Darn was revisiting GSP's fights yesterday and then his interviews on Joe Rogan and one comment that stood out IMMENSELY, was GSP's desire to comeback from retirement to challenge Khabib!!! Of course, none of this ever came close to materializing, but would GSP vs Khabib be the all-time greatest potential fight??? Madlex, what do you opine?

Ige may have lost. But he’s been appointed to lead Hawaii against Satan.

That’s a win in my book

Lolled at this comment

In my book he also won the fight but I can see how people give Mitchell round 2 because you can argue that was *effective* grappling over the last 2 minutes. Round 1 I don't understand how you can score that for Mitchell but 6 out 18 scorecards on mmadecisions had it for Bryce so Junichiro Kamijo wasn't alone on that one.

The post fight interview was hilarious. Bisping tried really hard until the person on his ear piece finally told him to GTFO.

If GSP had come out of retirement to fight Khabib in 2019 at 170lbs that would have at least been the most anticipated fight of all time. Everybody training/grappling with GSP over the years says that he stayed in incredible shape. He looked good vs. Bisping in 2017 but that obviously wasn't someone on his level. Crazy to think that GSP retired 10 years ago (minus Bisping)

No idea if GSP vs. Khabib would have been a better fight than GSP vs. Anderson Silva or Anderson Silva vs. Jon Jones. Both of them didn't materialize because the smaller guy didn't want to fight the bigger guy. Khabib fought at 170 before his time in the UFC and was huge for a lightweight. So I think that fight would have been relatively even in size.

Now we're going to see Stipe vs. Jones. Imagine that fight happening 5 years ago instead of Stipe vs. DC. Good chance that turns out like Mayweather vs. Pacquiao that everyone wanted to see for years and when it finally happened one of the guys was so far away from his prime that the result was just sad.

Stipe vs Jones being Main Event and Jiri vs Pereira Co-main. Can't imagine anyone in the world being more excited for the main than the co-main

Stipe vs Jones is the biggest UFC fight since McGregor vs Poirier 3 over 2 years ago.

In case anyone wonders about how big Conor is: UFC and USADA end their partnership at the end of the year because USADA was unwilling to waive the 6-month wait period after re-entering the testing pool.

Islam - Volk
Usman - Khamzat

Now for 294.

I'm personally more interested in the card now.

Not sure if it's just me, but the Oliveira fight was so one-sided last time (from recollection) that I had no interest in seeing it again.

At least Volk went the distance and there's an argument that he won the fight.

Second fight on the main card fell through, too. Imamov apparently has visa issues (again) and has been replaced by Warlley Alves to fight Aliskerov.

In theory I also prefer Islam vs. Volk but not if the latter has no camp and basically comes in to collect a huge paycheck. No idea what the UFC (or Abu Dhabi) is paying him but it must be substantial. Certainly not in PPV points because it's a 2PM ET / 11AM PT card on a college football Saturday. No idea why they even bother to have an official replacement fighter (Mateusz Gamrot) if they don't use him.

The Khamzat - Costa situation is pretty whatever. From the beginning nobody thought that fight was actually happening. The question was just who would pull out (most people had Costa) and how long before fight day. Khamzat - Usman now just means that the winner will probably get a middleweight title shot without ever facing an actual middleweight fighter in the UFC. Usman has lost two in a row and the Khamzat hype train derailed a while ago when Dana White said it's not that people are ducking him but that he refuses the fights they offer him.

Now that Conor is cleared to headline UFC 300, I wonder which champions will defend their belts as his co-main event and featured bout?

Is Volk just showing up for a paycheck? Wouldn't think he would need/want to do that given his legacy but everything I've heard sounds like he just hopped on a plane and is ready to fight.

Will be interesting

Russians dominating so far today except for the NC.

Walker did seem a bit out of it.

Should have been a DQ? Ankalaev surely knows the rules.

Usman looks tiny compared to Chimaev.

10-8 round there.

I'd score the fight 29-27 to Chimaev. I feel like he looks a bit less invincible.

This day has been super boring.

yeah Chimaev should've looked more impressive against Usman just showing up for a paycheck

Chimaev/Strickland? Du Plesis is just out of the picture?

Actually thought Kamaru looked pretty good considering how gun-shy he was against Leon Edwards in their second fight. Kamaru should probably stay at welterweight, he looks big in that division and tiny as a middleweight.

I guess the money fight would have been Dricus vs Adesanya but Adesanya claims to be taking a break. Dricus probably out for a year with his elbow so maybe another title fight will happen before his return.

oh I didn't know Dricus was out for a year with the elbow

yeah damn, then looks like Chimaev/Strickland makes sense


Chimaev just doesn't seem right mentally to handle the grind of MMA, he seems like he's either gonna be a great frontrunner or fade

DDP just not really interesting without the Izzy race angle. Can picture him fighting Cannonier next. Khamzat fights for the belt next. It's up to Strickland to decide if it's against him or someone else.

The huge size advantage was the main reason why Khamzat went into the fight somewhere around -360. Size-wise that fight reminded me of Blachowicz vs. Adesanya. If Usman throws maybe 5 more significant strikes in R3 I would have scored it 28-28. Khamzat didn't do anything with the TD in that round.

FWIW, when Costa dropped out, they wanted to put Strickland in for the title. He refused and probably got lucky that Olivera dropped out of the main event and not Islam. If it had been Olivera vs. Volk for vacant or interim title, that one might have slipped down to co-main event with Khamzat vs. whoever for an interim title. After Strickland didn't want the fight they offered it to Cannonier who said he was injured. So it slipped down to Usman who did it for the big paycheck. If Usman had 3 month to prepare for that fight he might have won even at 185. But moving up on short notice which means you're just cutting a little less is just brutal.

I don't know if it's a year, but he had the fight in July and then said he's got to get surgery.

Factoring in recovery time, then getting back into fighting shape. Maybe 9 months / a year?
before he's going to want his title shot.

oof...that was a lot more dominant than their first fight.

I thought he would have been available for a title shot in the Fall? I think they just passed him over because he refused to fight Izzy. Doubt he's getting a shot without another fight unless he waits on the sidelines until the UFC is in need for someone to step up.

Main event went as expected. Volk came in, got his very big check and goes back home.

Absolutely terrible card. Feel bad for everyone who paid money for that.

I haven't tracked his return that close. Maybe fall is possible.

Did he refuse to fight Adesanya? I thought Dricus was up for it but wanted to get the surgery. Then Adesanya had the Strickland fight and the rest is history.

Russians basically dominated the card. I don't think the locals were too upset with the result. Maybe a bit longer fights and the NC a bit of a let down.

Izzy was going to defend on that Sydney PPV card no matter what. The whole event was built around him fighting in Australia. Without Adesanya they would have had to cancel the event or turn it into a fight night.

They offered the fight to the winner of Du Plessis vs. Whittaker and when the former said he wouldn't be ready at that date they went with Strickland. That pissed Dana White off and IIRC he said something to the effect of they don't like fighters who turn down title shots and that if that happens they have to go back to the end of the line.

We'll have to see when Strickland vs. Khamzat is going to happen but if Chimaev really can't travel to the US that's going to limit their options to an international PPV.

I know Usman doesn't really have a ton else to do unless he wants to get back in line at WW, but gotta think UFC pays these guys pretty good to be fill-ins when the cards fall apart. Usman/Volk are pretty big names that I would think would have some money to where they didn't really need to do that.

Chimaev will probably be favored over Strickland by a decent amount I'd think, until the hype train derails.

No idea how much money Usman has but considering how little those guys make while working through the ranks in the MMA world, a seven figure payday for two weeks of work should still be significant for him. He also saves all the regular training camp money that comes out of the fighters pockets.

His manager said in an interview that he called Usman with the offer and was asked if they would take of him financially. When the answer was yes he was game.

Pretty sure he'll be favored but not by a crazy amount. Khamzat had two fights now that went the 3 round distance. Both times he came out with guns blazing and when he failed to get the early stoppage he had to take the full second round off and looked questionable in the third. If Strickland's (maybe underrated?) TDD holds, I can see him basically jabbing away for 5 rounds like he did vs. Adesanya. For someone who everyone claims he trains 24/7, Khamzat's cardio again looked highly questionable today.