Probably Gus then Brock Lesnar, then who knows. Maybe someone emerges by then.

I can see why he doesn't want to go up and fight a Stipe, risk/reward just isn't there.

Bones/Reem would be a cool fight. Tough matchup for him. Reem's big weakness is his chin but Bones doesn't really have KO power with his punches.

Correct me if im wrong but didnt Anderson Silva have a run of fights where he was accused of coasting and not really looking to engage. Funnily I think it was vs Maia where he was even warned by the ref for his lack of action.

Yeah in 2010 Anderson was going to fight GSP in a superfight then he had that fight in Abu Dhabi vs Maia and he coasted (as well as acted bizarre)...Dana said afterwards he didn't deserve to fight GSP.

Then the Chael fight came next and people just kinda forgot about it.

Maia, Thales Leites, Patrick Cote

I remember that, and I have been mildly disappointed by Silva and gsp fights, but they were never to the point they were breaking inactivity records or that I wish they would never fight again. At this point the only possible draw I have to a Woodley fight is hoping someone gets him out of the picture by beating him. He has so many tools and uses them as little as possible. Anderson put on some insane displays of skill.

I mean it's just not a champion mentality even if it is a winner's mentality. Maia beat 7 in a row so he should be respectful, but if he is putting himself as a legend far above all the other 7 then he should have at least tried to knock him out, not edge him out. I honestly believe he could have ended that fight and if he did he would have added far more to his brand than another w. I'd rather watch cowboy vs gsp after last night even off the loss. If woodley went hard and failed I still would rather have seen him vs gsp than after that bs last night. It's really not that complex.

He trains with reem, don't think he wants to fight him & also the fact he trains with reem he understands that some hw's are just not good matchups for him. Before reem came to his camp he was willing to move up to hw, Reem basically made him rethink that.

A lot of Jones advantage is in being the bigger man. That's largely why fights where he hasn't looked the best: Gustaffson and OSP, were guys his size. The size disparity played directly into the ease at which he could land that kick, just like the true HW's who finished Hunt in the same fashion (size disparity): a Werdum knee, a JDS kick, a Reem knee.

Jones moving up to HW sees him prbly losing to the Stipe and JDS's of the world: 6'4 dudes with bulk and power.

Ok but what if he goes hard and fails and ends up losing?

Then he isn't fighting GSP and he may never fight for the title again. He is 35 and isn't a draw to begin with.

Kinda crazy to want him to embrace the variance during the mostly highly leveraged moment of his professional career, no?

Plenty of guys have played it safe to get the W in spots like that. Maybe not as safe as Woodley but pretty damn safe.

I understand that theory, but it doesn't play out as evidenced by the results. If he took more risk these last two fights he would have had a better shot of not only getting money fights now, but coming back after a loss to fight for the belt again. 35 is not that old in mma, but having the crowd chant boring and breaking inactivity records is not in line with using the leverage. Coast for rounds? Sure, everyone does it. Play some fights safe to secure the win? Yeah. It's not as binary as he claims tho. The risk vs reward is a spectrum and he took it to the very end and now will not get the reward he supposedly is after.

It's like people are conflating the value of winning a fight vs the value of being a draw. There is skill, intrigue and aspects to admire in the game plan he implimented but no ****ing drama.

I'd agree with you if Dana said he needed an impressive showing to fight GSP at MSG. But he didn't, he just said he needed a win.

They shouldn't have dangled that carrot infront of him. Once you do that, I think he deserves the fight.

Maybe if they didn't dangle it, then the fight plays out a lot differently.

If Dana said water was wet I would feel safe taking my iPhone in the pool. Reality is reality. Look at what jones said when he was taking about fighting stipe vs lesnar...there is not big money attached to the belt unless a big draw sees you as an easy mark or a valuable drawing opponent. Woodley has basically made himself as far from either of those as can be. Hard to beat, boring to watch, no draw, whatbis the ****ing upside he presents? Again, he basically is promising to out wit gsp with as little risk as possible to cement a legacy for himself that nobody else is buying into or rooting for him to own--greatest ww of all time. Just ****ing no.

Yeah, I get it.

I'm just willing to give him more of a pass until he is that tentative vs a more orthodox fighter. Maia and Thompson have both had a lot of boring fights over the years.

"Fight these two, look awesome doing it and then we'll give you big fights" is no easy task.

He put himself in this position, but he wasn't dealt the best hand for a champ either. He did KO Lawler in 45 seconds.

Woodley's defense last night was insane.

I'd rather see woodley gsp than ****ing bisping gsp. Maia's a tough fight to make interesting mostly because if it's interesting it's because you just got subbed. Dana's only point is that he had one eye so woodley was being overly cautious, but when you're the champ your job is to remain champ not entertain the fans. It's annoying to me that people want more of a WWE element to an actual sport. His takedown defense was impressive (though he grabbed the cage once to do so) but most people just want two people to beat the hell out of each other for your entertainment like it's a roman coliseum. It's a difficult balance to maintain. The paycheck isn't quite as good if you have exciting fights but never get the title cause you took too many unnecessary risks.

This is a valid pov but takes too many assumptions as fact. There is a lot between not trying to finish a fight against a fighter who you have neutralized a great deal of their one and only significant threat to a wwe match. Pretending that finding that fight or strategy completely devoid of drama and frankly very far from a real chess match unenjoyable means you just want to see rock em sockem is not true and only serves to add pretense to your position.

There is no way to know if woodley could have effectively put miaia away with more aggression at any point in the fight because he didn't try. At all. Even when it was by any measure a very small risk at the end of rounds or the fight. It worked but I still think he may have been safer to try to knock him out. The take downs were not counters by Maia. Nobody said he should have rushed in throwing haymakers.

A stellar defensive performance with enough strikes to score a unanimous decision never works in fighting. Nobody does it. Especially nobody fighting in the main event on Aug. 26th at the T-Mobile Arena live on Pay-Per-View, contact your local provider for ordering details.

It's not working for woodley sooooooooo....

Dana is the worst

Pinnacle putting up Bones -330 vs Brock, sounds right

Bones/Gus happens first though I think.

Dana is just super-emotional about fights. He either loves it or hates it. No middle with that guy. It makes him look like an idiot.

GSP was a lay-and-pray guy for a good chunk of his career but he kept getting main event cards. Mighty Mouse isn't a slugger either but isn't in danger of getting kicked out of MMA. So what if Woodley fights conservatively? He should against certain fighters. If he fought aggressively, everybody would be calling him an idiot for taking too many chances.

Best MMA/UFC books? Wanna read a few good ones. The Sheridan ones seem pretty good.

This is innacurate on several levels. Gsp played safe in many fights but he aggressively controlled fighters. When he neutralized someone's best weapon even when it reduced the excitement of the fight, i.e. Tying up bj to tire him and slow him down, he was never simply staying out of reach like a bullfighter with no sword for 5 rounds. He remained a draw because he used his tools. This was the least strikes thrown in any fight. People were chanting boring. He showed amazing tdd, truly elite, and then used zero other tools even when he was pretty safe. Mighty Mouse is an entirely different issue. He is way better than his competitors but he finishes a lot of fights in a dominant fashion. He is in the least exciting division vs maybe the most for woodley. He does lay and pray a bit, and guess what? He is being treated with the same disrespect by Dana because nobody cares to watch him fight so he is a terrible example.

He could have fought slightly more aggressively to recklessly or anywhere in between. It's not as if the only two choices he were to do what he did or take stupid risks with his eyes closed.

The thing is, he is making great decisions if taking low damage for health and longevity while compiling wins is his goal. He keeps saying he wants big money fights and a goat legacy. Those things are not obtained the way he fights. Cripes man, if Maia won and backpacked hos way to 5 title defenses by finishing every single one he still wouldn't be a draw. You just can't have it both ways. He doesn't think it be like it is, but it do.

Played safe is just a code phrase for being a boring fighter.

Holding somebody on the ground for 25 minutes is incredibly boring to watch. If MMA was just straight wrestling, then fine that's what the sport is about. But I want to see blood and watch people beat the piss out of each other. Holding a guy down so he can't escape is uninteresting. Dancing around the outside and potshotting your opponent is uninteresting. Fighters who do that are certainly talented and should be commended for their record but they're boring.

I think it's unfair to criticize somebody for being boring if it's their style. But it's also ridiculous for fighters with those styles to complain about not getting paid in a sport where you're paid to put on a good show, not just to win.

I think we agree. I guess what is most irritating about it for me is at least with lay and pray it is used to keep a striker neutralized. Someone who could end the fight with one blow or do significant damage if allowed even 30 seconds of square up. Maia was nearly no threat once the clock was at 30 seconds left. And even though he took everyone down previous Woodley had him hurt, tired was fresh himself and was stuffing him easier and easier as the fight went on and STILL played it like he was fighting a rattlesnake right up to the closing bell. I mean way to stick to a game plan and all but I'll happily read about it the next day.

No feedback on my Jones v HWs take?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E6TmsmuNBQ&t=1m7s