Official Mixed Martial Arts Thread

[angel]

watched it live. fantastic.

[Corrogate]

Watching it again. Good event - the promo for Barao and Dillashaw has me stoked!

[schmojo]

Amazing stuff - never been happier to pick so many wrong.

Glad to see Overeem fight a little more intelligently, and pick up a 2nd win in a row. If they're as intent on Overeem/JDS as they were, then I doubt he's going to hit a third. He ate far too many shots against the fence though, which is Nelson's danger zone.

The real story is probably the continued decline of Nelson as a fighter. He can't adapt, he's not using his BJJ, and he's taking the Hendo route of eating shots until you can land the overhand right. If he doesn't drop somebody dramatically in his next fight, I could see Dana looking to get rid of him.

Esparza was awful. For all of her talk about getting more sponsorship/respect/money, she was outclassed throughout the fight. She didn't adapt, couldn't hang in the stand-up, and worked none of her wrestling game. Which didn't even look that strong. Joanna... Champion looked good, but it's clearly another very thin division. Might get them some good traction in Poland though.

Hendricks/Brown went the way it always seemed like it would. Hendricks looked in better shape than in the past though - weight cuts must have improved.

RDA was a revelation. I know that Pettis's ability to measure range, and enforce his game, would have been compromised if he lost vision in his right eye so early on, but Do Anjos dominated. Bell to bell.

I don't think that RDA is a hugely marketable champ (though might sell out stadia in Brazil, and is a great improvement/hard work story), but he should be proud of his performance and being the first 155lb Brazilian champ. There's a ready-made title storyline with him and Nurmagomedov too, although I'd expect he'll relieve him of the belt.

[Yobo Ahoy]

That was so good. I knew Pettis would have a fight on his hands as soon as Dos Anjos stepped in the cage, his face was all business. Very reminiscent of JDS / Cain 2.

Matt Brown was super disappointing and Hendricks just did the minimum to get the win. Not exactly a classic.

Really pleased for Overeem though, I know he has been slagged off a bit for trying to reinvent himself but realistically several of the shots Nelson took last night would have knocked out most other HWs. Overeem needed to make a change otherwise he would have ended up like Nelson is now, just a mid-level slogger and he's better than that.

[Doomguy]

Overeem vs dos santos next. (finally!)

I'd hate to see big country get cut just because dana doesn't like him. Fingers crossed he finally gets in shape though. It'd bring some interest back to his career at the very least given he's now lost his last 4.

Pettis just seemed unmotivated to me. Like he didn't turn up. I do love an upset, mind, the division is wide open now.

[tec1122]

Jealous that card is looking sick!

[bobontheway]

Fight Night 62

Shayna Bazler needs to just hang up her gloves now, IMO.
She looked awful against Nunez and being a "pioneer of women's MMA" doesn't mean she has to keep getting her arse kicked.

[angel]

amusing thread on sherdog about her

http://forums.sherdog.com/forums/f2/baszler-worst-fighter-ever-fight-octagon-2964297/index1.html

[Gotters]

anybody else watching the embedded videos for the Aldo McGregor fight hype train world tour ?

I'm really enjoying them, seems to me that Conor is succeeding in getting into Aldo's mind and winding him up - only time will tell if that is the right thing to do or not on fight night - as far as hype goes its pure gold.

I do think one of Aldo's lackies hit the nail on the head with the key to the fight, they said look at his chicken thighs, 4 kicks to them will slow him down.

Dana White must be praying these 2 stay fit after all this, I think they'll hit the biggest PPV payday since Lesnar's UFC100 card.

[Kingpin]

I got tickets for 189 and I'm going to the media event in Dublin. I caught up with embedded vids yesterday - some epic trolling going on. I'm praying to the MMA gods to keep both of them uninjured! It's going to be huge.

[Gotters]

I got tickets for 189 and I'm going to the media event in Dublin. I caught up with embedded vids yesterday - some epic trolling going on. I'm praying to the MMA gods to keep both of them uninjured! It's going to be huge.

thats fantastic, I think the atmosphere will be unlike anything they've had in a UFC, you don't get two more mental set of fight fans than the Brazilians and Irish and Connor is stoking this up brilliantly - not really sure how high a calibre fighter he is (I know he's good, question is how good) but in terms of selling a show he's almost without peer at present.

[V3zna]

I'll be cheering for Connor but I fear for him. Aldo has been involved in a few lacklustre fights but I'd suggest he will be seriously motivated for this. When Aldo is on song he's just a bad motherfucker, an absolute destroyer.

[V3zna]

Ronda Rousey appeared at Wrestlemania. I'd suggest Dana White is currently a worried man.

[Yobo Ahoy]

Apparently the UFC ok'd it way in advance. Realistically they have to keep her sweet as one of their biggest draws in a pretty dead division.

Anyone see Bellator at the weekend? Galvao had Warren in a leg lock, he yanked it and Warren screamed out, Big Jon called it a submission. To be honest I think it was totally right but the opinion online seems to be it was the wrong call and Warren was bitching about it after saying it was a 'scream of frustration'... Yeah ok.

https://vine.co/v/O39hzvDzgzV

Also I see Spike are launching a proper uk channel... Hopefully they'll show Bellator and Glory etc.

[Orion]

All the sane voices in MMA are calling Warren out for being in the wrong. Every Pro fighter is warned by the refs before the fight if you call out in pain whilst in a sub the ref will call it as a verbal tap. Joe Warren knows this. He is just being a dickhead, again.

[Yobo Ahoy]

It was a very satisfying scream though. Aowoaaah!

[Don Rosco]

I'm finding this whole "world tour" thing very undignified to be honest. Watching the Dublin thing now and i'm pretty embarassed by the conduct of the fans there (with one exception, a pure dub who politely suggested that Aldo should be shown more respect, and got booed to fuck for this troubles). If McGregor wasn't from Crumlin i'd be looking for Aldo to give him a hiding. But he is! So I hope he wins. Looking forward to the fight either way. And Lawler v McDonald! Fucking SWEET.

[Kingpin]

I was at the "conference" earlier. I was really surprised to see that they were serving booze at this. Dan Hardy was encouraging people to get a drink and make some noise, as if anyone needed encouragement.

Pretty fucking awful that a champ got paraded in front of a pished crowd to have abuse hurled at him really. It's exactly what I expected though, felt bad for Aldo. He has to feel like the UFC are praying for him to lose.

After the Conor bit was over, the place cleared out and actual fans hung around for Q&A with the rest of the roster of Irish fighters. As you can imagine, that was less raucous and there was less shit questions. Don't know if they streamed that section or not. Poor Joe Duffy still got a load of shit questions relating to C McG though.

"Heeyor Aldo, yer a fookin' pussy" - the fucking cringe.

[Don Rosco]

Yeah, they showed about 10 minutes of that bit on Setanta, it was definitely better than the "main event". Neil Seery came across very well. I can't believe the amount of fighters we have in the UFC now, it's seriously impressive. Joe Duffy looking the pick of the bunch after McGregor, i've only seen his last three fights but he looks dangerous. I'd like to see more of Paul Redmond too, i'm sure he's keen to make amends after his UFC debut.

[Orion]

I 've enjoyed it. It was never gonna be dignified. It was always about how much Conor was going to wind up Aldo and sell the fight.

And stealing the belt off him, again, infront of a jacked up Irish crowd just helps build the fight even more.

Worth noting to people here annoyed with the Irish fans that the Brazilians fans were chanting all kinds of shit at Conor, like he was going to be murdered for example. Aldo and his team had no problems with that. The Irish fans were tame in comparison.

[Don Rosco]

I think he does, for sure. For all his bluster and shite talk, he's a serious student of mma. I agree with him when he says Aldo has been fighting the same way for years, and I think him and John Kavanagh will come up with a game plan to do the job.

On the other hand, Aldo is seriously fucking pissed off! Hopefully we'll see a great fight.

[Don Rosco]

Worth noting to people here annoyed with the Irish fans that the Brazilians fans were chanting all kinds of shit at Conor, like he was going to be murdered for example. Aldo and his team had no problems with that. The Irish fans were tame in comparison.

I think that's probably a fair point, but my embarrassment comes from being Irish. If I was Brazilian and watched the Brazilian one, I'd probably feel the same.

Also, Aldo is a bona fide legend, unbeaten in ten years. Any "fan" calling him a pussy or talking about how he looks scared is just supremely ignorant.

[Kingpin]

I do think Conor has a chance - we don't know what his ceiling is yet - maybe Aldo is it but we'll find out soon enough. You never know, could be one of those moments where the champ is on the way down and the challenger is ascending.

[schmojo]

For business purposes, it's probably best if it's a close decision, or Connor wins by KO. Either way it's liable to be an insta-rematch.

As a fan, I'd like to see Connor competitive enough to make the fight interesting, but Aldo to send a vicious message. It is a really interesting match-up, as Aldo is so traditional in much of his striking, and C McG is very unorthodox.

Next numbered ufc is the uninspiring Mighty Mouse card at the end of the month. Fortunately though, between then and now we have Mendes/Lamas this weekend, Gonzaga/Crocop 2 the weekend after, and then MIDDLEWEIGHT MADNESS with Machida/Rockhold and Jacare/Romero.

[V3zna]

It was almost too cringey to watch at times but hilarious at others. So much for the 'media' questions.

I think Aldo is going to seriously try and smash him.

What do we think? Does Conor have a chance?

Aldo, when focused and motivated, is one of the most devastating fighters I've ever saw. He's just brutal, smashing people up with those leg kicks. Is that Jose Aldo still in there somewhere? This fight will answer that question, that's for sure.

[Doomguy]

Can see Conor winning with a headkick. The guy has to be one of the tallest in the division and unlike some he actually uses it to his advantage.

Looking forward to Gonzaga Cro cop II next weekend. I think Gonzaga is going to light him up again.

[schmojo]

Mendes shouldn't need to fight again to qualify for a title shot - him and Frankie are more deserving than Connor. If, by some miracle, MacGregor takes down Aldo, then the division is wide open as I see either of the two aforementioned wrecking the irishman.

As for Iaquinta/Masvidal - I could only see Masvidal clearly winning the first. It was a close call for the other two. Iaquinta didn't exactly come off as a class act, which is a shame as he's a good up and comer and looked great against Pearson.

[The Bag]

FYI it's not on BT Sport tonight, it's on Pick TV instead.

[Doomguy]

Surprised Crocop beat manbearpig.

I still think Gonzaga could have been champ had they not rushed him into that title fight with couture after the first win. You can tell he stopped giving a shit after that - he went straight back to training part time/graphic design.

[schmojo]

Those elbows were nasty, but their surprising nature underlined how many of the old guard have very few strings to their bows.

Looks like Manuwa will be fighting about as often as Cain. Shame - he wouldn't be a top 5 LHW, I don't think, but he's a fun match up for many.