The Official MMA Thread: UFC FIGHT NIGHT IN RIYADH - ISRAEL ADESANYA VS. NASSOURDINE IMAVOV: RETURN OF THE KING OR RISE OF THE IMAVOV - 2/1 @ 9AM EST

[SORIANOTRON]

It sucks. Dudes become champions or two division champs and a guy like cejudo stops fighting since he can't even get a good enough pay raise. They chose the wrong sport, should've pursued something that paid better. Andrew Yang said he wanted to go after wwe for their independent contractor / indentured servitude practices. Would like to see him look at the ufc as well.

Dudes ain’t getting into fighting for the money....guys want the GLORY

Halfway into their career they realize, financially and from a health standpoint this was probably thee worst career decision they could have chose...the work and dedication they put in to fight for a few bucks and achieve that “glory” doesn’t add up. The squeeze ain’t worth the juice.

Been saying it for years, fighters aren’t the smartest, most fiscally adept bunch....they just want to bang bro

Does the UFC take advantage of these guys not being financially intelligent, yes.....is it the UFC’s fault these guys are dumb as rocks? No.

 

[Vincent Van Goat]

Yup, been wanting that Sandhagen vs TJ fight

“I think that I’m maybe one fight away from being that No. 1 guy,” Sandhagen said. “When you kind of look at the division, [Cody] Garbradnt is hurt and he’s at 125 [pounds] now so that’s not really a possibility. Then you have Frankie [Edgar], who came off of a win against [Pedro] Munhoz, which isn’t like as good a competitor as Marlon. Then you have T.J. [Dillashaw] that’s coming back in January, who is known as one of the best bantamweights in history.

“I definitely think my No. 1 contender fight should be against T.J. just because it makes the most sense. I think that I have a pretty strong case now, and when T.J. comes back, he’s going to have a pretty strong case. I’d love to fight him and then right after that when the winner of Yan and Sterling are ready to go, fight one of those guys in the spring or sometime.”

 

[Vincent Van Goat]

Watching the Leon interview now, looks like he's still able to train with UK being locked down. He doesn't seem concerned at all

I'm glad the fight still seems to be on the matchup is nuts

 

[Vincent Van Goat]

"In my mind it's a street fight, I'm poking eyes slapping nuts, I'm beat his ***"

-Kevin Holland on his back stage exchange with Izzy

 

[Vincent Van Goat]

Would be good matchmaking

 

[jayt1202]

Cub byke, this should be a good fight. He's coming towards the end of his career it appears but always brings it.

 

[jewseejay]

Hopefully they let Holland beat up Jorge

 

[spiderjericho]

Hopefully they let Holland beat up Jorge

I think Jorge got that fight.

And what’s up with Jorge? Haven’t heard anything about him.

 

[spiderjericho]

News

 

[Cashflow]

 

[steevoo1]

All these dudes run up on Pitbull like he don't got fire in them hands

I like Sanchez too. But if he runs up in there like his fight earlier and try to put the pace on Pitbull, he's getting slept.

 

[Vincent Van Goat]

Good to see Pico dominating. He destroyed that guy like he should have all over the cage

 

[dman14]

Good to see Pico dominating. He destroyed that guy like he should have all over the cage

what was the ref waiting for? pico to punch him back to conciousness?

 

[Vincent Van Goat]

Pico really gave credit to Jackson Wink. Said he came to them as a broken fighter

Man, thinking back, I have to wonder what the coaches at Bodyshop were doing with Pico. AJ McKee's dad is the trainer there and it had to be super awkward for both AJ and Pico to be training in the same small gym (though they always swore they were brothers). That was never gonna work and I hate to question the motives of those coaches but I'm glad Pico is elsewhere and I'm still team AJ all the way

 

[Vincent Van Goat]

Pitbull should move down to 135 and beat Archuleta again to have 3 belts lmao

Pitbull is definitely one of the best 45'ers/55er's in the world. I would love to see him fight Conor since they all have beef with each other and homeboy that got KO'd here trains with Conor

 

[Vincent Van Goat]

 

[Vincent Van Goat]

Holy ****. Better angles. How did he generate that much force in that short motion

 

[whtascene]

That overhand right from Pico.

 

[spiderjericho]

Does he deserve our respect? I dunno.

Sucks he and his brother are stuck in Bellator.

Pico wasn’t completely in love with his hands. Glad they slowed the train down a lil bit to allow him to develop and grow. There are worse camps than Jackson/Wink. Just needs to develop his transitions a lil more.

 

[Vincent Van Goat]

What I got from Pico's press conference was that Jackson Wink really connected to Pico the person first before the fighter. Pico was saying they all hang out outside the gym and have that wrestling family style culture. Pico said they really got him to enjoy the process and try not to put so much pressure on himself that it makes him hate it

They told him to channel GSP whenever he wants to get too emotional

It was the perfect match at that time in his life where it sounds like Pico could have just quit the sport. I honestly think he has potential to be Bellator champ one day. The way he is transitioning from stand up to the ground is crazy and his GnP is crazy. Just gotta keep his chin out of the way and tucked

Him vs AJ down the road would be intense and insane

 

[spiderjericho]

AJ McKee!!

I completely forgot about the Grand Prix. It’s actually got legitimate comp. The semis will be lit. Sanchez would be a tough rematch for Pitbull. With a million purse and title, you’d think Bellator would do better at generating hype. Just seems like their title fights, stars, etc just get drowned in their constant cards. In the Bjorn days, it just seemed like more high stakes.

 

[Vincent Van Goat]

Man even during the Strikeforce days with Coker I felt like the hype was built up pretty well. idk wtf is going on but they have literally zero buzz for their events

They should just go back to stacking cards like Strikeforce did

 

[spiderjericho]

Strike Force was lit.

When he took over Bellator, he sort of disregarded their organically grown stars and instead opted for the freak show fights.

Caldwell vs McKee should be BIG. Sanchez vs Pitbull should be BIG. The finals should be BIG!! One Million Dollars, cmon. That’s crazy.

Also, there a tiny bit of excitement in their LHW division. Nemkov has some buzz. But I can’t even tell what their rankings are.

Mixed Martial Arts Fighters | Bellator.com

Check out the Bellator MMA roster of fighters, including champions and some of the biggest stars and hottest prospects in MMA.

www.bellator.com

 

[Vincent Van Goat]

Strike Force was lit.

When he took over Bellator, he sort of disregarded their organically grown stars and instead opted for the freak show fights.

Caldwell vs McKee should be BIG. Sanchez vs Pitbull should be BIG. The finals should be BIG!! One Million Dollars, cmon. That’s crazy.

Also, there a tiny bit of excitement in their LHW division. Nemkov has some buzz. But I can’t even tell what their rankings are.

Mixed Martial Arts Fighters | Bellator.com

Check out the Bellator MMA roster of fighters, including champions and some of the biggest stars and hottest prospects in MMA.

www.bellator.com

(If this is what you meant then I agree) Let me clarify what you said a bit: Bellator has plenty of potential organic home grown stars in the making but somehow Coker seems to have absolutely zero clue as to how to market them. How to match make them. How to actually put them on the path to be stars

They literally have so many dudes. They get all the wrestlers. All the BJJ players. All the kick boxers. I mean it's crazy how you can **** that up. You go out and do a great job of signing fighters who could easily be in the UFC but you can't shift into next gear for the life of you

 

[アミーゴ]

Coker doesn’t understand the business side at all - would love to see a competent business Exec run it for him