UFC 224: Nunes vs. Pennington (5/12/2018) - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Jeunesse Arena)

[The Natural]

Credit to Machida not hitting an out cold fighter like some do. 

[The Natural]

The Dragon did the same to Mark Munoz too. 

[OSJ]

Okay, I've waited the requisite 48 hours before posting just to make sure this wouldn't be kneejerk reaction. Couple of things:

It was lovely watching my man Lyoto turn back the hands of time, how much longer can he do it? I dunno, but I'm all in on watching the Dragon's last tour, be it a year or ten years. Dude is a class act and MMA will be the poorer for his absence when he finally hangs it up.

Things that are not advisable: 1. Ask Brock Lesnar if he's wearing Sable's panties. 2. Stand directly in front of one of the greatest karate masters of our lifetimes making meaningless motions like you're going to do something. Yes, you will do something, it's called looking at the lights.

Now usually my "this fuckhead is going to get someone killed" rants are targeted at Mario Yamasaki (and deservedly so). The cornering for Pennington was about the most disgusting thing I've seen in MMA and that takes in a LOT. "We're going to recover!" Oh, and what, pray tell are you going to be recovering from, you fat out-of-shape jock sniffing wannabe? Now your fighter will be recovering for a good long while after having her face rearranged. Let's give the benefit of the doubt, she'd been absolutely schooled by Amanda for four rounds, WTF did you think was going to happen sending her back out with a broken nose and difficulty breathing in the 5th? Was she going to wag her finger ala Hulk Hogan and drop the big boot? Disgusting.

[Elsalvajeloco]

2 hours ago, OSJ said:

Okay, I've waited the requisite 48 hours before posting just to make sure this wouldn't be kneejerk reaction. Couple of things:

It was lovely watching my man Lyoto turn back the hands of time, how much longer can he do it? I dunno, but I'm all in on watching the Dragon's last tour, be it a year or ten years. Dude is a class act and MMA will be the poorer for his absence when he finally hangs it up.

Things that are not advisable: 1. Ask Brock Lesnar if he's wearing Sable's panties. 2. Stand directly in front of one of the greatest karate masters of our lifetimes making meaningless motions like you're going to do something. Yes, you will do something, it's called looking at the lights.

Now usually my "this fuckhead is going to get someone killed" rants are targeted at Mario Yamasaki (and deservedly so). The cornering for Pennington was about the most disgusting thing I've seen in MMA and that takes in a LOT. "We're going to recover!" Oh, and what, pray tell are you going to be recovering from, you fat out-of-shape jock sniffing wannabe? Now your fighter will be recovering for a good long while after having her face rearranged. Let's give the benefit of the doubt, she'd been absolutely schooled by Amanda for four rounds, WTF did you think was going to happen sending her back out with a broken nose and difficulty breathing in the 5th? Was she going to wag her finger ala Hulk Hogan and drop the big boot? Disgusting.

Usually, I try not to apply the same philosophies to the guys as I do with the women, but I think back to a female boxing fight with Diana Prazak (who was one of Ronda's sparring partners at the time) vs. this Swedish (?) female boxer whose name escapes me right now. Now it was for a world title but it was in the Swedish's fighter's hometown. Lucia Rijker was cornering Prazak. IIRC, it wasn't a knock down drag out fight or one sided like Nunes-Pennington. However, the Swedish fighter was clearly getting more sluggish and sluggish as the fight was approaching the end. Then between rounds or shortly after the fight ended, Lucia Rijker looked out of her corner away from her fighter Prazak to the opposite corner where the Swedish fighter was clearly in distress. As she went over across the ring to the opposite corner, which is something I've never seen a cornerman do unless it's a pier six brawl like Mayweather-Judah, the Swedish fighter just slumps over and collapses. Lucia Rijker basically had to go in the other corner and help out because of the ineptness of the other corner, who didn't notice beforehand their fighter was doing considerably bad health wise. Now it turned into a pretty bad situation (and I don't think that fighter ever fought again) where the fighter had a brain hemorrhage, but that easily could have been another Benn-McClellan or Magomed Abdusalamov-Mike Perez situation where one fighter ends up a vegetable instead just losing a career. Shit, Daniel Franco, who I brought up not too long ago, just got a courage award from the Boxing Writers's association because his promoter (Roc Nation Boxing) ignored him after he lost a piece of his brain and skull after a tuneup fight he lost at some casino in Iowa. There were SO MANY stories in the last ten or so years of all these soccer moms dying in Toughman contests in the midwest, which is why I'm digusted by a promotion existing like Xplode MMA who exploit non-athletes and weekend warriors and do shit like putting some random woman versus Ilima-Lei Macfarlane to get her head bashed in for internet views. We're not in 1998 anymore where Monte Cox is doing Extreme Challenge and putting all his fighters versus Denny's assistant managers and long haul truck drivers. I know fighters want to make money, but if you're competing in promotions like this still whether you're male or female, I'm looking at you side-eyed because you're almost as bad as the promoter. Unless you have the aura of mid 80s Mike Tyson, ain't NOBODY struggling that bad to find opponents. If you are, find new management and/or a new promoter. 

With that said, I'm of two minds with the Pennington situation. You can apply what happened with Cachoeira and Valentina in Belem in February here, but you also have the give the slight benefit of doubt being a title fight. Even with that in mind, it's still not good judgment by the corner. Hell yeah, Raquel is going do the same song and dance that Cachoeira did after getting beat into oblivion and say she wanted to go on. The women can't show weakness. The problem here is, if you take away gender out of the equation, EVERY corner has to realize who their fighter is. If you have a legitimate A, A-, or B+ level fighter, you can give them a little more time to prove themselves. However, if it's not their night, you STILL have to recognize it is not their night. Raquel Pennington is clearly below that level where fighters shouldn't get that benefit once we've left the realm of puncher's/grappler's chance or anything short of freak injury changing the result of the fight. And to be fair to Pennington, due to relative youth of female MMA, she isn't the only fighter at this level. She just happens to be in a very shallow division at the moment and was basically in the mandatory contender role. And the regret argument is toothless because if your corner is willing to let you take extra punishment to do something that 9 out of 10 times isn't happening, that means your trainers have little belief you will ever reach that championship contender status ever again. At that point it's not regret, but sheer stupidity. Male or female, I don't want the UFC or any promotion to have to deal with what boxing has had to deal with on what seems to be a fairly regular basis. I mean I remember watching the Prichard Colon fight where he had the upset loss on NBC on some random mid afternoon show. This guy is another fighter in a vegetative state,  and the crazy thing I've seen worse beatings more frequently in MMA.

Raquel Pennington isn't like this superwoman. Being a barely above average fighter doesn't afford her the skill of being infallible and insulated from brain damage and the like. Someone is going to be the cautionary tale sooner than later just because MMA is not going to be immune at all, however, I would like that to happen in the DISTANT DISTANT DISTANT future where all precautions were taken and it was just unavoidable. I don't want it to be a fight where the outcome and result is already a foregone conclusion and the corner is just moronic like what happened in two major female MMA fights in Brazil within fourteen weeks of each other.

[OSJ]

Very eloquently put, my friend!  As you said, MMA is on borrowed time before we see a critical injury or death on a major PPV. Odds are that when people are getting kicked in the head bad things are bound to happen sooner or later (I sure as hell wouldn't want to take that front kick from Machida). We can only hope that when (not if) but when the shit gets real it's either a freak accident or a previously unknown condition that made the outcome possible. It can't be because of ref ineptitude or piss-poor cornering or it gives the "human cockfighting" crowd all the ammo they need.

[The Natural]

Well put, @Elsalvajeloco and @OSJ. Said cornering pissed me off.

[J.T.]

Jesus, Rocky's corner sent her out there to die in Round 5.  How the fuck did they think she'd be able to defend herself intelligently while trying to breathe through a broken nose.

A forty year old man used a choke named after an Old Testament prophet to kill a guy with the nickname of Baby.  Irony.

Good on The Dragon not to murder a fallen warrior and give Vitor some dignity in defeat.  I hope he retires well and enjoys himself.  There's nothing left for Vitor to prove.

Hey, Mackenzie Dern.  You're not a fucking Strawweight, so stop trying to make weight when you know that you will either fail or destroy your health during the weight cut. Your big ass needs to move up in weight class.

Holy fuck, Sultan Aleiv's eye made nearly everyone at the Green Turtle nauseous.  His orbital bone got smashed into powder.

[jaedmc]

Just got around to watching the fight. It was all down hill after that first leg kick. Tough watching Rocky go back out there for round five. She just didn't have anything left. 

I'm not there, and I'm not a coach, but I feel like if a fighter has it so bad they verbalize the words "I'm done," then there's no point. Their body and mind are checked out and that's how it looked when she stepped back out there. I read some article on ESPN where they were like "But she could get a fluke take down, and Nunes might fall funny and injure herself." That wasn't the comment section - that was the fucking author. That's like spending your whole paycheck on Powerball every week. If you're willing to bank another fighter's life on that scenario against a World Class Killer then you should jump off a fucking cliff.

Nunes was class in the victory, but exploding someone's face seems like a terrible way to make friends. Like I don't know if I'd go drink a beer with her afterwards. 

[OSJ]

2 minutes ago, jaedmc said:

 

Nunes was class in the victory, but exploding someone's face seems like a terrible way to make friends. Like I don't know if I'd go drink a beer with her afterwards. 

I'll tell you what, if Rocky was drinking a beer with Amanda later on she was drinking it through a fucking straw...

[supremebve]

35 minutes ago, J.T. said:

Hey, Mackenzie Dern.  You're not a fucking Strawweight, so stop trying to make weight when you know that you will either fail or destroy your health during the weight cut. Your big ass needs to move up in weight class.

I've heard rumor that she didn't even make an honest effort to try to make weight.  She has gone on the record about wanting to be shaped like a woman, and dropping the body fat to actually safely make 115 would probably be detrimental to her feminine curves.  The real problem is that the UFC seems to be encouraging her and pushing her because of her looks, so why would she change the behaivor?

 

28 minutes ago, jaedmc said:

Nunes was class in the victory, but exploding someone's face seems like a terrible way to make friends. Like I don't know if I'd go drink a beer with her afterwards. 

They were friends before and had even been training partners from time to time.  They probably don't hang out every weekend, but they had a friendship before she smashed Rocky's face into tiny little pieces.

[Elsalvajeloco]

5 hours ago, supremebve said:

The real problem is that the UFC seems to be encouraging her and pushing her because of her looks, so why would she change the behaivor?

I think they're pushing her because her talent and drawing ability(out of all the fights happening on Saturday, the only two fighters who made the top Google searches were Dern and Lomachenko) because there are other fighters they can push because of looks. I mean they're probably high on Rachel Ostovich but she's a barely .500 fighter.

This is just a lateral move from Calvillo to Dern. Personally, I feel we're basically on a road to that fight once Cynthia comes off that pot suspension and gets a rebound win. Both are going to get preferential treatment because they're talented and have star potential. People like Amanda Cooper are cannon fodder. Dern could have missed by 45 pounds. If CABMMA was going to clear the fight and Cooper accepted, play ball.

 

[TheVileOne]

Mackenzie Dern is clearly talented. She is a world-class grappler and competed and won at the international level. But maybe she's not a strawweight and should consider flyweight, especially when it's a field that doesn't have a lot of competition.

UFC really has no top stars right now in women's MMA other than Cyborg who can draw semi-decent numbers. Women's bantamweight has been gutted with the loss of Miesha Tate and Ronda Rousey. Holly Holm seems to be hanging around in Cyborg Division for now, but her career is up against the clock, and she was more or less a one-hit wonder for the sport. Amanda Nunes draws worse numbers than Demetrious Johnson. The Cynthia Calvillo experiment failed, so now the hype train is behind Dern. She's clearly got some juice because of her looks, but she's clearly a good athlete and a legit martial artist.

[Elsalvajeloco]

Even though she is 30, Calvillo hasn't been a pro MMA fighter two years yet. She was in the UFC six months after her debut. They're going to continue to push her as long she remains competitive. I can see them building toward Dern vs. Calvillo if Dern stays at 115, which is the most notable fight Dern can do without facing an immediate contender.

It would also give us an early look at Dern fighting someone who she probably can't submit inside 45 seconds if stays on the ground for more than a few seconds. Or it could be Maia-Nelson Part II.