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UFC Fight Night on ESPN+ 26: Felder vs. Hooker (2/22/2020) - Auckland, New Zealand (Spark Arena)


Elsalvajeloco

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3 minutes ago, Oyaji said:

Some real fun scraps on the bits of the card I've seen so far but man is the heavyweight division a mess. So many guys that should not be fighting at heavyweight with little skill. Did any of those punches land cleanly? Doesn't matter but shit it isn't much fun to watch.

*gets very hyped for Deontay Wilder fight tho*

Pezao has decent power, and Ben Sosoli is not very good. I watched Sosoli follow Greg Hardy around the cage for 15 minutes trying to be Roy Nelson and land one punch like his power is something to be feared. I had no desire to see Sosoli fight after that. Hopefully, this is his last UFC appearance because he should be 0-2 in real UFC fights and caught a break cause Din Thomas forgot you can't let your fighter use an inhaler.

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Man, if Kowalkiewicz doesn't start showing something soon in the second round, the corner may want to start thinking about stopping the fight. She looks horrendous and her eye is clearly bothering her. 

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5 minutes ago, Oyaji said:

Yeah, that Hardy fight was a real chore. I wonder how different the heavyweight division would be if UFC paid their fighters remotely close to the profit share major sports leagues do.

You're right, but boxing who you could also argue doesn't split the profits fairly doesn't exactly have a bunch of stellar guys over 200 pounds. I mean cruiserweight for the last several years and up until recently (as in Usyk dropping all his titles and the shenanigans during the World Boxing Super Series tournament not doing the CW division any favors) was way more loaded in terms of talent just like 205 was the marquee division in MMA over the HW division. And boxing has had a century plus head start over the UFC in terms of paying people adequately.

Heavyweight, in both boxing and MMA, is always going to have the most bottom of the barrel/marginally talented fighters. As you go up in weight, the less overall skill you're going to see unless you're dealing w/ once in a generation level fighters. Sadly, it is what it is.

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3 minutes ago, Elsalvajeloco said:
 

Good lord that kick.

I'm amazed at how consistent she is at putting her foot on people's faces, when she starts combos it's like fighting a boxer with three arms.

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2 minutes ago, jaedmc said:

How fucking crazy would it have been for Kowalkiewicz to crank that knee for a sub in the third?

There was probably a better chance of Yan being DQ'd for those kicks to the head at the end.

It's been a while since I seen someone actually get that especially that late in the fight. Usually, it's just someone rolling around for 90 seconds trying to adjust their grip and readjusting. I wouldn't say that the ref needs to stand the fighters up because the fighters are working and it would be fairly egregious to do that, but it's a stalemate 9 out of 10 times.

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Wow, this fight is delivering and even exceeding expectations. Felder wears every strike he takes but he's got such a strong will. Hooker almost looks the opposite where the heavy strikes of Felder look like they hurt him but he doesn't bruise or cut nearly as much. Round 1 was pretty obvious for Hooker but you could make an argument for Felder in 2 and 3.

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Watching Paul Felder is an experience. He just wears his heart on his sleeves, has an indomitable will. Not the fastest, strongest, very good technically but it's his heart and determination that makes him a great fighter. 

No fucking way should that takedown and scramble get Hooker the fifth. Felder was landing serious power that hurt Hooker throughout that round.

48-47 Felder (3, 4, 5). A great, great fight.

edit: Felder is like a more likable, less talented Tony Ferguson.

Edited by Oyaji
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35 minutes ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

Paul Felder is a tremendous human being. ?

I relate to Paul Felder as much as any MMA fan with a degree in Acting (Acting!) is going to relate to him.

The money's in broadcasting. Obviously. We've known how this goes since the days of Bas Rutten. He's also a natural 165'er/Moneyweight guy who could absolutely slip in to the BMF-belt chasing ranks of Marketable Action Fighters who Do Good Business (a growing market). I hope he doesn't retire, I hope he fights once a year and fights old guys in fun fights to pop ESPN ratings. 

Edited by John E. Dynamite
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I had Hooker winning the first and third, Felder the second and fourth, and Felder was winning the fifth up until Hooker got those takedowns at the end. With them, that made the round, and therefore the whole fight, a could go either way deal. Anything other than three 48-47 cards would have been a bad decision. The fact that it was a split seems right in the circumstances. The home town fighter winning should be expected when it's that close.

Hell of a fight though.

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What value is a takedown when there is no offensive attacks or submission attempts off of it though? Why should that outweigh one fighter wobbling another with a heavy strike? Felder was landing significant strikes that visibly hurt Hooker in the fifth. If the judges that scored it for Hooker gave him the first three, I would disagree but rounds 2 and 3 were somewhat close. This whole takedown/wrestling thing and how it is so dominant in scoring just drives me nuts.

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