UFC 221 PBP/Discussion

Nothing I hate more about this sport than late stoppages. Steve Perceval should have lost his job a long time ago. Asker will never be the same person after that.

yeah that fight lasted awkwardly long. to be fair the way the shots were spaced was slower than what we normally see for stoppages.

Like even fast wimpy rabbit punches get stoppages whereas in this case it was bombs spaced out over 1-2 seconds each.
 
Thanks guys. Maybe next time we get more people on discord, it was fun with @piglord @stretcharmstrong @Rapidryan88 and someone else from the forum, not sure what his nickname is. We had a couple more freerolls, not sure even if I posted them all...Again, Leech would have been a lot better than Matthews (about 18u or so), Hunt would've been great, Volkanovski dec, etc... It was one of those nights where I was at the bad end of all decisions.

Hope you all smashed it guys.
The other person was me. Although admittedly I didn't contribute as much. I zoned out a bit when the conversation drifted onto Asian chicks/prostitutes/ladyboys etc lol. You lot are fookin mad :) Still fun though.
 
I was on Hirota, too. I had Pearson probably winning the fight, but those 30-27s in a fight where Hirota did the only meaningful damage are crazy. Pearson's punches were barely connecting and he was losing all volume metrics, as well.
I didn't have any bets on the fight, and could definitely see Pearson winning 1 and 3. But he almost got KOd at the end of the 2nd in an otherwise close round. 30-27 is almost as insane as 30-26 Blaydes.
 
li fought probably the worst fight of his career and matthews fought the best. based on the tape i think it was very hard to come to the conclusion that the fight would go that way.

li can get a bit wild but he never normally overextends that badly and jake's striking looked better than ever.

sometimes that's how the game goes. based on tape i don't think li was a bad bet, especially where i got him at -125.
 
i dont think Leech is a cheat i honestly think he was caught up in the moment. i could be wrong....

Thats what we want fighters that go balls to the wall.

of course eye gouge was bad but just looking at the other side of it.
Shouldn't be doing that as a professional athlete. Sets a dangerous precedent for other fighters. If such things go unpunished the solution to being choked unconscious is no longer to tap or improve sub defence, it's to plunge your finger in someone's eyes to make him let go.

Reminds me of the very first UFC's when you had Keith Hackney repeatedly punching that dude in the jewels because the other guy had his neck. You like to think the sport's progressed in 25 years.
 
What people are forgetting is, it might be a sport but it is also a fight. Like a real life fight, and completely turning off those fight/panic/any means necessary instincts is probably impossible.

Saying that, I don’t think Li was about to die so I’m not sure the eye gouge was necessary.

Props to Matthews post fight interview saying just that though and having no bad words to say, I like that guy now.
 
Me betting Li would have been just going with the hype. I thought Li might be intimidated by Matthews' submission grappling and that Matthews was a bit of an unknown and maybe undervalued, because he fought Bojan injured, but all I could see in my mind was Li brutalizing his opponents looking like a world beater.
 
Me betting Li would have been just going with the hype. I thought Li might be intimidated by Matthews' submission grappling and that Matthews was a bit of an unknown and maybe undervalued, because he fought Bojan injured, but all I could see in my mind was Li brutalizing his opponents looking like a world beater.
To be honest that was probably the best version of Matthews we have seen yet and he was coming off one of his worst performances vs Bojan.
 
Li wasn't a bad bet cos Matthews won how no one imagined that was impossible to call. It's the betting game shit happens. I don't regret my Li bet whereas if he got wrestlefucked I would have so in a weird way im glad he lost how he did as opposed to being wrestlefucked. When Li got on top in r2 and started gnping i thought Matthews was going to melt and then when they were back on the feet and Matthews was bleeding i defo thought he was going to fold. Matthews showed grit i didn't think he had.
 
I think Li's talents got overestimated honestly.
 
Nothing I hate more about this sport than late stoppages. Steve Perceval should have lost his job a long time ago. Asker will never be the same person after that.

Perceval is hands down the worst ref in the sport on a consistent basis. It'd awful.

Wait I mean.. wtf he was fine! Bs stoppage asker had that
 
Perceval is hands down the worst ref in the sport on a consistent basis. It'd awful.

Wait I mean.. wtf he was fine! Bs stoppage asker had that
Yamasaki is consistently horrible too though. I can't choose between them. Can't think of any other refs in their league. I guess Mazzagatti/Peoples were bad but haven't seen them ref in a long ass time.
 
I think Li's talents got overestimated honestly.

Not sure about that. I was fading Matthews as much as i was betting on Li. I guess it's kinda semantics to a degree though.
 
Li is a great fighter with some pretty big defensive holes. Mathews showed much better boxing, particularly with the round 1 bombs (which set the tone for the whole fight).

I thought that Li would overwhelm Mathews, but left himself way to open to getting clocked in the process.

It was Mathews best performance IMO and Li had a bad fight. That's why not getting over-exposed on any one fight or card in a sport as wild as MMA is the only way to go.
 
Li wasn't a bad bet cos Matthews won how no one imagined that was impossible to call. It's the betting game shit happens. I don't regret my Li bet whereas if he got wrestlefucked I would have so in a weird way im glad he lost how he did as opposed to being wrestlefucked. When Li got on top in r2 and started gnping i thought Matthews was going to melt and then when they were back on the feet and Matthews was bleeding i defo thought he was going to fold. Matthews showed grit i didn't think he had.
I'm not arguing that betting Li was a bad call, but I think there are other ways to cap a fight than trying to figure out every possible scenario. I suck at envisioning how a fight could play out, so I try to figure out broader terms if a match-up involves a fighter with hidden potential on the other side and a fighter prone to underachieve against him on the other.
 
Hunt made roughly around $750.000 per fight in his last 4 fights. Seems to have a flat rate because he didn't make substantially more in his win against Lewis. I know there is a lot of complaining about fighter's pay, but damn, that's a lot of moolah for a fighter with such mixed results. I had no idea he made that much.

In comparison, he made $6000 (!) in his UFC debut against McCorkle. That was after the period he went on a horrible losing streak and he was in Pride/UFC limbo. He earned a million for winning the k-1 grand prix when he was 26 early in his career, and I think he made either $250.000 or $500.000 per fight back to back against Crocop and Silva. So suffice to say he's had some pretty insane pay swings during his career.
 
Hunt made roughly around $750.000 per fight in his last 4 fights. Seems to have a flat rate because he didn't make substantially more in his win against Lewis. I know there is a lot of complaining about fighter's pay, but damn, that's a lot of moolah for a fighter with such mixed results. I had no idea he made that much.

In comparison, he made $6000 (!) in his UFC debut against McCorkle. That was after the period he went on a horrible losing streak and he was in Pride/UFC limbo. He earned a million for winning the k-1 grand prix when he was 26 early in his career, and I think he made either $250.000 or $500.000 per fight back to back against Crocop and Silva. So suffice to say he's had some pretty insane pay swings during his career.

I remember reading about how the UFC wanted to just give him a payout after they purchased Pride and not have him fight in the UFC. Hunt said fuck that and wanted to fight. Probably the best decision of his life, and he obviously negotiated really well.
 
I remember reading about how the UFC wanted to just give him a payout after they purchased Pride and not have him fight in the UFC. Hunt said fuck that and wanted to fight. Probably the best decision of his life, and he obviously negotiated really well.
I read his auto-biography about a month ago, and I think that's pretty much what I remember also. Must have been rough though, at the time he signed his UFC contract his star had already seriously waned, but overall he went from being a super star in Japan with his face plastered over city buildings, to being stuck in the backrooms at the start of his UFC run.

I think what always kind of annoyed me with Hunt was with him utterly believing he was the best in the world, but never showing the work ethic that belonged with that. Going with his book, I don't think there was ever a period where he was 100% committed to training and living clean (i.e. not smoking and drinking and gurging on food), I think 70% is the most he has ever given across any point in his career. He is just blessed with great Samoan fighting genes, so he could kinda get away with it.
 
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I read his auto-biography about a month ago, and I think that's pretty much what I remember also. Must have been rough though, at the time he signed his UFC contract his star had already seriously waned, but overall he went from being a super star in Japan with his face plastered over city buildings, to being stuck in the backrooms at the start of his UFC run.

I think what always kind of annoyed me with Hunt was with him utterly believing he was the best in the world, but never showing the work ethic that belonged with that. Going with his book, I don't think there was ever a period where he was 100% committed to training and living clean (i.e. not smoking and drinking and gurging on food), I think 70% is the most he has ever given across any point in his career. He is just blessed with great Samoan fighting genes, so he could kinda get away with it.

I was there when he got subbed by McCorkle. The place went crazy since McCorkle was a local guy. That's got to be one of his lowest points as far as MMA goes. Your first fight in the UFC is literally the opening fight of the card against a no name, and then he's subbed in under 2 minutes.
 
I read his auto-biography about a month ago, and I think that's pretty much what I remember also. Must have been rough though, at the time he signed his UFC contract his star had already seriously waned, but overall he went from being a super star in Japan with his face plastered over city buildings, to being stuck in the backrooms at the start of his UFC run.

I think what always kind of annoyed me with Hunt was with him utterly believing he was the best in the world, but never showing the work ethic that belonged with that. Going with his book, I don't think there was ever a period where he was 100% committed to training and living clean (i.e. not smoking and drinking and gurging on food), I think 70% is the most he has ever given across any point in his career. He is just blessed with great Samoan fighting genes, so he could kinda get away with it.

People are complicated though. I think if Hunt was the kind of guy that gave 100% every day in training there is no way his career could last this long. Look at GSP, I think largely GSP is just too high strung and OCD to keep training and fighting. He is physically able but mentally weak in a way (weak is maybe not the right word..)

I think guys like Cerrone and Hunt who maybe don't train textbook and pound beers but have the ability to last longer.

Being able to just say "fuck it" I am going to fight without overthinking it helps people survive in the game. The fight game is highs and lows and sometimes you are going to get KTFO.

Also look at Jon Jones. I dont think he has really given 100% either but still destroys people. It is just interesting in what makes people tick and what helps them stay motivated.

Put it this way, the type of person who can always eat the right foods and always train hard MAY not be the dynamic best fighter ever. And at the same time a person who is reckless and doesn't always train properly may be a beast in the cage come fight time.
 
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