the UFC thread

Askren's got some gums on him if he's saying the UFC's roster sucks (i've not listened to it) he's been fighting cans and scrubs and being an all-round boring bastard for years the floppy haired shite-hawk!

fridgemagnet said:

Askren's got some gums on him if he's saying the UFC's roster sucks (i've not listened to it) he's been fighting cans and scrubs and being an all-round boring bastard for years the floppy haired shite-hawk!

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The reason I posted the video was actually because of what Askren had to say about the Ali act (especially as this is so relevant right now with the proposed McGregor/Mayweather fight)

Basically he talked about how in boxing the Ali act is a Federal law that prevents anti competition practice and would prevent an organisation being the promotion company AND governing body

At the moment it says boxer but if the law gets passed and the act is amended to Fighter or combat sportsperson it would then apply to mma also

This would mean that the UFC could not continue to operate in the fashion that they do (like a League rather than a promotion company) They could no longer just match make as they saw fit for title fights and the whole process would have to move to the boxing model.

A separate organisation (or organisations if it becomes like boxing with the WBO, WBA, WBC and IBF) would have the belts and a list of rankings for people in line to fight for those belts and the fights would get made for these titles under the sanctioning body that held the belt

The UFC or whatever other promotion company would then need to enter purse bids like in boxing to win the right to promote the fights (so any one could go against them, even boxing promotions looking to expand in to UFC events like Matchroom in the UK, or Top Rank, Golden boy or indeed the newly formed McGregor promotions for example)

Any promotion company would have to be transparent with all finances and this would be declared and in essence the fighter would end up with the leverage to command the lions share of revenue like they do in Major boxing events (80% of purse going to fighters compared to an estimated 14% currently going to fighters in UFC events)

It would mean the UFC could still hold their exclusive deals with fighters, like boxing promotions have with fighters now i.e. AJ is signed up to Eddie Hearns Matchroom stable but this would be to promote their fights and not be able to keep everything in house with their own world title belts and own official ranking system

A world mma belt would be constested by whoever the independant governing body ranks as the no.1 contender to the title even if they are signed to different promotions. So for example if right now Woodley was the world champ Askren could be his mandatory challenger despite being a ONE fighter and Woodley signed to the UFC and the UFC would have to enter a purse bid if they wanted to promote the event

What's also interesting about the Ali act is Connor's citing over it during his recent Manchester pay per view interview with Ariel, he clearly has explored the legal ramifications of this and how it could potentially free him up to fight Mayweather in boxing with his own promotion company and floyd;s taking cuts of the total purse rather than needing the UFC's permission

He used the fact that the UFC has frequently provided dispensation to allow fighters to compete in Ju Jitsu and grappling events to suggest that they must do the same for him to compete in another sport

As things stand the UFC have him contracted and he can't fight without their say so, but if the Ali act gets amended things may change (although the UFC could make things messy and drawn out with their lawyers) the best thing for all parties is likely to do the fight with the UFC but what it may do is change the landscape to one where the UFC need to reconsider their position and the amount of control they can enforce and they may need to taken a far lesser share of the over all revenue (allowing Conor to make a lot more from the venture)

It will be an interesting time if the Ali act does get amended, I'm in two minds as to whether it will be good or bad for the sport as a whole. It would certainly break the monopoly the UFC has on the sport but does it soon end up like boxing with too much fighter power resulting in cherry picking opponents and the fights the fans really want not happening

I suppose it could be the medicine to the old Pride days when we wanted so many fights from cross organisation fighters to happen but never got to see, because now the fighters being signed to different organisations wouldn't be such an obstacle

I wonder if an awarness of this potential change was the real motivating factor for the Fertitta brothers to sell up and jump ship

Venom Page vs Semtex Daley being lined up for Bellator

I love the idea of that fight

I'd much rather go watch that than the shit show the UFC are putting on in UK

Yup, I swerved the London UFC event.

Have any fights other than Pickett been announced? I saw him get smashed in Manchester, and he's not a pull to buy tickets for me.

Goldman said:

Yup, I swerved the London UFC event.

Have any fights other than Pickett been announced? I saw him get smashed in Manchester, and he's not a pull to buy tickets for me.

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I saw many of his early fights in Cage Rage, I never thought he'd become a UFC fighter despite his high energy exciting style and his one punch Mickey gimmic

Fair play to him, he's done well for himself

But he's still only a C level fighter at best. MMA is only recently starting to become anything close to mainstream over here, Pickett is not a story in the UK, the fact he's retiring is not something that will make people want to tune in

They have announced a few other fights (probably the whole card unfortunately) - the headline being Manuwa (again not really a big draw despite being English)

the thing is it's only a Fight Night not a pay per view UFC event. It was never going to have any big fights attached to it, it's also on at a shit time for the US auidance so FS1 can't expect huge viewing figures for their ad revenue

At the end of the day it will sell out the O2 off the power of the UFC brand name alone. UFC is becoming huge here now and there are enough people who have never been to see a UFC event live who will go to see it regardless of who's fighting

Manuwa is a fighter I would pay to see on the other hand.

As you say, with it being a Fight Night, I thought the card would be patchy with one or two decent fights.

Shit event so far. Shitty card all around. Brooklyn crowd not happy. Understandably so, tbh. UFC started strong in NY with 205 but this card was putrid to follow that up with. Probably would have been better as another NY fight night card, tbh. No real intrigue or animosity between fighters. The love in with the fighters at weigh in certainly foreshadowed this crap.

I've seen a lot of Germane from her Muay Thai days and I was really expecting her to blast Holm out of there in a round or two

I was surprised at how well Holm managed to neutralise her, although a lot of that came from refusing to really engage in a fight and just seek a dominant position in a wrestling clinch against the cage

There should certainly have been a point taken away after the second incident of strikes after the bell so at worst Holm should have had a draw and with the head kick and left hook in 3 and 4 that rocked De Randamie potentially Holm could have taken the win

I was expecting them to both go to war with striking, world class boxer vs world class thai fighter and I was expecting Holm to get dismantled early as a result. It was disappointing not to see that war and Holm's clinch game denied us an exciting fight

Seems that McGregor and Mayweather have agreed terms on a fight and it could actually happen

Anyway regardless of the UFC London card I have my ticket. I went for one of the cheaper tickets but it will be my first UFC live and it's on my birthday. They've now added Gunnar Nelson vs Alan Jouban which should be a good fight. It's not the strongest card but some good fights still.

mil1lion said:

Seems that McGregor and Mayweather have agreed terms on a fight and it could actually happen

Anyway regardless of the UFC London card I have my ticket. I went for one of the cheaper tickets but it will be my first UFC live and it's on my birthday. They've now added Gunnar Nelson vs Alan Jouban which should be a good fight. It's not the strongest card but some good fights still.

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You'll love it, the live events are great, make sure you are there for 'Baba O'Reilly' - big names on a card don't always = great fights of course

JohanTheYid said:

You'll love it, the live events are great, make sure you are there for 'Baba O'Reilly' - big names on a card don't always = great fights of course

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That's a good point

I frequently go to amateur Muay Thai events and see some amazing wars

I've also seen some excellent fights at Cage Rage and Cage Warrior shows for example

Then my first UFC event in Vegas was UFC 114 headlined by Rashad vs Rampage..... turned out to be a pretty poor fight and overall a fairly lack lustre show

Ideally you see a great fight with a huge names.... Conor vs Diaz 2 and Bisping vs Silva are too of the best sporting events I've ever had the pleasure of witnessing live

But when all is set and done it just takes two fighters to be well matched with styles that make for a great fight and it can be an excellent and engaging spectacle regardless of the level you're watching

Great stuff from these two, I can't wait for these two fight on march 4th.

I thought Gavin Tucker looked a really exciting talent on the Lewis vs Browne undercard. Potentially a future champion. The headliner was a great fight too.

Shea said:

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I love his breakdowns, but I would hate to have to pint with him. So full of himself.

By the way, what the hell was wrong with that guy at 0:11? His face is normally proportioned but his head looks like an over-inflated balloon. Looks like some toxic ooze fell on his head as a young child or something!

Dana said he believes the next time we'll see Conor is in the unification fight vs the interim winner. I hope thats the case as that is the way it should be. But we still need McGregor/Diaz 3. Ideally we'd get both fights this year but I doubt that'll happen.

I really dont think a Mayweather/McGregor fight will ever happen. Think thats all just a bunch of bullshit made up by Mayweather to keep himself relevant for a while longer. He knows that Conor will obviously respond to a call out and the internet will always take a minor thing and run with it. Doesnt mean a UFC fight or boxing match will ever happen between the two.

yankspurs said:

Dana said he believes the next time we'll see Conor is in the unification fight vs the interim winner. I hope thats the case as that is the way it should be. But we still need McGregor/Diaz 3. Ideally we'd get both fights this year but I doubt that'll happen.

I really dont think a Mayweather/McGregor fight will ever happen. Think thats all just a bunch of bullshit made up by Mayweather to keep himself relevant for a while longer. He knows that Conor will obviously respond to a call out and the internet will always take a minor thing and run with it. Doesnt mean a UFC fight or boxing match will ever happen between the two.

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I dunno if it's completely bs, at the end of the day there's a lot of money that could be made so you can't rule it out

I do agree however that it's being used by Floyd to keep his name out there and also by Conor to keep his name on the backpages while he's taking time off for his gf and their baby

I also hope we see him next against Diaz or the winner of Khabib/Fergusson (depending on how timings work out)

On a side note

I went to a thai boxing show in Coventry at the weekend

Speaking to a guy I used to train with who's now the owner of a gym in Birmingham Damien Trainer (former multiple time World Champ) and he's been hired to train Henry Cejudo for his next camp in the UFC (was told they worked together before his TUF) Damien is being flown to the states and put up with his Mrs and Kid for the duration

GSP/Bisping for 185lb belt later this year. Just announced.