MMA-UFC UFC 211

[Ry009]

Maia gotta stop shooting, keeps doing it and Jorge has it IMO.

Edit: maybe not. Just wore him down more than himself.

 

[deklares]

This is starting to look like Maia vs Silva.

 

[deklares]

Here we go.. MAsvidal won the early round, now Maia could steal it here..

 

[deklares]

Impressed that Masvidal survived. Still think Maia won a decision 29-28 probably

 

[deklares]

Maia wins. Rounds 2 and 3 were the question marks. I gave 2 to Masvidal and 3 to Maia.

 

[deklares]

Those takedowns from Andrade have to expend some energy only for JJ to get back up.

 

[Ry009]

Eating way too many shots, TKO coming up.

Andrade tough little thing though.

 

[Gigantic]

JJ picking Andrade apart. She's great to watch

 

[deklares]

Eating way too many shots, TKO coming up.

Andrade tough little thing though.

Yeah she has to land one of those haymakers soon or she will gas and get stopped.

 

[Ry009]

Yeah she has to land one of those haymakers soon or she will gas and get stopped.

Thought the haymakers would do her in that round but she still kept going.

Far from technical but Andrade should be a big nuisance in the division for a while.

 

[deklares]

JJ keeping the fight at range too easily. Technician vs Brawler.

 

[deklares]

How is Andrade still coming forward?

 

[deklares]

In the main event I think this will be another close fight. In the first fight I had JDS with the boxing advantage and proved his TDD is up to the task. Stipe had a lot of success landing punches on the clinch break. Stipe has a rock chin and no doubt improved since the first fight.

JDS one win against Rothwell and a loss to Overeem since. Stipe with 4 KO/TKOs since.

Stipe, just IMO.

 

[deklares]

Impressive from Stipe. To chase after JDS like that shows alot of confidence.

 

[Ry009]

Geez, Stipe certaintly doesn't muck about.

 

[Gigantic]

There we go

 

[deklares]

We need Cain fit again so we can see him against Stipe.

 

[biggiemediums]

Masvidal was robbed. Round 1 was 100% Maia but 2 and 3 were 50/50 control and only Masvidal did damage. It's a terrible decision.

 

[BradWCE]

Everyone was saying that JDS showed improvements with keeping away from the fence in the Rothwell fight. Today he went back to making the same mistake that he always made before then. I was hoping he would win and he gave himself next to no chance. I'm always underrating Miocic. He capitalises on mistakes really well. Werdum ran at him and he flattened him. JDS kept backing into the cage and he dropped him. Great job by him and I think his next defence if successful would break the HW title defence record.

Masterful performance by Jedrzejczyk. I thought Andrade would give her heaps of problems, especially early, but she didn't really give Jedrzejczyk any issues. Jedrzejczyk did a great job early at never planting and throwing too many shots at Andrade before moving. Later on she was willing to throw in combination when she knew what to expect from Andrade. Andrade was really tough, she took some heavy shots, but in the end she didn't have much offensively to trouble the champ.

Jedrzejczyk makes good challengers look bad. Kowalkiewicz was less willing to throw than she usually is against Jedrzejczyk. Kowalkiewicz threw more strikes in her 3 round fights against Namajunas and Clark than she did in the title fight. She hurt Jedrzejczyk but outside of that she accomplished very little in that fight. I saw some people in the lead up to today's fight saying how it was a really close fight. It wasn't at all. Andrade was way less willing to throw today than she has been in her previous fights too.

I'm so glad Maia won. He deserved the title shot already. Clearly the UFC don't want to give him a title shot but surely now they have to. Today he wasn't as dominant so maybe that hurts their ability to promote him as a challenger. I don't know how you couldn't do something to promote a guy who was beating top WWs, by submission or dominant decision, and basically not getting hit. I guess most fans just want to see people strike. Part of it is that a lot of fans are just naturally dumbasses. Part of it is that the UFC brass would prefer standing and banging, so that's what the fans want and expect too.

It was a close fight. I'd have to watch it again but I thought Maia did enough to win 2 rounds, maybe even all 3. I thought the 3rd was clearly Maia's because Masvidal didn't get enough done standing before getting taken down. The 2nd was close because Masvidal did some good work standing before getting taken down. The 1st round was all Maia's before Masvidal got on top and landed some good strikes. I know scoring doesn't work like this, but Maia won the only very clear round so I like seeing that guy win the decision. Masvidal winning would be based on barely winning two rounds and then losing one round very clearly.

Another split decision loss for Masvidal. He hasn't clearly lost a fight for a long time. Both guys are right at the top of the WW division. Maia should face Woodley next. I'd like to see Masvidal fight Thompson too.

I should have stuck with my initial thoughts on Edgar/Rodriguez. Of course it was too soon for Rodriguez. I don't know why but I ended up coming to the conclusion that Rodriguez would land kicks and outpoint Edgar before either winning a decision or finishing Edgar. Not even close. Edgar closed the distance, landed some good punches in part because Rodriguez's boxing is still bad. Edgar took him down and just mauled him. Glad it got stopped when it did because there's no need for that eye to take more damage.

Branch/Jotko was a slow paced fight as it was likely to be. It was close but I thought Branch won. Alvarez/Poirier was a lot of fun. Pity about the stoppage. I'm not sure how that wasn't a DQ.

 

[BradWCE]

Masvidal was robbed. Round 1 was 100% Maia but 2 and 3 were 50/50 control and only Masvidal did damage. It's a terrible decision.

Lol. Masvidal wasn't robbed. It wasn't a terrible decision.

Round 3 was the clearest Maia round. Masvidal did nothing to win that round.

Round 2 was close because Masvidal did well standing for half the round. Then Maia took him down and dominated the last half of the round. Very close round.

Round 1 was all Maia's until Masvidal got on top and landed some good shots. Closer than round 3 but still probably Maia's round.

 

[Dan]

Managed to catch the Alvarez vs Poirier fight before heading out for the footy. Not the right decision but the fairest one made I think......where was this kinda logic in Weidman vs Mousasi fight? It was a good fight.....run it again.

Couldn't watch the other fights but know the results. I'll probably watch them somehow during the week.

Happy for Maia.....he and Woodley has to happen now.

JJ from what I was reading took Andrade apart with ease. She really should be higher up in the P4P best rankings.

Miocic doing what Miocic does.

 

[Guy Threepwood]

Well I had a shocker predicting the main event and the Edgar/Rodriguez fights! JDS looked terrible and I remembered thinking about a minute in that he was in real trouble. He showed none of the footwork from the Rothwell fight and outside of those few leg kicks which caused Stipe some issues he really did nothing. The question this fight raised is where does Stipe go next? He's beaten most of the best in the division with the two main exceptions being the ever injured Cain, the streaking but limited Lewis and the still raw Ngannou. I would expect Cain will be his next announced fight, but whether he gets to fight night or not is another story.

I really shouldn't have doubted Frankie and can't help but feel like my prediction was severely influenced by Yair's performance against the corpse of BJ Penn. Frankie was able to use his footwork to get inside easily and once he had the takedown Yair's unorthodox ground game didn't match up at all well. I expected he would have done a better job at keeping Frankie out of the pocket and predicted he would catch him with something surprising coming off a scramble or a break. Unfortunately for him he couldn't create a scramble as Frankie's wrestling was on point.

Maia/Masvidal and Jotko/Branch were very hard to score. Maia was able to get positional dominance in each of the three rounds, but did little damage and never really came close to finishing Jorge. Jorge was able to stuff several take down attempts, but wasn't able to get enough offense going on the feet. Happy for Demian as he finally gets a title shot off the back of that, but definitely thought it could go either way. Jotko and Branch was a fairly dull affair with Jotko spending equal time complaining against being held against the fence by Branch and then trying to do the same back. His best chance was to keep the fight at kicking range, but kept initiating the clinch. Again neither guy did much damage, but I thought the takedowns helped Branch edge the decision.

Joanna looked incredible in her fight. That's clearly the best performance we've seen from her in the octagon and it happened to come against her most dangerous opponent. I gave Andrade a decent shot of winning, but her strategy of trying to walk through Joanna's shots was a poor one. It got hard to watch from about the 3rd round onwards and it was apparent that there was only going to be one winner. Great respect for Andrade for staying on her feet for 5 rounds and never giving up, but she has a lot of work to do if she's ever going to beat Joanna. As for the champ, I expect she ties Ronda's record next against Rose, defends once more and moves to 125 to try and take the title there. I'm hoping 125 will eventually have both her and Valentina in it and we can see them fight under MMA rules.

Poirier looked great against Alvarez. I thought he was well on his way to winning that fight provided he didn't get caught by a bomb, so to see it end the way it did was disappointing. I was rooting for Eddie, but he looked tentative until he entered zombie mode. I get what Eddie said after the fight about how the knee wasn't intentional, but he's got to be responsible for his weapons in the octagon and I think a DQ win for Poirier was the right outcome. Hoping they get to run it back.

I get more impressed with Knight every time I see him. He did great on short notice against a powerhouse wrestler in Kawajiri and each of his four wins since he's fought better opponents and won more impressively than before. Skelly is a tough out at 145 and to be the first guy to finish him is a real feather in his cap. Elkins seems like the litmus test for up coming contenders at 145 and I think that fight makes sense for him next.

Sherman and Coulter was a fun fight. Coulter showed great heart to keep swinging despite barely being able to stand and Sherman's stand up looked much improved from his first couple of fights in the octagon.

Vick has rebounded really well from his bad loss to Dariush last year and it's time to step him back up I think. I think either Oliveira or Dunham would make for interesting fights both in terms of rankings and stylistically.

 

[Crimson Azure]

Frankie looked exceptional.

Even if Aldo wins he needs another shot. I would love to see him fight Conor.

 

[didaksrightfoot]

Managed to catch the Alvarez vs Poirier fight before heading out for the footy. Not the right decision but the fairest one made I think......where was this kinda logic in Weidman vs Mousasi fight? It was a good fight.....run it again.

Very different scenarios, but both show how confusing this has become since they changed what a "grounded opponent" means. It used to be clear and obvious so guys just wouldn't even try it - now with the added confusions where one fighter incorrectly thought he was down (Weidman), whilst another incorrectly thought his opponent wasn't (Alvarez).

Initially I was really pissed at the Weidman decision, but on reflection the correct call was made - it was just all the confusion about his "5 minutes break" that caused the problem. Mousasi did everything legally, and when the doctor examined Weidman he determined the fight had to stop (as with Poirier) - the thing is Mousasi did nothing wrong, and Weidman was stopped by a legal hit - win to Mousasi... Ideally we get a rematch, but with where the division is, that is completely unfair to Mousasi when he should be moving up and he won this fight fairly. (Again - I was going for Weidman, and was well pissed at the initial decision).
---

Alvarez is different.
Poirier was stopped (again, medically) by an illegal knee. I'm not sure of the rules - but Dana and Herb said very different things about it (and when it comes to the rules, I would trust Herb Dean over Dana every single time)... my understanding in the past was that it was up to the Ref and that it's not an automatic DQ (ie. could be docked a point instead) - similar to nut shots or eye-pokes. Deans comments that he was calling a no contest because he didn't think it was intentional fits with how I saw it as well (again though - I'm not sure of the rules here).

Alvarez's right eye was bloodied, and Poiriers back was flush against the cage - so other than the change in level, there was no sure way to know that Poirier had dropped to his knee. Alvarez may have been looking at Poirers left hand, and if what everyone was saying after the Weidman fight was correct (that you need two flat palms on the ground to be grounded) then from his hands - Poirers was not grounded... his left knuckle was on the canvas, not a palm. (obviously he was down by his right knee - but again, I don't think Alvarez saw that).

Now if the rules clearly state that any knee to a ground opponent is a DQ then Alvarez loses - and I think he would accept that - he immediately apologised for doing it and admitted it was wrong. (and Poirier readily accepted that... was actually great to see how both fighters responded).

I just think they need to look at these 2 incidents and scrap the new interpretation - it is not making anybody safer (which was the intent - trying to get guys to try to block rather than get a hand to the ground). Just go back to the old 3 points of contact and keep it simple.

 

[Dan]

Very different scenarios, but both show how confusing this has become since they changed what a "grounded opponent" means. It used to be clear and obvious so guys just wouldn't even try it - now with the added confusions where one fighter incorrectly thought he was down (Weidman), whilst another incorrectly thought his opponent wasn't (Alvarez).

Initially I was really pissed at the Weidman decision, but on reflection the correct call was made - it was just all the confusion about his "5 minutes break" that caused the problem. Mousasi did everything legally, and when the doctor examined Weidman he determined the fight had to stop (as with Poirier) - the thing is Mousasi did nothing wrong, and Weidman was stopped by a legal hit - win to Mousasi... Ideally we get a rematch, but with where the division is, that is completely unfair to Mousasi when he should be moving up and he won this fight fairly. (Again - I was going for Weidman, and was well pissed at the initial decision).
---

Alvarez is different.
Poirier was stopped (again, medically) by an illegal knee. I'm not sure of the rules - but Dana and Herb said very different things about it (and when it comes to the rules, I would trust Herb Dean over Dana every single time)... my understanding in the past was that it was up to the Ref and that it's not an automatic DQ (ie. could be docked a point instead) - similar to nut shots or eye-pokes. Deans comments that he was calling a no contest because he didn't think it was unintentional fits with how I saw it as well (again though - I'm not sure of the rules here).

Alvarez's right eye was bloodied, and Poiriers back was flush against the cage - so other than the change in level, there was no sure way to know that Poirier had dropped to his knee. Alvarez may have been looking at Poirers left hand, and if what everyone was saying after the Weidman fight was correct (that you need two flat palms on the ground to be grounded) then from his hands - Poirers was not grounded... his left knuckle was on the canvas, not a palm. (obviously he was down by his right knee - but again, I don't think Alvarez saw that).

Now if the rules clearly state that any knee to a ground opponent is a DQ then Alvarez loses - and I think he would accept that - he immediately apologised for doing it and admitted it was wrong. (and Poirier readily accepted that... was actually great to see how both fighters responded).

I just think they need to look at these 2 incidents and scrap the new interpretation - it is not making anybody safer (which was the intent - trying to get guys to try to block rather than get a hand to the ground). Just go back to the old 3 points of contact and keep it simple.

Needs to be made simpler agree with that and unified rules everywhere the UFC goes.