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UFC 245: Usman vs. Covington (12/14/2019) - Las Vegas, NV (T-Mobile Arena)


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We really criticizing a dude for being lost in the moment after achieving the biggest accomplishment of his life? Volkanovski just waxed the guy UFC loves to tell you is the best ever in his division. Leg strikes broke down Holloway's ability to control the striking distance. Alex was then able to use leg kicks at the start and end of his combinations effectively, getting in and out without taking too much damage. Beautiful fight and I'm super happy he picked up the win and title. We sure Holloway is the goat at FW. I feel like UFC narratives are way too quick to anoint guys as the goat and such claims. Aldo's run of dominance from the WEC up to Conor knocking him the fuck out seems like a way bigger accomplishment than Max's admittedly terrific run. Max beat Aldo twice but I feel like tonight was the first time we saw Aldo post-McGregor look as clean and sharp with his striking. Maybe the Moicano fight? And he looked to have gone from a legendary counterstriker to a guy who pushes the pace with aggression. While I had Marlon winning, Aldo looked great somehow after that weight cut and I could see him beating almost anybody in the division if he's able to duplicate this performance.

Commentary was pretty rough tonight. I get that it is in the company's best interest to play up the established names but both colour commentators claiming Aldo clearly won that fight are fucking nuts. I had Moraes taking rounds 1 and 3. Aldo had a good stretch near the end of the first but I don't think it was enough to override the longer stretches that Moraes was out scoring Aldo. Then DC was talking about the featherweight fight in the fifth being down to how you score leg kicks. I guess he wasn't too far off with that one as two judges had it 48-47 but it wasn't close imo. 

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had Aldo winning, but admittedly i wasn't 100% watching so YMMV. 

Volkanovski had a wonderful gameplan executed to perfection. Holloway is/was my favorite current champ, but all that GOAT featherweight talk was ridiculous. Aldo's 10 year dominance has yet to be matched.

Faber getting his face swollen in front of his wife and daughter hopefully is a wake up call that he should've stayed retired. he can't compete at the top of the heap anymore.

good win for Mike Brown, good to see him back on track.

Chase Hooper looks promising but he was in serious trouble and took a beating. curious where this kid goes from here

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Right now, Hooper is basically a slightly better Sage Northcutt which is not exactly the worst thing to be at 20. However, he would greatly benefit from being in LFA for a couple years. They can find dudes for him to beat in the UFC but his struggles are going to be on a much bigger stage now. 

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Gotta say I was shocked Usman didn't attempt a single takedown. He had a few half-hearted clinches early on broken up easily but holy shit... There's "wanting to beat that guy up" mentality and there's almost losing your title because of it. Great fight but I don't think it was quite FOTY caliber. I'm honestly having a tough time remembering a fight I enjoyed watching more than Miado/Miao from One Championship Age of Dragons last month. Maybe Gastelum/Adesanya or Romero/Costa (I was more compelled by the latter tbh. Two of the hardest hitters slugging it out like that was harrowing to watch). 

edit: The Vivisection guys compared Hooper to pre-weed suspension O'Malley. Not bad.

Edited by Oyaji
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21 minutes ago, Oyaji said:

Gotta say I was shocked Usman didn't attempt a single takedown. He had a few half-hearted clinches early on broken up easily but holy shit... There's "wanting to beat that guy up" mentality and there's almost losing your title because of it. Great fight but I don't think it was quite FOTY caliber. I'm honestly having a tough time remembering a fight I enjoyed watching more than Miado/Miao from One Championship Age of Dragons last month. Maybe Gastelum/Adesanya or Romero/Costa (I was more compelled by the latter tbh. Two of the hardest hitters slugging it out like that was harrowing to watch). 

edit: The Vivisection guys compared Hooper to pre-weed suspension O'Malley. Not bad.

I would also compare him to O'Malley (also visually looks the same), but O'Malley fought Terrion Ware who is a tough out and Andre Soukhamthath  who for whatever faults he may have still has talent. Putting Hooper in with the other Teymur brother is an indication they don't have to match him with tougher opposition out the gate. UFC scrubs/fringe fighters are much more talented than they have been in the past because even Teymur is a decent kickboxer. However, all those guys still have flaws that allow them to get trounced and the better talent is going to show over time just like this fight with Chase Hooper. If you put him in with a more mature prospect or a crafty veteran who knows how to survive and dare I say even win, there is a very good chance he will struggle. That's why he probably should be in a feeder org or be on a deal similar to what Greg Hardy had after he was on the Contender series.

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I had it 3-1 Usman going into the 5th.  I honestly don't think it was as close as people are making it out to be.  The scoring criteria is effective striking, effective, grappling, aggression, and octagon control in that order.  Usman's striking was far more effective than Colby's.  The didn't grapple at all, so that's a wash.  I'd probably say Colby was more aggressive, but Usman controlled the octagon. 

Here's why I scored Usman's striking as clearly more effective than Colby's.  Colby is most effective as a volume striker, and when he was successful he was throwing in combination.  Usman is a much more calculated striker who chooses his spots to land clean hard strikes.  From the 2nd round on, Usman consistenly stopped Colby's flurries with clean hard counters to the body and head.  He forced Colby, who clearly wanted to swarm and overwhelm him with punches, to stand in front of him absorb an ungodly amount of punishment while having to pick his spots.  Not only did Usman consistently land the cleaner, harder punches, he did it in a way that slowed his opponent and stopped Colby from fighting his fight.  The fight was competitive, and Colby was able to land better than I would have expected in this style of fight.  How many times did Colby come forward trying to throw a combination and get backed off immediately by one clean, hard, well-placed shot to stop his forward momentum?  Those single shots were more effective than Colby throwing 3 or 4 punches that do little to no damage, don't back Usman up, or disrupt his strategy in any way.  Over Colby Covington's career, that style of offense has been enough to overwhelm his opponents and cruise to a really impressive string of victories.  There is a reason that didn't happen last night, and it's because the value of his volume was less than the value of Usman's well placed, well timed shots.  An MMA judge, which none of us are, should be able to differentiate between effective volume, which Colby is generally very good at, ineffective volume, which someone like Leonard Garcia specialized in, and where the line is between the two.  They also need to be able to determine when a fighter like Usman is able to disrupt effective volume with single hard shot, and minimize the effectiveness of that volume.  The end of that fight was basically one guy who ate a decent amount of volume, but was still physically able to hunt down a man who ate fewer punches but was physically unable to absorb any more punishment.  The effectiveness of the punches landed is the story of the fight.  I don't know the number of punches that Colby would have had to land in order to overcome the effectiveness of Usman's punches, but I didn't think he was anywhere close to reaching that number in the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th round...and it showed in the 5th.

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8 hours ago, twiztor said:

had Aldo winning, but admittedly i wasn't 100% watching so YMMV. 

Volkanovski had a wonderful gameplan executed to perfection. Holloway is/was my favorite current champ, but all that GOAT featherweight talk was ridiculous. Aldo's 10 year dominance has yet to be matched.

Faber getting his face swollen in front of his wife and daughter hopefully is a wake up call that he should've stayed retired. he can't compete at the top of the heap anymore.

good win for Mike Brown, good to see him back on track.

Chase Hooper looks promising but he was in serious trouble and took a beating. curious where this kid goes from here

Agreed. Even before Max Holloway lost, Jose Aldo was still the Featherweight GOAT.

Edited by The Natural
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I was far too drunk and elated over Kamaru's win to comment on Saturday night.

FUCK YEAH~!!!

My drunken scorecard had Kamaru 3-1 going into the 5th.  Cody was striking well, but I'm a harsh judge and I don't give extra points to demoralized or desperate fighters. Usman was fighting like a man with conviction and Cody was in survival mode even if he wasn't consciously aware of it. 

Covington's so-called aggression was the instinct of an animal that wanted to stay alive and chose fight rather than flight because that's his muscle memory talking.

I kinda figured that even with Kamaru's punches breaking his fucking jaw, Covington would label the stoppage as fake news.  That may be the only fight where a Yamazaki may have been in order.  I think I may have enjoyed the evidence of a decisive Usman's victory being Cody's brain hanging out of his ear by the spinal cord.

Grats to the new Featherweight champ and for Max being tough as nails.  God, Holloway's leg must be still be hamburger.

Edited by J.T.
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1 hour ago, The Natural said:

You talking about leg kicks brings back memories of Faber's by Aldo and Rizzo's to Couture in their first fight. Said first fight has my vote as the best heavyweight MMA fight, probably makes my top 20 overall as well.

I'll have to rewatch Rizzo/Couture, but Cormier/Miocic 2 probably gets my vote.  Fedor/Cro Cop is up there too.

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On 12/15/2019 at 2:23 AM, The Natural said:

ELzzKOJXkAA2PIt?format=jpg&name=medium

Hell of a photo.

Kamaru Usman has made America great again.

I wanted Kamaru to destroy Colby's soft palate and he did one better and broke his jaw.  God bless you, Kamaru Usman.

Colby has beaten a couple of guys that were arguably nearly as strong as Kamaru, but I don't think he's fought anyone with Kamaru's will.  I believe that Covington's bluster lit a fire under Usman and Kamaru went into battle with the strength of purpose of a man that did not want to be on that list of champions that dropped their title on the first defense.

He definitely didn't want that defeat to be against Colby fucking Covington.

Edited by J.T.
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I really hope Usman doesn't settle into being a kickboxer after this. He should still rely on his wrestling and physicality primarily. He's improved a great deal in his striking but not to the point it is his greatest strength. 

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7 minutes ago, Oyaji said:

I really hope Usman doesn't settle into being a kickboxer after this. He should still rely on his wrestling and physicality primarily. He's improved a great deal in his striking but not to the point it is his greatest strength. 

I am sorta hoping he will mature into a more successful Jacare and get his striking to the point where fighters are so fearful of it that they sleep on his grappling which is his greatest asset.

Hopefully Kamaru will not adopt Jacare's bad habit of trying too hart to assert his striking at the occasional expense of his bread and butter mat work.

Edited by J.T.
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If he tries standing and trading with Masvidal he immediately gives Jorge a path to success. He has already shown us he can out-wrestle anybody, so that is his straight line to success. Throwing in some powerful shots in there to set up his takedowns is the best approach imo. Abandoning his elite level MMA wrestling for his striking is just asking to get caught. Colby's striking isn't super powerful but Covington shook Usman several times.

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No one should be standing and trading with an axe murderer like Masvidal.  Jorge is an excellent striker and he has fine killer instincts.   If he thinks he has you hurt enough to finish you, he will do it in an efficient and effective manner.

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