Maybe a hot take after that but I think Francis could probably beat some guys in the top 20 at heavyweight in boxing
No post fight presser but seems like there’s some pushing going on to get Francis ranked into the top 10 I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t compete in MMA again anytime soon.
I don't watch much boxing so I'm probably not the best judge but I would have given that to Francis. Thought he won at least half the rounds and he got the knockdown. 96-93 is a joke.
Incredible how badly Dana fumbled this. Karma is a bitch. If Dana would’ve just let him go do this and paid him, the UFC would be looking at probably their biggest main event ever. UFC did their most buys ever after they let McGregor box Floyd. Francis is effectively a bigger star now than anyone in the UFC after last night. And is realistically looking at a good 20 million+ dollar rematch with fury down the line that might legitimately be for Fury’s heavyweight belt if he still has it.
The funniest outcome we can get now is Jones to beat Stipe next year when he recovers and retire with the belt Just for Saudi to manage to get Francis/Jones to fight in MMA. Dana would fucking turn a different shade of red and explode
Man UFC Austin is fire. Co-Main is five rounds too. This card is better than half of the PPV cards this year and the best fight night in years lol Dariush/Tsarukyan Hooker/Green Figgy/Font Tate/Avila Brady/Gastelum Roundtree/Murzakanov
Almeida hype needs to die down a bit after tonight. I want to see the Blaydes fight. I think Blaydes destroys him if he fights like he did tonight.
I think he fought a little timidly and cautiously (even when in mount) because he was anticipating Lewis just standing up at any moment lol. He seemed avoidant of remotely any standup exchange so he was just pacing himself to make sure he didn’t end up in a position where he couldn’t get the fight back to the ground. I don’t really see him fighting that way with some of these other guys. He just respected Lewis’s KO power almost too much.
I expect these first three PPV’s of next year to be pretty lean to stack UFC 300 in April. 297 with Strickland/Dricus and the women’s BW title fight is a bit rough. Canadians getting the leftovers again lol
Kinda shocked they didn’t hold Sean/Chito for another month and put it on 300 tbh. If McGregor/Chandler headlines 300 then oooooof. though, I’d imagine the Strickland/DDP schedule is more telling. If Dricus becomes champ I’d expect him to defend against Izzy at 300
Gonna be weird when Mcgregor is the main event over title fights. I can’t imagine not having multiple title fights on 300. Sean/Chito still bugs the hell out of me. Chito barely beat Pedro Munoz and hasn’t looked great his last few fights. There’s 3 or 4 guys who deserve a shot more and it’s very telling that they are already letting Sugar Sean pick/choose his opponents. At this rate Merab will never get a shot because he’s a terrible stylistic fight for Sean.
Definitely surprised with O’Malley being on 299. I still don’t think Conor will headline 300. They historically don’t stack the deck on Conor’s cards, so I think he’ll be on 301 at best. What does headline it? I got no idea haha
They’re running out of stuff without the risk of extremely quick turnarounds. Strickland/Dricus winner vs Khamzat or Izzy at 300 makes the most sense. You could easily turn around any of the 4 guys fighting this weekend by then. So a LHW title fight or an interim defense at HW could be options too.
Man, this is a huge bummer. Mike was a huge figure in combat sports in the state and was involved in the MMA community basically since the beginning. I saw the guy at nearly every single event I went to (amateur and pro) and even took a judging seminar under him years ago. I think I've probably told this story here before, but he was good friends with my brother (who worked a ton of events too), so back in the day when my brother had his bachelor party, we went to a Strikeforce event that Mike happened to be reffing that night. Mike sort of showed some of us around back stage and introduced us to some of the fighters and teams. Then he told us "You guys can have my suite that Strikeforce booked for me. I'm just driving back home after the event." So we showed up, and unbeknownst to us, it was the same hotel that the fighters were staying at. So we basically got to hang out with all of the Strikeforce fighters and all of their teams all night thanks to him.