I'm leaning towards Stipe as well because I think he's probably going to gameplan a little better this time around. But to be fair, DC was winning the first few rounds of the last fight until Stipe made a massive adjustment. It was close, but I wouldn't count him out by any means.
Cormier is 41. Stipe is still in his prime and looked like he had Cormier pretty well figured out. I just don’t see Cornier improving at 41 and it’s likely he’s going to decline a little so I have to lean strongly toward Stipe in that one.
I'd have to rewatch, but I felt that it was less Stipe figuring out Cormier than Cormier not adjusting at all to the body shots. I'm still leaning towards Stipe, but I don't think Cormier was overexposed in that fight by any stretch.
Yeah it seemed like Stipe just had a realization that it worked so he kept doing. haha. I'm not sure why DC didn't really adjust, but he just sort of kept letting them happen until he couldn't recover. If anything, I would have said that Silva and Jones already made it evident that DC is susceptible to shots to the body. Stipe just managed to utilize that late in the fight.
I feel like Stipe was landing throughout but not as significantly as DC. Then in the last two rounds DC was getting tired and the body shots ended it. Still a toss up if I’m being realistic, but I’ll be rooting for Stipe.
Agreed. I love DC, but for the sake of interest in the division, I hope Stipe holds onto it and rematches Francis, fights Blaydes, etc. It feels so odd when a champion vacates their title.
I know he was swinging pretty wild in his last fight, but even I will admit that I think The new and improved Ngannou could be bad news for Stipe.
Very solid card. Emmett/Burgos was a firecracker. Curtis is so solid. Not sure what he does next, there's not much there for a third with Francis. Wouldn't mind him vs Gus or Lewis if he wants to stay busy with a weird fight.
Good on this fighter for knowing when to bow out. I don’t blame him at all especially since I’d never have the guts to get in there at that level in the first place. His corner should have listened to him and not tried to put him out there when his heart is clearly not in it. Hard to watch though, I feel for him.
Yeah I watched Helwani go off about this earlier today. Valid points, cornermen and coaches should not be pressuring fighters to get back in there if the fighter is saying they're done. Dana, for once, was on the right side of things and spoke about this in the post-fight conference.
Don't know if it was posted (I don't remember seeing it), but Ladd pulled out of her fight this weekend citing a knee injury. Sucks to see her having such bad luck in this current stretch of her career when she was a super exciting prospect not too long ago.
Villante vs Green is a sneaky good fight imo. The best one next to Poirier vs Hooker. I honestly think Poirier is gonna run through Hooker in the 1st round.
Pulling for Poirier for sure (I thought Hooker lost to Felder, for what it's worth). Side note, I'm really bummed that I have a wedding to attend on Saturday for the second weekend in a row and will probably miss the fights once again.