UFC Fight Night Mega-Thread

[The Fury 65]

Yes!!! Going to ufc fight night in Glasgow. Been a long wait for finally getting to see a ufc event

[The Fury 65]

That fight night was AWESOME!!! The heroes all won and main event was a very close call. Place went ballistic for the scots and everyone sang to leites Bob marley theme.

 

Hydro has near 10500 fans and hope they come back!

[Guest The Beltster]

I had Leites winning 4 rounds to 1, either me or the judges are clueless.

[The Fury 65]

I had bisping 1st and 5th and leites 3rd and 4th so wasn't surprised at how close it was.

 

Some fans booed the decision and after looking at several sites scores and judges I'm a tad surprised

[Guest paidimartinez]

Anyone watching UFC Rotterdam tonight?

[Guest paidimartinez]

UFC 199 tonight, I'd settle for a victory from one of the underdogs in the championship fights. The chances are slim so I'd be happy with either Bisping or Faber winning. Surely some of you Brits will be tuning in to watch The Count. It would be some fairytale for him if he could pull it off.

[Evil Gringo 279]

The fairy tale is real, Bisping wins the gold and his cockiness and attitude since in the interviews and press conferences has been glorious. Luke Rockhold really, really wants to kill him right now.

 

What a wonderful d*ckhead he is. Good event last night, could well be Hendo and Faber's last fights as well.

[Guest paidimartinez]

Yeah, I have a feeling Faber could come back for a swan song in Sacramento if the UFC visits the new stadium there. Delighted for Bisping, I hated him at first but he's grown on me over the years. I mean, how many guys would have packed up after any number of his losses in key fights. I think it becomes apparent too that he comes across as cocky and arrogant but some of it has to do with UK banter. Similar to McGregor, Irish and UK people like to slag and mock each other but Americans take it the wrong way. (I'm not going to lie though when Dan Henderson destroyed Bisping I was hooting and hollering in front of my TV.)

Brendan Schaub made an interesting observation on twitter; he said something along the lines of: think about how long Bisping has been trying to become champion, then think about who he's lost to and then he finally gets the belt at 37 when strict drug testing comes into the UFC. Food for thought, granted he got the title shot on short notice so there's no guaranteeing he'd have even fought his way to a title shot had this opportunity not arisen.

But it was sweet seeing that smug look taken off Luke Rockhold's face.

[Evil Gringo 279]

Bisping alluded to the same thing Schaub did in his post fight interview before going out to the press conference.

 

He called out the fact that Henderson was on TRT when Bisping had never heard of it and then said of Vitor, "Vitor. don't even get me started on Vitor, but now look at it, level playing field and I'm on a five fight winning streak and the champion of the world."

 

Although, whilst Hendo may have been on TRT when they fought at 100 the fact is Bisping lost that fight because he kept circling, predictably, into the power side of Hendo and Rogan said several times on commentary that if Bisping didn't knock that out he would get knocked out... and he did

[Guest paidimartinez]

Although, whilst Hendo may have been on TRT when they fought at 100 the fact is Bisping lost that fight because he kept circling, predictably, into the power side of Hendo and Rogan said several times on commentary that if Bisping didn't knock that out he would get knocked out... and he did

 

He did the same against Wanderlei Silva. I'm pretty sure that before that fight the countdown show had Bisping watching the Hendo fight and critiquing himself for circling towards Hendo's right hand and then he proceeded to do the exact same thing against Silva.

[DC 536]

Ryan Bader's knockout of Ilir Latifi was brutally beautiful, while Arlovski v Barnett was a great fight.

[Guest paidimartinez]

Ryan Bader's knockout of Ilir Latifi was brutally beautiful, while Arlovski v Barnett was a great fight.

Yup, that Barnett Arlovski fight was a good watch. It'll be interesting to see what they do with the two of them next. Barnett could find himself in a title fight with another win given the way the heavyweight division is. They all just keep beating each other.

[Guest BurntMushroom]

I had a parlay on last weekends UFC. 4 out of 4 predictions right, only I predicted Uriah Hall would lose on points and he went and got knocked out in the first round. Losing me £224 on a £20 bet. :brickwall:

 

Bit of an early stoppage too.

[Guest paidimartinez]

I had a parlay on last weekends UFC. 4 out of 4 predictions right, only I predicted Uriah Hall would lose on points and he went and got knocked out in the first round. Losing me £224 on a £20 bet. :brickwall:

 

Bit of an early stoppage too.

Yup definitely early. Hall just can't seem to put a run together. Disaster for him that the Silva fight fell through.

[DC 536]

Uriah Hall must be the biggest drop-off disappointment based on Ultimate Fighter potential v UFC reality. Two absolutely brutal knockouts and a total-dominance (until the final) of the show and then *fart noises* all round.

[Guest paidimartinez]

Uriah Hall must be the biggest drop-off disappointment based on Ultimate Fighter potential v UFC reality. Two absolutely brutal knockouts and a total-dominance (until the final) of the show and then *fart noises* all round.

When the biggest knock on a guy is his mental state I don't know if he can really ever come good.

[DC 536]

Paul "Bearjew" Craig, who comes from my hometown of Airdrie, made his UFC debut and won via armbar submission in the 2nd round against (the previously undefeated) Luis Henrique da Silva.

 

CM Punk's conqueror Mickey Gall won via submission too.

[Evil Gringo 279]

So if you haven't seen UFC 207 yet, be prepared for a lot of decision matches going the distance until the main event. Then Ronda has a bit of a bad day... again.

 

Seriously I think this is it for her. She has lost two on the bounce, plateaued as a fighter and due to her public profile she has it seems spent more time either making movies, appearing on talk shows and talking about her relationship with Travis Browne then actually improving and training as a fighter. You have to question, with quite a bit of money in the bank (plus she got paid $3m for that that fight last night) - is her heart actually in it anymore?

[Guest Laffy]

When she was unbeaten was this because she had not come across these type of fighters before or is she just slowing down and does not care anymore. I only really know her from the Rock, wwe story line but loved the crowd yelling Rondas hoping to kill you. Can you throw fights in UFC or are they properly legit fights. I have never got into UFC and don't know the rules.

[Evil Gringo 279]

When Ronda came in to the game there was no other fighter you could argue at 135lbs who was fully pro AND had her background in fighting. She had been training to be a judoka since she fell out of her mothers womb, her mum was a world class judoka as well and due to her medal winning exploits at the Olympics she had money and sponsors that let her move into MMA full time with no other job to constrain her time wise and hamper her training.

 

What happened next was women who weren't as good as her because they couldn't train as much or been a martial artist for as long getting hip tossed, controlled and armbar, armbar, armbar. Ronda wins the 135lb title in Strikeforce and all of a sudden, with the UFC purchasing the company, Dana decides seen as he has Tate and Ronda he can do women's MMA. He has the rematch everyone wants to see in Tate v Ronda (Tate suffered a broken arm rather then tap out to Rousey), the sport has come along way and people will pay to see it so Dana White goes for it and goes all in on the Ronda bandwagon.

 

She carries on the same way, beating everyone, including Tate, but people start asking, can she do anything else other then armbar people? To be fair she knocks out a couple of people after that but she starts to stray away from what brought her to the dance whilst all the while the same coaching team she has had since day one tell her she is the greatest, Dana tells her she is the greatest, movie and TV offers come in as well as the whole Travis Browne relationship crap flaring up with him being a married man and all (or was at the time of them getting together) so you have a whole lot of smoke blowing, a whole lot of hype and a whole lot of not actually training to raise her game because she is either on set somewhere, doing promo work or believing she already has the skills to beat everyone.

 

Enter Holly Holm. She has won titles in pro boxing at Light Welterweight, Welterweight and Light Middleweight, a one point she was the unified Welterweight champion of the world. She also had extensive training in kicking boxing with three pro fights as well and people still believed that Ronda would kill her. But Ronda seemed distracted, she seemed tired (it was the first time anyone had completed three title defenses in a year within the UFC), all she had done is fight camps, fights and media work all year...

 

Holm came in fresh as a daisy and beat the living tar out of her, so bad she needed plastic surgery on her lips and teeth and kicked her so hard in the head with the knock out blow that Ronda required a six month medical layoff because she couldn't prove she hadn't suffered a brain injury. She literally rearranged her face and gave her brain damage, however temporary.

 

Since then Ronda has been recovering but still she was doing media, because she is a big star, planning a wedding if it is to be believed to Travis Browne, shooting the Road House remake where she is going to play Swayze's role (I know, WTF?!?!) and generally not seeming ready. In that time Tate beat Holm, Nunes, the current champ, beat the hell out of Tate and finally Ronda was cleared to return and was granted a $3m payout straight away with a title shot against Nunes. Who ate her alive.

 

See in the end there is a lot of factors. Ronda made people elevate their game and the women in the MMA world have done that. Not just Ronda but other early pioneers like Cat Zingano, Miesha Tate, Liz Carmouche and such have been passed by now by a younger and hungry generation who have benefited from the increased money, the increased facilitates and the rewards that Ronda's mainstream and UFC success has allowed them. Her success as well as making it easier for women to get into the sport also made her a target, when you are so dominant people will spend all of their time looking for ways to defeat you and find that allusive chink in the armor and now they have.

 

Not only that though but the amount of time Ronda now spends away from MMA is huge. Nunes spent all her time being ready for this fight as did Holm when she beat Ronda. Ronda however, unlike when she first started hasn't. When she first started she had her team and the desire to fight and that's it, MMA was her life. Now she is thinking of marriage, openly admitting she doesn't believe she will be fighting for long win, lose or draw, doing movies and TV - the laser like focus is gone and she has stagnated as a fighter allowing the others chasing her to catch up.

 

But the biggest factor was, she got beat and beat badly by Holm. Ronda has had lumps and bruises and cuts before, her style is mainly to wade through her opponents shots to land her own and then clinch for a takedown. But Holm crushed her, she had power where as no disrespect, very other women fighters at 135lbs (bar a select few) in the world don't. She had technique and let me tell you, Holm's boxing is better then 99% of the men on the UFC roster, let alone the women and when you add that to the power you see devastation. Ronda had never been defeated and on top of that she was murdered and she just never seemed the same afterwards. Part of her confidence was just crushed, her aura was gone and she has now partially stopped believing in herself and is scared of taking hits like those Holm dished out again - which is why once Nunes tagged her she just froze like a deer in the headlights and got mowed over.

 

Long answer I know but when it looks like the career of one of the most dominant Women's MMA fighters of all time could well be over... well it raises a lot of talking points.