UFC Fight Night on ESPN+ 20: Maia vs. Askren (10/26/2019) - Kallang, Singapore (Singapore Indoor Stadium)

[jaedmc]

UFC probably still won the trade.

Trading for Ben Askren made Jorge Masvidal a star.

 

[The Natural]

47 minutes ago, jaedmc said:

UFC probably still won the trade.

Trading for Ben Askren made Jorge Masvidal a star.

 

[AxB]

1 hour ago, The Natural said:

How did you score Michael Johnson vs. Stevie Ray? I thought Johnson 2-1 but my attention was diverted a tad.

Johnson took the first two narrowly, Ray took the third decisively. Maybe a 10-8. So either a Johnson win or a draw. But Ray under Pride rules 

[Jiji]

Ciryl Gane has all the potential in the world. What incredible striking and now he's got two subs in a row. 

First time seeing Salikhov. Does he have Dagestani wrestling on top of that high level striking game? Staropoli is one tough dude to take that amount of damage. 

Edited October 26, 2019 by Oyaji

[Jiji]

Okay, that main event completely over delivered. MMA Nation has a 5 minute collection of pros predicting fights and almost all of them predicted a boring fight. The sloppy standup was really fun but when they started grappling that was sublime. Askren powered out of the mount early on but he was giving Maia so much on the ground and Demian is the best BJJ practitioner in MMA and I love him for that. Askren, because of the nature of the Lawler fight, feels like he's 0-3 in the UFC but I ain't going to write him off. Magny was cleared by usada in September, that would be a good fight for Askren. 

[Elsalvajeloco]

8 hours ago, AxB said:

Not sure how one judge scored that for Albu. Possibly ignoring effective striking and grappling, and just giving points based on who is advancing?

Lookboonmee looked really good in the fight though. Might have been a favourable style match up, hard to tell based on one fight. But she might be one to watch for the future, super skilled and young.

She is talented. It's just a question of will her size be a detriment against bigger strawweight and also a question of what more can she add to her skillset.

[Jiji]

UFC's likelier to ditch divisions than add but eventually you gotta think they'll add a women's atomweight division, right? If they don't wait too long, Waterson could be the initial star while you build up fighters like Lookboonme. 

[Elsalvajeloco]

6 hours ago, AxB said:

Haven't got there yet. I'm at Ciryl Gane vs Don'Tell Mayes, which is nightmare inducing.

I think Ciryl Gane (who I'm calling French Anthony Joshua based on facial appearance) is probably the best HW prospect going right now. Where the fuck is Fernand Lopez finding these dudes in France? First Ngannou, now Gane. Is there a Gold's Gym in France he is hanging out at everyday?

Gane obviously doesn't have the KO power of Ngannou, but he may be a better athlete.

Anyway, I'm glad Fiziev won. Offensively, he is a marvel to watch. The problem is he may not have the best beard. If he doesn't improve his defense, the best he will do in the UFC is win-loss-win-loss-win. He was wrecking people so hard in ROAD FC and elsewhere that he might believe he is like some Terminator. In the UFC, dudes won't be afraid to hit him back. The Mustafaev fight showed that. He has to tighten up his game.

Muslim Salikhov beat the hell out of Laureano Staropoli. There were a few points in that fight where it could be stopped standing.

I was surprised that I saw it being split as far as predictions on Frank Camacho vs. Beneil Dariush. I don't think Dariush has slid that much and Camacho hasn't been on that level before or at least fared well. Everytime Camacho has stepped up prior to this fight (against Jiangling Li and Geoff Neal in particular), he has lost. This fight was no different.

I wonder where Michael Johnson goes from here. Since that big Poirier win three years ago, he is 2-5. You can definitely argue that he was matched super tough in three of those five losses. However, he wasn't losing to guys like Stevie Ray the last time he was at lightweight and went on a run. Ray is a pretty decent fighter, but I don't see him making a run for the title anytime soon. If Michael Johnson doesn't get cut/released from the UFC, he has to find ways to win fights like this or not give them away. It's obvious he won't be a title contender either, but he can't be a .500 fighter in the UFC. He isn't a star which makes him very expendable too.

I'm not a fan of Ben Askren, but I have to admit the fight with Maia was a goddamn epic grappling match. There was a reversal every 30 seconds. Just fantastic stuff. I dunno where Askren goes from here. Maia is obviously heading for retirement. Maybe someone calls Askren out, the UFC can build it up, and make a TV main card bout out of it.

Edited October 26, 2019 by Elsalvajeloco

[Elsalvajeloco]

8 minutes ago, Oyaji said:

UFC's likelier to ditch divisions than add but eventually you gotta think they'll add a women's atomweight division, right? If they don't wait too long, Waterson could be the initial star while you build up fighters like Lookboonme. 

They need at least 5 or 6 other worthwhile fighters if we're looking at Waterson, possibly Tecia Torres, and Lookboonmee being there. If they can steal my girl Seo Hee Ham and/or Ayaka Hamasaki from RIZIN, it would help a lot. They can get Viviane Pereira back from Invicta and probably sign Ashley Cummins and Jinh Yu Frey. There are some fringe level strawweights who would obviously make the drop as well.

Edited October 26, 2019 by Elsalvajeloco

[Jiji]

2 minutes ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

They need at least 5 or 6 other worthwhile fighters if we're looking at Waterson, possibly Tecia Torres, and Lookboonme being there. If they can steal my girl Seo Hee Ham and/or Ayaka Hamasaki from RIZIN, it would help a lot. They can get Viviane Pereira back from Invicta and probably sign Ashley Cummins and Jinh Yu Frey. There are some fringe level strawweights who would obviously make the drop as well.

I was thinking Angela Lee too but she's already stated she doesn't want to come to the UFC and why would she at this point? She's got the promotion building the women's division around her, she is fighting in her father's homeland most of the time, she's a big fish in a small pond where it's far less likely her not-so-great stand up game gets exposed on a regular basis, and I'm guessing she's making pretty good bank for the time being.

---

Fiziev gave zero fucks about defending himself at the end, just pounding his gloves together like he's Hulk and wading forward screaming. I lovez it.

Gane, man... He's going to break somebody's ribs with those body kicks. What's the over/under on how long it'll take him to be fighting for the championship? 2 years? 1.5?

Dariush was looking like a fringe title contender before that Chiesa loss, but if you look at his record he's still put up a really great showing in the toughest division in the sport. Hernandez, Barbosa, Chiesa with a draw against Dunham are his only blemishes going back to 2014. He's a phenomenal grappler and is the perfect gatekeeper at this time. I still don't think he's beyond stringing a few high profile wins and getting in that title picture eventually.

I was all aboard that MJ train for a while but dude just continually finds new ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It's depressing to watch and I agree with AxB that at worst it was a draw with how the stupidity of the 10 point must scoring system works for a 3 round fight. 

This show introduced a handful of really exciting fighters to me. Really enjoyed that especially as there was nothing in the way of intriguing Premier League matches on this morning. 

 

[Elsalvajeloco]

30 minutes ago, Oyaji said:

I was thinking Angela Lee too but she's already stated she doesn't want to come to the UFC and why would she at this point? She's got the promotion building the women's division around her, she is fighting in her father's homeland most of the time, she's a big fish in a small pond where it's far less likely her not-so-great stand up game gets exposed on a regular basis, and I'm guessing she's making pretty good bank for the time being

Plus, at this point, why would One let her go? Once Weili Zhang won a belt in the UFC, it made getting Angela Lee obsolete or at the very least made a slim chance of getting her no chance. The UFC have their female Asian star and will continue to develop other Asian female fighters based on where they plan to run future shows.

Quote

Fiziev gave zero fucks about defending himself at the end, just pounding his gloves together like he's Hulk and wading forward screaming. I lovez it.

Gane, man... He's going to break somebody's ribs with those body kicks. What's the over/under on how long it'll take him to be fighting for the championship? 2 years? 1.5?

Dariush was looking like a fringe title contender before that Chiesa loss, but if you look at his record he's still put up a really great showing in the toughest division in the sport. Hernandez, Barbosa, Chiesa with a draw against Dunham are his only blemishes going back to 2014. He's a phenomenal grappler and is the perfect gatekeeper at this time. I still don't think he's beyond stringing a few high profile wins and getting in that title picture eventually.

I was all aboard that MJ train for a while but dude just continually finds new ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It's depressing to watch and I agree with AxB that at worst it was a draw with how the stupidity of the 10 point must scoring system works for a 3 round fight. 

This show introduced a handful of really exciting fighters to me. Really enjoyed that especially as there was nothing in the way of intriguing Premier League matches on this morning. 

With Gane, it's going to depend on how he performs against better fighters. I watched Pessoa vs. Hughes. That was a struggle to watch, and that's after I watched old ass Frank Mir vs. old ass Roy Nelson last night. Mayes is a better fighter skill wise than Pessoa Nunes who Gane beat in his first UFC fight, but that's not indicative of the best UFC has to offer even at heavyweight. Ngannou had absurd power which made his rise much easier. Unless he is landing straight up heaters, I don't see Gane having a bunch of sub one minute fights. Therefore, he has to stay fairly consistent. How he responds to adversity will be super important as well. I need to see 1 or 2 more fights against better opposition to answer that question.

Against buzzsaws like Barboza or someone who can catch him offguard like Alexander Hernandez, it's going to be rough for Dariush. He is slightly above average as a striker and not that great athletically. Plus, he stands up tall too much with his chin sticking out sometimes. The one thing he has going for him is he tends to have sound gameplans. He knew Camacho was coming to tear his head off. He got that fight on the ground immediately. No messing around. There was no hint of ego that he needs to trade with someone. That will win him more fights than not.

 

Edited October 26, 2019 by Elsalvajeloco

[The Natural]

Spinning backfist of doom. Arguably worse than Chael Sonnen's in the second Anderson Silva fight.

Edited October 27, 2019 by The Natural

[The Natural]

A favourite of mine for the way Demian Maia carries himself as a class act and his amazing BJJ. Don't go to the ground with him.

Edited October 27, 2019 by The Natural

[J.T.]

Holy fuck, but Maia was on some next level shit.  Like I said, the most dangerous man in that fight was the guy on his back.

[J.T.]

On 10/26/2019 at 7:39 AM, AxB said:

Not sure how one judge scored that for Albu. Possibly ignoring effective striking and grappling, and just giving points based on who is advancing?

Lookboonmee looked really good in the fight though. Might have been a favourable style match up, hard to tell based on one fight. But she might be one to watch for the future, super skilled and young.

Yeah I have no idea how that was a split.   I had Lookboonmee ahead on all cards.  She was super crisp.  I think that SD really does a disservice to her performance.

I didn't give Albu points for advancing, since all that accomplished was to make herself a more kickable target. I think they didn't give Lookboonmee enough credit for fighting off of her back foot.

Edited October 28, 2019 by J.T.