2020 Non-Event General MMA Talk Thread

[Elsalvajeloco]

Was coming here to post that...easily the most adorable fight in UFC history.

Seriously though, if this on the same main card topped by McGregor/Poirier II, this is Ribas' chance to turn into a huge star. I like Waterson, but there is nothing she can do that Ribas can't do better. The one thing though is if this was a five round main event, Waterson would have the ability to extend Ribas and more of a chance. In a three round fight, it's moot because Ribas is the more dynamic finisher and she has at least 2 1/2 good rounds in her. Ribas doesn't have to worry about trying to be as effective for the extra ten minutes.

[The Natural]

Zhang/Joanna is not only my Fight of the Year by far, it's one of the best MMA fights ever.

[Jiji]

Was that really March? That feels like a lifetime ago. 

[Elsalvajeloco]

 

[Elsalvajeloco]

 

[Jiji]

Wait, there's a card on the 14th of this month (10 days away!) that has three scheduled fights and two of them are with unranked fighters. What in the hell? This weekend's card has some cool fighters on it but not a lot in the way of engaging contests. Lean times. Will that Dos Anjos/Makhachev show just be a contender-type of show with a bunch of fringe fighters (almost used the word prospect) willing to fight anybody on short notice?

[Elsalvajeloco]

1 hour ago, Jiji said:

Wait, there's a card on the 14th of this month (10 days away!) that has three scheduled fights and two of them are with unranked fighters. What in the hell? This weekend's card has some cool fighters on it but not a lot in the way of engaging contests. Lean times. Will that Dos Anjos/Makhachev show just be a contender-type of show with a bunch of fringe fighters (almost used the word prospect) willing to fight anybody on short notice?

Tapology has 13 fights with plenty of regular names. Not a loaded card by any means of course given the main event, but it's no worse than most of the cards we've been seeing. The official lineup (main card + prelims/early prelims) usually gets set by Wednesday. With covid-19, it's probably closer to < 24 hours to 48 hours out.

[supremebve]

3 hours ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

 

I kind of hate this fight.  Geoff Neal is potentially the next guy at Welterweight, but he almost died a couple months ago.  His first fight back is against one of the trickiest fighters in the division, who can make almost anyone look foolish.  It's just a strange way to bring him back.

[Elsalvajeloco]

Just now, supremebve said:

Geoff Neal is potentially the next guy at Welterweight

I think they have that spot reserved for Khamzat.

[supremebve]

17 minutes ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

I think they have that spot reserved for Khamzat.

I feel you, but it's not Highlander, you can have more than one.  I kind of feel like a Vicente Luque fight would have been more appropriate.  A tough guy, who he can probably out technique, but will push him for the entire fight.  That's a test that will teach him something about how and where he needs to improve.  Thompson is a test full of trick questions, that he could lose and not learn shit about how to fight anyone else in the entire division.  

[The Natural]

On 11/3/2020 at 6:26 PM, Jiji said:

Was that really March? That feels like a lifetime ago. 

Yes. My birthday was 6th March and Zhana/Joanna on the 7th March. UK time, the 8th.

[Elsalvajeloco]

47 minutes ago, supremebve said:

I feel you, but it's not Highlander, you can have more than one.  I kind of feel like a Vicente Luque fight would have been more appropriate.  A tough guy, who he can probably out technique, but will push him for the entire fight.  That's a test that will teach him something about how and where he needs to improve.  Thompson is a test full of trick questions, that he could lose and not learn shit about how to fight anyone else in the entire division.  

I feel like there isn't a line of guys willing to fight Wonderboy. Plus, I don't think there is a litany of guys that he's willing to face. He has always been choosy as to who he fights. For him to fight a Geoff Neal, who is high risk, low reward, after fighting all these known top contenders and in title fights means he's tired of the inactivity over the last year. So in this case, it's probably more up to who Wonderboy wants to fight than Neal being thrown to wolves a little too early.

As for Luque, I don't think there is a run on fighters willing to face him either. If anything, Luque was in the role you say Neal would be when he fought Wonderboy. I still thought it was a good fight to make, but who else would make Luque look like that other than Wonderboy? With that said, there still isn't anyone calling him out. I don't think losing to Wonderboy was a career setback for him as much as a litmus test to see if he is a true contender. The answer was Luque is really good, but he's not on the level to really be the elite of the elite. When you have a division that's loaded, someone like Luque is going to have a tougher time finding the fights more than even Wonderboy. Thompson will fight the upper crust of the division, which makes sense because he's among those guys. If I'm a prospect, why fight Luque? He's one of the only guys you can truly say is better than his record. If you're a contender or on the verge of being a contender, why fight Luque? There are guys are who are tremendously flawed in that same tier of fighters (Anthony Rocco Martin fka Tony Martin, Mike Perry, Niko Price, old ass Robbie Lawler, Cowboy Oliveira, Lyman Good, etc.) you can go after.

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending your viewpoint), Neal is at a point in his career where he has already established that he can straight up Jacknife Powerbomb that tier of fighters like it's a Vader WCW Saturday Night or Sid Justice on WWF Superstars/Wrestling Challenge squash in 1992. The UFC doesn't do that many stay busy fights. Hell, right now is probably the most they've ever done and that's mostly due to availability issues/travel restrictions placed on them by Covid-19. If Neal accepted the fight, I'm not going to begrudge him. He's probably tired of fighting guys who he knows he can easily thrash. Shit, we just saw with Kevin Holland last Saturday that some of these guys are tired of fighting essentially jobbers. Now there are much better and more known fighters than Charlie Ontiveros clearly, but unless you're really in there with A OR B+/- fighters, you're basically racking up meaningless UFC wins. You would basically have to do what Joaquin Buckley did not too long ago to get any real recognition. If that fight ends with just your average TKO stoppage or goes to the cards, it's just another random UFC prelim fight between above average MMA prospects. You know why? Because that's what it was. If Geoff Neal and some of these other fighters want more than that, they're definitely reaching for the stars. Plenty of them will come up empty, but who is to say a couple won't get there? No matter how much or how long you protect certain fighters, the outcome will remain the same: either you got it or you don't. 

Edited November 5, 2020 by Elsalvajeloco

[supremebve]

I can't dispute anything you said, but Geoff Neal vs. Vicente Luque is a fucking amazing fight that makes a lot of sense based on where both guys are in their careers.  If Neal is powerbombing jobbers on Saturday Night, Luque is Cactus Jack.  Put the offensive firepower of Neal and the insane durability of Luque in the same fight and see what gives.  

[The Natural]

We have a Knockout of the Year candidate to go with Cody Garbrandt/Raphael Assuncao and Joaquin Buckley/Impa Kasanganay. Still give the 2020 KO of the Year to Buckley.

[The Natural]

Fight of the Year: Zhang Weili vs. Joanna Jędrzejczyk.

Knockout of the Year: Joaquin Buckley's spinning back kick to Impa Kasanganay.

Submission of the Year: Khabib Nurmagomedov Triangle Choke on Justin Gaethje.

Edited November 5, 2020 by The Natural

[The Natural]

10 minutes ago, The Natural said:

We have a Knockout of the Year candidate to go with Cody Garbrandt/Raphael Assuncao and Joaquin Buckley/Impa Kasanganay. Still give the 2020 KO of the Year to Buckley.

[The Natural]

On 11/5/2020 at 5:30 AM, The Natural said:

Fight of the Year: Zhang Weili vs. Joanna Jędrzejczyk.

Knockout of the Year: Joaquin Buckley's spinning back kick to Impa Kasanganay.

Submission of the Year: Khabib Nurmagomedov Triangle Choke on Justin Gaethje.

Be interesting to get your winners. I left Fighter of the Year off as I wasn't sure who to give it to. Probably Khabib, the UFC Lightweight Champion beating the Interim belt holder, Gaethje the way he did. There's an argument for Adesanya defending the UFC Middleweight Championship versus Romero and Costa but the Romero fight was truly terrible following the instant classic by Zhang/Joanna.

[The Natural]

 

[Jiji]

That is such horse shit. As Zane said, a fighter debuting on LFA is the biggest moment of their career at that point too. We will also laugh and be in amazement if they get knocked out in amazing ways. The fight game is built on faux respect for like 99.9% of people. Zane doesn't participate in interviewing fighters either, so it's not like he's giving people the cold shoulder. I don't even agree with him that the card is that weak. It's a pretty standard "filling out the weeks" UFC card. But the outrage is hilarious. 

[supremebve]

4 minutes ago, Jiji said:

That is such horse shit. As Zane said, a fighter debuting on LFA is the biggest moment of their career at that point too. We will also laugh and be in amazement if they get knocked out in amazing ways. The fight game is built on faux respect for like 99.9% of people. Zane doesn't participate in interviewing fighters either, so it's not like he's giving people the cold shoulder. I don't even agree with him that the card is that weak. It's a pretty standard "filling out the weeks" UFC card. But the outrage is hilarious. 

I see both sides of this though.  Sure, Zane has every right to take the weekend off, but the fighters involved have a reason to be pissed that he's saying that they don't deserve his attention.  I think the biggest issue with this is that we don't have to say everything that pops into our minds.  Zane Simon doesn't have to like the card, but saying that shit in a public forum doesn't help him at all.  I fully understand someone who is putting his health at risk to entertain an audience would be pissed if someone went online and told everyone it wasn't worth watching.  

[Jiji]

He's still doing the podcasts/shows. Not sure what he's skipping. I'll take anybody in the weak mma media being critical of the UFC at this point. 

Edit: I don't mind fighters on the card taking issue but Kavanagh grandstanding is some shit. 

Edited November 6, 2020 by Jiji

[supremebve]

3 minutes ago, Jiji said:

He's still doing the podcasts/shows. Not sure what he's skipping. I'll take anybody in the weak mma media being critical of the UFC at this point. 

Edit: I don't mind fighters on the card taking issue but Kavanagh grandstanding is some shit. 

Kavanagh is in the same boat as the fighters though.  Having a star pupil is the best case scenario for any trainer/coach.  Who knows what's going to happen on a given fight card, if he has a guy who knocks someone out in spectacular fashion on a card no one sees, it could affect his fighter's career.

With that said, being critical of the UFC is something that should be done early and often.  There is a way to do it where it challenges the company, but not disparage the fighters.  

[TheVileOne]

Twitter was a mistake. 

Honestly, Saturday's card looks decent IMO. Not a lot of huge names in there, but there's clearly some good fighters on this card. Allen vs. Heinisch is a great fight on paper. 

Claudia Gadelha is fighting Yan Xiaonan, who is 5-0 in the UFC, only has one career defeat. That's a decent matchup. 

The main event is between the No. 1 and 3 fighters at light heavyweight. It could've been a potential title eliminator had they not announced plans for Adesanya vs. Blachowicz. 

I've seen weaker main card lineups on main ESPN. 

[Elsalvajeloco]

I'm missing something here, but if you're an MMA journalist and you're not covering UFC, what the hell are you covering? I get there is an always a burgeoning international scene in some capacity, but it's not like there is something that's going to bring comparable views compared to even the weakest UFC card. I didn't know you had a choice like you're working the night shift at Burger King.

Edited November 6, 2020 by Elsalvajeloco

[Elsalvajeloco]