Jiri looked OK, still has no chance of beating Poatan

[ChuFye]

Poatan is pushing 40. But it doesn't matter cause he's no beating Ankalaev

 

[SpurNani]

Yea i was watching the fight thinking neither guy has improved neither have a snowballs chance of beating Alex

 

[rjmbrd]

So long as the UFC is paying ~15% of revenue to fighters, you are not going to see suitably young, suitably talented athletes that size fight for 12k live on PPV to get brain damage. The division is embarrassingly thin and has HALF the roster depth of 155lbs.

Hill and Jiri are not well rounded fighters. I like these guys personally, but so far as professional athletics go, its pretty embarrassing. These guys would get MURDERED in the lower weight divisions.

Poatan showed up as a legitimately world class striker. He just needed to learn good-not-great counter wrestling to comfortably become world champion at 205lbs. These guys are not going to challenge him until he ages out.

 

[BowserJr]

Early stoppage too.

I wanna see Jiri get at least one more clean win before challenging for a title

Not early. Hill was gonna lose anyways. Jiri still not ready for GOATan.

Jan should get the next crack at Poatan regardless of Poatan v Ank outcome

 

[CatchtheseHands]

Jiri vs. Jan next

Jan is fighting Ulberg soon. I'm guessing the winner of that gets Jiri.

 

[HOLA]

Jiri is fun as hell to watch. Easily one of my favorite fighters to watch. Poatan is a bad stylistic matchup if Jiri keeps it stays standing, unfortunately.

 

[HHJ]

He must have spent a lot of time on sparring to improve so much on his defensive movements

 

[HHJ]

He just has to be himself and not be tentative like he was in the second fight.

The problem in the second fight was Poatan had him figured out, he knew how to cut off his charge.

Jiri knew he would get knocked out by that, so he got stuck, and since his offense is his defense, him just standing there stuck and not being able to fight like he wanted to, left him a sitting duck.


At least here, he had some evasive moves when he is not charging, so he can at least try to counter, or inch his way inside.

 

[Ibm]

Poatan is pushing 40. But it doesn't matter cause he's no beating Ankalaev

He just started fighting though, it makes a difference.

 

[HHJ]

Yeah Jiri could fight Alex 10 times and he would lose all 10..

He got knocked out twice in that 2nd fight so he's basically already 0-3

Nah

the second fight was short notice and much different than the first, and now it's Jiri's turn to make the adjustments

 

[HHJ]

He just started fighting though, it makes a difference.

????

he's been fighting professionally since 2013

 

[WoozyFailGuy]

Poatan is pushing 40. But it doesn't matter cause he's no beating Ankalaev

He's going to blast that ugly, patchy ass beard into the bleachers and you will be one of the people saying Poatan "still hasn't been tested by a true grappler."

 

[Ibm]

????

he's been fighting professionally since 2013

I mean MMA in the UFC

 

[HHJ]

I mean MMA in the UFC

All his fights even in mma are basically kickboxing fights anyway.

It does help his longevity, but really, the guy close to 60 combined fights

 

[chardog]

Calling that an early stoppage is wild.

it could have went longer, two former champs, and hill was hurt plenty in the fight only to return fire. he put up a great fight

 

[WoozyFailGuy]

All his fights even in mma are basically kickboxing fights anyway.

It does help his longevity, but really, the guy close to 60 combined fights

All fights across all disciplines count for mileage. Yes, even car jiu-jitsu.

 

[SamuraiBro]

Once pereira leaves the division, Jiri will be champ again and beats Ankalaev too

 

[Tweak896]

I respect Jiri's warrior spirit, but even if he caught Pereira it's just an Izzy situation where it's a moral victory. Would put LHW division in rematch hell. Rather see Pereira try a HW shot after Ankalaev.

 

[moreorless87]

I respect Jiri's warrior spirit, but even if he caught Pereira it's just an Izzy situation where it's a moral victory. Would put LHW division in rematch hell. Rather see Pereira try a HW shot after Ankalaev.

I do suspect if he beats Ank without controversy we may see him looking to HW, unless the UFC sign Nemkov(who himself last fought at HW) theres not really anything else for him at LHW.

 

[Tweak896]

I do suspect if he beats Ank without controversy we may see him looking to HW, unless the UFC sign Nemkov(who himself last fought at HW) theres not really anything else for him at LHW.

There's guys like Krylov or Ulberg, but yeah those guys have to win a couple more to get there. Nemkov is a good pick but wonder if he can get back to LHW, he's looked pretty big at HW.

Besides HW, probably guys like DDP or Khamzat from MW would be fun fights.