MMA Catch All Thread.

Now I want to re-watch Enter The Dragon.

So is that a "yes" on Khabib being able to travel to fight?

I broke down and watched Covid Fights tonight.

I've NEVER seen Ubereem looks so small against an opponent.

Top_Shelf wrote:

I broke down and watched Covid Fights tonight.

I've NEVER seen Ubereem looks so small against an opponent.

Overreem underreemed his steroidereems.

Horsemeats a helluva drug.

I got a free 25 dollar bet on UFC 250, who we got team

Installed a new fence in my backyard today so I'm going to indulge myself in a guilty pleasure of an actual UFC PPV.

Pulling for all the underdogs with Aldo, Max and Masvidal.

But I think they all lose.

Am most pulling for Masvidal because if he wins, we could get Nate/Jorge II and I can't get enough Diaz bros.

So glad it's Bisping tonight on the call and no Rogan.

Top_Shelf wrote:

So glad it's Bisping tonight on the call and no Rogan.

Is Rogan a crappy commentator now? Or maybe you are annoyed by him?

I loath Rohan’s other work, when not commentating on MMA, but back when I watched a lot of it Rogan was my favorite commentator simply because he is so incredibly knowledgeable about the sport. I learned a lot about pro MMA from paying attention to what Rogan says; to the point where I could predict far in advance when someone was going to get knocked out.

My son would be mystified by that. Me: the guy in red is going to get knocked out. Son: how do you know? Me: he’s holding his left arm too low and the other guy looks like he has a wicked looping right hook.

A few seconds later: BAM lights out.

Back in the day, I really enjoyed him.

But I just feel like I'm worn out on his style. This is all super subjective but things I don't like include:

He gets really focused on one thing and just keeps hammering it. "See?! He did it again!"

His rapport with others doesn't feel right. He's a huge star now (unlike when he was most known for Fear Factor) and I feel like that's always in the background. It worked better when he was the "fan" who was there looking "up" to the fighters and the sport (it helped that goofy Goldie was doing play/play). Now I feel like others are more deferential to him. I don't feel like the conversations between him and Dominick Cruz (as an example) are between "equals" they very much feel like an athlete with a middling Q rating and an A or B+ listed celebrity. It just feels off because he's now the biggest celebrity unless McGregor or somebody is fighting. Some people's personalities or star power outshine the product. Kind of like if you put Howard Stern or Robert Downey Jr or Justin Bieber in an NFL booth. The factual analysis could be world class and it would still overshadow the other announcer and/or product. This is why Tony Romo works so well in the NFL.

Jon Anik brings a level of professionalism to the announcing and Rogan's fanboyism feels anachronistic. Contrast with Cruz, Bisping and especially DC. They never ever overshadow the call.

Again, this is ultra subjective.

My only commentary beef with Rogan is he’s so repetitive. Granted, that’s hard not to do after doing the job for so so many years but if like every time someone mentions ring rust and he does his two minutes on that and someone mentions judging and he does his two minutes on that.... DC and Cruz are maybe as great at why I love Rogan most—he’s an educator—but Anik on the other hand is a not-stupid Goldberg so I get a lot less from watching when he’s on. Who I really miss the most is Brian Stann, since he was so concise, certainly influenced by his military career.

When Anik first started he was so bad that I would mute the audio. He called practically everything wrong. I would be screaming at the TV trying to argue with him, but he couldn’t hear me.

Anik has gotten much better, and more confident. Part of the reason he was so hard for me to listen to a while back was that he sounded like he was afraid of the microphone.

I might think more highly of Rogan if I never heard his podcast. He is such a classic example of the Dunning/Kruger effect. He’s sharp as a whip when talking about MMA, but a complete buffoon when talking about anything else.

RawkGWJ wrote:

I might think more highly of Rogan if I never heard his podcast. He is such a classic example of the Dunning/Kruger effect.

Interesting. Maybe you and have been listening to different episodes—I stick mostly to the MMA, science, sport psychology, and history episodes, but also note I’ve been mostly out of the podcast game since no commute for several months—and I’ve almost always been impressed with his ability to interview experts from a place of acknowledged ignorance.

Keithustus wrote:

My only commentary beef with Rogan is he’s so repetitive. Granted, that’s hard not to do after doing the job for so so many years but if like every time someone mentions ring rust and he does his two minutes on that and someone mentions judging and he does his two minutes on that.... DC and Cruz are maybe as great at why I love Rogan most—he’s an educator—but Anik on the other hand is a not-stupid Goldberg so I get a lot less from watching when he’s on. Who I really miss the most is Brian Stann, since he was so concise, certainly influenced by his military career.

Brian Stann. Oh man, I miss the old WEC! And you are 100% right on about his color commentary. He was excellent.

Keithustus wrote:
RawkGWJ wrote:

I might think more highly of Rogan if I never heard his podcast. He is such a classic example of the Dunning/Kruger effect.

Interesting. Maybe you and have been listening to different episodes—I stick mostly to the MMA, science, sport psychology, and history episodes, but also note I’ve been mostly out of the podcast game since no commute for several months—and I’ve almost always been impressed with his ability to interview experts from a place of acknowledged ignorance.

I’m thinking of this episode of the Rogan podcast where he was having a long conversation with “Cowboy” Donald Cerroni. They started out by smoking a lot of pot. Next they talked about how high they were, moved on to some insider drama about Cowboy’s former trainer. Then they had a long conversation about this secret society that they had both visited on separate occasions. It’s was super bizarre. It’s some cult organization where people can pay a large amount of money to ingest the cults proprietary hallucinogenic drug. I mean, to each their own, but they were gushing about how great it was, and all I could think about was how risky and stupid that behavior is and how glorifying it in a public forum is really irresponsible.

As an example, I know plenty of people who expound upon the glorious effects of pot use, admittedly a low risk drug, but which can have serious negative side effects for some people, specifically myself.

Sorry for the rant.

Rogan was in context pretty good back in the day when he was paired with Mike Goldberg, who was absolutely the worst play-by-play guy working in professional sports. He's still OK -- he's still very knowledgeable, but he's a complete homer, and I'm tired of his shtick after listening to him for years.

DC is great behind the mic. Paul Felder is a close second -- he's not as famous as Cormier, and he's a little too low key sometime, but he knows his stuff. Cruz, meanwhile, has a punchable voice (and face).

I love me some Rose Namajunas, but I honestly thought Andrade was going to smash her like a bug again. I thought that fight was too close to call and would have loved to have seen another round.

I’m such a fan of Namajunas, since her first appearance on TUF. At first I just thought it was cool that this quiet, humble, unassuming lady was obliterating her competition. Then she took a stand for victims of sexual abuse with Pat Barry encouraging and supporting her.

Then Rose came out with her head buzzed, looking like a cross between Furiousa and a rock star. Though her appearance was outrageous, she remained humble and continued to dominate her competition.

That lady inspires me! I’m glad she won.

Everything Rawk said, plus I’m not a fan at all of dropping people on their head so ya, wasn’t at all happy about fight one.

Keithustus wrote:

Everything Rawk said, plus I’m not a fan at all of dropping people on their head so ya, wasn’t at all happy about fight one.

Rose discovered the one time you should let go of a kimura.

I’ve almost entirely lost interest in MMA. My son asked me to subscribe to ESPN+ So we are currently watching the live fight night. Less than 10 minutes into my subscription and I’m already noticing some shady crap.

Commercials
Ok so my paid subscription isn’t enough? They’re not promoting other MMA events or anything relevant to what we’re watching. These are the typical adverts that you might see in network TV.

Covering up controversy

Spoiler:

The first round of the first match features a comeback knockout by Johnny Walker for the win. Walker was on his way to a loss. Spann, his opponent, stumbles while going for a single and it looks like Walker gives him several hammer fists to the back of the head. The camera angle obscured the potential illegal blow so it’s hard to be sure how egregious the foul might have been. Then when they show the replay from a more direct angle, they don’t show the first 3 or 4 potentially illegal blows. They repeatedly show the replay from just after that point. Shady as eff!

I’m glad my son is enjoying it, but I might need to leave the room until it’s over. It’s pushing all the wrong buttons on me.

I just hope Covington loses. My kids are too small to have this playing so hopefully I can avoid spoilers and catch the main event after they're in bed.

Better get out of this thread...!

Top_Shelf wrote:

I just hope Covington loses. My kids are too small to have this playing so hopefully I can avoid spoilers and catch the main event after they're in bed.

Better get out of this thread...!

Oh man, I’m sorry. In my eagerness to vent I totally forgot that spoilers were a thing. I’ll do better moving forward.

No apologies needed, at all.

I did catch the fight on replay afterward. I'm just glad folks are in this thread!

ETA: I don't think spoiler tags are required for live sports. Movies and stuff? Sure. But for live sports, I feel like sportsfans are responsible for taking care of themselves and the consumption of the content is meant to be live; SportsCenter doesn't spoiler tag event results...we don't need to either. Just my $0.02.

I like the part where they cry and hug and say, “I love you.”

I’m watching the PPV

Spoiler:

-I’m an instant Kevin Holland fan. I already liked him, but this victory was amazing. It’s rare to see something new in MMA these days.

-Dern has a great attitude.

-well, my boy Moreno almost did it.

Great bunch of fights tonight.

This main card was spectacular. Not one boring fight in the batch.

Cupcake!

Top_Shelf wrote:

Cupcake!

Yep! That was pretty good!

Did you see Connor’s leg though? I mean from two weeks ago.

There was a lot of very real drama happening after that fight. Dana walked out of the ring in disgust rather than stand behind Dustin. So disrespectful. What a f*cking baby.

Then Dustin does some half hearted sh*t talk to try and appease Dana.

Then Connor, proving how much of a f*cking schill he is, is talking sh*t while in serious pain with a horrific leg bone break! On one hand I’m thinking, wow that guy is really dedicated to promoting himself, yet on the other hand, shut the f*ck up you f*cking lost and you’re clearly not as great as you insist you are.

As much as I love MMA, Dana has really made it revolting for me to try to watch any more UFC events for a while:

- booting Demetrius Johnson
- not sanctioning Connor for his out-of-ring violence
- messing up the women’s divisions

Whatever else I missed.

If it wants to be a respected sport, be a sport—highest ranked, most worthy people get title shots, period—not short-term cash machine at all costs.

UFC has become WWE for folks who think they are too good for WWE.

And Connor McNugget talks way too much sh*t for someone who lost four of his last five.

RawkGWJ wrote:

that anorexic Polish lady

Dude, really?

Keithustus wrote:

- booting Demetrius Johnson

I'm kind of in two minds about this. On the one hand, the sheer disrespect for the whole damn flyweight division by Dana White was awful, and DJ was so great to watch. There's probably something to be said about the general public not caring about flyweights too. On the other hand, without DJ there's fresh blood with Figueredo and Moreno that make it more competitive and exciting than it might have been otherwise.

Personally, I think that the best thing for MMA's future is for One FC (or something similar) to gain more popularity. Give some real competition, make the UFC really work to earn their top spot.