Media Aspinall's defense is porous and little more than just backing up.

[Bork Neslar]

Yeah he's obviously overrated, he sucks and should retire.

 

[AndrewGolota48]

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Gane fighting Volkov at his own strength when he was still green in their first fight !!!! Hahahahaha you might as well use Aljo vs Dillashaw as an example to discredit TJ.

 

[mkess101]

Gane fighting Volkov at his own strength when he was still green in their first fight !!!! Hahahahaha you might as well use Aljo vs Dillashaw as an example to discredit TJ.

View attachment 1113903

But you don't get to decide which injuries count and which don't. Fluffy fought Allen the second time with torn rib cartilage and couldn't breathe properly. Still won with zero questions or controversy. Sandhagen fully tore his tricep vs Font and still 50-45'd him. In other words, this sport forces fighters to compete injured all the time. You like Gane, so seem to think his injury gets some sort of special perspective. He won a robbery over a guy he'd previously beaten. Period.

It's funny the same people who yell so loudly about Gane's injury vs Volkov are the ones who also trumpet Gane as an elite striker because of the Ngannou fight. But they don't wanna mention how compromised Ngannou's knee was in that one and how that likely affected his effectiveness.

 

[WoozyFailGuy]

Gane 50-45'd Volkov the first time they fought, for a reason....and Gane was the much greener fighter of the two back then so if anything it further proves the injury was limiting Gane considerably.

No, Ubervolkov has just improved both in fight IQ and physicality while Gane has plateaud in skill level as he ostensibly doesnt take the sport seriously.

Gane fighting Volkov at his own strength when he was still green in their first fight !!!! Hahahahaha you might as well use Aljo vs Dillashaw as an example to discredit TJ.

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Why would you cut off the 49-46s and the 48-47s? Just makes you look dishonest.
It wasn't a blowout fight, it was a relatively close kickboxing match.

In the more "mixed" of their two fights, after Gane's white belt was exposed, Volkov obviously won and was obviously robbed.

 

[snugglecakes]

Gane fighting Volkov at his own strength when he was still green in their first fight !!!! Hahahahaha you might as well use Aljo vs Dillashaw as an example to discredit TJ.

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gane and volk were both better fighters in their second fight compared to their first. Volkov became swolekov and gane had gained more experience. Whoever won when they were both in their more complete form wins the rivalry.
... so your point is invalid... har har har har har

(if i wanted to discredit TJ i'd just point out that he's CEO of EPO juiced for the entire prime of his career)

 

[markg171]

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What exactly do you think the scorecards would be if Tom was on his back

 

[lsa]

Yeah he's obviously overrated, he sucks and should retire.

He should never have fought to begin with.



If Tom wins will TS leave sherdog?
here's to hoping

 

[Kwic]

Can't fight forever, if he didn't have the hunger anymore then 15 years at the top is enough that he doesn't owe anything. Champ since 23, wins a second belt at HW, retired undefeated at 38, sounds all good to me.

You forget the beating he took from Hamill. His elbow was so devastated by Hamill's granite skull the ref saw enough.
Underrated tactical victory for Matt.

 

[Vehap1]

And yet, he retired your boy Jonny

 

[spinup]

I think he got a declining Blaydes and Pavlovich has proven to be a bit overrated. I don't understand why he's such an overwhelming favorite against Gane. People seem to have forgotten about Gane's fight against Spivac after Ngannou and Jones. Spivac is a really good grappler and was even getting the better of Jailton Almeida until he wilted like always does.

TBF Tom destroyed Spivac way faster than Gane. And Volkov too.

 

[TriangleMonkey]

Just give Eddie 6mo training

 

[Robbocop]

Does porous defence mean weak defence? It's an unusual turn of phrase. I wouldn't say Aspinall has weak defence if that's what you mean.

 

[swizztony]

People saying tom is the evolution of hw are hilarious, hw has regressed insanely. The skill difference between Aspinall and guys like fedor and crocop are insane

 

[Clark Rogers]

I think he got a declining Blaydes and Pavlovich has proven to be a bit overrated. I don't understand why he's such an overwhelming favorite against Gane. People seem to have forgotten about Gane's fight against Spivac after Ngannou and Jones. Spivac is a really good grappler and was even getting the better of Jailton Almeida until he wilted like always does.

People just hate Jon Jones so much that they can't forgive Gane for getting smoked and they want to discredit Jones so bad that they have to pretend Gane is a white belt and completely clueless when it comes to grappling.

I have little issue with Jones and think he's GOAT and I still think it's fucking embarrassing to see Gane near a title fight again.

 

[Docrob2354]

If Tom fights smart. Gane wont be on his feet long enough to figure out Tom

Literally an obese powerlifting novice striker is able to catch him repeatedly with overhands because Tom is so incredibly predictable with his defense, only knowing how to back up. It reminds me of MMA strikers from decades ago when the sport was more primitive and it was more common to rely on simply backing up like this. His offense is actually his best defense....

He has gotten away with it so far because he is able to take out his opponents early with his admittedly outlier finishing ability, but it will be interesting to see how he deals with an actual skilled striker like Gane that isn't stuck in the mud. I just hope Gane doesn't get caught with something or taken down early so we can see some prolonged striking exchanges.

I wonder if a skilled striker like Gane will be able to figure out an answer to Tom's elite and highly advanced "backing up" erudite martial arts defensive technique.

 

[Docrob2354]

Gane is more proven, his resume is better for now. Aspinall has 3 losses. Its a lot. Two of these losses are from ABSOLUTE bums.

One of the losses was due to a knee injury early in the fight and one is for a disqualification. So he has only really been beaten once, by submission early in his career. Gane ain't submitting him

 

[Squarechoke]

I feel like I’m in bizarro world. The MW division very much was in flux for a long time while Bisping and GSP only wanted to fight each other.

It’s also worse as GSP’s contract literally mandated that if he won he needed to unify with Whittaker. This wasn’t a case of he SHOULD unify like Jones/Aspinall. GSP HAD agreed to fight Whittaker and then backed out of it despite his contract. That’s far worse, and shouldn’t get extra points just because he immediately broke a signed contract compared to Jon who never signed anything.

GSP had a medical reason to stop and retired permanently right away, allowing the division to go on. Jones kept dragging it out and when he retired it only lasted a couple of weeks before he went into the testing program again because he wanted to keep fighting. Clearly he wasn't serious about retiring if he went back on that right away.

Jones will always be seen as the worse here, and deservedly so. Not that it matters all that much as it's insignificant compared to him being the UFC record holder in pissing hot.

 

[VAfan]

have we ever gotten an answer on why TS has this bizarre hatred for aspinall?

 

[AndrewGolota48]

People saying tom is the evolution of hw are hilarious, hw has regressed insanely. The skill difference between Aspinall and guys like fedor and crocop are insane

Yes and all the recency bias posters on here will act like you're a hater for saying this. Aspinall is perhaps the best overall HW right now but the division is abysmal, and his fans act like we've never seen anything like this.

JDS started his UFC career 9-0 and beat light years better competition, some of the best wrestlers, BJJ practitioners, and strikers that HW MMA has ever seen.

Aspinall has Gane and Almeida to get through and then I can't fault him for beating the best competition available, considering the UFC won't even sign any available talent for the division even when they have the chance.

 

[mkess101]

People saying tom is the evolution of hw are hilarious, hw has regressed insanely. The skill difference between Aspinall and guys like fedor and crocop are insane

Neither are true and you're every bit the moron that those you're criticizing are if you believe what you typed.

Tom isn't "the evolution of HW", nor is the skill gap between him and the greats of the past insane.

Is HW overall worse now? Yes. Would Aspinall still have been a contender in the era of Fedor and the rest? Without question.