UFC 259

splashthecash wrote: »

Casual MMA fan here - when she was around, Ronda Rousey was considered the best female ever right? What has Nunes marked now as the GOAT which is what I've seen her advertised as - she seems relatively new to the sport

Perhaps female MMA was still in its infancy and thats why Rousey dominated like she did? And the calibre of fighter that Nunes has been fighting has be of a much higher than Rousey in her hey-day?

Pardon my ignorance if any of the above is incorrect

There have been four Bantemweight champs. Rousey, Holm, Tate, and Nunes. Nunes finished the other 3 champs in the first round when she fought them.
There have been three featherweight champs. GDR, Cyborg, and Nunes. Nunes has first round knockouts of both too (although she fought GDR again and won by UD).
Basically anyone who was ever important in either division Nunes fights in has been smashed by her.

This is one of the cards I've been really excited for in the build up, first in a long time.

I rolled with Aljamain Sterling in 2017 in Poland, he was a guest fighter doing media at the event, he trained every day that he was there and just gave off a different atmosphere. I asked him at the media day off camera if he would like to train that night because he said he was interested in getting work in while he was over there. I was a new enough purple belt at the time. He was moving cautiously in terms of being apprehensive of training with a random person and maybe worrying about getting injured. We ended up doing 10+ rounds and his JiuJitsu was great, complimented massively by his wrestling base and background but was very in touch with modern JiuJitsu and its benefits when translated into MMA. The Serra / Longo connection to Danaher has been long-standing and there would have been drip theories coming into his training from their association, as well as having a high level of training partners with him in Long Island. It's been one of the standout parts of his games over his last fights, between the kneebar and otherwise, he is going to be a champion. How long he stays as champion is another thing, but when you meet people who are so focused and driven on a target you just get fantastic energy from them. I think Sterling is going to choke Yan from the back after some scrambles. Yan has good grappling and power in his hands but considering the setback of the Moraes KO, and how he could have gotten the shot long before now, the amount of focused time working towards this is going to come to fruition for Sterling tonight. I hope he becomes Champion tonight.

Anderson vs Nunes is a very interesting one, Nunes was put out of the fight in December with an injury, and is now a couple more months into being a mother. I think it's an easy question to ask "how are you different" once fighters become fathers or mothers, but this can motivate in two different ways. If you are on the come up, and you have a child during this period. It's the most intense burning desire and motivation you can see (Cage Warriors 155er Decky McAleenan has a young child will be in the UFC within 18 months, this was the last rocketstrap he needed to his back but more on that another time) Nunes is already queen of the world. Possibly P4P #1 in the world of MMA now that Khabib is 'retired'. In terms of recent ability, performances, and otherwise, Nunes is head and shoulders above the world. However, she's at the top and now is a mother. You now know that your child will not want for anything in your life. Everything that you struggled for, and worked for, and was motivated by will not apply to them going forward. I read a good piece about Ronaldo and Khabib talking about how Ronaldo worries for his child's future motivation for being one of the best footballers in the world. I have no insight into Nunes camp, just hunches, and speculation. MAYBE, just MAYBE. A foot was slightly taken off the gas. Where Anderson has been training for this fight since September. I'm a huge huge fan of James Krause as a coach, I've gone down a whole of watching fighters he has cornered recently after watching the Derek Kinner victory a couple of weeks ago. That's a guy sitting in the corner, holding the controller and talking his fighter through the flames of a fight. He will be thought of as one of the best in the world within the next 2 years, likely to have UFC and Bellator champions in his stable. I'm very curious to see what 6 months of prep and focus under the eyes of Krause towards such a challenge like Nunes will lead to for Anderson. Her last two performances in the UFC have brought great finishes. The last in particular showed great defence against an inside position against the cage which is where Nunes is likely to take her within the first round. How she weathers the early storm, using her frame correctly in a defensive wrestling / grappling position will go massively towards the fight outcome. Nunes could land on the button and we're sitting here thinking the 145 division is gone from the UFC, or Anderson who's on the last fight of her contract right now is fighting for all of the marbles. She's looking at Bellator or PFL after this if she loses, as least in my opinion she should be exploring those options to try and get the most amount of money possible. Bellator's 145 female divison is growing and growing and the potential of a match up with Harrison in PFL is more lucrative than building up to another run at the title, especially if Nunes does come out and be far ahead of her as a fighter. I like Anderson to take the upset in this fight, and If my thinking hat is on we might see a counter from a takedown, that leads to her taking the back for a finish. We will see.

Isreal vs Jan has me scratching my head massively. Since his debut in the UFC, Adesanya has been a visible future champion to me. This is a guy who turned down the UFC years before hand because when he wanted to come in, he wanted to come in and just run at it all. Change the game. I remember on Twitter before the Derek Brunsen fight saying he was about to make it look easy and had people say no chance. Then followed it up with

Future GOAT. Had him absolutely mind****ed walking into that cage. Bigger athlete puffing his chest out jumping around to psych out the skinny kid. Old school thinking vs new school prophet. Get excited for what this man is going to do for martial arts. Ahead of the game totally.

There have been multiple openings for Adesanya to try and submit his opponents in his fights, but his finishing wasn't there, or he was going for the stoppage and ignored the submissions. I've been backing him to win by submission (2 or 3 euro) in every fight since Derek because there's no way a man can be this confident or comprehensive of a fighter and not have fantastic JiuJitsu. One of his early open workouts in Vegas he was hitting all sorts of class jiujitsu and that set it off for me, this guys slick on the ground.

He recently spent some time in San Diego and was training at Atos, he got promoted to purple belt but more so the immersion he was put into in terms of training JiuJitsu every day at one of the top JiuJitsu based gyms. In the interview with Ariel he said in certain timelines he sees openings and I think that's based off potentially two things. To preface this, Izzy's coach said in an interview with Petesy Carroll this week that Jan has not awkward timing, but a hard timing to read. I think in another piece i read about how technically he does things that seems off, but comes through for him regardless because of how he moves. He has hit a lot of takedowns, and survived the position despite having his head loose on the outside. He's also always got a flairing elbow that's open for a kimura grip. The standing kimura has become more of a defensive tool for people in MMA over the last while as a way to get out of wrestling exchanges and I think that it can also be capitalised as a sweep, and tracking tool to the back. i HAVE a feeling that the route Adesanya see's is actually a choke from a takedown attempt or attaching onto that Kimura. I'm not sure if he will have the power to stun Jan early, where I think Jan has the power to potentially stop Izzy himself, but I do think he has the volume and I do think he has the flow to hit him and accumulate damage over the course of the fight.

This is one of the biggest toss ups in MMA i've seen in a while because Jan has unorthodox submission victories on his record, as well as unique stopping power for a LHW. I wonder what he will be walking into the cage at tonight but this is the biggest test for Adesanya in some time. Either man by submission or either man by TKO is possible in this fight.

It's hilarious that I think all 3 title fights could be won by submission, maybe that's a little bit of a stretch considering, but I really really believe that within the last year fighters through the downtime have spent more time on practicing the technical elements of JiuJitsu. Before the world stopped it was just about maintenance and getting fight camp ready, and you could see how limited an amount of fighters were actually focused or dedicated to improving their skills at the highest level outside of camp. It's what's allowed the Sanhagens of the world to burst out as on the come up you are entirely focused and dedicated towards skill improvement.

First post in years, but first time I've given as much thought through excitment towards a card that I've wanted to share it, because recently it's only been my mates who I chat to about fights and haven't had a desire to write, type or present it out as a piece of content. I think Islam is going to smoke Dober, Rakic to KO Santos, The NZ fighters to repeat the 3peat (with Izzy being least likely wo win out of the 3) and potentially see uncomfortable KO losses for both Benavidez and Cruz. Tim Elliot to have a performance of the night thanks to James Krause holding the controller outside the octagon.

Chairman Meow wrote: »

Great post Must have been great to roll with someone that high level. Rolling with the coach is as high level as ive gotten but it really does give you an appreciation of how many levels there are to the sport.

Gotta say im loving the comment section on the UFC embedded videos. It seems to be non-stop trolling of Paulo Costa and his wine bottle

I've trained with higher level grapplers of a higher status than him, and more with a lower level status. JiuJitsu is finite in terms of a persons ability, and sure casual rolls maybe aren't the best indicator but definitely, i walked away with a good impression of his "modern" jiujitsu awareness.

Adesanya called out Ariel during the interview in a joking way about how he asked about the wine comments. imo There's absolutely no possible way that Costa was still drunk when they fought, no possible way. Was he sluggish and more dehydrated the next day from drinking a full bottle? sure, maybe. You would be shocked what high level boxers and MMA fighters have consumed the night before a fight and then gone out and won. What's more likely is he actively engaged in an act of self sabotage because he was beaten before he even got into the cage. To give himself a more immediate excuse. Adesanya's out of cage warefare is top top level, and when Eugene Bearman said about how Adesanya turned to him before he walked out and said don't worry, I've got this, this is to go against every bully I've ever met in my life. Adesanya had his own demons going into that fight with Costa that he had to conquer.

Mellor wrote: »

Good to see you posting again. Even it only a flying visit.
As an aside, how's your jiujitsu training been with covid and 2020itis

Ah I'll stick around! See what happens haha.

I think I started training again last May, did nothing from when the gyms shut until the end of April and then it started to effect me. Was bringing mats I owned to people and training with them, summer when the gyms reopened was fantastic and was back training essentially full time. The 3rd lockdown similar enough in terms of taking a few weeks off at the time and then was training with a single partner, who got accidently injured so that left me with 3 more weeks off and a pretty depressing slump over christmas. I think everybody was in the same boat there, decided I lost too much time in 2020 and have changed up a few very important lifestyle habits off the mats so far in 2021 and have never felt better. Genuinely think I have a good chance to qualify for ADCC this september in the European trials -66kg, and hoping to get an oppourtinity if it arises on the cage warriors grappling thing they were hinting at before christmas, or polaris some point in 2021. Hoping to go to Norway at some point this year to train in Wulfing House with Tommy and Espen too. Competitions tentatively announced for summer already in the UK, so if i've to drive over on the ferry to do it I'll be doing them. Can't wait to compete again. What about you, much if any rolling over the last year? I saw Lachlan has had to close for extended periods of the last year too,

I think an unfocused/bad camp Nunes would still walk through Anderson, I don't rate her at all

Reckon I'd be safe with a 4am alarm to catch the three title fights lads?

Both ranked number eight , that's a new one on me