Jessamyn VS Raqeul- good, but overrated?

[Cooliox]

I don't know. Part of me felt that fight just didn't live up to what it was built to be.

It seems like Raqeul beat her ass thoroughly. I'm not sure why it went to a 3rd round, but it just got worse for poor Jessamyn who's face was so busted up I'm surprised if she'll ever look the same.

I think that Jessamyn has a lot of potential but she still looks really amateurish. Her clinch was terrible, and she threw a lot of air knees. She hasn't fully learnt how to use her range. Hell, even the replay showed her throwing a bunch of missed knees.
Props to her for her crazy chin though. She took some serious punishment from Raquel.

Raquel started a bit slow but got Jesaamyn's timing down soon enough. After that it was just brutal punishment.

Yea, it was goof enough a fight for excitement value, but the people in the house calling it the best women's fight ever? Comparing it to Bonnar-Griffin?

It wasn't close at all imo. I'll rewatch it later perhaps. But honestly it just looked like an amateur fighting a vet and got brutally beat up for it.
Either way, I think Jessica is going to have a walk in the park punching any of these girls, even with 1 bad arm.

Poor Jessamyn. That horrible beatdown
Still pretty

 

[BoxingBjj]

I don't know. Part of me felt that fight just didn't live up to what it was built to be.

It seems like Raqeul beat her ass thoroughly. I'm not sure why it went to a 3rd round, but it just got worse for poor Jessamyn who's face was so busted up I'm surprised if she'll ever look the same.

I think that Jessamyn has a lot of potential but she still looks really amateurish. Her clinch was terrible, and she threw a lot of air knees. She hasn't fully learnt how to use her range. Hell, even the replay showed her throwing a bunch of missed knees.
Props to her for her crazy chin though. She took some serious punishment from Raquel.

Raquel started a bit slow but got Jesaamyn's timing down soon enough. After that it was just brutal punishment.

Yea, it was goof enough a fight for excitement value, but the people in the house calling it the best women's fight ever? Comparing it to BONNAR-GRIFFIN?

It wasn't close at all imo. I'll rewatch it later perhaps. But honestly it just looked like an amateur fighting a vet and got brutally beat up for it.
Either way, I think Jessica is going to have a walk in the park punching any of these girls, even with 1 bad arm.

Poor Jessamyn. That horrible beatdown
Still pretty

So you calling Bonnar and Griffin Girls?

 

[Cooliox]

At least bi.

No no. it's called compare/contrast

 

[Superior]

Decent fight, nothing more.

 

[Ashenthorn]

It wasn't the greatest fight of all time, but of course neither was Bonnar/Griffin. I was particularly impressed with the conditioning and will of both fighters - especially in contrast to Baszler & Modefferi, both of whom didn't come in prepared for a 3 round war, gassed badly and/or gave up. For Pennington - it was by far the best performance of her career. It reminded me of a Sarah Kaufman-type performance. Tight, straight 1-2 boxing combinations. She'd take her opponent's best shot then counter with a straight punch or combo that jolted and jarred Duke, giving the impression that she won almost every exchange - like Kaufman did for 2 rounds of her fight with Alexis Davis (which really was one of the greatest women's fights ever). I though she won all 3 rounds too. She's UFC-ready now, and will probably be a decent mid-card plugger for years.

Duke, however, has tremendous potential and could go even further than that. She has the physical attributes, and had a good game plan (long jabs and long kicks to keep opponent at distance & clinched knees when it gets close). She was much better than the Duke that got waxed by Miriam Nakamoto (overturned to a NC). But, at this point, she simply doesn't hit hard enough to get the respect of a Pennington. Once she spends an extended period of time with a good striking coach, she's going to be very formidable. I have the feeling she's going make another great improvement leap by the TUF finale - assuming she gets to fight on that card.

 

[Furious George]

Technically, it really wasn't the greatest fight, but neither was Bonnar vs Griffin.

If you're looking to get somebody into Womens MMA this might be one of the fights for it just like Griffin/Bonnar did. I'm sure Critic or somebody can offer a similar but better fight from another promotion but some people really only care about the 3 letters "UFC".

Mega Megu vs Fraudo Gurgel would have been a good one if it wasn't for the shitty decision being completely off putting.

 

[The_Renaissance]

The exaggeration on the TUF forum for TUF 18 is ridiculous.
Im not following the season but while watching UFN 29, my twitter was being raped by comments about how Duke/Pennington was the best fight of all time, pretty much.

So, I just got round to watching it.

I saw a 'decent' fight between two rough-around-the-edges prospects. One 3-3 and the other 2-0-1.

I could see records like that on the prelims of KOTC for a start. The skills on display were no better either - in short, I saw a typical TUF highlight fight. One of the ones that you remember when the season ends for being a standout fight, but forget soon after things move on. Every season has 2-3 of them.

The difference of course, is this is the women and the UFC want you to believe that every women's fight is amazing.

The gullible fans swallow this, as they did with the flyweights. Remember when 125lbs arrived in the UFC? Every FOTN went to the flyweights, Dana and Rogan drummed it into us that if we didn't agree, we were clueless fans who didn't deserve to be watching, and a lot of people fell for it.

Now the women are here, flyweights have been thrown to one side and now the women are 'rocking it'.

Open your eyes, it's average MMA, you could see an equally good fight on CFA, RFA, ROC etc.

 

[Futureal]

The first round was extremely average but rounds 2 and 3 were really good. Good, but not great.

 

[Pulver-ize]

Technically, it really wasn't the greatest fight, but neither was Bonnar vs Griffin.

If you're looking to get somebody into Womens MMA this might be one of the fights for it just like Griffin/Bonnar did. I'm sure Critic or somebody can offer a similar but better fight from another promotion but some people really only care about the 3 letters "UFC".

Mega Megu vs Fraudo Gurgel would have been a good one if it wasn't for the shitty decision being completely off putting.

Bonnar vs Griffin was back and forth,, at the end I didnt know who would win both were a mess.. I was really shocked this fight went to the third.. After 2 it was clear who won..

 

[Lead]

They hyped the episode a lot and it worked. It was the first episode of this season I watched. I was pissed by the end too. I felt like I was robbed of an hour of sleep.

 

[Hotei]

Very cool fight, not even close to be the best or one of the best fights of all time.

 

[Joe Dwarf]

Skill level was not so high, entertainment-wise it was good. They both came to fight. I gave a slight edge to Duke on the first round but the next 2 rounds Pennington just kept getting stronger. Good heart on them both, especially Duke - every time she was covering up and I thought she might get finished she just came back, got her distance and tried again. If she could get power to those knees it would have been a different story.

 

[Torrid]

It for sure got put through the UFC hype machine.

It was an average, to slightly above average scrap. Raquel was complacent on the outside and gave away the first round there. She was eventually able to get her head movement down, slip the punches and land her own. Still, it was disappointing to never see her follow up. Not to mention the body was just begging to be punched but she head-hunted the whole fight.

 

[effedup]

What's all this talk about not knowing why it went to round 3? Isn't it usually what happens when the fighters split a round a piece?

And it was a good fight, you guys act like the fighters in the house should be as good as the elite of UFC or something

 

[number9dream]

Maybe saying it's the greatest womens fight ever is exaggerating things, but I think calling it "decent" is downplaying it almost equally as much.

At worst it was a good fight. To me, it fit my criteria for a great fight simply because I didn't (nor did I feel compelled to) look away once during the entire fight. And I find myself watching fights on 1 monitor and reading forums etc on the next even during fairly decent fights, so I think calling it 'great' is not really a misnomer.

Easily best fight of the season so far.

Also, as someone said, I don't know why people are expecting top of the food chain level fights from TUF, isn't it supposed to be about finding FUTURE top of the food chain talent?

All I know is that I hope both of them make it into the UFC, and that I would tune in to watch either of their fights again.

 

[eddymotto]

I watched about 3 WMMA fights before the UFC started showing them. so I have no idea where any of this ranked compared to WMMA matches in the past

IMO - it was a good fight between 2 inexperienced fighters. so lots of it was sloppy but it was riveting to watch

I don't know what all that means. in the long run, probably nothing. I am not a TUF junkie but I watch most seasons (albeit fast forwarding through a lot of the house stuff) and I tend to forget most of the fighters and most of the fights after the season ends. I don't think that this one will be any different for me

 

[BPA00]

I was very entertained so no complaints here.

 

[orangecuse]

The exaggeration on the TUF forum for TUF 18 is ridiculous.
Im not following the season but while watching UFN 29, my twitter was being raped by comments about how Duke/Pennington was the best fight of all time, pretty much.

So, I just got round to watching it.

I saw a 'decent' fight between two rough-around-the-edges prospects. One 3-3 and the other 2-0-1.

I could see records like that on the prelims of KOTC for a start. The skills on display were no better either - in short, I saw a typical TUF highlight fight. One of the ones that you remember when the season ends for being a standout fight, but forget soon after things move on. Every season has 2-3 of them.

The difference of course, is this is the women and the UFC want you to believe that every women's fight is amazing.

The gullible fans swallow this, as they did with the flyweights. Remember when 125lbs arrived in the UFC? Every FOTN went to the flyweights, Dana and Rogan drummed it into us that if we didn't agree, we were clueless fans who didn't deserve to be watching, and a lot of people fell for it.

Now the women are here, flyweights have been thrown to one side and now the women are 'rocking it'.

Open your eyes, it's average MMA, you could see an equally good fight on CFA, RFA, ROC etc.

I agree. Check out the commercials and hype for a week straight for each of the three. Each womens fight had over the top retarded let down hype.

Shayna-Pena's meh fight. "One of the most shocking fights in TUF history!!!"

Roxie-Jessica debacle "The most emotional fight in TUF history!!!"

And now this one. A solid scrap for sure. Nothing more.

 

[ben236]

I agree. Check out the commercials and hype for a week straight for each of the three. Each womens fight had over the top retarded let down hype.

Shayna-Pena's meh fight. "One of the most shocking fights in TUF history!!!"

Roxie-Jessica debacle "The most emotional fight in TUF history!!!"

And now this one. A solid scrap for sure. Nothing more.

Umm... Results wise, Baszler-Pena was definitely one of the most shocking fights in TUF history.

Roxy/Jessica is certainly up there for most emotional TUF fight.

And this fight, as delivered, was the best fight of the season.

The way they've been hyping those fights has actually been surprisingly on point. I don't know where you're getting this "over the top retarded let down hype" from.

 

[Irenaeus]

I never catch any commercials or previews beforehand, so I really didn't have any expectations either way. It was a legitimately good fight. One of the better TUF fights in recent memory. If this dissapointed you, I think you might have bought too much into some hype beforehand.