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AntWalkerMMA

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You know the routine. Drop your questions for my mailbag column and YouTube live chat show The Trenches. Between Izzy's title win, the PFL playoffs, One, etc. it's a lot to talk about. We go live at 8pm ET/5pm PT. Come get this work
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Hi Ant. I'm pretty sure Israel Adesanya is fighter of the year. Who else do you feel is in contention?
 
Hi Ant. I'm pretty sure Israel Adesanya is fighter of the year. Who else do you feel is in contention?
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Killer of Snakes and Master of two Divisions.

* Why is nobody talking about Connor vs Islam (no, not the religion). It seems the perfect match to make from a narrative and stylistic perspective. You will keep the beef going, and we will see how Connor performes against someone with an almost identical style to Khabib.

* Did you think Whittaker looked bad vs Israel? He barely fainted and didn't mind his p's and q's in the pocket where he is normally so diligent (two areas most thought he'd have an advantage). Instead, he did karate-blitz and wide hooks. Is this a question of Robert regressing, or merely a question of chosen tactics and technique-focus?

* According to Jon Jones turncoat striking-coach, Jones often trains while high. We know of other fighters who reportedly do the same like the Diaz brothers. Ant, as Sherdog's resident drug-expert, the marijuana-master of the internets, the ganja-wizard of the trenches. With all your knowledge of mind-altering hallucinogens and MMA, do you think there is an advantage to training while high?

* Charles Oliveria is set to fight Jared Gordon who is 1-2 in his last 3. WTF?

* Before Tai Tuivasa's fight, all we heard was how he was super-motivated and now took the sport seriously (even awoke before 9 PM!). Then, he goes out there and gets head-and-arm thrown by a Heavyweight. This is a narrative we commonly hear from fighters yet often we do not see the results. Do you think it's just hype-talk to fill air-time or do fighters genuinely seem to believe they've put in the extra gear?
 
* Why is nobody talking about Connor vs Islam (no, not the religion). It seems the perfect match to make from a narrative and stylistic perspective. You will keep the beef going, and we will see how Connor performes against someone with an almost identical style to Khabib.
I think the promotion is still trying to figure out what to do with Makhachev. He's completely unwilling to fight the champion of the division he's a part of, so I doubt they want him to knock off potential contenders since he's not going to take a shot at the belt as long as Khabib has it.
 
What style do you think would give israel adesanya the most trouble? Who do you think can actually beat him. Also his wrestling, how good do you think it is? We haven't seen him go up against a Weidman or Romero etc. Could that be his weakness?
 
Who are the biggest dark-horses in each men's division?

How do you see GSP at its best doing against Adesanya?
 
I think the promotion is still trying to figure out what to do with Makhachev. He's completely unwilling to fight the champion of the division he's a part of, so I doubt they want him to knock off potential contenders since he's not going to take a shot at the belt as long as Khabib has it.
He should also fight at 170. Dude looked towering over Arman.

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Or Arman is 145er?
 
Why does an opinion of Ant matter so much to give him a thread? Just saying
 
This is a good one, I'm curious their thoughts on it.
Thanks man. Because I have a hunch that it's a fighter with a good takedown and ground game, but the UFC shipped all of them to the LHW division for some reason. The division seems like it'll be his playground, which is unacceptable because we'll never really know how good he is if that's the case.
 
Ant, Is this photoshopped?

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How do you think the current MW division compares to that of say 5 or 10 years ago?
A lot of people tend to think today's MMArtists are overall more skilled and well-rounded which I tend to agree with for the most part, however watching that MW title-bout between Whittaker and Adesanya made me question not the fact that they are more well rounded but the effectiveness of it.
Israel is just a Kickboxer with TDD, he still focuses on his main-art and is more successful than the VERY well rounded champion.

I don't see Adesanya, Whittaker or Costa as being that much better than the old guard of the MW division, am I wrong or am I right?
 
Did Waterson just scuttle her own title-shoot chances by turning down the catch-weight or does mom-champ meme triump all?

How do you think the current MW division compares to that of say 5 or 10 years ago?
A lot of people tend to think today's MMArtists are overall more skilled and well-rounded which I tend to agree with for the most part, however watching that MW title-bout between Whittaker and Adesanya made me question not the fact that they are more well rounded but the effectiveness of it.
Israel is just a Kickboxer with TDD, he still focuses on his main-art and is more successful than the VERY well rounded champion.

I don't see Adesanya, Whittaker or Costa as being that much better than the old guard of the MW division, am I wrong or am I right?

It wasn't that long ago that people thought Okami had a top-quality jab. The improvement is real.
 
1. Will Bellator stop building fighters with the blood of bums and tomato cans?

2. How the Usman vs Colby fight will fold since both guys have a similar style?

3. Will Mcg stop begging for a rematch with khabib and actually fight someone ranked?

4. Does Adesanya knows something about how to beat Jones' Reach that we don't know yet?
 
Are Khabib and Ali dragging their feet with the tony fight on purpose, maybe as a power move? What's going on? This fight could easily have been the main event for 246, why wait until March or April?
 
Also why are the UFC burying their LW wrestlers and grapplers? Gillespie finally got someone, but why are hernandez, Oliveira and Islam being forced to fight unranked guys? You can't tell me that it's just pure coincidence that the top 10 is full of strikers and brawlers. And it's been this way for a while now. Dana pressures people into taking fights but I don't see that same energy for these guys. If they were serious about this all these guys would've been matched up with top ten guys by now (ps I know hernandez blew his chance in January but still). Because none of these top ten guys save for Tony and gaethje pose ANY threat to Khabib, and as such any match-up with these guys is just too predictable.
 
Are Khabib and Ali dragging their feet with the tony fight on purpose, maybe as a power move? What's going on? This fight could easily have been the main event for 246, why wait until March or April? This man's gonna give us one title defence this year after sitting out a whole year because if his saiyan pride. And Tony's not getting any younger either.
 
Just wanted to say you're on my Mt. Rushmore of MMA analysts. (Along with Luke Thomas, Jack Slack, and Jimmy Smith) I really enjoy your stuff. Keep up the good work! @AntWalkerMMA
 
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