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Stig

By Stig
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schmojo

schmojo

Posted
Posted

It's a great matchup because we have no idea. MacGregor has never faced a wrestler in the same neighbourhood as Mendes, and should get ragdolled. Or maybe he won't - he's tall and flexible with a wide base.

Conor's still a lot of hype - only his Poirier win impresses me significantly, and that puts him in the Cub Swanson/Korean Zombie bracket. He's got some proving to do.

Mendes has only ever lost to one man, and only been finished once. He has multiple ways to win, which Conor has not shown yet. For Dana's sake, I hope Conor wins, but I'm with Chad at this point.

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Orion

Orion

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-- UFC and Reebok unveiled the new "UFC Fighter Kits" (uniforms) today at a media event in New York City, which you can watch on UFC's YouTube channel. These outfits are what every fighter will be wearing starting with International Fight Week next week. While it had been said that fighters will be able to keep their individuality, almost all of the uniforms (with the exception of the design for the champions) are the same pattern and some fighters get the colors of the flag of their country of origin. The shorts/jersey combos look like soccer uniforms to the point it's almost distracting.

There was a lot of hype about Reebok's specific fabrics and seamless designs. With Ronda Rousey endorsing it, they claimed that their "Fight Bra" is the first sports bra designed specifically for women competing in combat sports, which may not be true.

-- Reebok also opened up sales of the UFC fighter replica jerseys on their website. So far, this has been a disaster. Lowlights include:

* Misspelled names, most notably "Giblert Melendez" and "Connor McGregor." Those two have been taken offline for the time being.

* Weird mistakes involving nicknames, like Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza becoming Jacare "Ronaldo" Souza and Lyoto Machida being merged with TUF Brazil 3 alumnus Marcio "Lyoto" Alexandre Jr. Those have also been taken down.

* Lots of fighters being referred to by their legal names, even if they've never been referred to by those names on UFC programming. Cub Swanson is now Kevin Swanson, Demian Maia is Demian Baptista, Jussier Formiga is now Jussier da Silva, etc. Strangely, even though this suggests Reebok some kind of UFC real names database, Renan Barao and Rony Jason, who don't go by their real names, are listed by their correct public UFC names.

* CM Punk is Phillip Brooks (the UFC roster page has him as "Phil 'CM Punk' Brooks") without any reference to "CM Punk." That got pulled, too. Jimy Hettes is now "James 'Jimy' Hettes" while our own "Flithy" Tom Lawlor has joined The York Foundation as Thomas Lawlor.

* Whether or not a fighter gets his country's colors seems completely random. Ben Handerson, whose mother is from South Korea, was listed as a representative of South Korea with the associated colors even though he's always been billed as an American in the UFC. That got pulled. "Korean Zombie" Chan Sung Jung, who's a South Korean national, has the generic coloring. That one is still up. Alexander Gustafsson and his All-Stars temmates from Sweden also have generic colors.

* No jersey variations are being offered for the opposite sex for the time being. So women are stuck with men's cuts for male fighters and men don't have viable options for female fighters.

Not the best start for this deal.

Credit: f4wonline.com

Sounds like the launch went well.

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Doomguy

Doomguy

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It's not a team sport. Dana throughout all this kept saying 'just like the nfl' which is fucking ridiculous.

The fighters are now getting less, the designs are shit, and the fun individuality the fighters create with their look is gone. This is easily one of the worst decisions in sports marketing I've ever seen.

If the ufc want reebok to be a standard sponsor then let them sponsor the gloves - it's standard kit like sponsoring a football in the world cup.

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McFly

McFly

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The ki/uniform deal really highlights what a rey area the UFC and fighters are in just now, wouldn't a deal like this void fighters contracts? Or can the UFC essentially do what they like? something needs to worked out, quickly though or there might be legal proceedings coming. I reckon we could see a fe fighters jump ship to other organisations, but there's not much serious competition these days, Bellator and er...that's it. Speaking of which, the Kimbo/Ken fight was a bit strange. I see they've added Phil Davis and Koschek to the roster though which is good for them.

As for actual fighting, I can see Machida retiring soon, or maybe he'll go back to LHW, perhaps he's cutting too much weight but he's getting crushed by much bigger guys, but I suppose that would just be the case in LHW aswell? I've never been much of a fan, he had some good wins and I cant recall who it was who said (Florian or Anik i assume) he was a "sure fire hall of famer" pre-fight on Saturday but I'd disagree with that.

Pretty disappointed with Aldo pulling out, but its better that than him fighting at 50%, McGregor should still win but Mendes isn't gonna be a pushover. Even more psyched for Lawler/MacDonald now though, i really want Rory to win and take the belt home to Canada.

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tec1122

tec1122

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Haha yeah that tickled me as well. I feel really sorry for the fighters, saw Ross Pearson post his fighter kit on Facebook and he got destroyed by the fans. Bellator really should poach some unhappy fighters an boost their roster.

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schmojo

schmojo

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The UFC is doing everything that they can to disenfranchise their fighters, but nobody has the resources to go toe-to-toe.

It's not massively likely, but if a brand new organisation (Bellator and Coker are great, but the brand has gone nowhere in years) got some good funding, then they could do some damage.

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Gotters

Gotters

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I'e always thought UFCs biggest problem is they are trying to come up with an F1 like slick corporate product for an audience that largely wants NASCAR - the audience have kind of stuck with it (although PPV numbers are not anywhere near what they were for most events) but the slicker and more corporate it gets I suspect the more old school fans they lose - the problem becomes if they aren't picking up the new demographic they're after along the way.

Loving the Connor embedded videos, he really does sell a fight well, for that alone I hope he gets past Mendes and we get the Aldo fight.

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bobontheway

bobontheway

Posted
Posted

Hoping for a MacDonald win. It seems almost inevitable that he'll get the belt at some point and I'd rather it be sooner than later.

I'm also hoping for a McGregor win for exactly the same reason as DoubleO. Aldo can't stand him and a fight between the two of them would surely be amazing to watch.

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schmojo

schmojo

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Has mendes trained too hard to cut weight so soon? Is he going to try and take Connor down and just wrestle him? I'm worried he will.

Mendes would be insane to try anything else with an interim belt on the line, bearing in mind that he's against a rangey striker. He stayed on the feet against Aldo mostly though, so he may decide to try and prove a point.

I think he's probably more interested in exposing McGregor at this point. Wrestling all night, as long as he gets Conor down.

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Doomguy

Doomguy

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Thought this would be quite the even fight before I heard Conors walk around weight. :o

He really is massive for 145lbs. He's basically walking around a 180lbs. I reckon Mendes by boring decision or Conor by third of fourth round KO. I don't see this being a walk in the park for either.

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Yobo Ahoy

Yobo Ahoy

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I really do want to see Connor KO'd but it's probably in everyone's interests that the hype train continues, at least until Aldo returns. I genuinely can't pick a winner, mega excited though.

I really want Lawler to win but unfortunately I think Rory will win by by (pretty dominant) UD. 'Mon Robbie!

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schmojo

schmojo

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Thought this would be quite the even fight before I heard Conors walk around weight. :o

He really is massive for 145lbs. He's basically walking around a 180lbs. I reckon Mendes by boring decision or Conor by third of fourth round KO. I don't see this being a walk in the park for either.

When does Mendes have boring decisions? He's always working to hurt someone, even when he does win by decision. Which is about once in his last 7 fights. He's got loads of strike finishes.

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Kingpin

Kingpin

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Heading to Vegas on Friday. Should make it to the weigh ins if flights are on time etc.

I think Mendes gets KO'd trying to close the distance for the TD. Expect Chad to test the waters by striking with him, feels the straight left and then goes into wrestling mode. Conor will have one foot forward offering the lure of a single leg but will have multiple counters and strikes lined up to defend against it.

Again, my biased opinion but that's how I see it going.

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Doomguy

Doomguy

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When does Mendes have boring decisions? He's always working to hurt someone, even when he does win by decision. Which is about once in his last 7 fights. He's got loads of strike finishes.

That's how I see mendes winning against someone like conor. I think his best bet is to completely shut him down on the ground. Standing conor has reach and height on him.

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Don Rosco

Don Rosco

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Heading to Vegas on Friday. Should make it to the weigh ins if flights are on time etc.

Have a blast, man. Atmosphere should be over the top if everything they're saying about ticket sales to Ireland is true. Jesus I can't wait for this fight now. And lawler v mcdonald as well. Come on Ireland and Canada!

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schmojo

schmojo

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Chad's resume is more impressive than Conor's, so he should definitely have it on paper. But every so often a great fighter comes along and defies the odds in their 'coming out party'.

I called it wrong when Cain smashed Rothwell and Big Nog, when Jones smashed Bader, and when Miocic beat Del Rosario. Could certainly happen again here.

It seems like it's Macdonald's time to take the WW division into a new era. I'm really glad that Lawler has had his renaissance and his time with the belt, but I don't think he's the best fighter in the division and his 'evolution' is based around him adding 2 or 3 kicks to his arsenal over the last decade. But Rory didn't want it enough last time...

The other 3 main card fights should be great too. Has all the pieces for the most action-packed PPV in a while.

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Doomguy

Doomguy

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Same. Much prefer Lawler to win as he's far more exciting but Rory will probably decision it. I reckon it'll be boring though; a fair bit of backpedaling.

My worst calls are always Shogun ones. I thought he'd do ok against Jones until the weigh-in where it became apparent they didn't even belong in the same weight class.

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