The Trenches, Episode 30 Poll: What fighter had a bigger fall from grace?

What fighter had a bigger fall from grace?


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Sherdog Main Page writer Ant Walker wants your questions for his weekly column titled 'Ask Ant,' where he will gladly answer any and all combat sports questions you may have.

Ant holds over 15 years of martial arts experience, training in multiple styles including Boxing, Muay Thai, Taekwondo, Kung Fu and Krav Maga, and also coached amateur MMA fighters. A former Sherdog Radio Network personality and current contributor to Sherdog.com, this self-described "gym rat" seeks to impart his knowledge and discuss all things MMA with his fellow community members.

Select questions from this thread will be answered in the article, and additional questions from this thread may be used in an upcoming episode of live video chat series 'The Trenches,' hosted on the forum every Thursday. Below are links to previous episodes of that series as well as his previous 'Ask Ant' articles.


The Trenches Episodes:
The Trenches, Episode 29: ONE of a Kind Show
The Trenches, Episode 28: Mexican Wrestling Cain
The Trenches, Episode 27: 3 Piece and Soda
The Trenches, Episode 26: Conor McGregor vs. The Phone
The Trenches, Episode 25: BJ Penn's Legacy
The Trenches, Episode 24: UFC 235
The Trenches, Episode 23: The Retirement of GSP
The Trenches, Episode 22: UFC vs. Bellator Doubleheader
The Trenches, Episode 21: Adesanya vs. Silva
The Trenches, Episode 20: The Licensing of Jon Jones
The Trenches, Episode 19: The NSAC Hearings
The Trenches, Episode 18: UFC Brooklyn
The Trenches, Episode 17: Welterweights and Title Shots
The Trenches, Episode 16: Looking Ahead in 2019
The Trenches, Episode 15: The UFC 232 Debacle
The Trenches, Episode 14: UFC returns to Milwaukee
The Trenches, Episode 13: The GOAT Featherweight
The Trenches, Episode 12: Greg Hardy and Rachael Ostovich
The Trenches, Episode 11: Anderson Silva vs. The Next Anderson Silva
The Trenches, Episode 10: Golden Boy MMA
The Trenches, Episode 9: What's next for Conor?
The Trenches, Episode 8: The death of the Flyweight division
The Trenches, Episode 7: Cormier defends against Lewis
The Trenches, Episode 6: The Trade
The Trenches, Episode 5: Eddie Leaves the UFC
The Trenches, Episode 4: UFC 229 Brawl
The Trenches, Episode 3: Leading up to UFC 229
The Trenches, Episode 2: The Rise of Gegard Mousasi
The Trenches, Episode 1: UFC 229 Presser

Ask Ant Articles:

Thank you, and please be respectful. We appreciate it.
 
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I want to know his thoughts about EPO as it relates to mma performance. There’s decent literature that suggests it’s not a huge booster for amateur cycling performance tested in field conditions. However, there’s great literature on its affect on maximal exertion in lab conditions. Thoughts on epo in MMA? Do you think it’s use is wide spread? Until last year it was very hard to detect
 
What are the chances USADA checks TJ’s samples from the Cody fights for EPO? Should Cody have the right to insist upon it?

He lost two title fights to that cheater immediately before the fight in which he popped. He deserves to have those losses overturned to NC if TJ was juiced.

It’s the right thing to do. Therefore I expect nothing more to come of it.
 
Hi Ant.

This week we lost a valued member of the forum. Did you know FrankieNYC or ever come into contact with him?
 
Who's the consensus GOAT amongst the majority of mma analysts and fighters?
 
Hello Ant Walker and new co-host @Frank McEdgar! Its great to see Frank finally get his shoot at the podcast!

* Was there a strategic element to TJ so readily accepting his suspension? Is Duane Ludwig crafting plans within plans within plans?

* The UFC has copied a lot of its buisness model after the WWE (independent contractors, villanious President, Brand-over-fighters, etc) but no MMA Wrestlemania? They do hold occasional Supercards but nothing annual that people know and expect. Wouldn't this be great for marketing? After all, Pride did it with their New Year events.

* Honestly, I don't see how either Porier or Gastelum have much of a chance this weekened. One is fighting a super-durable volyme-monster with the mind of a savant and the other is fighting a guy on stilts. Who do you think has the best chance for an upset and is there any path-to-victory that seems favorable to you guys?
 
Who do you guys see holding the Featherweight belt next if Max Holloway makes the permanent move to 155 after his fight with Dustin Poirier this Saturday?

Does USADA have any ability to, or influence in changing the records of fighters by retesting past samples?

What was your guys initial reaction to Bare Knuckle FC owner David Feldman saying live during the event that he was going to take half the purse of Rusty Crowder and give it to Reggie Barnett?

Did the damage caused to the faces of Artem Lobov and Jason Knight change your opinion on bare knuckle boxing? Do you guys think this sport even has a future?

Brock Lesnar has not officially won an MMA fight in nearly 9 years. Do you guys support the UFC giving him a Heavyweight title shot against Daniel Cormier?

If Henry Cejudo wins the Bantamweight title against Marlon Moraes, do you guys think that will be the final nail in the coffin for the Flyweight division?

Now that Tony Ferguson claims to be cleared to fight, who do you realistically see as his next opponent? Is he deserving of a fight with Khabib straight away?
 
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Q.1 Do you think stats based fight analysis could ever become popular? Especially in designing a training path for young, prospective MMA fighters. In boxing there is a clear path for people who want learn how to get into the sport. In MMA you start with a TMA and then expand. Will that ever change? Will MMA ever have a “moneyball” type Renaissance?

Q2. What do you think the impact of Joe Rogan and his podcast has been on MMA and mainstream acceptance/success?
 
Thank you for the questions so far, and please keep them coming.

We have also added this week's poll question, which asks "What fighter had the bigger fall from grace?" Options include Johny Hendricks, Renan Barao, TJ Dillashaw, and "other" where you can suggest someone we missed.

When making this poll, we did not include the following fighters: Ronda Rousey (She just headlined Wrestlemania), Ken Shamrock (he continued to have a few big fights after Tito), Anderson Silva (still had big fights, inadvertently main evented a PPV recently), BJ Penn (no comment), Rashad Evans (still had noteworthy fights) and Hector Lombard (while a "bust", he never had a "fall from grace" moment).
 
Barao's downfall could be pinpointed to with the first TJ fight. TJ has never looked that good before, and was a -700 underdog going into that fight. Nearly everyone thought that was another Barao win. TJ turned from a wrestler to maybe the best striker in the UFC in short succession. You could say his entire career may be due to PEDs due to the drastic transformation. Do you believe that to be true?
 
Jones should've but you fuckers just wanna watch the world burn.
 
Mmmmmm different "falls" in there, Hendricks and Barao fell in their performance, yet Barao isnt retired and is still a UFC guy that could do just fine in the other leagues.

TJ Dillashaw applies more to the "fall from grace" meaning i guess, he lost his belt, lost his last fight badly, and on top of that, got caught with PED's, some of his wins could end up overturned, yet his performance might not really suffer, but his brand will, bad.

Apples and oranges here.
 
Tj by far...king of the world and gets ass up face downd by a much smaller man and now gets his career ended because he roided. Every fight of his has a question mark next to it....
 
Jones should've but you fuckers just wanna watch the world burn.
It's a tough call on Jones, but considering he's the LHW champion and looking to defend it again in July headlining UFC 2whatever on international fight week, he hasn't fallen far. Getting 600k buys to fight Anthony Smith means you're still doing something right.
 
So Tony's and Colby's intrem belts ended up meaning jack shit. Will these new intrem belts mean more than jack shit?
 
McGregor

He's been turned into a keyboard warrior
 
Easily Anderson silva. Went from unbeatable to losing in an embarrassing way, then breaking his leg and failing drug tests.
 
To be honest, when I first encountered Dustin Poriere, I thought to myself "This guy won't grow beyond being a good banger with a few cunning tricks up his sleeve". Are there any fighters that you guys initially disregarded that turned out to be great combatants?
 
Easily Anderson silva. Went from unbeatable to losing in an embarrassing way, then breaking his leg and failing drug tests.
Yeah, we considered him, but he's still taking meaningful fights and was potentially a win away from a title shot if he beat Adesanya, so he didn't fall like the others did.
 
Is that a serious question?

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