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thesportssoundoff · 4 years

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“A bittersweet ESPN Fight Night” UFC Rozenstruik vs Overeem Preview

Joey

December 1st

It's been an "interesting" experience on ESPN, one with plenty of ups and downs and roundabouts but we come to an end on December 7th withwith a finale card for ESPN from DC. It's a good card on paper but one that a) has been besieged by injuries and b) overshadowed by some truly heartbreaking circumstances. It's headlined by a heavyweight fight pitting Alistair Overeem in the midst of his 3rd (fourth?) renaissance run taking on rising HW Jair Rozenstruik. Underneath that we have a bevy of solid women's fights that have also been somewhat shaken by injuries as Cynthia Calvillo faces solid Brazilian striker Marina Rodriguez in the co-main event with Aspen Ladd vs Yana Kunitskaya settled in underneath that. After that we've got some great fights at bantamweight, a few fights at HW and MW and then some action filler. It's not the worst card in the world and it's got some merit especially if you're in the midst of this rather gross MMA drought we got goin' on.

Fights: 12

Debuts: Billy Quarantillo, Jacob Kilburn, Joe Solecki

Fight Changes/Injury Cancellations: (Claudia Gadelha OUT, Mariana Rodriguez IN vs Cynthia Calvillo/Walt Harris OUT, Jair Rozenstruik IN vs Alistair Overeem/Courtney Casey OUT, Mallory Martin IN vs Virna Jandiroba/Carlos Condit vs Mickey Gall CANCELLED/Chris Fishgold OUT, Jacob Kilburn IN vs Billy Quarantillo/Alonzo Menifield OUT, Makhmud Muradov IN vs Trevor Smith)

Headliners (fighters who have either main evented or co-main evented shows in the UFC): 8 (Alistair Overeem, Cynthia Calvillo, Ben Rothwell, Aspen Ladd, Yana Kunitskaya, Stefan Struve, Ricky Simon, Thiago Alves)

Fighters On Losing Streaks in the UFC: Ben Rothwell, Trevor Smith

Fighters On Winning Streaks in the UFC: Alistair Overeem, Cynthia Calvillo, Marina Rodriguez,Yana Kunitskaya, Song Yadong, Bryce Mitchell, Jair Rozenstruik

Main Card Record Since Jan 1st 2017 (in the UFC): 34-15-1

Alistair Overeem- 4-2 Jair Rozenstruik- 3-0 Cynthia Calvillo- 5-1 Marina Rodriguez- 2-0-1 Aspen Ladd- 3-1 Yana Kunitskaya- 2-1 Stefan Struve- 1-3 Ben Rothwell- 0-2 Rob Font- 3-2 Ricky Simon- 3-1 Cody Stamman- 4-1 Song Yadong- 4-0

Fights By Weight Class (yearly number here):

Women’s Strawweight- 2 (30) Heavyweight- 2 (39) Bantamweight- 2 (57) Featherweight- 2 (59) Women’s Bantamweight- 1 (21) Middleweight- 1 (47) Welterweight- 1 (73) Lightweight- 1 (75)

Light Heavyweight- (44) Women’s Flyweight- (33) Flyweight- (15) Women’s Featherweight- (8)

2019 Number Tracker

Debuting Fighters (40-62-1)- Billy Quarantillo, Jacob Kilburn, Joe Solecki

Short Notice Fighters (32-41-1)- Marina Rodriguez, Jair Rozenstruik, Mallory Martin, Jacob Kilburn, Makhmud Muradov, Virna Jandiroba

Second Fight (56-40)- Makhmud Muradov, Virna Jandiroba

Cage Corrosion (Fighters who have not fought within a year of the date of the fight) (23-40-1)-

Undefeated Fighters (42-40-2)- Bryce Mitchell, Marina Rodriguez, Jair Rozenstruik

Fighters with at least four fights in the UFC with 0 wins over competition still in the organization (12-9)- Tim Means, Matt Wiman, Trevor Smith

Weight Class Jumpers (Fighters competing outside of the weight class of their last fight even if they’re returning BACK to their “normal weight class”) (33-26)-

Twelve Precious Ponderings

1- First and foremost, this is the saddest main event in UFC history. Jair Rozenstruik is fighting in place of Walt Harris who right at the peak of his UFC run was forced to step away and endure a situation you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy. As much fun as we may poke at Walt Harris the fighter for some of the sillier moments in MMA that are attached to his name (a six fight non fight series with Mark Godbeer, fighting Werdum on two hours notice, his first UFC run), professionally speaking he had finally begun to put everything together and was on a 5-1 run that really should've been a 5-0 streak if you remove a fight vs Fabricio Werdum that he took on a days notice to help save the card. That doesn't even account for his other loss being a silly DQ loss where he clearly fouled Mark Godbeer during a break in rather controversial fashion. It's sad on a professional level but heartbreaking on a personal one as Harris pulled out of this fight due to the then disappearance (now confirmed murder) of his stepdaughter. What Walt Harris and his family are going through currently pales in comparison to anything fight related and is truly one of the worst things a human being has to endure. Walt Harris put his fighting career on hold as his personal life crumbled around him through no fault of his own and that is tragic. As intrigued as I am by this main event, it's the epitome of "With a heavy heart" because in a just, fair and loving world this is Walt Harris going for the biggest win of his career. Rest in peace Aniah Blanchard and may the Harris family find the strength to get through this trying time.

2- Is Alistair Overeem essentially blocked off from the title picture? Let's say Overeem beats Jair Rozenstruik and does it impressively. That's now three wins in a row. Normally three wins in a row at HW gets you a title fight but ahead of him in terms of contenders you have Curtis Blaydes (beat Overeem), Ngannou (almost killed Overeem), Volkov (likely fighting Ngannou) and DC (this would've been a hell of a fight 2-3 years ago). Derrick Lewis is about to be tied up in an utterly meaningless fight and OVereem probably beats or HAS beaten everybody behind him. As such---what's really his place in the division? Is he the official Keith Jardine/Kenny Florian/Mark Munoz gatekeeper to the title shot who never gets the title shot?

3- Had this discussion a few weeks ago but is Alistair Overeem a top 5 HW of all time?

4- Why are allowing Aspen Ladd to fight at 135 lbs? It just feels needless.

5- A lot has been made about the lack of contenders for Amanda Nunes but I think we can have a genuine conversation about Yana Kunitskaya taking none of those spots if she can beat Aspen Ladd. Kunitskaya with three straight wins over the likes of Lina Lansberg, Marion Reneau and Aspen Ladd would probably at worst put her in a #1 contender fight if not directly into being Nunes' next opponent. With Amanda Nunes basically being a better Mighty Mouse in terms of name value, it's not like you need to be a big name to get a fight.

6- Tim Means vs Thiago Alves in 2019, eh? Fine. You guys do you.

7- The same should be said for this rather blegh Ben Rothwell vs Stefan Struve fight. Rothwell has not been the same guy since coming back from his USADA suspension and Stefan Struve really should've gone through with his retirement.

8- Is this too much too soon for Song Yadong? To this point, Yadong's fought guys ranging from fun but limited (Bharat Kandare) to established quality veterans lacking a defining trait (Felipe Arantes and Alejandro Perez). Alejandro Perez was a fine but safe step up since Perez's defining traits (consistent workrate, a solid kicking game at range) weren't going to do much against Yadong unless we were all wrong about him. Outside of a blip here or there, Yadong has passed every test but Stamman is IMO a genuine top 10 bantamweight who brings high level strength with him. We've seen that Yadong does some of his best work in tight but we've never seen him have to wrestle with a strong compact wrestler type. Stamman is also probably the most polished fighter Yadong has ever faced in his time in the UFC with experience against elite dudes like Aljamain Sterling. This is a really good fight and perhaps a bridge too far for China's best male fighter in the UFC.

9- Matt Wiman's long awaited return to the UFC was about what you'd expect for a dude who basically missed out on the rise of the athlete/real sports era of the UFC. Wiman looked woefully out of his depth vs Luis Pena and while he didn't humiliate himself in terms of heart, it was certainly not one of the highlight reels. Wiman is back and taking on debuting fighter Joe Salecki in yet another "old school UFC LW vs DWCS guy" fight. Perhaps Wiman can get some good vibes after Joe Lauzon boxed up Jonathan Pearce and had one of the cooler moments of 2019 in his out of nowhere win. Remember debuting fighters have bad numbers in 2019!

10- Cynthia Calvillo vs Claudia Gadelha was on paper a tremendous fight with plenty to discuss but Marina Rodriguez vs Cynthia Calvillo feels like one of those weird throwback style clashes. Rodriguez is a fantastic muay thai striker with good movement who cuts a frenetic pace. On the other hand, Cynthia Calvillo eats up this kind of fighter with her grappling and quick takedowns. Rodriguez allowed Randa Markos to spend 10 minutes taking her down at will. As such, I get the feeling things are about to go real bad for Rodriguez unless her takedown defense has grown overnight.

11- Ricky Simon is subjecting us to more Urijah Faber fights so let's just say that I hope he has a great performance to make up for that.

12- Should there be a limit to the number of DWCS guys on one sole card?

#MMA #UFC #Rozenstruik #Overeem #fights #Rothwell #Struve

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pain-in-the-aspen-blog · 4 years

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🤡QAURINTINE WEIGHT LOSS🤡

Right so, my name is Aspen! This is probably my 5th account on tumblr as all the other ones have been banned cause, if you've found my account or ur in the ed community, you know being terminated is basically a monthly thing. I once had an account with 6k followers! Having a community based on my posts was really nice... it was all that kept me going sometimes. That was a really long time ago, though. So uh, if you'd like to help me rebuild please reblog this!

Either way, I've decided to see how much I can lose before qaurintine is over. I dont know when it will end so it's kind of fun !

Stats

Cw- 196.5lbs

Ugw- 90~95lbs

Lw- 113lbs

#thinspii #thinsppi #anamia #thinspo #ana

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opsikpro · 4 years

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VA – Jackin’ House Selections, Vol. 11 / LW Recordings

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Jackin’ House Selections, Vol. 11 VA

LABEL: LW Recordings GENRE: Jackin House RELEASED: 2019-12-30 DOWNLOAD SIZE:: 354,24 MB

TRACKS 25

Agua Sin Gas; Antoine Clamaran – Good Vibration (Milty Evans & Brian Boncher Remix) 05:55 125bpm/

aspen bizarre disco – Superstar (Original Mix) 06:22 126bpm/

CCO – Welcome To Catania (Original Mix) 07:30 120bpm/

Dirty Old Boyz– Future French 82…

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feyroon · 8 months

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just occurred to me that I don't think i ever shared this lovely (very cropped lol) commission i got from @arcandoria of Charon and my lone wanderer Aspen <: thank you again!! i still can't get over how warm and soft the lighting and the whole mood of the piece is

#daydreaming about them always #commissioned by me #lw aspen #charon x aspen #charon fo3 #charon x lone wanderer

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thesportssoundoff · 5 years

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“There’s stuff here, you just gotta look for it.” The UFC Fight Night From Rochester Preview

Joey

May 12th, 2019

A rather blegh month of May continues onward with a rather blegh fight night out in Rochester! If we're being 100% honest, this is absolutely not a bad card. It's got a bevy of action fights on the card, some pretty intriguing main card fights and a potential barometer for how yet another top 10 LW can do sans a killer weight cut in the main event. If WMMA is your thing then you've got fights at both bantamweight AND the first official featherweight fight of the year on the card. There's even some old dudes slopping it out in the mid life crisis division 205 lbs if you're that kinda dude. It's not a bad show in the slightest; it's just a filler show. It's the sort of show where you hope for it to be a) quick enough that it doesn't take up too much of your time and b) violent enough that the time it does take up isn't wasted.

Fights: 13

Debuts: Austin Hubbard, Felicia Spencer, Charles Jourdain, Michel Pereira

Fight Changes/Injury Cancellations: 1 (Elizeu Zaleski vs Neil Magny CANCELLED)

Headliners (fighters who have either main evented or co-main evented shows in the UFC): 6 (Neil Magny, Kevin Lee, Rafael Dos Anjos, Zak Cummings, Charles Oliveira, Patrick Cummins)

Fighters On Losing Streaks in the UFC: 4 (Rafael Dos Anjos, Julian Erosa, Patrick Cummins, Ed Herman)

Fighters On Winning Streaks in the UFC: 6 (Will Lentz, Charles Oliveira, Vicente Luque, Davi Ramos, Mike Trizano, Trevin Giles)

Main Card Record Since Jan 1st 2017 (in the UFC): 31-11

Rafael Dos Anjos- 3-2 Kevin Lee- 3-2 Neil Magny- 2-2 Vicente Luque- 4-1 Aspen Ladd- 2-0 Sijara Eubanks- 2-0 Ian Heinisch- 1-0 Antonio Carlos Junior- 3-0 Charles Oliveira- 5-1 Nik Lentz- 3-2 Davi Ramos- 3-1 Austin Hubbard- 0-0

Fights By Weight Class (yearly number here):

Welterweight- 3 (32) Lightweight- 3 (33) Middleweight- 2 (17) Featherweight- 2 (23) Women’s Bantamweight- 1 (6) Light Heavyweight- 1 (18) Women's Featherweight- 1 (1)

Women’s Strawweight- (12) Women’s Flyweight- (14) Bantamweight- (24) Heavyweight- (15) Flyweight- (7)

2019’s Records We Keepin’ Track Of:

Debuting Fighters (13-31): Austin Hubbard, Felicia Spencer, Charles Jourdain, Michel Pereira

Short Notice Fighters (14-17):

Second Fight (33-7): Grant Dawson, Ian Heinisch

Cage Corrosion (Fighters who have not fought within a year of the date of the fight) (10-20): Trevin Giles, Antonio Carlos Junior

Undefeated Fighters (17-22): Trevin Giles, Aspen Ladd, Felicia Spencer, Mike Trizano

Fighters with at least four fights in the UFC with 0 wins over competition still in the organization (6-7): Ed Herman

Weight Class Jumpers (Fighters competing outside of the weight class of their last fight even if they’re returning BACK to their “normal weight class”) (14-10): Kevin Lee, Sijara Eubanks, Mike Trizano

Twelve Precarious Ponderings

1- So dig this, this is the THIRD card in a row with a women's bantamweight fight on it. To find the last time you had three straight cards with women's bantamweight fights? You have to go back to late February of 2018 when the UFC had three bantamweight fights from February 18th to March 3rd. Maybe this will spark some life back into an otherwise sleepy dormant division. March 3rd by the by was the last time the UFC had a featherweight AND a bantamweight fight on the same card as well.

2- Keeping with women's featherwieght, is this going to actually be a thing? We don't get a lot of non-Cyborg fights at 145 lbs and even less non Holly Holm fights so this Felicia Spencer vs Megan Anderson fight should have a bit more interest behind it. It would be easy to look at the planned Cyborg (rumored to be in late July) and Anderson fights as just wrapping up some contracts and going through some details but the UFC has apparently been signing a few 145ers on the sly and Anderson has mentioned there's a bit of a commitment to keeping up with the division. Dana White has also said that they're actually going to TRY to rematch Cyborg vs Nunes depending on whether they can get a longer commitment from Cyborg so if you're a fan of women's featherweight, there does seem to be something resembling a commitment. I just have my doubts about how committed they are to the commitment.

3- It's not the 165 lb class he's been clamoring for but we are FINALLY going to see Kevin Lee trickle up in weight with a potential long term move to 170 lbs. By this point, the story of Kevin Lee's career has been pretty easy to figure out. He starts out quick, puts out a tremendous pace early and then his lack of defensive chops and his questionable cardio lead to collapses in big fights. Kevin Lee is a high quality front runner but maybe that's just due to the beast of his weight cut. Perhaps more than any division, there IS a track record of being able to go from 155 lbs to 170 lbs without losing much of your game as evidenced by Rafael Dos Anjos, Benson Henderson, Donald Cerrone and most recently Anthony Pettis. Let's see if Lee can fit into that mold.

4- What's interesting (or perhaps even fun) with this fight is that both guys are sort of kind of the type of fighter that the other guy hates to see across from them. Both hate pressure fighters to varying degrees; RDA hates the sort of guy who can pressure him and make him fight the kind of fight where consistent takedown attempts and top control force him to get taken out of what he wants to do (which is also use pressure and consistent takedown attempts to set up his striking). Kevin Lee hates THAT kind of guy; the sort of versatile, all three phases threat that doesn't get tired and will force him to back up. If he can't take you down then he's going to tire himself out attempting to take you down and as such, an RDA type who can stifle 99% of fighters against the cage is the worst possible outcome for Kevin Lee. It's a compelling fight on paper that could figure to be a pretty dull one over the course of 25 minutes.

5- Was anybody calling for an Aspen Ladd vs Sijara Eubanks rematch? Or Lentz vs Oliveira 3 for that matter?

6- There's an under the radar tie in between this main event and the Pettis-Wonderboy fight; both of these fights came together due to Santiago Ponzinibbio. Ponz turned down Wonderboy which opened the door for Pettis to get the fight and the UFC yanked Ponz from the running for the RDA fight due to him backing out from the Wonderboy fight.

7- Neil Magny was originally scheduled to fight a violent under the radar Brazilian who can win fights on the ground or standing up and whose only losses have been to his style of fighting. He is now scheduled to fight a violent under the radar Brazilian who can win fights on the ground or standing up and whose only losses have been to his style of fighting. Dread It. Run From It. Destiny Still Arrives.

8- What do we make of Charles Oliveira at this point? I mean the run he's on at 155 lbs has to be considered a real thing, yeah? Wins over Jim Miller, David Teymur and Clay Guida are all absolutely legitimate and the way he's winning these fights is cause to believe that he might actually be making the turn from fun finisher to potential top 10 lightweight. He's still not even 30 yet despite having over 35 pro fights and holding the UFC submissions record. I kinda don't think we're going to learn anything vs Nik Lentz but for a guy who has been accused in the past of wilting under pressure and looking for an easy way out of fights, this figures to be at least something to keep an eye on. At the very least Oliveira is turning into a must watch can't miss attraction at his new weight class.

9- Julio Arce vs Julian Erosa is buried on this card as the show opener which is a mistake because on paper it's better than about 8 fights ahead of it. Erosa is more than likely going to find himself in a similar niche to Kurt Holobaugh; guys who really are better suited for testing fighters trying to get into the UFC than anything they could do inside of the org themselves. That said he was a fine test for Grant Dawson in his last fight and I get the feeling that Erosa is going to give the hittable yet insanely good Arce a fine test. Watching Julio Arce on offense is a masterpiece and even coming off a tough loss to Sheymon Moraes, he more than had his moments in a bloody violent back and forth fight. This will be worth your time if you get there early.

10- Charles Jourdain is making a relatively short-ish notice call up to the UFC but he's a really solid Canadian out of TKO. Another dude a la Marc Andre-Barriault who maybe isn't quite UFC ready yet but figures to be intriguing as long as he's around. Unfortunately for him, I just can't think of a worse challenge to face in my debut ON short notice than a guy like Des Green.

11- I don't know what I am to expect out of Michel Perreira vs Danny Roberts other than to let folks know it'll be a madhouse.

12- Patrick Cummins vs Ed Herman. No me gusta.

#MMA #UFC #RDA #Kevin Lee #Rochester #Fight Night #Sijara Eubanks #Charles Oliveira #Nik Lentz #Neil Magny

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thesportssoundoff · 6 years

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“Do I need to even?” UFC 229 Preview

Joey

September 30th

Oh boy oh boy. We've somehow someway made it here and I feel like we deserve some credit here. If you've survived 90% of 2018 then you've earned this one. If you survived UFC 228, UFC 224, the messy FS1 cards ravaged by injury and waking up early for Asian FP cards? You've earned this one. We've got a very solid card with matching lightweight fights of the highest quality. The co-main event pits Anthony Pettis vs the returning Tony Ferguson in one of the best LW fights you could put together for action quality while the main event is the best fight. Period. Conor McGregor is truly underrated at this point in his career; a dominant fighter who has one blemish on his record which he avenged. He is a genuine two weight class champion (lack of defenses be damned) with wins over the likes of Chad Mendes, Jose Aldo, Max Holloway, Eddie Alvarez and Dustin Poirier. Khabib Nurmagomedov's resume speaks for itself; undefeated in the UFC expanding beyond six years now with wins over some really good competition in Michael Johnson, Al Iaquinta and Edson Barboza. It's the striker vs grappler match up and the man with the one hitter quitter vs an endless torrent of takedowns and ground and pound. There's very few fights ever I'm as excited about as this one. Those two fights on their own? Pretty good. The rest of the card? Pretty decent actually! The UFC absolutely took perhaps a step too many in loading up this show. Being honest, the sixth best fight on this card (Michelle Waterson vs Felice Herrig) could've headlined the Moncton FS1 show. Let's just have a damn good time here and enjoy THIS one for once.

Debuts: Jalin Turner

Fight Changes/Injury Cancellations: 0

Headliners (fighters who have either main evented or co-main evented shows in the UFC): 13 (Conor McGregor, Tony Ferguson, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Anthony Pettis, Felice Herrig, Michelle Waterson, Ovince St. Preux, Alexander Volkov, Gray Maynard, Derrick Lewis, Sergio Pettis, Yana Kunitskaya, Ryan LaFlare)

Fighters On Losing Streaks in the UFC:

Fighters On Winning Streaks in the UFC: (Conor McGregor, Tony Ferguson, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Derrick Lewis, Sean O'Malley, Alexander Volkov, Vicente Luque, Jussier Formiga, Jose Quinonez, Scott Holtzman, Alan Patrick)

Main Card Record Since Jan 1st 2016 (in the UFC): 37-13

Conor McGregor- 2-1 Khabib Nurmagomedov- 4-0 Tony Ferguson- 3-0 Anthony Pettis- 3-4 Ovince St. Preux- 5-4 Dominick Reyes- 3-0 Derrick Lewis- 7-1 (!) Alexander Volkov- 4-0 Michelle Waterson- 2-2 Felice Herrig- 4-1

Divisional Breakdown:

Lightweight- 4 Women's bantamweight- 2 Welterweight- 2 Bantamweight- 1 (?) Women's strawweight- 1 Flyweight- 1 Heavyweight-1 Light Heavyweight- 1

Too Low- Vicente Luque vs Jalin Turner

Most of this card is honestly fine and I get why Michelle Waterson is on the main card. Having said that, I think that fight is a bit too....blegh (on paper) for a show like this. I'd use Waterson vs Herrig to try and draw some eyeballs to this FS1 slate and instead push a guaranteed burner in Turner vs Luque. Vicente Luque has finished every one of his wins and he's taken decision losses vs stalling wrestler types. At the same time, Jalin Turner had some of the freakiest striking chops on the second DWTCS run. This should be a superb striking battle.

Too High Up- Aspen Ladd vs Tanya Evinger

Ehhh......I don't know if this is going to be a fight worthy of having on FS1. Ladd still seems really raw and we haven't seen Evinger in over a year in a lopsided loss vs Cyborg. This is Fight Pass quality. Waterson vs Herrig on the PPV isn't great shakes BUT both have fan bases that will probably-ish tune in. Probably. Not that this card should NEED any of that.

Stat Monitor for 2018:

Debuting Fighters (Current number: 27-32-1): Jalin Turner

Short Notice Fighters (Current number: 26-19):

Second Fight (Current number: 34-27): Aspen Ladd, Tonya Evinger, Yanit Kunitskaya

Cage Corrosion (Current number: 19-28): Conor McGregor, Gray Maynard, Tonya Evinger (If this show happens a day later, Tony Ferguson)

Undefeated Fighters (Current number: 26-21-1): Khabib Nurmagomedov Aspen Ladd, Dominick Reyes

Keeping An Eye On But Not Really:

The UFC Win Check Test The records of fighters who have 4 or more UFC fights (or three full calendar years in the organization) but 0 wins against people still in the UFC:

Twenty Precarious Ponderings

(We're doing TWENTY for a show like this, y'all. In truth, I just wanted to talk more and more about Khabib and Conor)

1- I just don't have enough time or energy to detail ALL of the intricacies of this lightweight title fight. The simplistic view is "wrestler vs striker" but that belittles the things both guys do so so so so well that in turn makes them special. Has Khabib Nurmagomedov ever faced a guy with Conor's length and timing? Even if we acknowledge that Conor McGregor is basically a one armed fighter (Conor's left hand is the best singular weapon in MMA), he has not just insane timing on it but the ability to throw it whenever he wants. One of the concepts of baseball is that "He throws hard!" eventually isn't enough and you need something off-speed to shake it off. Conor's different in that he can probably throw his left from any angle with any sort of heat and any sort of pacing offset by his kicks and his jab. Conversely Khabib "as a wrestler" is just a really unfair attempt to simplify a very good all around fighter. His control is A+, he threatens with submissions enough to keep fighters honest on the ground and he has a tremendous understanding of chaining attempts together with different techniques. How often do you see Khabib Nurmagomedov get stuck (look at Eryk Anders vs Thiago Santos) or forced to make a bad shot (look at some of Josh Koscheck's prime for desperation TDs)? On the feet, Khabib doesn't have a wealth of weaponry but he has a good jab and dude just seems to hit hard.

2- One of the things AntiCool speaks of so much that I truly believe in is fighters being unwilling to concede a single measure in fights where they need to pull off the upset. He uses Alexander Gustafsson vs Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier as good examples of a fighter who doesn't give up any avenue of the fight where they felt they couldn't win. The reason I bring this up is because I genuinely believe Conor McGregor is ballsy enough to believe he can absolutely if he has to compete with Khabib on the ground. I bet he believes that even if it's not the gameplan.

3- Jose Aldo and Khabib have some similarities in their dominance. Both were so neutralizing that they completely shut down fighters at the base of their respective games and forced them to adapt, often times doing that while basically sleepwalking through fights. That said, they also are similar in their relative levels of inactivity heading into the Conor fights. Conor McGregor and Khabib fought on the same card in 2016 and since that point? Khabib's fought just twice. Not exactly blazing a track of activity probably compounded by Khabib taking time off for Ramadan. Also both Aldo and Khabib were known as cold calculated fighters who were surgical but never emotional. That changed vs McGregor for Aldo----soooo is Khabib going to come out emotional?

4- What are the odds of a double retirement after this fight?

5- Does this PPV find a way to crack the 2 million buy mark?

6- One of the weirder thing is how assured we are of Khabib's dominance while also acknowledging how so-so his resume is overall. We've seen Conor's resume at 145 lbs and while his resume at 155 lbs is thin, it IS worth noting that he dominated Eddie Alvarez in his one foray there. Conversely Khabib's resume is really just two guys unless you take a ton out of the Al Iaquinta fight (it didn't show me anything about him from a skills POV but it showed me everything I need to know about his mental toughness as an athlete). There's a lot more we need to know about Khabib than there is to figure out about Conor.

7- Tony Ferguson is one of my favorite fighters and in a lot of ways, the El Cucuy stuff writes itself. Tony Ferguson (like Yoel Romero and the Diaz Brothers) has this unique borderline inhuman ability to outweird the world's weirdest spot. He lives the weirdest life, chases the weirdest thrills and could only exist in a sport like this one. Ferguson's 2017 was a mess; a complete collapse of a fight with Khabib, an eventual interim title win vs Kevin Lee leading to a 2018 where a blown out knee seemed set to rob him of his 2018. Because he's Tony Ferguson, he's out here fighting Anthony Pettis in October. Whether Ferguson can still do the things that made him special (be funky, awkward, outhustle dudes in key positions, challenge with submissions from any situation, throw a variety of kicks from any situation) after a bad knee injury and another year on the wrong side of 30 remains to be seen. I'm left to hope so since a winning Tony Ferguson is a fun Tony Ferguson.

8- Anthony Pettis has been pretty bad for the majority of the last three years but perhaps things are going to turn around now. Pettis' second round win over Michael Chiesa felt like a combination of some of the best of Anthony Pettis (quick counter striking, aggressive and opportunistic grappling) with some of his worst of Anthony Pettis. The road has been rough for Showtime but we're talking about a Tony Ferguson who is coming off a knee surgery and pushing 35. If there was EVER a chance for Anthony Pettis to figure this out, THIS is the guy to do it against.

9- Could Pettis beating Ferguson jump him over the winner of Nate/Poirier?

10- I know some of my fellas on here might disagree with the idea of OSP vs Dominick Reyes but at this point, I'm with it. There's not a long list of guys at 205 lbs who can act as the buffer between "proven to be good" and "ready to be great" so it falls on OSP. Reyes is arguably the most unique prospect at 205 lbs and this is without question an aggressive step up. It is worth pointing out that OSP was losing before he won vs Tyson Pedro and so they might be gambling on a decline. For me, I'm mostly concerned that Reyes is going to be shellshocked by the difference in strength between he and OSP.

11- Speaking of too soon, allow me to present to you Aspen Ladd vs Tonya Evinger!

12- I feel as though a big problem with Michelle Waterson is her inability to handle strength at the POA vs bigger fighters, a natural issue since everyone at 115 lbs is bigger tha her. Not sure why the idea of her vs Felice Herrig seemed appealing to the UFC. I could not think of a WORSE match up for her.

13- Dude let's talk right quick about Anthony Pettis' last ten fights including T-Ferg:

Tony Ferguson Michael Chiesa Dustin Poirier Jim Miller Max Holloway Charles Oliveira Edson Barboza Eddie Alvarez Rafael Dos Anjos Gilbert Melendez

I mean the WORST fighter in that grouping is who? Gil Melendez? I think we could argue Gil is at least average right? Oliveira and Chiesa are solid fighters and Barboza is a great kickboxer at least. Jim Miller?

14- Kudos to Gray Maynard still out here being relevant after being written off as cooked back in 2013. Your fav could never.

15- Even if it's just an exciting throw together brawl? Vicente Luque vs Jalin Turner is going to be exceptionally violent.

16- Is Aspen Ladd our best chance at finding a relevant exciting new 135 lber?

17- Very few divisions ever truly need an interim title---but this Volkov vs Lewis fight COULD have been an interim title fight. Put it this way, DC vs Brock is scheduled tentatively for post February 2019, right? What's the likelihood that the winner of that fight fights again? Brock probably dips out, DC probably retires and so then you're left with....anybody? This card doesn't need a second card BUT if the UFC title picture is in a messy state of being in 2019, we could just go and look back at this fight.

18- Sergio Pettis vs Jussier Formiga was a title contender fight then Cejudo went and ruined everything for them. It's still a fantastic fight at a division that's got some juice in it and I for one am excited to see if Pettis can put together what he did well against a prolific spoiler in Formiga.

19- You can't tell me this is the first time Nik Lentz and Gray Maynard have fought one another. I refuse to buy into such a lie.

20- It's been a long time since we've had a fight like THIS. Not since July of 2017 if you wanna stretch it that far with DC vs Jones II. Enjoy this. These are special moments.

#MMA #UFC #UFC 229 #McGregor #Khabib #Tony Ferguson #Anthony Pettis #Volkov #Lewis

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thesportssoundoff · 7 years

Text

“A Finale With A Killer Headliner” TUF Redemption Finale Preview

Joey

July 3rd

The month of August is pretty lean for high level MMA so you better enjoy this July we've got coming! With a Bellator card, some PFL stuff and five UFC events (Dana White Tuesday Night Contenders Series notwithstanding), it's a pretty busy month where quality meets quantity. The first show comes through from Las Vegas with a snazzy TUF Redemption season finale. Compared to some of the other TUF Finales? This one is okay I guess. Comparing it to the last four July TUF Finales, it's probably on the lower end of shows. 2014 had BJ Penn vs Frankie Edgar and an at the time very solid undercard with guys like Derrick Lewis, Scoggins vs Dustin Ortiz and Kevin Lee on the prelims. Also there were two at the time great finale fights with Van Buren/Anderson and Lima/Gordon. In 2015, it was a relatively blegh card I suppose with Wonderboy at the helm. 2016 was an awesome card with Joanna Champion vs Claudia Gadelha at the tippy top plus the debut of Will Brooks and so on so forth. This year is probably on par with 2014 but above ‘15 and well below ‘16.

Fights: 11 (as of right now with maybe two more to be added)

Debuts: 1 (Aspen Ladd)

Fight Changes/Injury Cancellations: 1 (Amanda Ribas out/Tecia Torres in vs Juliana Lima)

Headliners (fighters who have either main evented or co-main evented shows in the UFC): 6 (Brad Tavares, Michael Johnson, Tecia Torres, Jessica Eye, CB Dollaway, Gray Maynard)

Fighters On Losing Streaks in the UFC: (CB Dollaway, Jessica Eye)

Fighters On Winning Streaks in the UFC: (Steve Bosse, Elias Theodorou)

Stat Monitor for 2017:

Debuting Fighters (Current number: 16-18)- Justin Gaethje, Aspen Ladd

Short Notice Fighters (Current number: 10-17)- Tecia Torres

Second Fight (Current number: 19-18)- Drakkar Klose

Cage Corrosion (Current Numbers: 2-2)- Steve Bosse, CB Dollaway,

*Going to give this a test run of sorts. How do fighters who have taken more than a year of perform in their first fight back?*

Twelve Precarious Ponderings

1- Of all the fights on these two shows, Michael Johnson vs Justin Gaethje is the fight that I'd argue is the MOST Must See fight of the weekend. Justin Gathje is joining the UFC's deepest division and he's entirely unique as a fighter. Think of a guy who has Tony Ferguson's level of activity combined with Conor McGregor's ability to adapt as the fight goes on with a prime Diego Sanchez level recuperative level. His ability to go to the body when he pressures against the fence is absolutely perfect and he's going to rack up plenty of body shot KOs in time. Justin Gaethje has taken a ton of damage over the past 3-4 years, a guy who has never had an easy fight and whose initial output and activity level put him in the way of danger consistently. That makes for an intriguing match up with Michael Johnson given how Johnson has the ability to toast dudes out the gate with his hand speed and versatility on his feet. Sometimes you forget that Michael Johnson's quality of competition is so vast; guys like Tony Ferguson, Beneil Dariush, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Nate Diaz, Joe Lauzon and Edson Barboza. If you look at the kind of guys that Johnson has struggled with, Gaethje IS that kind of guy. We're talking about somebody who amplifies the pressure with each passing minute, can take advantage of the lulls and inactivity Johnson uses to time himself down the stretch and somebody who will earn his respect right off the bat with his power. So yeah, I'm 100% in love with this fight.

2- TUF isn't going anywhere and next season features the female 125ers. I know it's not something of note anymore but I still get a major kick out of learning who the coaches for the next TUF season is. They normally get announced during the TUF shows so here's hoping we learn something on the show about it. I'd be totally down with two retired fighters taking the opportunity to coach TUF for the banter to avoid a champion getting tied up in TUF again. Give me Renzo Gracie vs Mark Coleman or Dan Severn vs Don Frye. Let Rampage and Rashad coach again and then retire vs one another.

3- So by all accounts, this season of TUF was a moderate success. The ratings have gone up and if you watch the show, the fights haven't been too awful with some of them actually being really, really good. I don't necessarily expect anybody to stick around, mind you, but chances are we're going to get 1-2 guys added to the roster. So how many fighters from the show will be on the Finale? We've got the final (James Krause or someone else/Jesse Taylor vs Dhiego Lima) plus potentially an open spot on the prelims (likely semi finalist vs semi finalist). Could they squeeze a third fight on the Fight Pass prelims? I mean I think it's possible if you really liked the season. You can do Ramsey Nijem vs Hayder Hassan or something similar to that if need be.

4- I wonder if Michael Johnson pulls off the upset over Justin Gaethje if the UFC would get froggy about sliding Johnson into Khabib's spot in this upcoming interim title fight. Khabib is expected to fight in September or October but can you trust booking thast fight a third time?

5- Angela Hill vs Ashley Yoder is on the FS1 prelims; Tecia Torres vs Juliana Lima is on the Fight Pass prelims. Given the interest in Tecia Torres, at least at the start of this 115 lb project, you'd assume it'd be the other way around. Unfortunately Torres has fallen by the wayside because her fights are just not up to the par of the other ladies at strawweight. Angela Hill vs Ashley Yoder at least has big wacky action potential with Hill probably chasing a finish in the process.

6- Brad Tavares vs Elias Theodorou is arguably the most frustrating UFC fight you're going to see this year. Tavares has the key components to be a MW title contender; the ability to strike, grapple and wrestle with most guys. Maybe he's just protecting a suspect chin but he seems SO cautious almost to the point of brilliant inactivity. For Theodorou, he's a phenomenal grappler but his wrestling is labored almost to the point of absurdity and his striking hasn't developed beyond some range finding kicks. Both guys SHOULD be better and yet here we are. Oi.

7- So if Drakkar Klose beats Marc Diakiese is going to be the new Bryan Barberena style prospect killer?

8- Jordan Johnson vs Marcel Fortuna is interesting to put it mildly. Both are early 30s LHWs in a division where that's worth its weight in gold. Jordan Johnson was dominant in his wrestling vs Henrique Da Silva while Marcel Fortuna went up to HW and KO'd Anthony Hamilton in really impressive fashion. It's a shame that two new faces in a division that hungers for new faces are pitted against one another but hey! All's well that ends well, right?

9- If Jessica Eye loses vs Aspen Ladd, will they release her or is she earmarked for 125 lbs?

10- How have CB Dolloway and Ed Herman lived in the same division for like 15 years and never fought before?

11- Gray Maynard vs Teruto Ishihara is interesting if you're looking to try some new things for both guys. Maynard hasn't been the same guy who gave Frankie Edgar hell for quite some time and Ishihara had quite a few flaws exposed in his fight vs Artem Lobov. Maynard's just got enough of that mythical "vet savvy" to give Ishihara problems and there's no doubt that he's got the power to hurt him.

12- So about this Marc Diakiese vs Drakkar Klose fight. It's a really intriguing fight on paper given how despite all of his skills, Diakiese hasn't had to face a lot of complex challenges in the UFC. His toughest opponent was Frankie Perez who was coming off a tryist with retirement. Now granted it's not like Perez was gone for four years but it's still realistic to have questions about a guy who steps away from the sport. In that fight, Diakiese had his first flirtation with trouble when he took on Perez but he passed all tests with flying colors by adapting and then dominating the fight when he had to make changes. We're talking composed and comfortable in the face of trouble. Curious to see how he deals with the length and tenacity of Klose who is a smart pressure fighter off the regional circuit.

Must Win

1- Justin Gaethje

The UFC has had mixed success in WSOF champion signings. For every Arlovski and Rumble, UFC guys who found themselves in WSOF, you have Jessica Aguilar and others. Marlon Moraes has been an interesting addition to the UFC but his first fight was surely a dud in more ways than one. Gaethje has the ability to be a perennial top 10 LW with action fights galore. The question is did they get him as a broken man?

2- Michael Johnson

Lightweight is not a division where you can stomach two L’s in a row. As it deepens, guys like Michael Johnson are always at risk of falling behind. This is a winnable matchup for him but I have no idea if he’s up for it.

3- Marc Diakiese

This is easy enough. The most hyped European prospect in the UFC needs to win and there’s no if’s ands or buts about it.

Five Underlying Themes

1- Any chance we get some finality towards the upcoming TUF Flyweight season?

2- How will the UFC handle the TUF Redemption winner? I think most fans will or have come to the conclusion that these guys won't last long either way but this is still a great accomplishment for these guys.

3- If James Krause wins the show, is this season a failure?

4- How they hype Marc Diakiese coming off three impressive UFC wins.

5- Can Todd Grisham find his sea legs as a commentator.

#MMA #UFC #Fight Night #Gaethje #Johnson #Tecia Torres #Brad Tavares

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