GDT: UFC 304: Edwards vs. Muhammad 2

[BGDDYKWL]

You feel like if Edwards went full throttle he'd beat Belal pretty handily. He's never been finished which is damn impressive, but he's too passive sometimes. This was a winnable fight for him. Ends the talk of him going to 185 at least. I don't see Belal having a path to victory against Shavkat.

Aspinall dominated, but he's hittable. Maybe Blaydes has deceptive reach, but he landed quite a bit in both of their fights given they weren't in the cage much more than a minute. Jones-Stipe gets less interesting by the second.

 

[Mickey Marner]

Glad I didn’t stay up to 2 AM to watch that. I’ll never understand why the UFC is so committed to having the worst start times in professional sports. I guess that makes Belal the third 35+ fighter to win a title fight at 170 or below?

 

[CDJ]

I think Belal will be able to wrestle Shavkat a little and have success, I just don’t think he can survive 25 min locked in a cage with him. Might get some takedowns but eventually Shavkat will clip him or lock something up


Paddy got a double bonus, Parkin and Aspinall got the other 2

 

[I am not exposed]

Shavkat is obviously the heir apparent but his best wins were against the guys currently ranked #9 and #10 who both had several recent losses before fighting him. I personally feel he's right there but needs to beat a top 5 guy in order to secure a title shot. I think Shavkat vs Jack Della Maddalena would be the perfect fight to make and introduce a new title challenger.

Colby and Usman are holding up those rankings, neither guy has won a fight in 2 years. In the last 5 years Colby has only beaten Masvidal and Woodley, both on the way to retiring. Get these two out of the rankings and bring in some fresh talent to challenge for what should be an exciting division.

I'm fine with Shavkat fighting someone like Jack or Ian as a title eliminator. The sooner the better though. I did say in my end of year UFC champion predictions that Belal would be champion and we wouldn't get enough time in the year for Shavkat to fight him.

 

[Taytro]

Wow Dana basically said good luck to Mokaev in the pfl

Matchmakers had a number of reasons apparently

I imagine style, maybe not the easiest to work with, he apparently suckered Kape this week are all things that go into it.

He’s still super young so i think he’ll be back at some point. Striking looked cleaner tonight when he did throw.

Bad business decision to toss out a young undefeated top 5 guy. He's only 23, use this to teach him, train him, and help him improve, that could be the next face of the franchise. He's Dagestani, maybe ask Khabib for a favour and try to teach him son professionalism (leave out the cage jumping).

I just think it should be a teaching opportunity not a cut and run from a clearly skilled prospect who has probably another 10 years in the promotion.

 

[CDJ]

Bad business decision to toss out a young undefeated top 5 guy. He's only 23, use this to teach him, train him, and help him improve, that could be the next face of the franchise. He's Dagestani, maybe ask Khabib for a favour and try to teach him son professionalism (leave out the cage jumping).

I just think it should be a teaching opportunity not a cut and run from a clearly skilled prospect who has probably another 10 years in the promotion.

i think if it was based on what he did in the octagon and that alone he would be re-signed. Just seems like there’s a lot behind the scenes going on. We obviously can only speculate. Wouldn’t shock me to see him be UFC flyweight champion in 2030 though, I bet we see him back when he’s older.

 

[ThrowDemTongs]

Is your father a Leafs fan that passed it on to you? Relocated? Other reason?

Nah, when we moved to Canada in 91 from Belgium, the Leafs were my first introduction to hockey. A lifetime of pain as I slowly moved westbound.

 

[BobColesNasalCavity]

Dana crying about the “effort” of the fighters despite raising the bonus money to 100k after the card wraps up at 630am local time. Smh.

 

[Taytro]

Dana crying about the “effort” of the fighters despite raising the bonus money to 100k after the card wraps up at 630am local time. Smh.

Fighters ask Dana to raise the bonus so they have something bigger to work for. Dana agrees and incentivizes fighters to do the job they're already getting paid for with more urgency. Fighters fight with less urgency, so Dana is upset. He put up the money and got no return on it, of course he was upset.

Anyone using the time of the card as an excuse is silly. Most of these fighters had months to prepare for the timing of their fight, it is the one thing they do to get paid and they should have been well acclimated to the time, it wasn't a surprise. If millions of people around the world can work night shift/rotating shifts then a professional fighter who has to do it once in a blue moon and has months to prepare for it doesn't have an excuse other than their own poor planning.

 

[Chaels Arms]

I seem to remember Mokaev at one point having some beef with Ali Abdelaziz. We all know that's Dana's preferred agent. As a fighter from Dagestan there was probably a lot of pressure for Mokaev to sign with him. Just refusing to do that likely put Mokaev on Dana White's "this kid could be a problem" list. Same happened when Dana decided he didn't like Ngannou and Kevin Lee's agent.

If Mokaev was on Abdelaziz's roster there' s no way Dana would be reacting in the same way.

 

[CDJ]

Fighters ask Dana to raise the bonus so they have something bigger to work for. Dana agrees and incentivizes fighters to do the job they're already getting paid for with more urgency. Fighters fight with less urgency, so Dana is upset. He put up the money and got no return on it, of course he was upset.

Anyone using the time of the card as an excuse is silly. Most of these fighters had months to prepare for the timing of their fight, it is the one thing they do to get paid and they should have been well acclimated to the time, it wasn't a surprise. If millions of people around the world can work night shift/rotating shifts then a professional fighter who has to do it once in a blue moon and has months to prepare for it doesn't have an excuse other than their own poor planning.

It’s still dumb to do to the fans and fighters though

And trust me Dana is getting enough of a return on an investment on these fighters as is, he can afford to do bigger bonuses. He shouldn’t be doing them to raise the excitement factor. He should be doing them because fighters get a fraction of the revenue that they should be getting relative to any other league or sport

 

[Taytro]

It’s still dumb to do to the fans and fighters though

And trust me Dana is getting enough of a return on an investment on these fighters as is, he can afford to do bigger bonuses. He shouldn’t be doing them to raise the excitement factor. He should be doing them because fighters get a fraction of the revenue that they should be getting relative to any other league or sport

He can definitely afford bigger bonuses but why would he if he doesn't get anything more out of it? They're literally called performance bonuses, bonuses for performing well/above expected. An increase to performance bonus is solely so that performance improves.

Discussing fighters pay, it's on the fighters to force the UFC to pay them more. It's a for profit business thats primary goal is to make the most money they can, they aren't going to increase the cost of salaries without needing to, or getting anything out of it. The UFC is safe because it pays their breadwinners healthily, by the time a fighters voice means anything to the org or to the public, they're already making a salary they're happier with.

 

[CDJ]

He can definitely afford bigger bonuses but why would he if he doesn't get anything more out of it? They're literally called performance bonuses, bonuses for performing well/above expected. An increase to performance bonus is solely so that performance improves.

Discussing fighters pay, it's on the fighters to force the UFC to pay them more. It's a for profit business thats primary goal is to make the most money they can, they aren't going to increase the cost of salaries without needing to, or getting anything out of it. The UFC is safe because it pays their breadwinners healthily, by the time a fighters voice means anything to the org or to the public, they're already making a salary they're happier with.

Yeah ultimately it’s on them for not unionizing, can lead a horse to water but if they don’t wanna drink then what are ya gonna do

 

[LandfiII]

Fighters ask Dana to raise the bonus so they have something bigger to work for. Dana agrees and incentivizes fighters to do the job they're already getting paid for with more urgency. Fighters fight with less urgency, so Dana is upset. He put up the money and got no return on it, of course he was upset.

Anyone using the time of the card as an excuse is silly. Most of these fighters had months to prepare for the timing of their fight, it is the one thing they do to get paid and they should have been well acclimated to the time, it wasn't a surprise. If millions of people around the world can work night shift/rotating shifts then a professional fighter who has to do it once in a blue moon and has months to prepare for it doesn't have an excuse other than their own poor planning.

Edwards saying his body was off and was all week cause of the schedule, in front of his people. Holy f***. That was a worse look than the limp noodle title defence. Nobody likes this Belal cat but in the octagon he was far more likable than Edwards.

Yeah ultimately it’s on them for not unionizing, can lead a horse to water but if they don’t wanna drink then what are ya gonna do

Scumbag stays on top more at 11 etc

 

[Taytro]

Yeah ultimately it’s on them for not unionizing, can lead a horse to water but if they don’t wanna drink then what are ya gonna do

That's it. Most major sports have unions/collective bargaining bodies for a reason, we can't forget NHL players used to go get summer jobs or work farms in the off season.

Problem is that UFC/MMA is so individualistic that the difference makers/opinion leaders are making 25x (or more) the pay of starting pay in the promotion, and by that time they're happy with where they're at and don't care for a change. And one guy can't make a difference, look at Francis, he had all these asks, UFC told him to take a hike and off he went, everyone was fine with it. If 2/3 other champions and a few contenders stood up to the UFC when Francis did, they'd have to bridge the gap somehow, but no, most people just watched Francis go.

 

[16Skippy]

Not sure where the Belal hate is coming from...not the most dynamic fight but certainly beat down Edwards via better wrestling and boxing, something that Usman failed at twice and so did Clolby.

Aspinall is a freak. He knocked down a 250 pound tank with a sloppy half jab. Attributes matter. Thought the stoppage was a tad early but he is the definitely the people's champ, at least until Jones fights a 50 year old fire fighter or retires.

Lost my parlay because of Paddy-Green but even without that wft was Green doing? Literally turned the opposite way in the triangle. Not sure if he was rocked or what but that was his loss more than Paddy's win.

 

[CDJ]

Not sure where the Belal hate is coming from...not the most dynamic fight but certainly beat down Edwards via better wrestling and boxing, something that Usman failed at twice and so did Clolby.

Aspinall is a freak. He knocked down a 250 pound tank with a sloppy half jab. Attributes matter. Thought the stoppage was a tad early but he is the definitely the people's champ, at least until Jones fights a 50 year old fire fighter or retires.

Lost my parlay because of Paddy-Green but even without that wft was Green doing? Literally turned the opposite way in the triangle. Not sure if he was rocked or what but that was his loss more than Paddy's win.

Paddy was chewing his legs up, I was super impressed by him and I’ve never been particularly high on him. Striking looked more composed, he came into this in awesome shape. SLICK transition from jumping gilly to the triangle, kind of genius to use his leg to trap the arm like that when he jumped for it. Allowed for that seamless transition

 

[Tobias Kahun]

Not sure where the Belal hate is coming from...not the most dynamic fight but certainly beat down Edwards via better wrestling and boxing, something that Usman failed at twice and so did Clolby.

Aspinall is a freak. He knocked down a 250 pound tank with a sloppy half jab. Attributes matter. Thought the stoppage was a tad early but he is the definitely the people's champ, at least until Jones fights a 50 year old fire fighter or retires.

Lost my parlay because of Paddy-Green but even without that wft was Green doing? Literally turned the opposite way in the triangle. Not sure if he was rocked or what but that was his loss more than Paddy's win.

People dont like Belal because hes boring.

Has almost no finishing ability.

 

[Avs_19]

No choice but to (begrudgingly) give Belal credit. He put it on Leon from start to finish to the point where they just had no answer round after round. The wrestling was great and he even landed some good shots in the stand up but that non-stop pressure was ridiculous. In a way, it almost reminded me of Izzy/Strickland. The inferior fighter (yes, I'm sticking with it) just pressuring all throughout. Leon may have looked a bit off but I think it was more so Belal making him look that way. Bring on Shavkat!

Aspinall does what he does, Blaydes does what he does in big fights. Not too much to say about this one other than to say Aspinall is really good and I really hope he gets his crack at Jones. That should be the only fight at the top of the division. No one cares about Jones against a completely and utterly washed Stipe. The only purpose of that fight is to add to Jones' legend and try to prop him up to be the HW GOAT by saying he beat the greatest HW in UFC history. Aspinall deserves a chance to unify the belts but I doubt he'll get it.

Credit to Paddy. I've been very skeptical of him and a win over Green doesn't necessarily change my opinion about his ceiling but he looked damn good. Put on a show and made it look easy against a very tough and experienced fighter. I loved that triangle/arm bar combo to finish the fight.

 

[Taytro]

I've been seeing it a bit in here and a lot in twitter but I don't know why people think this fight was boring and are blaming Belal for it. This fight was almost carbon copy of Leon vs Kamaru 1, the only difference being Leon's round 5 miracle.

Leon isn't a super exciting knockout artist, he's had 1 finish in the last 6 years, it just happened to be in the biggest fight he's had. The whole rest of that fight was awful, Belal took that exactly blueprint and didn't give Leon the chance to catch him on the feet in the 5th. This fight should have been exactly what was expected.

 

[I am not exposed]

No choice but to (begrudgingly) give Belal credit. He put it on Leon from start to finish to the point where they just had no answer round after round. The wrestling was great and he even landed some good shots in the stand up but that non-stop pressure was ridiculous. In a way, it almost reminded me of Izzy/Strickland. The inferior fighter (yes, I'm sticking with it) just pressuring all throughout. Leon may have looked a bit off but I think it was more so Belal making him look that way. Bring on Shavkat!

Aspinall does what he does, Blaydes does what he does in big fights. Not too much to say about this one other than to say Aspinall is really good and I really hope he gets his crack at Jones. That should be the only fight at the top of the division. No one cares about Jones against a completely and utterly washed Stipe. The only purpose of that fight is to add to Jones' legend and try to prop him up to be the HW GOAT by saying he beat the greatest HW in UFC history. Aspinall deserves a chance to unify the belts but I doubt he'll get it.

Credit to Paddy. I've been very skeptical of him and a win over Green doesn't necessarily change my opinion about his ceiling but he looked damn good. Put on a show and made it look easy against a very tough and experienced fighter. I loved that triangle/arm bar combo to finish the fight.

100%

 

[Hamilton Bulldogs]

People dont like Belal because hes boring.

Has almost no finishing ability.

He picked Leon up like he was a child and slammed him on his head.

I don't know how anyone could find that boring unless you had money on Edwards.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

He picked Leon up like he was a child and slammed him on his head.

I don't know how anyone could find that boring unless you had money on Edwards.

And still did no damage, he’s pretty much a point fighter who’s not capable of finishing anything.

Polar opposite of shavkat

 

[16Skippy]

Paddy was chewing his legs up, I was super impressed by him and I’ve never been particularly high on him. Striking looked more composed, he came into this in awesome shape. SLICK transition from jumping gilly to the triangle, kind of genius to use his leg to trap the arm like that when he jumped for it. Allowed for that seamless transition

Green had a bad performance but you're right I should be giving Paddy more credit. Especially for the kicks. Too many people try to headhunt him and get tagged up.

 

[16Skippy]

People dont like Belal because hes boring.

Has almost no finishing ability.

I think Belal's boring reputation precedes him at this point. If someone didn't see anything interesting in what he did, especially considering who he did it to their mind was probably already made up about him.

Heard there's a lot of finishes in Power Slap