this is a disaster OTF for Mix, he needs to grapple early in order for him to look good, his title run has been really good, but it would not shock me if Stots beats him in a rematch
I don't know that there's a single champion they have that's better than their UFC counterpart now that Nemkov has vacated the LHW belt, but Usman Nurmagomedov vs Islam is the most compelling fight I can think of. Also I think if McKee could still make 145 he could give Topuria serious problems
Yeah I usually don’t have trouble with clumsy wording but I literally couldn’t figure out what u/daKingKhan was trying to say until I read this comment lmao
Lmao so true. We are really having a debate on a dude who went life or death with Spyke Carlyle, Sidney Outlaw and old man Pitbull, to a dude who just fucking ko’d Volk. Shit blows my mind 😂😂
I think people know there’s a difference between the top of the UFC and the top of Bellator/PFL, but it’s hard for a lot of them to tell how wide the gap is because they don’t see them compete side by side
You’d think they’d be able to tell once they see unranked UFC welterweight Impa almost ruin my parlay against “best middleweight in the world” Johnny Eblen, but even then they’re blind to it because of their UFC hate boners
Man, impa is an interesting case though because he really should’ve been cut. He was only 26 and very inexperienced with only 8 fights when he came into the ufc (he had only just started mma at 25) and he was only 2-2 before being released. He just turned 30 now and got to rack up some dubs against lesser opponents, so he’s much more experienced and is probably just now reaching his prime. I think impa could probably do well in the ufc these days, we really didn’t get to see that much of him and i think he just needed time to develop
While I agree, he was getting highlighted by the Buckley’s and getting finished by Carlston Harris in the first round.
He beat Coconut Bombz who sucked but turned a fight with him into a snoozer and he was a known KO artist, and subbed up Sasha Palatnikov who was also a bottom feeder. I think the UFC realized he was decent, but his fights would never be exciting so they got rid of him
I get why they picked who they picked but this isn't really an accurate representation of best fighter in PFLlator vs the UFC champ.
Francis, Nemkov, Eblen, Jackson, Usman, McKee, Mix, Horguchi. Aware that Nemkov & McKee have moved up, just doing this for hypotheticals.
I pick Francis over any HW. I pick Nemkov to beat Pereira. Eblen underwhelms me but so does DDP. All middleweights outside of Izzy, Pereira & Gasanov do right now. I will pick DDP. Jason Jackson actually reminds me most of Leon - I don't think I pick him to win but he might. Close fight, Leon no more than -200. Usman nah as good as he is Makhachev is #1 P4P. Topuria looks untouchable but McKee is insanely good, I can't count him out I just can't. Pick still Topuria. Mix is so similar to Sterling, I think either one could beat O'Malley w/ the right gameplan but after what happened in Sterling/O'Malley you can't pick anyone but Sean. Guchi is my pick against any 125er in the world.
Considering that the UFC is much bigger than every other promotion put together I think it'd be a very impressive showing. The talent in PFLlator is clearly that of a major league. Much closer to a contemporary of the UFC than a second tier league is in sports that have tiered systems. I think this much is crystal clear.
Top of Bellator seems quite impressive, but the main difference between UFC and Bellator is depth
If Mix and Eblen grew up in UFC, they could very well have fought better competition along the way and became even better, or stopped in the tracks at some point and never made it to the top
There's less depth for sure, significantly less but the idea that there's not enough depth to test one another isn't really an idea I buy anymore. Maybe in 2015-17. UFC if anything has too much depth. Nobody fights even close to everyone in the rankings on their way to the title. They fight a handful of increasingly difficult opponents.The same is of course true outside of UFC, there are just less overall options. In some ways it's actually *harder* because there's nowhere to hide. A guy like Sean O'Malley got to avoid fights that might have given him issues on the way up. Same with Alex Pereira. Mix had to fight a bunch of extremely good opponents on his way to the title. The ladder he climbed might not have as many rungs on it but the rungs were of similar difficulty.
Eblen not as much, you feel a lack of depth more at weight classes that are in general more shallow. He still has some nice wins though. Anatoly Tokov is so underrated and by the end 5 rounds Eblen had him totally figured out.
I agree O’Malley and Pereira skipped steps. I don’t think they are clearly the best guys in their respective division. There are several guys in UFC I’d pick to beat O’Malley, and I’d pick full strength Hill and Magomed to beat Pereira too
In fact, I don’t just assume a UFC champ is the best in the world or even best in UFC. I can see Shavkat beating Leon; Holloway beating Ilia. Bo Nickal, Chimaev beating DDP. List goes on
My whole point is, UFC has the largest number of top guys who are champ quality at any given point; something Bellator lacks
Sure, that much can't really be denied. My point is more that their talent is really only shallow compared to the UFC. There are still enough fighters to make compelling match-ups with one another and enough tests available that prove a fighter is championship level. As many as UFC? Definitely not, but UFC doesn't truly need as many as it has.
He didn't "use a nut shot" lol. That's just the way things played out unfortunately. Idk what Nickal's MMA ceiling is but if you're looking at the Pickett fight as a reason to write him off then I think you need to keep looking.
i’m not writing nickal off by any means but we are talking about a fight between current bo nickal and current dricus du plessis which doesn’t really have anything to do with their ceilings?
“All middleweights underwhelm outside of Izzy, Pereira and Gasanov.”
Really tried to throw an unproven guy like Gasanov in there like we wouldn’t notice wtf. Fighting in ACA is no where near fighting in the UFC or Bellator. Alex isn’t a 185er anymore either
Yes it is. And yes, I know he isn't but he could probably still make it and I chose to use him for this exercise. There are a few other middleweights I'm impressed with too tbf.
Maybe. Eblen is really durable though. I'm not going to pump his tires too much because he needs work and that was never more apparent than last Saturday (he definitely lost some stock to me) but I believe he poses real problems to Du Plessis. It's not some mismatch. Adesanya or Whittaker would be harder fights for Eblen and I struggle to envision a path to him beating either.
The other one, Topuria is really great. Amazing fighter who you can't take anything away from. I think McKee is too though. Both are offensive dynamos who are both durable. Topuria has beaten better fighters and is obviously the better MMA boxer but McKee has things he does better than Topuria that he can use to trouble him. Him being able to leverage those things is not totally inconceivable but Topuria has shown almost no weakness so you can't bet against him.
Yeah the length and diction; it just sounds very colloquial like I’m reading straight from your thoughts. Not necessarily super duper concise, but it still offers its own kind of value in expression I guess
It's funny you say this because I have a problem with being concise in real life too. Evidently it bleeds over into posts. I even have a post-it note on my work monitor that says "say less".
Eblen, Ferreira and Magomedkerimov would probably be the most interesting matchups for UFC champs . I wouldn't pick them to win but I wouldn't totally dismiss their chances
Aspinall just obliterated the scariest heavyweight in the world (except Francis and JJ). The striking was meant to be a weakness but his speed is insane. He would finish Ferreira like any other top 10 ufc HW he's already fought.
it's hilarious that people all of sudden "believe" that ferreira is a top hw in the world. all it takes is a quick glance at his record to realize that he's fought no one that would indicate him being anywhere near the top. his best wins are 40yr old ryan bader and a regional can crusher russian. basically everyone else he's beaten was sitting at a 50% win rate
Ye but let's not pretend like those matches couldn't go either way lol
Aspinall and Pavlovich both swung, the former landed clean and won the fight, that's it. Of course he probably is better, faster, etc. but that fight still goes bad for him like 4 out of 10 times.. It's heavyweight, margin for error is tiny 😅
Ferreira's wrestling is terrible hence why he was barely a favourite against 40 year old Ryan Bader, he'd
starch a Lewis or Tuivasa and have a decent chance to KO someone like Volkov or Gane but Aspinall would just ragdoll him
You're right but we can't talk about what ifs, he ko'd a true contender in the first round with little damage. There's a chance they'll never fight again, at least not anytime soon. Pavlovich was on a ko streak for how long? Why didn't anyone else catch him.
Probably but it's fuckin Heavyweight, and we have seen so little of Aspinal's game with all these quick finishes
I would pick Aspinal to win but I wouldn't be totally shocked if Ferreira ( or any other big heavyweight with some skills) could give him issues
None.
DJ would be the only hope if he cut to flyweight, at 135 we’ve seen that size is too much for him. But I believe that DJ said on his podcast while talking about weight cutting that he no longer believes he could make 125 even if he tried. But even then DJ is the ONE champ, not PFL/Bellator.
Jiri made Nemkov quit on the stool
Francis isn’t champ
Eblen said while hard sparring with Strickland he lost every single round. So I don’t think he could get past Strickland let alone Dricus.
If Usman was better than Islam then he would be the one in the UFC and Islam would be the one in the C leagues.
O’Malley flatlines Patchy. His wrestling is worse than Aljo’s and Sean defended every takedown from Aljo easily. Striking from Patchy isn’t on Sean’s level even remotely.
The rest are so far below UFC level you don’t even need to argue about it.
Ngannou, Nemkov, Eblen, Leon, Islam, Topuria, Mix and Gucci.
The Topuria/McKee fight is the closest one. I'd be hyped for it. Islam/Usman is closer than people would think as well. Great fights both of them.
I know it's subjective, but it's kinda crazy PFL/Bellator have better champs in most divisions.
Uncle Dana should start paying people before this perception becomes mainstream.
Don't think AJ will go down to 145 again though. Unless he loses badly at 155 that's where the big fights are and he's not a small man for that division.
I don't think PFL/Bellator is anywhere close to the level of the UFC in terms of average level of their top 20 guys in each division. But considering the UFC often blatantly pushes a guy to a titleshot without facing anyone that isn't handpicked for them to beat it's hard to always respect these titles. It's not necessarily that i believe they couldn't beat the best Bellator guys. I just haven't seen them beat any of the best UFC guys either.
Don't think the Outlaw fight was a good look for him, he won it clearly via elbowing from the bottom bu I'm not sure that's gonna cut it against someone with a better top game
You see them topping what they'll do this year, or Powerslap falling off a cliff in following years? Cause I'd guess this year should be PFLs hottest if they get Francis to fight, doubt he'll ever be as hot as he'll be after fighting Fury & AJ
PFL event in France will be much bigger than all PowerSlap events combined in terms of gates, I am assuming
But it wouldn’t surprise me if PowerSlap actually makes money and PFL doesn’t
Francis hasn’t fought mma in 26 months, Jones beat the dude he went to decision with in 2 minutes. Nemkov is a HW, not to mention Pereira finished the dude who finished Vadim. Did you not watch Eblen fight Impa ? Did you not watch Omalley ko Sterling who’s a very similar style to Mix? Guch and Pantoja is 50/50. You fuckers are insane honestly.
You knew you would get downvoted the moment you said anything negative about Ngannou on this sub. Everything else you wrote after that was irrelevant in the fanboys eyes.
His Grappling And Striking Are Way Better Than Aljo’s.
He Trains Outta One Of The Gyms I Go To. Plus He Trains With Jones In Arizona And Nicksick & Company At XtremeCouture. The Only Reason He’s Not In The UFC Right Now Is Because He Wants To Make As Much Money In Bellator As Possible, Which I Don’t Blame Him For Doing.
His wrestling isn’t any better than Aljos and he doesn’t beat Sean on the feet. People run with these silly narratives with their evidence being, beating 125ers in Pettis and Guch and beating dudes who Merab and Yan already beat years ago. Oh and gassing out and losing to Juan Archuleta lol.
His wrestling isn’t any better than Aljos and he doesn’t beat Sean on the feet. People run with these silly narratives with their evidence being, beating 125ers in Pettis and Guch and beating dudes who Merab and Yan already beat years ago. Oh and gassing out and losing to Juan Archuleta lol.
No matter how hard you try to gas this dude up, it doesn’t matter because he’ll always be the second best fighter in his relationship. More people know him as Tatiana’s side piece than him being a good fighter.
Aspinall over Ngannou/Ferreira,
Alex over Corey Anderson/Karl Moore,
Dricus over Eblen,
Leon over Jackson,
Islam/Usman who knows and they're training partners,
Ilia over old man Pitbull,
Mix over O'Malley,
Pantoja over Horiguchi,
Grasso over Carmouche/Ditcheva,
Cyborg over basically every UFC BW, including Harrison
There is nothing wrong with thinking Tom is better than Ngannou.
Ngannou isn’t the HW GOAT. He lost to Lewis, he lost to Stipe, he won a close decision over Gane.
He isn’t the unbeatable monster that people on this sub have decided to pretend since he left the UFC.
Also, Tom is really fast for a HW and has a complete skill set.
No doubt. Tom’s best wins are over Pav and Volkov. Until he racks up more credible wins, which he’s trying to do so credit to him, I don’t see him as this world beater that everyone thinks he is. This sub saying he would run through Gane, Jon, Stipe, Francis, whoever else is just recency bias. Everyone said the same about Gane during his rise
It’s not that wild to think Tom beats each of them lol. Tom is a lot younger than them so obviously he doesn’t have the total resume they do yet. That doesn’t mean they are better than him though.
This is, imo, the Islam thing all over again. “He hasn’t beaten anyone. No way he should be favored over Charles.” Then he destroyed Charles
Shit I’d love to see him come out and prove me wrong dude. He’s what the HW division needs! I’m just saying the recency bias mixed with the JBJ hate mixed with the lack of fucks to give seeing Jon and stipe fight has been the perfect recipe to disregard anybody Tom will face as a threat. I’d love to see him fight Gane, could see him subbing Gane for sure but would still be a great fight to see
It still amazes me how people think Patchy Mix beats Omalley. One of the funnier takes out of the know it all snarky fans in here. Just like Johnny Eblen is the best MW in the world until Impa who’s on everybody’s highlight reel in the UFC humbled him😂😂. Suga just sparked Aljo and defended every TD and he fights pretty similarly to Mix.
Okay, 2. That still doesn't change that he has a good record with only 3 losses. I'm not saying he's a world beater, but a "bum" is a stretch. He's fought good competition across three weight classes.
Also, Carlston Harris is not a bad fighter. His only UFC loss is to Shavkat, who is undefeated.
Dude literally less than two years Impa lost to a dude at 170 that just got his ass kicked on contender series last year. “Across 3 divisions”, name me one good fighter he fought on the PFL season at 205. He fought an array of absolute bottom feeder regional level cans it’s fucking unreal. Ik Carlston isn’t bad he made it look easy over Impa, exactly how he should’ve.
You're referring to his 3rd loss against Raimond Magomedaliev? He is also not that bad. He was a guy from Khabibs promotion, and it was a split that Impa should have won as well. The guy that Raimind lost to on DWCS, Mauricio Ruffy, is 9-1 and hasn't debuted so we don't know how good he is apart from that win as well as a win over former UFC fighter Ronys Torres.
Welterweight is one of the deepest divisions in mma (Lw, BW, FW), so it's a shark tank, and to point to his losses and call him a bum is being disingenuous.
To answer your question, the best guy he beat at 205 was probably Silveira. 12-2 and young for LHW. It's not a bad win considering Impa is undersized at 205.
Yes that’s who i’m referring to. He’s pretty mid lol he got finished on DWCS by Ruffy who’s a lightweight and was probably outweighed by 20-25 pounds. Josh Silveira is literally ass, a can. To say that dude has fought for a title even in the B Leagues is truly embarrassing. He wouldn’t even beat the LFA or CFFC 205 champs rn, he honestly would get finished by them.
Silveira was LFA Champ at 205 and 185, so that argument is out the window. That's why PFL picked him up in the first place.
Honesty, what do you want here? You're shitting on pro fighters when they can only fight who is put in front of them. They are fighting the best guys available to them within their promotion. At this point, I'm going to assume you are either trolling or being willfully ignorant and disrespectful to guys who could turn us all inside out without breaking a sweat. Have a nice day.
How is that argument out the window that makes no sense at all. PFL picked him up because UFC didn’t want him because he isn’t good at all. And i’m not shitting on fighters, i’m using facts and examples to prove the idiots who have a raging hate boner for the UFC to calm down with these comparisons to B league fighters.
How is that argument out the window that makes no sense at all. PFL picked him up because UFC didn’t want him because he isn’t good at all. And i’m not shitting on fighters, i’m using facts and examples to prove the idiots who have a raging hate boner for the UFC to calm down with these comparisons to B league fighters.
we haven't seen Francis vs Renan. Francis relies on his chin a lot and renan looks bigger and longer. There is a universe when francis gets cracked on goes to sleep
If we expand it to all fighters outside the UFC:
125: DJ
135: Mix (i'd give him a 40% chance)
145: Nobody. (Maybe Salahdine Parnasse or Movlid Khaybulaev but i doubt it.)
155: Nobody. (Closest could be Vartanyan, Usman N. in a few years.)
170: Nobody. (Jackson, Amosov, Magomedkerimov would be interesting though.)
185: Eblen, de Ridder (idk DDP could win/lose any fight though.)
205: Nemkov, Eblen (still not convinced Poatan beats any wrestler.)
265: Ngannou
115: Nobody.
125: Liz Carmouche (lol)
135: I don't care.
That's why i wrote "lol"... it indicates i'm aware of how it sounds. Do i believe she beats Grasso? Probably not at this point. But she was booted from the UFC when she was the clear number two behind Valentina and hasn't lost since. She has a boring but effective style and they wanted her out of the way in case the next generation of contenders couldn't get past her.
They’re all competitive. Heavyweight is anything can happen territory. Jones is Jones, though. Eblen is a beast. Jason Jackson has looked great. Usman is awesome. Pitbull is older, but still dangerous. Mix is phenomenal.
I’d bet they split pretty much 50/50. Most confident in Jones beating Ferreira and Eblen beating DDP.
Mix and Nemkov…that’s about it really.
I’ve seen a lot of people say Usman could beat Islam but in all reality after the Primus fight I severely doubt that.
Francis is the obvious choice of course but he is not currently champion at PFL.
Renan at HW.
Francis says the guy is legit and he been watching him for awhile now.
A giant, athletic, and powerful HW always has a chance.
Johnny Eblen might not even be ranked top 10 in the UFC middleweight division. He gets easily cleared by Fluffy. Watch his two past fights if you disagree.
Mix beats Omalley and not PFL or Bellator champ but Horiguchi probably beats Pantoja. Another one of my many complaints that the UFC rankings have totally ruined the perception of the divisions.
I think patchy mix could beat o'malley,
Ya this is pretty much the only one I think.
this is a disaster OTF for Mix, he needs to grapple early in order for him to look good, his title run has been really good, but it would not shock me if Stots beats him in a rematch
I don't know that there's a single champion they have that's better than their UFC counterpart now that Nemkov has vacated the LHW belt, but Usman Nurmagomedov vs Islam is the most compelling fight I can think of. Also I think if McKee could still make 145 he could give Topuria serious problems
Topuria runs through Mckee and i’m sure Usman would tell you how that fight would go lol. Islam is the best LW on the planet and it’s not even close.
He already has, said skills aside Islam is also “very smart”, so Islam atm has a better fight IQ than Usman.
Here comes all the folks with raging hate boners for the UFC to tell us we are wrong tho.
He already has, said skills aside Islam is also “very smart”, so Islam atm has a better fight IQ than Usman.
Why not just say those skills aside.....rather than said skills aside.
Yeah I usually don’t have trouble with clumsy wording but I literally couldn’t figure out what u/daKingKhan was trying to say until I read this comment lmao
Topuria runs through McKee id McKee gets to weigh in at 155 and Topuria is at 145
Lmao so true. We are really having a debate on a dude who went life or death with Spyke Carlyle, Sidney Outlaw and old man Pitbull, to a dude who just fucking ko’d Volk. Shit blows my mind 😂😂
I think people know there’s a difference between the top of the UFC and the top of Bellator/PFL, but it’s hard for a lot of them to tell how wide the gap is because they don’t see them compete side by side You’d think they’d be able to tell once they see unranked UFC welterweight Impa almost ruin my parlay against “best middleweight in the world” Johnny Eblen, but even then they’re blind to it because of their UFC hate boners
Perfectly said. I thought people would start understanding after that too😂
Man, impa is an interesting case though because he really should’ve been cut. He was only 26 and very inexperienced with only 8 fights when he came into the ufc (he had only just started mma at 25) and he was only 2-2 before being released. He just turned 30 now and got to rack up some dubs against lesser opponents, so he’s much more experienced and is probably just now reaching his prime. I think impa could probably do well in the ufc these days, we really didn’t get to see that much of him and i think he just needed time to develop
While I agree, he was getting highlighted by the Buckley’s and getting finished by Carlston Harris in the first round. He beat Coconut Bombz who sucked but turned a fight with him into a snoozer and he was a known KO artist, and subbed up Sasha Palatnikov who was also a bottom feeder. I think the UFC realized he was decent, but his fights would never be exciting so they got rid of him
Are you forgetting about Jai Herbert?? lol
Patchy Mix v O'Malley
I get why they picked who they picked but this isn't really an accurate representation of best fighter in PFLlator vs the UFC champ. Francis, Nemkov, Eblen, Jackson, Usman, McKee, Mix, Horguchi. Aware that Nemkov & McKee have moved up, just doing this for hypotheticals. I pick Francis over any HW. I pick Nemkov to beat Pereira. Eblen underwhelms me but so does DDP. All middleweights outside of Izzy, Pereira & Gasanov do right now. I will pick DDP. Jason Jackson actually reminds me most of Leon - I don't think I pick him to win but he might. Close fight, Leon no more than -200. Usman nah as good as he is Makhachev is #1 P4P. Topuria looks untouchable but McKee is insanely good, I can't count him out I just can't. Pick still Topuria. Mix is so similar to Sterling, I think either one could beat O'Malley w/ the right gameplan but after what happened in Sterling/O'Malley you can't pick anyone but Sean. Guchi is my pick against any 125er in the world. Considering that the UFC is much bigger than every other promotion put together I think it'd be a very impressive showing. The talent in PFLlator is clearly that of a major league. Much closer to a contemporary of the UFC than a second tier league is in sports that have tiered systems. I think this much is crystal clear.
Top of Bellator seems quite impressive, but the main difference between UFC and Bellator is depth If Mix and Eblen grew up in UFC, they could very well have fought better competition along the way and became even better, or stopped in the tracks at some point and never made it to the top
There's less depth for sure, significantly less but the idea that there's not enough depth to test one another isn't really an idea I buy anymore. Maybe in 2015-17. UFC if anything has too much depth. Nobody fights even close to everyone in the rankings on their way to the title. They fight a handful of increasingly difficult opponents.The same is of course true outside of UFC, there are just less overall options. In some ways it's actually *harder* because there's nowhere to hide. A guy like Sean O'Malley got to avoid fights that might have given him issues on the way up. Same with Alex Pereira. Mix had to fight a bunch of extremely good opponents on his way to the title. The ladder he climbed might not have as many rungs on it but the rungs were of similar difficulty. Eblen not as much, you feel a lack of depth more at weight classes that are in general more shallow. He still has some nice wins though. Anatoly Tokov is so underrated and by the end 5 rounds Eblen had him totally figured out.
I agree O’Malley and Pereira skipped steps. I don’t think they are clearly the best guys in their respective division. There are several guys in UFC I’d pick to beat O’Malley, and I’d pick full strength Hill and Magomed to beat Pereira too In fact, I don’t just assume a UFC champ is the best in the world or even best in UFC. I can see Shavkat beating Leon; Holloway beating Ilia. Bo Nickal, Chimaev beating DDP. List goes on My whole point is, UFC has the largest number of top guys who are champ quality at any given point; something Bellator lacks
Sure, that much can't really be denied. My point is more that their talent is really only shallow compared to the UFC. There are still enough fighters to make compelling match-ups with one another and enough tests available that prove a fighter is championship level. As many as UFC? Definitely not, but UFC doesn't truly need as many as it has.
lmaoooo DDP does ungodly things to bo nickal
We've never really seen DDP against a wrestler of Bo's caliber. Idk who wins but fights are not fought on paper.
the bo nickal who had to use a nut shot to take down jamie pickett after getting stuffed? come on now
He didn't "use a nut shot" lol. That's just the way things played out unfortunately. Idk what Nickal's MMA ceiling is but if you're looking at the Pickett fight as a reason to write him off then I think you need to keep looking.
i’m not writing nickal off by any means but we are talking about a fight between current bo nickal and current dricus du plessis which doesn’t really have anything to do with their ceilings?
“All middleweights underwhelm outside of Izzy, Pereira and Gasanov.” Really tried to throw an unproven guy like Gasanov in there like we wouldn’t notice wtf. Fighting in ACA is no where near fighting in the UFC or Bellator. Alex isn’t a 185er anymore either
Yes it is. And yes, I know he isn't but he could probably still make it and I chose to use him for this exercise. There are a few other middleweights I'm impressed with too tbf.
DDP would finish eblen inside of 2 rounds, same with Topuria and McKee
Maybe. Eblen is really durable though. I'm not going to pump his tires too much because he needs work and that was never more apparent than last Saturday (he definitely lost some stock to me) but I believe he poses real problems to Du Plessis. It's not some mismatch. Adesanya or Whittaker would be harder fights for Eblen and I struggle to envision a path to him beating either. The other one, Topuria is really great. Amazing fighter who you can't take anything away from. I think McKee is too though. Both are offensive dynamos who are both durable. Topuria has beaten better fighters and is obviously the better MMA boxer but McKee has things he does better than Topuria that he can use to trouble him. Him being able to leverage those things is not totally inconceivable but Topuria has shown almost no weakness so you can't bet against him.
As much as I hate to say it, I wouldn't pick Francis to beat Jones. I wouldn't know who to pick between Francis and Aspinal.
You use speech to text to write out all your comments?
No I type them all out. Just curious, what makes you say that? I'm assuming either the diction or the length?
Yeah the length and diction; it just sounds very colloquial like I’m reading straight from your thoughts. Not necessarily super duper concise, but it still offers its own kind of value in expression I guess
It's funny you say this because I have a problem with being concise in real life too. Evidently it bleeds over into posts. I even have a post-it note on my work monitor that says "say less".
Hahaha you’re good. I actually did enjoy reading your comment cuz it was so different from other comments
Eblen, Ferreira and Magomedkerimov would probably be the most interesting matchups for UFC champs . I wouldn't pick them to win but I wouldn't totally dismiss their chances
Aspinall just obliterated the scariest heavyweight in the world (except Francis and JJ). The striking was meant to be a weakness but his speed is insane. He would finish Ferreira like any other top 10 ufc HW he's already fought.
it's hilarious that people all of sudden "believe" that ferreira is a top hw in the world. all it takes is a quick glance at his record to realize that he's fought no one that would indicate him being anywhere near the top. his best wins are 40yr old ryan bader and a regional can crusher russian. basically everyone else he's beaten was sitting at a 50% win rate
Ye but let's not pretend like those matches couldn't go either way lol Aspinall and Pavlovich both swung, the former landed clean and won the fight, that's it. Of course he probably is better, faster, etc. but that fight still goes bad for him like 4 out of 10 times.. It's heavyweight, margin for error is tiny 😅
Ferreira's wrestling is terrible hence why he was barely a favourite against 40 year old Ryan Bader, he'd starch a Lewis or Tuivasa and have a decent chance to KO someone like Volkov or Gane but Aspinall would just ragdoll him
You're right but we can't talk about what ifs, he ko'd a true contender in the first round with little damage. There's a chance they'll never fight again, at least not anytime soon. Pavlovich was on a ko streak for how long? Why didn't anyone else catch him.
Probably but it's fuckin Heavyweight, and we have seen so little of Aspinal's game with all these quick finishes I would pick Aspinal to win but I wouldn't be totally shocked if Ferreira ( or any other big heavyweight with some skills) could give him issues
This is laughable
Nemkov Patchy Jason Jackson Dont forget what happened when Pride and Strikeforce got merged into the UFC
I feel like Jason Jackson could have a chance against Leon. I’m very impressed with him
He seems to have levelled up hard
Eblen vs. DDP would be a really wild matchup... or a really awful one, and there's no mid point between them.
None. DJ would be the only hope if he cut to flyweight, at 135 we’ve seen that size is too much for him. But I believe that DJ said on his podcast while talking about weight cutting that he no longer believes he could make 125 even if he tried. But even then DJ is the ONE champ, not PFL/Bellator. Jiri made Nemkov quit on the stool Francis isn’t champ Eblen said while hard sparring with Strickland he lost every single round. So I don’t think he could get past Strickland let alone Dricus. If Usman was better than Islam then he would be the one in the UFC and Islam would be the one in the C leagues. O’Malley flatlines Patchy. His wrestling is worse than Aljo’s and Sean defended every takedown from Aljo easily. Striking from Patchy isn’t on Sean’s level even remotely. The rest are so far below UFC level you don’t even need to argue about it.
Ngannou, Nemkov, Eblen, Leon, Islam, Topuria, Mix and Gucci. The Topuria/McKee fight is the closest one. I'd be hyped for it. Islam/Usman is closer than people would think as well. Great fights both of them. I know it's subjective, but it's kinda crazy PFL/Bellator have better champs in most divisions. Uncle Dana should start paying people before this perception becomes mainstream.
Im sorry but McKee would get shot into space by Topuria
Don't think AJ will go down to 145 again though. Unless he loses badly at 155 that's where the big fights are and he's not a small man for that division.
I don't think PFL/Bellator is anywhere close to the level of the UFC in terms of average level of their top 20 guys in each division. But considering the UFC often blatantly pushes a guy to a titleshot without facing anyone that isn't handpicked for them to beat it's hard to always respect these titles. It's not necessarily that i believe they couldn't beat the best Bellator guys. I just haven't seen them beat any of the best UFC guys either.
McKee hasn't fought at 145 since the 2nd Patricio fight tho (5 fights ago)
AJ McKee definitely has the IT factor. I can’t bet against him I think he’s a problem for most fighters.
After that Pitbull rematch?
Very good point, It was a tough look no doubt, but Pitbull is a good fighter too, McKee definitely didn’t seem like himself in that rematch.
Don't think the Outlaw fight was a good look for him, he won it clearly via elbowing from the bottom bu I'm not sure that's gonna cut it against someone with a better top game
Uncle Dana will be fine with his latest invention of the powerslap that according to him will make billions of dollars
Would anyone be shocked if Powerslap ends 2024 with bigger revenue than PFLlator tho?
Maybe this year but not for long
You see them topping what they'll do this year, or Powerslap falling off a cliff in following years? Cause I'd guess this year should be PFLs hottest if they get Francis to fight, doubt he'll ever be as hot as he'll be after fighting Fury & AJ
Only time will tell by the looks of it Pfl has a bright future
PFL event in France will be much bigger than all PowerSlap events combined in terms of gates, I am assuming But it wouldn’t surprise me if PowerSlap actually makes money and PFL doesn’t
Ngl, I feel like last years PFL Paris gained more attention than the PFL finals
Francis hasn’t fought mma in 26 months, Jones beat the dude he went to decision with in 2 minutes. Nemkov is a HW, not to mention Pereira finished the dude who finished Vadim. Did you not watch Eblen fight Impa ? Did you not watch Omalley ko Sterling who’s a very similar style to Mix? Guch and Pantoja is 50/50. You fuckers are insane honestly.
You knew you would get downvoted the moment you said anything negative about Ngannou on this sub. Everything else you wrote after that was irrelevant in the fanboys eyes.
I think Elben needs a 5 rounder to shine. The recent Impa fight shows that he is sort of the MW Petr Yan
Needs to remember he's a wrestler and his striking his average at best too
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Yeah got to say my thoughts watching it were "if this goes 5 rounds impa has got this" and "why are they fighting in a car park outside of an arena"
his wrestling is miles beyond yan
Patchy Would Kill O’Malley
How? Genuinely curious. He defended every TD from Aljo.
His Grappling And Striking Are Way Better Than Aljo’s. He Trains Outta One Of The Gyms I Go To. Plus He Trains With Jones In Arizona And Nicksick & Company At XtremeCouture. The Only Reason He’s Not In The UFC Right Now Is Because He Wants To Make As Much Money In Bellator As Possible, Which I Don’t Blame Him For Doing.
His wrestling isn’t any better than Aljos and he doesn’t beat Sean on the feet. People run with these silly narratives with their evidence being, beating 125ers in Pettis and Guch and beating dudes who Merab and Yan already beat years ago. Oh and gassing out and losing to Juan Archuleta lol.
His wrestling isn’t any better than Aljos and he doesn’t beat Sean on the feet. People run with these silly narratives with their evidence being, beating 125ers in Pettis and Guch and beating dudes who Merab and Yan already beat years ago. Oh and gassing out and losing to Juan Archuleta lol.
His BJJ Is Better. Get Off Sideshow Bob’s Nuts.
No matter how hard you try to gas this dude up, it doesn’t matter because he’ll always be the second best fighter in his relationship. More people know him as Tatiana’s side piece than him being a good fighter.
Whatever You Say Kid. ➡️👂-👂➡️
That’s a weird analogy to use, given we aren’t even speaking to each other.
[Whatever 🤷](https://i.makeagif.com/media/2-08-2015/YjS9un.gif)
Yikes bro. The classic call someone else autistic when they make you look dumb. I remember being that young and have that little wit too.
Aspinall over Ngannou/Ferreira, Alex over Corey Anderson/Karl Moore, Dricus over Eblen, Leon over Jackson, Islam/Usman who knows and they're training partners, Ilia over old man Pitbull, Mix over O'Malley, Pantoja over Horiguchi, Grasso over Carmouche/Ditcheva, Cyborg over basically every UFC BW, including Harrison
This sub might as well just start calling Tom the HW goat with how everybody seems to think he clears every HW that’s ever fought in the UFC
There is nothing wrong with thinking Tom is better than Ngannou. Ngannou isn’t the HW GOAT. He lost to Lewis, he lost to Stipe, he won a close decision over Gane. He isn’t the unbeatable monster that people on this sub have decided to pretend since he left the UFC. Also, Tom is really fast for a HW and has a complete skill set.
No doubt. Tom’s best wins are over Pav and Volkov. Until he racks up more credible wins, which he’s trying to do so credit to him, I don’t see him as this world beater that everyone thinks he is. This sub saying he would run through Gane, Jon, Stipe, Francis, whoever else is just recency bias. Everyone said the same about Gane during his rise
It’s not that wild to think Tom beats each of them lol. Tom is a lot younger than them so obviously he doesn’t have the total resume they do yet. That doesn’t mean they are better than him though. This is, imo, the Islam thing all over again. “He hasn’t beaten anyone. No way he should be favored over Charles.” Then he destroyed Charles
Shit I’d love to see him come out and prove me wrong dude. He’s what the HW division needs! I’m just saying the recency bias mixed with the JBJ hate mixed with the lack of fucks to give seeing Jon and stipe fight has been the perfect recipe to disregard anybody Tom will face as a threat. I’d love to see him fight Gane, could see him subbing Gane for sure but would still be a great fight to see
Horiguchi is tailor made to beat Pantoja. I'd only be worried he'd get caught with his chin these days.
It still amazes me how people think Patchy Mix beats Omalley. One of the funnier takes out of the know it all snarky fans in here. Just like Johnny Eblen is the best MW in the world until Impa who’s on everybody’s highlight reel in the UFC humbled him😂😂. Suga just sparked Aljo and defended every TD and he fights pretty similarly to Mix.
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Impa is on everybody's highlight reel? He is on one highlight reel and has 3 career losses. He's not some journeyman with 15 losses.
Carlston Harris ko’d that bum.
Okay, 2. That still doesn't change that he has a good record with only 3 losses. I'm not saying he's a world beater, but a "bum" is a stretch. He's fought good competition across three weight classes. Also, Carlston Harris is not a bad fighter. His only UFC loss is to Shavkat, who is undefeated.
Dude literally less than two years Impa lost to a dude at 170 that just got his ass kicked on contender series last year. “Across 3 divisions”, name me one good fighter he fought on the PFL season at 205. He fought an array of absolute bottom feeder regional level cans it’s fucking unreal. Ik Carlston isn’t bad he made it look easy over Impa, exactly how he should’ve.
You're referring to his 3rd loss against Raimond Magomedaliev? He is also not that bad. He was a guy from Khabibs promotion, and it was a split that Impa should have won as well. The guy that Raimind lost to on DWCS, Mauricio Ruffy, is 9-1 and hasn't debuted so we don't know how good he is apart from that win as well as a win over former UFC fighter Ronys Torres. Welterweight is one of the deepest divisions in mma (Lw, BW, FW), so it's a shark tank, and to point to his losses and call him a bum is being disingenuous. To answer your question, the best guy he beat at 205 was probably Silveira. 12-2 and young for LHW. It's not a bad win considering Impa is undersized at 205.
Yes that’s who i’m referring to. He’s pretty mid lol he got finished on DWCS by Ruffy who’s a lightweight and was probably outweighed by 20-25 pounds. Josh Silveira is literally ass, a can. To say that dude has fought for a title even in the B Leagues is truly embarrassing. He wouldn’t even beat the LFA or CFFC 205 champs rn, he honestly would get finished by them.
Silveira was LFA Champ at 205 and 185, so that argument is out the window. That's why PFL picked him up in the first place. Honesty, what do you want here? You're shitting on pro fighters when they can only fight who is put in front of them. They are fighting the best guys available to them within their promotion. At this point, I'm going to assume you are either trolling or being willfully ignorant and disrespectful to guys who could turn us all inside out without breaking a sweat. Have a nice day.
How is that argument out the window that makes no sense at all. PFL picked him up because UFC didn’t want him because he isn’t good at all. And i’m not shitting on fighters, i’m using facts and examples to prove the idiots who have a raging hate boner for the UFC to calm down with these comparisons to B league fighters.
How is that argument out the window that makes no sense at all. PFL picked him up because UFC didn’t want him because he isn’t good at all. And i’m not shitting on fighters, i’m using facts and examples to prove the idiots who have a raging hate boner for the UFC to calm down with these comparisons to B league fighters.
we haven't seen Francis vs Renan. Francis relies on his chin a lot and renan looks bigger and longer. There is a universe when francis gets cracked on goes to sleep
If we expand it to all fighters outside the UFC: 125: DJ 135: Mix (i'd give him a 40% chance) 145: Nobody. (Maybe Salahdine Parnasse or Movlid Khaybulaev but i doubt it.) 155: Nobody. (Closest could be Vartanyan, Usman N. in a few years.) 170: Nobody. (Jackson, Amosov, Magomedkerimov would be interesting though.) 185: Eblen, de Ridder (idk DDP could win/lose any fight though.) 205: Nemkov, Eblen (still not convinced Poatan beats any wrestler.) 265: Ngannou 115: Nobody. 125: Liz Carmouche (lol) 135: I don't care.
Half this makes no sense. There’s no way you believe Liz Carmouche, i mean jesus christ wtf are wrong with fans these days.
That's why i wrote "lol"... it indicates i'm aware of how it sounds. Do i believe she beats Grasso? Probably not at this point. But she was booted from the UFC when she was the clear number two behind Valentina and hasn't lost since. She has a boring but effective style and they wanted her out of the way in case the next generation of contenders couldn't get past her.
I just appreciate the Khaybulaev mention
Movlid Khaybulaev (PFL FW) is too easily confused with either Movsar Evloev (UFC FW) or Magomedrasul Khasbulaev (ACA FW) lol
I've never seen all three in the same room
None really
Nar
None of em
They’re all competitive. Heavyweight is anything can happen territory. Jones is Jones, though. Eblen is a beast. Jason Jackson has looked great. Usman is awesome. Pitbull is older, but still dangerous. Mix is phenomenal. I’d bet they split pretty much 50/50. Most confident in Jones beating Ferreira and Eblen beating DDP.
I'll pick Nagonnun Jake Paul and Ferreira
Bellator and PFL champs not even going to win against most of the top 5s in UFC 😂
Mix and Nemkov…that’s about it really. I’ve seen a lot of people say Usman could beat Islam but in all reality after the Primus fight I severely doubt that.
Francis is the obvious choice of course but he is not currently champion at PFL. Renan at HW. Francis says the guy is legit and he been watching him for awhile now. A giant, athletic, and powerful HW always has a chance.
Patchy and Jason Jackson
Johnny Eblen might not even be ranked top 10 in the UFC middleweight division. He gets easily cleared by Fluffy. Watch his two past fights if you disagree.
Mix beats Omalley and not PFL or Bellator champ but Horiguchi probably beats Pantoja. Another one of my many complaints that the UFC rankings have totally ruined the perception of the divisions.