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The MMA Thread | Jones-Miocic officially set for UFC 309 at MSG in November


beekay414

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14 hours ago, Buckrock101 said:

Possibly, but not for sure. Would probably hinge strongly on who wins. If Aljo wins, it's a harder thing to give Sandhagen the title shot, since they'd both be 1 fight removed from when Aljo won in the first round.

Anyway, I think Sandhagen takes it regardless. He said after the Moraes fight that Edgar/Dillashaw were the two names he was looking at next.

Yea if Aljo wins its tough so maybe he almost has to fight one of those 2 to get a 2nd win post Aljo loss

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10 hours ago, SilverNBlackFan said:

If Cannonier loses, Ariel saying ufc would probably book Izzy-Jan Blachowicz over Izzy-Whittaker 2. Interesting.

All of this is awful

1. I want Cannonier to win

2. Who the heck cares if he fights Yan?

3. Why not Jon Jones again?...

Seriously I thought this would go 1 of 2 ways:

1. Jared wins and he fights Izzy

or

2. Robert wins and then Izzy fights Jon while Robert takes another fight

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3 hours ago, JaguarCrazy2832 said:

Money talks but he's not exactly controlled by the almighty dollar the way alot of people are

I agree, he doesn't seem to be as motivated by money as other fighters, but he's still a prize fighter at the end of the day. Khabib's estimated net worth is $30M, he could potentially double it or even triple it with another Conor fight, which goes a long way if he's looking to retire. Beating Conor also really diminishes his greatest rival's legacy and if he wants to fight GSP after that the fight would be 5x bigger. 

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3 hours ago, JaguarCrazy2832 said:

I know you mean WW but geez they took him off? I know its been a while but its a pandemic

Yeah, typo on my end. IIRC the UFC wanted to do Edwards vs Wonderboy and he turned it down because he said a loss would kill his title chances but a win really wouldn't do much to push him forward. But who else is there really for him left to fight? Masvidal was always going to fight Diaz or Covington. Had they scheduled Masvidal-Diaz 2 then Covington-Edwards would've made a ton of sense but it looks like they're going to do Masvidal-Covington. While Usman defends his belt against Burns, so there's no one else in the top 5 available for him other than Wonderboy. 

He called out for a fight with Chimaev, I'd personally love to see that one. If he finishes him then I think he's right back at the top of the division. But if Chimeav wins it probably brings him all the way up into the top 5 at 170.

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I mean, he turned down 4 fights officially and the Wonderboy fight has been talked about as a potential 5th. He turned down Usman on short notice (don't blame him for that one), Covington, Neal and Chimaev before they removed him. His excuse about not being able to train properly might've flew when this first started. I don't think not being able to bring in sparring partners to mimic your opponent is enough of a reason to turn down fights. 

Also, his best wins are Cerrone, Gunnar Nelson and RDA. That's not a trio that screams "call your shots" to me and it doesn't appear it held any merit with the UFC brass either. You can't Woodley your way into a title shot anymore. Turning down fights because you feel like all it'll do is hurt your ranking is exactly the way to sabotage yourself.

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7 hours ago, big poppa pump said:

I don't see it as a LIKELY scenario, but I think it's possible.  Remember that Connor was able to win a round against Khabib on their feet?  Connor was so worn out, however, that his punches didn't have the same "pop"  It could potentially happen again, but I do agree that a decision isn't the likely way that Justin could win.

7 hours ago, JonStark said:

I don't see any way he wins a decision. If it goes 25 min, it won't be because they are on their feet.

Then again, I would've bet my life on Stipe/DC not going to a decision in the smaller octagon, so who really knows. 

Anything certainly is possible but Gathje winning a decision is pretty unlikely. Gathje has only gone past the 3rd round twice in his career and neither fight ever went to the mat or became a grappling battle. Dustin Poirier is a guy that's known for being a high level grappler with great cardio and he was completely gassed out after the second round against Khabib. And when you look at Gathje's career only 2 of his 24 bouts have gone the distance and in the majority of his wins he has finished his opponent in the first two rounds. 

Khabib is going to take Gathje down and wear him out, I think the key for Gathje is to be able to land a big shot or two early on. If it goes 25 minutes I'd bet a significant amount that the majority of the fight was Khabib controlling Justin on the ground. 

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7 minutes ago, beekay414 said:

I mean, he turned down 4 fights officially and the Wonderboy fight has been talked about as a potential 5th. He turned down Usman on short notice (don't blame him for that one), Covington, Neal and Chimaev before they removed him. His excuse about not being able to train properly might've flew when this first started. I don't think not being able to bring in sparring partners to mimic your opponent is enough of a reason to turn down fights. 

Also, his best wins are Cerrone, Gunnar Nelson and RDA. That's not a trio that screams "call your shots" to me and it doesn't appear it held any merit with the UFC brass either. You can't Woodley your way into a title shot anymore. Turning down fights because you feel like all it'll do is hurt your ranking is exactly the way to sabotage yourself.

It's pretty strange to me that he turned down the Wonderboy fight, who's a guy that has fought for the belt multiple times and is currently ranked #5 but is now willing to fight Chimaev who's unranked and has 3 bouts in the UFC. If he beats Wonderboy it'd be his second win over a high level guy that has fought for the belt and cements his spot as a top contender, plus puts him in a position to fight one of Usman, Covington, Burns, or Masvidal next. But even if he loses that fight it's not a terrible loss because it's to a top ranked guy and with a couple big wins he's right back in contention. While beat Chimaev doesn't really move him up in the title contention/rankings while getting whooped by him moves him far down the totem pole, especially since he's not ranked anymore and the UFC is clearly pissed at him. 

If had star power/fan appeal it might have worked for him but it doesn't. The only reason most fans are familiar with him is because he caught a 3 piece and a soda from Masvidal backstage. Masvidal got a title shot after sitting out and a 3 fight win streak over Till, Askren, and Diaz which isn't that great or impressive either. But fans actually like him and want to see him fight so the UFC made it happen. 

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5 hours ago, JaguarCrazy2832 said:

All of this is awful

1. I want Cannonier to win

2. Who the heck cares if he fights Yan?

3. Why not Jon Jones again?...

Seriously I thought this would go 1 of 2 ways:

1. Jared wins and he fights Izzy

or

2. Robert wins and then Izzy fights Jon while Robert takes another fight

The only rationale I could see is that his coaches want to see him fight a high level guy at 205 before he takes the Jones fight. But the biggest issue I have with that is if he does win and then fights Jones next, now he'd be the champ at 185 and 205, while planning to fight someone who doesn't even want the belt in Jones. So if Jones wins he probably just vacates immediately again but either way it's going to be another Conor situation where two divisions are held up because the champion wants other fights. 

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