We live longer, it probably evens out somewhat

what is the douchiest thing I've heard today

I'm OK with 5'9 Connor fighting though.

That's as tall as I can take em in the UFC.

That's really interesting.

sorry your brain doesn't work good

I like what I like. I can't help it if tiny people fighting doesn't interest me.

Would love to watch someone like paul Harris or mighty mouse break your arm, Chilltown.

He's not a porn star tho

Why did you delete your post the other day?

Were you scared of people judging you?

If you support the beating of porn stars then you should I own with it.

And that's if you wear flats, amirite?

I didn't delete it mods did and I was banned.

Dave Meltzer reporting that UFC 189 is coming in at slightly less than initially reported, probably about 850K PPVs. Still a great showing from McGregor in a replacement fight. He also corroborated Dana White's comments that UFC 190 with Rousey is trending higher than 189.

Mendes on Bloody Elbow talking about the McGregor fight and the two week camp and injuries etc. I like Mendes and respect him and who knows, with a full camp maybe he can beat McGregor. Personally I don't think so but hopefully he gets another chance.

I just can't understand though how, by his own admission, he hadn't sparred once between the Lamas fight on April 4th and getting the call for the McGregor fight 12 weeks later. He did zero sparring in those 3 months and had nowhere near sufficient cardio? WTF was he doing? I respect him, but imo he doesn't deserve to be champion. I know Conor talks too much and disrespects opponents calling them bums and amateurs etc but after hearing Mendes I agree with Conor's talk. A pro who doesn't really train much at all for months on end? If you apparently want to be the best in the World but you don't work hard enough for it then it ain't gonna happen. Seems to me he didn't want it nearly as much as he thinks he did. McGregor wanted it more and works harder through the year irrespective of if a fight is upcoming or not. Maybe the rest of the UFC do need to do what he says and up their games. McGregor deserves it. Mendes needs to work harder.

I don't think 95% of fighters should be hard sparring when they don't have a fight scheduled. It just risks beating your body down, injuring you, etc.

BUT

If you're in the range of 'just below championship level' where you know you might get a call to step into a title fight, you absolutely should be. I am like 95% sure that Mendes wasn't surprised by Dana White's call to step in. When champs fight there's always a backup plan, especially for someone who gets injured as often as Jose Aldo does. Mendes had to know ahead of time that there's a chance he could be fighting then.

For that small class of fighters who are put 'on-notice' that they might step into to a title fight, you need to have constant vigilance basically.

Agreed. Knowing Aldo's record of not showing up, he certainly had to be sparring for at least 1 month before, maybe not hard hard sparring but certainly serious sparring and serious training from a week or two after the Lamas fight, that only lasted a few minutes and after which he hadn't a scratch. I mean, it's not as if he had anything to recover from. Man, there are amateurs working 40 hours per week in addition to training every day and running several marathons per year. Their cardio is topped up. As a pro athlete he has zero excuses for his cardio not being up to scratch. Seriously embarrassing.

I think he had to assume aldo's chances of backing out + his chances of being called up were close to 10%. That's enough of a reason to train super hard. I don't think TAM respected Conor's abilities...

apropos of nothing

I doubt there will ever be another fighter as awesome as Kazushi Sakuraba. I just fell down a youtube-rabbit-hole of watching old MMA footage, and I'm having a massive nostalgia attack. Sakuraba too amazing for words. I seriously can't imagine anyone ever again having his swagger and being as amazing as he was.

SAKU

Danny,

Who wins with Rousey v Floyd in a streetfight with both of them wearing shirts and no gloves?

I think Rhonda grabs him and trips him with obv Floyd catching her some % of the time.

I mean, Sakuraba basically started as a hail mary when a failing japanese pro-wrestling company put one of their workers into MMA fights to prove how 'legit' they were.

And then he stunned everyone by becoming the pound-for-pound best fighter in the sport, and one of the GOATs. And also probably the most charismatic/coolest guy in the sport at the same time. Think about how absurd that is. It's basically like the Lesnar storyline except x10 bigger/more important in the sport's history.

I became a fan of MMA at the tail end of PRIDE so I have to watch all that stuff already knowing the history. To experience it would've been amazing.

I actually became a fan watching a weekly PRIDE highlight/recap show with Glazer and Trigg and then went from there.

Did you see my post above your last one?

This is like the old 'immovable object vs irresistible force' debate imo.

Pure strikers cannot deal with world class grapplers who can get them down. It doesn't happen. We have so much evidence of this. On the other hand, women simply cannot compete with men physically. It doesn't happen. The gulf in fast-twitch reaction speed, strength, athleticism is too wide. So those two forces are going directly against one another.

It might depend on the nature of the fight. If this is 'Floyd coming in with a full, intelligent fight camp' I just can't see Ronda winning. Give Floyd a couple months to train strategy and work on his sprawl and clinch avoidance and he's going to dance around her easily. Dance around, avoid the clinch, and knock her out in 1-2 minutes tops when she rushes in all lol-style like she does. If Floyd's using the correct strategy I really don't think she can catch up to him to get a firm clinch, he's too elite of an athlete. Again, assuming optimally-trained-strategy Floyd.

On the other hand, if it's a 'street fight' and nobody has time to think, maybe Ronda does get him down. in the confusion of the moment, Floyd hesitates or whatever, and Ronda latches onto his shirt and drags him down. Once they're on the ground I gotta think she can latch onto an arm, and Floyd wouldn't have any clue how to defend it. She's very fast/ruthless at attacking those arms and doesn't wait around, and Floyd would leave them way out of position begging to get broken.

So yeah, I dunno. Optimal Floyd beats Optimal Ronda. In a messier fight, Ronda can win some % of the time.

sorry for the potato quality video. Only one I could find.

Gracie Hunter GOAT, basically what got me into MMA

My favorite Saku fight might be one that he lost. The loss to Igor Vovchanchyn.

This mother****er fights Royce Gracie for literally an hour and a half (six 15 minute rounds) before Gracie's corner throws in the towel and concedes defeat. This is back when Gracies in general and Royce in particular were still kinda thought of as magical, unbeatable monsters. Saku destroys the gracie mythos and beats Royce in this grueling match...

AND THEN ON THE SAME NIGHT IS TOTALLY DOWN TO FIGHT A 230 POUND HW MONSTER (sakuraba was 176 at the time. and flabby)

Igor V was a stone-cold killer, probably top 5 HW in the world at that time, 40-2-1 overall. And Sakuraba nearly beat him directly after fighting a 90 minute fight. It's hard to put into words how absurd that is. That's impossible. He was winning the first part of the fight until Igor turned the tide late. Judges called it a draw and declared the need for an extra round (PRIDE GOAT), and Saku couldn't continue. This is the first fight he ever lost.

Now i'm in full nostalgia mode. Looking at old Mark Coleman videos. Such a weird career he had. Only fighter I can think of to go from GOAT to becoming a nearly-total-bum to GOAT again. That never happens, but it happened to Coleman