2024 MMA General Discussion and Fight Announcements
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MMC
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MMC
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MMC
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“Don’t you dare illegally watch the UFC but I pirated BKFC last weekend”
MMC
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MMC
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Apparently Umar vs Song is heading the Tampa FN in December. Interesting fight but a strange booking after they seemed to really be pushing for Umar to fight for the title next. Guess they are indeed giving Sean the rematch
MMC
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16Skippy
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- Sep 12, 2009
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What makes you say Umar wouldn't say no? It's a step down from Sandhagen.
MMC
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Because he's been saying if he can't get the title shot in January/February he wants a different opponent so he can stay active
MMC
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Rich coming from the guy who handed Colby title shot after title shot on a silver platter
Genuinely hate that he is doing this btw, ruins the integrity of the sport. Makes it more like WWE than an actual sport when you’re influencing fighters game plans
Taytro
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At the end of the day it's a business before it's a sport, it's the entertainment business. If Ankalaev fights Rakic the way that he fought Błachowicz, then why on earth would Dana give him a shot? It's a horrible business decision.
Ankalaev is coming off one win in over two years, with one no contest and one horribly fought draw in his interim title fight. He has virtually no hype behind him after his last few performances, all his previous wins have fallen out of the top 5 in the division. Dana has a huge draw right now in Pereira, and he risks losing that for a guy that flopped his only PPV main event to date. Ankalaev's biggest selling point is that he's from Dagestan. If he can't perform in a way that's marketable, he doesn't earn a title shot. There's more to a title shot then where you are in the rankings.
With #11 Murzakanov matched up with #6 Krylov and #10 Ullberg matched up with #8 Volkan and #14 Guskov taking on #9 Johnny Walker. There's a lot of fresh talent that could be introduced in the top 10/5 in the near future. Dana probably doesn't want to risk losing his card saving big draw for a guy that lay and prayed the last two rounds of his only PPV main event. We just saw that matching Pereira up with someone further down the rankings can be a successful and exciting PPV main event that builds up both guys, especially if their styles compliment eachother. If you have Ankalaev vs Pereira and Ankalaev wins in a similar fight to his Błachowicz fight, then you just devalued the LHW champion and devalued one of your bigger bell cows.
Maybe that isn't loyal to the rankings but it is loyal to the shareholders.
Edit: Sorry for the rant, I just think it's about more than rankings.
MMC
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Tbh I've hated Ankalaev ever since he threw a tantrum after not getting the decision against Jan so idc if he fights for the belt or not. He also needed 4 cracks total to get through Ion Cutelaba and Johnny Walker so there's that
He hasn’t lost in 6 years and that was a fluky loss. Also “taking 4 times to get through Cutelaba and Walker” is pretty misleading when he either smoked or was smoking them both in every matchup. Like he violently killed them both. In that fight against Jan he threw 312 strikes to Jan’s 140 and people want to blame him because he decided to bank a couple rounds. He outlanded Jan and dominated him on the ground. To me Jan had no business getting a draw out of that one.
If he wants strikers and striking matchups then start a f***ing UFC Muay Thai company. Otherwise call this something else because it’s not mixed martial arts if you don’t want people to actually mix it up and fight to the best of their abilities
Let’s give Dustin Jacoby a shot while we’re at it, he’s a GLORY kickboxer! (And he actually beat Rountree regardless of what the dumbass judges said)
If it’s not a sport then leave ESPN and stop pretending to be a sport. Don’t have any rankings at all. It’s WWE booking.
Again, wtf did Colby do to deserve his shots? He’s not a draw, he is more boring of a fighter than Ankalaev by a mile, his resume was worse (all his significant wins were decisions against ancient fighters or lightweights). Dana is inconsistent in how he applies this nonsense
If he wants strikers and striking matchups then start a f***ing UFC Muay Thai company. Otherwise call this something else because it’s not mixed martial arts if you don’t want people to actually mix it up and fight to the best of their abilities
Let’s give Dustin Jacoby a shot while we’re at it, he’s a GLORY kickboxer! (And he actually beat Rountree regardless of what the dumbass judges said)
If it’s not a sport then leave ESPN and stop pretending to be a sport. Don’t have any rankings at all. It’s WWE booking.
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Taytro
Registered User
152 of Ankalaev's strikes were thrown in the last 2 rounds, only 56 were considered significant and only 28 of those significant strikes landed. So in the final 10 minutes of action, to close out a PPV, Ankalaev out grappled an exhausted Jan and landed at a 3 significant strikes per minute pace... That ruins a fight and ruins a PPV.
Through the first 3 rounds of that fight Jan landed 53 significant strikes to Ankalaev's 50. And apparently did enough to have 2 judges give him the first 3 rounds, and one judge give him two.
A repeat of Ankalaev vs Jan is exactly what the UFC wants to avoid because they know Pereira is the superior striker and they know Ankalaev can hold down Pereira and they don't want to see it.
I don't know what you're on ... But Colby draws, like it or not more casuals want to watch Colby get beaten than want to watch another Ankalaev fight. When Colby was put in a PPV headliner vs Usman, he turned it up and performed. Both times he had a great fight. It's not hard to understand that UFC wants guys who perform and put the show before their record , it's why guys like Chandler get rewarded. Colby's recent performance vs Leon on the other hand was less interesting and he won't be rewarded on that. It's how the business works.
No one forces you to watch or like it but it's no secret that the UFC picks and chooses fights, especially the ones that headline PPVs. Styles make fights and the UFC makes money by putting on fights that are perceived by the audience to be fun. Way she goes.
bov
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- Nov 13, 2010
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Ankalaev had a massive opportunity and the fight was so bad that they pivoted to Hill and Teixeira. Now he has another one, and I don't think he's getting screwed as much as people say. It's not like he was beating the top contenders either, Johnny Walker, Anthony Smith, Ion Cutelaba, the lackluster fight against Blachowicz...big deal.
I am all for Ankalaev fighting for the title too, I have nothing against him and he may very well be the best 205er out there. But the narrative that he's some boogeyman that the UFC is keeping away from Pereira...I don't really buy it. The guy doesn't have wins over the top contenders, plain and simple. In my opinion, Rakic is the toughest test to date.
Also Colby is a draw, maybe not some mega star but people want to see him fight even though he never KO's anyone and usually is heavy on wrestling and pressure. Can't stand the guy but he gets people to tune in.
I am all for Ankalaev fighting for the title too, I have nothing against him and he may very well be the best 205er out there. But the narrative that he's some boogeyman that the UFC is keeping away from Pereira...I don't really buy it. The guy doesn't have wins over the top contenders, plain and simple. In my opinion, Rakic is the toughest test to date.
Also Colby is a draw, maybe not some mega star but people want to see him fight even though he never KO's anyone and usually is heavy on wrestling and pressure. Can't stand the guy but he gets people to tune in.
If Ankalaev wins, he deserves the title shot no matter what. He's clearly the #1 contender. Even Pereira has been on record multiple times saying he wants the fight to happen.
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I am not exposed
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Like Belal just headlined a ppv guys against another guy who also wasn’t really a draw, you can’t tell me Ankalaev-Pereira would do any differently than Rountree-Pereira. At least the result would be up in the air. The Rountree result was an inevitability, even with Khalil’s toughness. If you’re protecting your “undisputed champion” from challengers with certain styles then he’s not really the undisputed champion. And that’s fine. But again, just don’t act like it’s a legitimate sport where the champions are the best of the best if that’s the case. It’s the same shit Dana always criticized boxing for. Promoters protecting their champions and not getting the best 2 guys together
Also in the case of somebody like Karl Williams- more or less telling a wrestler he can’t wrestle and matching him up with a pro kick boxer is deeply unethical in my opinion.
Also in the case of somebody like Karl Williams- more or less telling a wrestler he can’t wrestle and matching him up with a pro kick boxer is deeply unethical in my opinion.
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Oh I don’t think you’d have to worry about Ankalaev holding him down, he would probably finish him down there if it’s gets there and he can keep him there. But maybe Pereira should do something about it if he were to be wrestled. It’s mixed martial arts, emphasis on mixed. You can’t make the top of one division Glory Kickboxing just because he’s champ. Like if the fighter has a weakness that Dana thinks is that exploitable then maybe he doesn’t deserve the title of best light heavyweight in the world
What they don’t want is Ankalaev to be LHW champ for the next fight- although idk why they wouldn’t. You can just rebook Pereira for a rematch and the card is carried. And if he beats Pereira twice then you have a guy who is now all of a sudden mainstream.
It’s fine and all if they wanna be entertainment and not sport. But again it’s one of the things Dana always criticized boxing for- promoters keeping their cash cows away from fights they could lose so we rarely see the actual best of the best fight each other. Like this is the who guy ranted about Otto Wallin fighting Fury for the belt instead of a matchup against one of the actual top guys, that’s an example he gave when talking about how boxing is broken. Well what exactly are you doing right now at 205 Dana? Rountree’s best win is a diminished Smith. Ankalaev finished Smith who was coming off 3 straight finish victories at the time. He’s beaten Santos, Oezdemir, Krylov. He murdered Walker, Cutelaba, Prachnio, and Lungiambula. He has some incredibly violent finishes. To me it’s not really even that debatable, he deserved the last one and he deserves the next one too. Especially if he beats Rakic (who I do not think Rountree would beat btw)
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