The MMA thread

[Oggmonster]

Ermmmmm ever going to get Nunes back in there? Sigh

She fought 3 months ago?

I don't know if the UFC is that arsed about making a third fight. Would them 2 fighting each other (again) do more business than them fighting each other at the moment? I don't think it would really, they're not exactly massive names so they may as well cash out on them both fighting and easily winning against other people and make it again down the line after they have a few more highlight real KOs to show of them both to try and talk it up a bit.

 

[Andersons Dietician]

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Jesus...

Obviously Jojo is my girl but this is going to be savage. She’s a better striker than most of girls in that division but still not Valentina level. Decent wrestler, decent on the ground and is a good size for that division but nah, I think she is going to get messed up as she takes way too many hits to give a hit.

She also bleeds at the drop of a towel so I’m expecting the usual mask of crimson.

 

[T00lsh3d]

Just read that James Haskell (former England rugby union international) is going to fight on a Bellator card in London

 

[Fener1907]

Surprised people are giving Felder a chance. Think he's going to be dismantled and badly K.O'd.

Bad match up for him.

I wouldn't go as far as to call it surprising. I guess Hooker's comments about "folding him like a deckchair" suggest he is confident of his ability to maintain the distance and slowly take him apart, but I think Felder is pretty tough and durable and should be looking to close the distance, which is certainly what swung the Barboza fight in his favour.

 

[George Owen]

 

[George Owen]

Early prelims starting in 5 minutes.

 

[George Owen]

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How was Shana Dobson the favorite, I will never know.

 

[George Owen]

Good fight this one.

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Callan Potter vs Song Kenan next.

 

[George Owen]

China is not here to participate. They are here to take over.

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[George Owen]

The Tarantula got it done.

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Next, Kevin "Angel of Death" Aguilar vs Zubaira "Warrior" Tukhugov to end the prelims.

 

[George Owen]

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[Ole90+3]

De Lima was not messing around there. Serious power and accuracy on those strikes. It's been a real fun card thus far, much better than last week.

 

[George Owen]

Karolina should be cut now. 0-4 in her last 4, and 2-6 in her last 8. She is done.

 

[George Owen]

Nice walk out for the Irish Dragon.

 

[George Owen]

Here we go!!

 

[George Owen]

Daaaaammmmnnn it ended up being everything promised. A war.

I don't know who won that. It was 2-2 going into the fifth for me.

 

[sizzling sausages]

Great fight, really hard to call. I'd probably just about give it to Hooker.

 

[Raoul]

Tough luck for Felder. Outstruck his opponent and lost the fight.

 

[George Owen]

I would have scored it a draw.

 

[sizzling sausages]

feck. Have to feel sorry for Felder there, I think the takedown at the end could have lost it for him...

Both men are badly marked, it really was a war!

 

[Santos J]

That was great, was a close one but Hooker winning was the right decision for me.

 

[poleglass red]

I assume the takedown at the end swung it for Hooker. For me he didnt do anything with it though. But felder landed the more significant strikers. Who'd be a judge

 

[Fortitude]

Massively underestimated Felder - he's got stones on him and crazy stamina. Took Hooker's best shots and kept on coming. If it were 6 rounds instead of 5, he would've probably knocked him out, too.

The first two rounds were how I saw the whole fight going, but Felder was by far the bigger threat in the championship rounds.

 

[Fener1907]

Hooker 47-48 Felder

Round 1 - Hooker maintained the distance like expected and worked Felder's lead leg well, also mixing it up with a jab.

Round 2 - A more even round, Felder found more success in the exchanges and finished the round the stronger of the two.

Round 3 - Hooker looked the more accurate fighter as round wore on and had significant success with his jab late on to take an otherwise even round.

Round 4 - Felder started the round very strongly and connected consistently, whilst Hooker looked more static and less active than in previous rounds.

Round 5 - Similar to round four, Felder started strongly and had the greater success landing, and the round was already far beyond Hooker for the takedown to make any difference.

Rounds 1 and 3 to Hooker, rounds 2, 4 and 5 to Felder.

One thing that is somewhat annoying about these is how the commentators set a narrative that can easily take hold in the mind of people who perhaps haven't seen many fights or are biased towards one fighter. For example, they shout about the takedown in round 5 and imply that it constitutes "doing something" to take the round, but a round is 5 minutes, and you can't simply ignore the other fighter's work for the first 3-4 minutes, and Felder was certainly the more active of the two and had greater success in the striking.

As much as I like him as an analyst, I also think Dan Hardy was a bit reckless in how he kept going on about how the numbers in terms of strikes landed were so close over the five and how it's difficult to judge for that reason. Instead of that, it's better to look at each round it isolation. It might seem a relevant statistic on the surface, but if one fighter has been consistently outstruck over two rounds and the majority of his own came in a third round, they're still down 2-1, however it looks on paper. This certainly was a close fight but that's even more reason to delve into each round rather than keep looking at the bigger, relatively unclear picture.

Going back to the fight, Felder can be proud of that one. Like I said in a previous post, he's very durable and would look to close the distance. He did exactly what he needed to and deserves to headline another event at some point.

Hooker, to me, is certainly a good fighter but a bit overrated. If an opponent is moving back or looking to keep it in the centre, he can be very difficult because those leg kicks and combos will eventually land and will wear on an opponent. He struggles a bit under pressure, however, and somebody like Gaethje would be a nightmare for him.

 

[Hawks2008]

Had Felder winning

Dan is crazy to call out Gathje, he struggled when Felder was pressuring and landing strikes so imagine what Gathje would do to him.

 

[giorno]

If fights were judged on the entire 5 rounds, felder would have won imho

But they're judged round by round, and i also had it 48-47 hooker

Btw, felder had his right eye nearly closed after the 1st. Why the feck did Hooker keep circling to his left???

 

[Fener1907]

Had Felder winning

Dan is crazy to call out Gathje, he struggled when Felder was pressuring and landing strikes so imagine what Gathje would do to him.

He's in limbo at the moment. There is nobody below him in the rankings left to face right now but that top five is a list of killers. Poirier looks the realistic option because that would at least give him a good platform for a rematch with Conor (Poirier apparently prefers the idea of growing his real estate portfolio), whereas I don't think Conor or Gaethje would see much value in it. Kevin Lee beating Oliveira could open up another option because that one is fast approaching.

 

[Maluco]

I though Felder won that fight, but a tight decision was always going to go the “send the crowd home happy” way.

Hooker technically looked a lot better, but didn’t do enough to win more than two rounds imo.

Something needs to be done about the judging. Between this week and the disaster that was the Jones/Reyes card, fighters are getting money taken out of their pockets.

 

[RedFish]

Yet more great content from Dan Hardy and Jimmy Wallhead

 

[Raoul]

Who the hell chooses the pics for these promo shots

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[Fener1907]

Aldo with that "hey, guys, a loss can be a win" expression

Cejudo's fought twice since beating DJ back in 2018 and is now allowed to ignore legitimate contenders like Yan and Sterling.

If you didn't know that UFC rankings are bullshit, now you know.

 

[Dirty Schwein]

Aldo with that "hey, guys, a loss can be a win" expression

Cejudo's fought twice since beating DJ back in 2018 and is now allowed to ignore legitimate contenders like Yan and Sterling.

If you didn't know that UFC rankings are bullshit, now you know.

The rankings have been bullshit for a while. It's really hurting my enjoyment of the sport.

 

[Oggmonster]

The rankings have been bullshit for a while. It's really hurting my enjoyment of the sport.

Yeah they have, I think either people feel passionately enough they stop watching or just accept they don't mean anything.

As I said at the itme Romero vs. Adesanya was made no one was really arsed Romero has lost 2 in a row and is 1-3 cos they like him (including missing weight in 2 of them fights.) But when it's someone they like less the annoyance comes then.

The rankings have been bollocks for a long time, they are after making the most popular fights at the time, Aldo isn't the biggest draw but he's probably the biggest name in that division so that's the fight that will get made.

Equally a load of bollocks is apparently Holloway is getting an immediate rematch, not really a fan of that myself where you have to win twice it seems to be champion.

 

[George Owen]

Yeah they have, I think either people feel passionately enough they stop watching or just accept they don't mean anything.

As I said at the itme Romero vs. Adesanya was made no one was really arsed Romero has lost 2 in a row and is 1-3 cos they like him (including missing weight in 2 of them fights.) But when it's someone they like less the annoyance comes then.

The rankings have been bollocks for a long time, they are after making the most popular fights at the time, Aldo isn't the biggest draw but he's probably the biggest name in that division so that's the fight that will get made.

Equally a load of bollocks is apparently Holloway is getting an immediate rematch, not really a fan of that myself where you have to win twice it seems to be champion.

Yoel case is a bit different. Adesanya was gonna fight Costa but the latter got injured. No one else made sense but Yoel to replace him, hardest fight after borrachina. Robert is always injured and Cannonier has only 3 fights in the division.

Cejudo has a line of proper contenders in wait.

But definitely agree in general, rankings have been wack for a long time. Popularity will get you to jump the line more often than not, and it sucks.

 

[Oggmonster]

Yoel case is a bit different. Adesanya was gonna fight Costa but the latter got injured. No one else made sense but Yoel to replace him, hardest fight after borrachina. Robert is always injured and Cannonier has only 3 fights in the division.

Cejudo has a line of proper contenders in wait.

But definitely agree in general, rankings have been wack for a long time. Popularity will get you to jump the line more often than not, and it sucks.

Cannonier should of got it. He's on a 3 fight win streak. Yoel gets a pass cos he's a popular fighter (and that's why he got the fight as well.) In no way is a guy who's 1-3 in his last 2 fights including missing weight twice and 3 of them fights actually being scheduled for the title get a 4th title shot before someone on a 3 fight win streak.

 

[poleglass red]

Who the hell chooses the pics for these promo shots

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should be more who the hell chooses these fights

 

[cyberman]

The rankings have been bullshit for a while. It's really hurting my enjoyment of the sport.

Theyre better ignored. Ever since i learned they are formed by journos theyve lost all meaning

 

[Welsh Wonder]

Equally a load of bollocks is apparently Holloway is getting an immediate rematch, not really a fan of that myself where you have to win twice it seems to be champion.

I don't mind so much when the fight is very close but Holloway was comfortably beaten.

 

[Maluco]

Dana White just gets aggressive whenever anyone questions anything that doesn’t align with what they want to do, só a proper debate can’t even be had.

“Whoever doesn’t want to see that fight, is an idiot”. Or something like that.

This is probably the worst one so far. Two divisions are being held up completely and the other fights that are happening in both those divisions seemingly mean nothing.

 

[Dirty Schwein]

I don't mind so much when the fight is very close but Holloway was comfortably beaten.

This is a slightly tricky one. I don't like instant rematches but not too bothered if it was a long-serving champion. But it's all the favouritism that pisses me off. If Holloway gets this then surely Aldo should have after the 13 second KO.

Dana White just gets aggressive whenever anyone questions anything that doesn’t align with what they want to do, só a proper debate can’t even be had.

“Whoever doesn’t want to see that fight, is an idiot”. Or something like that.

This is probably the worst one so far. Two divisions are being held up completely and the other fights that are happening in both those divisions seemingly mean nothing.

I think Cejudo has vacated the Flyweight championship? Unless I'm mistaken, that's being contested for this weekend between Benavidez and Figueroa...