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2016 Non-Event General MMA Talk Thread


Elsalvajeloco

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Is it Tag Team, or Tornado style?

 

At this point, I have no idea. That would prob be a better question for someone like grizzlyedwin. I'm not exactly the biggest RIZIN supporter/follower.

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Guest Edwin

They haven't provided much details on the grappling tag match, but there's a very high chance it's a tag team grappling match. Saku said he was pleased to have Tokoro in his corner, so it seems like it will be a tag match.

 

ZST has been doing these grappling tag matches for years. The thing is, ZST usually does these tag matches with guys who are usually in the same weight class. And if the rumors I've heard are true, then there's a good chance Wanderlei's team will have a significant size advantage as he's rumored of teaming with Tamura. Wanderlei and Tamura usually fight at 185 or 205, while Saku usually fights in the same weight classes as them, but Tokoro usually fights in the lighter weight classes of 125, 135 and 145. I don't even remember seeing Tokoro fight at 155.

 

They also announced Yuta Andre vs. Hisaki Kato at 180 lbs., plus RENA, Gabi Garcia, Jiri Prochazka, Teodoras Aukstuolis, Andy Souwer and Kanako Murata have been announced for the card.

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Two injury notes:

- Ruslan Magomedov is out the Gonzaga fight in Zagreb due to a knee injury

- Glover Teixeira is replacing an injured Shogun Rua against Rashad Evans on the Fox card in Tampa

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Since it might be slow in terms of news this week, I think it might as well be thrown out. If GSP does indeed return at UFC 200, who would you like to see him face between Robbie Lawler, Anderson Silva, and Nate Diaz?

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Robbie Lawler. You'd think GSP would try to take him down and control the fight from the guard, as was the case generally speaking when he fought superior strikers as champ. Lawler looks to be in such great physical condition and is so strong, it'd be interesting to see how frequently he'd stuff those huge GSP takedown attempts. I have little interest in watching Anderson Silva fight ever again. I think Diaz would get dominated but I've thought he'd get fucked up by Johnson (decisively) and Conor (not so decisively), so who the fuck knows. 

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Since it might be slow in terms of news this week, I think it might as well be thrown out. If GSP does indeed return at UFC 200, who would you like to see him face between Robbie Lawler, Anderson Silva, and Nate Diaz?

 

I would still like to see GSP vs. Anderson. It might be years too late like Mayweather/Pac and Tyson/Lewis were, but its still one of the great MMA fights that never happened. And I'm sure it would still sell.

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At this point, I think GSP vs. Anderson would be a worse comes to worst option. Not shitting on the actually fight, but it's just that there several lucrative options that make more sense long term. With only five slots available and potentially two or three already gone (A potential Rousey/Tate fight, the FW title fight, and Punk), you're options are kinda limited in putting as many big names as possible. I think Mousasi vs. Anderson Silva makes more sense because right now that fight doesn't look weird being third or fourth from the top. If you can get Anderson, GSP, Rousey, and McGregor on a show, what else do you need? I mean CM Punk and all the prelim fights are just icing on the cake at that point.

 

I think the hardest thing right now is deciding to have three title fights in one night potentially in a one time only post UFC 33 scenario. You can easily do something where you have two title fights on 200 and make a title fight for 201. That way, you have an easy replacement fight or you get a PPV that will get the residual effect from UFC 200. Either way, it's win-win.

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Two injury notes:

- Ruslan Magomedov is out the Gonzaga fight in Zagreb due to a knee injury

- Glover Teixeira is replacing an injured Shogun Rua against Rashad Evans on the Fox card in Tampa

Derrick Lewis is replacing Magomedov.

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I'd most like to see GSP against Lawler. Lawler is so tough to get down at this point, it'd be a really interesting matchup. I don't really have a desire to see Anderson against anyone now. He lost to Bisping. Where else is there for him to go? He's the best ever, time to hang them up.

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Maybe the Nate Diaz thing is a red herring on Firas Zahabi's behalf, but I just see this as some type of boxing business maneuver. I see the Lawler fight as something that's not smart to take with two and half years out of active competition. What's funny is that years ago, people were so worried the UFC welterweight wouldn't mean anything once GSP left. Now, you could potentially have a Terry Norris-SRL thing (instead of say SRL-Hagler) where it could be so evident that one fighter clearly isn't there anymore physically and it's not something you can just turn back on. It shouldn't even be that way given that Lawler has been around as long as GSP has and was in the UFC before GSP. So it's not like some young fighter is getting a rub.

 

On the PR end for the Lawler, it's dealing with someone who clearly shows no ill effects of the USADA testing or has been altered in some way. GSP has no recourse or excuse as to why this fight shouldn't happen. You know that Robbie Lawler is going to make it a very rough fight in the least. For someone who marks up pretty easy and gotten roughed up in the last few fights, it seems like a very tall task after being away for so long.

 

For the UFC, after going through whatever it is with GSP for this long, do you want Lawler to beat this man back into retirement? Best case scenario is GSP wins, it becomes a big hallmark moment for the UFC, and he fights a few more times at least. However, you have to look at Murphy's Law. Edgar-Penn III was like this stark reminder that the fight side of the business isn't a fucking joke. You can have a fan favorite just get the holy hell beat out of him. In a situation where GSP is going to bring fans there and bring old fans back, do you want to drag this out as long as possible? If the answer is yes, then you risk any fight you potentially make having no long term prospects. I would be fine with GSP-Nate Diaz if this led to something intriguing in the outlook of the promotion. However, chances are, a win for GSP really does nothing for him. Maybe it helps him shake the rust off, but where does that put him in terms of what he could do at 170? Beating Nate tells us nothing about what he would look like against Lawler, Woodley, or anyone else in that immediate mix. Plus, why would you put that on the card as a main event? You wouldn't do that over Tate-Rousey III, McGregor-Aldo II, or McGregor-Edgar. It would also be unhelpful to bury that in the middle of the card. So you're going to spend all that time building up those two fights and leave nothing for that fight other than a 10 minute segment on the Countdown show. It would make no sense.

 

So with all that taken into account, the Lawler fight is the best and somehow the worst option business wise.

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I just look at it as most likely if GSP comes back it's not going to be for more than a few fights. I'm already kind of conceding that the odds are stacked against him in terms of his chances for any success. So might as well use him in the biggest spot possible than risk him in a lesser fight. Even if he loses at least it served the purpose of growing Lawler even bigger than he is.

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They could always do GSP vs Hendricks 2. If they want to build Big Rigg back up after the loss to Wonderboy, or use that as proof GSP is back and then give him a title shot as a reward for winning. And there is the whole 'you won a bullshit decision and retired so I couldn't take revenge, you call yourself a hero but you sure don't act heroic' angle.

 

Also, it'd be a three rounder, which would add more intrigue to it (GSP usually winning decisions based on being strong in rounds 4+5, versus Hendricks being a gasser).

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I think you can definitely make an argument that GSP is in a go-big-or-stay-home situation, especially if they are eye-balling UFC 200 as a return date. Although I also think if you put him out there against Diaz at 201 or 202 it would do a great buy-rate.

 

You've always got a Silva fight in the back-pocket should Diaz win and it's not like there's any real reason to think long-term if you're booking GSP's return. And yes, I realise we're getting into Bellator-like booking here with "dream fights" but I argue that they have their place when done properly.

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I think GSP would have jumped at the chance to fight Hendricks if he was champion. You wouldn't even need to figure out how to do the hype packages and whatnot. Just grab all the stuff from UFC 167. The problem is the reasons why that fight would be appealing to GSP are the same reasons why Hendricks isn't the champion today.

 

If Hendricks had beaten Wonderboy, maybe he could angle for that fight with the winner fighting the winner of Lawler-Woodley or Lawler-Condit II. The problem with that is you probably don't want a title eliminator fight overshadowing an actual title fight. Since that didn't happen, Hendricks is out of that mix for awhile. It wouldn't really serve a purpose to put him against GSP.

 

FWIW, Dana (via ESPN Radio) has pretty much confirmed McGregor is on UFC 200 and defending his belt. So that's already one slot gone and the potential headliner.

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So we have McGregor/Aldo or Edgar and Tate/Rousey most likely on that card. If they do GSP/Lawler on that card, goddamn what a show that will be. You'd only be able to have one other fight on the main card with three title fights.

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Something to look out for is Miesha Tate doing the media rounds similar to Holm after UFC 193. Sholler already tweeted out everything, and it looks like she's going to be all over the place. She's probably going to get like 250 Ronda Rousey questions. If she starts going at Ronda, then I would assume she knows when that fight might take place or at least confirming that it's taking place.

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So we have McGregor/Aldo or Edgar and Tate/Rousey most likely on that card. If they do GSP/Lawler on that card, goddamn what a show that will be. You'd only be able to have one other fight on the main card with three title fights.

 

Isn't Phil Brooks debuting on 200 as well? Because they want those pro-wrestling PPV buys, no way they're putting him on the pre-show.

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