If Paddy vs Gaethje is the 319 co-main, Ilia's 1st LW defense has to be Arman... right?

[jeskola]

Arman doesn't deserve a title shot. His only wins over the top 15 right now are Dariush and Oliveira, and he lost to Gamrot. He is ranked too high.

 

[Orochimaru 大蛇丸]

Evidence, please.

Besides, the extent of backlash depends on how the fight goes, and the fight would rate to end with Paddy's performance causing everyone to reminisce about Travis Wolford.

Have you been on social media or heard any MMA media? From what I saw people took the face off as a fight announcement and were either receptive or at least okay with it. I definitely didn’t see any backlash. Everyone already knew going in that Arman likely needed another win after pulling out.

 

[nostradumbass]

Paddy fights Ilia

Arman fights Gaethje

easy

Not that easy for them to explain why the #1 contender is fighting #4 while they give a title shot to the #10 guy.

 

[Marko Atanasovik]

Paddy is going to face the same scenario as Buckley.

 

[JBJ was here]

Have you been on social media or heard any MMA media? From what I saw people took the face off as a fight announcement and were either receptive or at least okay with it. I definitely didn’t see any backlash. Everyone already knew going in that Arman likely needed another win after pulling out.

Some entirely non-random sample of perhaps hundreds or maybe thousands of potentially real people chatting on social media were receptive according to unstated nebulous criteria towards a perceived fight announcement that pretty clearly wasn't an actual fight announcement? Wow. Sounds exactly like the last dozen unsuccessful UFC attempts to build a star since the implosion of the Conor McGregor project. And what does any of that have to actually do with Paddy Pimblett being a star fighter with a future that could survive an almost certainly horribly embarrassing loss to Ilia Topuria?

Topuria is at least three levels up in competition from the best Paddy has faced before--fallen gatekeepers are behind gatekeepers, contenders, and Topuria-level fighters at the very least. If the UFC does that to Paddy that amounts to giving up on him in the process of hoping for one money fight or, at the very best, hoping he can survive a particularly low probability hail mary. You don't do that to someone you expect to have a valuable future.

 

[Rubios]

Poatan fighting Khalil (he was... 7 or 8 back then) for fis 3rd defense and being Alex -4 fights in a year, 2 short notices, the whole Chama thing...- was seen as a travesty.

Once the hype settles, a 1st defense vs the #10th guy is a hard pill to swallow.

 

[irimiasz]

Poatan fighting Khalil (he was... 7 or 8 back then) for fis 3rd defense and being Alex -4 fights in a year, 2 short notices, the whole Chama thing...- was seen as a travesty.

Once the hype settles, a 1st defense vs the #10th guy is a hard pill to swallow.

The biggest problem with Khalil titleshot was that there was actually a clear contender at no. 1 who clearly deserved the fight but was refused the opportunity.

Situation in LW is not as clear - Arman probably needs to rebound after the injury/weight miss and is inactive, and Gaethje was just KTFOd by Max into oblvion. Neither of these fighters have the contender status that Ank had when Pereira was fighting Rountree.

Personally I'd like it to be Arman but I get why the UFC would be hesitant to give hi TS after he f'ed up last time. But if not him, than I'd prefer Paddy way more than Gaethje, who already lost multiple title fights and is on a one fight winning streak after being faceplanted by a guy who Ilia KOd.

 

[rollthedice]

Evidence, please.

Besides, the extent of backlash depends on how the fight goes, and the fight would rate to end with Paddy's performance causing everyone to reminisce about Travis Wolford.

I want to see Paddy VS Illia more than Arman VS Illia. Secondly, Paddy seriously can't do worse than Volk or Oliveira so I doubt the backlash would be that bad. This is the same UFC that has cucked Mosvar out of a title shot, given debuting Japanese fella a title shot, gave Bisping Dan Henderson as his first defense, allowed Jon to cuck the entire HW division for 2 years, gave sonnen a title shot at LHW coming off a loss at MW, gave Nick Diaz a shot after a 1 year suspension and coming off a loss before that, gave Gustafson a title shot after being KOed, gave Romero a title shot against Izzy coming off a 2 fight skid.

Question is, do you really understand the machine that is the UFC and what their interests are?

 

[rollthedice]

The biggest problem with Khalil titleshot was that there was actually a clear contender at no. 1 who clearly deserved the fight but was refused the opportunity.

Situation in LW is not as clear - Arman probably needs to rebound after the injury/weight miss and is inactive, and Gaethje was just KTFOd by Max into oblvion. Neither of these fighters have the contender status that Ank had when Pereira was fighting Rountree.

Personally I'd like it to be Arman but I get why the UFC would be hesitant to give hi TS after he f'ed up last time. But if not him, than I'd prefer Paddy way more than Gaethje, who already lost multiple title fights and is on a one fight winning streak after being faceplanted by a guy who Ilia KOd.

I made another thread, but with the state of things in LW, I think if Dustin won impressively and decided not to retire, he could make a viable argument for a title shot and I would think he would be more worthy than JG and Arman unless either of those two get active. JG talking about retirement didn't bode well with Mr White, as Arman goofed his title shot but made some amends making weight as a back up fighter, I do think Armen needs to fight again because missing weight and pulling out 24 hours before your shot should be punished. Ithink him vs JG makes sense for #1 contender.

Fights to make imo:
Paddy VS Illia title
JG VS Arman #1 contender

And we have

Max VS Dustin real soon - with an impressive win from Dustin, he could easily leap frog everyone else and be next in line for the winner of Paddy VS Illia. JG and Arman aren't doing themselves any favours being inactive

 

[Kompromat]

The thing is that the only way that the fight makes even a little sense in that fashion is if the UFC is confident that Paddy can't beat anyone better than Chandler, because a fight against Topuria rates to end Paddy's run as a financially useful asset for the UFC. If Paddy were a milking cow, feeding him to Topuria would be shooting the cow.

Losing to someone like Topuria in a title fight now will not hurt Paddy's hype that much. Not as much as it hurt Till by losing to Woodley for example, and that loss didn't age well. Paddy will still be milkable for a while, might even rebounce. If he loses to Gaethje/Arman now, or let alone someone like Hooker/Gamrot, that would be way worse for his consequent milkability. That's why Topuria fight is relatively risk-free and UFC understands that.

 

[Doctor Grudge]

Arman doesn't deserve a title shot. His only wins over the top 15 right now are Dariush and Oliveira, and he lost to Gamrot. He is ranked too high.

His loss to Gamrot was a long time ago and almost everyone thought he beat Gamrot.

 

[mmacool]

Paddy said, he's too fat to make weight for mid August.

 

[Rubios]

I just want the best guy to fight the next best guy, and that's Ilia - Arman.
A no brainer, for me.

IF Paddy was... top 5, OK, there's a case here. He's #10.

 

[b00tysweat]

Not that easy for them to explain why the #1 contender is fighting #4 while they give a title shot to the #10 guy.

explain to whom?

it's cage fighting, don't church it up

 

[blunttruth]

Not that easy for them to explain why the #1 contender is fighting #4 while they give a title shot to the #10 guy.

I don't man, it seems they could easily explain it by reminding that it is beyond any reasonable doubt that you can get the most entertaining fights by making fights based upon the styles and entertainment values the individual fighters have, rather than by the often ridiculed ranking numbers the individual fighters have. Most folks want to see the styles and stories fight instead of the numbers. I am at the point where I would often rather see some 5 win, no loss, unranked UFC fighter given a Title shot, rather than an older "rank squatter" go at it for a multiple time.

 

[Tweak896]

UFC can run winner fight Topuria in December. Who knows? I feel like if they choose Arman he could train hard as fuck for a title shot, then get injured again. I feel like every LW needs a win right now to get a titleshot Justin/Paddy/Arman. If Topuria is fresh and ready to go I think soonest they do it is in September if he forces UFC. Probably have to go with Arman in that case.

 

[Jeffery09]

Arman vs Gaetje as title eliminator as Paddy can´t make weight so close to the fight I guess

 

[spinitch]

Who does Topuria want? He could help sway. UFC should want to get Topuria back on stage with 3 showcase highlights in a row.

 

[Orochimaru 大蛇丸]

Some entirely non-random sample of perhaps hundreds or maybe thousands of potentially real people chatting on social media were receptive according to unstated nebulous criteria towards a perceived fight announcement that pretty clearly wasn't an actual fight announcement? Wow. Sounds exactly like the last dozen unsuccessful UFC attempts to build a star since the implosion of the Conor McGregor project. And what does any of that have to actually do with Paddy Pimblett being a star fighter with a future that could survive an almost certainly horribly embarrassing loss to Ilia Topuria?

Topuria is at least three levels up in competition from the best Paddy has faced before--fallen gatekeepers are behind gatekeepers, contenders, and Topuria-level fighters at the very least. If the UFC does that to Paddy that amounts to giving up on him in the process of hoping for one money fight or, at the very best, hoping he can survive a particularly low probability hail mary. You don't do that to someone you expect to have a valuable future.

You are autistic

 

[cburm]

Illia just faught he won't be on the card.. likely hel fight the winner next year or fight the end of the year.