Finally the UFC sign Tom Niinimaki, fights Rani Yahya TUF 18 finale
- Thread starter MolesyMMA
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Its about time the UFC picked Tom up. The UFC have been snatching up new Russian & Swedish fighters like crazy recently. Theyre def trying to make a strong push into those markets. Those countries can thank Khabib & Gustaff for that
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This is what I expect too.
Shit, the awesome signings keep coming, that's 4 decent prospects signed up in the same day,not to mention Jotko, Santos, Akhmedov recently. Glad there are more reps from all over the world, rather than just North America, Brazil and the UK.
Terribly hard debut for Niinimaki though, Yahya UD I reckon.
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Tom really needs to get some better people to roll with for this fight. He needs to move his camp into abroad for sure, and because of this, I'm glad he's stated before that it's not a problem for him if it comes to that.
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Sounds identical as to how I imagine it.
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Personally, I am happy for Tom. At 32 years old and 11 years of MMA experience and a few NHB fights, he probably doesn't have that many years to work on his career.
That means go big or go home, and the UFC sees this too. Certainly a winnable fight for him too.
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rani is gonna have to go on a bout a 30 win streak to get a title shot
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Nice to see the UFC going on a signing spree. Yahya is a rough fight though.
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The reality is the first time Yahyah gets any opponent in the top 20, he'll get smoked something awful. This at least buys him a nice little winning streak before they feed him to someone they actually care about.
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true
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Tom is still working with the Authentic Sports Management according to their website (http://www.authenticsportsmgmt.com/clients/profile/Stoneface) so I hope he trains at least the last few weeks before the fight at Blackzilians.
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about time they signed Alexander Shlemenko
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I swore I read an article that he moved down to FLA or spent a bunch of time there training with Blackzillians. I think Glenn Robinson big time MMA manager/owner of Blackzillians is his manager or somethign like that.
Still take Rani here regardless.
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He went to train with Blackzilians for a while, I saw a picture of him and Jake Shields as well.
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He did, but up until today, he's spent a total amount of maybe 1,5 months there? 2 months tops, and that was a long time ago aswell.
I talked to him about Blackzilians at the weigh-ins for Cage 18, and he said that it was an interesting experience and that the things he picked up on the most were modern training methods, not so much new or better technique.
I couldn't help but to feel that, for him, it was just a casual visit to see how they do things abroad, not a trip to improve and revolutionalize himself as a fighter. To beat Yahya, a different level of dedication is required.
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Every time I think about hard debus, reminds me of Lucio Linhares
I feel bad for him
2 fights. Okami and Palhares... Got cut after those losses.
