UFC 189

[skimread]

Anyone else going to watch it this weekend?

 

[TheTwo]

Where?

 

[skimread]

Where?

It's in Las Vegas. Going to watch in my bed on the my laptop. I am guessing the main 2 fights will be around 4:00-6:00 Sunday morning.

 

[OverKill69]

I'm watching... Sunday afternoon.
I was really looking forward to Aldo kicking McGregor in the panty.

Oh well... Mendes isn't baaaaaad, but Connor will beat him. Mendes is clean cut pure bred MMA from the ground up, which is fine against other pure wrestler/MMA fighters; however, Connor is so unorthodox! He's a phenomenal martial artist with more "natural" instincts and abilities. (also... I hate all Team Alpha Males, especially their cult leader)

My prediction: Connor in the third round by referee stopage - strikes

Lawler vs Mcdonald will be a friggen AWESOME fight! Flippen hell! Both are hellova tough! and both hit HARD! HOWEVER... anyone who can avoid getting knocked the FCK out by the bearded mountain man will survive against the angry Canadian kid. I don't give a fsk how much time he spends with GSP's penis in his mouth.

My prediction: 5 round decision, split, Lawler.

Never liked Bermudez, his hair is just silly... SO GO STEVENS!

Gunnar Nelson all the way

I like Pickett in a weird "Boondock Saints" kinda way... but 19-0 is nothing to skoff at. I will watch with interest (but secretly support Pickett)

Matt Brown - nuff said. WTF is he doing in the prelims anyway???? he was a contender a couple months back??? Losses to both former interim champs and you're off the main card??? Bit harsh no? Probably doesn't tickle Dana's balls like the others.

Never been a Swick fan, but he's legit. Gotta go with him.

Pendred... fluffer fight. Howard is past his sell by.

first fight... I dunno, I watched that Cody guy beat that Brimmage guy (who was heavily favourited), and I remember being impressed. Don't know the other guy.

I don't mind watching the littlies fight, but DAMN! I was so looking forward to Aldo vs McGregor. Who knows... maybe this fight will build the hype even more.

 

[skimread]

I'm only going to watch the 2 title fights. Both will be interesting. Rest of the fights I don't care about.

Don't agree with you that Mendes is the easier fight. Mcgregor has great standup but he isn't a wrestler.
The bookies had McGregor the favourite over Aldo. Once he got replaced by Mendes he wasn't the favourite anymore just because of the matchup.

I'm watching more for the spectacle. McGregor has the unbelievable belief in himself, so much I have never seen it in a professional athlete. It will be interesting to see what happens. If he wins it will make MMA much more popular.

 

[OverKill69]

The bookies are there to make money... Aldo was always going to beat McGregor IMO. So ppl betting heavily on McGregor would make them lotsa moola.
Them switching to Mendes as the dark horse favourite coming in late after Mcgregor's camp focusing on a stand up Aldo fight makes "bookie sense"... but make no mistake, Connor is a far superior fighter. He's able to make adjustments on the fly and IMO will dominate Mendes in the stand up HARD. His take down defense is waaaay better than he displayed in the Siva fight... hell... I'd even let Siva take me to the ground! Hahahaha!
Seriously though, Poirier couldn't take him to the ground and neither could Holloway.
You gotta understand that Connor is a very very very intelligent fighter, couple that with his unbelievable skills and you've got a winner.

In every single UFC fight where one of the headliners gets sidelined last minute the hype switches immediately to the replacement fighter. How else does one promote the fight? It happens time and time again. Forget the countdown material, think back to the fighter's past matches.
My money is on McGregor

 

[skimread]

Last fight Mendes vs McGregor about to start.

 

[skimread]

I'm surprised there is so little interest in MMA on this forum.

Anyway was two epic fights. Glad I watched it.

 

[Electric]

I'm surprised there is so little interest in MMA on this forum.

Anyway was two epic fights. Glad I watched it.

Those knees
Some great results and great fights.
I'm a bit disappointed by Rory Mc Donald but all in all it was good,.

 

[OverKill69]

Hoooooooo weeeeeeeeee

I haven't seen that much blood in a looooong time!
I've been a martial artist for over half my life and have watched pretty much every single UFC fight since 2009 and have gotten a feel for how these things work out.
The UFC builds fights up very very well. That is where the mysticism and magic resides.
Being able to feel out who will get the upper hand means watching each fighter's past performances and seeing where they fit in the world of fighting.
There's two sections if you ask me:
1) The superb athletes - The hard workers, the grinders, the guys who train so hard at every facet of MMA. They pair that with unparalleled stamina, fitness and preparation. Discipline in diet, training, recovery and work ethic.
2) The martial ARTIST - Guys who come in with a little something special. Difficult to quantify, difficult to describe fully... but the guys who have something that's a little different. Something you can't just train for.

Most UFC fighters are in category 1, and there are some amazing standouts. Frankie Edgar, GSP, Chris Weidman, Matt Hughs, Shogun, DC, Hendo.

Then you get the category 2 fighters:
Anderson Silva, Jon Jones, Anthony Pettis, Jose Aldo, Ronda Rowsey and... Connor McGregor.

Wondering who the next generation of stand outs are gonna be?
Watch out for:
Eric Silva - The guy is unbelievable talented, hungry and slightly insane.
Khabib unpronounceable Nurmagomedov - Why hasn't he gotten a title shot? Coz no-one can pronounce his name!!!!
Demian Maia at Welterweight... Shaky start at middleweight, but he's a contender at WW.
Jacare Souza - Don't mess with the crocodile! And a remarkable human being too!

That is why I am so excited about Aldo vs McGregor... they are BOTH incredible fighters with unmatched natural ability. The outcome of which I am genuinely interested in.
My heart wants to believe that it'll be close, but my head tells me Aldo will cruise through just like he always does.

 

[skimread]

Hoooooooo weeeeeeeeee
There's two sections if you ask me:
1) The superb athletes - The hard workers, the grinders, the guys who train so hard at every facet of MMA. They pair that with unparalleled stamina, fitness and preparation. Discipline in diet, training, recovery and work ethic.
2) The martial ARTIST - Guys who come in with a little something special. Difficult to quantify, difficult to describe fully... but the guys who have something that's a little different. Something you can't just train for.

Most UFC fighters are in category 1, and there are some amazing standouts. Frankie Edgar, GSP, Chris Weidman, Matt Hughs, Shogun, DC, Hendo.

You missed the most important part. McGregor mentioned it after his fight. There is nothing like a self-made man. Your team makes the man. That's where the Americans have a huge advantage. Your training partners are on your same level. Also with wrestling being part of school and college they already have a good MMA base to work from.

Look at how the South African mma fighters battle as soon as they try fight the guys on a higher level from overseas MMA camps. Ruan Potts was billed as a heavyweight with Jujitsu but during his fights in the UFC the commentators laughed at how bad his Jujitsu was. Potts never had the dayin day out training with fighters like the Americans have so he will never reach a competitive level. In his 3 fights he looked so out of place it was embarrassing.

Unless a South African is permanently based in those overseas fight camps, they will never make it to the top in the UFC.
Look at McGregors first two losses. He had work his arse off with world class coaches to where he is today.

 

[thestaggy]

I'm surprised there is so little interest in MMA on this forum.

Anyway was two epic fights. Glad I watched it.

I preferred it when it was legit mixed fighting styles and even a lack of structured weight divisions.

My uncle has videos from way back in the early 90s and there you got to see a full-blown boxer fight a Ninjitsu practitioner. Hell, even Sumo wrestlers got in on it.

[video=youtube;zuzImQo7cdg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuzImQo7cdg[/video]

 

[Batista]

Card of the year with possible fights of the year (Rory and Robbie). Man what a card!!! Going to have a rewatch tonight.

 

[Ridolfc]

The best fights where Lawler vs Macdonald and Bermudez vs Stephens. Macdonalds face was a mess and Lawler's lip. Holy crap. Those guys are tough.

 

[TheTwo]

I'm surprised there is so little interest in MMA on this forum.

Anyway was two epic fights. Glad I watched it.

There's a beeeg bodybuilding tshirt filling thread however

 

[OverKill69]

You missed the most important part. McGregor mentioned it after his fight. There is nothing like a self-made man. Your team makes the man. That's where the Americans have a huge advantage. Your training partners are on your same level. Also with wrestling being part of school and college they already have a good MMA base to work from.

Look at how the South African mma fighters battle as soon as they try fight the guys on a higher level from overseas MMA camps. Ruan Potts was billed as a heavyweight with Jujitsu but during his fights in the UFC the commentators laughed at how bad his Jujitsu was. Potts never had the dayin day out training with fighters like the Americans have so he will never reach a competitive level. In his 3 fights he looked so out of place it was embarrassing.

Unless a South African is permanently based in those overseas fight camps, they will never make it to the top in the UFC.
Look at McGregors first two losses. He had work his arse off with world class coaches to where he is today.

Yeah sorta maybe...
But I'm making the assumption off the bat that all the fighters are professionals with everything else in their training and retinue professional too.
If the team maketh the man, then why isn't everyone from "the best team in the world" the champion?
Why didn't Rory win being from Tri-star together with Greg Jackson and GSP... working with Dolce and and and.

All things being equal, all fighters having professional teams and professional people around them, they step into the cage alone.

As for South African fighters... well... there are a number of differences. And I like your Potts example. I used to follow the EFC closely (from the ringside) until Cairo and I had a difference of opinion.

Number 1) Sheer numbers. America has a much wider talent pool, with the added advantage of institutionalized wrestling culture. So a budding pre-MMA candidate can wrestle from the time they can walk at school and compete for YEARS before hitting a MMA gym.

Number 2) The UFC has legitimized the sport. To be a MMA fighter is a viable career in the USA where, if your talent allows, you can earn good money and concentrate on training and training alone. The more pro fighters there are, the more momentum the sport gains until it reaches a critical mass and VIOLA! you're a self-sustaining sport. The EFC has copied almost everything from the UFC except for this area. No medical cover, no support structure, no re-investment in feeder gyms and, probably the most important, fighters don't earn enough to warrant training full time. Before the beast can run on it's own steam, you have to feed it. You have to re-invest in the foundations of the sport and get more quality fighters into the mainstream. Unfortunately, the "if you build it they will come" way the EFC has approached South African MMA will take GENERATIONS before the level of fighters are up there with the international guys. And not just the US, take Australia, they started out roughly the same time as us with roughly the same population size and sport concentration (rugby, cricket etc), Australian MMA is light-years ahead of SA MMA.

Number 3) You could get a black belt in anything in 6 months or so if you went to a certain kind of gym/dojo/church. Too many experts and too few REAL masters. The legitimate guys know who they are and the dodgy guys don't tell you. With our nation's proud boxing pedigree, our contact sports pedigree and our cheaper beef prices we should be printing MMA contenders like a Star Trek replication station. Instead, our standards are many rungs lower than other UFC feeder nations.

Number 4) I've watched a lot of UFC fights. I can't remember seeing a self-confessed gun for hire in anyone's corner (besides maybe Steven Segal and Ken Shamrock - they're pretty dodge).
You speak of teams being responsible for good fighters? Well, we gots a ways to go. Too many egos in SA.

Coming back to Ruan Potts.
He ruled the SA heavyweight division, but got destroyed in his debut by 125Kg of Mauri rage and then got exposed and embarrassed by the other two fighters. He was a big shark in a small pond here, but in 'Merica, he was a minnow. It's a testament to the heavyweights in SA. But Soldierboy? Did okayish... i mean, he fought alright, didn't take much damage and held his own. Fight was close and he lost on points because, IMO, the occasion got away from him. I've seen him be plenty more aggressive here against Wade, (and I am definitely NOT a Soldierboy fan! FAAAAR from it). So the guys can do it! But do you leave SA where you are the top dog and go to the US and be less than average? At his stage in his career? At his age?

The MMA movement in SA has to send all it's best knights to camelot and they all have to sit around a round table and leave their egos with the horses. Maybe then we'll move up a few notches in line with the rest of the world

 

[TheTwo]

Very interesting read, agree with you fully on the Ego's of some of them I have met.

Unfortunately that ego is not proportionate to the level of skill