MMA & Boxing 14 - There's not a ditch in hell deep enough to toss Team Lloyd Irvin in

[Gears of the Beast]

Jones is gonna be approaching this fight completely differently to the Gus fight. He knows how good DC is and he really doesn't like him, the odds are quite close for this one - everything is different. When Jones fought Gus he thought he was invincible, and who could really blame him? Gus took Jones by surprise, DC isn't gonna do that. I'm not saying it's gonna be easy by any stretch of the imagination, I just think it's somewhat wrong to look at the Gus fight and draw conclusions about this one.

In terms of pure technical ability this is one of the greatest fights ever. We're gonna be talking about this fucking fight for years. I could not be more excited. It also happens to be supported by one of the best cards in years - holy fuck people, get psyched up.

[Ramsay B.]

So Jones and Cormier went at it a little early at a photo shoot.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/-video--ufc-champ-jon-jones-and-daniel-cormier-brawl-200345837.html

[Ken Stone]

So Jones and Cormier went at it a little early at a photo shoot.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/-video--ufc-champ-jon-jones-and-daniel-cormier-brawl-200345837.html

Damn, these guys know how to sell a fight.

[Gears of the Beast]

Hahaha this is the best thing that came out of that brawl.

BTW, they're not just selling the fight unlike most fake animosity in MMA, they legitimately hate each other.

[Ramsay B.]

The interview on ESPN after this went down was great. Cormier was basically just laughing at Jones saying how fake he was and how Jones started the whole thing by pushing his head onto his. Jones was being overly nice and polite despite saying he basically dominated Cormier in their scuffle on twitter...such silliness.

[Gears of the Beast]

hahaha this UFC 178 Q+A is classic my favourite part:

DC: I have the belief, determination and will to get it done. I have to use every part of my body, heart and soul, I have to leave everything in the cage

Jones: That's deep. That's why you're a commentator

DC: You're an asshole

Jones: I'm gonna paint that quote in my man cave, that was real.

[Gears of the Beast]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand it's gone. Jones is injured.

This is the worst thing ever. It's just an enormous mess:

-Cormier was a replacement fight to begin with, Gus was promised to be next for the title shot and now he's getting fucked because the fight has been rescheduled for Jan 3

-All the massive hype that was built up for this fight was pretty much all for nothing

-Demetrious Johnson vs. Chris Cariaso has been pulled from UFC 177 to be the new mainevent for 178, effectively making UFC 177 go from mediocre to terrible, UFC 174 did 100k buys with a better card than UFC 177, that's dire for the UFC

-We've lost one of the best PPVs the UFC has ever put on, it's still a great card apart from the mainevent but it's gone from a great card with an absolutely amazing mainevent to a great card with a shitty mainevent

-Shayna Baszler vs Bethe Correia is now the comain for UFC 177, that fight doesn't even deserve to be on the prelims of a PPV

-Fuck I wanted this fight so badly, the MMA gods had to fuck us.

This is an unmitigated fucking disaster. Fuck.

[Ramsay B.]

Yikes...that fucking sucks.

[Gears of the Beast]

lol so Barao is out and some fucking guy from bellator making his debut is fighting Dillashaw for the title. This is literally the worst PPV they've done.

[Hutch]

lol so Barao is out and some fucking guy from bellator making his debut is fighting Dillashaw for the title. This is literally the worst PPV they've done.

Wow. Time to move this shit to FOX.

[Davrum]

Considering how beat up the card was the event itself turned out to be a lot of fun. All five PPV fights had plenty to offer (including a correct result in Tony Ferguson's favour after spending a lot of time on his back) and Soto put up a great fight, marking up TJ's face pretty good before TJ put his stamp on the fight in the last round.

[Gears of the Beast]

Considering how beat up the card was the event itself turned out to be a lot of fun. All five PPV fights had plenty to offer (including a correct result in Tony Ferguson's favour after spending a lot of time on his back) and Soto put up a great fight, marking up TJ's face pretty good before TJ put his stamp on the fight in the last round.

Agreed. That guy did great for someone making their UFC debut in a fucking title fight on 24 hours notice. Showing he clearly belongs in the UFC. It was still underwhelming for a PPV because there really weren't many consequential fights, but all the fights were pretty entertaining so there really wasn't much else they could do, it was just super bad luck and their own problems of scheduling too many events.

[Davrum]

Ya, the UFC does seem to be shooting itself in the foot somewhat with how thin they're spreading themselves in order to expand. Thankfully TJ isn't as much of a drama queen as Bones Jones and they didn't have to cancel that sucker.

[Gears of the Beast]

I wouldn't really call not wanting to fight a roided up Chael on a weeks notice being a drama queen. You can't blame Jon Jones for that card being cancelled, despite what Dana White wants everyone to think.

[Davrum]

I don't really blame Bones, but if Chael had been on the juice at that point he would have been pinged anyway. Chael was also from a division 20lbs lighter than Bones's and was coming off his second loss to Anderson and his barely-squeaking-by of Michael Bisping. Nobody expected him to be a contest for Bones, not even Chael himself.

[Gears of the Beast]

I don't really blame Bones, but if Chael had been on the juice at that point he would have been pinged anyway. Chael was also from a division 20lbs lighter than Bones's and was coming off his second loss to Anderson and his barely-squeaking-by of Michael Bisping. Nobody expected him to be a contest for Bones, not even Chael himself.

Dude Chael was definitely on the juice at that point. After the first Silva fight he got busted for massively elevated testosterone. They could never even pick up HGH and EPO before their new enhanced drug testing program which apparently is an insanely effective combination. You don't suddenly hit 33 and then start performing really well, the guy was clearly on the juice. He's just a natural cheat, he'll try to cheat his way through every facet of life.

[lessthanluke]

Dude Chael was definitely on the juice at that point. After the first Silva fight he got busted for massively elevated testosterone. They could never even pick up HGH and EPO before their new enhanced drug testing program which apparently is an insanely effective combination. You don't suddenly hit 33 and then start performing really well, the guy was clearly on the juice. He's just a natural cheat, he'll try to cheat his way through every facet of life.

Who gives a shit. Jesus.

[GSP]

Sonnen's opponents at the time .. probably?

Absolutely agree with your take on the Ferguson decision Davrum. Castillo really annoyed me with his fucked up belief that control is everything, and lay and pray should have got him the win. If he had been landing, or even attempting ground and pound, and/or trying to pass and/or grab submissions, I'd be all for him, but he got top position and didn't do shit. Ferguson was crazy active and actually scoring damage and threatening subs or sweeps from the bottom. Wrestling counts in MMA but it isn't a wrestling match. Smack your head Danny.

Its like Matt Hughes/Matt Serra. IIRC they were clearly one round a piece going into the third, so the third was the clincher. Hughes managed to keep Serra down for most of the round, but inflicted little damage. Serra managed to have Hughes on his back during that same round for something like 40 seconds IIRC. However, he threw down the thunder hard during that time and damn nearly finished Hughes. To me, that was Serra's round. The judges saw it different. The Ferguson decision indicates that maybe they are coming around.

[Davrum]

Yeah, it was so nice to see (2/3) judges apparently understanding the ground game enough to give the right man the victory.

Dude Chael was definitely on the juice at that point. After the first Silva fight he got busted for massively elevated testosterone. They could never even pick up HGH and EPO before their new enhanced drug testing program which apparently is an insanely effective combination. You don't suddenly hit 33 and then start performing really well, the guy was clearly on the juice. He's just a natural cheat, he'll try to cheat his way through every facet of life.

Oh, I agree he was on stuff and is a habitual cheat, I was just pointing out why everybody said at the time 151 was cancelled that Bones would tool him juice or no juice, as was proved beyond all doubt when they finally did tussle.

[Gears of the Beast]

And in news that doesn't make any sense at all Arlovski just KOd Bigfoot. What is going on in this HW division right now? If Mark Hunt beats Roy Nelson he could find himself in a no.1 contender fight...sweet.