thesportssoundoff

[thesportssoundoff]

Dana says a lot of fluff and blegh but one thing he said that holds a tremendous amount of concern for me (probably due to how right it is) is that gyms are going to likely look vastly different/crushed going forward. THAT of all things figures to hurt all combat sports going forward. We’ve got Abel Sanchez and other genuine top flight gyms talking about not being able to reopen their doors going forward. That’s a bad thing. 

Some other doodads from Dana’s interview with Brett Okamoto:

-They’re relaunching TUF on Fight Pass alone, it’ll start filming likely during the Summer. TUF will have “changes” to it. Meh?

-There WILL be a DWCS this Summer as well. That’ll be on ESPN.

-Andrade vs Rose is happening once they talk to Rose Namajunas and make sure she’s comfortable with fighting. Made it clear that if she’s not interested then “there’s plenty of time for fighting this year.”

-Joanne Calderwood vs Valentina Shevchenko is still the fight they’d like to put together. Both are in Vegas training. 

-No real date as of right now for Yan/Aldo, Costa/Adesanya and DC/Miocic but those are the fights they’re trying to put together. Said that chances are it’ll be happening in the Summer for Aldo/Yan and Costa/Adesanya. 

-RE: Jones/Ngannou, Dana doesn’t think that Jones wants to hang around at HW and go for the title and think it would lead to a guy like Dom Reyes being forced to wait.  Seems like instead what he wants to do is Reyes/Jones 2 or Jan/Jones.

-Said there’s a lot of drama at welterweight, primarily because every one of the key guys wants to fight Conor McGregor instead of each other. 

-There’s been no discussions with Conor about fighting. They want Conor to maybe go back down to 155 lbs. 

-Per Dana, Mike Tyson apparently IS fighting. It didn’t sound like he was involved in putting together but there’s some sort of a fight announcement coming soon.

[thesportssoundoff]

Some other doodads from Dana’s interview with Brett Okamoto:

-They’re relaunching TUF on Fight Pass alone, it’ll start filming likely during the Summer. TUF will have “changes” to it. Meh?

-There WILL be a DWCS this Summer as well. That’ll be on ESPN.

-Andrade vs Rose is happening once they talk to Rose Namajunas and make sure she’s comfortable with fighting. Made it clear that if she’s not interested then “there’s plenty of time for fighting this year.”

-Joanne Calderwood vs Valentina Shevchenko is still the fight they’d like to put together. Both are in Vegas training. 

-No real date as of right now for Yan/Aldo, Costa/Adesanya and DC/Miocic but those are the fights they’re trying to put together. Said that chances are it’ll be happening in the Summer for Aldo/Yan and Costa/Adesanya. 

-RE: Jones/Ngannou, Dana doesn’t think that Jones wants to hang around at HW and go for the title and think it would lead to a guy like Dom Reyes being forced to wait.  Seems like instead what he wants to do is Reyes/Jones 2 or Jan/Jones.

-Said there’s a lot of drama at welterweight, primarily because every one of the key guys wants to fight Conor McGregor instead of each other. 

-There’s been no discussions with Conor about fighting. They want Conor to maybe go back down to 155 lbs. 

-Per Dana, Mike Tyson apparently IS fighting. It didn’t sound like he was involved in putting together but there’s some sort of a fight announcement coming soon.

#MMA #UFC

[thesportssoundoff]

According to this, the final headliner for Fight Island’s July events run is a fuckin’ hell of a fight with Till vs Whittaker. 

#MMA #UFC

[thesportssoundoff]

I just keep thinking this is the sort of fight where McMann goes up 2-0 and finds a way to lose it in the 3rd. 

Got a favorite for Aspenn Ladd vs Sara McMann? @theanticool

[thesportssoundoff]

Got a favorite for Aspenn Ladd vs Sara McMann? @theanticool

#MMA #UFC

[thesportssoundoff]

I do think he’d wrestle with Jones because he’s kind of a dumb dumb fighter. 

I think it would’ve looked ended similarly. 

In hindsight, Rumble vs Jones ends pretty much how DC vs Rumble ended, right? Sort of dings the allure to it. 

[thesportssoundoff]

Shannon Briggs has a pretty interesting Tyson story about how a money mark was going to promote his (being Briggs’) return to boxing until dude met Mike Tyson and then Tyson led dude into believing they’d do business together and bounced.

Which is kind of hilarious. 

Mike Tyson really got every promoter to show their ass and then turned around and said “I’m going to go wrestle Chris Jericho w/ my best friends Rashad Evans, Henry Cejudo, and Rashad Evans”

[thesportssoundoff]

In hindsight, Rumble vs Jones ends pretty much how DC vs Rumble ended, right? Sort of dings the allure to it. 

#MMa #UFC

[thesportssoundoff]

Good timing since I was just writing a bit about Cruz (sorta kinda)!

I think the problem with Cruz is that I don’t necessarily know what Dominick Cruz is anymore. He’s fought once since the end of 2016, has had multiple surgeries and while his processor still seems to run really well, I’ve now seen him get rocked more in two fights than he did in ten fights prior. So much of Cruz’s run has been trying to make sense of what the brief glimpses of Dominick Cruz really mean. The last time he fought more than twice in a calendar year was in 2016. He’s crossing into the really dark side of 30 years old with multiple surgeries with arguably the highest fight IQ in the game. 

Honestly I’d like to see Cruz take a slight step backwards. Maybe somebody outside of the top 15 or somebody we know is good but on a bit of a streak. Cruz vs Dodson?

People getting title shots apparently

Jose Aldo - coming off back to back losses. Has 0 wins at BW.

People not getting title shots

Leon Edwards - 8 fight win streak

Aljamain Sterling - won 6 of his last 7, beaten 4 or 5 ranked opponents and a former champion

Marlon Moraes - has won 5 of last 6, beaten 4 ranked opponents and Jose Aldo

Cory Sandhagen - 5-0 in UFC with win over Assuncao, who beat Moraes and Sterling

Gotta love the UFC. “The best fight the best”

[thesportssoundoff]

Some recent Dana White UFC “suggestions”:

-They’ve got a fight set up for Weili Zhang but they haven’t announced it yet. My guess is either a Joanna rematch or Carla Esparza.

-Usman’s next opponent will be either Leon Edwards, Masvidal OR a Covington rematch. Two of those are acceptable IMO, one is not. 

-Ortega vs KZ in July with the winner facing Volk/Holloway winner is almost confirmed.

#MMA #UFC

[thesportssoundoff]

Just gonna ignore my guy Rashad right there too?!

Henry Cejudo enjoying retirement

[thesportssoundoff]

So one of the fights that didn’t make the list that I want to take a second to acknowledge is TJ Grant vs Benson Henderson from August of 2013. It’s crazy to think that at the time, the UFC was gearing up to do Pettis vs Aldo in Brazil and TJ Grant vs Bendo a bit later on in the month. The whole story from there on is pretty crazy.

Anthony Pettis pulled out of the Aldo fight due to a bad knee and then when the call came in to fight Bendo, he took the fight with a bad knee and subbed Benson Henderson in the first round. The fact Pettis fought Bendo despite being injured was the subject of plenty of controversy with some folks assuming that the UFC had pulled some sort of strings to get TJ Grant to step aside. There were folks who thought Grant had faked his concussion which given that he hasn’t fought and still suffers the effects of it to this day is pretty revolting. What I think is interesting is that at the time in 2013, even with Canadian MMA slowing down, there was no real concern that “slowing down” would turn into “destroyed and destitute” by the time Rory Mac became the man tasked with carrying the burden of a post GSP world. Even if I give him but a slim chance to beat Benson Henderson, it’s kind of crazy to play out a “What If?” scenario where TJ Grant is the guy who somehow ascended to the GSP mantle. 

Writing up a bit about 10 UFC fights that were scheduled but didn’t happen that could’ve altered history and why don’t we talk about the insanity of UFC 137 more? 

[thesportssoundoff]

They pulled Nick Diaz off of the card for missing a press conference on a tour and then by the end of th etour he was back on the card IN THE MAIN EVENT. Lord. Then the next month, Dana and company tried to force a FOX special out of the blue where JDS melted Cain in like a minute. We can joke about previous years but the UFC from September to December of 2011 saw like five PPV main events fall apart, three cash cows get wiped off the face of the planet for various reasons and Papy Abedy on a numbered main card. Those were the blurst of times. 

Writing up a bit about 10 UFC fights that were scheduled but didn’t happen that could’ve altered history and why don’t we talk about the insanity of UFC 137 more? 

[thesportssoundoff]

Look I’m empathetic to the UFC (and other orgs) trying to juggle a lot of these different things all at once in trying times. I lost my job because of this pandemic and I’m wholly happy that people from fighters to freelance photographers to refs down the line are making some money currently. I’m welcome to the distraction, no matter how uncomfortable I am with it on a grander sense. I’m aware my stance on this is somewhat in the minority but I welcome folks to have their own feelings. I didn’t watch any of the last three cards live due to that uncomfortable vibe but even a few days later, I truly do appreciate the brief glimpses of normalcy an MMA event (or any sporting event) brings back to my life. 

I just wish we had left weird matchmaking off at the doorstep of March 2020. 

#MMA #UFC

[thesportssoundoff]

GSP vs Diaz with BJ Penn vs Condit turned to GSP vs Condit with BJ and Diaz off the card which turned to Condit vs Diaz briefly for a minute before turning to Diaz vs BJ Penn finally with Condi vs Diaz like four months later. 

Writing up a bit about 10 UFC fights that were scheduled but didn’t happen that could’ve altered history and why don’t we talk about the insanity of UFC 137 more? 

[thesportssoundoff]

I would’ve gone with Yan vs Moraes personally, had Sandhagen vs Sterling as a #1 contender fight and given Aldo the winner of Assuncao vs Garbrandt. I think that lines you up neater. 

People getting title shots apparently

Jose Aldo - coming off back to back losses. Has 0 wins at BW.

People not getting title shots

Leon Edwards - 8 fight win streak

Aljamain Sterling - won 6 of his last 7, beaten 4 or 5 ranked opponents and a former champion

Marlon Moraes - has won 5 of last 6, beaten 4 ranked opponents and Jose Aldo

Cory Sandhagen - 5-0 in UFC with win over Assuncao, who beat Moraes and Sterling

Gotta love the UFC. “The best fight the best”

[thesportssoundoff]

“ If it doesn’t sell, who cares?”

If the UFC gets bonused for cards over 300K buys (or 500K or so on) then Masvidal vs Usman > Masvidal vs Edwards. IF!

The Aldo thing just reeks of stubbornness. They took a lot of shit booking him vs Cejudo and admitting fault is not something the heads of this org (or any org I suppose) wants to do. 

People getting title shots apparently

Jose Aldo - coming off back to back losses. Has 0 wins at BW.

People not getting title shots

Leon Edwards - 8 fight win streak

Aljamain Sterling - won 6 of his last 7, beaten 4 or 5 ranked opponents and a former champion

Marlon Moraes - has won 5 of last 6, beaten 4 ranked opponents and Jose Aldo

Cory Sandhagen - 5-0 in UFC with win over Assuncao, who beat Moraes and Sterling

Gotta love the UFC. “The best fight the best”