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UFC 201: Lawler vs. Woodley (7/30/2016) - Atlanta, GA (Philips Arena)


Elsalvajeloco

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1 minute ago, hammerva said:

So far the theme of this summer is that it doesn't pay to be a champion.   I mean nobody would have thought last year that Bisping, Nunes, and Woodley would be champions and won the title dominantly.

I don't think people thought Miocic would be the champ either let alone KO Werdum in one round.

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21 minutes ago, hammerva said:

So far the theme of this summer is that it doesn't pay to be a champion.   I mean nobody would have thought last year that Bisping, Nunes, and Woodley would be champions and won the title dominantly.

The theme I noticed is it pays to be a UFC on Fox Analyst that is a current fighter only Frankie Edgar and Wonderboy don't current have a belt or won it this year.

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2 hours ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

 

That would be a super fun crowd, I bet. Are there enough Polish fighters under contract that they could crowd the card with them the way they do with Brazilians? I can only think of Piotr Hallmann, but I don't think he's with the UFC anymore.

Edited by grilledcheese
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Well, that didn't exactly stop them from doing that first show in Poland. However, that was more of not having enough well known Polish fighters rather than having enough on roster. Plus, according to some Polish MMA members, they didn't really muster up a legitimate attempt to market that show in Poland. That's probably due to not having someone that Polish fans readily identify. By far the biggest local name on that card last year was Jan Blachowicz, and he lost after a valiant attempt. He is not that big of a draw. I believe it was Tomasz Marciniak who said last year that JJ vs. Kowalkiewicz would easily sell out an arena in Poland and make up for not having a Khalidov, Pudz, Materla, and some of these other notable Polish fighters. Plus, they could always run out and get fighters to add on to doing that show headlined by the 115lbs. title fight. It probably won't be the biggest names out there, but it would definitely be a better attempt than Gonzaga vs. CroCop 2.

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It should be noted that while Lawler and Nunes won belts for ATT and Woodley's head trainer was Duke Roufus, Woodley is the first ATT fighter to win a UFC title who started his career there.

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I am not too mad because he is basically doing what I wanted Lawler to do since he won the belt. Lawler chose to not to call out any of the fighters that would make him money and build his brand up.  While his run was very fun to watch, it really didn't do much for him like fights with GSP and McGregor would have done. 

Also, to be fair, Woodley has wanted to fight Nick Diaz going back to early 2011. That's gonna to draw way eyeballs than a fight with Wonderboy even though Wonderboy has basically had his entire career in the time Nick Diaz last won a fight.

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10 hours ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

Well, that didn't exactly stop them from doing that first show in Poland. However, that was more of not having enough well known Polish fighters rather than having enough on roster. Plus, according to some Polish MMA members, they didn't really muster up a legitimate attempt to market that show in Poland. That's probably due to not having someone that Polish fans readily identify. By far the biggest local name on that card last year was Jan Blachowicz, and he lost after a valiant attempt. He is not that big of a draw. I believe it was Tomasz Marciniak who said last year that JJ vs. Kowalkiewicz would easily sell out an arena in Poland and make up for not having a Khalidov, Pudz, Materla, and some of these other notable Polish fighters. Plus, they could always run out and get fighters to add on to doing that show headlined by the 115lbs. title fight. It probably won't be the biggest names out there, but it would definitely be a better attempt than Gonzaga vs. CroCop 2.

I think someone powerful in the UFC thinks of Europe as being one big country, rather than lots of different ones*. When they first started running UK shows they'd always put Cro Cop on there because the Croatian fans have an easier time getting to England than Nevada. It was a while before they started doing just British shows in Britain (although they went pure Irish in Ireland pretty quickly).

Actually, why was the Atlanta card so Mexican? Did a Mexico show get cancelled, or is it just it was the right amount of time since the last Mexico card and everyone who fought there was ready to go again last night? I'm assuming their isn't a huge Mexican population in ATL, because the crowd weren't reacting to the Spanish interviews (unless they are there, but they didn't show up to the show because none of the Mexican/ Chicano (if that's the right word) fighters were headline-level superstar guys yet.

Why was Benoyte vs Serrano on the PPV? Were they expecting a barn-burner that didn't materialise, or did they figure it would be a stinker and kept it off free TV? Because they both kind of looked Fight Pass level, not TV (much less PPV). Benoyte might be better if he wasn't short notice, but Serrano didn't look UFC ready (on this night).

* Come to think, any time they're in the far east they'll put Korean, Japanese, Chinese and Thai fighters all up the card no matter which country they're in. And Peruvians in Brazil and stuff.

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thankfully, this is the last UFC card that i won't be able to watch live due to other summertime commitments. i always make it a point to watch them Sundays, with as few spoilers as possible, but it still isn't the same.

thoughts:
Glad to hear Wilson Reis echoing my thoughts about going from co-main title fight to prelim opener. that said, he won handily. Of course, i don't see Mighty Mouse having much of an issue with him when that fight materializes.

the Krylov/Herman fight ended spectacularly and was a good fight up until then too. Herman put it quite a bit of effort and for a brief second i thought he might pull off an upset.

Serrano was doing some weird shit. Benoit clearly won the fight, but Serrano attempting axe kicks and somersault takedowns was nuts. whoever said that was a Fight Pass-level fight was right on.

Ellenburger with the HUGE upset over Matt Brown. holy mother of god, i did not see that coming, and it makes me think hope that Jake has his shit together again and can start earning some wins again. He used to be an "always dangerous" opponent, but the last couple years it's seemed he's more of an easy win. Good on him.

nice work to Karolina. her first UFC fight impressed me and she has absolutely earned a title shot against Joanna. can't wait to see that one.

Lawler/Woodley. ugh. great win for Woodley, although this it the exact outcome that nobody at all hoped for.

 

edit: just saw the post-fight bonuses. Krylov got fucking robbed.

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1 hour ago, AxB said:

I think someone powerful in the UFC thinks of Europe as being one big country, rather than lots of different ones*. When they first started running UK shows they'd always put Cro Cop on there because the Croatian fans have an easier time getting to England than Nevada. It was a while before they started doing just British shows in Britain (although they went pure Irish in Ireland pretty quickly).

* Come to think, any time they're in the far east they'll put Korean, Japanese, Chinese and Thai fighters all up the card no matter which country they're in. And Peruvians in Brazil and stuff.

Some of it you can put on the UFC, but a lot of you can't just because they're not going to run a ton of shows outside the country for mid-tier and/or lower tier talent. In boxing, you can have that just because of the amount of local promoters. They have almost 600 fighters, and they have to burn through the fights. So it's probably not going to look like an Eddie Hearn card or anything like that. In the last 2 or 3 years though, they've been running more Fight Nights outside the U.S. than in the past. So if a New Zealand fighter is on an Australia card, that's not exactly the worst thing in the world because you also need the timing to work out. If you look at some of the records of certain fighters, you will see some people fighting every 2 or 3 months then you see like a 5-6 month gap because the UFC wanted to sneak that particular fighter (or fighters) on a more local card. They've been better at that just because the frequency of having a lot of shows in different places does allow people to get at least 2 fights in a calendar year. Is it the same as like Kell Brook fighting in Sheffield every few months? Probably not but the UFC has a lot more fighters to deal with.

Poland is a different issue in that KSW has more of a presence there and can lock down certain talent. They're not going to pay Mamed Khalidov (or Michal Materla for that matter) a grip just to be a mid level middleweight. The fact they got Kowalkiewicz when they did could be considered a boon. For the show last April, they just said fuck it and didn't advertise that much locally.

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Actually, why was the Atlanta card so Mexican? Did a Mexico show get cancelled, or is it just it was the right amount of time since the last Mexico card and everyone who fought there was ready to go again last night? I'm assuming their isn't a huge Mexican population in ATL, because the crowd weren't reacting to the Spanish interviews (unless they are there, but they didn't show up to the show because none of the Mexican/ Chicano (if that's the right word) fighters were headline-level superstar guys yet.

Atlanta actually has a sizeable Mexican-American population. However, I would say one really doesn't have anything to do with the other. Despite having a large Hispanic population and African-Americans making up the majority of the city, the crowds for the three shows in Atlanta have been largely white. So I chalk it up to fulfilling contracts. 

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It's odd that Jamilette Gaxiola was there too (not that I'm complaining). I don't think she's done any shows outside of Mexico except the International Fight Week ones where they bring in every Octagon girl. And it did really establish that this was a second tier PPV that Vanessa and Christy worked the show instead of Britney and Arianny.

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