UFC252 Part2 : Post Fight Results – The Final Word

Wow.

UFC252 lived up to the hype in surprising ways.

Chito Marlon Vera stops the unbeaten Sean O’Malley in great style. By all reports it was Vera’s great kicks to O’Malley’s legs that caused the leg to buckle. And Vera, like the warrior he has proved himself to be,  finished O’Malley. Thumbs up for Vera. And hats off to O’Malley, he is a young tough guy, falling down and learning from it, should only make him a better fighter.

Stipe defeats Cormier by decision. I heard the play by play and have seen the screen grabs, what a great fight. Stipe gets it done, cementing himself as one of the best and longest running Heavyweight champions (adding all his time as heavyweight champion, and all his title defenses).

And Cormier’s already high stock, only goes up with this fight. To put on the kind of performance he did, from bell to bell, and after effectively losing an eye in the 2nd round— wow. When you use the term legend and champion performance, its hard not to have Daniel Cormier in mind.

It does bring up the thought they need to either alter the gloves like fighter Cory MacDonald suggested, so that fighters can still grapple but not fully extend their fingers, to make eye-pokes less prevalent, or have these guys go in with at least protective contacts. Contacts won’t help with avoiding a detached retina (that may come with a severe eye-poke), however they should help protect the cornea from getting scratched, which is potentially the more severe issue.

That damage to DC’s eye looked very severe. Hoping he gets immediate and great care, and that therE is no permanent or irreparable damage. He can go into retirement knowing he has repeatedly fought the best in the world and, in victory or in defeat, always been the best in the world.

My best goes out to all the fighters, and hoping they all have a speedy and full recovery.

Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury 2 fight : Prefight Pick and the Last Word!

Have 20 minutes before this fight starts.

 

My prediction? To quote Mr. T in ROCKY III…. PAIN!

All joking aside, while I do not have a dog in this fight, I am one of those who thought the decision of the first fight, a draw was a good decision.

I also think Wilder proved, even being outweighed by 50lbs, he is the harder puncher and the stronger man. Fury proved he is the quicker, more effective boxer.

Coming into this rematch, the winner will be the one who can learn from the first fight and adjust. If Wilder puts the fight on Fury’s chest, doesn’t headhunt but just bangs the body, over and over, the body and arms, keep it an inside fight, and negate Fury’s movement, Fury’s hands will drop, and he will be knocked out.

If Fury can keep Wilder at a distance, and exploit Wilder headhunting, he can outpoint him, and potentially open him up for a knockout of his own.

My prediction… I do not bet, however my gut, I like Wilder. He’s the fresher, more exciting fighter, and if he brings the fight to Fury’s body, rather than headhunting, this could be his night.

 

Okay… LETS GET READY TO RUMBLE!!!!

 

RESULTS ARE IN: Fury winner by TKO. Looking at the brief clips, it appears to break down to what I thought above, the one who learned and adjusted from the previous fight… won.

From the brief clips it appears Wilder was headhunting, giving Fury the space to dictate and control the fight from the outside, rather than setting up camp inside his guard and attacking the body. And then once he was concussed it looks like he didn’t have a gameplan.

I will say in the clinches Wilder should have headbutted the eff out of Fury, sometimes you have to get a little dirty to get respect. Fury was crossing the line, in one of the more disgusting displays in a boxing ring, Wilder needed to dissuade that kind of behavior, and a good headbutt or low-blow (generally has no place in a boxing ring, but neither did some of Fury’s antics), is always a pretty good dissuader. 🙂

But bottom line, Wilder and his corner appear to not have course corrected and had a plan to negate Fury’s speed and reach. You have to give it to Fury , he executed his game-plan, and he made the puncher, try and box. I’d love to see these guys do it again, which they are going to have to, as both men, particularly Fury, emphasize an issue with the Heavy Weight division.

Which I will get to below, in my rant section.

 

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I’m going to rant here.

Feel free to ignore this part. 🙂

These guys are super heavy weights, not heavy weights.

There is a reason we have weight divisions to make the fight competitive. Generally speaking if you are 15 pounds more than the next guy you are in a different weight class.

Since the days of Ali and Foreman, when Foreman was the real Ivan Drago (Bigger, stronger, meaner than anyone else in the division. An unbeatable man, a monster. Until Ali in the rematch somehow found a way to beat the unbeatable man) the issue of Super Heavyweight was percolating.

Generally when you did have these super heavy weights, with the exception of Foreman, they were not real contenders, real boxers. You get to the age of Lennox Lewis in the 90s, and then Klitschco in the 2000s and you are suddenly in this period of the super-heavy weights. And it is a bit of a stagnant, unexciting period, because legitimate heavy weights, are blowing themselves up trying to match the natural weight of a super-heavy weight, and just can’t match the reach. So you have a period where the few anomalies, 6’8 guys who can box and punch, super-heavy weights, are holding and stagnating the heavy weight division.

Move to today and we have 3 or 4 of these at the time unbeaten talented super heavyweights, so the division is exciting. But with only 3 or 4 of these guys, the same thing starts to occur, the heavy-weight title stagnates due to lack of competition.

If you are over 225lbs you should be fighting in a different weight class, not the heavy-weight division. That allows the age of future Marcianos and Alis and Holyfields to still happen. And you will always have competitive interesting fights and an influx of a lot of new talent, at that weight class. Above that you then have the super heavyweight division, which is where fighters like Fury and Wilder and Butterbean should be in. But not stagnating the heavy-weight division.

That has been boxing’s issue with the heavy weight division since the late 90s, and will continue to be an issue, until we create a distinction between heavy-weight fighters and super heavy-weights.

 

My 2 cents.

 

Youtube Video of the Day : 10 FIGHTS That Made Us Question MMA

 

I’m a huge boxing fan. And an MMA fan. But perhaps not to the same extent as Boxing. and I’ll get to why in a second.

Combative Sports, seeing talented practitioners display their excellence is a draw, is compelling. That’s why organizations make money, networks make money, athletes make money, because it is a compelling attraction, that people will pay to see.

It appeals to us, to that part of us that lifts, when adversity meets will. There is something inspirational in it, in any athlete at their best.

Whether that is Jimmie Connors on the tennis court, or Sugar Ray Robinson in the boxing ring, those places where will meets adversity, and people come out on the other side as champions and victors… it is rousing.

However combative sports adds an additional layer of danger, in that unlike the goal of tennis or baseball or football or soccer or even rugby, where the goal is to get the ball past your opponent (and I understand these sports, all sports, can be incredibly dangerous, incredibly violent, can be potentially damaging); combative sports, inflicting damage is the goal.

In combative sports the goal is to damage the other person. Not to kill, or cripple, or maim, but enough to get them to submit or to lose. Winning in combative sports defined most clearly by being able to knock out or submit your opponent and have an early night. Now many fights go the distance with no one being knocked out or submitted, but those are potentially even more damaging as you have had people dig deep and go multiple rounds to the finish, trying to knock out or submit the other.

And nothing says highlight reel, like the knockout.

Do a search on youtube for best knockouts of 2019, and you will see that place where will meets adversity, and one person walks thru that door, and one person falls at it.

It is a rousing place for the athlete, and the audience. Look at the crowd or yourself during a great knockout.It impresses, and it rouses. 

So I being human, am as guilty of being roused by those drums of wills colliding. So I like combative sports and knockout highlight reels as much as the next person.

But especially with the rise of MMA, and pound and ground, my ‘like’ is becoming more tinged with concern. Because for all the compelling nature of combative sports, we want these people not to be seriously injured or killed for anybody’s entertainment or money.

And I think Boxing has grown a lot in its history to reduce it from its bare knuckle bloodbath war of attrition origins, to the place where you have gloves of a certain weight, and mouth guards, and rules, and a ref there to enforce the rules, and doctors, and corner people, and yes blood baths do still occur in boxing, but boxing has improved greatly to reduce the risk of people getting maimed and killed for a paycheck.

I think MMA, because it is geared to offer us ‘real’ combat, widens the potential zones of attack, and therefore zones of damage. And a lot rides on the ref. Because if boxing’s goal is to knock an opponent down, most boxers know to pull away at that point where the person is down, and the ref gets to give a standing eight count etc; MMA has a more ill-defined goal.

In MMA when the person is down, that is when for the fighter.. the fight begins, and any MMA fight, the fighter on top is pounding away on the person with maiming and potentially killing hammer blows, not because they want to maim, or kill, but because that is the ‘sport’,… you hit until the ref stops or opponent submits. Now a concussed opponent will not be able to submit, so it falls on the ref to quickly keep people from getting destroyed or killed.

It is a potentially disturbing sport, that runs the risk of transcending what we admire about combative sports, to being what we despise about blood sports.

It is a slippery slope, and I think like Boxing will have to adopt better safe guards, as fighters get better, stronger, faster, and arguably more deadly to each other.

Couple things I don’t like about the UFC in particular, is putting people in a cage like pit-bulls to fight, I don’t like people in cages for any reason. Also, I don’t like the corner people removed from their fighter, it delays the response to throw in the towel if needed, or provide medical attention, etc.

I don’t know any easy answers, but I think we have to start looking for them sooner rather than later.

That’s one reason that made me lookup the ‘effects of knockouts’ on Youtube, and that brought me to the below video.

So I’m not saying ban MMA, I am saying increase the safety of your fighters. At the end of the day someone getting maimed or killed, is not a sport. Let’s keep it a sport by keeping it competitive, and keeping it well regulated and well referred.

And I know a lot of people like to see women fight. And there are a lot of great women fighters. However, while I love to see women looking like the above image for any reason, I personally do not like watching women fight. Which is very hypocritical. And I’m not saying they should not fight, if you are good at something, man or woman, and that is your passion, then do it.

I’m saying as a spectator while i don’t mind seeing a guy hit in the face or knocked out, I do not like to see women hit. I do not like seeing beautiful things marred. It’s like splashing grime on a painting. I personally do not like it as a spectator, so I choose not to watch it. But again, I am not saying women are not great fighters,and should not be allowed to fight. If you are great at something and someone is willing to pay you for it, more power to you.

I’m just saying, I personally am not the audience for female fights. And I accept that my feelings are sexist, and chauvinist, and woefully outdated. They are the thoughts of a dinosaur… and you know what… I’m okay with that.

Anyhow hope you found this post useful, if so give a subscribe and a like. And feel free to shoot me a note about your thoughts on this post.

Till next time… Be Well! 🙂