We're down to a skeleton crew of MMA folks on here so I figured a catch all MMA general thread would suffice. I figured we'd keep this strictly MMA, if anybody wants to talk boxing start a new thread. My interest in MMA really bottomed out this year but those last 2 UFC pay per view shows really got me fired up about the fight game again. The sport outside of the UFC is a fucking wasteland right now, while the new UFC owners seemingly took a little while to get things going. The last 2 pay per views were excellent though, GSP vs Bisping was the best fight I've seen this year: 

We got a new force at heavyweight and I'm hyped about what is shaping up to be the biggest heavyweight title fight the sport has seen in years, Francis Nganno is legit: 

That was one of the greatest knockouts I've ever seen in MMA. Nganno vs Miocic is going to be insane! 

And we are set for the biggest women's MMA fight yet later this month as Holly Holm steps up to fight the invincible terminator Cyborg under blood red skies. This is the fight I'm looking forward to the most. MMA watchers sound off! 

GSP dropping the middleweight title for medical reasons strikes me as kind of odd.

Lesnar went through life threatening diverticulitis, had insane amounts of surgery, even got the fuck out of a Canada hospital that didn't have working machines that could figure out what was wrong, and yet still kept the heavyweight title. And honestly, I can't see why GSP couldn't do the same.

Dec 9, 2017 21:06:52 GMT Dukezilla said:

GSP dropping the middleweight title for medical reasons strikes me as kind of odd.

Lesnar went through life threatening diverticulitis, had insane amounts of surgery, even got the fuck out of a Canada hospital that didn't have working machines that could figure out what was wrong, and yet still kept the heavyweight title. And honestly, I can't see why GSP couldn't do the same.

He was never going to stay at MW, if he fights again, which is up in the air, he'll try to get back to 170.  GSP was never going to fight long term, he wanted to comeback to see if he still could do it and since he hadn't fought in 4 years...MW was an easier weight class to get to.  Basically, Dana paid GSP 2.5 million just to show up, because he knew the buys would be big.  If GSP fights again, it'll be Conor at 170 for a superfight, if Conor ever fights again.

Bisping was the perfect match up for GSP...most other MW...Especially against Whittaker and Rockhold, would be an extremely difficult task.  Basically, Bisping is a pure striker and Rockhold/Whittaker have wrestling/BJJ backgrounds...GSP is Mr. Takedown, he probably wouldn't be able to dictate the fight against those two, like he could against pretty much every opponent he's ever fought.

Dec 6, 2017 12:46:24 GMT shinobimusashi said:

We got a new force at heavyweight and I'm hyped about what is shaping up to be the biggest heavyweight title fight the sport has seen in years, Francis Nganno is legit: 

That was one of the greatest knockouts I've ever seen in MMA. Nganno vs Miocic is going to be insane! 

So Stipe Miocic vs. Francis Ngannou for the title at UFC 220 is now official! That knock out of Overeem is insane! I'm looking forward to this fight. If history is to believed Ngannou will be the new champ as no Heavyweight has ever been able to defend the title more than twice. Which is pretty crazy to me lol

Damn I didn't know Holly Holm vs Cyborg was tonight! That's going to be good.

I finally checked out a Pride DVD on my 4K Blu Ray/55 inch 4K Curve, doesn't look as good as I thought it would, I've grown to dislike 4:3 aspect ratio with the black bars on the sides of the screen. They need to remaster the complete Pride collection in 4K for Blu Ray, widescreen. I'd pay big bucks for that box set. Never going to happen though, physical media is dead and UFC wants people to forget how much better Pride was than UFC will ever be(they keep taking down all the fan made Pride montages on Youtube).

We're now a full decade after Pride died and 20 years after it started, it's a shame we don't get a "Rise And Fall Of ECW" level documentary about the promotion and some remastered Blu Rays. 

What a great fight. Clear cut win for Cyborg but what a gutsy performance by Holm, she rocked her there in the 5th round and took her the distance, just didn't do enough to take it imo, Cyborg just too big and too strong and skilled enough in the stand up, plus tough as a damn ox. It really is like taking on a male pro fighter for any woman to step into the cage with Cyborg. It's going to take good Jujitsu to beat Cyborg, I just don't see any woman being able to stand up with her and take her in MMA.

Great heart from Holly Holm tonight though.

Holm can't buy a win these days. Kind of sad to see that she peaked with Rousey. I know she beat Correia recently but come on, that girl is garbage.

A real bummer to see Condit come out on the losing end tonight.

That beat down that Khabib put on Edson last night...dude looked like he was in a five round brawl after 5 minutes. Eagle isn't losing to anyone and I say this as a huge Conor fan. We all know he's never lost a round in a fight, evidently he's never lost sparring either...I believe it.

Khabib vs Conor I see going one of two ways, one, Khabib keeps it standing and gets KO'd, or the more likely, two, he takes Conor down and manhandles him. In the Johnson match Khabib kept it standing for a good second and ate some punishment that Conor would have likely floored him with (he's quicker, more technical, and much more powerful than Johnson), but his grappling is just far too much for what's been the clear weak spot for Conor.

Jimmy Smith signs with UFC. I just heard him on Rogan's podcast earlier in the week. Rogan kept saying "Bellator fucked up." and now he's with UFC.

Big John McCarthy is going to be doing color/analysis for Bellator. I guess he's not reffing anymore?

Both MMA promotions have really good play by play and color guys. If only Bas Rutten could comeback somewhere.

Speaking of commentators...I kind of love Daniel Cormier on commentary. There was some initial weirdness because of that weird 3 man commentary team they were doing but I think he's come into his own now is a very good. I also think Paul Felder does great as does Dominic Cruz. Jimmy Smith is great though and will be a good addition and should be the man covering the ppv events.

Jan 13, 2018 18:54:00 GMT vendrell said:

Speaking of commentators...I kind of love Daniel Cormier on commentary. There was some initial weirdness because of that weird 3 man commentary team they were doing but I think he's come into his own now is a very good. I also think Paul Felder does great as does Dominic Cruz. Jimmy Smith is great though and will be a good addition and should be the man covering the ppv events.

I think Smith will do a lot of the International events, because Rogan doesn't want to travel outside of the country or too far from his family.  The one person that I miss is Brian Stann, he did a great job, but chose to do something outside of MMA.

Well....... there goes the Francis Ngannou hype.

Great performance by Miocic, definitely got to put his name up there with the all time greats at heavyweight in MMA.

Holy shit what a squash that Daniel Cormier fight was.

Soooooo....yeah crazy fight just announced for UFC 226 on July 7th Daniel Cormier attempts what BJ Penn failed and Conor has only been able to do and hold 2 belts at the same time as he challenges Stipe Miocic for the Heavyweight Championship of the World. For the love of god please both stay healthy. Also they will be coaches on TUF

How good at takedown defense is Stipe? He's definitely a better striker of the two, but Cormier pretty much just dominates on the ground, and this is a man who took Rumble's best (but Rumble almost got him).

Looks like Punk is going to have another fight:

So Conor Mcgregor will officially be stripped of the title when Ferguson and Khabib fight at UFC 223. Really no surprise here.


www.mmamania.com/2018/3/2/17073930/dana-white-conor-mcgregors-title-stripped-one-punch-is-thrown-between-ferguson-vs-khabib-at-ufc-223

Jeremy Stephens is such a beast. I saw his latest KO live. Josh Emmett was out for what felt like 5 minutes. Brian Kelleher & Ilir Latifi impressed me as well.

I'm joking. MMA is dead.

UFC 222 preliminary card averaged 905,000 viewers on Fox Sports 1, up from the 697,000 average for UFC 221, and also identical to the more-hyped UFC 220 in January.

Pay-per-view buys for UFC 220 were in the neighborhood of 340,000-380,000 buys, whereas UFC 221 is believed to have done under 150,000 buys

Rumor is UFC 222 is lowest selling PPV in 10 years.

On the other hand.

Showtime Boxing, the entire card on Saturday averaged 730,000 viewers, but Wilder vs. Ortiz itself produced one of the network’s best ratings in a long time. Evidently there wasn’t much interest in Jose Uzcategui vs. Andre Dirrell, but the main event averaged 1,055,000 viewers and peaked at roughly 1.2 million. It is the first time that any Showtime fight has eclipsed the 1 million mark since January 2015, when Wilder won the WBC heavyweight title from Bermane Stiverne.

Last and also least for Saturday, HBO averaged 599,000 viewers for its light heavyweight main event between Sergey Kovalev and Igor Mihalkin.

Heck, even Dana White was watching the Wilder fight.  The entire UFC 222 card got paid a quarter million and Deontay Wilder earned a guaranteed 2 million.

I kid, just because of all the years people will senselessly shout at me that boxing is dead.


www.bloodyelbow.com/2018/3/6/17087034/ufc-222-prelims-averages-905000-viewers-wilder-win-vs-ortiz-exceeds-1-million-boxing-mma-news

I've been preaching it for the last 2 years or so, the 56 shows a year schedule the UFC has ran with over the last few years has doomed the company to a similar fate as Pro Wrestling in the early 2000's, complete overexposure of the product, completely watered down, and they've burned through all their marquee matchups at a remarkable rate. It sucks because they put all the other promotions out of business by hording all the top talent, MMA is a fucking wasteland outside of the UFC. There is no real amateur system in MMA, there is not nearly enough talent to support a 50+ show a year schedule for the long term. Zuffa completely scammed WME with that sale and they've made things worse by adding more divisions and more titles. UFC should have just kept it to 12-15 shows a year and held more grand prix tournaments like Pride(and for god sakes they should have NEVER killed WEC). And I don't care what anybody says the most popular MMA fighter getting clowned on in a boxing match was a major blow to the sport in the eyes of casual couch patatoes(which vastly outnumber intelligent combat sports fans probably 100,000 to 1). The new owners are completely in over their heads and are probably going to lose the FOX tv deal to WWE, UFC is literally dying before our eyes, this is the least interest I've had in the sport probably since 2000.

Pride was better. 

WEC was the shit.

Khabib-Ferguson is off again. Tony tripped and landed the wrong way, fucking up his knee. Max is stepping up on six days notice to fight Khabib for the title (Which one though? Real or interim? Both?)

Holy fuck.

Mar 7, 2018 18:37:53 GMT shinobimusashi said:

I've been preaching it for the last 2 years or so, the 56 shows a year schedule the UFC has ran with over the last few years has doomed the company to a similar fate as Pro Wrestling in the early 2000's, complete overexposure of the product, completely watered down, and they've burned through all their marquee matchups at a remarkable rate. It sucks because they put all the other promotions out of business by hording all the top talent, MMA is a fucking wasteland outside of the UFC. There is no real amateur system in MMA, there is not nearly enough talent to support a 50+ show a year schedule for the long term. Zuffa completely scammed WME with that sale and they've made things worse by adding more divisions and more titles. UFC should have just kept it to 12-15 shows a year and held more grand prix tournaments like Pride(and for god sakes they should have NEVER killed WEC). And I don't care what anybody says the most popular MMA fighter getting clowned on in a boxing match was a major blow to the sport in the eyes of casual couch patatoes(which vastly outnumber intelligent combat sports fans probably 100,000 to 1). The new owners are completely in over their heads and are probably going to lose the FOX tv deal to WWE, UFC is literally dying before our eyes, this is the least interest I've had in the sport probably since 2000.

Pride was better. 

Kind of feel the same.  I still watch most of the freebies on fox and fox sports 1 but really you maybe only get two ppv events a year that I feel are worth actually buying but that will probably dwindle to zero I buy this year.  I said it in reference to the GSP/Bisping card, that show felt like it was UFC's last big time card they could produce.  and in all fairness, they knocked it out of the park and it was a great night of fights but there is nothing in their current ppv cannon that is really getting me excited. Sure they have some exciting fighters but nobody really has that superstar feel that makes me want to buy a ppv outside of Connor who may be done. 

I wish I was filming The Rise And Fall Of Connor McGregor

Apr 1, 2018 23:52:51 GMT cig said:

Khabib-Ferguson is off again. Tony tripped and landed the wrong way, fucking up his knee. Max is stepping up on six days notice to fight Khabib for the title (Which one though? Real or interim? Both?)

Holy fuck.

annnnnnd....Max is out. He was deemed "Un-fit to fight" Al Iaquinta will now face Khabib but Khabib is only eligible to win the title as Al Iaquinta won't be able to make weight.

www.ufc.com/news/Khabib-Nurmagomedov-to-face-Al-Iaquinta-for-official-UFC-lightweight-title

The funny part is that the pussies on the bus backed out of their fights at the show and filed a police report. Times and fighters have changed, I don't think Don Frye or Tank Abbott would have responded that way.

The part that's not funny though is that the sport of MMA is literally dying before our very eyes. Sad. 

Apr 7, 2018 0:15:17 GMT shinobimusashi said:

The funny part is that the pussies on the bus backed out of their fights at the show and filed a police report. Times and fighters have changed, I don't think Don Frye or Tank Abbott would have responded that way.

The part that's not funny though is that the sport of MMA is literally dying before our very eyes. Sad. 

they didn't back out at all, the NYSAC are refusing to let them fight. Michael Chiesa was medically cleared and wanted to fight but the NYSAC refused to allow him, Ray Borg literately has glass in his eyes and Artem Lobov was pulled because he was apart of the attack.  The NYSAC has really been fucking around with the card. First they pulled Max because "They didn't like how he looked", Then Pettis wasn't allowed because he wanted too much money and the NYSAC didn't think he could go 5 rounds, then they denied Paul Felder because he is not ranked and now they say that Al Iaquinta can't be given the title if he wins because he weighed 155.2lbs. There some serious shady fuckery going on there

Apr 7, 2018 9:59:50 GMT Mr. Canoe said:

Apr 7, 2018 0:15:17 GMT shinobimusashi said:

 The NYSAC has really been fucking around with the card. First they pulled Max because "They didn't like how he looked", Then Pettis wasn't allowed because he wanted too much money and the NYSAC didn't think he could go 5 rounds, then they denied Paul Felder because he is not ranked and now they say that Al Iaquinta can't be given the title if he wins because he weighed 155.2lbs. There some serious shady fuckery going on there

Seriously? That makes 0 sense, who the fuck are they to decide what a promotion does with it's Championship belts?!?!? And over .2 tenths of a pound, probably less than what a fucking sock weighs. We went from bare knuckle 8 man open weight tournaments to this pansy ass shit in 25 years, amazing. 

Fuck Connor what a piece of shit. The dude is off his rocker.