UFC 225: Whitaker vs Romero Sat June 9th 2018

finglashoop

Romero's style of doing **** all and exploding doesnt really lend itself to winning a decision. Unless he can drop someone in every round and win in that way. Surprised there wasnt at least one 10 8 in there all the same.

Whittaker winning the first on one leg and the second with one hand is impressive and so is his recovery from being hit with a bomb.

EagererBeaver

Sorry, obvs one judge gave Romero the 4th. Which is similarly daft!

Amazingfun

What a great night, thank you thank you UFC

Mellor

EagererBeaver wrote: »

****ing hell not sure how you can give Whittaker that.

Clearly lost the third and the fifth and the third at least had to be 10-8..

Yoel won the 3rd and 5th clearly. But that's all he won imo. 48-47

JoeyJJ

I love you gay Jesus... How was that not a 10/8 and thus a draw

Wrongway1985

Despite there actually being a pointless interim title existing on the card, the main event was a non title fight regardless of the issues affecting that and was a cracker I know it's been said over and over but wish the UFC would clamp down on these dozens of interims seems a division with no clear number 1 contender...the fight to determine comes with a free interim belt ffs.

Lukker-

The main event was a banger. Thankfully Whittaker won, although on damage alone you'd have to give it to Romero. He's a lion though.

It's for the absolute benefit of the division that he won. Romero needs to move up to LHW and have one last tilt for the title.

walshb

Colby is a prat....

froog

great night of fights but marred by a few robberies: carla, arlovski clearly won. I would have given romero the win too tbh.

callaway92

froog wrote: »

great night of fights but marred by a few robberies: carla, arlovski clearly won. I would have given romero the win too tbh.

'Clearly'?? .. Choice of wording may be a bit off there. Close fights. Media scores below

froog

callaway92 wrote: »

'Clearly'?? .. Choice of wording may be a bit off there. Close fights. Media scores below

i base my opinion on what i saw in the fights, not the media scores.

callaway92

froog wrote: »

i base my opinion on what i saw in the fights, not the media scores.

You said the words 'robberies' and 'clearly'.

Just saying...the media scores are at least a base/sample size to go by/compare with.

No need to get defensive.

walshb

Yoel got a time recovery in rd 4...

Are they allowed 5 minutes?

Referee seemed to ask the time left, and he then said to Yoel that he had a minute left..didn’t seem close to 5 that..

Wrongway1985

Gadelha was lucky, she won round 2 and Carla the 3rd, the fight was won in round 1 that saw a real tentative Carla shooting out of desperation and such, the biggest moment was putting Gadelha on rubber legs though so I can see how people would score it for Carla, the instinct to shoot after stunning her was only beneficial to Gadelha to recover and when she did bounced back she was dominating and another takedown ended the round in top position I assumed Gadelha was up myself we very rarely see 10-10's at all. Intriguing fight all the same, thought it was gas Gadelha in interview seemed to think the crowd were booing Esparza? They were clearly conflicted on the decision...she was on another planet.

froog

callaway92 wrote: »

You said the words 'robberies' and 'clearly'.

Just saying...the media scores are at least a base/sample size to go by/compare with.

No need to get defensive.

not getting defensive, just saying it was a clear robbery imo based on what i saw in the fight.

dulux99

I saw a lot of talk on twitter that the main event proves that titles don't matter, they're fairytales, etc etc. I couldn't disagree more. When the two fighters were stood side by side at the end, and I knew no matter what Romero wouldn't be champ, it definitely took something away from it.

Lukker-

dulux99 wrote: »

I saw a lot of talk on twitter that the main event proves that titles don't matter, they're fairytales, etc etc. I couldn't disagree more. When the two fighters were stood side by side at the end, and I knew no matter what Romero wouldn't be champ, it definitely took something away from it.

While I agree in principle, you couldn't not be excited for that fight last night. Titles for me make boring fights better. For example Wonderboy vs Woodley 1 was incredibly tense the first time watching, but is actually a boring fight on reviewing.

dulux99

Lukker- wrote: »

While I agree in principle, you couldn't not be excited for that fight last night. Titles for me make boring fights better. For example Wonderboy vs Woodley 1 was incredibly tense the first time watching, but is actually a boring fight on reviewing.

Oh yeah the fight itself was immense. Even in my post I say when they were stood side by side at the end, as in just before Buffer announced the decision. The fight was out of this world.

Great night - and I agreed with all of the tight decisions (even though I didn't want some of the outcomes)

Who wouldn't want to see Whittaker Romer III? Kudos to both of them, classy amazing athletes both, and you'd need a heart of stone not to feel for Yoel. Both gracious in victory and defeat. Would love to see a third match up, and hope Yoel will be given the chance. So close on weight. Various rumours online about his "real" age being well north of 41, makes him all the more remarkable, and Bobby too - 4 rounds with a broken hand?

Holly Holm went up even more in my estimation - she seemed to have a really determined focussed vibe all through the Embeddeds and media stuff, like she really meant business and wanted to avenge her last poor Chicago showing (vs Valentina): delighted for her. Seemed like she finally got the confidence to showcase grappling that she's clearly been working on for a long time. She's crazy strong.

Dozed off for RDA/Colby, I think I just couldn't bear to watch it

Tai is super, just a real guy, the other heavyweights super game and fun, and I thought Carla Esparza was great - again amazing improvements, hope she sticks at it. Bit disappointed with Claudia's form - fair if close win, but would have expected more from her ground game.

And poor old CM Punk - enough already. I LOVE Chicago - it's such a great fun friendly sport town - can only imagine the atmosphere was amazing. But from our TV viewing - felt like one of the better UFCs of old

Wrongway1985

I agree with (Lukker/Dulux) ye both in a way.

Where I'd be coming from is yes everybody hopes a title fight is exactly that a fight for the both fighters eligible to hold belt come the result. I'm not promoting competitors to miss weight and fights go ahead. I'm talking non-title fights between top contenders being sold as such from the get go. I know those types of fights are few and far between at the min but lets say Romero to fight Kelvin for instance have that top the bill at 5 rounds NO INTERIM , DJ or Womens fly title co-main no? why not?

It seems a numbered PPV requires a title fight on top of the bill, The last one I remember that didn't have one was Nick Diaz v Anderson Silva. I'm certainly favor toning down this interim dilution that seems to have become the norm

As a huge and oldtime fan (all the way back to Couture/Shamrock/Gracie days) the UFC interim belt nonsense and dilution has made me care less and less about them as organisation - would rather competitive / fun / interesting 5 round fights.

If Bellator could attract a few high profile middleweights and figure out an expedited tournament schedule (the "legacy" heavyweight grand prix that just seems to have been going on forever at this point), I would totally buy it and consider them closer to UFC in terms of commercial relevance... They are starting to capitalise more and more - but I hope they get to critical mass before it's too late for them - and here I mean that I hope the UFC ESPN deal will not be fatal for the smaller promotions before the can benefit from increased platform, understanding and expansion of the sport.

That said - nobody does fight build up like UFC - Embedded's, name cachet and associated media, Inside the Octagon fight previews and their homegrown insider commentators are all still head and shoulders above. Production values too. They took the old HBO/Showtime boxing standards and reinvented for the new media generation.
#ProbWrongThreadForThis. #SorryUFC225

walshb

I think the main event is getting hugely overrated...

Good fight, but not exceptional by any stretch. Lot of lulls in the action, with Romero doing fook all..

Useful.Idiot

Nah it was a great back and forth fight. there doesn't have to be non stop action. Robbie v Rory 2 was similar, there was a lot more inaction in that fight than people remember.

I scored it a draw. 5th round was a 10-8 and 3rd was nearly but Whittaker did enough damage before he got hurt and rallied afterwards to make it a 10-9 for Romero.

dulux99

Tough crowd.

I thought it was enthralling. Bobby was cruising for the first couple of rounds and it was looking easy for him and within a few minutes he'd broken his hand and gotten badly rocked. Yet he stuck in there with one hand and ploughed away and kept coming at Romero and threw everything he could at him. Great fight. Whittaker is a gem. He's a bit of a rarity in the UFC these days, 27 years of age, undoubtedly the best in the world in his division, and willing to take on all comers (when fit)

EagererBeaver

I'm a massive fan of Whittaker, brilliant fighter and tough as hell but "undoubtedly the best in the world" just isn't true, in my opinion. For my money (and plenty of others' too) he didn't win that fight last night.

For me, the best middleweight in the world isn't even in the UFC.

martyos121

EagererBeaver wrote: »

I'm a massive fan of Whittaker, brilliant fighter and tough as hell but "undoubtedly the best in the world" just isn't true, in my opinion. For my money (and plenty of others' too) he didn't win that fight last night.

For me, the best middleweight in the world isn't even in the UFC.

Yeah Bellator did really well to acquire Charlie Ward.

Wrongway1985

They prioritized deal on Jacare at the time as he had benefit of Brazilian market and had the win over Gegard despite Gergard holding a previous win over him...they gambled Middleweight looked in good nick Gegard was deemed disposable he continued to chalk up wins including getting the win over his loss during that spell the flash KO by Hall...ah how a few injuries/interims/losses to stars with push things change quite quickly. 4 fights left with Bellator?

EagererBeaver

martyos121 wrote: »

EagererBeaver wrote: »

I'm a massive fan of Whittaker, brilliant fighter and tough as hell but "undoubtedly the best in the world" just isn't true, in my opinion. For my money (and plenty of others' too) he didn't win that fight last night.

For me, the best middleweight in the world isn't even in the UFC.

Yeah Bellator did really well to acquire Charlie Ward.

Now that was good

CurryFlavoured

As far as draws in MMA go, I thought that was a pretty clear draw. Whittaker was on top for the majority of the fight, bar in R3 and R5 when Romero rocked him. R5 was a clear 10-8.

EagererBeaver wrote: »

For me, the best middleweight in the world isn't even in the UFC.

Eh, what? The only guy I can think of is Mousasi, but he sits just below the UFC elite middleweights.

Mellor

CurryFlavoured wrote: »

As far as draws in MMA go, I thought that was a pretty clear draw. Whittaker was on top for the majority of the fight, bar in R3 and R5 when Romero rocked him. R5 was a clear 10-8.

I based my 48-47 on the fact that I know the judges don't give 10-8s easily. But I have no problem with scoring the 5th 10-8 for a draw.
47-46 for a Yoel win is a stretch imo.