Very excited for this card.
Some good match ups.
From bottom up on main card my picks.
Song Yadong via tko probably end of first or beginning of second.
Angela Hill: Decision. She’s from my hometown. So bit biased.
Vincente Luque: Decision
Jose Aldo: Decision
Black Beast: TKO end of first or beginning of second.
If Derrick Lewis ultimatly ends up heavyweight champion I will be so happy.
Lewis should have held out for that Ngannou fight, I think. What a nightmare of a matchup. That’s a really tough loss, especially in your hometown. I love Derrick - he’ll get some more fights in the meantime, but he wasn’t able to do a single thing.
By the way - Ngannou made some comments before UFC 265 about Stipe being the true #1 contender, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he says more of it in days to come. Now, nobody deserves a title shot more than Stipe, so I’m not disagreeing, but I don’t believe Ngannou’s motives are what they seem to be.
If he believed Stipe was the number one contender, he’d have been offering him the rematch immediately. But he hasn’t - he’s been silent, and of course, I don’t blame him - he wants his victory lap, and he should have it. But when Derrick Lewis was looking dangerous and with him knowing how dangerous Cyril is (former sparring partner), I think he changed his tune quick, because like any champ, he wants that one title defense.
Yeah well.
Wether prior to Saturday night Stipe deserved anything is now a moot point.
At the conclusion of Saturdays main event Cyril Gain earned his right to fight Francis Ngannou in a title unification bout.
Thats the way it works.
I don’t think Stipe beats Ngannou again. But I do think Ngannou would rather fight Stipe again instead of Cyril.
Stipe should try to get out of his contract. And get on over to Bellator where he could easily cinch up the title from Bader or this Moldavsky guy. He could probably have a bunch of title defence too.
Would be so much better for his legacy, pocketbook and health than to get smashed in the UFC as his skills wane with his increasing age.
I mean, again - i agree, but when has earning anything ever been a prerequisite for getting anything in the UFC?
Besides all that, I wasn’t disputing what anyone earned, only poking fun at Ngannou’s “contender” sweepstakes. All in all, I was pretty much just saying this:
Don’t blame him, either.
What are the odds of a Jones v. Stipe fight?
That is a fight Jones should want to make happen. I think he decisively beats Stipe. That is a good feather for your cap. Beat the “greatest” UFC heavy weight champ there has been so far.
He is 34 years old now.
Looks like the UFC has moved on from Jones for time being.
Dana White confirms Jon Jones will not fight again until 2022 | BJPenn.com
Didn’t meant for that to come off as confrontational. It is was more a statement in general and not a response to anything you said per se.
Cyril is interim champ. Having someone fight for the belt when there is an interim champ is something I think has hardly happened if ever. I wanna say it might have happend to Tony Ferguson but I am not sure. So I don’t know if the UFC will do that. Especially since Cyril is incredibly interesting as a heavy weight and fresh blood in the division is good for business.
Is anyone really interested in seeing Stipe fight for the title for the third time. Personally Stipe is coming off as a bit entitled in my opinion. It was not a close fight. It was not a controversial split decision or anything like that. He got beat decisively.
No worries bro, I didn’t take it that way. Was just clarifying what I had meant in case I’d come off another way.
Yeah, I don’t really WANT to see it, but I think his point was that DC had gotten his rematch after Stipe beat him. Still, just as Ngannou hadn’t mentioned Stipe for a while until it was convenient, I didn’t hear anything from Stipe for a long time either. Seems entitled, as you said - if you’re gonna speak up, do it right after the fight, not when others have lined up and are fighting for that spot.
Anyone just watch the clinic put on by Ramiz Brahimaj? Holy shit . . .
Incredible spinning head kick knockout with less than ten seconds left from Bahamondes was also pretty sweet. Fantastic job.
William Knight is no joke, either. Amazing to see the quality of athlete that is coming into the heavier weights in MMA. He needs to be wary of trying to lean out of the way of head strikes; but an impressive performance to be sure.
Who do ya got in the main event? I’m rooting for Cannonier as a fellow GB guy, but no hating on Gastelum.
Ditto - all respect for Kelvin but pulling for Jared the whole way.
Is it too early to start talking about 266?
I’ll start:
I wish I had more to add, but I agree with everything you said, haha.
Share that sentiment. I hope Diaz isn’t too old and can do something with this comeback. But if I had to put money on it. He is probably too old and been passed by.
But much like Nate I feel like Nick has a certain durability that can give a lot people trouble. So it would be interesting to see him fight some of the higher ranked fighters. Like I would be super interested to see how Usman would do against him.
Volko is going to destroy Ortega. Like TKO inside of three rounds. That is my prediction. I was not impressed with his performance against the Korean Zombie. People said he worked on his “hands”. I didn’t see it. Granted I have no expert eye so what do I know.
Fight night is tonight!
Curious about how the headline matches go. Vokanovski rightly favored IMO, but Ortega has a path to victory which will hopefully make it interesting. Not sure at all what to expect from Diaz v. Lawler. It’s been hard to know how much Diaz wants to be a fighter for years and Lawler is pretty well-worn. And moving this fight up to middleweight on short notice doesn’t boost my confidence that we’ll see an exciting contest.
I’m kinda looking forward to seeing Blades/Rosenstruik in the main event. Both guys have only lost to tough competitors (Lewis, Ngannou, Gane) so this should be a very meaningful fight in terms of the HW rankings. Also very interested to see Marlon Moraes in the bantamweight fight at the top of the prelim card. He’s lost three of the last four by TKO (!) and the win in that streak was a split decision (against Jose Aldo). Sounds like “must win” territory to me.
BTW, starting out my Fight Day with a little grappling courtesy of Flograppling’s WNO tournament. Very glad that Mrs. BurienTopTeam is going out with her girlfriends today; I’m going to be deep in a combat sports coma for the duration!
Honestly, for me the Diaz Lawler 2 fight falls into the “ten years too late” category.
I mean, I don’t know many people who dislike Lawler, but isn’t this just about seeing how Diaz is doing after all this time for everyone? Really wouldn’t matter who Diaz was fighting here for me, I’d watch it regardless.
Dude, Moraes vs Dvalishvili was a BANGER! Not long, but what a comeback. Wild.
I’m a GD moron. I thought the commercial break right before this fight was the transition to PPV and sat here staring at the “this event has not yet started” screen for 20 minutes.