Also not gonna let that eye poke go. DC gets away with eye pokes too often and every time Stipe was unleashing on him, he fully extends his arms with his fingers out. Pisses me off.
Stipe’s got a strong chin. Tough as any in the Heavyweight decision. DC has that explosive power in the clinch and it’s where he was landing shots. The winning punch came 30 seconds after jabbing Stipe hard as hell in the eye though and I’m never letting it go.
Not just referring to the DC fight. He was badly dropped against Overeem too. I realize this is HW and these guys hit hard, but I think it’s a little bit of an exaggeration to say his chin is anything above average.
Not to split hairs, this is circumstantially different. I'll take the bait though. The only time i've ever seen an eye poke from Stipe if i'm not mistaken? If you watch many of DC's older fights, he has done it to more than just Stipe. He's been warned during fights, and Goddard had to warn DC 4 times in the first 4 minutes of the Stipe fight to close his fists. His never look like mistakes, he literally throws an open hand right at his opponent's eyes. Notably against Rumble and Jones as they're first to come to mind for me. To be cracked by Reem, and not be knocked out and go on to win by KO, makes me respect his chin more, not take away from it. He's stood toe to toe with Ngannou and ate punces from him, as well as Dos Santos, Hunt, Nelson. I don't know many other notable hard hitters in the Heavyweight division that Stipe hasn't been in there with and done fine against.
Speaking of Reem, did anyone ever read the story from about a decade ago where he was at a night club in Holland with his brother, and was apparently getting kicked out for not tipping a restroom attendant by 5 or 6 bouncers. His brother tried to step in and intervene on the situation, was then hit in the head with a flashlight, to which Reem saw red and the two of them sent 5 bouncers to the hospital and Alistair went as well for surgery on his broken hand.
Ugh, the pinnacle poster boy for all those who look at MMA as barbaric and stereotype fighters as animals. Quite clear he is still the same horrid person he always was.
Catching up on Ariel’s show from Monday. Joanna is gonna smoke Waterson so badly. I honestly can’t see that fight going any other way.
Struve coming back so soon has me a bit worried. Unless he’s learned how to jab and use his length and if that’s the case he’ll fuck up half the division
Struve was always one of those ones who I thought would put it all together once he got older and would become unstoppable. Good to see him still want after it but I think he’s already accumulated too much damage.
Ha! Of course they’ll do a scene where he’s kicking the shit out of Vin, and then after suffering catastrophic hits, he’ll miraculously bounce back and beat him. Also just read that Dana said Conor is the likely fill-in should anything happen with Khabib or Dustin leading up to their fight. The world of MMA would go nuts.