2022 Non-Event General MMA Talk Thread

[twiztor]

how does o'malley get a de facto #1 contender match? he's 0-1-1 against ranked opponents.

i don't hate the dude, but at leadt PRETEND this shit is subjective

[Elsalvajeloco]

[Elsalvajeloco]

2 hours ago, twiztor said:

how does o'malley get a de facto #1 contender match? he's 0-1-1 against ranked opponents.

i don't hate the dude, but at leadt PRETEND this shit is subjective

You don't say?

But seriously, if O'Malley can beat Petr Yan, he would have a case for a title shot over anyone else.

[Elsalvajeloco]

[The Natural]

One for my friend, @WholeFnMachine with Sensei Serra. Serra/GSP 1 is still the biggest upset in MMA history.

[J.T.]

On 7/19/2022 at 3:18 PM, Elsalvajeloco said:

This is not pro wrestling where you are expected to win your retirement match.

Totally forgot that the Pena / Nunes rematch is this weekend.  STOKED~!

[The Natural]

Thinking about Jon Jones MMA record. Three fights he won by decision, I scored the other way. Alexander Gustafsson, Thiago Santos and Dominick Reyes all beat him by 47-48.

Edited July 27, 2022 by The Natural

[twiztor]

14 hours ago, The Natural said:

Thinking about Jon Jones MMA record. Three fights he won by decision, I scored the other way. Alexander Gustafsson, Thiago Santos and Dominick Reyes all beat him by 47-48.

Gus didn't win that fight. i've watched it a few times and never saw it as some great robbery. close fight but it was always Jon.

Santos was close, but i think he cost himself the match. he just didn't do anything. IIRC he hurt his foot or leg or something, so it's understandable. close fight that could've been scored either way.

Reyes 100% won that fight.

[The Natural]

13 hours ago, twiztor said:

Gus didn't win that fight. i've watched it a few times and never saw it as some great robbery. close fight but it was always Jon.

Santos was close, but i think he cost himself the match. he just didn't do anything. IIRC he hurt his foot or leg or something, so it's understandable. close fight that could've been scored either way.

Reyes 100% won that fight.

I've always scored it for Gus. One of our rare disagreements. Close fight.

Still feel Santos won though most scored it to Jones.

Reyes definitely won. That was a robbery.

Jones has had it lucky when it comes to decisions. Same goes for Dan Henderson and Benson Henderson winning fights they lost.

[twiztor]

2 hours ago, The Natural said:

I've always scored it for Gus. One of our rare disagreements. Close fight.

Still feel Santos won though most scored it to Jones.

Reyes definitely won. That was a robbery.

Jones has had it lucky when it comes to decisions. Same goes for Dan Henderson and Benson Henderson winning fights they lost.

i think the old adage "to be the man, you have to beat the man" worked out pretty well for Jones in his run. Like, if a round was close, the judges gave it to Jones because he was the champion. OTOH, he was good at knowing *just* how much he had to do to steal/win a round. i liked young Jones way better than veteran Jones, because he would take chances and go all in.

as far as Benson Henderson goes, i think the judges were just blinded by Bendo constantly brushing his hair away from his face. 

[The Natural]

1 hour ago, twiztor said:

i think the old adage "to be the man, you have to beat the man" worked out pretty well for Jones in his run. Like, if a round was close, the judges gave it to Jones because he was the champion. OTOH, he was good at knowing *just* how much he had to do to steal/win a round. i liked young Jones way better than veteran Jones, because he would take chances and go all in.

as far as Benson Henderson goes, i think the judges were just blinded by Bendo constantly brushing his hair away from his face. 

One of the worst robberies ever was Benson Henderson vs. Frankie Edgar 2. That was a travesty of justice with big ramifications as Edgar dropped down to Featherweight. Edgar won that 46-49. Stupid judges.

[Elsalvajeloco]

 

 

[Jiji]

Parnasse pretty much the only reason to watch KSW these days. They barely do any circus fights anymore.  

[Elsalvajeloco]

19 hours ago, Jiji said:

Parnasse pretty much the only reason to watch KSW these days. They barely do any circus fights anymore.  

There has got to be more Polish rappers/bodybuilders/strongmen/club bouncers/pseudo celebrities out there. Don't give up hope!

Anyway:

[Elsalvajeloco]

 

[The Natural]

On 8/3/2022 at 6:41 PM, Elsalvajeloco said:

There has got to be more Polish rappers/bodybuilders/strongmen/club bouncers/pseudo celebrities out there. Don't give up hope!

Anyway:

 

7 hours ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

 

Hell of a line-up. Most looking forward to Chandler vs. Poirier.

[The Natural]

On 7/27/2022 at 5:46 AM, The Natural said:

Thinking about Jon Jones MMA record. Three fights he won by decision, I scored the other way. Alexander Gustafsson, Thiago Santos and Dominick Reyes all beat him by 47-48.

 

On 7/27/2022 at 8:38 PM, twiztor said:

Gus didn't win that fight. i've watched it a few times and never saw it as some great robbery. close fight but it was always Jon.

Santos was close, but i think he cost himself the match. he just didn't do anything. IIRC he hurt his foot or leg or something, so it's understandable. close fight that could've been scored either way.

Reyes 100% won that fight.

 

On 7/28/2022 at 10:04 AM, The Natural said:

I've always scored it for Gus. One of our rare disagreements. Close fight.

Still feel Santos won though most scored it to Jones.

Reyes definitely won. That was a robbery.

Jones has had it lucky when it comes to decisions. Same goes for Dan Henderson and Benson Henderson winning fights they lost.

 

[The Natural]

Added 10 days ago. Only just seen this now. Great list.

My go:

10. Cheick Kongo punches to Pat Barry, UFC on Versus 4.

9. Joaquin Buckley jump spinning back kick to Impa Kasanganay, UFC Fight Night 179.

8. Valentina Shevchenko head kick to Jessica Eye, UFC 238.

7. Francis Ngannou uppercut to Alistair Overeem, UFC 218.

6. Conor McGregor punch to Jose Aldo, UFC 194.

5. Holly Holm head kick on Ronda Rousey, UFC 193.

4. Michael Chandler front kick to Tony Ferguson, UFC 274.

3. Jorge Masvidal running knee to Ben Askren, UFC 239.

2. Dan Henderson punch on Michael Bisping, UFC 100.

1. Edson Barboza spinning wheel kick to Terry Etim, UFC 142.

[The Natural]

 

[The Natural]

Announced today. Expect Paddy the Baddy as well.

[DreamBroken]

Tough fight! I've been loving Molly's breakout rise as of late, but big fan of Blanchfield since her Invicta days. She's a killer so not sure how I see that one going.

[Elsalvajeloco]

[twiztor]

i guess i missed the memo that Uriah Hall retired. always liked the guy, but man was he inconsistent.

Rory is another case where he was a very good and sometimes great fighter. Outside of a handful of bouts (vs. Robbie Lawler!) he wasn't always the most exciting, but always worth tuning in for. I didn't follow him after leaving the UFC.

i wish both of those dudes, and everyone else that has retired recently, the best.

[Elsalvajeloco]

 

 

[twiztor]

So i watched all of the IFL events over the last few months, and i have some thoughts. There's been "news" and rumors about a new team-based MMA league starting up next year (the World Fight League). While i have serious doubts that it ever holds a single event, this made me want to check out the only other team-based promotion that we've seen.

the first six events made up the first "season", and it seemed like a mess. I had a hard time keeping track of who was on which team, and generally found it confusing. So, with the 2007 season starting up, i put in the effort to track teams, fighters, weight classes, coaches, colors, and records (both team and individual). Most of these would be touched on or mentioned throughout each event, but not for every fight. This is probably my biggest complaint about the IFL. I, for example, knew Pat Miletich was the coach of the Quad City Silverbacks. but a fight would start between two guys i wasn't familiar with, and they hadn't clearly shown which fighter was on his team. And they didn't wear a visible logo on their fight gear to signify. And the corners were wearing different colors than the fighters. It just didn't have the connective tissue to clearly and quickly show team unity. I shouldn't have to build myself a running checklist of every fighter on each team, which weight class they fight in, and which color the team wears. I have a longer rant in me about this, but i hope you get the point.

my second biggest complaint, and something they largely remedied as the season went on, was the IFL's tendency to clip fights. Here is the fourth fight in this "best of 5" format, but we're only going to show you the third round. and for this fight, we'll only show highlights. Makes it hard to get invested when you don't get to see the fight develop. There were some fights (and entire competitions) that they never aired. It is very hard to follow a season and root for a team if they only fight on TV once.

Now, some positives:

i think tying the "teams" to "camps" made a lot of sense. If you've made the decision to run an MMA promotion based on teams, this was probably the wisest course of action.

All of the coaches being recognizable MMA legends was another great choice. I like Ken Shamrock, so i'm going to root for whichever fighters he has on his team. A not-so-subtle way of giving these up-and-comers the rub from the vets. Bonus points for the coach vs. coach "legend" matches early on where we got to see fights like Renzo Gracie vs. Carlos Newton II and Maurice Smith vs. Marco Ruas II.

there were some pretty good fights. Nothing mind blowing, but Dan Miller vs. Dave Phillips had a pretty sick submission finish, and Chris Horodecki vs. Ryan Schultz was appropriately brutal.

the biggest careers that got their start in IFL were probably Roy Nelson and Ben Rothwell, although there was a good mix of guys that looked really good (the aforementioned Chris Horodecki, Wagnney Fabiano), sprinkled in with veteran guys still having some relevance (Vladimir Matyushenko, Ricco Rodriguez (?)). A decent roster overall in a time where MMA was still breaking big. 

 

overall, it was fine as a lower tiered promotion. I enjoyed watching it 15 years later, but it's definitely not something you need to go out of your way to see.