Israel Adesanya will be the Manny Pacquiao of the UFC, he will put Nigeria on the map

[Logan M]

Those are quite the boots to fill. We can only hope he is that kind of talent. People who don't follow boxing that much don't realize that Pacquiao is unquestionably one of the greatest to ever do it. He was an 8 division champion. The only ever in the history of boxing which is just a little longer than MMA's legacy. Adesanya is very good but he'd have to win the MW, LHW, and HW belts while consistently getting finishes for years to touch a legend like that. Will he put Nigeria on the map as a MMA hotbed? Almost certainly but to compare him to a fighter of that magnitude at this point is beyond hyperbolic.

 

[Hoop]

He’s still Nigerian


Somehow this kind of shit continues to go over the heads of Sherdoggers.

He's the Nigerian Artem Lobov - born in Nigeria, but forged in New Zealand.

Seriously, who cares where he's from? I'm sure he's proud of his Nigerian heritage and growing up in New Zealand. He's from NigerZealand.

 

[Hoop]

Manny is a humble and respectful guy

Yes, aside from his homophobic comment.

 

[Logan M]

Fuck Nigeria and Fuck Africa

Last time i checked they still use smoke signals and letters by pigeon

Did someone get scammed by a Nigerian Prince email? It's okay buddy.

 

[JayE]

Manny is a humble and respectful guy and does his talking with his 2 hands. Israeli is just starting to get known and already is full of cock-iness

Eh, Manny is a guy who is going to go down as one of the better boxers all time (top 20 to top 15 all time time in my view), but let's not celebrate the man too much. He used to be a guy who went around drinking, whoring, cock-fighting, and gambling (not that I'm decrying any of those practices in and of themselves aside from maybe cock-fighting) while portraying the picture of a familyman until that was untenable. When all that fell out, he became something of a religious zealot who has been a generally trash statesman who supports the rule of an equally trash head of state. Let's not pretend the man Manny Pacquiao is anyone to aspire to be outside of what he does inside the ring (much like his great opponent, Floyd Mayweather, even if their transgressions aren't the same).

 

[Hoop]

Will he put Nigeria on the map as a MMA hotbed? Almost certainly

I'm not sure - Nigeria is ginormous and they're football mad over there. They have a couple of fighters in the South African promotion which is mainly full of South Africans.

I don't think Adesanya is going to go full Usman and wear his tribal robes. I think New Zealand MMA is producing a couple of other good fighters along with the Aussies and that scene might be buzzing. It's always being America and Brazil and then the rest and probably will be for some time.

 

[Logan M]

I'm not sure - Nigeria is ginormous and they're football mad over there. They have a couple of fighters in the South African promotion which is mainly full of South Africans.

I don't think Adesanya is going to go full Usman and wear his tribal robes. I think New Zealand MMA is producing a couple of other good fighters along with the Aussies and that scene might be buzzing. It's always being America and Brazil and then the rest and probably will be for some time.

Oh yeah I don't think you're gonna see it become an America or Brazil as far as MMA talent goes but people in downtrodden situations are always hungry for native heroes.

 

[Hoop]

Oh yeah I don't think you're gonna see it become an America or Brazil as far as MMA talent goes but people in downtrodden situations are always hungry for native heroes.

Yeah, sorry, I didn't mean it to come across as you saying 'Nigerian will rule MMA soon'

Africans as well as Polynesians are physically gifted for combat sports - but facilities would be lacking in most places. There's a lot of Nigerian immigrants around the globe and I think if there was to be a break through star or whatever, he or she would most likely be the offspring of immigrants.

 

[Logan M]

Yeah, sorry, I didn't mean it to come across as you saying 'Nigerian will rule MMA soon'

Africans as well as Polynesians are physically gifted for combat sports - but facilities would be lacking in most places. There's a lot of Nigerian immigrants around the globe and I think if there was to be a break through star or whatever, he or she would most likely be the offspring of immigrants.

Sure I get what you're saying. I just believe talent makes every great fighter. You can grow up in shit situations with bad or barely there training and still get noticed because of your skill. YouTube has so many technique and training videos. I really think that is going to be at the forefront of the next waves of talent from impoverished places.

 

[Hoop]

Sure I get what you're saying. I just believe talent makes every great fighter. You can grow up in shit situations with bad or barely there training and still get noticed because of your skill. YouTube has so many technique and training videos. I really think that is going to be at the forefront of the next waves of talent from impoverished places.

Yeah, but not sure if there's even a local circuit there. The South African promotion seems to stable as far as I know and they did their own version of TUF not so long ago. I think they're still at infant level over there as in producing someone from Nigeria or another African country.

They are starting to pump a few quid into MMA in Bahrain and inviting top fighters/coaches over to coach their fighters.

If you keep an eye on the Amateur Championships, a lot of Swedes, Irish and a couple of other countries medal well at the Worlds and Europeans. The grappling levels have improved a lot more from say 5-10 years ago, but that doesn't guarantee that the UFC will be flooded by fighters from there, but it's a good starting point.

I'd like to see as many different fighters from different countries.

 

[Logan M]

Yeah, but not sure if there's even a local circuit there. The South African promotion seems to stable as far as I know and they did their own version of TUF not so long ago. I think they're still at infant level over there as in producing someone from Nigeria or another African country.

They are starting to pump a few quid into MMA in Bahrain and inviting top fighters/coaches over to coach their fighters.

If you keep an eye on the Amateur Championships, a lot of Swedes, Irish and a couple of other countries medal well at the Worlds and Europeans. The grappling levels have improved a lot more from say 5-10 years ago, but that doesn't guarantee that the UFC will be flooded by fighters from there, but it's a good starting point.

I'd like to see as many different fighters from different countries.

Me too my man as far as fighters from all around the world and seeing them on world stage. Thankfully their are promotions like EFC shady as they are to give African talent a chance. I think that the prospect of money is gonna see talent explode from Africa in the next 5-10 years. I just want to see good fights. I don't care if you're from my home state or Madgascar.

 

[Hoop]

Me too my man as far as fighters from all around the world and seeing them on world stage. Thankfully their are promotions like EFC shady as they are to give African talent a chance. I think that the prospect of money is gonna see talent explode from Africa in the next 5-10 years. I just want to see good fights. I don't care if you're from my home state or Madgascar.

Amen to that, brah.

 

[Hoop]

Me too my man as far as fighters from all around the world and seeing them on world stage. Thankfully their are promotions like EFC shady as they are to give African talent a chance. I think that the prospect of money is gonna see talent explode from Africa in the next 5-10 years. I just want to see good fights. I don't care if you're from my home state or Madgascar.

Something to ask; we know America in a lot of sports they take part in are usually winning or competing with the rest and MMA is no different with the number of Champions from the States - but just in general - I know America is a big country, but it doesn't seem to be in the sports fans culture to travel to away games in NFL, MLB, NBA and MMA.

Is it just fans can't be bothered to travel or it's not a sporting cultural type thing? I know a lot of Conor fans travel just to go away to Vegas for a few days and get absolutely wasted, but domestic flights must be cheap for Americans, no?

 

[gevoudane]

Do they have computers in Nigeria ?

Dont you ever get their emails?

 

[Maori]

He's the Nigerian Artem Lobov - born in Nigeria, but forged in New Zealand.

Seriously, who cares where he's from? I'm sure he's proud of his Nigerian heritage and growing up in New Zealand. He's from NigerZealand.

Racist

 

[Hoop]

Racist

How dare you.

Well, I just got my new hood from the KKK.com and the eye holes are fricking hard to see out of, so my vision was impaired.

 

[Logan M]

Something to ask; we know America in a lot of sports they take part in are usually winning or competing with the rest and MMA is no different with the number of Champions from the States - but just in general - I know America is a big country, but it doesn't seem to be in the sports fans culture to travel to away games in NFL, MLB, NBA and MMA.

Is it just fans can't be bothered to travel or it's not a sporting cultural type thing? I know a lot of Conor fans travel just to go away to Vegas for a few days and get absolutely wasted, but domestic flights must be cheap for Americans, no?

People will travel from state to state but America is so large that almost no one is willing to travel to another country. The cost is extremely prohibitive and we are kind of an insulator nation as far as sports go. Traveling to other states Americans do in droves for sporting events. Almost none of the people who attend the "Superbowl" are from that state. MMA just isn't very big here since we are good at so many other sports and have no huge media darling to travel for.

 

[Hoop]

People will travel from state to state but America is so large that almost no one is willing to travel to another country. The cost is extremely prohibitive and we are kind of an insulator nation as far as sports go. Traveling to other states Americans do in droves for sporting events. Almost none of the people who attend the "Superbowl" are from that state. MMA just isn't very big here since we are good at so many other sports and have no huge media darling to travel for.

Cheers.

Yeah, seems like that there's an attitude of sorts of 'if it's not happening in my State, I don't care' but that's just from talking to a couple of American tourists here and I'm sure it's not the case overall. I only care about watching the fights, but I think when there's a good crowd it adds to the event and excitement. When Miocic fought in Cleveland the crowd were going nuts and you have some cards in Vegas where middle of the main card the arena seems to fill up and they're buzzing for the main event.

I probably overestimated how popular MMA is in America and that it's still a niche sort of sport and that it still has a lot of growing to do in the US and Brazil which are the strongholds of it. But the sport is still very young in comparison to the American sports, Football and even Cricket.

We probably get ahead of ourselves as fans and forget how young the sport is and while fighter pay is so, so - there's still a lot of building to do and signing folk like CM Punk or that American footballer will probably be a thing of the past in a few years when fighters are more well rounded and it'd even be more dangerous than it is now throwing a 40 odd year old ex professional wrestler in there - which we all know is more PR than anything.

 

[burningspear]

8 weight world champion, voted boxer of the decade for the 00s lol talk about heaping pressure on the kid.

 

[Logan M]

Cheers.

Yeah, seems like that there's an attitude of sorts of 'if it's not happening in my State, I don't care' but that's just from talking to a couple of American tourists here and I'm sure it's not the case overall. I only care about watching the fights, but I think when there's a good crowd it adds to the event and excitement. When Miocic fought in Cleveland the crowd were going nuts and you have some cards in Vegas where middle of the main card the arena seems to fill up and they're buzzing for the main event.

I probably overestimated how popular MMA is in America and that it's still a niche sort of sport and that it still has a lot of growing to do in the US and Brazil which are the strongholds of it. But the sport is still very young in comparison to the American sports, Football and even Cricket.

We probably get ahead of ourselves as fans and forget how young the sport is and while fighter pay is so, so - there's still a lot of building to do and signing folk like CM Punk or that American footballer will probably be a thing of the past in a few years when fighters are more well rounded and it'd even be more dangerous than it is now throwing a 40 odd year old ex professional wrestler in there - which we all know is more PR than anything.

Yeah coming from an American (me) who is just crazy about the sport maybe 5% of people I talk to are even aware it's considered a sport now. They think of it along the same levels as dogfighting if it was legal. It's not popular here we just have such a high average income that it has become the moneymaker. The PC culture here won't ever let MMA become mainstream. Now that it's on ESPN in the US it will start to grow since it is a very popular sport only channel. The way forward is through TV deals in other countries though. One FC is actually paving the way into that market for the UFC they are just waiting to snatch up the best of that talent with lucrative deals and start doing more shows there.