If he can work on his takedown defense while fighting some hitters he could find a comfortable home in the top 15 at Middleweight.

In less fun news, Jake Matthews is lucky to still have sight in either of his eyes after being severely gouged by Li Jiangling while he was holding onto a guillotine submission. The referee failed completely to call it and it seems like the referees care less and less about blatant fouls in general, with recent examples of groin strikes and blows to the back of the head going uncalled.

The following weekend we went to the heart of Texas, with Austin hosting UFC Fight Night: Cowboy vs. Medeiros. The main event was a solid back-and-forth fight with Cowboy Cerrone taking it just before the end of the first by TKO. Coming into the main card, this event had already seen 5 first-round finishes with a highlight-reel standing knee KO from Curtis Millender earning him a $50k bonus.

https://i.imgur.com/pXfjvc0.mp4

Finally in February, the promotion headed to Orlando, Florida for UFC on Fox: Emmett vs. Stephens onthe 24th. The main event again featured multiple illegal strikes, with Jeremy Stephens unloading elbows into the back of his opponent's head, and then throwing a huge knee at Emmett's head while he was kneeling on the ground. Again, there appear to be no repercussions incoming for these transgressions.

My personal highlight of the night was Alan Jouban casually sleeping a reeling Ben Saunders as the latter tried to make space.

https://i.imgur.com/Tsmz4dv.gifv




UFC events in March

Two events this month, as the UFC takes it a little easier in the leadup to their biggest time of the year, Internation Fight Week in early July.

The first event comes to us from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas Nevada on the 3rd - it's UFC 222. The main event sees Cristiane Justino put her Women's Featherweight championship on the line against Yana Kunitskaya, who is making her UFC debut. This fight doesn't really have any business being booked, with Kunitskaya (10-3(1)) having been tooled up by Tonya Evinger in a way not seen since Evinger was tooled up by Justino. There is such a gap in skill and size that Justino is currently a -1900 favourite.

The co-main is far more interesting. Originally slated to be in the main event with Max Holloway, Frankie Edgar has accepted a replacement fight with Brian Ortega. This fight sees the 10-year, 20-fight UFC veteran putting his title shot on the line against the undefeated BJJ wizard. Edgar has shown his ability as an undersized Lightweight throughout his career, and has only ever been beaten since making the move to Featherweight in 2013 by the 145-pound GOAT Jose Aldo. Edgar comes into this a slight favourite.

This card looked quite dire for a while and at one point in time had as its main event Stefan Struve vs. Andrei Arlovski. It's still not a great card but has come a long way since then.

Two weeks later, the UFC heads over to sunny London, England's O2 Arena for UFC Fight Night: Werdum vs. Volkov. As is usual for these events, you get Fabricio Werdum taking a holiday with his family, seeing the sights and smashing some random vaguely-ranked Heavyweight, and a bunch of local fighters doing their thing. Of note is Tom "Fire Kid" Duquesnoy in his third UFC fight against promotional newcomer $_fighter_name. $_fighter_name has a number of accomplishments to his name, including $_accomplishment1 and $_accomplishment2 and trains out of $_gym_name. We look forward to seeing more of $_fighter_name and are assured he isn't just some can for Fire Kid to crush to re-rail his UFC campaign.


Your Current Champions

Men's Heavyweight Champion - Stipe Miocic (20-2)
Stipe Miocic won the Heavyweight title in May of 2016, stopping Fabricio Verdum in front of his countrymen in a single round. He backed this feat up with another first-round stoppage of the most decorated Heavyweight of all time, Alistair Overeem, in Miocic's home town of Cleveland in September 2016. It was considered that the winner of the fight between Werdum and Cain Velasquez at UFC 207, a rematch of the fight where Werdum took Velasquez' belt from him in 2015, would be Miocic's next opponent, but Velasquez was forced out of this bout with yet another leg injury. Miocic defended his title in May 2017, with yet another first round KO of his opponent, making Junior dos Santos his second scalp as champion and equalling the all-time title defenses record. A dominating performance of Francis Ngannou in January 2018 saw Miocic become the first ever UFC Heavyweight champion to defend the belt three times in a row. The first UFC Superfight in many years has been booked for UFC 226 during International Fight Week, which will see Miocic put his title on the line against Daniel Cormier.


Men's Light Heavyweight Champion - Daniel Cormier (20-1-(1))
Daniel Cormier won the belt initially in May of 2015 against the heavy-hitting Anthony Johnson by rear-naked choke in the third round. Cormier defended his belt against Alexander Gustaffson in October of 2015 in a split decision. A planned rematch against Jon Jones was scheduled for UFC 200, which was called off after Jones tested positive for post-cycle therapy drugs. Cormier went on to fight Anderson Silva in a non-title bout on three days' notice. Cormier was slated to fight Anthony Johnson in a rematch for the belt in December, a match which did not took place due to Cormier suffering a groin adductor injury. The bout took place at UFC 210 in April, with Cormier defending the belt in under two rounds and Johnson riding off into the sunset with a surprise retirement. The rematch against Jon Jones finally took place at UFC 215 and saw Jones KO Cormier in the third round. Then Jones tested positive for Soviet-era steroids, and the CSAC overturned the fight result to a No Contest. The UFC dutifully stripped Jones of the championship, and it is now back around the waist of Cool MMA Dad Daniel Cormier. DC showed the world that there are indeed levels to this game, and defended easily against Volkan Oezdimir at UFC 220 in January. His next title defense is not booked, but his next fight will be against Stipe Miocic for the Heavyweight championship.


Men's Middleweight Champion - Robert Whittaker (19-4)
Whittaker rode a seven-fight winning streak, including shutting down the deadly takedowns of Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza to slot himself into an Interim Middleweight championship match against Yoel "Soldier of God" Romero. The canny Australian showed incredible heart in taking it to the Cuban Olympic silver medalist over five rounds, and even with a severe knee injury coming in the first he managed to outpoint his opponent to take the unanimous decision. With Georges St-Pierre vacating the Middleweight championship in early December 2017, Whittaker has now been promoted to Undisputed Middleweight Champion. With further health issues plaguing him, his next title defense is pencilled in to be against Yoel Romero at UFC 225, after the Cuban Muscle Crisis definitively sparked out Luke Rockhold in Perth in February.


Men's Welterweight Champion - Tyron Woodley (17-3-1)
Woodley was promised a title shot against the Welterweight champion 17 months before the fight took place. After Robbie Lawler put in Fight Of The Year performances against Rory MacDonald in July 2015 and Carlos Condit in January 2016, Woodley went into their fight in July of 2016 as a significant underdog. This meant nothing, with Lawler going down to strikes in the first round. Woodley defended his belt against Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson, putting on an incredible fight that ended in a majority draw at UFC 205 in New York in November 2016. A rematch for this fight was held in March month at UFC 209, with Woodley again the winner in a stilted affair. He defended the title again at UFC 214 in late July 2017 against Demian Maia, following a conservative but sharp gameplan that saw him stop all 22 of the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu ace's takedown attempts. Rafael dos Anjos has been talked up as the next challenger with his decisive win over former champion Robbie Lawler, but nothing is booked at this stage, with Woodley having taken time off for shoulder surgery.


Men's Lightweight Champion - Conor McGregor (21-3)
Conor easily beat Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 in November 2016, becoming the first ever UFC fighter to hold the belts in two divisions at the same time. A diversion into boxing in 2017 and other extra-curricular activities have kept Conor out of the cage for nearly a year and a half now. No fight is booked or even likely at this stage; the most likely thing to happen to Conor next is to be stripped of the Lightweight championship in the leadup to UFC 223.


Interim Lightweight Champion Tony Ferguson (26-3)
Tony rode an impressive 9-win/8 bonus award UFC streak to be booked against Khabib Murmagomedov at UFC 209. Unfortunately, Khalabeeb decided he would rather get into a losing fight against a plate of tiramisu and failed to make it to the match. A match against Kevin Lee was announced for UFC 216, with Lee nearly losing to tiramisu before the weigh-in. Ferguson used superior cardio and grappling and the fact he wasn't trying to overcome a staph infection to win by triangle choke late in the 3rd round. Tony's next fight is scheduled for UFC 223 in April, with the fight against Khabib Nurmagomedov now having been booked four years in a row. Can they finally get together in the Octagon? Nurmagomedov's brutal dismantling of Barboza is as good as he's ever looked, and with his weight issues now sorted it looks like the Russian sambo ace and the 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu savant will finally meet.


Men's Featherweight Champion - Max Holloway (19-3)
Holloway put together a 9-fight win streak, with several Performance of the Night bonuses, before answering the call to contend for the Interim Featherweight Championship at UFC 206 in December 2016. Taking out Anthony Pettis with a body kick and punches late in the third round, he set himself up for a unification bout against Jose Aldo at UFC 212. At that event in early June 2017, he defeated Aldo in the third round with focused ground and pound, and unified the belts. Frankie Edgar was announced as Holloway's first defense, but with Edgar out with a broken face, the rematch with Jose Aldo Jr took place at UFC 218 in early December 2017. It was a carbon copy of the first match, with Aldo unable to weather the combinations of The Blessed One, this time being stopped in the third round. Holloway was again scheduled to defend against Frankie Edgar in March 2018, however a leg injury to the champion has forced that fight to the co-main with Brian Ortega stepping in, for what many consider to be a Number 1 Contender match.


Men's Bantamweight Champion - TJ Dillashaw (18-3)
When he was announced as the coach on The Ultimate Fighter: Redemption against then-champion Cody Garbrandt, the outcome was planned to be a fight between the two for Garbrandt's Bantamweight championship. While the fight between the two was originally announced for July 8 2017 at UFC 213, Garbrandt dropped out with a back injury during May, and it was re-booked for UFC 217 in November. Dillashaw started a slight underdog, but got the job done in the second round with a solid right hook and follow up ground and pound. With his second title reign starting, Dillashaw has no title defense currently scheduled, but is tentatively booked to fight Demetrious Johnson for the Featherweight belt in July 2018.


Men's Flyweight Champion - Demetrious Johnson (27-2-1)
After winning the Flyweight Championship in September 2012 in a split decision against Joseph Benevidez, Johnson has amassed a 10-fight streak against the best that the division has had to offer. He has been so dominant that the UFC held an entire Ultimate Figher tournament to find his next challenger. The culmination of this was that Tim Elliott came back out of the MMA wilderness to lose a competitive match against Johnson in early December 2016. Johnson easily defended his title against Wilson Reis in April 2017, tying the all-time title defense record held by Anderson Silva. His next was scheduled to take place at UFC 215, with Ray Borg the chosen recipient of a life-altering mauling, but Borg pulled out with an unspecified illness. This match was re-scheduled for UFC 216 on the 7th of October, which saw Johnson soundly beat Borg for four and a half rounds. The champion then casually threw his opponent over his shoulder and grabbed his arm on the way down for a GOAT-level submission win. With TJ Dillashaw now the Bantamweight champion, a superfight between the two for Johnson's Flyweight championship has been pencilled in for July 2018.


Women's Featherweight Champion - Cristiana Justino (19–1 (1))
With the vacating of this championship by Germaine de Randamie in May 2017, a match was set up for UFC 214 between Justino and Megan Anderson. Anderson pulled out of the fight in late June, and was replaced by current Invicta FC Bantamweight Champion Tonya Evinger. The significantly larger fighter on the day, Justino dominated a one-sided affair and won the fight in the third round with brutal knee strikes. Justino defended her championship against Holly Holm at UFC 219 in December 2017, again being the much larger fighter and keeping Holm at bay to take a comprehensive decision victory. Justino will make her next defense against promotional newcomer Yana Kunitskaya in March 2018, a fight in which she is an essentially-unbackable favourite.


Women's Bantamweight Champion - Amanda Nunes (14-4)
Nunes headlined UFC 200 in July of 2016, putting a vicious beating on Miesha Tate and securing a rear-nake choke victory in a little over three minutes. She backed this up with a brutal 48-second TKO victory against former Women's Bantamweight Champion and WMMA pioneer Rounda Rousey in late December 2016. Nunes was slated to take on Valentina Shevchenko in a rematch of their March 2016 fight, with that match being moved to UFC 215 in September 2017. Nunes retained by a razor-thin split decision. her next fight is tentatively booked against Raquel Pennington for UFC 224, which will be held in May 2018 in Rio de Janeiro.


Women's Flyweight Champion - Nicco Montańo (4-2)
After amassing a 5-0 record as an amateur, Nicco turned pro in late 2015. Going 3-2 before signing up to The Ultimate Fighter: A New World Champion, Nicco used her tenacity and solid striking game to garner three decision wins in a row on the reality show. Originally slated to face Sijara Eubanks at the TUF Finale, she ended up taking out a hard-fought decision victory over Goon favourite Roxanne Modaferri to become the first UFC Women's Flyweight champion. No defense is announced at this stage, but Valentina Shevchenko has been announced as the number 1 contender.


Women's Strawweight Champion - Rose Namajunas (10-3)
After cleaning out the Women's Strawweight division, Joanna Jędrzejczyk seemed to have no more mountains to conquer. After beating Michelle Waterson by rear-naked choke in April 2017, Namajunas was announced as the next contender for want of any other new challengers. In a massive upset, Namajunas beat Jędrzejczyk by TKO in the first round of their championship fight at UFC 217. A rematch for this fight has been announced to take place at UFC 223 in April 2018.

Other poo poo

Thanks very much to LobsterMobster for putting together the awards thread for this year - go and vote!

2017 Rowdy Ringsports MMA Awards.

Go to the MMA's Best and Worst of the Year, 2017 thread administered by Fentry to refresh your memory on what has been considered by your fellow PSP-MMA posters as the best (and worst) of the MMA world last year. This year's thread (MMA's Best and Worst, 2018 Edition) could always use more love

Thanks also go to LobsterMobster for putting together both iterations of the UFC Fightpass Thread

UFC Fight Pass Playlists and Collections

The NEW UFC Fight Pass Collection Thread



Shout out to DumbWhiteGuy for providing details for the MMA IRC channel.

irc.synirc.net #mma

Join your fellow MMA fans in discussing all things MMA in a place probably secure against nuclear armageddon - IRC has been around for so long I'm not convinced anything could kill it.

More thanks go out to Unfunny Poster for putting together a new UFC Fight Pass Thread - Earning Your 3rd Degree Blackbelt In MMA Posting. This thread is being updated approximately every week with information on new and upcoming additions to the streaming service, and is good for general banter about old fights. March's UFC Fight Pass Match of the Month is the Lightweight Championship match between Gray Maynard vs. Frankie Edgar from UFC 125, one of the all-time great title fights at Lightweight.

As usual, let me know where I hosed something up, and you too could win the No-Prize!

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VagueRant
May 24, 2012
I for one am shocked that Jon Jones is an idiot lying cheating garbage person, given his previous record of consistently being that. (Unironically think they should ban him from the sport, be rid of him forever and everyone can stop talking about him. Never mind being a cheating oval office AND way more boring a fighter than people give him credit, he's too unreliable to book for a fight.)

Let's get some focus on the Never-Champ-Always-Contender Cowboys and Frankie Edgars of the sport who will turn right the gently caress up any time on any notice, for any fight and likely give you a good one.

Also holy poo poo, didn't know they'd actually confirmed TJ vs MM. Predictions?

Memento
Aug 25, 2009


Bleak Gremlin

VagueRant posted:

Also holy poo poo, didn't know they'd actually confirmed TJ vs MM. Predictions?

From what I can see online it's "booked" where "booked" can mean "we've got signatures on the contracts and the fighters are in camp" or it can mean "we're still negotiating and we're a fair way away from actually calling the commission".

Having said that, Demetrious Johnson is unbeatable by anyone that can make 125. TJ might do better than other fighters have done but he's not going to beat Mighty Mouse.

I.N.R.I
May 26, 2011
theres nothing boring about jones' fighting, if he does fight again ill be happy to watch him do it. but he made his own bed and he should lie in it

El Roncho
Oct 15, 2006

I'm not necessarily proud of this but I'm gonna leave it here anyways.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfyrmbxHFgj/

Triticum Guzzler
Jun 16, 2002
Unfortunately, I've had some science stuff happen to me.

Triticum Guzzler
Jun 16, 2002
http://mmadna.nl/alistair-overeem-keert-terug-tijdens-ufc-225-in-chicago-tegen-curtis-blaydes/

Overeem vs Curtis Blaydes for 225

Memento
Aug 25, 2009


Bleak Gremlin

This is the pro-est click

Shirkelton
Apr 6, 2009

I'm not loyal to anything, General... except the dream.


Would you gently caress me? I'd gently caress me.

Memento
Aug 25, 2009


Bleak Gremlin

Dan Didio posted:



Would you gently caress me? I'd gently caress me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_DVS_303kQ

Gay Horney
Feb 10, 2013

by Reene
Boy that uppercut while Luke was on the ground was just fuckin catastrophic

omg chael crash
Jul 8, 2012

Macys paid for this. Noodle Boy and Bonby are bad at video games and even worse friends.


I'm super excited to see Mackenzie Dern this weekend -- she's been training with a few of my friends/training partners at the Checkmat gym down in SoCal

CommonShore
Jun 6, 2014

A true renaissance man


Dan Didio posted:



Would you gently caress me? I'd gently caress me.

Jesus loving Christ. The CSAC cutting guidelines need to roll out everywhere, because even half-assed oversight is better than saying "we've tried nothin' and we're all out of ideas!" Fighters shouldn't be turning themselves into famine victims.

Nierbo
Dec 5, 2010

sup brah?

CommonShore posted:

Jesus loving Christ. The CSAC cutting guidelines need to roll out everywhere, because even half-assed oversight is better than saying "we've tried nothin' and we're all out of ideas!" Fighters shouldn't be turning themselves into famine victims.

One school of thought is the athletes know their body and what they are capable of, as long as they make weight and aren't ill, then its their issue and the show goes on. I agree with you however, and they need to implement the rule in all regions of checking weights multiple times leading up to the weigh in to make sure that the athletes aren't losing over a certain amount of bodyweight.

Veni Vidi Ameche!
Nov 2, 2017

by Fluffdaddy

Gay Horney posted:

Boy that uppercut while Luke was on the ground was just fuckin catastrophic

Romero is a legitimate beast. Holy poo poo, that dude. I can’t believe he’s 62 years old.

-1,900, lol. I’m sure that’ll be a great fight.

I appreciate the effort you guys put into creating these threads, but this month’s title sucks.

I hope TJ vs DJ is “booked” in the “signatures are on the paper” way.

Triticum Guzzler
Jun 16, 2002
weight cutting is hosed up, but you can't put the poo poo back in the cow at this point and the only system i've ever heard of that might work is monitoring fighter's weights continually, which only works if everybody fights in exactly one building in thailand

CRISPYBABY
Dec 15, 2007

by Reene
It's honestly some tragedy of the commons/price of anarchy game theory poo poo. Collectively, if everyone stopped doing it it would be way better for everyone involved in the sport. But then one dipshit would cut weight to get an advantage over those guys, so everyone else starts cutting weight to match them and it's a never ending war of escalation. That people are starting to legislate it a bit is a good thing, but man, it's kinda hard to enforce.

El Roncho
Oct 15, 2006

I'm not necessarily proud of this but I'm gonna leave it here anyways.
I remember mocking Strikeforce for putting Cyborg in there with way overmatched contender after way overmatched contender but it seems to be the best idea anyone can come up with to do with her.

Michael Transactions
Nov 11, 2013

Happy birthday to my best friend in the hole wide world: Sage Northcut

CommonShore
Jun 6, 2014

A true renaissance man


Nierbo posted:

One school of thought is the athletes know their body and what they are capable of, as long as they make weight and aren't ill, then its their issue and the show goes on. I agree with you however, and they need to implement the rule in all regions of checking weights multiple times leading up to the weigh in to make sure that the athletes aren't losing over a certain amount of bodyweight.

Triticum Guzzler posted:

weight cutting is hosed up, but you can't put the poo poo back in the cow at this point and the only system i've ever heard of that might work is monitoring fighter's weights continually, which only works if everybody fights in exactly one building in thailand

Athletes are totally their own worst enemies, and a perfect solution is impossible, but even some nominal effort will help people from treating it as normal.

Sorry if I'm a bit :byodood: on this - I'm bristly over weight cutting right now because a guy I train with entered the ring at 182 lb after making weight for a d-league lightweight fight last weekend, and he obnoxiously underperformed, as one might expect 24h after a traumatic dehydration and starvation episode. All of the talk is that this is totally normal and ok.

Even if the commissions did fight-night weight checks which go onto public record and verbally scolded fighters who gain more than 10% with a mostly-empty threat to cause vague "reviews" which in practice only happen once per year with an ultimate chance of denying a license which never happens in reality because :effort: will be more than doing literally nothing to discourage this "war of escalation."

Lone Goat
Apr 16, 2003

When life gives you lemons, suplex those lemons.




If you can get someone to piss in a cup at any hour, any day, you can do the same thing with getting them to stand on a scale.

At this point I'm just waiting for someone in UFC to die of a weight cut so maybe we'll finally see some change.

Triticum Guzzler
Jun 16, 2002
if usada were able to test every athlete 10+ times a year then i'd be all for them weighing fighters at each test, but i feel like any solution that isn't implemented at a regulatory level just creates a two tier system between the ufc and everywhere else. i hope commissions other than california start to step up, but it's a hard thing to get right and i could easily see dumbasses like the nsac making things worse.

kimbo305
Jun 9, 2007

actually, yeah, I am a little mad

CommonShore posted:

Sorry if I'm a bit :byodood: on this - I'm bristly over weight cutting right now because a guy I train with entered the ring at 182 lb after making weight for a d-league lightweight fight last weekend, and he obnoxiously underperformed, as one might expect 24h after a traumatic dehydration and starvation episode. All of the talk is that this is totally normal and ok.

I think anyone competing has to decide what weight they are willing to fight and and and extensive their diet/weight cutting regime needs to be to compete at that weight class. That is normal for competition.
I don't think people are saying it's ok to crash weight cut without a plan and reasonable supervision.
If no one on his team was working on his weight plan as part of training camp, that's a problem with the training camp. If they were encouraging him to handle a 27lb water weight cut in 24h, that's a huge problem with the trainers and training camp.

Bluedeanie
Jul 20, 2008

It's no longer a blue world, Max. Where could we go?



The D.E.N.N.I.S. system seems bad for weight management

Skip My Posts
Aug 15, 2005

by FactsAreUseless

VagueRant posted:

I for one am shocked that Jon Jones is an idiot lying cheating garbage person, given his previous record of consistently being that. (Unironically think they should ban him from the sport, be rid of him forever and everyone can stop talking about him. Never mind being a cheating oval office AND way more boring a fighter than people give him credit, he's too unreliable to book for a fight.)

Let's get some focus on the Never-Champ-Always-Contender Cowboys and Frankie Edgars of the sport who will turn right the gently caress up any time on any notice, for any fight and likely give you a good one.

Also holy poo poo, didn't know they'd actually confirmed TJ vs MM. Predictions?

lol

spandexcajun
Feb 28, 2005

Suck the head for a little extra cajun flavor
Fallen Rib

omg chael crash posted:

I'm super excited to see Mackenzie Dern this weekend -- she's been training with a few of my friends/training partners at the Checkmat gym down in SoCal

If you are not excited about Mackenzie's UFC debut watch her "Rear naked choke-o-plata" from one of her early amateur fights:

https://www.flograppling.com/articles/5056775-mackenzie-derns-omoplata-rear-naked-choke-at-legacy-61-looks-familiar

Apparently something she has done more then once in BJJ competitions.

Also, her striking has improved a lot since her amateur debut, she beat down some girl in her last (or second to last?) fight.

CommonShore
Jun 6, 2014

A true renaissance man


kimbo305 posted:

I think anyone competing has to decide what weight they are willing to fight and and and extensive their diet/weight cutting regime needs to be to compete at that weight class. That is normal for competition.
I don't think people are saying it's ok to crash weight cut without a plan and reasonable supervision.
If no one on his team was working on his weight plan as part of training camp, that's a problem with the training camp. If they were encouraging him to handle a 27lb water weight cut in 24h, that's a huge problem with the trainers and training camp.

In this particular case it's a few different organizations collaborating to train one guy, who is self-managing. I think everyone involved went "holy poo poo" when he gained 27 lb back. I don't know what his weight was before he started the final water cut - he could have gone 175-155-182 for all I know, but that's still too loving much.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that even publicizing official info on in-cage weight, even from just -some- of the commissions, would help prevent this kind of thing, because it would give a sense of what's normal. Right now all we have for recent data on lightweights in the UFC (Prazares and Burns) is that 180+ is "way too loving big for light weight." The guy I know has it in his head that dropping 20+ pounds is not only normal, but -necessary- to be competitive. If we had info like "GSP weighed 193 when he beat Bisping" or "Holloway weighed around 158 in his last three fights," there would be some kind of information about what's required for success, and there'd at least be some information available so that this discussion could go anywhere beyond "watcha gonna do?." And sure, why not have USADA weigh them? It would at least give some info.


I'll stop ranting about weight cuts now.

kimbo305
Jun 9, 2007

actually, yeah, I am a little mad

CommonShore posted:

In this particular case it's a few different organizations collaborating to train one guy, who is self-managing.

The guy I know has it in his head that dropping 20+ pounds is not only normal, but -necessary- to be competitive.

I know there is a broad streak of machismo in this sport and of course other sports, but I think there were plenty of chances for him to be better trained and better advised about his weight cut "program."

CommonShore
Jun 6, 2014

A true renaissance man


kimbo305 posted:

I know there is a broad streak of machismo in this sport and of course other sports, but I think there were plenty of chances for him to be better trained and better advised about his weight cut "program."

Probably

Horse Inspector
Aug 11, 2005
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I'm personally a fan of the One system. There's probably some huge drawback I don't know about yet, and I'll be told and change my mind, but on face value it seems pretty good.

InfiniteZero
Sep 11, 2004

PINK GUITAR FIRE ROBOT

College Slice
Has anybody explained to Stefan Struve yet that he has a ridiculous reach advantage and that his strategy should revolve around that?

I'm pulling for him, but it makes me sad to watch him sometimes because he rarely plays to that obvious advantage.

Triticum Guzzler
Jun 16, 2002

Horse Inspector posted:

I'm personally a fan of the One system. There's probably some huge drawback I don't know about yet, and I'll be told and change my mind, but on face value it seems pretty good.

Wrestlers have been beating urine specific gravity tests for years by holding their pee in and cutting weight. I forget how often One do the tests, but you need to do multiple tests or you end up with the same problems but everybody is on the verge of pissing their pants

Bluedeanie
Jul 20, 2008

It's no longer a blue world, Max. Where could we go?



InfiniteZero posted:

Has anybody explained to Stefan Struve yet that he has a ridiculous reach advantage and that his strategy should revolve around that?

I'm pulling for him, but it makes me sad to watch him sometimes because he rarely plays to that obvious advantage.

everyone has told him that and he remembered exactly once, when he knocked out Stipe Miocic, and then never fought like that ever again

Matt Lindland
Feb 10, 2018

SHUT THE FUCK UP KEVEN

ALSO GJ BUYING A NEW ACCOUNT LIKE A GODDAMN COWARD
YOU USELESS WHITE NOISE POSTER

YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE THE BOLF RAMSHIELD YOU SO RICHLY DESERVE


now with professional animation
I don’t think Stipe meexockick is the best heavyweight champ of all time but he’s probably the best heavyweight champ to be KOed by Struve.

Triticum Guzzler
Jun 16, 2002
Struve has actually spent a fair amount of time training with high level kickboxers, but he's a grappler, and his instincts are to grapple. He's made the pilgrimage to Semmy Schilt's gym in the middle of nowhere a couple of times, but honestly I'm not sure how useful it is for Struve because it's just not his wheelhouse.

DoombatINC
Apr 20, 2003

Here's the thing, I'm a feminist.





InfiniteZero posted:

Has anybody explained to Stefan Struve yet that he has a ridiculous reach advantage and that his strategy should revolve around that?

I'm pulling for him, but it makes me sad to watch him sometimes because he rarely plays to that obvious advantage.

Oh hey, me from five years ago, nice to see you again. Yes, I know what I did to your body, stop screaming. It gets so much worse than that.

InfiniteZero
Sep 11, 2004

PINK GUITAR FIRE ROBOT

College Slice

Triticum Guzzler posted:

Struve has actually spent a fair amount of time training with high level kickboxers, but he's a grappler, and his instincts are to grapple.

Which is why watching him is sometimes like watching a guy trying to open a padlock by smashing it repeatedly into his forehead even though he's holding the key in his hand the whole time.

Michael Transactions
Nov 11, 2013

Triticum Guzzler posted:

Struve has actually spent a fair amount of time training with high level kickboxers, but he's a grappler, and his instincts are to grapple. He's made the pilgrimage to Semmy Schilt's gym in the middle of nowhere a couple of times, but honestly I'm not sure how useful it is for Struve because it's just not his wheelhouse.

It would be cool if he knew how to use his length but he doesn't and he's terrible

Dr. Abysmal
Feb 17, 2010

We're all doomed

Triticum Guzzler posted:

Struve has actually spent a fair amount of time training with high level kickboxers, but he's a grappler, and his instincts are to grapple. He's made the pilgrimage to Semmy Schilt's gym in the middle of nowhere a couple of times, but honestly I'm not sure how useful it is for Struve because it's just not his wheelhouse.

Schilt was actually in Alexander Volkov’s corner against Struve in his last fight.

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kimbo305
Jun 9, 2007

actually, yeah, I am a little mad

spb posted:

It would be cool if he knew how to use his length but he doesn't and he's terrible

He's pretty slow, and that's probably a factor for him favoring bringing a fight into the grappling domain. Having reach and being slow leaves your guard really exposed like all the times he gets clocked by shorter fighters.

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