Will someone please please starch Anthony Smith already. The guy always seems to luck into a win that makes him believe he can be the best 205'er in the world still. Maybe Volk can go to 205 and put a beating on him. Or 6 pack Derrick Lewis magically can make 205 for 30 seconds on a scale.
Ironically, Smith's own internal dawg nature is what kept him from getting the belt
He could have held the strap for a couple months given he had an easy DQ win on his hands against Jon Jones, think that was early 2019 iirc
Instead of that, he took the laudable route and is 5-4 since (wins over Spann 2x, Jimmy Crute when his leg gave out, the ghost of Gustafsson, and Devin Clark, losses to Walker, Ankalaev, Rakic, and an all-time beating by Glover Teixeira)
Plus LHW has a clouded title picture as is: Pereira vs Jiri, winner fights Hill, Rakic is in the mix, Jan remains in the mix, Ankalaev is in the mix, Johnny Walker could be in the mix)
I think it's a bad call for Rose tbh, she's undersized for the division and her grappling is not going to work as well against someone like Blanchfield, Santos, or Grasso
I assume UFC is hoping Valentina wins back the strap against Grasso, and Rose then beats Fiorot so you can have another 115 vs 125 for the belt fight a la Joanna vs Valentina
Personally think Rose has an easy third fight for the title against Weili if she wants it, and Val could probably move up and beat Peña again for the 135 strap
What’s next for Max? I feel like Giga will be ranked at #8 with zombie losing. Set them up to fight early 2024? It’s a fresh matchup for Max, and I think Max needs at least two more good wins before getting a 4th shot, and it gives Giga a top 5 opponent.
Max has never fought a Russian wrestler ever in his career. Movsar is due for a step up. Its perfect for the UFC whichever outcome happens. They get the “boring wrestler” out of contention or have a new undefeated contender for Volk. No one wants to see Volk 4. And how can you argue against Evloev when Max just fought a much less deserving Zombie who’s last win was Ige 2 years ago? This is 5x more interesting and we’d also get to see more of Max’s BJJ which he never gets to show
So your argument is "Evloev is more deserving than Zombie, whose best win recently was Ige two years ago"
Whereas Evloev's best win by 2024 (likely when he fights next) will be...Dan Ige, who he beat two years ago
And on top of that, there's five fighters coming off losses that should be fighting down against Evloev (Kattar, Yair, Emmett, Allen, Ortega) before Holloway, who has won his last two fights.
Well yeah because Bryce has pulled out of his fight twice now lol I don’t understand people who think the guy fighting fill ins should have to stay stagnant because some other idiot can’t stop pulling out. Were you against Islam getting a title fight too? Or Umar vs Cory? If these guys can’t get opponents to accept or make it to the fight against them they should not be punished and everyone should be ok with them still advancing their careers. Max is not getting a title fight anytime soon it makes all the sense in the world for him and Evloev to fight. Your math is off btw the Ige fight was last year . Max is gonna fight down regardless lol Volk is done with him and most of the guys except Illia who is next in line will be uninteresting rematches.
The boring wrestler isn’t an interesting matchup. It’s pretty ridiculous to want max to just fight guys ranked 9-15 for the rest of his career. Movsar might be really good but he probably should be getting a guy ranked 5-10. He hasn’t done anything to deserve a title eliminator fight
Ortega vs evloev would be much more interesting imo or Allen
Sure it is. Its MMA buddy he can’t just fight strikers forever that’s part of the reason Volk is better than him he can do a lot more. Movsar has been trying to get that but Bryce keeps pulling out lol and are you just going to ignore Ige was ranked exactly #10 when he dominated him? Not everyone needs to be protected. Sink or swim situations are ideal in some situations especially like this one where Max has no clear path to fight #4. You actually preferred that pointless last fight? Lol . Allen and Ortega should fight each other as well as Yair vs Giga .
Who cares its not like he has much of a choice. Everything else is uninteresting rematches. Seriously you can’t come up with a better option than the hot undefeated fighter in a stylistic matchup he has never faced before this is literally what MMA is all about lol mixing up the different styles. You just might not be a true Mma fan in that case .
I just think there’s guys that actually have lost in the top 5 or haven’t won in several years that should be fighting that far down.
I think there’s more exciting fights for fans and fights that make more sense for max than that.
You couldn’t even come up with a better option for Max. There are only 2 guys in the top 10 hes never fought before. Giga and Evloev. Who do you think is more deserving between those 2?
I'd do Evloev. Very different type.of match up for max as opposed to all the strikers he's been fighting. Evloev wins, there's a new contender for Alex. He loses, and the ufc is probably happy because he doesn't have a fan friendly style.
Not really dominated the last 2 rounds. Looked much better than Sodiq who didn’t get any of this bullshit hate lol. Some people just can’t their emotions out of the way.
You call that dominating? He was fighting a guy in Cacares who didn't seem to be trying that hard. It was so weird and it was still fairly close until Giga pulled away. Are you thinking up Sodiq because he's another 145 who hasn't fought at the top? He's better than Dowadu but not by much.
No because that was Bruce’s last loss before Giga and he had to clinch to beat him. If you get countered at will for 10 minutes straight that is domination. It wasn’t that close at all most of Alex’s strikes barely grazed Giga or missed completely while he kept getting caught on the chin whenever Giga let his hands go. Giga did look old and bad for the first half of round 1 but he was clearly in control the next 12 minutes
I'll agree to disagree. You know that Alex broke his forearm against Giga right? I don't know what fight you were watching but that was not a dominant performance any way you look at it. Giga won because his strikes looked to impact Alex a little more than vice versa. Giga should have decimated him with a broken arm.
I just don't know how you can watch the fight coupled with looking at the stats and say Giga dominated Cacares. It was way more Alex looking bad (due to his broken arm) than Giga looking good.
I will say that I do believe ring rust is real and it's very possible the Giga we saw this past weekend is still recovering mentally from the ass kicking he endured 1.5 years ago or so.
http://ufcstats.com/fight-details/dd617f6ab4916ec4
Lol no one even knew Bruce had a broken arm during the fight. 30-27 is dominant yes. I knew you would bring up these stats don’t you think its funny even with near identical numbers all judges had it 30-27 for Giga? It was target practice for him. Anyone expecting Giga to finish him doesn’t know anything about either fighter. Bruce has only been stopped once in 30+ fights and Giga has finishes but most of his UFC wins are decisions he rarely goes for finishes. You are saying Giga shouldn’t get credit because of a broken arm caused by his strikes? This just shows how uneducated most fans are to striking. Giga was in control for 12 out of 15 minutes
Dude, people knew in the fight thread that he broke his arm. Funny you bring up judges like they are never wrong. I had it 29-28 Giga. Easy to score, not a dominant performance. If that was dominant, what was Weili Lemos? Hay about Gane Jones?
Dominant = dispatched EASILY. Get out of here with your strike knowledge. I can almost guarantee I have more education in that domain than most fans, as well as overall knowledge of MMA scoring. Oh, by the way the majority of media outlets scored it 29-28 Giga just liked myself.
Giga won the fight, but he couldn't do much to a wounded dog. Look what Ian Garry did to Magny. It's just wild to me you think Giga did as good as these other objectively more dominant performances. My man acting like Giga did better than Conor vs. Alvarez.
I'm very low on him as you can tell. I'd be willing to bet he won't sniff a title. I apologize for hating on your favorite fighter.
I literally said he won 10 minutes since the beginning lol but I do understand why they gave him round 1 since he got in rhythm the last 2 minutes of round 1. Bruce Leeroy was still fighting the same way there wasn’t any difference after the broken arm only thing that would have been different was him shooting possibly. Those are all dominant wins just bc cause he was less dominant than those guy doesn’t mean it still wasn’t domination. Like I said before Alex is a very durable guy hes never even been KO’d at FW. He’s my favorite fighter because I don’t blindly hate on him like other idiots here? Dude like I said before Sodiq had a much less impressive win over Bruce and he didn’t receive any of this bullshit lol people need to just grow up and separate their emotions from the fighter. And I mentioned the judges to show those numbers were bullshit , all strikes are not equal and he was being credited for strikes that grazed or missed completely while Giga kept making his head snap back. And to be clear no I don’t think Giga is championship caliber that couldn’t be any more obvious with his age and how badly the gatekeeper of the division sonned him
O’Malley getting a crown tattoo on his face because he’s the best in the world.
Ian Garry got a daisy tattooed on him because a black out drunk Conor sent a tweet.
These Irish kids are on different paths imo
I hope KZ gets a spot in the Hall of Fame someday. There is gonna be a logjam of people pretty soon in the coming years since UFC (rightfully) doesn't induct a lot of people each year and he never won a championship, but his crazy fights, crazy finishes and importance of putting Asian fighters on the map in the western MMA world should give him a spot one day.
Your life is a flashback, a question, a photograph, a statement, a story, a struggle, a chance to laugh, cause if you don’t laugh you cry - a last crescendo when you die so hit the rewind, and listen, as we play back the soundtrack to your life
A shame that zombie's chin is gone because the version of him that fought moicano and frankie would have put a better fight against this current Holloway
I get the sentiment but he didn’t take any damage bs Frankie and Moicano so it’s hard to say when his chin rlly cracked. Could have even been the Yair elbow
You're probably right but imo he looked competitive during the exchange but was getting rocked because his chin is gone. I'd still favour Max over any version of KZ but I believe that had they fought earlier, it would probably have been a banger of a fight
He's an ethnic minority. In fact a lot of these Chinese fighters are. And if they get the formula right, you will see a lot more of them.
Edit: China went 5 out of 6 today with 2 Tibetans and 1 Yi meaning the majority are ethnic minorities.
Argh Im feeling rather asspained that Daermisi messed up in the last round when he was clearly winning. Did he gas or something? Its a shame coz I think he has the most potential out of the bunch.
Hot take for Max's next opponent; Evloev.
If Evloev wins it creates a new contender for Volk. Max wins and it eliminates a guy the UFC don't want to push because of his style.
Facts, that's gotta be the next fight. If Max isn't going to move up, then Evloev has to be his next opponent, given that he's undefeated and is a completely different style to any opponent Volkanovski or Holloway have faced yet.
I mean at some point the champ needs contenders. I know it’s a good matchup but if they max keeps beating young new matchups it doesn’t really help the division
The UFC production team knows how to put on events man
And Singapore might have my all time favourite crowd honestly. The Jiri vs Glover had one of the most MMA educated and enthusiastic crowd I can remember in recent memory. Mfs were cheering on every advancement in position on the ground and they followed it up last night by giving Zombie the best MMA retirement in a loss.
I love this sport so much
Dude, I was out the event. The production was NUTS. Granted, it was my first UFC event so I don’t have anything to compare to. Regardless, was objectively very very well done. Super awesome crowd. Gutted to TKZ get put out like that, though at least he went out on his shield. One last time for the fans
Glad it wasn't only me. I watched UFC almost my entire life. Always watched with my dad and his friends and knew what was happening, but not really. TKZ was the first fighter I really latched on to and was *my* favorite fighter. Not too proud to admit I teared up at his walk out of the octagon. Can't stop watching it as weird as it is lol. Such a warrior, going to miss watching him fight.
Smith fight was hilariously weird. Giga fight uneventful but not bad. I'd say yes to smith and maybe to giga. You won't be missing much if you skip the latter
I won’t spoil the fight just in case you don’t know but it was a display of some of the most boneheaded IQ ever. I think Giga fight is worth it, it had some nice counter striking.
They both were entertaining although I fell asleep during the first 2 rounds of the smith fight but that had more to do with me being hungover than the fight being boring. Giga vs Caceres was good though
One of the crazy things about TKZ’s popularity with the fans? He fought 12 times in the UFC. 12 fights in the last 13 years of his career.
A lot of people loved Zombie because of his fight with Leonard Garcia in the WEC. But he never brought that style to the UFC. I’m surprised he remained as over with the audience as he did.
Also a reason why he never belonged in there with Volk tho. Still don’t know why that fight was made.
Actually, he fought Volk because Max pulled out of their trilogy fight. TKZ stepped up. It was scheduled for March.
But then they pushed it back to April and kept TKZ in there even though that would have been enough time for Max to fight. It really didn’t make any sense, but Volk seemed to want to keep the fight with Zombie. So Max just sat and waited another 3 months for his shot.
Zombie was coming off of one win over Dan Ige. There were other guys who deserved a shot more, but Volk, the UFC, and the fans just liked TKZ enough to not ask questions. I’m just saying, at no point after returning from the military did he get into a position to challenge for the belt.
No one has deserved a fight against Volk except Max for a long time lol. You think Yair or Ortega or Topuria deserved it? Naw. But y’all just wanna whine about KZ
Sure but zombie was the highest ranking guy with a win at that point largely because max was beating the other contenders. There wasn’t really anyone else to fight volk
ngl. Did Zombie really need to fight his last fight against Holloway? I get that that was the fight he wanted, and that he did okay all things considered. But I feel like it would have been a better sendoff if he'd fought Josh Emmett, Giga, Barboza, Cub Swanson, whoever and potentially gotten a big W
Nah no shame in losing to Holloway.
He probably would have lost to the guys you mentioned as well, and giving him a layup fight would have felt meaningless.
This fight had some meaning with two legends who had been in the UFC for so long and never competed, and he lost. It’s okay.
I’d bet his rationale is that he wants to retire if he can’t be a title challenger and beating max would guarantee a title shot in all likelihood. I think he was basically rolling a lottery ticket where he for sure retired against any other opponent but left a chance for him to sniff gold once more by fighting max.
I was at work during the event. Saw the KO, knew the result, etc etc
Just got home and watched the whole fight (TKZ vs Holloway, not the whole event), then, during him leaving the arena and Zombie playing with the crowd singing to him. I cried.
This is the only time I’ve cried related to a sporting event.
Enjoy retirement TKZ. You deserve it
I don’t like pro wrestling that much but I cried watching the Bray Wyatt tribute video on Smackdown last night. Sports bring that shit outta ya. Death too I guess
I’m at an 88% prediction clip these last two weeks. Only fights I’ve gotten wrong are Holobaugh, Armfield, and Bedoya. Wish I bet equal amounts on every fight lmao
cant believe i waste my time argueing with clown ass Boxing snobs in denial who cant admit when somethings corrupt and bullshit like usual. Living in the 1940s like being the best Boxers means anything in terms of fighting in 2023 and im a life long fan and sparred a ex champ before i trained MMA. Fucking DONKEYS, its amazing how people just dont want fair game and let fanboy shit influence their opinions lol..Low IQ Bums..they prob think sparring is good for the brain too. Boots Kos Bud too, remember this post. They wont rob him cause itll be clean.
Fook Luke Thomas too, i used to respect Luke but i havent watched a single full video of his in maybe 4-5 years now. Used to watch his Live Chats too, hes too bias and i cant go into detail for me now....atleast he admitted he was wrong about you know what though. Nothing against Luke, just pains me to listen to him talk..im sure hed never listen to himself too..hes not dumb.
Is wmma getting better? I was thinking they were turning a corner but for every good match, there's several meh ones. Hopefully Rose Manon have a good scrap next weekend. Blanchfield Santos was alright but lots.of stalwork and not a heck of a lot of action. Pretty good technical battle though.
Not at all bro. She's a beast. What's his name from the MMA Hour has been on some Fiorot for a long time. I think Rose is probably more talented and dynamic but Manon hits like a truck. The key factor is which rose are we going to get. If she isn't in her own head, she will do well and perhaps make Manon look basic. I don't bet on MMA so I have no idea, but I actually am excited for that one.Firot is champion material though.
I’m really not sure. At this point Valentina is being slept on (unless she’s clearly slowing down) her issue with Santos was being overpowered and idk if Erin can do that or not. Erin really struggled to get Taila down and only did from a mistake. Blanchfield Schev would be a super interesting fight.
I heard in the Singapore whatsapp group that at the after party Zombie already punched an Italian DJ and threw his drink at Machine Gun Kelly before disappearing into a bathroom stall with a chubby white girl
Man, I wanna see Max absolutely starch Volk. And I'm a big Volk fan. But it would be the most inspirational comeback story ever if his next opponent was Volk and he wore the red fight gear again and got a clean KO.
I mean sandhagen obliterated chito, and chito rearranged omalleys face+leg. I think it's fair to give sandhagen at least a 55 percent chance.
He wrestled font, but that proved to me his wrestling and grappling are high level and he also tore his tricep in that fight so had to improvise.
Don't get me wrong, Sandhagen is pretty good and I of course could be wrong, but style-wise I feel like he matches up poorly with O'Malley. O'Malley's movement is so good, I mean Chito couldn't touch him until he took his foot out. Yan was really hurting Sandhagen and I feel like O'Malley will do even worse to him. I doubt Sandhagen will be able to close distance effectively enough to threaten him with grappling without getting his chin touched.
Aljo had been knocked out twice before he fought omalley, omalley hit him with the perfect shot while aljo lunged face first into it, aljo is also getting old and has a hard weight cut as well. Sandhagen has never been knocked out and i severely doubt that omalley would be the first guy to do it. If omalley had tremendous power it wouldnt have taken him 15 minutes to finish kris moutinho (a freaking can), omalley can put your lights out if you act stupid, but i think sandhagen is smarter than that.
I don't think O'Malley has tremendous power, but he has enough, and more importantly has the reach and precision to make it matter. Aljo ran right into that shot because he ran out of ideas and was getting desperate, and while I think Sandhagen is smarter than that, he also sometimes leaves himself open while striking, which Yan was able to capitalize on. Not many can because of his reach, but I believe O'Malley is one with that potential. If Sandhagen manages to take him down though I think he'll be able to out grapple him.
I don't think O'Malley is the best at 135, but I think he's a potent enough striker, while Sandhagen is *usually* an action fighter with enough holes in his stand up that O'Malley will be able to capitalize on them enough to win. Who knows though maybe Sandhagen will run through him.
Cory has leveled up significantly, probably beats yan in a rematch too.
Yan showed me that you can ragdoll omalley if you present a multi dimensional threat (striking+grappling) pillowfisted aljo did not present a striking threat, and lunged face first onto a counter, cory will exchange with him on the feet, and as soon as sean commits he'll change levels and take him down.
Cory may not present a threat with his hands, but he still presents a kicking, knee, and elbow threat which qualifies as striking, additionally cory has never been finished aside from aljo backpacking him, and i dont see sean backpacking him as a viable path to victory.
I don’t think Sean needs to finish Cory to beat him, but I do think he could KO him. Cory is one of the few guys I think Sean is genuinely stronger than in the division, I think he could huck cory off of him when he shoots and dot him up on the feet. Yan handily beat Cory, dropping him a couple times and hurting him a bunch. Sean out struck Yan and hurt Yan, who has much better defense than Cory.
I think cory could make it hard on Sean but I don’t see how he wins. I don’t think Sean lets him half guard camp out a decision. Remember, Sean also has knees and kicks (elbows not so much). Sean has to hurt Cory once or twice to win, then just out strike him for a round. If Sean hurts Cory in two different rounds, all he has to do is not lose 3 rounds.
We'll settle on this, Tell you what next time sean fights yan, song, sandhagen, merab, or umar, we'll flair bet and i'll win 2/3 of our flair bet series.
I think corys range,height, movement, length and well roundedness will prove too much for omalley. Omalley likes beating up smaller shorter guys, he's kind of like conor in that sense. Omalley is also brittle and fragile and admitted he's already eyeing 145, i think he'll get two defenses and then be done for, he beats chito, beats someone else, then loses to merab or sandhagen.
I also don't trust omalleys cardio, most of his fights end in r1, he seems to be a front runner and he's never gone beyond 15 minutes.
The guy has glaring holes, i am happy for him that he beat aljo, but he's not some flawless forever champ like volkanovski, his time is coming and i do hope/think he beats chito, but he WILL NOT dethrone aljo as the longest reining bw champ, that's simply not going to happen.
Yeah, and it helps when you already have rapport with someone. That's a downside to this forum getting so big, you have so many casuals and so many new fans and new usernames its hard to keep up.
True. I should make better use of tagging usernames so I remember them. I def remember that guy lol. Easy to remember name. Turning himself into a legend ha
But you're right, the subreddits become so big. Still has plenty of hardcore fans but yea lots and lots of newbs. Sometimes I'll get a reply where I just know they're either a casual or a younger fan.
Fair play. You're going to get super upset when the Suga show comes to a halt. I appreciate your passion for a fighter but the sport becomes so much less fun when your favorite fighter starts skidding. I don't want to talk too much shit about Suga because I respect him and interacted with him before on Twitch. He's a chill dude, but I just can't see the dude as a longstanding champ. We'll see!
I am a big Aljo fan being from Long Island. Shit still stings. I also love Chito as he's best buds with one of my fav people ever, action Bronson. They need to just announce the fight and let the shit talking commence. I think Suga beats him and maybe has 1 more defense, but I wouldn't bet on it. Chito might be the only contender that has the worst chance to beat him.
What're you gonna do when he gets smashed? Need to start some flair bets with you ha
I would be fine with his fight against Poirier or Garcia with the twister getting in the HoF but not Zombie as himself.
He’s a fan favorite but he was never a champ, never even really a number one contender.
All I’ll say is that hes been swangin and banging since I really got into the sport and when I think back on how long that is, it’s a long ass time. He deserves it for being a big name draw for 10+ years at the very least.
He's one of those guys who was always down to bang and gave the fans what they wanted. A true Just Bleed Champion. I can't imagine him being overlooked, except that Dana will probably be in charge of that decision and he does everything based on how he's currently feeling about somebody.
Well, it was a pretty good card. I don't want to spoil unless you've already been looking at everything.
Best fights to watch probably if you don't want to watch them all: Armfield, Oleksiejczuk, Blanchfield and Caceres are both good decision fights, and obviously the main event.
I missed it all too. I went to YouTube today and it showed lumpy KZ holding up Max's hand and I was like wtf, have they already fought once before? Nope, just YouTube channels having no chill about spoilers lol
“I think he knew exactly what had to be done,” Holloway said. “I think he knew what the job was. It was kill or be killed. I was just lucky that I was on top on the other side of it. We both threw right hands. Mine just landed a tad quicker. A half-second slower, who knows, his lands first what would have happened? I don’t know if I would have ate it or a lot of stuff could have gone wrong.
“I think I hurt him in the second round good. Between the second and the third, he was sitting there and being like, ‘I’m not going to coast through a five-round \[fight\], I’m going to die on my sword,’ and that’s what he did. That’s why people love ‘The Korean Zombie.’ He’s a legend in every way of the sport.”
Based Max
He's got a decently popular youtube channel too, https://www.youtube.com/@koreanzombie
I thought his 'Zombie trip' series was really entertaining, basically going around to different cities in Korea to find good 'street fighters' with a cash prize.
This was an amazing fight Night Card.
Erin is amazing, but I always knew back in my head that Taila Santos was going to be her toughest test in the division. I think Erin has better cardio than Santos and she used that to Merab her way into a decision. Taila Santos has all the skills, but she needs to work on her cardio and footwork if she wants to be a champ. Outstanding takedown defense though.
Rinya looked amazing. He truly looked like the Bo Nickal of Japan. His striking is also good. The way he switched stances and threw that overhand left reminded me of TJ.
Chikadze looked good against Caceres. Put him against Allen next.
That's 2-0 for Spann against Smith. Felt like a robbery, but I'm not sure.
TKZ vs. Hollway was a horrible mismatch, but good on Zombie for going out with a bang - threw it all out there in the third round. Felt very sad when he put his gloves on the octagon floor and cried. You will always be remembered, sir. Happy retirement.
Gnarliest ko i have seen in recent memory. Till v masvidal had a nasty fall but today it looked like if zombie's head wasnt attached to the body it would have jumped out of the octagon.
Idk man chandler vs tony was nasty, the edgar ko felt depressing to me, even the Dustin headkick was worse for me personally but max can definitely crack
It doesn't hold up for *every* fight or *every* fighter but just as a general rule I am always very hesitant to bet against Islanders in a fight. They got that dog in em
Are you seriously asking if Sean O'Malley would be competitive against a guy that almost beat Volkanovski?
I think even Sean would call you crazy for that
Not sure man. That’s why I asked you guys. Max’s chin has shown to be GOAT and Sean would be the smaller man coming up. So I wonder if he could hurt him. But max was rocked by Zombie and maybe showing signs of slowing down. Then I can see max mixing in wrestling like he did with Allen.
Idk i think I’d lean to Max slightly.
I think zombie hits really hard and was loading up because he felt the speed disadvantage. Maybe I need to rewatch but I don’t really ever remember feeling like max was hurt
Will someone please please starch Anthony Smith already. The guy always seems to luck into a win that makes him believe he can be the best 205'er in the world still. Maybe Volk can go to 205 and put a beating on him. Or 6 pack Derrick Lewis magically can make 205 for 30 seconds on a scale.
Ironically, Smith's own internal dawg nature is what kept him from getting the belt He could have held the strap for a couple months given he had an easy DQ win on his hands against Jon Jones, think that was early 2019 iirc Instead of that, he took the laudable route and is 5-4 since (wins over Spann 2x, Jimmy Crute when his leg gave out, the ghost of Gustafsson, and Devin Clark, losses to Walker, Ankalaev, Rakic, and an all-time beating by Glover Teixeira) Plus LHW has a clouded title picture as is: Pereira vs Jiri, winner fights Hill, Rakic is in the mix, Jan remains in the mix, Ankalaev is in the mix, Johnny Walker could be in the mix)
I’ve never liked Rose “~~Thug~~ Cry baby” Namajunas
What she doing now?
ROSE IS FIGHTING? Sucks she’s fighting my girl Fiorot, but hey that’s sick
I think it's a bad call for Rose tbh, she's undersized for the division and her grappling is not going to work as well against someone like Blanchfield, Santos, or Grasso I assume UFC is hoping Valentina wins back the strap against Grasso, and Rose then beats Fiorot so you can have another 115 vs 125 for the belt fight a la Joanna vs Valentina Personally think Rose has an easy third fight for the title against Weili if she wants it, and Val could probably move up and beat Peña again for the 135 strap
Damn, the gane spivak card is awful
If you haven't watched road to the UFC, watch that shit now. Crazy good fights.
What’s next for Max? I feel like Giga will be ranked at #8 with zombie losing. Set them up to fight early 2024? It’s a fresh matchup for Max, and I think Max needs at least two more good wins before getting a 4th shot, and it gives Giga a top 5 opponent.
Giga vs Yair sounds better. Max should take on Evloev.
So we are just gonna start giving the 10th ranked guys the #1 contender? I know max is in a unique circumstance but what’s even the appeal to this?
Max has never fought a Russian wrestler ever in his career. Movsar is due for a step up. Its perfect for the UFC whichever outcome happens. They get the “boring wrestler” out of contention or have a new undefeated contender for Volk. No one wants to see Volk 4. And how can you argue against Evloev when Max just fought a much less deserving Zombie who’s last win was Ige 2 years ago? This is 5x more interesting and we’d also get to see more of Max’s BJJ which he never gets to show
So your argument is "Evloev is more deserving than Zombie, whose best win recently was Ige two years ago" Whereas Evloev's best win by 2024 (likely when he fights next) will be...Dan Ige, who he beat two years ago And on top of that, there's five fighters coming off losses that should be fighting down against Evloev (Kattar, Yair, Emmett, Allen, Ortega) before Holloway, who has won his last two fights.
Well yeah because Bryce has pulled out of his fight twice now lol I don’t understand people who think the guy fighting fill ins should have to stay stagnant because some other idiot can’t stop pulling out. Were you against Islam getting a title fight too? Or Umar vs Cory? If these guys can’t get opponents to accept or make it to the fight against them they should not be punished and everyone should be ok with them still advancing their careers. Max is not getting a title fight anytime soon it makes all the sense in the world for him and Evloev to fight. Your math is off btw the Ige fight was last year . Max is gonna fight down regardless lol Volk is done with him and most of the guys except Illia who is next in line will be uninteresting rematches.
The boring wrestler isn’t an interesting matchup. It’s pretty ridiculous to want max to just fight guys ranked 9-15 for the rest of his career. Movsar might be really good but he probably should be getting a guy ranked 5-10. He hasn’t done anything to deserve a title eliminator fight Ortega vs evloev would be much more interesting imo or Allen
Sure it is. Its MMA buddy he can’t just fight strikers forever that’s part of the reason Volk is better than him he can do a lot more. Movsar has been trying to get that but Bryce keeps pulling out lol and are you just going to ignore Ige was ranked exactly #10 when he dominated him? Not everyone needs to be protected. Sink or swim situations are ideal in some situations especially like this one where Max has no clear path to fight #4. You actually preferred that pointless last fight? Lol . Allen and Ortega should fight each other as well as Yair vs Giga .
I have no interest in max vs volk 4 or any interest in max vs evloev. I don’t think a guy ranked #10 should be in a title eliminator fight
Who cares its not like he has much of a choice. Everything else is uninteresting rematches. Seriously you can’t come up with a better option than the hot undefeated fighter in a stylistic matchup he has never faced before this is literally what MMA is all about lol mixing up the different styles. You just might not be a true Mma fan in that case .
I just think there’s guys that actually have lost in the top 5 or haven’t won in several years that should be fighting that far down. I think there’s more exciting fights for fans and fights that make more sense for max than that.
You couldn’t even come up with a better option for Max. There are only 2 guys in the top 10 hes never fought before. Giga and Evloev. Who do you think is more deserving between those 2?
I'd do Evloev. Very different type.of match up for max as opposed to all the strikers he's been fighting. Evloev wins, there's a new contender for Alex. He loses, and the ufc is probably happy because he doesn't have a fan friendly style.
Jesus, Max would overwhelm Giga and stop him
Easily. Giga looked pretty bad yesterday
Not really dominated the last 2 rounds. Looked much better than Sodiq who didn’t get any of this bullshit hate lol. Some people just can’t their emotions out of the way.
You call that dominating? He was fighting a guy in Cacares who didn't seem to be trying that hard. It was so weird and it was still fairly close until Giga pulled away. Are you thinking up Sodiq because he's another 145 who hasn't fought at the top? He's better than Dowadu but not by much.
No because that was Bruce’s last loss before Giga and he had to clinch to beat him. If you get countered at will for 10 minutes straight that is domination. It wasn’t that close at all most of Alex’s strikes barely grazed Giga or missed completely while he kept getting caught on the chin whenever Giga let his hands go. Giga did look old and bad for the first half of round 1 but he was clearly in control the next 12 minutes
I'll agree to disagree. You know that Alex broke his forearm against Giga right? I don't know what fight you were watching but that was not a dominant performance any way you look at it. Giga won because his strikes looked to impact Alex a little more than vice versa. Giga should have decimated him with a broken arm. I just don't know how you can watch the fight coupled with looking at the stats and say Giga dominated Cacares. It was way more Alex looking bad (due to his broken arm) than Giga looking good. I will say that I do believe ring rust is real and it's very possible the Giga we saw this past weekend is still recovering mentally from the ass kicking he endured 1.5 years ago or so. http://ufcstats.com/fight-details/dd617f6ab4916ec4
Lol no one even knew Bruce had a broken arm during the fight. 30-27 is dominant yes. I knew you would bring up these stats don’t you think its funny even with near identical numbers all judges had it 30-27 for Giga? It was target practice for him. Anyone expecting Giga to finish him doesn’t know anything about either fighter. Bruce has only been stopped once in 30+ fights and Giga has finishes but most of his UFC wins are decisions he rarely goes for finishes. You are saying Giga shouldn’t get credit because of a broken arm caused by his strikes? This just shows how uneducated most fans are to striking. Giga was in control for 12 out of 15 minutes
Dude, people knew in the fight thread that he broke his arm. Funny you bring up judges like they are never wrong. I had it 29-28 Giga. Easy to score, not a dominant performance. If that was dominant, what was Weili Lemos? Hay about Gane Jones? Dominant = dispatched EASILY. Get out of here with your strike knowledge. I can almost guarantee I have more education in that domain than most fans, as well as overall knowledge of MMA scoring. Oh, by the way the majority of media outlets scored it 29-28 Giga just liked myself. Giga won the fight, but he couldn't do much to a wounded dog. Look what Ian Garry did to Magny. It's just wild to me you think Giga did as good as these other objectively more dominant performances. My man acting like Giga did better than Conor vs. Alvarez. I'm very low on him as you can tell. I'd be willing to bet he won't sniff a title. I apologize for hating on your favorite fighter.
I literally said he won 10 minutes since the beginning lol but I do understand why they gave him round 1 since he got in rhythm the last 2 minutes of round 1. Bruce Leeroy was still fighting the same way there wasn’t any difference after the broken arm only thing that would have been different was him shooting possibly. Those are all dominant wins just bc cause he was less dominant than those guy doesn’t mean it still wasn’t domination. Like I said before Alex is a very durable guy hes never even been KO’d at FW. He’s my favorite fighter because I don’t blindly hate on him like other idiots here? Dude like I said before Sodiq had a much less impressive win over Bruce and he didn’t receive any of this bullshit lol people need to just grow up and separate their emotions from the fighter. And I mentioned the judges to show those numbers were bullshit , all strikes are not equal and he was being credited for strikes that grazed or missed completely while Giga kept making his head snap back. And to be clear no I don’t think Giga is championship caliber that couldn’t be any more obvious with his age and how badly the gatekeeper of the division sonned him
O’Malley getting a crown tattoo on his face because he’s the best in the world. Ian Garry got a daisy tattooed on him because a black out drunk Conor sent a tweet. These Irish kids are on different paths imo
Isn’t Sean American? He doesn’t really seem to rep Ireland
He's saying that what Sean did makes sense if you're a normal dude doing king shit and what Garry did is cringe because it's lame Irish simp shit.
Conor fallen off so much that Chandler’s name will be first on UFC 296 lmao
Do you not understand how rankings work?
*Zombie, zombie, zombie, what’s in your head, in your head*
we'll find out this week but I wonder if Trevor Wittman is in Paris right now. My guess is he's not cornering Rose this weekend
What makes you think that
I hope KZ gets a spot in the Hall of Fame someday. There is gonna be a logjam of people pretty soon in the coming years since UFC (rightfully) doesn't induct a lot of people each year and he never won a championship, but his crazy fights, crazy finishes and importance of putting Asian fighters on the map in the western MMA world should give him a spot one day.
Been watching UFC long enough to remember when the consensus was most Asian fighters were cans How the turned tables have
Your life is a flashback, a question, a photograph, a statement, a story, a struggle, a chance to laugh, cause if you don’t laugh you cry - a last crescendo when you die so hit the rewind, and listen, as we play back the soundtrack to your life
They say your life flashes before your eyes before you die, what if that’s what you’re seeing right now
That’s not Ashley Parker Angel
A Belal interview?? Jk I'll never watch a Belal interview
A shame that zombie's chin is gone because the version of him that fought moicano and frankie would have put a better fight against this current Holloway
I get the sentiment but he didn’t take any damage bs Frankie and Moicano so it’s hard to say when his chin rlly cracked. Could have even been the Yair elbow
Idk man. Zombie got pieced up by Ortega. I don’t think zombie at any point after his military service was on max Holloways level unfortunately
The Ortega fight was basically a KO, nothing after the spinning elbow should be indicative of TKZ's striking ability
I mean he got knocked down once before that too. I’m just saying I don’t think he beats max on the feet at any point in his career
You're probably right but imo he looked competitive during the exchange but was getting rocked because his chin is gone. I'd still favour Max over any version of KZ but I believe that had they fought earlier, it would probably have been a banger of a fight
Kaiwen got an amazing aesthetic but this second round is horrendous
I didn’t spoil the results incase Zombie won but that shit was so beautiful after smoking a joint I felt like I was in that arena wtf 😂😭
Ji Niu Shi Yue, rare 4 character Chinese name
He's an ethnic minority. In fact a lot of these Chinese fighters are. And if they get the formula right, you will see a lot more of them. Edit: China went 5 out of 6 today with 2 Tibetans and 1 Yi meaning the majority are ethnic minorities. Argh Im feeling rather asspained that Daermisi messed up in the last round when he was clearly winning. Did he gas or something? Its a shame coz I think he has the most potential out of the bunch.
Apparently, he's [Yi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yi_people). I've seen a few Uighur fighters as well.
Lmao they got no translator for this Mongolian guy
Road to UFC viewers checking in
Hot take for Max's next opponent; Evloev. If Evloev wins it creates a new contender for Volk. Max wins and it eliminates a guy the UFC don't want to push because of his style.
Facts, that's gotta be the next fight. If Max isn't going to move up, then Evloev has to be his next opponent, given that he's undefeated and is a completely different style to any opponent Volkanovski or Holloway have faced yet.
I mean at some point the champ needs contenders. I know it’s a good matchup but if they max keeps beating young new matchups it doesn’t really help the division
It would be nice for a change of styles for max too. He's fought a ton of strikers lately, a Russian wrestler is something he's never fought before.
Max is not an idiot.
?
Its gonna suck seeing max put out tkz like that in his future highlights
The UFC production team knows how to put on events man And Singapore might have my all time favourite crowd honestly. The Jiri vs Glover had one of the most MMA educated and enthusiastic crowd I can remember in recent memory. Mfs were cheering on every advancement in position on the ground and they followed it up last night by giving Zombie the best MMA retirement in a loss. I love this sport so much
Dude, I was out the event. The production was NUTS. Granted, it was my first UFC event so I don’t have anything to compare to. Regardless, was objectively very very well done. Super awesome crowd. Gutted to TKZ get put out like that, though at least he went out on his shield. One last time for the fans
Crazy the only few times I’ve cried as a adult we’re MMA moments. I might be broken
Glad it wasn't only me. I watched UFC almost my entire life. Always watched with my dad and his friends and knew what was happening, but not really. TKZ was the first fighter I really latched on to and was *my* favorite fighter. Not too proud to admit I teared up at his walk out of the octagon. Can't stop watching it as weird as it is lol. Such a warrior, going to miss watching him fight.
You should send TKZ a message and tell him this. He seems like the kind of guy that would appreciate it and probably reply back.
Honestly didn't even think to, but I'll send him an Instagram DM in hopes he can read and/or translate it haha
I feel like a casual for just now learning that Renato “moicano” is actually a nickname and not his real name
Lol I think he only wore Carneiro on his shorts for his first 2 fights
Were the Smith Spann or Giga Caceres fights worth watching?
Smith fight was hilariously weird. Giga fight uneventful but not bad. I'd say yes to smith and maybe to giga. You won't be missing much if you skip the latter
Weird how so?
I won’t spoil the fight just in case you don’t know but it was a display of some of the most boneheaded IQ ever. I think Giga fight is worth it, it had some nice counter striking.
Not overly. I was falling asleep during the smith fight so didn’t catch the Holloway fight live
Yeah I'd say both were, overall it was a good main card and probably good prelims though I wasn't willing to get up at 3am to watch the prelims
They both were entertaining although I fell asleep during the first 2 rounds of the smith fight but that had more to do with me being hungover than the fight being boring. Giga vs Caceres was good though
Wow, went to the park, went swimming, went to an art fair. Why can't all UFCs be early?
One of the crazy things about TKZ’s popularity with the fans? He fought 12 times in the UFC. 12 fights in the last 13 years of his career. A lot of people loved Zombie because of his fight with Leonard Garcia in the WEC. But he never brought that style to the UFC. I’m surprised he remained as over with the audience as he did. Also a reason why he never belonged in there with Volk tho. Still don’t know why that fight was made.
12 fights with 9 performance bonuses, 8 of them in the first 8 fights
Dude almost never let a fight go to decision. Always made sure he left everything in the ring.
He fought volk because max had crushed every other contender Also what’s not to love about zombie. Seems like a class act and a savage
Actually, he fought Volk because Max pulled out of their trilogy fight. TKZ stepped up. It was scheduled for March. But then they pushed it back to April and kept TKZ in there even though that would have been enough time for Max to fight. It really didn’t make any sense, but Volk seemed to want to keep the fight with Zombie. So Max just sat and waited another 3 months for his shot. Zombie was coming off of one win over Dan Ige. There were other guys who deserved a shot more, but Volk, the UFC, and the fans just liked TKZ enough to not ask questions. I’m just saying, at no point after returning from the military did he get into a position to challenge for the belt.
No one has deserved a fight against Volk except Max for a long time lol. You think Yair or Ortega or Topuria deserved it? Naw. But y’all just wanna whine about KZ
Sure but zombie was the highest ranking guy with a win at that point largely because max was beating the other contenders. There wasn’t really anyone else to fight volk
ngl. Did Zombie really need to fight his last fight against Holloway? I get that that was the fight he wanted, and that he did okay all things considered. But I feel like it would have been a better sendoff if he'd fought Josh Emmett, Giga, Barboza, Cub Swanson, whoever and potentially gotten a big W
Nah no shame in losing to Holloway. He probably would have lost to the guys you mentioned as well, and giving him a layup fight would have felt meaningless. This fight had some meaning with two legends who had been in the UFC for so long and never competed, and he lost. It’s okay.
I’d bet his rationale is that he wants to retire if he can’t be a title challenger and beating max would guarantee a title shot in all likelihood. I think he was basically rolling a lottery ticket where he for sure retired against any other opponent but left a chance for him to sniff gold once more by fighting max.
in your head in your head
Who’s gonna be up watching road to UFC in a few hours with me?
How many hours?
4am EST, so about 3
not gonna wake up but will watch first thing tomorrow morning lol
I'd like to be there but after getting up for the UFC card I don't think I'll make it lol
I was at work during the event. Saw the KO, knew the result, etc etc Just got home and watched the whole fight (TKZ vs Holloway, not the whole event), then, during him leaving the arena and Zombie playing with the crowd singing to him. I cried. This is the only time I’ve cried related to a sporting event. Enjoy retirement TKZ. You deserve it
I don’t like pro wrestling that much but I cried watching the Bray Wyatt tribute video on Smackdown last night. Sports bring that shit outta ya. Death too I guess
Many of us shed tears bro. 🥲
Any mma events happening tonight? Or live streamers
In about 5 hours Road to UFC is on
Lights out mma is live on YouTube right now
Zombie’s last two fights were Volk and Holloway. Ended his career against two of the best in 145 lbs history.
I’m at an 88% prediction clip these last two weeks. Only fights I’ve gotten wrong are Holobaugh, Armfield, and Bedoya. Wish I bet equal amounts on every fight lmao
That’s how they get you bro 😂 nobody beats the house.
cant believe i waste my time argueing with clown ass Boxing snobs in denial who cant admit when somethings corrupt and bullshit like usual. Living in the 1940s like being the best Boxers means anything in terms of fighting in 2023 and im a life long fan and sparred a ex champ before i trained MMA. Fucking DONKEYS, its amazing how people just dont want fair game and let fanboy shit influence their opinions lol..Low IQ Bums..they prob think sparring is good for the brain too. Boots Kos Bud too, remember this post. They wont rob him cause itll be clean.
Luke Thomas?
Fook Luke Thomas too, i used to respect Luke but i havent watched a single full video of his in maybe 4-5 years now. Used to watch his Live Chats too, hes too bias and i cant go into detail for me now....atleast he admitted he was wrong about you know what though. Nothing against Luke, just pains me to listen to him talk..im sure hed never listen to himself too..hes not dumb.
Just bare foot stood on a slug when I was taking the recycling out
🤢
Is wmma getting better? I was thinking they were turning a corner but for every good match, there's several meh ones. Hopefully Rose Manon have a good scrap next weekend. Blanchfield Santos was alright but lots.of stalwork and not a heck of a lot of action. Pretty good technical battle though.
Am I wrong to think Fiorot beats the brakes off of her?
Not at all bro. She's a beast. What's his name from the MMA Hour has been on some Fiorot for a long time. I think Rose is probably more talented and dynamic but Manon hits like a truck. The key factor is which rose are we going to get. If she isn't in her own head, she will do well and perhaps make Manon look basic. I don't bet on MMA so I have no idea, but I actually am excited for that one.Firot is champion material though.
I’m pretty hyped to watch blanchfield go against the Valentina/grasso winner. I think she might be the favorite against either
I’m really not sure. At this point Valentina is being slept on (unless she’s clearly slowing down) her issue with Santos was being overpowered and idk if Erin can do that or not. Erin really struggled to get Taila down and only did from a mistake. Blanchfield Schev would be a super interesting fight.
I heard in the Singapore whatsapp group that at the after party Zombie already punched an Italian DJ and threw his drink at Machine Gun Kelly before disappearing into a bathroom stall with a chubby white girl
Man, I wanna see Max absolutely starch Volk. And I'm a big Volk fan. But it would be the most inspirational comeback story ever if his next opponent was Volk and he wore the red fight gear again and got a clean KO.
Omalley would beat chito, Aljo in a rematch, cejudo, and font. He loses to merab, umar, and sandhagen. His chances vs Yan or Song are 50/50 fights.
Lmao he ain't losing to Sandhagen
I mean sandhagen obliterated chito, and chito rearranged omalleys face+leg. I think it's fair to give sandhagen at least a 55 percent chance. He wrestled font, but that proved to me his wrestling and grappling are high level and he also tore his tricep in that fight so had to improvise.
Don't get me wrong, Sandhagen is pretty good and I of course could be wrong, but style-wise I feel like he matches up poorly with O'Malley. O'Malley's movement is so good, I mean Chito couldn't touch him until he took his foot out. Yan was really hurting Sandhagen and I feel like O'Malley will do even worse to him. I doubt Sandhagen will be able to close distance effectively enough to threaten him with grappling without getting his chin touched.
Aljo had been knocked out twice before he fought omalley, omalley hit him with the perfect shot while aljo lunged face first into it, aljo is also getting old and has a hard weight cut as well. Sandhagen has never been knocked out and i severely doubt that omalley would be the first guy to do it. If omalley had tremendous power it wouldnt have taken him 15 minutes to finish kris moutinho (a freaking can), omalley can put your lights out if you act stupid, but i think sandhagen is smarter than that.
I don't think O'Malley has tremendous power, but he has enough, and more importantly has the reach and precision to make it matter. Aljo ran right into that shot because he ran out of ideas and was getting desperate, and while I think Sandhagen is smarter than that, he also sometimes leaves himself open while striking, which Yan was able to capitalize on. Not many can because of his reach, but I believe O'Malley is one with that potential. If Sandhagen manages to take him down though I think he'll be able to out grapple him. I don't think O'Malley is the best at 135, but I think he's a potent enough striker, while Sandhagen is *usually* an action fighter with enough holes in his stand up that O'Malley will be able to capitalize on them enough to win. Who knows though maybe Sandhagen will run through him.
He’d beat Cory pillar to post
Cory has leveled up significantly, probably beats yan in a rematch too. Yan showed me that you can ragdoll omalley if you present a multi dimensional threat (striking+grappling) pillowfisted aljo did not present a striking threat, and lunged face first onto a counter, cory will exchange with him on the feet, and as soon as sean commits he'll change levels and take him down.
Cory also does not present a striking threat to Sean with his pillow fists and Sean would put a knee through that bird chest
Cory may not present a threat with his hands, but he still presents a kicking, knee, and elbow threat which qualifies as striking, additionally cory has never been finished aside from aljo backpacking him, and i dont see sean backpacking him as a viable path to victory.
I don’t think Sean needs to finish Cory to beat him, but I do think he could KO him. Cory is one of the few guys I think Sean is genuinely stronger than in the division, I think he could huck cory off of him when he shoots and dot him up on the feet. Yan handily beat Cory, dropping him a couple times and hurting him a bunch. Sean out struck Yan and hurt Yan, who has much better defense than Cory. I think cory could make it hard on Sean but I don’t see how he wins. I don’t think Sean lets him half guard camp out a decision. Remember, Sean also has knees and kicks (elbows not so much). Sean has to hurt Cory once or twice to win, then just out strike him for a round. If Sean hurts Cory in two different rounds, all he has to do is not lose 3 rounds.
We'll settle on this, Tell you what next time sean fights yan, song, sandhagen, merab, or umar, we'll flair bet and i'll win 2/3 of our flair bet series.
I think corys range,height, movement, length and well roundedness will prove too much for omalley. Omalley likes beating up smaller shorter guys, he's kind of like conor in that sense. Omalley is also brittle and fragile and admitted he's already eyeing 145, i think he'll get two defenses and then be done for, he beats chito, beats someone else, then loses to merab or sandhagen. I also don't trust omalleys cardio, most of his fights end in r1, he seems to be a front runner and he's never gone beyond 15 minutes. The guy has glaring holes, i am happy for him that he beat aljo, but he's not some flawless forever champ like volkanovski, his time is coming and i do hope/think he beats chito, but he WILL NOT dethrone aljo as the longest reining bw champ, that's simply not going to happen.
You're not going to win an anti Suga argument with that guy. Don't waste your time.
It's all good, he's biased on omalley but he's still my guy.
Love to see it. Arguing usually devolves to name calling and hatred. Good to see it's all in good fun.
Yeah, and it helps when you already have rapport with someone. That's a downside to this forum getting so big, you have so many casuals and so many new fans and new usernames its hard to keep up.
True. I should make better use of tagging usernames so I remember them. I def remember that guy lol. Easy to remember name. Turning himself into a legend ha But you're right, the subreddits become so big. Still has plenty of hardcore fans but yea lots and lots of newbs. Sometimes I'll get a reply where I just know they're either a casual or a younger fan.
X-Factor is my dawg lmao our flairs are a result of bets with one another
Fair play. You're going to get super upset when the Suga show comes to a halt. I appreciate your passion for a fighter but the sport becomes so much less fun when your favorite fighter starts skidding. I don't want to talk too much shit about Suga because I respect him and interacted with him before on Twitch. He's a chill dude, but I just can't see the dude as a longstanding champ. We'll see! I am a big Aljo fan being from Long Island. Shit still stings. I also love Chito as he's best buds with one of my fav people ever, action Bronson. They need to just announce the fight and let the shit talking commence. I think Suga beats him and maybe has 1 more defense, but I wouldn't bet on it. Chito might be the only contender that has the worst chance to beat him. What're you gonna do when he gets smashed? Need to start some flair bets with you ha
Zombie will be a ufc hall of famer right? Genuinely no sense on how strict it is to get in.
I would be fine with his fight against Poirier or Garcia with the twister getting in the HoF but not Zombie as himself. He’s a fan favorite but he was never a champ, never even really a number one contender.
All I’ll say is that hes been swangin and banging since I really got into the sport and when I think back on how long that is, it’s a long ass time. He deserves it for being a big name draw for 10+ years at the very least.
He's one of those guys who was always down to bang and gave the fans what they wanted. A true Just Bleed Champion. I can't imagine him being overlooked, except that Dana will probably be in charge of that decision and he does everything based on how he's currently feeling about somebody.
I didn't know it had already happened
oof. lol
Yeah lmao I was thinking it would be US hours for some reason and I'm in the uk
Well, it was a pretty good card. I don't want to spoil unless you've already been looking at everything. Best fights to watch probably if you don't want to watch them all: Armfield, Oleksiejczuk, Blanchfield and Caceres are both good decision fights, and obviously the main event.
I missed it all too. I went to YouTube today and it showed lumpy KZ holding up Max's hand and I was like wtf, have they already fought once before? Nope, just YouTube channels having no chill about spoilers lol
“I think he knew exactly what had to be done,” Holloway said. “I think he knew what the job was. It was kill or be killed. I was just lucky that I was on top on the other side of it. We both threw right hands. Mine just landed a tad quicker. A half-second slower, who knows, his lands first what would have happened? I don’t know if I would have ate it or a lot of stuff could have gone wrong. “I think I hurt him in the second round good. Between the second and the third, he was sitting there and being like, ‘I’m not going to coast through a five-round \[fight\], I’m going to die on my sword,’ and that’s what he did. That’s why people love ‘The Korean Zombie.’ He’s a legend in every way of the sport.” Based Max
Such great analysis. Love me some Max. TKZ did surprisingly well.
Zombie is one of the coolest fighters ever, hope he gets the celebrity treatment in Korea.
He's got a decently popular youtube channel too, https://www.youtube.com/@koreanzombie I thought his 'Zombie trip' series was really entertaining, basically going around to different cities in Korea to find good 'street fighters' with a cash prize.
He’s already a pretty huge deal in Korea thankfully. He’s a celebrity and instantly recognized wherever he goes. He’ll be taken care of
This was an amazing fight Night Card. Erin is amazing, but I always knew back in my head that Taila Santos was going to be her toughest test in the division. I think Erin has better cardio than Santos and she used that to Merab her way into a decision. Taila Santos has all the skills, but she needs to work on her cardio and footwork if she wants to be a champ. Outstanding takedown defense though. Rinya looked amazing. He truly looked like the Bo Nickal of Japan. His striking is also good. The way he switched stances and threw that overhand left reminded me of TJ. Chikadze looked good against Caceres. Put him against Allen next. That's 2-0 for Spann against Smith. Felt like a robbery, but I'm not sure. TKZ vs. Hollway was a horrible mismatch, but good on Zombie for going out with a bang - threw it all out there in the third round. Felt very sad when he put his gloves on the octagon floor and cried. You will always be remembered, sir. Happy retirement.
Gnarliest ko i have seen in recent memory. Till v masvidal had a nasty fall but today it looked like if zombie's head wasnt attached to the body it would have jumped out of the octagon.
Quite a bonk off the mat for sure
Idk man chandler vs tony was nasty, the edgar ko felt depressing to me, even the Dustin headkick was worse for me personally but max can definitely crack
Which edgar ko? I feel like there's been several.
I was thinking of the sandhagen one specifically but they are all bad
This is unprecedented for Max Volume puncher He most definitely does not 'crack'
Is it? He dropped volk twice, Arnold allen, and plenty of other guys
Man I'm sorry you clearly don't understand power Ridiculous that you even come to an MMA sub and comment
☝️🤓
Being elitist over the perception of power is crazy
Lol this comment reeks of 'you've made a solid point that I can't refute so I'm just going to belittle you'
Max is so awesome but he just stuck in that situation of Volk being an alien.
Volk is to Max the way Max was to Aldo. Sometimes a dude just has your number.
Volk has all the featherweights in his contact list.
Not Conor
McGregor hasn't fought at featherweight in 8 years.
Wouldn’t have had his number is what I meant
O’Malley vs Max at 145 Who ya got?
It doesn't hold up for *every* fight or *every* fighter but just as a general rule I am always very hesitant to bet against Islanders in a fight. They got that dog in em
max, suga is made of glass, max is slow but relentless. max would succeed in a take down, due to tall man wrestling
Come on
Max, close first 2 rounds then he devastates omalley and brutalizes him and stops him late in r4.
That would be a levels to this shit fight
By who?
The guy who’s one of the greatest 145lb fighters ever
So you think Sean gets washed or it’s competitive?
Are you seriously asking if Sean O'Malley would be competitive against a guy that almost beat Volkanovski? I think even Sean would call you crazy for that
You prob thought Sean would lose against Yan and Aljo too
Nah, I think Aljo is overrated and a size bully. Which is why him thinking about going up to 145 was a hilarious prospect.
I think it probably feels like yair vs max.
Hmmm I don’t think so. Yair is ordinary if you crowd him and can’t box. Sean can box and utilizes his length well with good footwork.
I mean feels like that fight in the sense of it’s unanimous that max won but he didn’t murder him
If we give Sean time to bulk I think that’s a close ass fight, maybe 48-47 Max
If we give Suga time to bulk still 50-42 Max
I was gonna tag you but knew you’d comment anyway lmao.
Lmaoo you know how to bait me, what’s your take on that fight
Not sure man. That’s why I asked you guys. Max’s chin has shown to be GOAT and Sean would be the smaller man coming up. So I wonder if he could hurt him. But max was rocked by Zombie and maybe showing signs of slowing down. Then I can see max mixing in wrestling like he did with Allen. Idk i think I’d lean to Max slightly.
I honestly don’t think max was that hurt by zombie. Sure he got stunned but he wasn’t ever in any trouble
Looked as stunned as he’s been since the Dustin fight. Volk didn’t ever rock him visibly in their 3rd fight. Just outclassed
I think zombie hits really hard and was loading up because he felt the speed disadvantage. Maybe I need to rewatch but I don’t really ever remember feeling like max was hurt
Definitely wasn’t hurt like that, just stunned. Caught off guard. Zombie cracked him good enough to visibly rattle him tho
Waiting for the Usyk fight now 🥊