All on Francis, Stipe doesn't have many more options to win... he needs to try and submit him though...
Oh definitely on Francis. But yea Stipe could have gone for a submission any time from the 3rd on but chose to just lay on him. Just an awful fight to watch outside of the first 2 minutes.
No one gives miocic credit but he’s a goddamn American hero. Son of an immigrant. Fire fighter. Killed all the foreign legends. Are you not entertained?
Eh this is why it's called Mixed Martial Arts and not Biggest Muscly Dude Wins. Carwin was arguably bigger and had more stamina and he gassed as well. Smaller guys like Stipe and even smaller like Cain have an advantage. Tiny bit less punching power but the ability to go more than 2 minutes.
That was the worst fight I've seen since the dude kept getting on his ass and begging Spiderman to get on the ground with him.
Who was it that got on his ass and scooted around to get Silva to come down to the ground? Been a while, probably 5+ years ago.
According to Cruz in the post game he spoke to DC who claims he'd be willing to move up and face Stipe. How true that is I don't know, but Stipe doesn't really have a true contender left. DC also doesn't have anyone left besides Jones. Alex gave him a tough fight and is like Jones Lite but he's recovering.
No no no. Definitely not Diaz. This guy wasn't playing, he just refused to stand up and strike with Silva. Like it was his technique for the fight.
This motherfucker. Dude’s been training 5 years, already over 30, I think they focused on his obvious strengths and hoped they’d mask his deficiencies. No one gets world class wrestler’s stamina/technique in 5 years. It got him this far beating some decent opposition. That said, they mentioned a 225lb class, I think that makes a lot of sense.
Are you saying because he’s only fought for five years he shouldn’t, idk, be more well rounded fighting for the belt?
Clearly most of blame for that awful fight goes on Ngannou, but Stipe gets his share too, and I like Stipe. Ngannou was gassed in the 2nd and he couldn't finish him in 3.5 rd and barely tried, he just laid on him most of the fight.
There was at least some action tonight, first round was solid. Worse title fights definitely: Woodley/Maia Woodley/Wonderboy 2 (worst title fight ever) Anderson Silva's shitfests with Maia, Leites and Cote A few GSP fights
Agree to disagree. Tonight it was one man on the brink of death by exhaustion and another guy just leaning on him.
I’m saying a few things. 1) it takes awhile to be well rounded and 5 years likely would t have put a dent in his deficiencies 2) there’s an argument to be made in focusing your training on refining your strengths, being really awesome at one thing, as opposed to pursuing a goal of being well rounded and making marginal progress across the board 3) there are relatively few well rounded fighters, a lot of fighters have had success with a similar training strategy
Knowing you’re fighting the champ and possibly going 5 rounds you should probably think about your cardio. Both him and his camp are idiots. He wasn’t ready and just being economical isn’t going to help him since he was toast after the first 3 minutes. Everyone knows the key to beating him now, just like all other overly muscular fighters.
I'm with you DHMB but they went overboard. It's not like this was their first fight. They could have easily kept the focus on the standup while having him lose muscle. He's just too damn big. He doesn't have a history of sports like other monsters did (Brock, Ubereem and Carwin to an extent) that allowed him to naturally build up stamina. It's like they locked him in a room, forced him to literally do max weight lowest reps with dumbells, and fed him raw meat. Big dudes gas. Rumbles like 20% smaller and he did as well.
I honestly think he and his camp were cocky as fuck and thought he would for sure knock SM out in the first two rounds.
And people, Ngannou camp for this fight was less than two months. He fought in early December. He couldn't have magically gotten cardio for a 5 rd fight in that time. Maybe it was too early for him to take this fight.
It would take him a long time to achieve any measurable improvement in cardio. Easily 6+ months. I don't know if UFC/Stipe were willing to wait given he was healthy. This guy was literally done after 2 minutes. Seriously, rewatch the fight. It was the exact same thing that happened to Rumble, but worse. His fights have all been finished within half a round. He's too big, too muscular and a technical fighter will destroy him every time.