Sunday, December 31, 2017

UFC 219 Hangover/Morning After Pill


Calling Cyborg featherweight champ having fought two non-featherweights feels.......eh. I dunno. It's hard to really support her reign as the greatest female fighter when basically she's fed on smaller fighters her entire career.
That's my thoughts on that and it's not going to change. Holm's gameplan involved circling directly into the power hand of her orthodox opponent. It also did no leg work or lead leg punishment in early rounds and so Cyborg dialed in her right hand by the later rounds and wasn't diminished from body punches or lead leg kicks. I'm not a high level coach, but after 4 years of muay thai, 2 years of amateur boxing, 5 mma bouts, and as a longtime student of the classic fighters in both boxing and muay thai, the gameplan I saw on display, frankly, left me a bit mystified. What was the actual gameplan to take away Cyborg's weapons? Obviously clinch to double underhooks and tie against the cage was one part. The forward strafe 4-5 punch combo with a kick ala Carlos Condit and other Jackson-Wink fighters was there, but from a strategic standpoint, I'm honestly curious what ring generalship they drilled and implemented in training camp. I was at a loss in the early rounds. You could say Cyborg cut her off and outfoxed her, but Holly's footwork from such a long boxing and kickboxing career makes this explanation feel implausible at best.
Anyhow, my main takeaway from the fight was simply the question as to what was the route to victory Holm and camp actually planned to implement? That being said, I think 2 judges scored it 48-47 showing it was indeed a close fight.

I can't say I'm honestly excited to see Cyborg continue to fight puffed up non-featherweights. It just feels disingenuous at best.

Khabib: I actually have to start by giving credit to Barboza because after that first round Khabib-centric shellacking, he prevented the death knell pieces of Khabib's ground and pound: he prevented the far side wrist control from locking in and he also denied Khabib from triangling his legs from top near the cage. This probably let Edson off the hook in terms of a finish. That being said, Edson was still dangerous at the close of the third round on his feet. I wouldn've liked to see a 4th and 5th round, if anything, to answer questions about Khabib's nutrition/weight cut and championship bout duration level preparedness, but I say this, a fight with him and Ferguson will be fireworks everywhere it takes place. Khabib does so much work so quickly when he puts a man down, and with the more likely 10-8 rounds being given out these days, he's banking serious numerical advantage even if it goes to a decision. He crushed Barboza on the scorecards. It was truly a great display of his combat-grappling acumen, and how quickly against the cage he can score with takedowns and simply dragging Barboza off the cage later after the first round beatdown. Earlier on the prelims, Tim Elliott beat a woefully unprepared opponent in their UFC Debut, but I like Elliott (have since he truly impressed me against Mighty Mouse) and these 3 fights alone made the event worth watching for me as we close out 2017. I've given the UFC a lot of heat for poor/uninspired event cards over the year at times, but this year was a blockbuster year of match-ups, titles changing hands, and truly was makes mixed martial arts great. That also being said, some critical match-ups fell apart due to injury but the UFC made lemonade out of lemons and the Fall was equally impressive for me as a fan as was the first half of the year. 

Thursday, December 28, 2017

Smith parts ways with Bellator

That half of the Bellator broadcast duo that looks similar to Rogan has left. Unfortunately that makes room for Mauro Ranallo. Le sigh. Now Goldberg who suddenly left the UFC will be partnered with my least favorite announcer, Ranallo. 

Gabi Garcia lowers the bar yet again

For those wondering why I clown her so hard:
Bruh. It's not enough ahe fighting someone my mom's age, she gotta come in 30 lbs over the already 40 lb advantage she should've had. 
Man, bullies. They real. 

Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Spyder 2018 Invitational Announced

Cyborg still meh about fighting her only legitimate challenge other than Holm

I've posted about it before. The only person in women's mma with less viable contenders than her is Gabi Garcia who is beating up women my mom's age with no professional fighting experience. Cyborg plays the I love Brazil card but Brazilian male fighters have fought one another for ages. Methinks it's more to do with her facing an actual striker with aggression who is younger than her. 
Much like Mighty Mouse complaining about profile fights then avoiding Dillashaw like the plague, the reasons just don't seem to hold much water. 

People Promising Khabib-ster Makes Weight

Fool me once, shame on you....
Fool me twice.....Well, find fingets crossed. In the era of guys failing to make weight, viral illnesses while cutting weight, kidney stones, and the claims of "I dunno what happened, the weight just stopped coming off" (code for you tried to cut too much weight too quickly), it's hard to blame fans for becoming doubting Thomases. We've been burned of high profile March-ups, title fights, and everything in between. Khabib sank
Major burgeoning plans with his weight cut fail last year, so we'd be remiss to not giving him the side eye as he nears another major fight over a year later with having not officially made weight in the interim. Anyhow, I'm really hoping to see this fight. I'm probs 50/50, because Khabib-ster's own dad (in the aftermath last year) said he may not fight much longer due to the strenuous weight cut, which seems strangely out of cut with what AKA coach seemed to say this week. We'll see. 

Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Best JiuJitsu Artwork on the IGram - ongy84

I

You'll pull guard too

Rivera Off UFC 219: Claims Moraes Reneged

Bummer. Moraes could've really leapfrogged to a near title shot inside of 6 months in the UFC. That being said, 2 fights and 2 weight cuts is a lot inside a month and likely, a third would've been ill advised. Fans are never big on saying you're down then not be (ask Kevin Casey who called for Gordon Ryan in Combat JiuJitsu Rules then backed out when King Ryan agreed). 
Anyhow, the end of year card is passable and frankly after the RDA/Lawler, Pettis/Poieir and Alvarez/Garethje cards, I'm well and beyond satisfied with the UFC's fall resume for 2017. And the card next week still has Khabib vs Barboza as the co-main. 

Sunday, December 24, 2017

When you miss weight and say everything but that you tried to cut too much weight...

It's refreshing to see a coach deflect criticism, because for years coaches get to reap the profile of winning fights yet take little flack when a fighter gets shellacked. Win as a team, lose as a team. Javier Mendez has stepped in to deflect heat as we all rightfully wonder if Khabib will blow his second big shot a year after blowing a HUGE opportunity and then we all heard had to recover for months from what happened. 
"The guy's body shut down and it was he weight cut but I mean it was kinda the eight cut but y'know things happen cutting weight and it's not really the weight cut but it also is...."

Saturday, December 23, 2017

2017 - The Year of the Flee: stalling, passivity, and disengagement in grappling in 2017

Watching ADCC and NoGi Worlds and various sundry superfights.....feel like we need a category for the best flee out of bounds in 2017. The lack of any meaningful physical content in numerous matches has gotten ridiculous. It's JiuJitsu....you must physically be in contact with your opponent to score points or submit. Watching guys flee out of bounds at NoGi Worlds even in the absence of heel hooks was the icing on the cupcake that was this year in disappointing match-ups. Some will call it bias because of where I train, but frankly, it's not. It's hard to justify the repeated disengagement and duration of time where one combatant is clearly not attempting to improve position or submit. Akin to the timer that had to be implement for double guard pulls, nogi competition will likely get a rule in effect if this trend continues. Who legitimately wants to see a professional level athlete shuck and jive and dance around on the periphery for the better part of 6-10 minutes. 

Friday, December 22, 2017

Wonderboy Unimpressed with RDA but wants to face him and not Till

Between Woodley and Wonderboy, it's like watching an MMA themed version of Step Brothers: to hear Woodley complain about RDA or Wonderboy dismiss RDA besting Lawler is laughable. Wonderboy had 10 rounds to beat Woodley and chose to spend the vast majority of it backing up. 



Monday, December 18, 2017

Woodley forgets you have to punch to KO people, claims he would have KO'd RDA

How I view Woodley's title reign:
Minus an errant round or two against Thompson, he's subjected us to 15 rounds of this: 
And 
I guess he rightly figures RDA will actually come forward into the line of fire, that being said, Maia also basically walked straight forward and Woodley set the new lowest record for punch output in a title fight. 


Sunday, December 17, 2017

Least punching-est fighter in two title fights unimpressed by RDA.

Bruh. Please. Most boring title fight ever title 2x in a row ever, Tyron Woodley everyone. Who does the guy wanna fight? He's pulling an Anderson Silva and just saying anyone up next sucks. Woodleys sucks man. Period. Has two of the most walking running jogging non fighting title fights ever and talks like he's God's gift to mma as a sport. 
Ain't no one clamoring to see you right buddy. 

Sunday, December 10, 2017

F2Win Pro - Healthy for the Sport

Minus the location chosen for the Brooklyn show, the event was a mix of top tier match-ups with local talent to bring out a crowd beyond just hardcore BJJ and grappling needs will hopefully keep it going. It's definitely different from a tournament. Feels much more like walking out to an mma fight than competing in some hot gym on a Saturday morning. Reminds me that we're in a golden age of the sport. Events every weekend, different promotions and rule sets. Pro level quality broadcasts every weekend on flograppling and other ppv options. YouTube alone is a huge resource for jiujitsu. It's hard to explain how much better things are for JiuJitsu resources nowadays to anyone starting JiuJitsu, and that I even had knowledgable instructors where I was living when I started JiuJitsu was fortuitous because not every area does. 

ACB JJ NoGi Grand Prix 60kg/95kg Results

Sunday, December 3, 2017

UFC 218 Post Event Hangover (and solid fights left to close out December folks...)

A night of several stoppages and despite my initially tepid thoughts on the card (had no reason to believe Aldo would be any more competitive this time than the last) honestly can't complain.

We have a new HW title fight lined up thanks to a crushing looping uppercut delivered to Alistair who saw his win streak carefully constructed over several close fights come crashing down.
Holloway poured it on with no leg kick deficient version of Aldo so as to suggest it was a fluke performance though not many doubted that the first time around.
Oliveira needs to fight at featherweight. Felder got a win over a Featherweight. Alvarez utilized a ton of body punches to wear down and stop the nigh unstoppable Gaethje (Alvarez also laid out the blue print for stopping Gaethje again). A big win for Alvarez because I think Gaethje beats a lot of guys you put in front of him frankly.

I've bagged on plenty of UFC events in the past and on lackluster cards. This card, the Shanghai card, the UFC 217 card, I mean, it's been a stupendous close to the year for the UFC. Despite belts in limbo and The Notorious being off having a kid and fighting Mayweather, the UFC delivered compelling match-ups and top notch events despite a very busy year of planned events. The injury bug actually cancelled two amazingly tantalizing events in the run up to the end of year with Cruz and Edgar out for the time being.

I have to just give credit where credit is due as a guy who is quick to complain when I feel a card is a sotfball toss up to simply fill programming: these past few months have had a very solid event each month. It was an insanely busy run up to the money fight, and a number of compelling Fall events as well as a UFC at MSG in which 3 UFC Belts changed and unprecedented three sets of hands.....and we still have Lawler vs Dos Anjos, Cyborg vs Holm, Cub Swanson, WSOF import Marlon Moraes, Lineker vs Rivera, the return of Carlos Condit....

Despite the most notorious member of the UFC being out of action the entire year essentially, the UFC brought a top notch product with compelling match-ups and has champions people want to see fight and are curious as to what comes next?

Stipe vs Ngannou
Conor vs Someone
GSP @ 185 or retire?
Ferguson vs Khabib?
Holloway vs ?
Cormier vs Oezdemir
Garbrandt rematch Cruz as a title eliminator?
Dillashaw catchweight with Mighty Mouse?

A lot on the line coming up folks.....

Saturday, December 2, 2017

Absolut Championship Berkut Dec 9th Event: 60kg and 95kg

Lot of diuretics being used for guys to make weight at this one. 60kg is tiny. I would struggle to make 60kg. Doubt I'll watch the whole event, prob catch a few key match-ups after the fact. Glad to see Laercio Fernandes and Milton Bastos and Hashimoto mixing it up. Easy to forget how many really good guys there are at black belt based on the short list of guys who have won worlds in the last decade. The Kasai Event is next weekend which will be streamed on flograppling. I've heard at the gym that VIP and the next to VIP sections have sold out. Big weekend for grappling all around. Glad there's a dearth of professional events to be had these days. Just a few years ago this was the dry season with not much going on until Pans and Worlds. Now we have EBi this weekend, and two high level events next weekend as well.