I’m going to the Brunson/Jacare card. It looks decent. First time UFC has come to North Carolina that I know of.
I have no clue what’s happening with Conor/Khabib/Tony. Conor’s coach posted a video of him watching tape of Khabib. Tony post something with him signing what looked like a fight contract.
Dana just said that Conor is talking about coming back potentially in September. Dana isn't happy with that and leaned toward the idea of stripping him and said they are working on Tony/Khabib.
I need to rewatch, but I remember thinking live that his main problem was moving his head straight back and forth instead of getting it off of the center line. He was able to move just out of range so it worked for a while, but once Stephens got his range, he knew exactly where Choi's head was going to be. Also seemed like in the second round, Jeremy switched to straighter punches. Overall, pretty disappointing night if I'm being honest. Had floor tickets but they had our section blocked off so we were kind of unable to go and meet a single person. All but two or three fights were terribly boring, too. We really could have used Belfort/Hall and Cummings/Alves. It was my girlfriend's first MMA event so I'm sure she'll never care to go back. haha. And to top it off, I had a two hour drive home that turned into a four hour drive because of a snow storm so of course that made it worse. haha.
I feel bad for both Paige and Choi. They are setting up Choi to go to war with some of these veterans way too early. They hardly gave him any time to build himself up before matching him up with brawlers. As for Paige, I would say I'm a fan, but her ceiling of talent is just pretty low. She's as tough as they come and I know she's super young, but I feel like we should have already seen more progression in her skill set. She looks okay against lower tier fighters, but I could never see her making up the skill gap between her and Rose, Joanna, etc.
Hard to fault Paige much in this one, fighting to a decision with a broken arm is tough. Who knows how that goes if that didn't happen. They won't let her go, but more fights against that caliber of fighter will do her well. Stephens is such a workhorse. 14-13 in the UFC since 2007(!), he's a tough out for anyone, much less someone like Choi who needs some seasoning. Big week for MMA. Hopefully everything goes according to plan. Have a gut feeling Cormier may drop this one and the Stipe/Francis fight is going to be nuts.
If Daniel Cormier drops out of this fight then he's easily the biggest disappointment of a Champion to have ever existed.
This one isn't really all that telling because of the circumstances, but I've been critical of her until this point, as well. Like I said, she's tough as nails and fought through, but from what we saw of her before the broken arm, she was spamming that jumping switch kick over and over with no set up and also tried that god awful headlock takedown. She didn't really look all that promising. Clark was also so ineffective that she couldn't do anything besides hold Paige down and stall. She didn't even have the awareness to notice that Paige was not using her right hand for two rounds and to attack on that side. Like I said, just a frustrating night.
Agreed. I guess I'm very indifferent towards Paige because I never bought into the UFC's hype around her. It was too early for her then, and still feel the same now. I do hope she turns it around, we've seen her potential to reach a different crowd, which is good for the sport.
Well I think the hype mainly cause she’s very good looking Jon Jones already has the biggest disappointment of a champion title wrapped up I reckon
That's no joke. I mean, she's had a couple of exciting fights and one great knockout, but that crowd absolutely erupted last night when they showed her on the big screen. She was really the only one that got that kind of reaction besides Michael Johnson, obviously. Also, my two favorite moments from last night... Being there for the Matt Hughes tribute was amazing. People got very emotional during that part. And then there was this guy in my row that had signs made for Darren Elkins. Someone told me it was his high school wrestling coach, but when he won, that guy went absolutely insane. Everyone was so happy for him despite the fact that Elkins just finished the hometown favorite.
I had no idea Matt Hughes even got hurt, no idea how I missed that, even I got emotional and I’m not even a Hugh fan of the guy (respect him but a few personal issues I differ with him)
Well she proper broke it. I was thinking maybe fracture as I’d done similar and only fractured arm and elbow but damn she’s a tough cookie