Curtis Blaydes getting a raw deal

Why are so many people pretending Blaydes would have any chance against Jones? Are you just taking however Jon won his last fight and looking to fill that 1 dimension?

You're so concerned with stopping Jon's TDs that you're forgetting Jon also nullifies Blaydes' ONLY strength. What is a worse matchup for Blaydes than Jones? Blaydes isn't a submission threat and isn't a great striker, so what's his plan even if he does stop Jon's TDs? The guy with more KO losses than career knockdowns is going to make it a striking battle?

The people Jon has had trouble with are strikers first who can stuff TDs and make him stand with them, not wrestlers who get their own TDs stuffed and get their knees stomped and eyes poked all night.
 
Unfortunately for Curtis he’s in a position similar to Beniel, Belal, and Allen… he’s not a draw so he’ll probably have to put a ridiculous win streak together for a TS, it sucks but a reality. He’s put together a couple of great winning streaks with names to boot, but that black on black crime keeps preventing him from getting to that TS elimination bout. He’s young enough that he’ll keep getting better with his stand up, and he’s skilled enough that he will get there eventually. He just hasn’t been able to get over the hump and makes mental errors when facing the KO artist, thus gets face planted. Hopefully Jones decides ruling HW is too easy and stays around, I like Curtis’s chances against Jones as long as he keeps that cardio in check, he’s got an equally long reach and KO power when he connects flush. He just needs to be diligent and win fights, it sounds like he’s one of the good ones in MMA, a great down to earth dude who definitely doesn’t fight because he’s sociopath like some fighters.
 
Curtis fumbled the bag 3 times idk why everyone thinks his current streak is beating cans
 
Fighting is a business.

Blaydes does not attract attention.
Nobody talks about him.

If you want a title shot from winning alone without doing any meaningful self promotion you better put together a long ass win streak.

It has been this way since the Jon Fitch era.
 
nostradumbass said:
Why are so many people pretending Blaydes would have any chance against Jones? Are you just taking however Jon won his last fight and looking to fill that 1 dimension?

You're so concerned with stopping Jon's TDs that you're forgetting Jon also nullifies Blaydes' ONLY strength. What is a worse matchup for Blaydes than Jones? Blaydes isn't a submission threat and isn't a great striker, so what's his plan even if he does stop Jon's TDs? The guy with more KO losses than career knockdowns is going to make it a striking battle?

The people Jon has had trouble with are strikers first who can stuff TDs and make him stand with them, not wrestlers who get their own TDs stuffed and get their knees stomped and eyes poked all night.
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Despite Jon's impressive win vs Gane we didn't see enough of how he'll perform at HW to really assume he beats anyone and everyone. Blaydes has only lost to guys with a hell of a lot more punching power than Jones has and he has solid wrestling, just because Jones tore through Gane like nothing doesn't mean much for how a potential Blaydes fight would go.
 
The ufc are never going promote someone who openly said he doesn’t care if his fights are boring.

Blaydes screwed Blaydes
 
svmr_db said:
Despite Jon's impressive win vs Gane we didn't see enough of how he'll perform at HW to really assume he beats anyone and everyone. Blaydes has only lost to guys with a hell of a lot more punching power than Jones has and he has solid wrestling, just because Jones tore through Gane like nothing doesn't mean much for how a potential Blaydes fight would go.
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That's kind of the point. This isn't based on anything we've seen from Jones either historically or now, or a style he's had problems with ever, it's based on hoping that he suddenly sucks at what has always been his easiest style match up.

His vulnerabilities have been in the stand up, and Vitor nearly subbing him, and Blaydes has neither subs nor dangerous stand up.
 
mudrubble said:
Interesting. I consider that everyone has on and off days and phases of life when they're not doing their best, and I feel like we've all seen many fighters in this phase, including Bones. Conor, I just personally believe wasn't as good outside of 145 as he was in it. But Bones I believe to be truly well rounded and intelligent in that octagon. Unless he's bored, lol. I can see not buying it but I bought it. At full price.
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I think fighters do have off-days and poor camps or mental check-outs, absolutely. I could name more than a few examples. It's just that with Jones it always seems to be applied retroactively by his fanbase as an excuse for any performance where he looks remotely human regardless of what the guy himself said leading up to that fight. He can sound confident as ever going into a fight where everyone agrees the other dude shouldn't have much for him and say that he put in all the work, but then afterward it's "Oh Jon just wasn't hungry, didn't care, didn't train, not interested in the game". Like I said, it rings very hollow to me for whatever reason. It's why I'm convinced that if by some miracle someone was ever to dominantly beat Jones inside the Octagon and make a spectacle of it -- no matter how good that person's career had been or was afterward -- the narrative would forever be "Eh, Jones was done with MMA at that point".

Jon is absolutely very well-rounded and intelligent, though. He's the most dominant and accomplished fighter to ever fight inside the cage. No one should ever question that. I just don't think that's necessarily an impediment to occasionally having tough fights is all, nor do I think "Jon having a tough fight" should be inherently mutually inclusive with "Jon was just bored/didn't train/didn't care".

And yeah you were clear it was a fantasy discussion. I just need to see Jon trying his best, talking that "I'm fired up" talk and STILL getting tested to really know what his limits are. Everytime I've seen him fired up he's won convincingly so I have to bet on that being his pattern - that he might be able to beat all humans in that octagon if he's fired up and "on". Stipe fight will, hopefully, show us something. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm curious to find out!
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I get it. I'm equally curious to see how that fight plays out as well!
 
Blaydes got hit really bad in the Lewis fight. Besides that he's gone to a boring decision against Rozenstruik, beat Daukaus ( looked good but lol), won by injury against Aspinall. I want to see Jones against a HW wrestler too, but Blaydes has failed every big test and is sort of a mid fighter, B or C level. He isn't screwed, HW is the easiest division to get highly ranked.
 
Is he, though?

My last memory of him was getting brutally knocked out by a gatekeeper.
 
Safton said:
I think fighters do have off-days and poor camps or mental check-outs, absolutely. I could name more than a few examples. It's just that with Jones it always seems to be applied retroactively by his fanbase as an excuse for any performance where he looks remotely human regardless of what the guy himself said leading up to that fight. He can sound confident as ever going into a fight where everyone agrees the other dude shouldn't have much for him and say that he put in all the work, but then afterward it's "Oh Jon just wasn't hungry, didn't care, didn't train, not interested in the game". Like I said, it rings very hollow to me for whatever reason. It's why I'm convinced that if by some miracle someone was ever to dominantly beat Jones inside the Octagon and make a spectacle of it -- no matter how good that person's career had been or was afterward -- the narrative would forever be "Eh, Jones was done with MMA at that point".

Jon is absolutely very well-rounded and intelligent, though. He's the most dominant and accomplished fighter to ever fight inside the cage. No one should ever question that. I just don't think that's necessarily an impediment to occasionally having tough fights is all, nor do I think "Jon having a tough fight" should be inherently mutually inclusive with "Jon was just bored/didn't train/didn't care".



I get it. I'm equally curious to see how that fight plays out as well!
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Good points but I still feel like Jon wasn't as dialed in before the Gus fight or any of his post Cormier fights until now, when he was excited to be back.

I feel like early on he was fired up, then had a stretch where he was complacent. I think he trained very well for the second Cormier fight and for this Gane fight.

Again, I could be wrong. But, yeah, let's see what Stipe shows us.
 
mudrubble said:
Good points but I still feel like Jon wasn't as dialed in before the Gus fight or any of his post Cormier fights until now, when he was excited to be back.

I feel like early on he was fired up, then had a stretch where he was complacent. I think he trained very well for the second Cormier fight and for this Gane fight.

Again, I could be wrong. But, yeah, let's see what Stipe shows us.
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I just think Gus at that point in his career was an exceptionally difficult stylistic challenge compared to the old guard he had been dispatching up to then. Ditto Cormier. Am I saying Jones trained as hard as he could have or that that didn't play a role? No. But I think minimizing the tough spots he faced by always retroactively cherry-picking when and where he was motivated is kind of misguided. Like, what if by some miracle Stipe wins against him and knocks him out in non-competitive fashion? Would the narrative be that he gained the Heavyweight strap and then lost all motivation in the space of about four months?

I dunno. I don't profess to have all the answers or that the ones I do have are anything close to the right ones. I fully acknowledge that I could be off-kilter, it's just the way I see it in these discussions is all.
 
Don't think this is about protection. Stipe is a much bigger name and this is a much bigger fight. Jon beating the UFC heavyweight GOAT. That's a great promotion. Stipe will be 41 and probably about to retire. He will, of course, stay for a title shot vs the great Jon Jones. And this is a MUCH bigger scalp for Jones as well to add to his belt.
This fight just makes sense for everyone other than Blaydes.
 
Safton said:
I just think Gus at that point in his career was an exceptionally difficult stylistic challenge compared to the old guard he had been dispatching up to then. Ditto Cormier. Am I saying Jones trained as hard as he could have or that that didn't play a role? No. But I think minimizing the tough spots he faced by always retroactively cherry-picking when and where he was motivated is kind of misguided. Like, what if by some miracle Stipe wins against him and knocks him out in non-competitive fashion? Would the narrative be that he gained the Heavyweight strap and then lost all motivation in the space of about four months?

I dunno. I don't profess to have all the answers or that the ones I do have are anything close to the right ones. I fully acknowledge that I could be off-kilter, it's just the way I see it in these discussions is all.
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If I heard rumours that he was out partying again and not showing up for all training sessions, etc., again.... yes, I'd believe he lost because he lost focus again.

But I hear you and I'm not mad at it either. I just think that with Jon partying and losing focus has been a real and actual obstacle for him to overcome. Even more so than the men he had to fight.

But I could be wrong and maybe he trained just as hard in all cases and sold us stories, etc.. You could be totally correct that motivation wasn't the biggest part of it.
 
mudrubble said:
If I heard rumours that he was out partying again and not showing up for all training sessions, etc., again.... yes, I'd believe he lost because he lost focus again.

But I hear you and I'm not mad at it either. I just think that with Jon partying and losing focus has been a real and actual obstacle for him to overcome. Even more so than the men he had to fight.

But I could be wrong and maybe he trained just as hard in all cases and sold us stories, etc.. You could be totally correct that motivation wasn't the biggest part of it.
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Fair enough. I guess it would depend on what level of evidence one needs before they pursue that narrative is all.

I don't deny that Jon has had no shortage of his personal "demons" dragging down his career and likely affecting his performances inside the cage, my only point of contention is that I disagree with the notion that the harder fights can be attributed solely (or even primarily) to that.
 
Stipe is teh sidelined champ too. I'm not saying anyone else might not be worthy, but Jones has made a history of of taking out aging OG's.

His luck might run out against Stipe though.

Just saying
<Neil01>
 
Safton said:
Fair enough. I guess it would depend on what level of evidence one needs before they pursue that narrative is all.

I don't deny that Jon has had no shortage of his personal "demons" dragging down his career and likely affecting his performances inside the cage, my only point of contention is that I disagree with the notion that the harder fights can be attributed solely (or even primarily) to that.
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And you could be right! We'll never know I guess.
 
JKS said:
Does he deserve to fight for the title more than Sergei Pavlovich?
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That's a legitimate question which will be answered in April when they fight. All I'm saying is that the winner of Pavlovich/Blaydes should be fighting Jon Jones next, not 40 year old Stipe that hasn't fought in two years.
 
Blaydes v Pav will somehow be a snoozer which egg head will use as an excuse to make Jones v Stipe 2

Instead of eliminating 1 or 2 contenders they should have blaydes and pav lined up next for Jones regardless
 
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