If Stipe beats Francis and....

[Albs_M8]

Does Stipe retire? Does that leave Jones to fight the winner of Overeem vs Volkov or of Lewis vs Blaydes?

 

[eddi]

You mean when he rebeats the shit out of francis

 

[Mr Moist]

I think Stipe would definitely take a big money fight against Jones if it was offered. Stipe has stated he will keep fighting as long as it’s fun. So if he gets past Ngannou without taking a ton of damage, he will continue to defend the title. But It will be interesting if he gets ko’d. Some guys can accept it better then others, as he may not want to go out on a though loss. I think Stipe fights again no matter what happens against Francis.

 

[GOATweight]

If Stipe loses to Francis, he's going to want a rubber match. And it would make sense.

But UFC might not want to leave the opportunity of having Jones fight Francis for the HW title hanging, so he'll have to wait (or fight Blaydes after he subs Lewis).

 

[Hitman]

I think stipe will beat Ngannou in a hard fight ! And Jones will fight immediately for the title shot !
UFC want Stipe lose the belt because he is not bankable ! UFC will protect Jon Jones, UFC hope Stipe will have mileage after Ngannou fight and Jon Jones will be fresh for this fight, but Stipe will KO Jones too and retired in 2022, maybe a last fight in 2022, but he will be the HW GOAT and surpassed Fedor after beating Ngannou and Jones

 

[Deleted member 110072]

I think Stipe would definitely take a big money fight against Jones if it was offered. Stipe has stated he will keep fighting as long as it’s fun. So if he gets past Ngannou without taking a ton of damage, he will continue to defend the title. But It will be interesting if he gets ko’d. Some guys can accept it better then others, as he may not want to go out on a though loss. I think Stipe fights again no matter what happens against Francis.

Honestly though is Jones even a "big money" fight? his fued with DC sold well but besides that he's not been a great draw for years and is going to be coming off both unimpressive performances and a loooooooong layoff, you don't even get many Jones hate threads on Sherdog anymore so I'm not sure people paying to potentially see him lose can be depended on.

Stipe wins, retires and Jones fights Tanner Boser for the belt, wins then retires, the heat death of the universe.

 

[Mr Moist]

Honestly though is Jones even a "big money" fight? his fued with DC sold well but besides that he's not been a great draw for years and is going to be coming off both unimpressive performances and a loooooooong layoff.

Stipe wins, retires and Jones fights Tanner Boser for the belt, wins then retires.

It would be a big pay day for Stipe, and would boost his legacy even more with a win over Jones. I’m not sure how the ppv would sell. Jones never was never a huge ppv draw, as well as Stipe. But it would be pretty easy for the UFC to promote though. Jones first fight at heavyweight should peak a lot of interest no matter who he fights, and would be especially interesting if it was against the goat UFC heavyweight for the belt. Both guys would make bank for sure.

 

[boss429]

I think stipe will beat Ngannou in a hard fight ! And Jones will fight immediately for the title shot !
UFC want Stipe lose the belt because he is not bankable ! UFC will protect Jon Jones, UFC hope Stipe will have mileage after Ngannou fight and Jon Jones will be fresh for this fight, but Stipe will KO Jones too and retired in 2022, maybe a last fight in 2022, but he will be the HW GOAT and surpassed Fedor after beating Ngannou and Jones

He would definitely have a strong case if he beat Francis (again) and Jones, though he'd still be a half dozen top 10 wins behind Fedor and have those 2 early losses, (one of them embarrassing) as strikes against him as well.

Unfortunately after he beats Francis he will lose the Title to Jon since he really doesn't bring anything to the table Jon has seen and beaten before and I doubt his iron chin suddenly gets cracked because he's fighting bigger, but slower, guys when he's also bigger than he was at LHW.

I can't wait for HW to become the "weakest division in MMA" when Jones wins and defends the belt with relative ease and we switch to "He's fighting at HW to duck Izzy, (or whoever)".

 

[robbie]

Stipe is 38 and recently had eye surgery to fix eye poke damage. IMO he needs to have a plan for just one more or maybe two more fights and then retire. Father Time is undefeated and untied and this is MMA not tennis. When you lose you in MMA you can receive a massive physical beating vs. an embarrassing 6-0 6-0 score with perhaps slight blisters on your feet and dominant hand. In a competitive fight, even the winner can absorb a fair amount of damage. Broken nose, broken jaw, broken orbital bones, concussions, etc. are not uncommon...Tony Ferguson (36) recently hit the end of his high mileage odometer and his last two fights have not been pretty to watch. You can be great and then boom...Father Time shows up...the difference in speed, timing, reactions is the difference between being elite at the highest level and winning regularly vs. racking up losses and absorbing beatings. Throw in loss of confidence on top in a sport that requires your mind to be strong and positive.

MMA fighters should definitely keep an eye on when best to get out...it's not like football where the coach or the GM will cut you because they want to win games and there are so many young players coming up through the system...If the UFC or other promotion can book a fight with a big name older fighter and generate revenue, it doesn't matter to them if the big name older fighter wins or loses like an NFL team that has to maintain a good record in order to make the playoffs. Chuck Liddell helped make the UFC, but they let him absorb three beat downs by KO at the end of his UFC run at age 39 - 40. I thought the Rashad Evans loss should have been the end when he was laid out stiff for a long-time, but the UFC let him go out twice more vs. Shogun and Franklin. The Franklin fight was entertaining as both fighters were old and winging heavy stuff, missing a fair amount, off balance at times and then Franklin put Liddell's lights out with a counter right hook to the face. Two years later Franklin (38) would get face planted KO'd in R1 by Cung Le and he retired afterwards. Franklin was doing well against Cung Le until he wasn't. Liddell was doing well against Evans and Franklin until he wasn't. I don't want to see Stipe in the cage for a 25 minute bout and find out he is clearly spent vs. someone like a Ngannou who is probably the hardest hitting MMA fighter I've seen.

 

[Kowboy On Sherdog]

Think it depends on the eye... I mean, does Ngannou get called a cherry picker like GSP for beating a champion with one good eye... or his that just used to discredit Bisping and St Pierre.

 

[TempleoftheDog]

Unless he can’t physically fight anymore, Stipe would not retire. Jones first fight at HW, against the UFC HW GOAT would sell itself. It might even sell a million ppv. But, I could see him retiring after the Jones fight. Win or lose.

 

[Hitman]

Father time is undefeated, but not at the same time for everybody, some people are on the decline at 23 years old, and some people around 40 years old ! Stipe can be still on his peak, even if one day and maybe soon he will be on the decline.
I think he is faster than ever, very explosive, very good cardio ( maybe a slighlty decline in the last fight ), still iron chin ( maybe a decline soon.... ), still punch harder ( maybe a little less.... because he is lighter ) !
Very difficult to say if he is still in his physical peak or not..... if not he can maintain thjs year, but not a lot of time

 

[acannxr]

I can't wait for HW to become the "weakest division in MMA"

Except that Heavyweight has been one of the weakest men's divisions since around 2013, with both Light Heavyweight and Flyweight being just as weak.

Heavyweight is also the oldest division with the least amount of turnover in the top ten ranks.

 

[WhitestKidU’Know]

Think it depends on the eye... I mean, does Ngannou get called a cherry picker like GSP for beating a champion with one good eye... or his that just used to discredit Bisping and St Pierre.

I'm a HUGE GSP fan but to compare Stipe to Bisping? Just smfh

 

[Deleted member 510653]

I think Stipe will ride this thing out 'til he can't anymore. I think he'll probably retire on a 2 or so fight losing streak and then do the first responder thing full time. He might beat Francis again but Jon Jones is coming in at the right time and really beating them both in 1 year is an uphill battle but say he does, and he loses to an ordinary contender like Blaydes.. *shrugs* I dunno, I just think he'll go out on his shield.

 

[DarkRaven]

Except that Heavyweight has been one of the weakest men's divisions since around 2013, with both Light Heavyweight and Flyweight being just as weak.

Heavyweight is also the oldest division with the least amount of turnover in the top ten ranks.

And yet ppl like Canonier loose weight to get to MW. Almost all LHW are HW in ring and yet none of them wants to use their speed advantage to dismantle poorest division in UFC

 

[Deleted member 110072]

And yet ppl like Canonier loose weight to get to MW. Almost all LHW are HW in ring and yet none of them wants to use their speed advantage to dismantle poorest division in UFC

That is part of the issue, basically alot of guys who might have been HW's in the past are LHW's today whilst alot of guys who would have been LHW's are MW's.

Even so though I think you see a decline in the talent base across all of the larger divisions, its filtered down though HW, then LHW and now MW is looking thinner as well.

I do think Jones represents that size bully culture quite strongly.

 

[boss429]

Except that Heavyweight has been one of the weakest men's divisions since around 2013, with both Light Heavyweight and Flyweight being just as weak.

Heavyweight is also the oldest division with the least amount of turnover in the top ten ranks.

Cute that you left out the "again" part in that quote, lol.

 

[acannxr]

Cute that you left out the "again" part in that quote, lol.

Except you never wrote "again" in the sentence I quoted.

I can't wait for HW to become the "weakest division in MMA" when Jones wins and defends the belt with relative ease and we switch to "He's fighting at HW to duck Izzy, (or whoever)".

<{cruzshake}>

 

[RicardinhoPT]

When Stipe beats Ngannou again, he'll fight and probably will beat Jones and then he can retire.