Elsalvajeloco
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Everything posted by Elsalvajeloco
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2016 Non-Event General MMA Talk Thread
Elsalvajeloco replied to Elsalvajeloco's topic in BOXING & MMA
How much you want to bet she makes 145 in her next fight? Because I feel pretty confident that she will. -
Hell of a fight between Dillian Whyte and Dereck Chisora.
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2016 Non-Event General MMA Talk Thread
Elsalvajeloco replied to Elsalvajeloco's topic in BOXING & MMA
Star power counts especially when the UFC depends on names. Part of the reason why there is no 125 division just yet is there isn't one or two solidified stars there. There is about 7 or 8 experienced female fighter in the division you can bring in, but below that, it's about as thin as women's featherweight is. There are a ton of young fighters there in that pecking order, but a lot of them still need the fights. If Barb Honchak, Jennifer Maia, and Vanessa Porto or even the girls currently in the UFC who would move up or down had any type of name value, the division would already exist. Strawweight exists because you already had the fighters there in Invicta, and there was no need to further cultivate the talent really. Plus, people were already sorta familiar with the characters that you could use TUF as a platform to build it. You either need the talent (up to 12 to 15 fighters) to be there or one or two stars to justify having the division. You can't be lacking in both departments. Invicta hasn't really had a flyweight fight where it was evident things were about the turn the corner. You had good fights (Lee-D'Alelio for instance), but nothing that would make you say, "Damn, I would love to see this in the UFC." like Mizuki vs. Alexa Grasso or anything like that. Invicta has to do a ton of the legwork and right now, it's still very much start and stop. -
Holy shit. If you watch only one kickboxing fight this year, make it Danyo Illunga vs. Michael Duut II. It's an insane rollercoaster of a fight.
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The Glory 36 prelims will be streaming for free at 1:30 p.m. EST on UFC.tv.
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2016 Non-Event General MMA Talk Thread
Elsalvajeloco replied to Elsalvajeloco's topic in BOXING & MMA
Sadly, in the history of MMA, expectations don't mean shit though. You can expect anything when you fantasy book or you look at the rumor mill. Unless you have it on paper, it doesn't mean anything. Once Holm beat Rousey, you should have thrown a lot of those expectations out. Expectations can be very unrealistic. The thing is....Cyborg isn't lesser of a star than the champs they have now. Outside of Conor or Ronda, who is exactly responsible for selling PPVs especially with Jon Jones sidelined until July and blocking the DC rematch/Rumble fight until then? She's a bigger star w/ casuals than Nunes or even Joanna (though Joanna is getting up there slowly) so that pretty much justifies the division no matter if the talent level isn't there. I think the hope with any division is that you have some names pop up over time. I mean men's flyweight is still very much dominated by Demetrious Johnson, but you still have some pretty good fighters below him. Bantamweight wasn't that thrilling until maybe the last 18 to 20 months w/ the performances of people like Aljamain Sterling, Thomas Almeida, and of course Cody Garbrandt along with the return of Dominick Cruz. Yeah, not a ton of people are clamoring to buy PPVs but you have still have talent there. The type of talent that will be developed and fostered there depends largely on how UFC treats the division. If it's just a sideshow division (much like Bellator's putrid attempt at one currently), then no, they're not going to find a ton of talent. However, if they decide to actually scout talent and potential prospects and have them face vets (preferably half decent BWs who moved up) to find out who is legit, then the division will be okay and comparable to the other UFC divisions that ain't men's 145, 155, or 170. -
Probably not good sign about his next opponent because they might put him against Ngannou. If he doesn't stop Ngannou early, that might be truly ugly. If he would have stopped Shamil inside of three rounds, they would given him a top 5 or 7 opponent. His strategy tonight was not very good because he could have separated in a lot of those clinches, some of them which he initiated. He was crossing his legs (as Stann pointed out) as he was following him around the cage. A better opponent is going to just keep tagging him because he has no volume. He didn't even try to cut him off when was gliding around the cage, which would've been pretty easy because Shamil wasn't circling out to get away and resetting. Derrick is never going to be the most polished fighter, but his gym isn't making him better. He's still making all the mistakes he was making early in his UFC career. His raw athleticism and brutal power isn't going to guide him to wins everytime out. Even someone like Ngannou looked more sharpened, and he has only been training in the states briefly. Ngannou was able to show something past sheer brute strength.
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There ain't a ton of above level replacements or a ton of LHW bouts in a given period. Your average lower level LHW is probably worse than O'Connell. They will give him a soft touch, and he will win that probably.
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205 isn't that deep so I mean as long O'Connell doesn't drop too many, he will be on roster. He's a competent and tough fighter, and the Bosse fight was fucking bananas. He will beat certain fighters, but against physical specimens like Anderson, he ain't got no shot. Anderson needed to get him out of there, and he did just that. He showed aggression that's been missing in several of his fights. He can't be just a top position first fighter. He had elbows and punches there, and he took advantage of that unlike some of his other performances. It was a good showcase performance in a showcase bout.
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That was...that was very scary. Why would anyone sign up to fight Ngannou at this point?
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Anderson needs more performances like this. He's clearly physically gifted, but he needs aggression after solidifying the takedowns. He didn't fuck around in the second round and was able to get O'Connell out of there like he needed to.
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Is he really the dude we're going to call sloppy in that fight when his opponent was throwing punches from his knees? Safarov was coming from the Jersey pine barrens with some of those haymakers. Villante's strikes were not pretty, but his technique was clean enough to put Safarov out of the fight. Fun brawl though for what it was.
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That's another terrible comparison. The UK's MMA scene is far more historical than South Korea. Cage Rage is far more important to the history of MMA (in addition to all the other notable promotions from the early 00s to 2008ish) than Spirit FC or Road FC ever were. The level of competition in Spirit FC was so bad it made Denis Kang look like a legit MW contender. The UK also had the benefit of France banning MMA and Irish fighters as well being able to compete there as well. The UK is located in a place where finding skilled fighters wouldn't be that hard to find. Even when the UFC was signing tons of Western European talent, there was still a good replenishment of talent in the UK specifically. You also would get a ton of expats showing up and competing. Moreover, the gyms in the UK are far more modern and comparable to American gyms. At one point, you had top American fighters going over to the UK to train. At NO POINT do I see South Korea's MMA scene blowing enough to where top fighters train in Seoul or Busan. South Korea would be similar to like Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland. You had some promotions pop up and then disappear, and you had notable native born fighters go to the UFC. Even then, all those scenes was a bit more stable than Korea because you had Japanese promotions siphon Korean talent. You had Alexander Gustafsson, but he clearly got better when he went to Alliance after the Phil Davis fight. Anytime he has went back to All Stars to change it up a little, he has had mixed results. Martin Kampmann spent the vast majority of his UFC career at Xtreme Couture. You had plenty of solid/decent fighters, but not too many fighters put their stamp on their UFC tenures while training at home. All it takes is one is shitty logic because Bisping has been training in Southern California for years. Andrei Arlovski won a belt as a Belarussian, but the MMA scene in Minsk ain't exactly the business because he was training in Chicago at the time. BTW My point with Belfort and CSJ isn't about the reasons behind Weidman's win, but there is something to giving yourself a shot (even if it's a small one) versus giving your no shot at all. You can bring in the best of the best to train with, but without certain coaches pushing you everyday in camp, it's going to be way tougher to win a fight without that discipline and/or faith in your coaches. CSJ virtually training himself only reinforces the whole training in Korea thing because he didn't even have trust enough to stay at KTT.
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...who as I said didn't have a good performance against the champion prior to suffering an injury. In that time since that occurred (and before that really), there have been no fighters that close to getting even near the title. Stun Gun has been in and out of fringe contendership. Besides that, you have like Dongi Yang and a few fighters here and there. If CSJ left Korean Top Team to train himself just months prior to the biggest fight of his life, that's not a good sign about the quality of training he received there. KTT and Team Mad have produced some solid and exciting fighters, but if you're waiting for someone to be built into a top level elite fighter, you're going to be waiting quite awhile. There have been gyms all over the place that have been able to be the birthplace of fighters with great physical prowess and skill, but very few of them have been able to get the absolute best out of someone. I mean Stun Gun had some great physical attributes that could have been utilized for something great, but staying in Korea pretty much stalled his career. Being a tall fighter with good strength, nice judo throws, ok wrestling, and passable striking only got him so far. He would probably never be champ, but no one argue that a better gym outside of Korea could turned him into a better fighter. Does anyone know the trainers at Team Mad and what Choi has that's proof positive that said trainers are integral to his success that he wouldn't find in greater quantity elsewhere?
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Nice comeback from Diakiese.
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You'll remember that CSJ basically opened up his own gym (left KTT in January that year) and trained with just his homeboys for that fight, and it looked very much like that. When you open up your own gym, choose your homeboys to train you, and basically choose when to train, that's an entire separate category. Vitor Belfort trained that way for Weidman, and I am not looking as that as an indictment of training in South Florida as much as an indictment of folks being bad decision makers before big fights. If you're training yourself, we know how that's going to end. How many KTT trained fighters are popping off right now, by the way?
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He beat Phil Harris (who eventually would also make it to the UFC) and fought Luciano Azevedo (who beat Aldo when RFT was still considered a good camp and went on to Bellator some years later). He also beat Thiago Minu, Fabio Mello (who was a very serviceable Brazilian vet w/ a very deceptive record), and also Shoji Maruyama (who was closer to his prime when Aldo beat him than when Choi beat him). Aldo was considered a very good prospect coming up. Did people think he would clown Pequeno Nogueira? No, but it wasn't surprising at all he had early success in WEC. This is a very, very bad comparison. People knew Aldo was pretty damn talented. That makes no sense. Rodriguez wasn't training with Izzy Martinez, Greg Jackson, or anyone of substance. If you went to someone with some knowledge of Rodriguez in or around competing on TUF, they would say Rosa, Hooker, and certainly Fili beat him and were more quality prospects. He was just chalked up as being another TUF Latin America guy. To beat those dudes the way that he did shows that his ceiling is far higher than anyone expected even knowing that he would certainly improve between being on TUF and now. Choi beat Juan Manuel Puig (who is solid but not the most consistent fighter), Sam Sicilia (who will always lose anyone of note), and Thiago Tavares (who really hasn't found himself at FW). At no point was Choi, who hasn't even it made a whole round in the UFC combined, been asked to face anyone who can compete with him at a certain level. We should give him the benefit of doubt, but giving him the assumption that he will be fine once those questions are asked is a dead end. A lot of the fighters are asked those questions after demolishing everybody, and then fold up like a cheap umbrella in a Florida rainstorm. From David Terrell to Houston Alexander to Erick Silva to Brandon Thatch to whomever you can think of, we've seen this story too many times to act oblivious. I am not saying a top gym. A GOOD gym is definitely a factor. We have gotten exactly zero fighters from South Korea who have challenged for a UFC title let alone ones who trained in South Korea. Entram Gym in Mexico is a respectable gym, but unless you're a female fighter, you're not going to be challenging for a belt if you stay there. The same thing applies for these other places. Poland is going to give you a Joanna, Karolina, and even a Agnieszka Niedźwiedź, but Michal Materla, Krzysztof Jotko, and Mamed Khalidov ain't challenging for UFC belts anytime soon. Not at all. All the South Korean fighters have clear ceilings. They can be good and serviceable and make for some really fun fights. If I have to face Jose fucking Aldo, Max Holloway, or Frankie Edgar, I want to be more than just good and serviceable. You don't even have to send him to ATT or Jackson-Wink. You can send him to Mark Henry/Renzo Gracie/Ricardo Almeida, Matt Hume, or even Cesar Carneiro at MMA Masters in Miami. He's going to be a better fighter than he is now. That's not even really debatable.
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I am not talking strictly just age but physically maturation. Rodriguez is clearly more physical mature than Choi. It would be like comparing Jon Jones when he was at Bombsquad versus Jon Jones like 1 or 2 fights into his Jackson tenure. Choi is basically training at a typical Korean gym, which offers some perks but the upside is certainly limited. However, Rodriguez has had the pleasure of training with the guy who helped get Jon Jones to the place he is now. He has improved tremendously since going to Chicago and also making some stints to Jackson-Wink. Keep in mind, Do Hoo Choi's resume prior to coming to the UFC include 12 wins over a bunch of random Japanese fighters, past his prime Mitsuhiro Ishida, and Nobuhiro Obiya. Not exactly a murderer's row so that number of extra fights isn't that much experience. There are Brazilian fighters with two or three dozen fights on their record who are still behind American or European fighters with less than ten fights on their docket. Rodriguez came to the UFC and basically beat fighters all in their prime after winning TUF, and showed appreciable improvement everytime out even in the Caceres fight. He has been asked to do more than Choi, who at this point has only been asked to spark out very vulnerable opponents. If this was boxing, Choi would be the guy still fighting six rounders against club fighters and cab drivers. Rodriguez would be just exiting fighting right rounders and fighting ten rounders, maybe being three or four fights away from a potential title eliminator. He's not there yet, but you feel more comfortable putting him in there with a certain level of opponent whereas Superboy is a certain type of opponent. All we know right now is that if your chin questionable, Choi has a good chance of winning. We don't know if his ground game is any good or how good his wrestling is overall. We really don't know how he responds to real adversity. We've seen damn near everything (or at least way, way more) in Yair Rodriguez fights because cage time is more significant in terms of gauging fighters than anything. I think it's being extremely simplistic by saying it's just throwing wild stuff because Andre Fili getting knocked out the way he did was no fluke. At all. You would have to be on the pipe to believe that Rodriguez couldn't replicate those techniques on similar fighters. Shit, no one would say that all Tony Ferguson does is throw wild stuff. That's just asinine in every regard. Also, if everyone was Jon Jones inside the octagon, Jon Jones would not be as accomplished. He's CLEARLY the exception, not the rule.
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I don't think it's that obvious because Doo Ho Choi is basically still a boy and still needs some seasoning even though it's clear that a win would put him right there in that immediate mix. I think Swanson would only get it if he just looked scintillating. His resume in those three wins would be over Hacran Dias, Kawajiri, and a fighter who is probably 2-4 years away from his fighting prime at the earliest. I think they would feel more comfortable with going with Rodriguez because he's going to smoke Penn and he's a more mature, well rounded fighter. Choi hasn't had a Caceres fight where he had to show more in his game or fight in an extremely close bout. If the Swanson fight was close and he edged it out with no screwjob type scoring, that would help his case but that doesn't help the case he should be in there with the most accomplished featherweight fighter of all time. Swanson, on the other hand, would probably be still 1-2 wins away at the very least. I think we would need more distance away from the performances against Edgar and Holloway.
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I was going to pose the question before the early weigh in, but I guess I will ask now: Should we get a draw or a Pettis upset win somehow, who do you go with against Aldo in the spring? I mean the UFC wouldn't be above trying to have Pettis make 145 again against Aldo if Pettis won tomorrow. Swanson would have three straight wins if he beat Superboy. I believe Yair Rodriguez would be the dark horse option because I don't see how Penn doesn't look terrible in that fight.
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Movie [MOVIE] 2016 UPCOMING MOVIE TYPE THINGS:
Elsalvajeloco replied to RIPPA's topic in MOVIES & TV
I know it's going to be bad, but I want to have hope. Don't destroy my hope. -
I barely made it to the playoffs (basically everyone else below me sucked last week). I had Tyreek Hill on the bench last night, but Kelce had a good game fortunately.
