#if hes a lightweight than everyone behind him are damn featherweights

[dittolicous]

yknow its really funny how op fandom treats sanji like a lightweight when, in actuality, he's the direct middle of the line in the strawhats and likely has the 'everyman' level tolerance

so its not that sanji is a lightweight, its just that they have some real heavyweight drinkers on the crew that make him LOOK lightweight in comparison

[thesportssoundoff]

“A Solid Night Of Fights From Nassau” A UFC on Fox 25 Preview

Joey

July 18th

As we hit the middle event in this INSANE stretch of UFC shows from July to early August, we find ourselves looking a Fox card that feels similar to every other event we've gotten so far this year. There are no "big names" on it  outside of the main event but all of these fights are evenly matched, competitive on paper and have the potential to be exciting outside of a few fights. The main card has three REALLY good fights on it and one snoozer while the Fox prelims are not bad  and are anchored by two good welterweight fights, this card REALLY, REALLY shines on the Fight Pass portion where every fight is really good. So what's really here on a good card without a great fight to stand on? Well.....

Fights: 13

Debuts:  2 (Junior Albini, Eryk Anders)

Fight Changes/Injury Cancellations: 3 (Eryk Anders IN, Alessio Di Chirico OUT vs Rafael Natal/Christian Colombo OUT, Chase Sherman IN vs Damien Grabowski, Chan Sung Jung vs Ricardo Lamas moved to UFC 214)

Headliners (fighters who have either main evented or co-main evented shows in the UFC): 9 (Chris Weidman, Kelvin Gastelum, Patrick Cummins, Dennis Bermudez, Gian Villante, Thomas Almeida, Rafael Natal, Ryan LaFlare, Alex Oliveira)

Fighters On Losing Streaks in the UFC:  4 (Rafael Natal, Chris Wade, Damien Grabowski, Chris Weidman)

Fighters On Winning Streaks in the UFC: 7* (Darren Elkins, Jimmie Rivera, Elizeu Zaleski, Ryan LaFlare, Jeremy Kennedy, Marlon Vera, Shane Burgos)

*Two fighters are on unbeaten streaks (Gastelum and Alex Oliveira) but they have no decisions which snap it from being a winning streak,  Gastelum for weed and Oliveira due to a no contest via illegal knee*

Stat Monitor for 2017:

Debuting Fighters (Current number: 17-19)- Eryk Anders, Junior Albini

Short Notice Fighters (Current number: 12-20)- Eryk Anders, Chase Sherman

Second Fight (Current number: 21-21)-  Brian Kelleher,

Cage Corrosion (3-3)- Lyman Good

Twelve Precarious Ponderings

1- Do we need to really reconsider Kelvin Gastelum's chances at making a run at the 185 lbs in the aftermath of Robert Whittaker's stunning win over Yoel Romero? Whittaker proved that a young great athlete who can stuff takedowns can overcome the perceived size and strength difference at 185 lbs. Gastelum thus far at 185 lbs has shown that what made him work at 170 lbs (the solid striking, great offensive an ddefensive wrestling, killer chin) has made the move up with him and given his age and the gym he trains at, there's no doubt that the ceiling is the roof as one would say. There are obvious strength concerns given that he's not a massive 185er but he gave ALL kinds of problems to  a very strong Tim Kennedy. The caveat is that Kennedy was coming off an immense layoff and that in turn is where the questions amplify. Gastelum's had four fights at 185 lbs; Johny Hendricks at a CW, Tim Kennedy off a layoff and the cooked corpses of Nate Marquardt (which remains a solid enough win with the benefit of hindsight given Nate's competitiveness recently) and Vitor Belfort. Even if he beats Weidman, there will be those who look only at the L's on his record and not the quality of competition Weidman's faced. To me, this is the sort of fight that goes a long way towards determining Gastelum's upside at 185 lbs even if I'd bet he's going to be a star at the 175 lb level when that division gets created.

2- Chris Weidman has lost three in a row but let's be mindful of the quality of competition here. Luke Rockhold is a very good and perhaps even great fighter, Yoel Romero is top 3 in the division and Gegard Mousasi was an awful no good stylistic matchup for him plus arguably a top 5-7 fighter at 185 lbs. Weidman was competitive in every single one of those fights but his cardio has frequently abandoned him in times of need and his chin and toughness can only take him so far.

3- How many times does Weidman have to gas out in the third or fourth round of a fight before he realizes that the cut to 185 is a stupid one?

4- So what necessarily pray tell is the reason why Dennis Bermudez vs Darren Elkins is co-maining over Jimmie Rivera vs Thomas Almeida? The winner of the latter is potentially a #1 contender whereas the former is probably going to be a pretty damn wacky fight.

5- Darren Elkins went  over 12 UFC fights without getting a bonus. With one POTNB and a great comeback, he is co-maining on Fox.  Sometimes it truly only takes one fight to change a narrative.

6- Jimmie Rivera vs Thomas Almeida is a great fight to test both guys as they look to potential sneak behind Dominick Cruz as an option for the 135 lb title picture. Rivera is back to being a decisionator but I don't think any of his fights were boring if I had to be honest with ya. It's almost like the Cruz era at 135 lbs where the fights were never bad but the finishes just never came. The opposite is true with Almeida who seems to live and die with the chaos he brings each fight out. Rivera's brief moments of trouble in his career have come from guys who can catch him down the middle with straight shots that buzz him whereas as we've seen with Almeida consistently, catching him cold and when he's being this wild reckless brawler gives you a serious chance at the upset.

7- It feels like Pat Cummins has fought everyone at 205 except for Jon Jones, right?

8- Elizeu Zaleski is one of those fighters who seems to be well worth keeping an eye on as the  170 lb division continues to undergo a very slow yet noticeable aging process. He's 30 years old with 3 UFC fights under his belt including two ridiculous brawls with Keita Nakamura and everybody's favorite bald madman Omari Akhmedov. Zaleski is a marvel on the feet but his takedown defense has shown incremental improvement with each passing fight, including surviving some wild scrambles with the always dangerous Keita Nakamura. He's facing Lyman Good in the main prelim in what should be another test of his wrestling chops.

9- Keeping up with the idea of a very bunched up 170 lb division; I wonder if Ryan Laflare might be a touch underrated by people. His wins are over very reputable guys  like Mike Pierce, Roan Carneiro, Santiago Ponzinibbio (!) and Court McGee. He's probably not the most thrilling fighter (he's been in the UFC seven fights and has zero finishes) but he's a good fighter who shows improvement each time out and, as noted, 170 is getting old and crusty pretty quickly.

10- Why is Damian Grabowski still in the UFC? What is his primary function in the org?

11- Is Dennis Bermudez underrated at this point in his UFC career? We're talking about a guy who has beaten the likes of Max Holloway, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Jimmy Hettes and Rony Jason. Similarly his losses are to very poor stylistic matchups. We're talking about guys who can eat his power, stuff his takedowns and finish him when they inevitably rock him. Not thinking there are a lot of dudes in this division who can do that.

12- Lemme sell you on this prelims right quick. Jeremy Kennedy vs Kyle Bochniak is not a bad fight, pitting two under 30 featherweights coming off a win who matchup well on paper. Brian Kelleher vs Marlon Vera is an AWESOME fight pitting a solid MMA veteran vs a super athletic long lanky fighter who has a knack for the dramatic. Shane Burgos vs Godofredo Pepey is a truly solid fight well worthy of a main card spot on a card when you consider Pepey's first round sparks vs Burgos' power, chin and relentless pressure. Then you got Tim Johnson vs Junior Albini and I'm not about to sell you on that one other than to say "It'll be a thing for sure." Chris Wade vs Frankie Perez is a decent fight featuring two competent lightweights looking to find themselves.

Must Win

1- Kelvin Gastelum

The UFC is not and will never release Chris Weidman. He's the guy who beat Anderson Silva and will forever have a name and a secure legacy on that lone. He'd be given opportunity after opportunity to find a place be it at 185 lbs or 205 lbs. A win over Chris Weidman would be massive in vaulting Kelvin Gastelum into the top 5 at 185 lbs and, again, we've SEEN big 170ers have great success at 185 lbs. Gastelum could certainly be the next in line if he beats Weidman.

2- Jimmie Rivera

Rivera has been in some very exciting fights and he's put on some good performances. At the same time, 135 lbs is such that fight finishers, exciting ones at that, will always leapfrog the dudes who seem to struggle in that regard. Win or lose, Almeida's youth, exciting fighting style, finishing quality and just all around total package will guarantee him a "always just on the outside of title contention" burn. On the other hand, Rivera has beaten way better competition (sseriously, Almeida's top win in the UFC is Brad Pickett and given where Pickett was at the time, he's probably on par with Marcus Brimage) but in fights that are good but not the "keep 'em talking!" style Almeida has. Rivera's BIGGEST fear has to be that he turns into Aljamain Sterling; a talented guy who fans don't see as exciting in a division that is bubbling with big exciting fight finishers. That's the concern here.

3- Elizeu Zaleski

Brazilian WW prospects flaming out is not a new development for the UFC. Zaleski has a chance to really be different in that regard. Offensively on the feet, he's a whirling dervish of a dynamo and slowly but surely, his ground game is evolving. He'll never be Maia but there's progress and sometimes that's what counts. I'm n ot going to lie and act like he's going to turn into Anderson Silva but maybe Zaleski becomes an Erick Silva type with higher upside. To do that he's gotta pass another wrestling test with Lyman Good. Good isn't on the level of Nakamura in terms of his wrestling/grappling chops but he's better than Nicholas Dalby who beat Zalesaki on the back of a few clutch takedowns. It's a big fight.

Five Underlying Themes

1- Can the UFC sell Gastelum? Fight wise, he's amazing. On the other hand, he's a dude who has missed weight and failed drug tests in the past. If he beats Weidman (which to me is certainly possible), I just don't know what they do with him.

2- Will this card be the top rated Fox event thus far?

3- Which gets advertised more; UFC 214 or McGregor-Mayweather?

4- Will Grunt Style be advertised on the top of the cage like it was for DWTCS?

5- If the Almeida/Rivera winner is positioned as a potential #1 contender.

[flauntpage]

Max Holloway Defends Crown in MMA Striking Masterclass

In a sport where plenty of fighters still awkwardly circle with seven feet of space between them and the opponent, then wing full-power swings while trying to run in the opposite direction, Max Holloway’s comfort in trading range might as well be considered a superpower. It took all of a minute for Holloway to work Brian Ortega out and to start taking chunks out of the challenger. Round one was a beating and Holloway simply did the same thing, with more intensity, every round after that.

Of course, the one thing that everyone knew coming into this fight was that Brian Ortega is an opportunist and not a perfectionist. In fact Ortega had not convincingly won a round in years before he fought Cub Swanson. Ortega takes shots, lands a few of his own, and then finds the finish seemingly out of nowhere. This fight was always going to be the man who can find the finish at any time, against the man who only gets stronger as the fight progresses.

The disparity in striking skill was obvious before the fight: Ortega is finding his feet as a striker and Holloway has already developed into one of the best to ever compete in the UFC. The things that Ortega was doing—attempting to get down behind his lead shoulder and time big counters—would work against lesser strikers, but Holloway was having none of it.

From the get go, Holloway’s jab interrogated Ortega and squeezed his intentions out of him. If Holloway jabbed and Ortega retreated, a second jab would cover Holloway’s second step, and a right hand would fly towards Ortega’s head or body on the end of it. Whenever Ortega lingered, the second step would never come but the right hand would slip in early. And when Ortega went to his shoulder roll—which we have discussed not working against Renato Moicano—Holloway would jab him deep into it and then crack him with the right hand all the same.

Ones and twos were the diet that Holloway fed Ortega for the majority of his five hundred thrown strikes in this bout, but there was plenty of variety in there too. Holloway is one of the best in MMA history at getting to his opponent’s body. Where Takanori Gomi and Fedor Emelianenko pioneered the body punch in MMA, neither mounted them on the kind of scientific boxing that Holloway uses to sneak them in. In addition to wide rights and right straights to the body, Holloway will often throw a left handed body shot off the jab, requiring some serious dexterity and a gauge on his opponent’s reactions.

The fight was called off by the doctor before the fifth round could start. This was merciful, as Ortega had absorbed over three hundred strikes in the previous four rounds and was a swollen, bloody mess. But there is no doubting the heart of Brian Ortega, who was quite prepared to go out and take another hundred strikes just to look for that one perfect elbow or snap down.

Ortega’s striking looked amateurish against Holloway, but Ortega still has plenty of time left to improve. His striking has come on in leaps and bounds through his short UFC tenure already so being able to absorb the best shots from Holloway for four rounds will probably only give him more confidence to experiment and grow comfortable under fire. If he can use that confidence to shore up the defensive holes and tighten up his form, he could trouble even the better strikers of the division. And don’t forget that jiu jitsu is what Ortega is known for in spite of his almost complete lack of takedowns. There is so much missing in Ortega’s game and he has still made it this far. With attention in the right areas there is certainly a lot more to look forward to in his future.

For Holloway the next step is unclear. He has only defended his featherweight crown twice, but he has already fought the majority of top featherweights on his way up. If Frankie Edgar can successfully pitch yet another title shot, there will always be an audience for Holloway vs. Edgar. There are rumblings of Holloway going to lightweight though, and Dana White has expressed his desire to see Holloway there. Max missed out on a late notice title fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov a few months back, but more than that there is the prospect of a rematch with Conor McGregor which would certainly garner great interest and provide Holloway with an enormous payday. Either way, it is great to have Holloway back in action and looking so damned sharp after the worrying symptoms that took him out of the originally scheduled Ortega fight back in July. Holloway is one of the best to ever play this game and every time he steps in the cage it is a joy to sit back and spectate.

Max Holloway Defends Crown in MMA Striking Masterclass published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/