All Things UFC & MMA

JJ and Zhang was awesome. One of the top 10 UFC fights of all time. I think Zhang did enough to win but I would have been satisfied with a draw just so we could see another 5 rounds.

Yoel seemed like he was more worried about conserving energy than he was winning the fight, and Izzy was content with point fighting his was to a victory. Overall, it was a little of a let down but the co-main provided so much action that it made up for it.

 

I'll bet Joanna calls into work with a headache today..
But seriously, I can't believe the heart that Joanna showed, and I really can't believe that they didn't stop the fight.. that was disturbing!!!

 

I give big respect to both because both will kick my ass..lol but really though both were taking hits and one just had stronger strikes. I bet JJ had so much adrenaline during and after that today is probably a painful day. That fight definitely made up for the lack luster main. Hell even Usman’s main events were 100x better than last nights main event.

 

I missed the main card but it sounds like I missed an epic war and a snooze fest. I have no idea, other than stupidity, stubbornness, or extreme arrogance, why Romero won’t use his Olympic caliber wrestling. This guy has lost most of his fights because he’s either too dumb, stubborn, arrogant, or whatever, to use his gifts correctly in order to be champ.

 

Yup. Exactly.

It's more than just that. Remember the Rose rematch when she hugged Rose after the 5th, then wouldn't even congratulate her after the decision?

 

Yeah it was frustrating to watch. But if you get a chance to watch Zhang vs JJ, it was close. To me they were both sharp in their striking . JJ was a little bit more but Zhang had nice counters and had power . It looked like that even going to 4th and 5th in my eyes.

 

Yeah, the main event was tough to watch...both fighters really stuck to their fight plan (why Romero's plan never involves his wrestling goggles my mind) and didn't really stray too far from it.

Co-main was crazy good...certainly a candidate or the fight of the year. It was a very close fight to call!

 

I’ll be sure and watch it! I think a rematch would greatly favor Zhang because she was pretty distracted during fight camp, but it sounds like she picked it up when she had to. JJ is an awesome fighter but it’d be nice if she would not remind us all of it so often.

 

I think the problem with Romeros wrestling is its free style based. Your not really trying to hold down opponents like the college based wrestling you see work in the UFC. Same way Dan Henderson never really used his Greco Roman style....only clinches. Randy Couture as well.

 

I’d say his wrestling would have helped quite a bit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtF3qvRWui0

 

Yoel did more wrestling in his open workout prior to the fight than he did in the fight.

 

Exactly. Free style is take downs only.. No hold downs like American wrestling. That's why when he does get a takedown in ufc they pop right back up. His style is only to get you down, trips, throws. In free style that's how you score. American wrestling is hold downs, pins, ect. Like a Cheal Sonnen type fighter. Yoels wrestling isn't going to do much except get a quick takedown and prob not score. It also helps him not get taken down. But it's not a takedown and hold you down type style.

American wrestling is a lot more valuable in mma.

 

I agree in part BUT we know this is MMA. He could use that base and then work in the rest by simply learning to hold them down and training some BJJ as well for subs. I’ve seen him wrestle early on and he was a force and could use that to his benefit. We also all know that a takedown or two, whether you hold them or not, could steal a close round or make a striker weary of the takedown.

 

Yoel I thought did get 1 takedown last night but they didn't count it.

Seems like some guys just don't want to wrestle and only use their credentials for defense. Dan Henderson was the same way. More interested in knock outs then winning rounds. But he was also a Greco Roman wrestler, not the American style.

Even Madsen, another Olympic Greco Roman wrestler last night got a lot of take downs but couldn't keep Austin down for the most part....but Madsens stand up was terrible so takedowns were mostly his only option.

 

Hendo back in the day wrestled a lot more but he had a lot of back issues later on that pretty much stopped the wrestling. Yoel wrestled a lot more early on but just stopped. Madsen won the first two rounds off wrestling alone and he stuck to Austin like glue but Austin was just really good at utilizing hand control and is well rounded and did a great job of getting up when many others would have been held down. Honestly, Yoel just doesn’t seem that bright to me. Everyone has been saying he should wrestle but he just doesn’t.

 

I feel like a lot of times Yoel tries to come off as not that bright and I think he's gaming the situation a lot of times. ex: throwing hands out and motioning to izzy to fight and in a way SELL to the crowd and judges that he's trying to get this guy to dance with him. making it seem like he's the entertainer out there. what's so funny is that it ends up screwing him over more often than not though! I personally thought he won one of the Whitaker fights and the Costa fight also. But now that I'm developing this theory of his gamesmanship I may go back and watch those to see if I still feel the same way or if he was indeed SELLING to me that he was the one dancing and pushing the pace. I don't know anything tho lol.

by the way do yall have a good source for post fight coverage, etc? I feel like I keep going to the same sources and am just so over luke thomas and this tinny Zane Simon guy on youtube with the 6th round podcast. I listen to Jimmy Smith on the post fight live on Sirius XM and like him a lot but just can't find a ton of other good coverage afterwards until the shows start up tomorrow.

 

I frequent mmamania, mmajunkie, bloodyelbow, and mmafighting.

 

yeah I wish gorgeous george and goze came on daily like they did for their xm show. now it's just like twice a week and only like 30 min at that.