[Binder of Demons]

Yeah Amphib, Bermudez looked fantastic against Guida. Curious as to who they'll match him with next?

Was quite impressed by Matt Brown cos i thought Lawlor would have knocked him out in the 2nd or 3rd round (based on how Brown took damage in his previous fights). I thought if Lawlor tags him like that, then it's over. But in fairness to Brown, he came back strong whenever he was rattled, and managed to worry Lawlor a few times as well. Big heart too to keep throwing punches with his hand being broken. Went way up in my estimation. But I'd say Hendricks wouldn't allow him to recover at all if he tagged him. Will be interesting to see what match-up Brown gets next (there's talk of maybe Condit when he returns, which would be awesome).

Rumble looks lethal at 205. I can't believe he ever fought at welterweight. His striking accuracy was amazing for one of the big guys. Who do you think the UFC will give him next? Can't see GUS wanting to lose his title shot and having to fight Rumble in an eliminator. Since the UFC likes to match winner vs winner, does that rule out Texeira-Rumble? Is Rashad back from injury? Or could they go down the rankings, and maybe put in Bader vs Rumble.


Hey Amphib, did you get to see the Dublin card at all. What did you make of the results? And the event?

[amphibian]

The scuttlebutt appears to be Teixeira vs. Davis right now.

I think Rashad vs Rumble won't happen because they are training partners. We may get something like Hendo instead of Bader, but Bader makes sense, assuming he wins against OSP.

I honestly haven't seen the Dublin card yet. I'll have to download it and watch, particularly as I'm interested in how Gunnar and Conor develop over their fights.

Keep an eye on Mirsad Bektic in a fight coming up. Holloway is good, but Bektic is potentially special like Aljamain Sterling is.

Joanna Jedsomething looks like she's on her way to being a decent sprawler on top of the very good striking she already has. Tecia Torres and Joanne Calderwood would still thump her, but it's another healthy dose of talent in that new division.

[Binder of Demons]

I only got to see the main card fights from Dublin, which was annoying.

McGregor looked really good, but it's hard to know how good considering how fast it was all over. He did land so beautifully timed shots, head and body which really seemed to discourage Brandao, and even did a nice reversal on a takedown attempt to land in top position. The progression to the ending was nice too, with a spinning kick to the head partially landing but staggering Brandao, and from there it was a series of heavy shots to the head. I've seen some keyboard warriors saying Brandao threw the fight cos of how he went down, but it just looked like he was out of his depth at the end and hurt.

Gunnar's fight was a strange one. I thought he did really well, generally keeping a safe distance from a much larger opponent with a good wrestling background. Made perfect sense to me. What impressed me was how he was able to manoeuvre Cummings around when in the clinch, despite the size/weight disadvantage. And as the fight progressed, Gunnar got a better feeling for his striking distance, and began to unload some hard right hands. The ease with which he submitted Cummings was amazing though. Threw a leg kick, Cummings caught it and tried a takedown, Gunnar hopped about a bit, and when Cummings leaned forward too far, Nelson grabbed him in a headlock, and dragged him to the ground. In a flash, he took his back, and then delivered some brilliant stabbing type of punches to the stomach and nose using his knuckles to make Cummings flinch and leave an opening. And sure enough, Nelson sunk in a choke in double quick time. I think the whole process from headlock to ground to submission took 25 seconds or something crazy like that.

Now I was left in awe of how brutally efficient he was in finishing the fight, but I've seen and heard some commentators being critical of Gunnar's performance, saying he lost the first round, and was losing the second before he got the stoppage. And that his performance was lacklustre until he got the finish. I wouldn't agree, but am curious as to what you'd make of it.


Again, I didn't get to see Joanna Jed..???.. fight on the card the other night unfortunately. I did see her last fight for Cage Warriors, as she obliterated Rosie Sexton, and was wondering if she'd go any higher since she looked very good. It will be interesting to see how the new womens divisions pan out.

[amphibian]

Rosie Sexton is a nice person and rightfully stood up about PEDs in MMA, but honestly, she's not athletically talented enough (even when in shape) to fight on an elite level and that was apparent four or five years ago. She really should walk away from actively fighting and succeed elsewhere.

So even a lumping of Rosie isn't that indicative of Joanna's future potential. A thumping of Lima is a better barometer and she looked fine (a little weak when actually on the ground).

[Binder of Demons]

Hey there Amphib (or anyone else here), did you see the UFC card last night? Curious as to what you made of the main card fights (particularly the MacGregor one), and how they effect the various division standings.

Was Dominic Cruz's win as impressive as it seemed? I don't really know anything about his opponent, but Cruz looked amazing to me.

And what did you make of "Stoolgate". I personally thought the delay was a clearly deliberate action by the cornermen, and was surprised that the ref or the other officials in the cage didn't simply remove the stool quicker. Not a fan of Kennedy complaining about it so much afterwards though, and citing the rule book. Especially when i saw a replay showing Kennedy clearly gripping the inside of Romero's glove to prevent him from pulling back to avoid a couple of the uppercuts at the end of the 2nd. And he had managed to avoid almost all of Kennedy's other strikes to that point.

In your opinion, what should a ref do if he saw a fighter hold an opponents glove to deliver strikes which badly impair the other fighter. Would that be a DQ? Or a 5 min delay to recover? Is it not the same as a fence grab to prevent a takedown?


Really looking forward to the GUNNI NELSON fight coming up soon. Hopefully he can win big in Stockholm and keep the SBG hype train rolling.

[amphibian]

I was at a wedding, so I only caught Conor's fight and onwards live. He is absolutely the real deal in terms of a title track prospect (although Aldo, Mendes and Edgar are fierce, fierce opponents at the very top). I would say Conor is already top 10 in the UFC in terms of setting up his opponent to be where he wants for the next strike and once he really gets more comfortable with the knee and movement, we'll see him really take off into the Anderson Silva striking level territory. In six months, I'd pick him to beat Edgar. I dunno about Aldo or Mendes, but maybe in a year, we'll see Conor take the title from one of them.

I don't know if Gunnar has the athleticism to really "get" striking like Conor does, but he's shown a surprising fluidity and his/Conor's coaches are wonderful. I don't think he'll truly be a top three of the division guy, but he'll be dangerous to anyone - better than Maia's current standing in the division.

Demetrious Johnson is the #1 PFP fighter out there. There is nobody else as good in every phase of the game as he is - in all of MMA history so far. It was beautiful to watch him take Cariaso apart in every phase of the game - and Cariaso is actually kinda good, even if it's short notice. He's probably going to get even better too. I'd love to see a Dillashaw/DJ superfight - which I think DJ takes right now, but Dillashaw could eventually outmuscle in a couple years' time.

I saw Cruz's fight - which was spectacular from both sides actually. Mizugaki actually figured out Cruz's striking pattern and was thumping him with one shot every time Cruz tried to strike and feint. Yeah, he got overaggressive and got taken down, but I think that was accepted as part of the game plan. What Mizugaki screwed up was the guard/stand-up phase, where he just let Cruz unload a bunch of mean punches to his face. Cruz looked great with the very fast switch in strategy, the punches and the control.

As for the delay of the round thing - Romero was never asked to stand up and it was the commission people/ref who wanted vaseline wiped off his body. There have been delays prior to that for similar things in the UFC. They're kinda part of the game, even if it's annoying to Kennedy and those who wanted Romero to lose. The glove grabbing thing is a foul - which can be ruled intentional or unintentional and often is a point deduction (usually one, but can go to two). Once that categorization is done, the ref checks the other fighter to see if they can continue (get a doc over, ask the fighter what's their status etc.). If the fighter can't continue, there might have to be a DQ or if it's late enough in the fight, they can go to the scorecards then and there for a result.

Remember how Jaime Varner won the title over Donald Cerrone at WEC 38? With the illegal knee that caused it to go to the scorecards in the middle of the fifth round?

I think Kennedy intentionally grabbed that glove and McCarthy should have taken a point from him. But it ended up not mattering.

Cerrone/Alvarez was a war. Very, very high level battle that Eddie came out the worse of, but still looked good.

[amphibian]

I very nearly missed it due to laser eye surgery and bhai tika festivities, but Aldo Mendes 2 was amazing.

Mendes put a ton of work into figuring out the range, using his own kicks to stifle Jose and putting together a very good uppercut routine. It's genuinely cool to see how he's progressed over the last couple years in terms of putting together his striking.

Jose is a magician with the take down defenses. It might be the single most beautiful thing to see him float on a very deep double leg and somehow get up and out. He finally won a fifth round handily and roared back in that first round.

Phil Davis put on a Fitching.

That's all I was able to watch live, but I did catch bits of Durinho and Reis subbing people.

[Binder of Demons]

Looking forward to tonights UFC showdown between Mark Hunt and Fabricio Werdum. Elite punching vs elite BJJ. Interesting to see how the altitude affects the cardio of both guys.

Caught a brilliant highlight from the Cage Warriors event that was on earlier today. Joseph Duffy continued his march back to a title shot with a brutal first round KO. For those who don't know who Duffy is, he was a rising star in the Cage Warriors promotion a few years ago, before losing his first bout. He then decided to leave MMA for a while, going pro in boxing and amassing an 8-0 record, before deciding to return to MMA last year. He's also the last guy to beat Conor MacGregor which makes him promotional gold should he win a Cage Warriors title, and then join the UFC. An Irish grudge match would be awesome.
Here's the highlight reel finish
DUFFY KNEE KO

[amphibian]

I was with my family for my father's birthday tonight, so I missed all the fights tonight - which despite the massive amount of them between Bellator, WSOF and the UFC, wasn't a "miss dad's birthday" worthy occasion.

But I will say that Brooks and Chandler is probably THE fight to watch out of all of them for importance in the next year or two.

[Jakovasaurus]

UFC 181
Whoa! CM Punk was interviewed, I guess he's going to enter the UFC. Is this a joke? Well, Brock Lesnar did it, so he can, I suppose.
[UPDATE] Todd Duffee just lit up his opponent!

This post has been edited by Jakovasaurus: 07 December 2014 - 03:47 AM

[Binder of Demons]

Did you see the prelim card. In case others haven't seen it yet, I'll just say, there was an awesome (very very late in the round) submission in one of them, and a walk away head kick knockout in another one. It was pretty good all round. Very disappointed in the result of the the Faber=Rivera bout though. I am surprised the ref missed the eye poke since it was pretty obvious, and the reaction was immediate (even before follow up punches started landing).

[Jakovasaurus]

Anyone see UFC Fight Night 58 last night? Lyoto Machida decimated C.B. Dollaway's ribs with a left kick. The sound alone left no doubt about the efficacy of the kick. Then you see Dollaway's anguished face and you knew it was over. Damn, it's gotta be one of the most devastating kicks I've ever seen.

[Binder of Demons]

It was a pretty brutal kick all right. I thought he must have bust a rib at least, but I haven't seen it confirmed anywhere, so maybe it was just a perfect liver shot which caused his body to completely seize up. Whatever, he got hit as clean as you can be, and was done. Hat tip to The Dragon.

Possibly the most impressive performance for me, was the debut of one of the new Brazilian fighters, called nicknamed Moicano or something like that. While Ninimaki mightn't be the greatest fighter in the world, he is very experienced and was made to look like the novice in there. I'm looking forward to seeing Moicano's next performance in the octagon.

[amphibian]

The Erick Silva/Mike Rhodes fight was a very interesting thing to consider (aside from it being a one sided molly-whopping).

Before the UFC, Rhodes was considered a decent prospect to hit the top 10 IF he was brought along right with friendly match-making. He was a fairly good athlete in college, showed tremendous improvement from fight to fight (particularly after losing to Thatch in RFA and winning vs Jouban the next fight) and could be a plus athlete for the division. Instead, he got an escalating series of opponents and is now 0-3, with the last one taking 75 seconds to put him to sleep.

The UFC really does have a problem with developing prospects. They have no "middle gear" for their progressions. They prefer to throw them full speed into the title mix which has its successes in GSP, Jon Jones and Chris Weidman - but this comes at the cost of losing hype and PPV buys created in a slower build-up and its failures in Erick Silva, Paulo Thiago or initially, Anthony Pettis. The other strategy is to let the prospects linger too long on the prelims and in the bad-for-the-build-up match-ups like almost all of the 125/135 title shots other than Mendes, Edgar and potentially McGregor. They need to embrace something more like boxing's match-making paradigm to truly build the prospects up to their full potential and maximize $ earned/split with the athlete.

Luke Rockhold might be a victim of this as Romero and Jacare are fighting for the next title shot. He might be matched up with Machida - which is a great fight, but a bad move for all three fighters involved (Rockhold, Machida and the champion who will fight the winner after Belfort/winner of Romero/Jacare have their shots). Instead, Rockhold should get a tune-up fight, Machida another tune-up fight and on/around the same card as Champ (probably Weidman) vs. Romero/Jacare, Rockhold/Machida should occur for a title shot. The payday in between lets them build up skills, train more and potentially earn steam with a big KO, sub win or dominant performance.

But nahhhh, that's too smart for the UFC to do.

[Binder of Demons]

Well that was an interesting title fight between Jones and Cormier. While the winner was fairly clear, it was a very keenly contested fight throughout, with the possible exception of round 4 which was pretty one sided. It will be interesting to see how the UFC matches up both fighters for their next opponents. I'll avoid naming the winner til tomorrow in case anyone has it recorded and hasn't seen it yet.

Undercard doesnt get the same spoiler alert

Was really impressed by Cerrone in his fight with Jury. Basically beat him in every aspect of the game, and was really putting some venom into those leg kicks on the ground at the final bell. I'll give props to Jury though for taking one hell of a clean head kick and not getting ko'd or even wobbled enough for Cerrone to try a quick submission. I'd like to see Cerrone get a title shot next, even though I think Pettis will take him out again. BUt he'll probably agree to fight with Nurmagomedov (if he's back from injury) rather than sit out and wait for a title shot, and then lose that instead. Which would be a pity.


most of the the other fights were pretty forgettable I tohught, with the exception of Paul Felder vs Danny Castillo on the prelim card. That was possibly the cleanest spinning backfist I've seen connect in the octagon. I guess Felder will be getting one of those performance bonuses. He looked mighty impressive in terms of his striking skills throughout the fight (while it lasted). Looked really composed too for a guy in only his 2nd UFC fight, and stepping up to fight a vastly more experienced fighter on short notice (his fitness was never going to be an issue as he was down to fight in 2 weeks anyway, but just the jump from facing a low level prospect to a seasoned vet could have been a problem).

[Jakovasaurus]

Kyoji Horiguchi was impressive as hell. Lighting fast, one of the fastest I've ever seen.

Cerrone's literal ass kicking of Jury at the end of the fight had to be one of the most demeaning things I've seen in MMA. Cerrone is one mean fucker, carved from rawhide and full of piss and vinegar.

Jones really impressed. He out wrestled the Olympic wrestler. Jones' size is deceiving. Of course he is tall, but when you see him and Comier at the weigh in you don't think his size gives him that much of an advantage. Then I see them square off for the first time in the fight and I'm like "damn, Jones towers over this runt". His long reach in both arms and legs was such a mismatch. And damn if he is difficult to get on the mat. I think he is going to dominate for a long time.

[Binder of Demons]

I just spotted the news that Cowboy Cerrone has agreed to step in as a late replacement for Eddie Alvarez, to take on Benson Henderson. The insane part is that the fight is in less than 2 weeks time!!!!

That's just nuts. I'm really hoping he'll pull out the victory, and he has a decent chance now too since Hendo's chin has shown some wear in recent fights. Fingers crossed.

Not sure who else is on the card for Boston, but with MacGregor headlining, and Cerrone-Henderson as a co-main. It's shaping up nicely.

[amphibian]

Jon Jones has a will to win that is on the order of Fedor back in his heyday. He gets tired, he drops rounds, but he refuses to accept it on a level that allows him to get a critical few percentage points more of stamina and explosion than his opponents can. He did it after the second round, which he lost to Cormier, and then it grew in the fourth round. Just an amazing performance for us to watch against a very game Cormier - who did tire due to the body shots, wading in by taking too many shots and lack of absolute world class conditioning. Jones capped it off by being an extremely honest dickhead, which is awesome for the fight game.

In terms of the actual wrestling, it tilted a bit Jones's way, but honestly, Cormier was right there. He was snapping down Jon almost at will and when he wasn't dead tired and giving up fence takedowns, he was absolutely fine or even working to better spots than Jones.

Horiguchi is the most athletic and timing-sensistive JMMA fighter since Kid Yamamoto - who happens to be his trainer. I'm pretty confident he'll continue to improve - but as always, wrestling is going to be a huge ? for him to answer in his developing career.

I'm excited for Garbrandt as a prospect for the top five in his weight class. I really hope they develop him right. Brimage was outside the top 15 and Sterling is ahead of Garbrandt on the prospect development ladder in a way that he needs a top 10 match-up. So I really hope they don't match the two now.

[Jakovasaurus]

Jon Jones enters rehab after testing positive for cocaine.

Link

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

I'm more concerned about the wacky Testosterone ratios in all of his prefight tests. Either he is seriously ill, a lady, a eunuch, or is/was previously juicing.

This post has been edited by Raymond Luxury Yacht: 08 January 2015 - 11:29 PM