UFC 259

07-03-2021 7:03pm

Maybe Sterlin can go another round before gassing but Yan will just walk him down. He couldn't hurt Yan, so rare to see someone just stand a foot in front of someone with hands up so fearlessly. Yan looked like he was playing last night.

yourdeadwright · 07-03-2021 8:25pm

Sterling

1I understand why Sterling got the belt but to see him posing with it for pictures makes me believe he knows he has not chance of beating Yan next time out and is making the most of having it

He should be embarrassed to pose for pictures, id have thrown it back at Dana in the octagon, Getting declared the winner had to be embarrassing

FileNotFound · 08-03-2021 2:51am

Sterling has every right to do what he wants.

Rules be rules.

Have to say based on the fight he has no hope in a rematch, high pointless output, yan in control, well paced and looked comfortable throughout.

Rematch will see yan with the belt again,

Mellor · 08-03-2021 5:50am

Still Ill wrote: »

I'm surprised the DQ has turned out to be such a talking point. Can't understand the point of view that Sterling should feel obliged to risk the win bonus and title out of some sort of obligation to entertain the viewers.

Did anyone actually say that though? That he should of fought on?
Seemed to me that everyone agreed he shouldn't be hindered by a foul. Regardless of the fact he was likely losing.

mailburner wrote: »

I don't know about easy next time as it was close enough after 3 on the scorecards but Ajo was pretty much done so a lucky break for him and he was right not to continue

If think ithe score DC read out sounded more surprising as peopel didn;t cop the 4th was excluded. Had the knee not happened it was 39-37 going into the 5th and he needed a finish.
Was most likely going to be 49-46 on two cards. I think that was fair.

Interested to see the round betting on the next one.

Chairman Meow · 08-03-2021 11:10am

Bit of a disappointing card in the end after all the hype.

Santos v Rakic was a complete stinker.

Makhachev v whatsisname was decent, a fairly one sided mauling, and probably the first tap ive ever seen to shoulder pressure

Aljo v Sterling was interesting for its insane drama, was a good fight up til then too but a total let down of an ending

Nunes v Anderson, jesus christ. Anderson is a really nice girl, but bloody hell she didnt belong in there. Poor girl looked like she was being led to the electric chair on the walkout and showed it in the fight. Dreadful fight that never should have been made

Main event was okay, it was super tense the whole time but with little payoff. Jans takedowns won the fight or him but really up til then i thought it was anyones game.i expected either a vicious Jan KO, or a Costa-like domination from Izzy, and got neither. Just a tentative striking exchange with 2 takedowns for 25 mins

Mellor · 08-03-2021 11:41am

Chairman Meow wrote: »

Makhachev v whatsisname was decent, a fairly one sided mauling, and probably the first tap ive ever seen to shoulder pressure

Same mechanism as a von flue choke. Head position was the same. Just locked it up from half guard.

US2 · 08-03-2021 11:46am

Sterling on twitter saying he wants to fight Henry Cejudo next ffs

08-03-2021 11:52am

As much as some would like to insist on the purity of the sport he's "right" to do that. Either he can get a few fights as champ or at the least wind people up for more attention and more buys.

eagle eye · 08-03-2021 12:10pm

FileNotFound wrote:

Have to say based on the fight he has no hope in a rematch, high pointless output, yan in control, well paced and looked comfortable throughout.

Thing is you can learn a lot from a fight. If he has a good team they can work on how to combat Yan's strengths and Sterling's weaknesses.
I'm not saying he'll win but a good camp could put him in a much better position next time.

eagle eye · 08-03-2021 12:20pm

Deleted User wrote:

As much as some would like to insist on the purity of the sport he's "right" to do that. Either he can get a few fights as champ or at the least wind people up for more attention and more buys.

If he fights Cejudo he loses. Whatever chance he'd have against Yan with that fight behind him he has no chance against Cejudo.

Brussels Sprout · 08-03-2021 12:59pm

Chairman Meow wrote: »

Bit of a disappointing card in the end after all the hype.

The FightPass Prelims were the best part of the whole night. First 5 fights had 5 finishes and they included the Fight of the Night (Nzechukwu vs Ulberg) plus three really impressive performances by Uros Medic, Amanda Lemos and Sean Brady who all looked like stone cold killers. Trevin Jones had a nice win in the opener and the final fight had the weird spectacle of "Crystal Meth Dominc Cruz" (Tim Elliot) ground and pounding Jordan Espinosa while accusing him of being a wife beater. Well worth watching them all in their entirety.

FileNotFound · 08-03-2021 1:02pm

mailburner wrote: »

I don't know about easy next time as it was close enough after 3 on the scorecards but Ajo was pretty much done so a lucky break for him and he was right not to
continue

It'll be interesting to see what he changes in the rematch too, going all out from the outset was a bad idea so now he has 6 months to come up with the perfect gameplan.

Yan is such a complete fighter though so it looks right now that anyone who beats him will surely have to go 5 as he's just too strong everywhere.

The big loser here is sandhagen though, he'll get his shot at Yan someday I reckon and that'll be yans biggest test.

The scorecards in my opinion were no refelection on relaity, Yan was happy to watch the man gas out. Seemed to be his plan.

At no point did Sterling look like the win to me. And when you watch a man play another like that I cannot see that gap being closed.

Now definitely just my uneducated opinion. To me it just looked like Yan was going through the planned motions.

MrStuffins · 08-03-2021 1:53pm

Yeah, to me it looked like Yan had a plan to start slowly, let Aljo work hard, take lumps from Aljo when he could and take over more as the fight wore on.

As I said earlier on the thread, i'm not sure Aljo even had a Hail Mary left. It was only going one way and that was a Yan win. Either my lop-sided decision on he was going to put him away late.

The only scenario where I think this wouldn't happen realistically would be if Yan did something stupid.

And Yan did something stupid!

Mellor · 08-03-2021 2:14pm

FileNotFound wrote: »

The scorecards in my opinion were no refelection on relaity, Yan was happy to watch the man gas out. Seemed to be his plan.

At no point did Sterling look like the win to me. And when you watch a man play another like that I cannot see that gap being closed.

Now definitely just my uneducated opinion. To me it just looked like Yan was going through the planned motions.

Sterling was never ahead on the scorecards overall.

All 3 judges gave him the second round. He outstruck Yan 17-10. That was a clear but marginal round for Sterling.
He also outstruck him in the opener but it slipped away when Yan scored that big shot. One judge not giving the first to Yan is not outrageous. The scorecards were fine imo.

FileNotFound · 08-03-2021 2:31pm

Mellor wrote: »

Sterling was never ahead on the scorecards overall.

All 3 judges gave him the second round. He outstruck Yan 17-10. That was a clear but marginal round for Sterling.
He also outstruck him in the opener but it slipped away when Yan scored that big shot. One judge not giving the first to Yan is not outrageous. The scorecards were fine imo.

I only meant in the sense it seemed Yan was happy to be outstruck.

Maybe i misread, but he looked very comfortable when being hit.

I am a casual fan so may miss many nuances, but it looked like he was comfortable was the point i was really going for. And given sterlings activity level, yan being comfortable is scary.

US2 · 08-03-2021 2:34pm

Heres a look at that terrible commentary again. Same for the Sterling fight

https://twitter.com/KPetersonUFC/status/1368735472411893761?s=19

Mellor · 08-03-2021 2:48pm

FileNotFound wrote: »

I only meant in the sense it seemed Yan was happy to be outstruck.

Maybe i misread, but he looked very comfortable when being hit.

He may have been comfortable with it. I don’t think he was ever in trouble. But comfortable or not, getting outstruck often means you lose the round.

mailburner · 08-03-2021 3:18pm

Mellor wrote: »

If think ithe score DC read out sounded more surprising as peopel didn;t cop the 4th was excluded. Had the knee not happened it was 39-37 going into the 5th and he needed a finish.
Was most likely going to be 49-46 on two cards. I think that was fair.

Interested to see the round betting on the next one.

I think he can close the gap and next time we might have 4 razor close rounds but you'd still have to think if it were 2-2 going into the 5th that Yan would still finish the stronger.
I think sterling was too confident pre fight tbh and the pace he set was just ridiculous.

If he could fight a similiar fight to the one jan fought against Izzy I think he'd
have a chance if that's even a good comparison to make.

nolivesmatter · 08-03-2021 3:18pm

FileNotFound wrote:

Have to say based on the fight he has no hope in a rematch, high pointless output, yan in control, well paced and looked comfortable throughout.

One thing I would say is that Aljo will be defending the belt next time, so he should be able to approach it with a more conservative style which might suit him better.

I agree though, I wouldn't favor him.

MrStuffins · 08-03-2021 3:24pm

I think Aljo was surprised by Yan's takedown defence, his defensive wrestling and his strength.

I'd imagine he'll turn up next time with a different approach. Being in there with him gives him all sorts of information that he didn't have before.

Will it be enough? I don't think it will.

Brussels Sprout · 08-03-2021 4:40pm

nolivesmatter wrote: »

One thing I would say is that Aljo will be defending the belt next time, so he should be able to approach it with a more conservative style

Why? I mean, sure, established champions often get a hidden benefit when it comes to judges scoring cards (Jon Jones being a prime example) but Sterling is a paper champion after what happened in Saturday's fight. It's almost as if there is no champion in that division now and I can't see Sterling going into the fight with any advantage in the judges' subconscious.

Mellor · 08-03-2021 11:15pm

mailburner wrote: »

I think he can close the gap and next time we might have 4 razor close rounds but you'd still have to think if it were 2-2 going into the 5th that Yan would still finish the stronger.

Into THIS 5th round, 100%. Yan was takin the 5th for a unanimous decision.
But the gap between 2-2 and 3-1 going into the 5th isn't pretty small. If Aljo can scrape 1 extra round from 4, then suddenly he's 2 clear going and Yan needs a finish.

nolivesmatter wrote: »

One thing I would say is that Aljo will be defending the belt next time, so he should be able to approach it with a more conservative style which might suit him better.

Defending the belt makes no difference to anything.

Homelander · 08-03-2021 11:21pm

Sterling

US2 wrote: »

Heres a look at that terrible commentary again.

At one point when Joe was going on about how Jan was being outstruck and falling behind, I was thinking "seriously, what fight is he watching?" but ended up doubting myself.

That fight was particularly bad I agree.

nolivesmatter · 09-03-2021 9:21pm

Mellor wrote: »

Defending the belt makes no difference to anything.

I disagree. Mentally it can change a fighters approach. Look at Tyron Woodley or GSP as an example.

Mellor · 09-03-2021 11:41pm

nolivesmatter wrote: »

I disagree. Mentally it can change a fighters approach. Look at Tyron Woodley or GSP as an example.

The discussion was about scoring.
If the fighter changes his approach, he'll be scored accordingly. The belt doesn't affect scoring.
ie If Sterling is more conservative. That would be reflected in the scoring.

I honestly think he has a huge opportunity to go ahead and have a lessons learned session a fix a poor gameplan. I'll be interested in the odds for the rematch.

nolivesmatter · 09-03-2021 11:55pm

Mellor wrote: »

The discussion was about scoring.
If the fighter changes his approach, he'll be scored accordingly. The belt doesn't affect scoring.
ie If Sterling is more conservative. That would be reflected in the scoring.

I honestly think he has a huge opportunity to go ahead and have a lessons learned session a fix a poor gameplan. I'll be interested in the odds for the rematch.

I wasn't part of any scoring discussion you were having in the post you quoted me.

Mellor · 10-03-2021 2:05am

nolivesmatter wrote: »

I wasn't part of any scoring discussion you were having in the post you quoted me.

I was discussing scoring. Funny that you're telling me that I was refering to.
Brussels Sprout post also referred to scoring in his quote/post.
As were other posters.

If you were discussing something else then have at it.

nolivesmatter · 10-03-2021 4:08am

Mellor wrote: »

I was discussing scoring. Funny that you're telling me that I was refering to.
Brussels Sprout post also referred to scoring in his quote/post.
As were other posters.

If you were discussing something else then have at it.

You originally responded to my post and disagreed with me as we were talking about the same thing. We weren't, so not sure why you responded to me. Anyway...

Chairman Meow · 10-03-2021 3:13pm

Mellor wrote: »

Same mechanism as a von flue choke. Head position was the same. Just locked it up from half guard.

Ah okay, nice to know. I love the von flue ever since i got caught in one in one of my first ever classes haha. I was like "what the **** is this sorcery?? im being choked even tho i have control of his head?!?"

Brussels Sprout wrote: »

The FightPass Prelims were the best part of the whole night. First 5 fights had 5 finishes and they included the Fight of the Night (Nzechukwu vs Ulberg) plus three really impressive performances by Uros Medic, Amanda Lemos and Sean Brady who all looked like stone cold killers. Trevin Jones had a nice win in the opener and the final fight had the weird spectacle of "Crystal Meth Dominc Cruz" (Tim Elliot) ground and pounding Jordan Espinosa while accusing him of being a wife beater. Well worth watching them all in their entirety.

Yeah the prelims were great. I watched them on fight pass too. Was great to see Cruz beat that little scrote after his ****ty comments about Megan Andersons looks. Fight pass has been a godsend this past year

UFC 259

Comments