The MMA Thread

That's 2 fighters that have backed out from fighting Wellmaker and now he gets a guy making his debut on 2 days notice.

I don't understand how Haddon broke his foot within the day, on fight week? Apparently he is a pretty solid prospect, too.

Anyway, this card should be so good. I am very excited.

Anyone have predictions for the main event fight?

Ronda made a comment about Khabib quitting before he lost and how people would look at him differently if he did.

She's got a point.

Ronda was 12-0 before she lost and if she made a retirement post saying something like "I'm burned out don't wanna fight anymore wanna try new things etc"..then wouldn't she be regarded as the goat female fighter to this day?

Part of why Amanda=goat is because she messed up Ronda in like 30 seconds then did the same to Cyborg.

But if Amanda never got the chance to beat Ronda then it wouldn't surprise me if there were constant Ronda vs Amanda goat discussions to this day.

Been a pretty good card minus the last women's 125 fight.

Who should I be rooting for in the main event

ME fight was somewhat boring, but a dominant performance by Islam.

Give me Islam/Ilia.

Was watching a stream of the main event, had to fast forward and then stop watching due to extreme boringness. Switched to the current live stream of One FC where Takeru and Puric delivered more action in seconds than in the entire Islam fight. **** MMA a lot of the time. Grappling dominated fights are dull

Who is the better / greater fighter: Khabib or Islam?

Both of them are guilty of being weight bullies. Islam at least had the stones to move up a weight class and on paper I think that puts him above Khabib. It was more than feasible that Khabib could have moved up a weight division and dominated as well but he never did and then retired early.

If the 2 of them ever did hypothetically fight (never going to happen), I imagine it would be pretty equal and a case of who got the first takedown.

Khabib was more dominant with regards to finishing his opponent (I think).

I give him the edge. He always looked unbeatable.

But hey maybe with the double champ win then Islam is already greater. If he defends two times in a row then for sure he surpasses Khabib.

I remember at one point during the last fight where Islam got a takedown and Rogan or someone said "and he never reacted until it was too late".

Like no **** two of those takedowns I didnt see them coming either. That was some gsp goat level shyte.

In fairness, JDM did an amazing job at defending against the submissions. Islam was trying all sorts of stuff and JDM was wise to it.

Islam has had more KO wins in UFC than Khabib. Khabib did look unbeatable but he tortured his body to make weight and never took the step up a division.

Looking at the Welterweight division I can easily see Islam dominate there as well. I don't see much in the way of a challenge in that division.

Not a good idea to insult Islam then go near a bunch of elite Muslim fighters.

Solid card coming this weekend, too.

I would love to see Hooker win, but I think it is going to be the same exact performance as Islam v. JDM, sadly.
Ian/Belal will be great, too.

I will say Arman by submission, Ian by decision.

His opponent, Ethan (?), fought tremendously well.

Ewing was on Michael Bisping's podcast talking about it. His weekend certainly sounded crazy.

Agreed. He sounded very calculated and articulate, which is always refreshing.

Admittedly, I haven't watched loads of his fights. I was surprised to see Belal is such a dog in the fight and expect he would take Ian down and lie on him.

The strange thing was Belal made comments about standing and striking (could be a bluff) rather than playing to his strengths. If Belal stays true to his word then I can appreciate why the odds are priced like that.

That opening fight was probably, no definitely, the worst fight I've ever seen and totally not worth waking up early to watch.

If they're going to give bonuses for great performances, then they need to start docking pay for terrible ones.

Belal got relegated to non-headerliner on a fight night one fight off a title defense loss? Tough look.

This should happen to boring fighters more often.

Horiguchi looked damn good.

great first round in ian belal

Cmon Dan Hooker ... tell me there is a god ...

Wow! Topuria vacates his title. Says he won't be ready to fight until possibly middle to late 2026 (personal; custody battle?).

UFC 324 will have Paddy v Gaethje for the title. I had Paddy beating Topuria, so I think he absolutely wrecks Gaethje.

He didn’t vacate . It’s for the interim belt and I think Topuria would kill Paddy .

Ok, whatever I read said he did, but I'll take your word for it.

Gaethje vs Paddy for the interim title on Jan 24th.

This interim title has about as much prestige as a BMF belt. Armen is the real #1 contender so these guys are basically fighting to be the #2 contender.