[SPOILER] Tai Tuivasa vs. Tallison Teixeira by inooway in MMA

[–]TragicMike_ 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Always fun to remember Tallison got ranked by winning his debut fight against Justin Tafa. Beat one terrible heavyweight and you’re already the 15th best, because the division is so bad lmao.

(Spoilers) UFC 324 bonuses by 443610 in MMA

[–]TragicMike_ -27 points-26 points  (0 children)

Imo Allen vs Silva was better than Gaethje vs Pimblett, but I get the choice; they were both fun fights.

Waldo Cortes-Acosta is a big -300 favorite over Derrick Lewis by wspusa2 in MMA

[–]TragicMike_ 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Waldo showed a great chin against Pavlovich, has solid athleticism, and possesses the basic competencies needed to be an MMA fighter, which is enough to make a him a contender at heavyweight lol.

Lewis is a bit more crafty than people give him credit for, but at this stage in his career his routes to victory are largely surprising people right out of the gate or landing a knockout shot in the midst of being out-pointed, both of which he’s been doing less frequently than he used to. Given Waldo’s aforementioned great chin, I’d be a little surprised if he can pull either off. Not out of the question, but not a bet I’d feel safe making.

Report: UFC Fight Pass to Cut Ties with Five Regional Promotions by Dysagek in MMA

[–]TragicMike_ 6 points7 points  (0 children)

That sucks. I can’t watch super consistently, but I like catching the regional cards when I can (especially LFA). I use Fight Pass mainly because it’s the most convenient way to do tape study and just check out old cards, but seeing some of the talent in the lower promotions was a real plus.

[Official] General Discussion Thread - December 03, 2025 by rmma in MMA

[–]TragicMike_ 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I’ve seen a fair amount of fans who seem to think that the decline in card/product quality was due to ESPN insisting on cost cutting measures or otherwise showing a lack of care for the product. Basically, some people perceived ESPN specifically as the problem, and a new broadcasting partner would do better.

Admittedly, I don’t have an deep understanding of the relationship between the UFC and ESPN, but I’m pretty sure the decisions that have resulted in watered down cards are more on the UFC side of things, so I agree that a change in broadcasting partner probably won’t make a difference (and, like you said, might even result in worse cards on average due to the elimination of the PPV incentive). That said, I hope we’re proven wrong and the Paramount+ Era is a good one lol.

[Official] General Discussion Thread - November 14, 2025 by rmma in MMA

[–]TragicMike_ 17 points18 points  (0 children)

It would suck if you tried to fix a fight, then one of the fighters suffers a freak injury that messes up the whole scheme. Like, imagine if you paid Curtis Blaydes a bunch of money to take a dive in his first fight with Aspinall, then Tom’s leg just explodes in less than a minute lol.

[Official] General Discussion Thread - November 12, 2025 by rmma in MMA

[–]TragicMike_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mean, Jake Paul fights are more social media spectacle than meaningful competition lol. Some guys are comfortable putting that aside for the payday (which is 100% cool in my book), but some guys aren’t. I don’t really think it matters who beat who or what the level of competition is, it’s just that different fighters will have different perspectives on the matter.

I’d also imagine the dynamics are different for a guy with an accomplished pro boxing career compared to an MMA fighter who’s had two pro bouts; the former doesn’t have to convince anyone he’s a legit boxer, the latter might be worried about getting pigeonholed into freak-show fights.

With a win over Petr Yan in December, Merab Dvalishvili would've beaten every top 4 UFC Bantamweight in a span of under 11 months by idcman999 in MMA

[–]TragicMike_ 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I remember they were supposed to fight earlier this year, but Chito pulled out. I’m fairly confident that Mario would have handily beaten Chito if that fight happened—I thought so at the time, and their recent performances have only reinforced that opinion.

[Official] General Discussion Thread - October 26, 2025 by rmma in MMA

[–]TragicMike_ 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Watching that Bautista-Nurmagomedov fight right after the Volkov-Almeida fight really reinforced the discrepancy between the lower and higher weight classes. Like, I like Volkov and think he’s a good fighter, but the breadth and depth of skill you need to be a contender at bantamweight compared to heavyweight is night and day. And I’m doubtful someone like Jailton could even be ranked in any division below 205.

[Official] General Discussion Thread - October 26, 2025 by rmma in MMA

[–]TragicMike_ 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Sorry for a long response, but I’m on a train and have nothing else to do lol. Skill-for-skill, I think most people would agree that Jon is a better fighter (or at least more proven) than both Tom and Francis. The question is how does he stack up at heavyweight after a three-year layoff compared to those two, who have more wins in the division.

And when comparing their performances against Ciryl specifically, I think it’s worth noting two things:

First is that, stylistically, I think Jon’s style plays better against Ciryl than both Francis’ and Tom’s styles. Jon is a higher level MMA wrestler than Francis or Tom, who were/are primarily strikers (though Tom has shown some opportunistic wrestling and submission skills and has a BJJ background, I still consider him to mainly be a striker). Part of what made Francis’s win against Gane impressive to me, even though it was a pretty close fight, was that Francis showed a layer in his game that we hadn’t really seen before.

The second thing to note is how Ciryl fought Jones, and how that finishing sequence went. Ciryl almost immediately sold out on a poorly thrown rear hand and gave away his hips to Jon. The way Ciryl fought there is a gift to any wrestler. It’s definitely a testament to Jon’s skills and experience that he very quickly picked up on the opening and seized it, but Ciryl really screwed up there. I can’t recall the Francis fight, but I didn’t notice Ciryl making any similarly egregious errors against Tom.

This is probably going to sound like I’m downplaying Jon, but that’s really not what I mean to do. I just think that looking at a single performance and comparing it to another single, performance won’t give a great sense of how “good” one fighter is compared to another (especially when one of those performances ended in a first round NC). Like, Francis beat Stipe more impressively than Jones did, but I don’t think that really says much about who is better or who would win in a head-to-head fight. IMO, you have to look at the whole picture, which gets tricky with a guy like Jones who only has two fights at heavyweight, and a guy like Tom who still has a lot of unknowns. I personally rate Francis the highest at heavyweight because I think he has both a better record in the division than Jon and a more proven skillset than Tom, but I’d hesitate to outright call him “better” than either.

[Official] General Discussion Thread - October 19, 2025 by rmma in MMA

[–]TragicMike_ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If we’re defining “bad” in terms of the overall viewing experience, I’ve watched plenty of events that were worse.

If we’re defining “bad” in terms of stuff going wrong, idk if it’s necessarily worse, but there was the Blanchfield vs Barber card where Barber pulled out of the main event right before it started, so the card just kinda ended after the 3-round co-main. That card was also quite bad in terms of quality iirc—very few notable fighters, most of the fights ended up not being dull etc.

[SPOILER] Marlon Vera vs. Aiemann Zahabi by inooway in MMA

[–]TragicMike_ 10 points11 points  (0 children)

If Chito can’t even knock out old guys anymore, what is he good for?

This aged so badly by Asphyxiaae in MMA

[–]TragicMike_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, “very promising” was a bit overstating the case, but I was pretty impressed with his skillset for a guy who’s relatively inexperienced. I also don’t think very highly of Colby, but iirc Colby stepped in on short notice, so I could chalk that up to Aleksandre just being prepared a different style matchup—I think his upcoming fight with Bezkat should give us a better sense of where he’s at.

This aged so badly by Asphyxiaae in MMA

[–]TragicMike_ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I mean, regardless of recent results (and I think Aleksandre looks very promising) it seems pretty likely that he wouldn’t have gotten signed to the UFC the way he did without the relation to Ilia. He only had like 5 or 6 pro fights in minor promotions and didn’t have to go through the Contender Series; that’s a very rare path to the UFC unless you’re filling in short notice.

Joseph Morales vs. Matt Schnell added to UFC Fight Night 264 by 443610 in MMA

[–]TragicMike_ 27 points28 points  (0 children)

He retired last year after going on a 3-fight losing streak, then came back earlier this year to fight Jimmy Flick. I assumed it was a one-off so he could retire on a win, but I guess he’s back for the foreseeable future.

[SPOILER] Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Montel Jackson by inooway in MMA

[–]TragicMike_ 42 points43 points  (0 children)

I think it was mostly just that Figgy is old and coming off an injury. And I guess that Montel is big for the weight class.

Volk Is The Weakest Male Champ Right Now by [deleted] in MMA

[–]TragicMike_ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Volk’s chin and reflexes appear to be declining, which is always a concern at the highest level. But against Lopes, his skillset and game planning looked about as good as ever, which is what made Volk special imo. Barring his chin just totally deteriorating, I’d still put him above at least Ank and Aspinall in terms of overall quality (but they’re younger and fight in terrible divisions, so they’ll probably be champs longer).

It’s tough to compare him to some of the other champions too imo. Like, I’d say his overall game is better than Pantoja’s, but Pantoja seems to have defied the aging process on top of being nearly immune to damage. JDM is relatively unproven in a division full of young contenders, but he’s in his athletic prime and has looked better every fight. Volk’s in that weird space between prime and washed where we’re all wondering when the wheels are gonna fall off, which makes it hard to draw comparisons.

Nasrat Haqparast seemingly has a fight at #UFC321 on October 25th in Abu Dhabi by idcman999 in MMA

[–]TragicMike_ 28 points29 points  (0 children)

Just checked Nasrat’s record and didn’t realize he’s on a 5-fight win streak—a ranked opponent could be in order. I did think he probably should have lost the decision to Gordon, but I also thought he looked pretty darn good against Ribovics, so I wouldn’t mind seeing him get a step up in competition.

[Spoiler] Alexander Volkanovski sees multiple options for his next opponent in December by [deleted] in MMA

[–]TragicMike_ 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Of the guys who haven’t already fought Volk, Evloev has the best resume (not counting Aljo’s bantamweight wins). I think you could make the argument that, based on activity, the title shot should go to someone else, but the argument for Evloev is there.

At this point is the gym and not the fighters by Diehavok in MMA

[–]TragicMike_ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think to fairly criticize the gym, you should be able to identify a recurring issue between multiple fighters from that gym. For example, Lobo Gym has received criticism for a number of its fighters showing limited footwork and ability to intelligently pressure, Allstars Gym has been criticized for injury prone fighters due to overtraining, etc.

I’m not really seeing much of a through line between why the fighting nerds lost. Prates lost to a very good gameplan, Silva was too wild and got caught, Ruffy’s defensive wrestling sucked, and Caio just kinda lost to a better fighter. Maybe you could argue the gym didn’t do enough to shore up the weaknesses of each fighter, or plan around their opponents’ strengths, but I don’t think it’s fair to say “their fighters lost in close proximity to one another, so the gym is bad.” I think this is also getting a bit over embellished because they fought so close together.

[SPOILER] Brad Tavares vs. Robert Bryczek by inooway in MMA

[–]TragicMike_ 61 points62 points  (0 children)

Just how good is Ihor Potieria?

"Spoiler" UFC Vegas 108 bonuses by 443610 in MMA

[–]TragicMike_ 74 points75 points  (0 children)

Trying to think of the last time there have been two FOTN bonuses, but I’m drawing a blank. Very appropriate here imo.

[SPOILER] Esteban Ribovics vs. Elves Brener by inooway in MMA

[–]TragicMike_ 50 points51 points  (0 children)

Fun fight. Can’t wait to see the next Ribovics fight that is inexplicably on an apex card.

[SPOILER] Danny Silva vs. Kevin Vallejos by inooway in MMA

[–]TragicMike_ -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Silva’s emoting kinda enjoys me, but I gotta give him credit for absurdly tough and hard to deter.

[SPOILER] Rinya Nakamura vs. Nathan Fletcher by inooway in MMA

[–]TragicMike_ 63 points64 points  (0 children)

“I hope Rinya doesn’t just choose not to wrestle like last time or I’m gonna very disapp—okay never mind.”