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Mekchu
Apr 10, 2012

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
Last month's thread is here.

Our title is thanks to Paulo Costa's Twitter.

2020 has been an insane year and May continued the insanity only it was all outside of the cage. I wanted to put something in here about the protests and marches in the US happening right now but I can't really put anything together that does it justice. I'll just say, go support the BLM protestors & oranizers by volunteering any services you can do to local black businesses, and donate to the organizations via their donation links etc. because that stuff is so messed up in a way I don't think anyone was willing to openly admit en masse. It has affected numerous aspects of the MMA community so if you see fighters acting like knobs, call them out on it. If they're acting good, support and help their efforts. Anyway on to the recap.


May Recap

We finally returned to having fights last month, and they were all pretty decent cards! First up we had UFC 249: Gaethje vs Ferguson as the replacement for Khabib vs Ferguson as that fight was booked & canceled 5 different times. This card was a bit of a banger, and the main event was both awesome and a bit heartbreaking. First on the card to highlight was the Aleksei Oleinik vs Fabricio Werdum fight on the undercard. This was a cracker and it was actually kinda shocking to see Oleinik stand and bang with Werdum and take a Split Decision victory over the former UFC HW champion. Anthony Pettis took Donald Cerrone the distance in their match and won via a close judges decision with all three scoring it 29-28 and should be rewatched because Donald & Pettis are just a fun pairing its hard to screw it up. On the PPV we'll skip that first match because well....yeah it was a Greg Hardy match that somehow went a decision despite his opponent being injured. When Jeremy Stephens & Calvin Kattar faced off at a catchweight of 150lbs, it was a bit of a coming out party for Kattar as he put Stephens away in the 2nd round via TKO. Next was the HW fight we all saw on paper, knew it would not go for long and then unsurprisingly it lasted only 20 seconds. Francis Ngannou vs Jairzinho Rozenstruik is a good example of how violent and chaotic a HW fight could be. Rozenstruik was, in my opinion, overmatched by Ngannou and thrown in with The Predator far too early in his UFC run and it was proven when Ngannou KO'd Rozenstruik so quickly with a series of wild punches. Ngannou may be next in line for the title should DC/Stipe not happen. In the co-main event we saw Bantweight Champion Henry Cejudo take on Dominick Cruz and it actually was more impressive of a performance for Cejudo than I personally felt he had shown in his previous outings. He did well to adjust to Cruz's erratic movements and kept the pressure until finally in the 2nd round caught Cruz with a knee and threw a series of punches while Cruz was working to get up that caused the referee to call the fight off. Cruz protested immediately, as he wasn't out but certainly was taking more punches than he was defending, and even took time to insult the referee online and at the post-fight presser to the point we now have a great internet beef between them. Also Cejudo announced he was retiring, thus causing two divisions to have a vacant championship. Thanks Henry!

Finally in the main event Justin Gaethje & Tony Ferguson fought for 5 hard rounds for the Interim Lightweight Championship. This was a great fight and honestly if you wanna see the evolution of Justin Gaethje's approach watch his fights pre-Eddie Alvarez and then watch this one. He was so patient and calm and despite being rocked by Ferguson earlier in the fight, Gaethje stuck to his gameplan and picked at Tony's legs causing his solid footwork to slow down. This allowed Gaethje to work his jab which over 5 rounds caused Tony's face to balloon up. Finally it was one solid punch that caused Tony, who had eaten them for rounds, to wilt and retreat more defensively than we had ever seen, causing the referee to call the fight off. Tony was, understandably, upset but unlike Cruz didn't take long to accept he had just been beaten by the better fighter that night. Gaethje was crowned the new UFC Interim Lightweight Champion and it seriously should be rewatched since it had shades of the great Lawler/Macdonald 2 fight.

The next week, the UFC held its first Wednesday night card in likely a decade with UFC Fight Night: Smith vs Teixeira. This wasn't a bad card but let's just highlight the key fights on the main card for brevity's sake. Drew Dober took on Alexander Hernandez and, in comical fashion, beat him up in a way that would do Donald Cerrone proud earning the TKO victory in round 2. In the co-maine vent Ben Rothwell welcomed Ovince Saint Preux to the UFC's Heavyweight division and basically ground him to a decision earing the judge's nod after 3 round. OSP looked not as crisp as you'd imagine a former LHW would look moving up to HW and if he stays there, I don't think he'll have much success. Finally in the main event we had basically a re-enactment of the Gaethje vs Ferguson fight between Golver Teixeira & Anthony Smith. For 5 hard rounds they fought and little things by Teixeira just started to open up Smith's defenses. However Smith, unlike Ferguson, was more rocked and hurt and at one point handed teeth that had been knocked out to the referee to hold. Between rounds he even told his cornermen his teeth fell out and they didn't really seem phased and sent him back out. The final 2 rounds of this fight were just a prolonged beating for Smith that should have been stopped by the referee or more imporantly his cornermen. Teixeira eventually won early in Round 5 via TKO, and this set off a spark of discusisons about when should cornerment throw the towel in for their fighter. Daniel Cormier felt the cornermen did a bad job, as did Paul Felder but other pundits disagreed, including Anthony Smith of all people.

The following Saturday we stayed in Jacksonville, FL for UFC on ESPN: Overeem vs Harris. I'll just talk about the main event & co-main event again for brevity's sake but overall it was a solid card. In the co-main event we saw some great action from Strawweights Glaudia Gadelha and Angela Hill that went the total distance of 3 rounds. Hill did, by almost all accounts, the better of the two and was by most people's personal assessment the winner, however the judges saw it differently and awarded Gadelha a split decision victory. Also in the main event we saw the pairing of Alistair Overeem vs Walt Harris finally come to fruition. The two had been scheduled to fight last fall but Harris withdrew due to personal issues which involved his stepdaughter being kidnapped and murdered. In a sort of gross display of marketing, the UFC really hammered home that Harris was dealing with the issues from his stepdaughter's murder. It would have been fine if mentioned once or twice, but they ran like 4 different video packages on top of talking a lot about it. In the fight itself, Harris was overmatched by Overeem and succumbed to strikes around midway into the 2nd round. Overeem was classy in the victory as anyone should have been, and it was a nice display of sportsmanship.

Finally the last event of the month was UFC on ESPN: Woodley vs Burns. This was a solid card and again, worth a watch if you have time. A quick rundown here is that Mackenzie Dern submitting Hannah Cifers via kneebar became the first ever leglock submission victory in a women's MMA match in the UFC. It was a slick win and Dern seems to be doing well but again, let's just remember she also missed weight a bunch which is very comical. We had arguably the fight of the year in the form of Spike Carlyle taking on Billy Quarantillo. This was a fantastic fight start to finish and you really need to go watch it. It's small men fighting so what can go wrong? Finally in the main event former UFC Weltwerweight champion Tyron Woodley took on former Lightweight Gilbert Burns in a 5 round matchup. This was Woodley's first fight since the Usman fight and yeah, it seems like whatever mental blocker Woodley was dealing with in that fight causing him not to actually show up and fight. Burns put on a clinic for 5 rounds with great takedown & pressure clinching and effective ranged striking. It was as if Woodley seemed to not even be close to the same level of competition, or at best just unwilling to fight. Burns clearly showed up to get the win and make a case he should be in line for the title shot against his teammate Kamaru Usman and Usman seems OK with it? That could be kinda interesting and fun but who knows.


UFC events in June

All of this is highly subject to change and the below UFC events and fights are solely what was available at the time of writing.

UFC 250: Nunes vs Spencer takes place on June 6, 2020. The main event is a Women's Featherweight Championship bout where Amanda Nunes defends her title against former Invicta FC Champion Felicia Spencer. Our co-main is former Bantamweight Champion Cody Garbrandt taking on Raphael Assuncao, as well as another Bantamweight banger between Aljamain Sterlin and Cory Sandhagen. On the card is also Neil Magny taking on Anthony Rocco Martin as well as Eddie Wineland takingon Sean O'Malley. This, on paper, isn't an amazing card but has the potential to be a great time all around.

Next the UFC will host UFC Fight Night: Eye vs Calvillo on June 13, 2020 and that's the only fight officially stated as far as I saw at the time of writing. No that's not a typo. It's one fight on Wikipedia right now as well. The rest of the announced bouts are well...OK you can skip this event.

Instead you should go atch UFC Fight Night: Blaydes vs Volkov on June 20, 2020. It is also a not amazing card on paper but has more fun looking fights. The top billing is Curtis Blaydes and Alexander Volkov in a HW tilt. Roxanne Modafferi and Lauren Murphy are representing the older ladies at Flyweight, along with Josh Emmet taking on Shane Burgos, Belal Muhmmad and Lyman Good fighting and a few more. This is more of an intriguing card than the Eye vs Calvillo card.


What If FIGHT ISLAND Isn't Real?

You shut your mouth. Fight Island is real. It's a real thing and the infrastructure is being built.


What To Keep Busy With

We have been watching old or random MMA events on the MMA Goons Discord and have floated the idea of watching some of the awful/silly 1960s martial arts movies they added to UFC Fight Pass (or potentially other stuff like Bloodsport, etc.). The link to join is here - https://discord.gg/SkR8ZeC

You can also watch an old event from the UFC Fight Pass library (or any non-Fight Pass library event) and do your own write up over in the Let's Watch: Random Old MMA Events! Thread - https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3918401


Your Current Champions


Drawing by Macksy
Baddest Motherfucker Champion - Jorge Masvidal (35-13)
From the backyard street fights featuring fellow MMA icon Kimbo Slice, Jorge Masvidal has made a living off being as real as real can be. An MMA veteran of 16 years it’s hard to describe Masvidal’s career other than “consistently growing and adapting. Being brought over to the UFC following the Strikeforce purchase, Masvidal was somewhat viewed as a gatekeeper of sorts for the Lightweight and later Welterweight divisions. Losing only to surging title challengers via split decisions, Masvidal changed his approach to fighting ultimately looking to “baptize” his opponents with violent KOs. This change in strategy worked and Masvidal accrued two beautiful KO victories. Following Nate Diaz’s return to the UFC, Diaz called out Masvidal respectfully to fight to see who is the true Badded Motherfucker in the UFC. This gimmick somehow gained traction and an actual belt was made for the winner, which would be determined at UFC 244. The fight was competitive and exciting, with Masvidal taking an early advantage but Diaz working his way back into the fight. However a Doctor’s stoppage resulted in Masvidal being declared the winner via TKO in an anticlimactic fashion, prompting everyone to wish for a rematch to see the full fight play out in its entirety. Masvidal is a great fighter for you to watch the growth of on UFC Fight Pass if you haven’t seen it already.


Drawing by FishBowlRobot
Men's Heavyweight Champion - Stipe Miocic(19-3)
Having worked his way up to the Heavyweight Championship, Stipe Miocic went on to be the winningest champion in the division amassing a startling title defense record of 3 title defenses. However Stipe’s legacy was stopped short after being knocked out by Light Heavyweight Champion Daniel Cormier (who went on to be a Champ-Champ) in the first round of their fight at UFC 226. Miocic disputed the loss, even though he was cleanly knocked out, and lobbied for a rematch. This took a full year to materialize and the whole time while Cormier was riding high as a defending champion in two divisions, Miocic stayed in Cleveland working his argument via Twitter. Eventually the rematch came to be thanks in part to Brock Lesnar using his appeal to the UFC to get a better paycheck off the WWE, making a DC/Lesnar fight disappear. Miocic was put in as a new opponent for Cormier for UFC 241 in 2019, a little over a year after their first meeting. This time however, Miocic went on to get revenge on Cormier and knocked him out following a setup via body punches earning his Heavyweight Title for the second time. Given the state of the UFC Heavyweight division, Miocic’s next opponent may be Daniel Cormier for a third time and a chance for DC to finally retire from MMA. Rumors are Stipe doesn't want to fight until COVID is taken care of as he's an active duty firefighter and Dana implied Stipe may be stripped due to inactivity. DC/Ngannou may be the fight that replaces the DC/Stipe 3 fight.


Drawing by Macksy
Men's Light Heavyweight Champion - Jon Jones (25-1-(1))
Daniel Cormier won the belt initially in May of 2015. After a series of defenses, Cormier lost the title in a rematch against Jon Jones, who himself was stripped afterwards due to testing positive for a PED. Jones eventually settled with USADA after a 15 month investigation. Cormier was reinstated as the champion, before himself being stripped due to being a dual-weight champion and competing more recently at Heavyweight. To determine the new champion, the UFC decided to pit Jon Jones against Alexander Gustafsson in a rematch of their barn burner from 2013. Jones subsequently was able to best Gustafsson and win via third round TKO victory, becoming Light Heavyweight Champion again. Jones recently defeated Thiago Santos but another legal issue has come up for the champion involving assault at a strip club in Albuquerque so maybe Jones will be stripped of the title...again. Jones will possibly face Reyes but some people think a rematch with Santos is warranted. In March, Jones got arrested for a DWI and improper use of a firearm (read: he was drunk driving and shooting his gun off) despite the quarantine situation in the US. As usual Jones got a slap on the wrist and then shortly after mocked former opponent Anthony Smith over Smith’s home being invaded by some random dude. Jones is still somehow beloved by some idiots. Jones is currently having Twitter slapfights/rants over the UFC not letting him go to HW and fight, while also donning he GI Joe uniform and taking his guns to protect businesses during the BLM protests/riots in ABQ.


Drawing by Lucasar
Men’s Middleweight Champion - Israel Adesanya (19-0)
Israel Adesanya entered the UFC for his first bout on February 11, 2018. In less than a year (by 1 day) he was headlining a UFC PPV, thanks in part to the main event falling out, against Anderson Silva. To say he was a rising star is an understatement and fate seems to be willing to back him on that notion. Following Robert Whittaker getting another injury that put him on the shelf, Whittakers initial opponent Kelvin Gastelum was paired up with Adesanya to determine who would be the Interim Middleweight Champion while Whittaker recovers. At UFC 236 Adesanya was pushed to his limits by Gastelum, but the man known as “The Last Stylebender” showed that he wasn’t all hype and nearly finished Gastelum in the final moments of the fight, which certainly helped him clinch his Unanimous Decision victory and become the UFC Interim Middleweight Champion. His followup performance was that of near perfection as he faced reigning champion Robert Whittaker, who Adesanya KO’d with a solid counter hook in just two rounds. To follow that up, Adesanya wanted to face Paulo Costa but the latter was out with injury so Yoel Romero was sent in. The two more or less half fought for 5 rounds but saw Adesanya win the Unanimous Decision. Izzy/Costa seems like the most logical booking for the champ next.


Drawing by Cavauro
Men's Welterweight Champion - Kamaru Usman (16-1)
Debuting in the UFC back in 2015, Usman took a slow and methodical approach towards working his way up the UFC’s Welterweight division en route to a title shot. Running through opponents Damian Maia and Raphael Dos Anjos most recently with dominant performances, Usman earned the opportunity to face Tyron Woodley in Woodley’s fifth title defense. Many presumed that Woodley’s size and power would be too much for The Nigerian Nightmare, but boy were those people wrong. Throughout the entire contest, Usman controlled Woodley easily on his way to a Unanimous Decision victory with Usman winning all five rounds on all three judges scorecards. Woodley essentially never got any offense going throughout a 25 minute fight thanks to Usman’s style of smothering pressure. The next challenger for Usman was Colby Covington, who put up a challenge but ultimately was TKO’d in the 5th round of their fight. As said above, Burns is likely the next title challenger but Masvidal is also there.


Drawing by Jerusalem
Men's Lightweight Champion - Khabib Nurmagomedov (28-0)
Finally, it's Khabib Time. At the UFC 25th anniversary press conference, it was announced that Conor McGregor would be Nurmagomedov’s first opponent as champion. The bout went down at UFC 229 and, surprising some, Khabib dropped McGregor early in the fight but unsurprisingly relied on his wrestling to keep the Irishman down before submitting him with a crank. Post-fight however, chaos erupted as both teams got into various brawls. Khabib has said he would sit out his suspension, which he did until September before handily schooling Interim Champion Dustin Poirier. We really want Tony vs Khabib to actually happen this time as it’s scheduled to take place in April but because of Coronavirus Khabib is in lockdown in Russia. He will next face Justin Gaethje in the event the UFC doesn't do a Tony Ferguson to Justin.


Image by Macksy
Men's Interim Lightweight Champion - Justin Gaethje (22-2)
Justin Gaethje came into the UFC off the winning streak he accumulated at WSOF. He put on a FOTY performance with Michael Johnson in his first fight and then would go on to become a household name thanks to his never boring fights. When he was paired up with Tony Ferguson to fight for the Interim Lightweight Championship we all knew there was a chance The Highlight would beat El Cucuy but we all hoped both guys would be better off regardless of the outcome. In just 7 fights with the UFC, Gaethje captured Championship Gold (yes its Interim but loving come on). He's won so many performance bonuses in just those 7 fights its insane. His wrestling is good, and his striking (when he is composed and patient) is hard to beat at the Lightweight Division. If Ferguson wasn't your pick to beat Khabib, Justin probably would be the next likely guy. He's likely to fight Khabib by the end of the year should things not blow up between now and then.



Drawing by kimbo305
Men's Featherweight Champion - Alexander Volkanovski (21-1)
Quietly working his way up the ranks over the past year or so, Volkanovski finally assumed the throne of Featherweights in the UFC at the tail end of 2019. Besting Max Holloway in a 5 round banger by solid gameplanning and scouting of his opponent, Volkanovski was as humble in his victory as Holloway was in his defeat and promised to be a respectful champion. There is no immediate challenger for Volkanovski’s title that stands out but a rematch with Holloway wouldn’t be absurd.


Drawing by NAG
Men's Bantamweight Champion - Vacant
Having claimed his second UFC Bantamweight Championship TJ Dillashaw accepted the challenge of moving down to the Flyweight division to face Henry Cejudo for the Flyweight title. However things didn’t go as planned and Dillashaw was TKO’d in just under 90 seconds. Things didn’t get better as Dillashaw was then confirmed to have tested positive for EPO in not only that fight but the rematch he had with Cody Garbrandt. With the title vacated, totally of Dillashaw’s own choosing and not UFC punishing him, Cejudo was matched with Marlon Moraes to determine who would be the king of the Bantamweights. After a cringey week of fight hype, mostly on Cejudo’s part, the pair faced off in June of 2019 at UFC 238. Moraes looked to be be dominant in the first round but Cejudo rallied back in the second and third rounds to eventually put away “Magic” Moraes. Now the king of two divisions, Cejudo is very vocal about how he is the greatest combat sport athlete ever. I mean, he has an Olympic Gold Medal and two UFC championships to his name. Clearly he is the greatest and we should just get used to watching his own form of performance art. Cejudo then beat former Bantamweight Champion Cruz at UFC 249, and won via TKO. Cejudo then announced his retirement from MMA in the post-fight interview. The UFC is planning Petr Yan vs Jose Aldo as the likely next Bantamweight Championship bout.


Men's Flyweight Champion - Vacant
Having clawed his way back to a second fight against Flyweight Champion Demetrius Johnson, Henry Cejudo claimed the title at 125lbs. Next “The Messenger” only had one defense at Flyweight, against TJ Dillashaw who at the time was the UFC Bantamweight Champion. 11 seconds into their fight Cejudo was the victor and then announced he planned to move up to Bantamweight to fight Dillashaw for Dillashaw’s title. That fell apart however, and Cejudo bested Marlon Moraes for the Bantamweight championship. However inactivity at Flyweight due to injury has resulted in the title being vacated with the winner of Joe Benevidez and Deiveson Figueiredo being crowned. The MMA gods then decided to do their thing and Deiveson came in overweight thus inelligible to win the title while Benavidez was. However Deiveson then won by KO thus leaving the title still vacant. We will get a rematch between the two where both hopefully show up on weight.


Drawing by NAG
Women's Featherweight Champion - Amanda Nunes(19-4)
Amanda Nunes claimed the Featherweight Championship with relative ease given the opponent she was facing was the long time problem known as Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino. After a quick KO in the first round we’re now left wondering “What is the Featherweight Division really for now that Cyborg is dethroned?” With Cyborg no longer in the UFC, and Nunes seemingly more interested in fighting at Bantamweight we’ll probably see the 145lbs division for women shut down. Just kidding the UFC put together a Featherweight bout for UFC 250 rather quickly so this division is somehow still alive.



Drawing by NAG
Women's Bantamweight Champion - Amanda Nunes (19-4)
Nunes headlined UFC 200 in July of 2016, putting a vicious beating on Miesha Tate and securing a rear-naked 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 Ronda 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 was against Raquel Pennington at UFC 224, which was held this month in Rio de Janeiro. Nunes spent four rounds mauling Pennington, then pounded out a clearly already finished Pennington in the fifth, to retain her Championship. Nunes then faced Cyborg for the UFC Women’s Featherweight Championship and much to the surprise of pretty much everyone, beat the long time feared Featherweight with relative ease. With her victory, Nunes became the first two division champion in Women’s UFC History as well as the first Champ-Champ in UFC Women’s History. Nunes next defeated Germaine de Randamie at Bantamweight and is awaiting for a new challenger to arrive.


Drawing by awesomeolion
Women’s Flyweight Champion - Valentina Shevchenko(17-3)
The UFC’s Women’s Flyweight title was vacanted after Nicco Montaño failed to make it to the weigh-ins at UFC 228, citing a need to visit the hospital. This, in turn, left her bout with Valentina Shevchenko nullified. Having not fought in roughly 9 months, the UFC decided Montaño was no longer the champion of the division that they just made 10 months ago and instead opted to vacate the title. As a result of this, Shevchenko faced Former Strawweight Champion Joanna (Jędrzejczyk) at UFC 231 winning a clear decision victory. The next opponent for “Bullet” was Jessica Eye at UFC 238, who Shevchenko basically murdered and it was not a fun KO. Seriously, it was pretty heartbreaking if you have an ounce of sympathy in your body. Following this up, “Bullet” faced and avenged a loss to Liz Carmouche in a showdown in South America that nobody really remembers. Shevchenko then faced and defeated Katlyn Chookagian at UFC 247. Flyweight is a bit of a wasteland and thus a new challenger has yet to amerge.


Drawing by NAG
Women's Strawweight Champion - Zhang Weili (21-1)
With the fall of Joanna Jędrzejczyk, Strawweight seemed to be lost with anyone who could serve as a dominant champion. Rose Namajunas had the best run with two bouts as a champion but fell to Jessica Andrade via a powerful slam. So understandably the idea Andrade is the new ruler of the division and would be for a while was held. However Andrade’s reign came rather abruptly short when she took on Zhang Weili in her first defense. The Chinese fighter has been on a tear since arriving in the UFC. Defeating the likes of Tecia Torres and Jessica Aguilar, the UFC promoted her to be the first challenger as they began their push further into China’s entertainment market. The gamble paid off as Zhang won in less than a minute. However, Zhang is not just a fluke fighter. She’s been undefeated in 20 fights in a row, with her lone loss being her professional debut back in 2013. Zhang then called out former champion Joanna, with the two facing off in an all out barn burner of a fight at UFC 248. Zhang was tested but persevered and ended up taking home the victory extending her win streak to 21. In happy news, Zhang got back home to China about 3 weeks after the event due to the coronavirus issues to be with her family.




Other Stuff

In the ever crazy landscape that is MMA fight rosters, you can always head over to the B-League MMA: Grand Prixs and Untested Pee thread by CommonShore if your favorite fighter is unceremoniously fired via Twitter by Dana White.

Head over to the 2020 Best & Worst of MMA thread to post your memorable moments of 2020.

We have the Let's Watch: Random Old MMA Events! Thread thread which has been great to read about/relive events through other people’s eyes and worth getting in on yourself if you like writing.

Finally, 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.

As previously mentioned there is also the MMA Goons Discord if you no longer use IRC because you are living in the 21st century - https://discord.gg/SkR8ZeC

As usual if there’s any mistakes please let me know and I’ll fix it as soon as I can.

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Cavauro
Jan 9, 2008

I like to watch some of the MMA fights

Memento
Aug 25, 2009


Bleak Gremlin

Mekchu posted:


Image by Macksy

:five::five::five::five::five:

leftist heap
Feb 28, 2013

Fun Shoe
Reposting it in this thread:

beep by grandpa posted:

I've been watching a lot of MMA and boxing compilation vids today and was thinking about how much it must suck see yourself on the wrong end of somebody else's highlight reel.

That said, who do you think has been on the losing end of other fighters' highlight reels the most frequent? Who is the biggest jobber in MMA??

Overeem has got to be in the running for this.

In fact Overeem has to have the highest ratio of fights to decisions right? 65 pro fights and 8 decisions is wild.

beep by grandpa
May 5, 2004

Thanks for reposting my Q, I thought it was a good one that you all would be very knowledgeable about :tipshat:

Dangersim
Sep 4, 2011

:qq:He expended too much energy and got tired:qq:

I'M NOT SURPRISED MOTHERFUCKERS

leftist heap posted:

Reposting it in this thread:


Overeem has got to be in the running for this.

In fact Overeem has to have the highest ratio of fights to decisions right? 65 pro fights and 8 decisions is wild.

That is wild.

I honestly have so much respect for Overeem, he's been ko'd viciously and embarrassingly so many times but he doesn't care at all, just keeps on plugging.

I mean the dude had a ton of fights in loving Pride and is still a very active fighter.

LobsterMobster
Oct 29, 2009

"I was being quiet and trying to be a good boy but he dialed the right combination to open the throw-down vault and it was on."

"Walter Foxx is ten times brighter than your bulb at the bottom of the tree merry xmas"
Tony Fryklund got tapped out with Ivan Salaverry's body triangle, and got knocked out with Anderson Silva's Ong Bak up-elbow

It's not an extensive list, but it's a pretty solid pairing.

Chris Weidman and Luke Rockhold are solid contenders, as well, given all 10 of their losses are by KO

CommonShore
Jun 6, 2014

A true renaissance man


Vitor has been in quite a few too.

BlindSite
Feb 8, 2009

Dangersim posted:

That is wild.

I honestly have so much respect for Overeem, he's been ko'd viciously and embarrassingly so many times but he doesn't care at all, just keeps on plugging.

I mean the dude had a ton of fights in loving Pride and is still a very active fighter.

21 years in the game.

blue footed boobie
Sep 14, 2012


UEFA SUPREMACY

leftist heap posted:

Reposting it in this thread:


Overeem has got to be in the running for this.

In fact Overeem has to have the highest ratio of fights to decisions right? 65 pro fights and 8 decisions is wild.

This caused me to check out Overeem’s wiki page and his brother actually has 66 fights, only 2 of which ended in decisions :monocle:

Shadow225
Jan 2, 2007




I will legit be sad when Reem retires. He is a pillar upon which we can count upon

Nierbo
Dec 5, 2010

sup brah?
I present to you, Malcolm Robert Sapp:

Brut
Aug 21, 2007

Nierbo posted:

I present to you, Malcolm Robert Sapp:

He doesn't count and you know it.

LobsterMobster
Oct 29, 2009

"I was being quiet and trying to be a good boy but he dialed the right combination to open the throw-down vault and it was on."

"Walter Foxx is ten times brighter than your bulb at the bottom of the tree merry xmas"

Nierbo posted:

I present to you, Malcolm Robert Sapp:



"enormous man gets hit once, slowly crumples to the floor and curls into a ball while his fat opponent awkwardly paws at him for an additional twenty seconds" isn't much of a highlight

James Vick, who's got the perfect "tall guy fall down funny" of Struve AND the "his coach is a raper, so gently caress him" mix is someone I could watch getting knocked out forever.

leftist heap
Feb 28, 2013

Fun Shoe

CommonShore posted:

Vitor has been in quite a few too.

Vitor is absolutely up there since he has been finished by a who's-who of fighters. Machida, Mousasi, Souza, Weidman, Jon Jones, Anderson Silva, Overeem, Couture, Lidell. That's quite the pedigree.

Shadow225
Jan 2, 2007




How did a 185 fight Reem wow

i can still taste him
Feb 16, 2003
Buglord
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ss11deZmmE

Anderson vs McGregor?

BlindSite
Feb 8, 2009

Shadow225 posted:

How did a 185 fight Reem wow

Vitor was a LHW for a long time (and a steroid monster) - he fought Reem at 210 catch weight when Reem was still not yet embracing the "horse meat" program that saw him become the monster Rogan refers to as Ubereem.

FishBowlRobot
Mar 21, 2006



I feel like Cerrone has to have been in a lot of highlight reels, just from volume of fights and his willingness to fight (and lose to) anyone. I’m not sure I’d use the word jobber, though.
Michael Johnson is good at finding a way to get finished or Diazed. He’s probably been in quite a few.

ilmucche
Mar 16, 2016

How many highlight reel losses has arlovski suffered?

Zomblified
Feb 17, 2011

Guess what? You got it for free! Are you proud of yourself?

i can still taste him posted:

Anderson vs McGregor?


If it happens this is about the smartest move Conor can make in my opinion. Sounds like a fun fight, Anderson might be washed enough that Conor can run a train through him, and if not it's a fun striking match that Conor should still be favored that adds to legacy. Unless he falls off a cliff no one's ever going to consider Anderson a tomato-can. If he loses he has the excuse that he fought one of the greatest and the larger man.

Usman kills him.
Khabib kills him again.
Gaethje is probably favored and doesn't even want/have to fight him.
Masvidal is probably riskier than Anderson at this point in both their respective careers and arguably less of a draw.
No idea how Diaz 3 goes.

Any other obvious options I'm missing? Tony?

e:spelling

Dangersim
Sep 4, 2011

:qq:He expended too much energy and got tired:qq:

I'M NOT SURPRISED MOTHERFUCKERS
Conor could absolutely beat Usman, gaethje, or masvidal. They could beat him too but I think they would all be good fights.

Brut
Aug 21, 2007

i can still taste him posted:

Anderson vs McGregor?

Just twitter bullshit, Conor isn't fighting anyone right now. There were articles from non-MMA media saying poo poo like "Conor accepts fight" that just fundamentally don't understand that the UFC is the one that offers fights for fighters to accept, Anderson "offering" on twitter and Conor writing "I accept" just doesn't loving count.

Zomblified posted:

Any other obvious options I'm missing? Tony?

At this point he might just fight Iaquinta or Gillespie or Felder, none of those fights make sense but neither did the Cerrone fight so that's not stopping him. I don't think we'll be seeing him fight anyone this year though.

Dangersim posted:

Conor could absolutely beat Usman, gaethje, or masvidal. They could beat him too but I think they would all be good fights.

This is correct, which is exactly why he won't take any of those fights.

Memento
Aug 25, 2009


Bleak Gremlin

Brut posted:

This is correct, which is exactly why he won't take any of those fights.

Which is weird, because the fight he will take (Khabib) is the fight he cannot win. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but does anyone see Conor/Khabib II going better for the Irishman?

I really don't see him beating Usman, to be honest. The current WW champion showed that he can actually put down some pretty decent power, and he's a lot bigger and an insanely more experienced wrestler. Usman's not going to knock him out on the feet, but when he won the strap we saw him go hard for 5 rounds and smother the poo poo out of someone who is also an insanely better wrestler than Conor, who has traditionally struggled on the ground and with cardio. And then the Covington fight showed he could punch - as good as Conor, maybe not, but he would be a lot less wary of taking it to the ground than he was against Colby.

Dangersim
Sep 4, 2011

:qq:He expended too much energy and got tired:qq:

I'M NOT SURPRISED MOTHERFUCKERS
I know you guys dont like Conor and I'm the resident superfan but the dude doesn't have a history of taking easy fights.

Dangersim
Sep 4, 2011

:qq:He expended too much energy and got tired:qq:

I'M NOT SURPRISED MOTHERFUCKERS

Memento posted:

Which is weird, because the fight he will take (Khabib) is the fight he cannot win. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but does anyone see Conor/Khabib II going better for the Irishman?

I really don't see him beating Usman, to be honest. The current WW champion showed that he can actually put down some pretty decent power, and he's a lot bigger and an insanely more experienced wrestler. Usman's not going to knock him out on the feet, but when he won the strap we saw him go hard for 5 rounds and smother the poo poo out of someone who is also an insanely better wrestler than Conor, who has traditionally struggled on the ground and with cardio. And then the Covington fight showed he could punch - as good as Conor, maybe not, but he would be a lot less wary of taking it to the ground than he was against Colby.

He needs to wrestle to win. His striking is decent but he leaves himself very open and he 100% is going to get hit with the left hand a bunch.

Brut
Aug 21, 2007

Dangersim posted:

I know you guys dont like Conor and I'm the resident superfan but the dude doesn't have a history of taking easy fights.

Back when the mindset was "I wanna show I'm the best in the world", sure, but fast forward a few years and now the mindset is wanting to fight Russian bearwrestler that hurt his feelings, everything else is motivated by that.

I think if they don't give him the Khabib fight he's not fighting anyone at all, probably this year, maybe ever.

Memento posted:

I really don't see him beating Usman, to be honest.

Yeah that fight probably goes the same if not worse than the Khabib fight for him, but it's possible that Usman isn't as disciplined and allows himself to get a little bit careless, especially early on.

CommonShore
Jun 6, 2014

A true renaissance man


Put me in the minority of people who think Conor can beat Khabib. It would look generally like Rousey-Holm if it ever happens, with Conor spending most of the fight circling out and using fast hands to score.

Essentially, when Khabib loses it's not going to be because someone wrestles better than him, it'll be because someone denies him the opportunity to use his strongest weapons effectively.

Dangersim
Sep 4, 2011

:qq:He expended too much energy and got tired:qq:

I'M NOT SURPRISED MOTHERFUCKERS
If he defends the first takedown it's a different fight. The list of people who have done well striking with a fresh mcgregor consists of no one. If you rewatch the third round he lands a bunch of counter lefts that if he was fresh and still had pop would have done damage.

And his foot probably was really hosed up, he wasnt moving right.

Dangersim
Sep 4, 2011

:qq:He expended too much energy and got tired:qq:

I'M NOT SURPRISED MOTHERFUCKERS
With that said if they fight 10 times khabib wins the majority but rematches go different literally all the time.

Dangersim
Sep 4, 2011

:qq:He expended too much energy and got tired:qq:

I'M NOT SURPRISED MOTHERFUCKERS

Brut posted:

Back when the mindset was "I wanna show I'm the best in the world", sure, but fast forward a few years and now the mindset is wanting to fight Russian bearwrestler that hurt his feelings, everything else is motivated by that.

That's fine and I dont really disagree but it's still not the same thing as taking easy fights, it's only wanting the toughest fight.

leftist heap
Feb 28, 2013

Fun Shoe
The problem with Conor theory crafting is that he has a literal puncher's chance against almost any reasonable opponent still. We still haven't seen him against bigger welterweights so who knows how that would go. Usman is pretty big at WW.

Chichevache
Feb 17, 2010

One of the funniest posters in GIP.

Just not intentionally.
Any other degens gambling tonight? I'm doing fanduel again and I cant think of a single reason not to have Nunes as my MVP.

Lid
Feb 18, 2005

And the mercy seat is awaiting,
And I think my head is burning,
And in a way I'm yearning,
To be done with all this measuring of proof.
An eye for an eye
And a tooth for a tooth,
And anyway I told the truth,
And I'm not afraid to die.
Fight Island is Abu Dhabi.

rest his guts
Mar 3, 2013

...pls father forgive me
for my terrible post history...
Nothing to do with 250 but I’m surprised Izzy Costa isn’t on the books yet. Maybe I’m naive but I believe Stylebender when he says he wants to be an active champ (fighting three times a year until he clears the division).

Otherwise, I’ve got Nunes, Assuncao, Sandhagen, Magny and O’Malley. This this one seems pretty straight forward except for Sandhagen Aljo



leftist heap posted:

The problem with Conor theory crafting is that he has a literal puncher's chance against almost any reasonable opponent still. We still haven't seen him against bigger welterweights so who knows how that would go. Usman is pretty big at WW.

I really hate the punchers chance thing. It’s true but so does literally everyone? I don’t think Conor has the same intimidation factor and Usman, as boring as he is, would eat him alive.

Brut posted:

Back when the mindset was "I wanna show I'm the best in the world", sure, but fast forward a few years and now the mindset is wanting to fight Russian bearwrestler that hurt his feelings, everything else is motivated by that.

I think if they don't give him the Khabib fight he's not fighting anyone at all, probably this year, maybe ever.


Yeah that fight probably goes the same if not worse than the Khabib fight for him, but it's possible that Usman isn't as disciplined and allows himself to get a little bit careless, especially early on.

I mean thank God he’s not gonna get it. I think we see him fight if Gaethje beats Khabib, however. And I’m one of those guys that thinks Gaethje has a shot.

E7: also, to the guy who said Gaethje doesn’t want Conor, he is on the record saying he wants to sweep Ferg, Khabib and Conor then retire as the GOAT. He understandably just wants Khabib first.

rest his guts fucked around with this message at 21:05 on Jun 6, 2020

Dangersim
Sep 4, 2011

:qq:He expended too much energy and got tired:qq:

I'M NOT SURPRISED MOTHERFUCKERS
When I think of punchers chance I think of someone who has a little power and could wing an overhand that could theoretically land and put someone out.

Shadow225
Jan 2, 2007




Unfair to call Usman boring when he had a very entertaining evening breaking Colby

Brut
Aug 21, 2007

rest his guts posted:

Nothing to do with 250 but I’m surprised Izzy Costa isn’t on the books yet. Maybe I’m naive but I believe Stylebender when he says he wants to be an active champ (fighting three times a year until he clears the division).

I believe Costa had some kind of surgery he is/was recovering from and I think he currently trains in the US, they can't set that fight up right now.

rest his guts posted:

Otherwise, I’ve got Nunes, Assuncao, Sandhagen, Magny and O’Malley. This this one seems pretty straight forward except for Sandhagen Aljo

https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?action=showpost&postid=505471010

rest his guts
Mar 3, 2013

...pls father forgive me
for my terrible post history...

Brut posted:

I believe Costa had some kind of surgery he is/was recovering from and I think he currently trains in the US, they can't set that fight up right now.


https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?action=showpost&postid=505471010

Ahh missed that about Costa. Cool and thanks. Hard to call method of victory - where’s that guy who won five grand predicting the Wilder KO before the 7th when you need him?

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Brut
Aug 21, 2007

You still get some points if you call the winner, even if you get the method wrong.

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