theanticool

[theanticool]

PFL starting shortly

[theanticool]

If you want an idea on how long it can take a fighter to figure out their game or even just get to a title fight.

Alexandre Pantoja started MMA in 2007. He got to the UFC in 2017 and debuted on the UFC on FOX: Valentina Shevchenko vs Julianna Pena card. That card also had a fight between Jorge Masvidal vs Donald Cerrone. Masvidal was still 2 years away from becoming a viral star for knocking out Ben Askren and would actually lose his next two fights. Pantoja did not become UFC champion until 2023.

Islam Makhachev made his pro debut in 2010. Got to the UFC in 2015. The card he debuted on? UFC 187 - Daniel Cormier vs Anthony Johnson for the UFC light heavyweight title w/ Chris Weidman defending the middleweight title against Vitor Belfort. It would take Makhachev 7 years (2022) in the UFC to not just win the title, but earn himself a title fight at all and it'd require him going 12-1 to do it.

Merab Dvalishvili made his debut in 2014. Got to the UFC pretty quick, signing in 2017. Lost his first two fights. Proceeded to rattle off 10 consecutive wins before he could get a title fight - in 2024. Took him 7 years in the promotion just to get to a title fight.

Ilia Topuria made his pro debut in 2015. Got signed to the UFC in 2020. Only had to go 6-0 to get to a title fight. Fair enough. But it did take another 4 years to do so while staying undefeated to do it. That's 9 years of fighting before he got to the title.

This isn't even mentioning guys who figure things out super late - Charles Oliveira, Rafael Dos Anjos, Jan Błachowicz, Dustin Poirier, etc.

Guys who come in and 'get it' out the gate early like Cody Garbrandt, Chris Weidman, Jon Jones, etc. are super rare (except at heavyweight tbh). Becoming a great/borderline elite MMA fighter takes a long time. It takes a lot of cage time. And often, a ton of road bumps.

[theanticool]

Was going to post the KO but found out Sasaki lost 1.5 months of memory from the it. Doesn't even remember the fight being scheduled.

Jin Sasaki 😔

[theanticool]

Jin Sasaki 😔

[theanticool]

I'm in full promo mode. Share this with anybody you know who enjoys reading.

Conundrum Collection is a series of two short stories offering multiple endings and branching pathways based on the decisions of the reader.

Grimm - Neil Burkman is forced to confront the outcomes of past actions that led him to a seemingly fatal end. He's given a chance to alter this unfavorable outcome. But at what cost?

Hoodie Seize'N - Ella Gray lives in the slums of Proctor City. An area where kidnappings involving young women is at an all time high. After a close friend's disappearance, Ella dives into the hidden criminal underworld in an attempt to rescue her friend before it's too late.

Buy here

[theanticool]

I am someone who complains nonstop about MMA culture and business and one of the biggest complaints I’ve had about the MMA community is how it did Fallon Fox. I’m glad to see Dr. Rosi Sexton come out in support of trans athletes. Especially now, when in her home country of England and in the USA, the center of the MMA world, there are political forces are ramping up attacks on trans people’s lives. You should all read the whole thing, but here’s an important part I’ll share for Tumblr.

“Let’s tackle the most common, and most pernicious, falsehood: Trans women competing in sport are men who self-identify as women in order to gain an unfair advantage. In order to compete in most competitive sports, trans women have to satisfy strict criteria to prove that they have undergone hormone treatment. They have suppressed testosterone levels for a certain period of time (often a minimum 12 months). On top of that is the description of a trans woman who has undergone hormone treatments as “biologically male.” Although biological sex has a number of different elements to it, hormones play a significant role, especially when it comes to performance. The idea that someone who isn’t trans would do this just for an athletic advantage is absurd. In the history of trans people in sport, since Renee Richards competed in the Women’s US Open Tennis Championships in the late 1970s, that has literally never happened.”

[theanticool]

I'm in full promo mode. Share this with anybody you know who enjoys reading.

Conundrum Collection is a series of two short stories offering multiple endings and branching pathways based on the decisions of the reader.

Grimm - Neil Burkman is forced to confront the outcomes of past actions that led him to a seemingly fatal end. He's given a chance to alter this unfavorable outcome. But at what cost?

Hoodie Seize'N - Ella Gray lives in the slums of Proctor City. An area where kidnappings involving young women is at an all time high. After a close friend's disappearance, Ella dives into the hidden criminal underworld in an attempt to rescue her friend before it's too late.

Buy here

[theanticool]

UFC veteran and former ONE/Bellator champion Ben Askren is in a bad way atm. Caught a real bad case of pneumonia that hospitalized him. As his wife explains, he’s currently on a vent and they’re looking at options for a lung replacement.

[theanticool]

Another cool thing your library card can get you

Get yourself a library card.

[theanticool]

And main event watched

When I woke up and saw Usman had won, I expected it to be a grind fest with Buckley being taken down repeatedly because he couldn’t stop Usman from getting to his hips. Even when he was beating up Colby in his last fight, Covington found ways to get him down. And Covington isn’t the kind of overwhelming shot wrestler Usman is at his best. And Buckley is not an accurate puncher. He’ll chain like 5 big swings together from distance while charging forward if he thinks he can land just 1. He tried to scare Usman off early here with an overhand in the 1st round. Less than a minute in. Usman got underneath him with the double leg and got him down.

That was a lot of the fight. Buckley either overcommitting or putting himself out of position to get taken down. In round 2, it was an admittedly quick shot from Usman with Buckley trying to circle at range while cross his feet that got Buckley down.

What I did not expect was how badly Buckley would tune up Usman on the feet for some reason. I figured if Buckley did land, he’d have Usman on skates with like a big shot here or there. But when Buckley came out in round 3 and focused on fighting in the pocket and punishing Usman for changing levels (lead hand uppercuts?) or exiting exchanges, he looked elite. Was making Usman miss and countering that jab. One of the things that has benefited Usman most of his run is that once he starts pressuring/landing, his opposition tends to shut down. Only guy I can think of that really pushed Usman when he did start moving downhill was Colby, a guy who doesn’t his very hard but still managed to hurt Usman multiple times just by punching with him. Buckley’s defensive wrestling and scrambling from the bottom was not good but his pocket fighting was fantastic. Managed to do some serious damage and hurt Usman over the back half of the fight. A shame he couldn’t figure out the grappling.

Usman is back in the win column. I think if the ufc wasn’t making Makhachev-JDM, they might have actually slid Usman into a title fight. But with that fight basically penned in, I say do Usman vs Rakhmanov. That’d be fun.

Chose sleep over the end of the UFC card so playing catch up again.

Rose Namajunas vs Miranda Maverick - this is simultaneously the most impressed I’ve ever been with Miranda Maverick and a good demonstration of why I’ve never been super high on her. She’s such a good athlete - big, strong, fast, and dexterous. Did a waay better job than anyone probably thought she’d do in the standup against Rose (I had her winning the 1st round). Did a good job of attacking the legs, putting combos together, attacking off breaks, and staying in range just enough to land the last shot on exchanges.

But it’s also just not the game you want to be playing with Rose. Cause Rose was still pressuring her. Still had her moving backwards and laterally. And that played into how Maverick lost the rest of the fight. Maverick really doesn’t have amazing set ups for her offense, a thing you want if you’re going to be an outside fighter. So she’ll throw a big high kick to initiate an exchange and eat a combo of return fire from Rose. She tries to hop into range with a knee and gets taken down and has to fight off her back for basically 3 minutes. And when Rose is on top, Maverick is throwing up triangles, locking up her feet in guard, etc. At the highest levels, you have to know the meta and most of all yourself. Maverick is not some dangerous guard player that can parlay a triangle attempt into a stand up or a sweep. She’s a power wrestler. Work to get up. Butterfly, get an underhook and try to stand up. I like that she eventually did and ended the round on top trying to lock up an arm triangle but it took too long to get there and cost her a round.

And in round 3 Maverick does try to wrestle, but’s first it’s reactive. Trying to double leg Rose as she’s coming forward might have worked early but by round 3, she’s got her range figured out. She’s not overcommitting. And then she tries to shoot when Rose has her back on the cage, which is her best choice thus far. But Rose also knew that was coming. 0 set up with strikes or feints. And then Maverick just loses the fight completely as she eats a left hook at an awkward angle and her leg seemingly gives out completely. Then she spends the round fighting off her back.

Rose looked sharp in this one. The speed and power are just not there compared to her 115 run, but she’s still probably one of the 5 most technically/strategically sound women in MMA and that will keep her at the top of any division for a while.

[theanticool]

Glory continues their tradition of having crowd riots or losing all control during fights! Bahram Rajabzadeh kneed his opponent while they were already down twice! The referee only gave a him a warning after the first one, but his opponent got up and started swinging after the second one, so they had to get some guys in their to break it up.

Oh my God I think they're just going to continue the fight! What a show! Bahram just got put out by a flying knee!!! Glory Kickboxing I love you! The DRAMA!!!!

[theanticool]

Chose sleep over the end of the UFC card so playing catch up again.

Rose Namajunas vs Miranda Maverick - this is simultaneously the most impressed I’ve ever been with Miranda Maverick and a good demonstration of why I’ve never been super high on her. She’s such a good athlete - big, strong, fast, and dexterous. Did a waay better job than anyone probably thought she’d do in the standup against Rose (I had her winning the 1st round). Did a good job of attacking the legs, putting combos together, attacking off breaks, and staying in range just enough to land the last shot on exchanges.

But it’s also just not the game you want to be playing with Rose. Cause Rose was still pressuring her. Still had her moving backwards and laterally. And that played into how Maverick lost the rest of the fight. Maverick really doesn’t have amazing set ups for her offense, a thing you want if you’re going to be an outside fighter. So she’ll throw a big high kick to initiate an exchange and eat a combo of return fire from Rose. She tries to hop into range with a knee and gets taken down and has to fight off her back for basically 3 minutes. And when Rose is on top, Maverick is throwing up triangles, locking up her feet in guard, etc. At the highest levels, you have to know the meta and most of all yourself. Maverick is not some dangerous guard player that can parlay a triangle attempt into a stand up or a sweep. She’s a power wrestler. Work to get up. Butterfly, get an underhook and try to stand up. I like that she eventually did and ended the round on top trying to lock up an arm triangle but it took too long to get there and cost her a round.

And in round 3 Maverick does try to wrestle, but’s first it’s reactive. Trying to double leg Rose as she’s coming forward might have worked early but by round 3, she’s got her range figured out. She’s not overcommitting. And then she tries to shoot when Rose has her back on the cage, which is her best choice thus far. But Rose also knew that was coming. 0 set up with strikes or feints. And then Maverick just loses the fight completely as she eats a left hook at an awkward angle and her leg seemingly gives out completely. Then she spends the round fighting off her back.

Rose looked sharp in this one. The speed and power are just not there compared to her 115 run, but she’s still probably one of the 5 most technically/strategically sound women in MMA and that will keep her at the top of any division for a while.

[theanticool]

Raoni Barcelos takes the UD over Cody Garbrandt

Great fight! Garbrandt’s game has sort of atrophied in a few places but he’s still a big dangerous puncher who can stitch combos together. Just not as gracefully. Lots of reckless blitzes coming forward early. Managed to buzz Barcelos in the first with one. But those were harder to come by as the fight went on. Barcelos was making excellent use of the takedown threat. One of Garbrandt’s main defenses was to try to duck return fire so Barcelos would come up with a knee. Or Barcelos would shoot with Cody along the fence, Cody would stuff and Barcelos would come up with the knee. High pressure and a few well placed leg kicks really neutered the dangerous parts of Cody’s game. Almost got stopped at the end of the 2nd after eating a big right hand.

Barcelos is such a crafty dude at this point in his career. Absolute demon on the mat too. Back take he hit here was a beaut.

[theanticool]

Barcelos is such a sneaky good wrestler. Man’s chain wresting is soo good

Cody Garbrandt’s boxing game has basically become random 3 punch blitzes like he was Victor Gracie fighting Wanderlei Silva

[theanticool]

Cody Garbrandt’s boxing game has basically become random 3 punch blitzes like he was Victor Gracie fighting Wanderlei Silva

[theanticool]

According to Twitter, security is not letting Joaquin Buckley in the building. And he has to go thru all his pre fight medical, get his hands wrapped, etc. So there’s your extra bit of drama for the night.

[theanticool]

Mansur Abdul-Malik headbutts the crap out of Cody Brundage in the 3rd. Gets unanimous technical decision as judges score fight up to that moment.

Not purposeful. He was stepping in to knee and the two kind of bent over but Abdul-Malik had all the momentum coming forward as Brundage was on the cage.

The internet in my house died so the screen I had up to watch the fight also died. Only really saw the 3rd. Fun round. Abdul-Malik had to battle through some adversity there. Brundage came out hot winging punches.