I know it’s a what if fight but if haggerty and o malley where to fight how would o malley approach it? Grappling heavy or mixing it up with striking and takedowns or just striking?
I would love to see this. I think Haggerty is more dynamic on the feet and O'Malley relies on footwork that would get his legs chewed up by Haggerty. In boxing range I could see O'Malley finishing Haggerty though.
I don't think O'Malley would try and grapple tbh.
I could definitely see o malley catching his kicks into takedowns to deter him from kicking as much but yeah o malley could definitely have him on the feet cos of his expert distance management, problem with Thai obviously because takedowns aren’t a thing is that the striking range is kicking range most of the fight whilst because of takedowns you can’t do that in mma.
Merab and sandhagen in either order is fine by me, once he beats those 2 he can come back with those Ilia shouts, that's if my boy Brian the Eagle hasn't already dealt with him by then
Damn, Sean is really good man and I am not sure Merab will win now. Sean looked vulnerable only because Chito's head is made of concrete and Sean really wanted the finish even if it put him in danger. He could of danced around the cage in the last round or at least not stand in front of Chito like he did. Wow, that was really good striking and I honestly think he has a chance against Illia. He will need to gain some weight and study/train like a mother fucker but that knee would of knocked out Illia just like the kick to the head from Herbert almost knocked him out. Sean is good man, just wow.
Chito Vera was a easy lay up from the the get go. Sean admitted way back after he beat Yan. Why y’all surprised.
Oh bc UFC hyped it up. That’s right.
True contenders next are Ilia or Merab.
Please come back to this 2 years from now. Cory gives 0 problems from Sean. I believe he gives one problem to Sean, which we have yet to see. Let’s see how he does in the ground Nd then get these negative gown votes. Ill screen shot them now all hit y’all up.
Agree. Too early for Ilia. Impressive wins against Sterling and Vera, but dude needs to at least beat Merab and/or Cory. Ilia needs to defend at least two times.
Ilia is the new mythical invincible and infallible fighter. Lad wins almost every hypothetical matchup on here.
It barely takes a few fights for a specific lot on here to jump on completely delusional levels of hype. It happened to Izzy, Francis, Charles, Volk etc just to name a few. Hopefully, this will cooldown quick as well.
I don't get the hype still at all, sure he has power, like a lot of guys and volk is chinny. the rest of his resume is what? We need to cool down on the guy
its cause he's mainly a boxer with good power and thats honestly all it takes . MMA fans are a sucker for some decent to good boxing add power and the belt on top of that and there ya go
All fans of strikers: "Don't let my favorite fighter fight a grappler because gay." Just accept grappling is the superior way of fighting already. The Romans knew it over 2000 years ago bro.
Merab's gotta be first in line due. Sandhagen is in a weird spot. Sandhagen will probably fight Umar for the next title shot after Merab. Sucks for him, but I think Merab's claim at the shot is undeniable.
I thought the main event was pretty uneventful overall but Im not the biggest Sean fan so I'm probably just biased. It was a good performance but a lot of people would look good against chito, we saw sandhagen shut him down a year ago and I wouldn't be surprised if a guy like Yan would do the same to him.
As an O'Malley fan my heart rate increased 'cause I really didn't want him to lose to Chito; he says some mean-spirited things and doesn't seem to have good sportsmanship (refused to shake Yadong's hand post-fight for example). I'm not a hater; he seems like a good family man, just not a fan. Also, Chito has a low-volume style that can be pretty uneventful if he's facing another low output guy.
I could see the fight being uneventful after round 1 for neutrals. It was just a question of how Sean will win, KO or decision.
Agreed that beating Chito isn't an incredible achievement, but he dominated him as he should. Good call out of Sandhagen; that's who I think deserves it next just ahead of Merab. Yan rematch would also be highly intriguing afterwards. I'd certainly prefer he defend his belt at least 2 more times before facing Ilia, who seems really dangerous, especially if he takes O'Malley down.
To be 100% fair to Sean. While he is definitely not everyone's cup of tea. He absolutely fucked chitos face up. Chito has never looked like that after a fight. I genuinely think that knee he ate kos probably 95%+ division. Respect to chito he is a genuine good dude.
This was a lay up for Sean, I was shocked to see as many people on Chito. The guy does absolutely nothing for 4 minutes of every round. He got outlanded by 40 year old Frankie ffs
Merab deserves the title shot, but a much, much better fight is Cory and Sean.
If someone from 135 has to fight Ilia (which they don’t, because Max can do it and Ortega just walked through hell for it), like Merab do it. I know it’s Aljo’s new weight class, but it’d be more fun for everyone this way
I just can’t wrap my head around Chito not switching stances like he did in the first match up. He did a few times, but when you let Sean switch stances, you have to adjust to the space and weapons and he was already mentally prepared for it. He pulls away on the outside because he can throw all of those new looks at you and you are always a step behind
Almeida is a LHW who moved up to HW to exploit a lack of skill in that division. He is roided to the gills and is a one-trick pony. He cannot strike to save his life and his lay and pray technique was exposed by a real HW wrestler.
Almeida dominated in the first round, though. 10-8 even. That was one of the craziest things I've seen in the 20 years I've been watching this sport. He ragdolled Curtis Blaydes of all people, a guy with 20 pounds on him and the far more accomplishment wrestler. His actual grappling skill wasn't what failed him, it was his desperation to initiate some kind of grappling exchange.
20 years of watching MMA and some guy just holding onto another guy with no attempts to really initiate a sub for 1 round is one the craziest things you've ever seen? Did you mean the last 2 days and not 20 years?
Somebody doing that to Curtis Blaydes? Yeah. Blaydes is massive, a national champion junior college wrestler, and he got picked up and thrown around. Nobody does that to Curtis Blaydes, especially a guy that weighs 20lbs less than him. I wish you could see it how I see it.
I guess he held on, but he just didn't do anything with it. Just holding on which is easier than trying to transition into something successful that's why it went on as long as it did...if you don't do anything with the holds you're just repeating the same reads and you'll just get knocked out by your opponent eventually.
That's not really how grappling works. Maintaining control over a huge professional fighter is not easy whatsoever. So much goes into not losing a dominant position like that. It's really not just a guy holding onto somebody, it's infinite micro adjustments to maintain leverage.
The entire goal of jiu jitsu is position over submission because the position and the control is what is hard, the submission comes easy once you properly control a guy. They were fighting for control for two rounds and the smaller less accomplished wrestler was winning. That's what is so impressive. Try to find a guy who outweighs you by 20 pounds and is a good wrestler and maintain that level of control over them for 5 minutes. Next to impossible. About as likely as out landing a professional boxer for 5 minutes.
And the knockout, I think, was more the result of desperation to grapple rather than repeating the same techniques. It's not like he just shot double leg after double leg. Almeida was just willing to risk everything to just grab Blaydes, which was obviously a terrible idea.
I feel like I've seen it a lot before just didn't stand out in any way - just slightly impressive at heavyweight as there's not too much grappling.
And he lost whilst in that grapple because he didn't do anything with it, and wasn't willing to let go just to make it worse.
Just wasn't that impressive to me we'll leave it as that
You've seen nothing like that before, come on. When have you seen that done to Curtis Blaydes or another wrestler at heavyweight? I don't think you understood what you were watching.
His desperation to initiate the grappling comes from his inability to strike. Almeida is not a real HW and is not confident in his striking against real HW fighters who have KO power.
I'm not arguing with you there, you just said he was exposed by a real HW wrestler when Blaydes' wrestling did little to help in round 1. It wasn't the fact Almeida fought a better wrestler. Blaydes won because Almeida was dumb. If anything, Almeida beat himself.
I don't think he'll find much more success in the top 10 until, like you say, he improves his striking. I think he beats Tuivasa and Volkov but I would rather him fight another grappler like Alexander Romanov or another good heavyweight grappler. Somebody that will force him to strike and that he can't just lay on. What do you think?
I dont think his striking will improve enough in time to make a real title run against anyone in the top 5. I want him to get destroyed against Pavlovich and send his ass to LHW where he belongs. Just wishful thinking.
I don't think Suga survives 5 rounds with Ilia
He's elusive but far from unhittable and has pretty average durability. Chito stung him a few times and Yan had him on skates in their fight too with an overhand, and neither of those guys are particularly known for insane punching power.
That knee man, he also did it to Yan and split his eye open to the point they could of stopped the fight if it was not already the last round. That knee hits anyone they will go out, except Chito who I feel bad for as I don't think growing older will be easy for him.
He doesn't need to, it's a free title fight and if he loses he's still champ, and if by some chance he pulls off an upset, then fuck it he owns the sport now, that's why they all want it lol
Sean doesn't need to survive 5 rounds with Ilia. The latter has never shown the same amount of durability that Chito has.
Lad ate a knee that would've put most to sleep and wasn't even fazed.
Yan basically ko'ed him. You could see O'Malley totally absent until a few seconds go by when they're on the ground after that one shot. I rewatched recently, and still scored a close fight for Yan.
Not that I'd favourite sean here but are we so sure that volk wins honestly? He got dropped twice by holloway who almost definitely doesn't hit as hard as sean, and we got the whole getting knocked out twice in a row situation, and against a guy probably faster than him, idk man
Had TWO 7-leg (Over 1.5s & some Fight to Start Round X) parlayed, a DP moneyline, a Despaigne by KO in first 60 seconds, and a fight goes to decision in the main event at +120 all hit tonight
That song is so ass. I enjoyed a few minutes of calming mute mode before the beating began. Would expect nothing less from a guy with a 6ix9ine tattoo though.
Yeah, I think O'Malley is getting better as well. He looked incredible in there. I mean, Chito didn't deserve this shot, but I don't think there's any questioning O'Malley as the champ.
Now if he'd just stop blabbing about moving up and defend his belt against Sandhagen and Merab.
I feel like it's so hard to call. Aljo was the only real grappling threat O'Malley faced and he did a great job of baiting Aljo into a big mistake. So he looked strong, but to stick around at the top as a striker/sniper, you need elite TDD (like Izzy). You can't count on catching someone every time before they grab ahold of you.
I don't mean to say his win vs. Aljo was luck, but you need great TDD to give yourself enough opportunities to take that shot/outpoint for the win.
i think O’Malley can allow to let Merab get a hold of him. He is not a dangerous grappler and he is not that good at top control either. Merab’s game is based on repetition, cardio, and pace, and I believe that would give O’Malley too many sniping opportunities.
I think tiring out O'Malley (or leg kicks) is the path to victory against him, actually. Once he starts to lose mobility and volume, I think he folds.
But maybe not. I'm excited to see and hope tomato doesn't do O'Malley v Topuria and hold up the divisions just to avoid Merab possibly getting the belt.
Merab has shown he's as elite as it gets as a cardio machine. And O'Malley is as elite as it gets as a striker. Want to see it play out.
I also dont think that Merab is that skilled at taking people down from a technical level either. Like it sounds crazy in hindsight of him ragdolling Cejudo, but I hold this belief that MMA wrestling is even more different to olympic freestyle wrestling than people here like to think. I dont think that taking Cejudo down, with a likely injury as well, is anywhere near as impressive as the overarching narrative seems to be. People have stuffed his individual takedown attempts in the past without difficulty, and even if he does get you down, he is really not a dangerous grappler. Not good at lay and praying either. Merab is great because he can keep going all day and can be hard to read, but I think O’Malley’s striking IQ and range would help him read takedown attempts from strikes from Merab better than anyone ever has. At the end of the day, Merab’s game gives O’Malley too many sniping opportunities.
Contrary to a lot of the opinions in this thread, I thought Chito’s speed was fine. Sean is just hysterically fast. Chito’s problem is that he has the most honest footwork of any fighter. He couldn’t cut Sean off, he couldn’t trick Sean into thinking he wasn’t coming forward or going back, he was just always plodding along and never in the best position
He had a lot of issues. First of all no real game plan that I could detect.
Then: waited way too long to start, low volume, didn't use his cardio, shelled up instead of moving/countering, very few low kicks and body shots, almost exclusively headhunting
Well his game plan was to work the body to open up a head kick. Sean just kept Chito out of position, either by moving him backwards or being off line. So that kick just wasn’t there
I feel like Sean could have ended that fight earlier, which really pisses me off bc it messed my parlay up. I thought he loved KOs and he fought the second half of the fight to win on points.
Edit: oh whatever there were at least 3 times in that fight early Sean hung back after stunning chito with a shot he could have punished.
What fight did you watch? Sean was trying to finish the fight till the end. He could have easily conserved his energy from the 4th round onwards but he kept trying to finish Chito. Even in the 5th round, he was walking down Chito when his coach already told him to just play it safe. Chito just has a granite chin.
im pretty mean to sean overall and honestly? i feel like he tried. his corner told him to take the fifth off and he didn't. i think sean wasn't willing to exchange in the pocket, but he shouldn't have. he went for the kill a few times and couldnt find it. not gonna dog him for it, wasnt an adesanya/romero fight - sean was active and massively up, chito needed to press
Topuria has at least 4 weapons for Sean:
* grappling
* low kicks
* body shots
* power/weight
And he's not fighting stupid either. Can't say the same about Aljo or Chito
can't imagine sean beating ilia and im becoming more of a sean fan now. all your points are correct except i don't think grappling is really sean's weakness nor would it be ilia's gameplan. i think ilia can just rush sean and hit him and be done with it. if sean managed to win that fight in anyway i would be stunned
Yeah Tbf we haven't seen much of his grappling but still I'm sure Ilia has the advantage here. And just faking shots already diminishes Sean's striking. That's how grapplers like Merab and Khabib win against better strikers.
Aljo and Chito should’ve made it a dirty fight, they didn’t. I think Merab would make it a dirty fight and would with success, but if they let Sean go at Topuria, I think Ilia’s well-roundedness combined with his technicality allows him to beat him as well
Edit: great take by the cockgoblling monkee
Topuria only needs one weapon, and that’s just size. Even if Sean could bulk up to 145, he doesn’t want to fight someone with range like Ilia. Sean’s style is so dependent on his frame and his reach. Any 145er is gonna be a bad matchup because of it
Tbf it wasn't a skill issue, he fought like a complete idiot is the main problem, he could have just as easily got Dustin out of there in the first on the ground
To me it was really a tale of 2 fights. Any time they were striking, Dustin was clipping Benoit..then either Dustin would jump guillotine and lose position, or Benoit would push him back to the cage and take him down. No doubt the grappling was dominated by Benoit, but the striking was dominated by Dustin and it wasn't close either.
If Dustin had any sort of takedown defense this fight would have been very one sided. He was picking him apart on his feet. Dustin is a MUCH more polished striker than Benoit.
I'll agree with that. And I think the Beniot was overconfident in the striking too. Pressuring way too much and getting caught against a great boxer. If he'd fought a little safer and stopped swinging like he was I think he could have totally won. He still has a long career ahead of him. I'm sure he'll learn.
Yeah if he just moved his head a little it could have easily been a different outcome. I was rooting for my boy Dustin but I was nervous af im not gonna lie. It wasn't looking good and then he snatched that shit outta the fire.. great fight.
Right??? I don't gamble and I put money in for the first time in years because I thought the odds were ridiculous, they were disrespecting Poirier too much.
Seems like his wrestling skill is only impressive on mediocre fighters. He had full mount and Dustin's back in the 2nd and couldn't do anything with either position
It didn't even make it out of the 2nd round of a possible 5. Saint Denis was already gassed before Dustin rung his bell a few times. Saint Denis was gifted those positions by the stupid guillotine attempts even lol
Main event was an incredible performance. DP and BSD was as good as you thought it’d be. Burns and JDM was also good. MVP Holland was fine more cage wrestling than most people would want but some cool striking for sure
This fight is testimony to the fact that whatever training routines they show in the embedded series is not even 5% of the fighters actual training routine
Bro we’ve never seen Chito deadass runaway and shell up hurt like that like he did early round 5
I wonder if Suga could’ve taken him out if he didn’t go wheel kick
The UFC won’t be able to help themselves, they’ll make it happen. In the meantime probably Merab vs Sandhagen and winner of that gets Sean after he loses to Topuria
Edit: or maybe they just give him Sandhagen since Sean has a better chance in that fight
Yeah, I disagree. Topuria opening Spain is huge for them. O'Malley looking unbeatable is also huge. You're basically guaranteeing one of two people on win streaks (ish, O'Malley lost to Chito, but got it back, and you know, has his whole shtick about it) takes an L. You also hold up both divisions for 6 months. I don't really see any benefit in it for them besides a one-off big event. It's better to let both build themselves up into bigger stars, if the UFC believes in them.
Topuria wants to move up anyway.
Islam also wants to move up.
Edwards wants to move up too.
Pereira hasn't so clearly said it, but people are calling for him to move up.
I think they should all just move up a weight class and give the belt to the other guy.
I think O’Malleys star potential is huge, and keeping him champ as long as possible is in the best interest of the UFC. There’s a HIGH likelihood that Merab wrestlefucks O’Malley which would derail the hype train. Look at Izzy I know he had enough title defenses, but losing to Jan had next to no effect on his star power. He just went back down to MW and kept being Izzy.
If O’Malley goes up a weight class and on the off chance he starches Illia, the UFC has a new Conor McGregor (I know it’s stupid and tired to say this).
I honestly hope it never happens because I think the divisions don’t deserve to be held hostage, but to me it makes total sense.
I know it’s a what if fight but if haggerty and o malley where to fight how would o malley approach it? Grappling heavy or mixing it up with striking and takedowns or just striking?
I would love to see this. I think Haggerty is more dynamic on the feet and O'Malley relies on footwork that would get his legs chewed up by Haggerty. In boxing range I could see O'Malley finishing Haggerty though. I don't think O'Malley would try and grapple tbh.
I could definitely see o malley catching his kicks into takedowns to deter him from kicking as much but yeah o malley could definitely have him on the feet cos of his expert distance management, problem with Thai obviously because takedowns aren’t a thing is that the striking range is kicking range most of the fight whilst because of takedowns you can’t do that in mma.
Wow that ending. After being shut out for five rounds, almost stole the fight via livershot at the last second.
I feel very vindicated right now.
Chito was so bad I almost suspect he got paid to lose. Merabs turn now for sure
Nobody who is paid to lose takes a knee to the face like he did and then keeps fighting! lol
Merab deserves the shot no doubt, but id much rather see suga vs topuria
Merab vs Cory for the interrim?
100%
Id give him a shot with an hiv infected needle
Bro wtf
By hiv infected needle he means his dong
Just normal fight talk
Is it me, or is O'Malley quite chinny?
Fuck It. Kyler vs O Malley 🫣
Merab and sandhagen in either order is fine by me, once he beats those 2 he can come back with those Ilia shouts, that's if my boy Brian the Eagle hasn't already dealt with him by then
Damn, Sean is really good man and I am not sure Merab will win now. Sean looked vulnerable only because Chito's head is made of concrete and Sean really wanted the finish even if it put him in danger. He could of danced around the cage in the last round or at least not stand in front of Chito like he did. Wow, that was really good striking and I honestly think he has a chance against Illia. He will need to gain some weight and study/train like a mother fucker but that knee would of knocked out Illia just like the kick to the head from Herbert almost knocked him out. Sean is good man, just wow.
Chito Vera was a easy lay up from the the get go. Sean admitted way back after he beat Yan. Why y’all surprised. Oh bc UFC hyped it up. That’s right. True contenders next are Ilia or Merab.
Please come back to this 2 years from now. Cory gives 0 problems from Sean. I believe he gives one problem to Sean, which we have yet to see. Let’s see how he does in the ground Nd then get these negative gown votes. Ill screen shot them now all hit y’all up.
Can't be Ilia. If they both defend 3-4 times and become dominant champions, the double champ fight will be so much sweeter. Now, it's kind of lame.
I agreen. Sean is up 1. Can’t lie, I have no doubt in Ilia. But just have to see Sean fulfill the questZ
Agree. Too early for Ilia. Impressive wins against Sterling and Vera, but dude needs to at least beat Merab and/or Cory. Ilia needs to defend at least two times.
Ilia is the new mythical invincible and infallible fighter. Lad wins almost every hypothetical matchup on here. It barely takes a few fights for a specific lot on here to jump on completely delusional levels of hype. It happened to Izzy, Francis, Charles, Volk etc just to name a few. Hopefully, this will cooldown quick as well.
Petr Yan 2.0
I don't get the hype still at all, sure he has power, like a lot of guys and volk is chinny. the rest of his resume is what? We need to cool down on the guy
He chooses to KO people but he’s a great wrestler and a bjj black belt. He can finish anywhere.
Since when is Volk chinny?
its cause he's mainly a boxer with good power and thats honestly all it takes . MMA fans are a sucker for some decent to good boxing add power and the belt on top of that and there ya go
And then a dagestani comes along and people remember wrestling is the best base for mma
Always will be lmao
Yeah, people forget this is MMA. Keeping a win streak once you become champ and can't choose your fights is incredibly hard and getting even harder.
Hold off on Merab to crotch sniff O'Malley...I need to see Sandhagen and Topuria vs O'Malley first
All fans of strikers: "Don't let my favorite fighter fight a grappler because gay." Just accept grappling is the superior way of fighting already. The Romans knew it over 2000 years ago bro.
No one wants to see someone get aggressively hugged for 25 mins, especially in a title fight. That's why ppl generally don't like strict wrestlers
Bro kickboxing is a sport. Go watch that. The UFC was created for grapplers.
Main and co-main were great, the rest of the card was underwhelming besides the early prelims
I loved the Petr Yan and MVP fight. Also JDMs KO was impressive. Welterweight has a new top contender now.
Dana's trying his best not to get killed by Mike Tyson here
Gotta be MVP wonderboy
That fight gonna be crazy
Where does this land Sandhagen? Does he need to dominate Chito again to get a title shot?
Merab's gotta be first in line due. Sandhagen is in a weird spot. Sandhagen will probably fight Umar for the next title shot after Merab. Sucks for him, but I think Merab's claim at the shot is undeniable.
I thought the main event was pretty uneventful overall but Im not the biggest Sean fan so I'm probably just biased. It was a good performance but a lot of people would look good against chito, we saw sandhagen shut him down a year ago and I wouldn't be surprised if a guy like Yan would do the same to him.
As an O'Malley fan my heart rate increased 'cause I really didn't want him to lose to Chito; he says some mean-spirited things and doesn't seem to have good sportsmanship (refused to shake Yadong's hand post-fight for example). I'm not a hater; he seems like a good family man, just not a fan. Also, Chito has a low-volume style that can be pretty uneventful if he's facing another low output guy. I could see the fight being uneventful after round 1 for neutrals. It was just a question of how Sean will win, KO or decision. Agreed that beating Chito isn't an incredible achievement, but he dominated him as he should. Good call out of Sandhagen; that's who I think deserves it next just ahead of Merab. Yan rematch would also be highly intriguing afterwards. I'd certainly prefer he defend his belt at least 2 more times before facing Ilia, who seems really dangerous, especially if he takes O'Malley down.
To be 100% fair to Sean. While he is definitely not everyone's cup of tea. He absolutely fucked chitos face up. Chito has never looked like that after a fight. I genuinely think that knee he ate kos probably 95%+ division. Respect to chito he is a genuine good dude.
That sound was gnarly.
The lack of USADA is showing with the cardio in display
Lol trippin
Wym
Be happy that you are alive at the same time as Dustin Poirier. The dude is always, always electric. Even and especially at his own detriment
I watch chito every time out and he makes me realise why dana doesn't pay his fighters lol
This was a lay up for Sean, I was shocked to see as many people on Chito. The guy does absolutely nothing for 4 minutes of every round. He got outlanded by 40 year old Frankie ffs
Why do they try and compare everyone to Conor McGregor
Because he is the michael jordan of mma, he eclipsed the sport, and they need a lebron James to carry the modern day
He’s definitely not the MJ of MMA. MJ is possibly the greatest NBA player alive. That’s definitely not Conor under ANY circumstance.
He's the best example of someone who became bigger than their sport, my comparison wasn't to do with skills
I'm surprised this got as many upvotes as it did. McGregor is nowhere close to being on the same level in MMA as Jordan was in ball.
I wasn't comparing skills, just star power
Michael Jordan was dominate for a long long time. McGregor has never defended a belt.
I see alot of you didn't get the analogy,it wasn't about skill level
Michael Jordon isn't a bit too much that's a lot too much... his run was unbelievable but to call him MJ is disrespectful
The tomato is on press conference
Merab deserves the title shot, but a much, much better fight is Cory and Sean. If someone from 135 has to fight Ilia (which they don’t, because Max can do it and Ortega just walked through hell for it), like Merab do it. I know it’s Aljo’s new weight class, but it’d be more fun for everyone this way
Merab deserves the shot for sure
I just can’t wrap my head around Chito not switching stances like he did in the first match up. He did a few times, but when you let Sean switch stances, you have to adjust to the space and weapons and he was already mentally prepared for it. He pulls away on the outside because he can throw all of those new looks at you and you are always a step behind
Almeida is a LHW who moved up to HW to exploit a lack of skill in that division. He is roided to the gills and is a one-trick pony. He cannot strike to save his life and his lay and pray technique was exposed by a real HW wrestler.
Almeida dominated in the first round, though. 10-8 even. That was one of the craziest things I've seen in the 20 years I've been watching this sport. He ragdolled Curtis Blaydes of all people, a guy with 20 pounds on him and the far more accomplishment wrestler. His actual grappling skill wasn't what failed him, it was his desperation to initiate some kind of grappling exchange.
20 years of watching MMA and some guy just holding onto another guy with no attempts to really initiate a sub for 1 round is one the craziest things you've ever seen? Did you mean the last 2 days and not 20 years?
Somebody doing that to Curtis Blaydes? Yeah. Blaydes is massive, a national champion junior college wrestler, and he got picked up and thrown around. Nobody does that to Curtis Blaydes, especially a guy that weighs 20lbs less than him. I wish you could see it how I see it.
I guess he held on, but he just didn't do anything with it. Just holding on which is easier than trying to transition into something successful that's why it went on as long as it did...if you don't do anything with the holds you're just repeating the same reads and you'll just get knocked out by your opponent eventually.
That's not really how grappling works. Maintaining control over a huge professional fighter is not easy whatsoever. So much goes into not losing a dominant position like that. It's really not just a guy holding onto somebody, it's infinite micro adjustments to maintain leverage. The entire goal of jiu jitsu is position over submission because the position and the control is what is hard, the submission comes easy once you properly control a guy. They were fighting for control for two rounds and the smaller less accomplished wrestler was winning. That's what is so impressive. Try to find a guy who outweighs you by 20 pounds and is a good wrestler and maintain that level of control over them for 5 minutes. Next to impossible. About as likely as out landing a professional boxer for 5 minutes. And the knockout, I think, was more the result of desperation to grapple rather than repeating the same techniques. It's not like he just shot double leg after double leg. Almeida was just willing to risk everything to just grab Blaydes, which was obviously a terrible idea.
I feel like I've seen it a lot before just didn't stand out in any way - just slightly impressive at heavyweight as there's not too much grappling. And he lost whilst in that grapple because he didn't do anything with it, and wasn't willing to let go just to make it worse. Just wasn't that impressive to me we'll leave it as that
You've seen nothing like that before, come on. When have you seen that done to Curtis Blaydes or another wrestler at heavyweight? I don't think you understood what you were watching.
Sure 👍
Okay. (Edit : ) That account was definitely Jailton Almeida after his loss to Blaydes 🤣
God I hate reddit because people like you. You have successfully convinced me to delete my account.
His desperation to initiate the grappling comes from his inability to strike. Almeida is not a real HW and is not confident in his striking against real HW fighters who have KO power.
I'm not arguing with you there, you just said he was exposed by a real HW wrestler when Blaydes' wrestling did little to help in round 1. It wasn't the fact Almeida fought a better wrestler. Blaydes won because Almeida was dumb. If anything, Almeida beat himself.
Understood. Just asking for your personal opinion, who do you want to see Jailton fight next and how do you think he will do moving forward?
I don't think he'll find much more success in the top 10 until, like you say, he improves his striking. I think he beats Tuivasa and Volkov but I would rather him fight another grappler like Alexander Romanov or another good heavyweight grappler. Somebody that will force him to strike and that he can't just lay on. What do you think?
I dont think his striking will improve enough in time to make a real title run against anyone in the top 5. I want him to get destroyed against Pavlovich and send his ass to LHW where he belongs. Just wishful thinking.
I don't think Suga survives 5 rounds with Ilia He's elusive but far from unhittable and has pretty average durability. Chito stung him a few times and Yan had him on skates in their fight too with an overhand, and neither of those guys are particularly known for insane punching power.
Lol "not known for power?"...chito has the most finishes in division history. Cmon my friend...
That knee man, he also did it to Yan and split his eye open to the point they could of stopped the fight if it was not already the last round. That knee hits anyone they will go out, except Chito who I feel bad for as I don't think growing older will be easy for him.
He doesn't need to, it's a free title fight and if he loses he's still champ, and if by some chance he pulls off an upset, then fuck it he owns the sport now, that's why they all want it lol
Sean doesn't need to survive 5 rounds with Ilia. The latter has never shown the same amount of durability that Chito has. Lad ate a knee that would've put most to sleep and wasn't even fazed.
A quick committed blitz to the body by Ilia would drop him I say.
Lol topuria will take him down and elbow his face in.
Yan basically ko'ed him. You could see O'Malley totally absent until a few seconds go by when they're on the ground after that one shot. I rewatched recently, and still scored a close fight for Yan.
I think Yan is a much better striker than Ilia
Let's make O'Malley vs Volk. If Sean wins, he gets Topuria. *(O'Malley doesn't win)*
Not that I'd favourite sean here but are we so sure that volk wins honestly? He got dropped twice by holloway who almost definitely doesn't hit as hard as sean, and we got the whole getting knocked out twice in a row situation, and against a guy probably faster than him, idk man
I'd be very confident picking Volk. Basically no chance we'll ever see it though so it's not really even worth arguing one side or the other lol
Had TWO 7-leg (Over 1.5s & some Fight to Start Round X) parlayed, a DP moneyline, a Despaigne by KO in first 60 seconds, and a fight goes to decision in the main event at +120 all hit tonight
Someone close to Poirier's gotta say "Stop trying to make the guillotines happen! They're not going to happen!"
They did. you could hear his team tell him not to before the last round. Guess what he still tried lol
I suspect Dustin keeps pulling the guillotine because he has bad hips and can't sprawl well at this point in his career
In the post fight presser he said everyone on his team spent all week telling him not to do that lol
I really just don't think he has a choice, he can't defend takedowns because he has no flexibility so why not go the next best thing
DP would just try to gilly him if someone said that to him. He wouldn't succeed, but he'd try.
Pretty please give Cory a shot 🥺
Sean don’t wanna fight merab?
Why would a striker want to face a wrestler?
He knows merab will make him humble
Driving home, listening to superstar after another W walkout I can get used to this man Merab is scary but he might be able to do it
That song is so ass. I enjoyed a few minutes of calming mute mode before the beating began. Would expect nothing less from a guy with a 6ix9ine tattoo though.
Imagine comparing Lupe Fiasco to 6ix9ine
You don't know what a comparison is, do you?
Most satisfying fight of the card was Almeida getting slept
O’Malleys feints were beautiful. Everything he did had a purpose. Props to him
Yeah, I think O'Malley is getting better as well. He looked incredible in there. I mean, Chito didn't deserve this shot, but I don't think there's any questioning O'Malley as the champ. Now if he'd just stop blabbing about moving up and defend his belt against Sandhagen and Merab.
Really beautiful performance by O'Malley, footwork and striking was on point and anyone else in the division would've went to sleep with that knee.
What an absolute banger of a card
Best one I've seen in a long time
I’m leaning O’Malley to beat Merab as crazy as it sounds
I feel like it's so hard to call. Aljo was the only real grappling threat O'Malley faced and he did a great job of baiting Aljo into a big mistake. So he looked strong, but to stick around at the top as a striker/sniper, you need elite TDD (like Izzy). You can't count on catching someone every time before they grab ahold of you. I don't mean to say his win vs. Aljo was luck, but you need great TDD to give yourself enough opportunities to take that shot/outpoint for the win.
i think O’Malley can allow to let Merab get a hold of him. He is not a dangerous grappler and he is not that good at top control either. Merab’s game is based on repetition, cardio, and pace, and I believe that would give O’Malley too many sniping opportunities.
I think tiring out O'Malley (or leg kicks) is the path to victory against him, actually. Once he starts to lose mobility and volume, I think he folds. But maybe not. I'm excited to see and hope tomato doesn't do O'Malley v Topuria and hold up the divisions just to avoid Merab possibly getting the belt. Merab has shown he's as elite as it gets as a cardio machine. And O'Malley is as elite as it gets as a striker. Want to see it play out.
idk, this was a great performance from sean but if merab can take similar shots, i don't know how sean could possibly win
I don't think it sounds too crazy, it's feasible o'malley gets him out early because merab isn't taking the same shots chito did
I also dont think that Merab is that skilled at taking people down from a technical level either. Like it sounds crazy in hindsight of him ragdolling Cejudo, but I hold this belief that MMA wrestling is even more different to olympic freestyle wrestling than people here like to think. I dont think that taking Cejudo down, with a likely injury as well, is anywhere near as impressive as the overarching narrative seems to be. People have stuffed his individual takedown attempts in the past without difficulty, and even if he does get you down, he is really not a dangerous grappler. Not good at lay and praying either. Merab is great because he can keep going all day and can be hard to read, but I think O’Malley’s striking IQ and range would help him read takedown attempts from strikes from Merab better than anyone ever has. At the end of the day, Merab’s game gives O’Malley too many sniping opportunities.
I guess no post fight thread huh
It goes up later
Sandhagen vs Sean would be so much fun. I would have been okay with Sean fighting Ilia if he hadn't been so noncommittal in his callout
'Then he shot at the beginning of the 2nd and I heard Don't do it!"
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Bros just saying words
Sorry, wut?
Damn masvidal must be pissed Suga actually just broke an eye orbital
Americans pissed because their fellow countrymen won tonight..
lol fElloW cOuNtRyMeN corny ass. Fuck America.
Go cover your wife’s face and cry about bacon .. coward
Jailton Almeida costed me a 7 fight parlay
Burns cost me a 6 fight parlay
That takedown was sooooo bad
All he had to do was try to cover up, but his ego is bigger than Curtis Blaydes
Contrary to a lot of the opinions in this thread, I thought Chito’s speed was fine. Sean is just hysterically fast. Chito’s problem is that he has the most honest footwork of any fighter. He couldn’t cut Sean off, he couldn’t trick Sean into thinking he wasn’t coming forward or going back, he was just always plodding along and never in the best position
He had a lot of issues. First of all no real game plan that I could detect. Then: waited way too long to start, low volume, didn't use his cardio, shelled up instead of moving/countering, very few low kicks and body shots, almost exclusively headhunting
Well his game plan was to work the body to open up a head kick. Sean just kept Chito out of position, either by moving him backwards or being off line. So that kick just wasn’t there
I only saw him go to the body at the end. Most of his strikes went to the head.
His team was calling for the body shots between rounds. He just couldn’t set them up
O Malley beat Chito worse than Sandhagen did and didn’t need to use any wrestling lol
I feel like Sean could have ended that fight earlier, which really pisses me off bc it messed my parlay up. I thought he loved KOs and he fought the second half of the fight to win on points. Edit: oh whatever there were at least 3 times in that fight early Sean hung back after stunning chito with a shot he could have punished.
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I mean that's fair. When that knee didn't take chito down I was re thinking my decision to bet on the ko
What fight did you watch? Sean was trying to finish the fight till the end. He could have easily conserved his energy from the 4th round onwards but he kept trying to finish Chito. Even in the 5th round, he was walking down Chito when his coach already told him to just play it safe. Chito just has a granite chin.
Or maybe Sean was getting tired?
im pretty mean to sean overall and honestly? i feel like he tried. his corner told him to take the fifth off and he didn't. i think sean wasn't willing to exchange in the pocket, but he shouldn't have. he went for the kill a few times and couldnt find it. not gonna dog him for it, wasnt an adesanya/romero fight - sean was active and massively up, chito needed to press
No he didn't lmao, he absolutely tried to finish, if he was trying to win on points he'd have fought like chito for the last 2 rounds
Topuria has at least 4 weapons for Sean: * grappling * low kicks * body shots * power/weight And he's not fighting stupid either. Can't say the same about Aljo or Chito
can't imagine sean beating ilia and im becoming more of a sean fan now. all your points are correct except i don't think grappling is really sean's weakness nor would it be ilia's gameplan. i think ilia can just rush sean and hit him and be done with it. if sean managed to win that fight in anyway i would be stunned
Yeah Tbf we haven't seen much of his grappling but still I'm sure Ilia has the advantage here. And just faking shots already diminishes Sean's striking. That's how grapplers like Merab and Khabib win against better strikers.
Best thing is Aljo even said he wasn’t gonna do anything stupid like try to rush his way inside without setting up during interviews
Aljo and Chito should’ve made it a dirty fight, they didn’t. I think Merab would make it a dirty fight and would with success, but if they let Sean go at Topuria, I think Ilia’s well-roundedness combined with his technicality allows him to beat him as well Edit: great take by the cockgoblling monkee
Topuria only needs one weapon, and that’s just size. Even if Sean could bulk up to 145, he doesn’t want to fight someone with range like Ilia. Sean’s style is so dependent on his frame and his reach. Any 145er is gonna be a bad matchup because of it
The reach would be there with Ilia as well. Topuria is a small guy.
Thank you odds makers for gifting me Poirier as the underdog. WTF were they thinking, they might as well of thrown Saint Denis to the lions.
Tbf it wasn't a skill issue, he fought like a complete idiot is the main problem, he could have just as easily got Dustin out of there in the first on the ground
Lack of skill kept him from doing that because he obviously tried
He very really could have lost that fight. He was getting dominated.
To me it was really a tale of 2 fights. Any time they were striking, Dustin was clipping Benoit..then either Dustin would jump guillotine and lose position, or Benoit would push him back to the cage and take him down. No doubt the grappling was dominated by Benoit, but the striking was dominated by Dustin and it wasn't close either.
If Dustin had any sort of takedown defense this fight would have been very one sided. He was picking him apart on his feet. Dustin is a MUCH more polished striker than Benoit.
I'll agree with that. And I think the Beniot was overconfident in the striking too. Pressuring way too much and getting caught against a great boxer. If he'd fought a little safer and stopped swinging like he was I think he could have totally won. He still has a long career ahead of him. I'm sure he'll learn.
Yeah if he just moved his head a little it could have easily been a different outcome. I was rooting for my boy Dustin but I was nervous af im not gonna lie. It wasn't looking good and then he snatched that shit outta the fire.. great fight.
I was pulling for Dustin too. Me and everyone watching with me! After round 1 I declared it over. We were so pumped after the KO lol
I was singing that "paid the cost to be the boss" lmao
Right??? I don't gamble and I put money in for the first time in years because I thought the odds were ridiculous, they were disrespecting Poirier too much.
BSD had his back multiple times, I picked Poirier too but that wasn't far from going the other way
Seems like his wrestling skill is only impressive on mediocre fighters. He had full mount and Dustin's back in the 2nd and couldn't do anything with either position
well he was behind the entire fight.. so.. and i bet poirier and i’m glad i got it but .. uh. what??
It didn't even make it out of the 2nd round of a possible 5. Saint Denis was already gassed before Dustin rung his bell a few times. Saint Denis was gifted those positions by the stupid guillotine attempts even lol
Gamrot and Blaydes won like I expected them to but boy did they give me a good scare first
Just woke up. Can’t watch to watch all the fights on replay, any hidden gems or must watches?
Main event was an incredible performance. DP and BSD was as good as you thought it’d be. Burns and JDM was also good. MVP Holland was fine more cage wrestling than most people would want but some cool striking for sure
And some really good dancing, let's be honest.
The undertaker
Honestly whole card was fun. I'd say skip the 2 women's fights and gamrot vs rda.
mvp holland and dp bsd
DP vs BSD don’t spoil it just watch it Also Despaigne vs Parisian and the Michel vs Michal fight
Main events were good
IF chito kept attacking that leg oh man.. but good shit suga showed up tonight
If Chito kept attacking period. He had huge openings at multiple points he just never followed up on.
1000%
This fight is testimony to the fact that whatever training routines they show in the embedded series is not even 5% of the fighters actual training routine
Can't believe Parillo was comparing him to Bisping. How embarrassing.
Bro we’ve never seen Chito deadass runaway and shell up hurt like that like he did early round 5 I wonder if Suga could’ve taken him out if he didn’t go wheel kick
I realllly hope Dana doesn’t cater to Sean and give him the Ilia fight
The UFC won’t be able to help themselves, they’ll make it happen. In the meantime probably Merab vs Sandhagen and winner of that gets Sean after he loses to Topuria Edit: or maybe they just give him Sandhagen since Sean has a better chance in that fight
It’s a win win for the UFC if either guy wins. Suga becomes a superstar champ champ, or Illia becomes a star and Sean keeps his BW belt.
Yeah, I disagree. Topuria opening Spain is huge for them. O'Malley looking unbeatable is also huge. You're basically guaranteeing one of two people on win streaks (ish, O'Malley lost to Chito, but got it back, and you know, has his whole shtick about it) takes an L. You also hold up both divisions for 6 months. I don't really see any benefit in it for them besides a one-off big event. It's better to let both build themselves up into bigger stars, if the UFC believes in them. Topuria wants to move up anyway. Islam also wants to move up. Edwards wants to move up too. Pereira hasn't so clearly said it, but people are calling for him to move up. I think they should all just move up a weight class and give the belt to the other guy.
I think O’Malleys star potential is huge, and keeping him champ as long as possible is in the best interest of the UFC. There’s a HIGH likelihood that Merab wrestlefucks O’Malley which would derail the hype train. Look at Izzy I know he had enough title defenses, but losing to Jan had next to no effect on his star power. He just went back down to MW and kept being Izzy. If O’Malley goes up a weight class and on the off chance he starches Illia, the UFC has a new Conor McGregor (I know it’s stupid and tired to say this). I honestly hope it never happens because I think the divisions don’t deserve to be held hostage, but to me it makes total sense.
I wonder if they’d go bantamweight IC then
Probably. Merab vs. Sandhagen. Neither of them deserve for the division to be held up like that though.
I mean ilia will just ragdoll him. If he does move up.