OzExorcist
Broomcorn's uncle
Bronze Level
Conor only fights who he wants to fight though
If he doesn't want to fight Khabib (and from Conor's standpoint there's still no good reasons for him to do it) then no amount of complaining on Khabib's part will change it...
U
underdog140
Legend
Silver Level
Its hard to be hungry with 100 Million in the bank. I would only come back for fights against GSP ... Nate Diaz or a something that was almost a gntd win. Why risk anything if your Conor.
Not much else garners the type of money Conor demands atm / nothing else is worth the risk of a loss which will bring damage to his name brand.
If I was Conor .. .I would rematch Diaz then Box again. Oscar De La Hoya expressed interest. It would bring big numbers and another big pay day for everyone involved.
Not much else garners the type of money Conor demands atm / nothing else is worth the risk of a loss which will bring damage to his name brand.
If I was Conor .. .I would rematch Diaz then Box again. Oscar De La Hoya expressed interest. It would bring big numbers and another big pay day for everyone involved.
WVHillbilly
Legend
Silver Level
I think he was given a VERY favorable match-up and that he'll never defend that title. I think he and Conner fight late summer to early fall and they both make gobs of money. If GSP's cardio comes back when getting back down to 170 (where I figure they'll fight) he at least stands a chance of beating Conner if he keeps it on the ground.
OzExorcist
Broomcorn's uncle
Bronze Level
Yeah what Hillbilly said - he was allowed to cherry-pick a matchup that he liked, even though it was in a weight class he'd never fought at before.
As for comparing it to the comebacks of Silva and Lesnar... I think in comparing it to Silva, GSP is still a lot younger. Silva was a few weeks shy of turning 40 when he fought Bisping. He was fighting a younger guy, who was also a problematic style matchup for him and still arguably at the tail end of his prime. And Silva still almost won that fight. I'm assuming that's the "failure" combeback fight we're talking about with him BTW, since he technically won the comeback fight against Diaz after the broken leg (drug test failure aside).
GSP, on the other hand, is "only" 36. He was the younger man in his matchup with Bisping. Also Bisping was pretty clearly in decline at that stage, given his previous fight was more than a year before and that was a super-shaky performance against old man Dan Henderson.
As for Lesnar, I don't really know how to rate his "comeback", or if it really even was one. It seemed pretty clear to me he was just there to get paid, and it's possible he didn't even care about whether he won or lost. On that note though, it was put together at short notice, in a matchup that while still dangerous gave him a pretty clear path to victory (I love love love Mark Hunt, but a grappler he is not)... and he won. He obviously failed his drug test but again, I've got to wonder whether he even cares about that given he was going straight back to his WWE payday.
Short version: GSP succeeded where Silva didn't because he's much younger and had a better matchup.
U
underdog140
Legend
Silver Level
GSP already dropped the belt weeks back. He has colitis.
http://www.sportsnet.ca/mma/ufcs-dana-white-georges-st-pierre-colitis/
https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/5094257/ufc-georges-st-pierre-robert-whittaker-luke-rockhold/
GSP has allot more then just a chance at beating Conor. What do you think GSP would do to Nate Diaz.
Connor chance is to catch and hurt GSP on the feat. With Conors cardio he will have to do that in 2 rounds / or less if grappling comes into play. Which it likely will. Grappling zaps your cardio allot faster then stand up does.
http://www.sportsnet.ca/mma/ufcs-dana-white-georges-st-pierre-colitis/
https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/5094257/ufc-georges-st-pierre-robert-whittaker-luke-rockhold/
GSP has allot more then just a chance at beating Conor. What do you think GSP would do to Nate Diaz.
Connor chance is to catch and hurt GSP on the feat. With Conors cardio he will have to do that in 2 rounds / or less if grappling comes into play. Which it likely will. Grappling zaps your cardio allot faster then stand up does.
OzExorcist
Broomcorn's uncle
Bronze Level
I think it's super-tough to say how any of those matches would go, given how little recent form we have on any of the participants.
Nate hasn't fought anyone other than Conor in over two years. We don't even know if he wants to fight anyone other than Conor. Though he did look good in both those fights.
GSP's only fight in four years, as noted above, was against a well-past-his-prime Bisping.
And by the time Conor comes back he won't have fought an MMA bout in about 18 months either. He's the youngest of the three and pretty clearly still in his prime though, from a physical standpoint.
Does GSP have a skill set that could trouble Conor? Sure. Would he also be the bigger fighter? Yes. Is GSP's cardio still the same as it used to be, and is his chin still the same, now that he's getting older though? Who knows.
And while Nate is definitely not Nick, I imagine a Nate-GSP fight stands to look pretty similar to the Nick-GSP fight.
Nate hasn't fought anyone other than Conor in over two years. We don't even know if he wants to fight anyone other than Conor. Though he did look good in both those fights.
GSP's only fight in four years, as noted above, was against a well-past-his-prime Bisping.
And by the time Conor comes back he won't have fought an MMA bout in about 18 months either. He's the youngest of the three and pretty clearly still in his prime though, from a physical standpoint.
Does GSP have a skill set that could trouble Conor? Sure. Would he also be the bigger fighter? Yes. Is GSP's cardio still the same as it used to be, and is his chin still the same, now that he's getting older though? Who knows.
And while Nate is definitely not Nick, I imagine a Nate-GSP fight stands to look pretty similar to the Nick-GSP fight.
Poker Orifice
And Still...
Platinum Level
No damage from not taking fights to defend a title(s)?
Whatever happened to fighting in hopes of being champ? Or for the sake of fighting because you like to fight... you like to compete. UFC is turning into professional boxing crossed with WWF.
As far as GSP vs. Nate... of course he crushes him... as he would vs. Connor imo.
OzExorcist
Broomcorn's uncle
Bronze Level
LOL after all the setbacks, on both sides, I'll believe that fight is actually happening once the cage door closes and not a moment sooner
FastOne
Legend
Loyaler
Tonight should be a great night of fights.
Looking forward to Miocic vs Ngannou especially. But there are many promising fights: Villante vs Barroso, Ortiz vs Pantoja, Makhachev vs Tibau...
Last weekend weren't that good. BTW, anyone saw Paige Vanzant broken arm? Here's a link to it:
https://www.mmamania.com/2018/1/15/16892194/pic-paige-vanzant-broken-arm-suffered-loss-ufc-st-louis
Looking forward to Miocic vs Ngannou especially. But there are many promising fights: Villante vs Barroso, Ortiz vs Pantoja, Makhachev vs Tibau...
Last weekend weren't that good. BTW, anyone saw Paige Vanzant broken arm? Here's a link to it:
https://www.mmamania.com/2018/1/15/16892194/pic-paige-vanzant-broken-arm-suffered-loss-ufc-st-louis
Poker Orifice
And Still...
Platinum Level
But I stupidly made a bunch of parlay bets & lost them all, lol.When I went to check my account balance it was more than twice what I figured it should've been. Couldn't figure out why. I had Stipe in a couple parlays one included Chael Sonnen over Rampage & Rockhold / Whittaker fight. Just realized now that Whittaker is out of next week's fight so my bets were paid off early. (good thing cuz I probably lose that final fight, lol)
OzExorcist
Broomcorn's uncle
Bronze Level
Noooooooooo! I hadn't seen that news until now (NFL playoffs is when I all but tune out MMA), feel terrible for Whittaker, hope he makes a full recovery soon.
Good news that your bet got up though
miamia
Legend
Silver Level
Francis are underestimated Stipe heart and chin. Stipe holds the record for most title defense of all time and gets no respect... Stipe took the belt from Dana, gave it to his guy to put it on him.Stipe is true champ and finally be the GREATEST.
FastOne
Legend
Loyaler
Just watched the Early Prelims and Premlis of UFC 220 (still to watched the main card - I hardly ever watched these fights live).
Makhachev vs Tibau was the first fight of the night, which I find to be a good decision in order to get people excited early on and have the arena already crowded from the beginning. Homasi vs Alhassan was a great fight with a very impressive knockout, best fight so far. The other 4 fights were just OK.
Makhachev vs Tibau was the first fight of the night, which I find to be a good decision in order to get people excited early on and have the arena already crowded from the beginning. Homasi vs Alhassan was a great fight with a very impressive knockout, best fight so far. The other 4 fights were just OK.
Poker Orifice
And Still...
Platinum Level
agreed... but who wouldn't go early & be there right from the first fight of the night? I for sure would be there early. If I only wanted to watch the main events I'd stay home and watch it on tv.
FastOne
Legend
Loyaler
So would I for sure. I always watch the Early Prelims from home, so live you bet I'd be there for the first bell of the night.
But, check out previous UFC events and you'll notice that a lot of people are not like that and only show up for the main card. I've always found that odd.
Just watched the main card, great fights all of them! And that first round of Stipe vs Ngannou, my heart was racing so fast.
mtl mile end
Legend
Bronze Level
So would I for sure. I always watch the Early Prelims from home, so live you bet I'd be there for the first bell of the night.
But, check out previous UFC events and you'll notice that a lot of people are not like that and only show up for the main card. I've always found that odd.
It's the same with all major sporting events, but especially with boxing and MMA - the best seats are always in the hands of super wealthy people who may have been compted. These are the "fans" least likely to be in their seats at the beginning of the event.
OzExorcist
Broomcorn's uncle
Bronze Level
So would I for sure. I always watch the Early Prelims from home, so live you bet I'd be there for the first bell of the night.
But, check out previous UFC events and you'll notice that a lot of people are not like that and only show up for the main card. I've always found that odd.
I've only been to one UFC event live, that was UFC 193 (the one where Rousey lost to Holm).
I think we got there about halfway through the prelim card (and we completely missed the early prelims). Part of the reason for that was a lot of the prelim fights were pretty garbage. I mean, Jared Rosholt vs Stefan Struve was a main card fight, so that probably tells you everything you need to know about the undercard. It was mostly local scrubs (side note: UFC, the Australian fighters you keep padding undercards here with aren't a draw for us. We're not stupid. We know most of them aren't very good). And they were fighting meh internationals.
The other thing to consider is if you're turning up from the very first fight of the night you're going to be at the arena for a long time - probably seven or so hours. Most people are used to going to a concert or a football game or whatever for maybe four hours, so from that perspective I get it. I mean, it's not like the seats are that comfortable and the food and drinks are almost certainly expensive
Long story short, if I had a ticket for the whole event and there were prelim fights I actually cared about then yes, I expect I'd show up early to watch them.
But then it'd have to be a pretty amazing card for me to buy a ticket in the first place. I took a hard pass the second time the UFC came back to my town because even the main card was rubbish
FastOne
Legend
Loyaler
Honestly, I have no idea why you found that fight boring. I thought it was a great fight. Consider it was a 5 round heavyweight fight. At 263 ponds (Ngannou at his weight in) you can't fight at the intensity of a bantamweight during 25 minutes, especially after that taxing first round.
And I enjoyed all four previous fights of the main card.