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UFC Fight Night on ESPN 6: Reyes vs. Weidman (10/18/2019) - Boston, MA (TD Garden)


Elsalvajeloco

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Rodriguez / Stephens 2 was the best.  A fire breathing feud ending in sportsmanship?  The fight game needs more of that shit.

Whomever pissed off Joe Lauzon to the point where he felt he needed to send a message and make an example out of Jonathan Pierce owes him an apology.  None shall pass through the Lauzon gate this time around.

A fighter better than Gillian Robertson is going to knock Maycee Barber the fuck out one of these days.  Someone needs to put her in the cage with a seasoned fighter so that Maycee can get touched by a jab or two and shore up the holes in her striking game.

Edited by J.T.
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13 minutes ago, J.T. said:

A fighter better than Gillian Robertson is going to knock Maycee Barber the fuck out one of these days.  Someone needs to put her in the cage with a seasoned fighter so that Maycee can get touched by a jab or two and shore up the holes in her striking game.

Unless she faces a Viviane Araujo or KGB, I don't really think this is a division she is in danger of getting stopped by strikes. I worry moreso about her fighting a Liz Carmouche where she will get grappled for 15 minutes in a snoozer. I think after what happened with Valentina vs. Carmouche back in Uruguay, they're not going to let Carmouche be the Jon Fitch of the division. It was such a shameful performance that if Carmouche loses again or even worse, loses in a boring fight, there is a solid chance she gets cut. I think if she fights Alexis Davis (who seems to be in the gatekeeper role now), there is a chance she gets caught by a slick submission but there are much better odds Maycee beats Alexis up and gets the best win of her career. I saw she wants Antonina if she can't get PVZ. That's a good fight on paper. Antonina is a good striker and improving as an MMA fighter overall, but she is about as flawed as Maycee is. The UFC might want to keep them separate for right now though.

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54 minutes ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

Unless she faces a Viviane Araujo or KGB, I don't really think this is a division she is in danger of getting stopped by strikes. 

Yeah, it's sad how shallow that division is.  

With Paige writing books and winning celebrity chef competitions, I am not sure if her heart is in getting back into the cage anytime soon.  Get out of the fight game while you're still pretty and have synapses that still fire..

I don't find Liz's fights to be terribly exciting but I am a Judo guy and have an appreciation for grappling, so I just think that most crowds don't have much respect for the long term ground game.   If it goes to the mat, the crowd wants immediate GNP or a Sub.  They don't want all of that tactical switching and weight carrying nonsense even though that's Wrestling 101.  

You can't pin a fresh opponent.  You have to tenderize him for a bit.

That being said, if Liz decided to tackle Maycee in a three round ground scramble, it would be the piss break / pizza and wings run fight of that card and you can still keep track of the boring bullshit on the way to the eatery thanks to your Bluetooth enabled phone.

Alexa Davis might make for a more exciting grappling opponent for Maycee but as you say, I think Maycee beats her up on the way to a win.  When Alexa has lost, more than likely it was to a striker and either by UD or TKO / KO (no splits or NCs), so I don't think Alexa has the chin or gut to withstand Maycee's withering strikes even if Maycee's fighting a bit stance sloppy. 

Edited by J.T.
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22 minutes ago, J.T. said:

With Paige writing books and winning celebrity chef competitions, I am not sure if her heart is in getting back into the cage anytime soon.  

There is a reason Maycee is calling Paige out and it isn't just because Paige's heart might not be in it. Even in fights with like Jessica Rose-Clark who is solid but not spectacular, Paige tends to make those fights look like wars of attrition. If she isn't fighting career .500 fighters like Kailin Curran, Alex Chambers, and Bec Rawlings, it's a struggle for her. Here is where I agree with @supremebve. Maycee can easily beat fighters a tier above that which Paige has failed to do in recent fights in between injuries and reality shows. Paige went to Team Alpha Male. Got slightly better. Left there and went back home to Reno or w/e. Lost all the progress she made. She went to Oregon to train w/ Fabiano Scherner at Gracie Barra Portland with her fiance. Somehow, she became worse than what she was when she came to the UFC five years ago. Whether her heart is in it or not, she has regressed as a fighter and it's not like she was the best to begin with. Maycee is licking her chops because if Paige is a fringe level UFC fighter now, Maycee would straight up posterized her. And if you're Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard as UFC matchmakers or Dana White, that's the matchup to make. You can see why Paige isn't too anxious to come back and why she's talking about how she makes more money outside the UFC. The UFC found an upgraded Paige VanZant and wants to use the new one to trounce the old one up and out of the UFC.

Edited by Elsalvajeloco
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Yeah, it's easy to watch PVZ fights in a vacuum and think she's better than she actually is.   She straight up clowned Bec Rawlings in that fight but then again, who didn't clown Rawlings during her brief UFC stay?

Against .750 or better fighters, PVZ has lost convincingly.   She couldn't even out decision Tecia Torres who is like the epitome of the UFC litmus test fighter in that division.

 

Edited by J.T.
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3 hours ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

There is a reason Maycee is calling Paige out and it isn't just because Paige's heart might not be in it. Even in fights with like Jessica Rose-Clark who is solid but not spectacular, Paige tends to make those fights look like wars of attrition. If she isn't fighting career .500 fighters like Kailin Curran, Alex Chambers, and Bec Rawlings, it's a struggle for her. Here is where I agree with @supremebve. Maycee can easily beat fighters a tier above that which Paige has failed to do in recent fights in between injuries and reality shows. Paige went to Team Alpha Male. Got slightly better. Left there and went back home to Reno or w/e. Lost all the progress she made. She went to Oregon to train w/ Fabiano Scherner at Gracie Barra Portland with her fiance. Somehow, she became worse than what she was when she came to the UFC five years ago. Whether her heart is in it or not, she has regressed as a fighter and it's not like she was the best to begin with. Maycee is licking her chops because if Paige is a fringe level UFC fighter now, Maycee would straight up posterized her. And if you're Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard as UFC matchmakers or Dana White, that's the matchup to make. You can see why Paige isn't too anxious to come back and why she's talking about how she makes more money outside the UFC. The UFC found an upgraded Paige VanZant and wants to use the new one to trounce the old one up and out of the UFC.

The thing that stands out to me with Maycee Barber when I look at any of the women she's going to be fighting is that she seems to have more natural physical tools than just about everyone else in the division.  Her technique isn't great, but we aren't talking about the most skill-rich division in the sport.  When you take into account that her skills are above average in the division, and her physicality is elite in the division, I don't see that many women being able to do much with her.  The problem is that the woman she'd have to beat to win the championship is more skilled and more physically gifted, and that shit could get ugly pretty quick if she doesn't fill the holes in her game.  If she would have stayed at 115, I think there were enough talent where she could move up incrementally, but at 125 she's going to keep running through the competition until she hits the brick wall at the top.  

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4 hours ago, J.T. said:

Against .750 or better fighters, PVZ has lost convincingly.   She couldn't even out decision Tecia Torres who is like the epitome of the UFC litmus test fighter in that division.

 

I disagree with this, I think Tecia Torres, like Michelle Waterson, are legitimately good atomweights...they just don't get to fight at atomweight.  

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1 hour ago, supremebve said:

I disagree with this, I think Tecia Torres, like Michelle Waterson, are legitimately good atomweights...they just don't get to fight at atomweight.  

I think Tecia peaked way too early if we're talking about just strictly fighting in a division the UFC actually has. She showed she was high level early on, and it was hard for other fighters to get a beat on her. Just like Holly Holm for awhile, she had this formula where she was athletic enough and strong enough that she could systematically outstrike usually anyone she was against and dominate in the clinch as it relates to in fighting and takedowns/takedown defense. Then, when she was trying to juggle life outside fighting with going to college and getting post secondary degrees, we had this rapid decline in her ability. Here is where I think the atomweight thing doesn't apply. We saw with Sage Northcutt that trying to do the college thing doesn't work all too well if you're trying to develop as a fighter. Sure, he had other issues but that contributed to his growth being stunted as a fighter. With Tecia, she was in a much better place even though she came into the UFC with only 3 or 4 pro fights. Strawweight is loaded but it's loaded by female MMA standards if you compare it to the heavier women's divisions. It's nothing like men's lightweight and welterweight where Sage was competing. Furthermore, she's fighting other women who still aren't finished products as fighters too. However, just like Paige VanZant, the whole social life outside the UFC was a big part of the decline. Going to Colorado to follow Raquel Pennington and leaving American Top Team was the worst career move she could have made. Not only did she look markedly less focused, but she seemed a step or two behind in fights that were winnable for her. I picked Weili Zhang to win, but if Tecia was more prepared and was with a real MMA team, Jessica Andrade vs. Weili Zhang for the title doesn't go down in China. Weili Zhang wasn't that much better than her in that fight. Tecia just looked absolutely lethargic. She was a little bit better in the Marina Rodriguez when she went back and did her camp at ATT, but I still thought Marina Rodriguez won that fight and so did the judges. Maybe she can put it on her mental health state, but I don't think it's a coincidence she started to look less than herself when she decided to focus on education and then left to go to Colorado. Besides Nina Ansaroff, I can't think of one fighter who has benefited from the being with another fighter and building an entire relationship around that. Even with Ansaroff though, I think she knew realistically that once you have a baby that eventually you might have to sacrifice your career. If it's between her and Amanda on that, it's going to be Nina. So that will motivate you to go on one great run. However, this should tell you how individual of a sport this is. Tecia Torres should not be on a four fight losing streak even at 5'1". She is a much better fighter than that. However, if you don't balance your priorities correctly though, you will pay the price. That goes for everyone whether it's Tecia Torres, Raquel Pennington, Paige VanZant, Luke Rockhold, etc.

Also speaking of Rockhold and the like...

"When you come at the king, you best not miss." - Noted Baltimore street scholar Omar Little

 

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What he said. 

I never qualified my statement by casting shade on Tecia's ability, but external factors have really taken a toll on her skills.

Even in a unfocused state, Tecia closed the gate for PVZ..

Edited by J.T.
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