Matches to make after Emmett vs Murphy

[Safton]

I always wonder what is going on with Khizriev

He's pissed away pretty much all of his prime. He had a fair amount of hype coming into the UFC, smashed a can in Tiuliulin, though that fight made it pretty apparent that he was bloated/undersized at 185. Basically the Dagi Kelvin.

Announced his intentions to cut back down to 170, went radio silent forever, then emerged from hibernation with no mention of Welterweight in order to fight Muradov at 185. He immediately pokes Muradov in the eye so badly that the fight gets stopped and called off as an NC. That was over a year ago.

The dude is 34 years old now. I'm not expecting much, but it's pretty sad considering a lot of people had high hopes for him.

 

[NicholasJBasile]

He's pissed away pretty much all of his prime. He had a fair amount of hype coming into the UFC, smashed a can in Tiuliulin, though that fight made it pretty apparent that he was bloated/undersized at 185. Basically the Dagi Kelvin.

Announced his intentions to cut down to 170, went radio silent forever, then emerged from hibernation with no mention of Welterweight in order to fight Muradov at 185. He immediately pokes Muradov in the eye so badly that the fight gets stopped and called off as an NC. That was over a year ago.

The dude is 34 years old now. I'm not expecting much, but it's pretty sad considering a lot of people had high hopes for him.

Thanks for the update. The Tiuliulin fight was how I learned about him and then I was pretty excited to see him fight again. Against Muradov, I was pretty bummed out with how that went. I couldn't find any info on him when I looked so this is all good info. Another guy that kinda disappeared that I was high on was David Teymur. He lost to Oliveira and then I heard nothing of him lol

 

[Dave4TheHorde]

Murphy vs Evloev is good matchmaking for business purposes. Just to get one non-drawing snoozefest fighter out of the title picture, then find the worst possible stylistic matchup for the winner.

Have it on the undercard below something watchable.

 

[Ares Black]

Scoring criteria says takedowns with no offence don't score unless they lead to fight ending offence.

Legal blows that have immediate or cumulative impact with the potential to contribute towardsthe end of the match with the IMMEDIATE weighing in more heavily than the cumulative impact.Successful execution of takedowns, submission attempts, reversals and the achievement ofadvantageous positions that produce immediate or cumulative impact with the potential to contribute to the end of the match, with the IMMEDIATE weighing more heavily than thecumulative impact.” It shall be noted that a successful takedown is not merely a changing of position, but the establishment of an attack from the use of the takedown. Top and bottomposition fighters are assessed more on the impactful/effective result of their actions, more sothan their position. This criterion will be the deciding factor in a high majority of decisions whenscoring a round. The next two criteria must be treated as a backup and used ONLY whenEffective Striking/Grappling is 100% equal for the round.

You could argue the early takedowns were slams and are potentially offence. But Finney landed 4 sig strikes all fight and 19 total.Whilst going 8/17 for takedowns. http://ufcstats.com/fight-details/d1368ca941c1fefc

He didn't attempt any subs or fight ending offence the entirety of the fight.
He landed all 4 of his sig strikes for the fight in round 2. He landed 0 in round 1 and 3.
He had 17 total strikes all fight.

His opponent landed:
1: 6/15 sig/total
2:3/13 sig/total
3:14/65 sig/total

That 30-27 isn't that crazy. Only 1 fighter ever had a chance of finishing that fight and it wasn't Finney.
Finney didn't land a sig strike in the third whilst taking 65 and having his offence shut down. That's a 10-8 within the criteria.

Scoring either of the first two rounds for Valentin is a massive reach, and in no universe was the third a 10-8.

 

[Safton]

@Ares Black as the resident conductor of Finney's hype train (such as it is, I guess), who would you give him next?

 

[fortheo]

Pat Sabatini and Torrez Finney can both go to hell after their performances. Also we need Shara Bullet vs Adesanya, would be a great crossroads fight for both.

Sabatini wasn't bad in my opinion. I think people are being especially hard on him because Torrez sucked out any sort of patience any of us had for the night lol.

 

[Ares Black]

@Ares Black as the resident conductor of Finney's hype train (such as it is, I guess), who would you give him next?

Ateba Abega Gautier

Or, if we wanna get weird

Gerald Meerschaert

 

[Safton]

Pat Sabatini and Torrez Finney can both go to hell after their performances. Also we need Shara Bullet vs Adesanya, would be a great crossroads fight for both.

Sabatini bad in my opinion. I think people are being especially hard on him because Torrez sucked out any sort of patience any of us had for the night lol.

Yeah, Sabatini didn't stink up the place. He arguably got multiple 10-8 rounds and was actually active on top in spots hunting submissions and ground strikes, which is par for the course for him. He was also notably a 2-to-1 underdog fighting an incredibly dangerous finisher who was "supposed" to smoke him.

As for Bullet, wtf lol. Losing to a #15 Welterweight who moves up to MW on short notice to whoop your ass doesn't earn you a fight against a former champion and Top 5 Middleweight, even if said Middleweight is on a downward trajectory. Magomedov isn't even in the Top 15 anymore. He's far more likely to be fighting someone like Robocop or Eryk Anders next.

Ateba Abega Gautier

Or, if we wanna get weird

Gerald Meerschaert

I considered the same thing. Gautier looks incredibly dangerous and athletic, but his grappling and cardio are untested. Both prospects, 1-0 in the UFC. I typically like to keep those guys apart from one another, though I can't really claim my own pick of Khizriev is any better in that regard lol.

GM3 would be fun. I think Finney could handle him, but then again Gerald beat Deron Winn...

 

[maximus__]

Scoring either of the first two rounds for Valentin is a massive reach, and in no universe was the third a 10-8.

One judge did it and on review it's justifiable. Finney literally couldn't do anything in the 3rd round and survived by burying his head under his opponent's crutch so he couldn't be punched. Finney didn't land any sig strikes, had no offence from his takedowns and was effectively surviving to the end of that round. Sure he wasn't getting dropped all over the place, but the criteria specifically says that doesn't need to be the case. That single round was more dominant than anything Finney diod in the first 2. The criteria specifically says takedowns need offence that can lead to the fight finishing to score.

I love grappling, but Finney didn't deserve to win that fight. He got beaten in everything besides control time, the lowest criteria in MMA. Good one to look at and address how fights are judged.

 

[Ares Black]

One judge did it and on review it's justifiable.

That judge was wrong. Weeks is primarily a boxing referee and he knows fuck all about grappling.

Finney literally couldn't do anything in the 3rd round and survived by burying his head under his opponent's crutch so he couldn't be punched. Finney didn't land any sig strikes, had no offence from his takedowns and was effectively surviving to the end of that round. Sure he wasn't getting dropped all over the place, but the criteria specifically says that doesn't need to be the case. That single round was more dominant than anything Finney diod in the first 2. The criteria specifically says takedowns need offence that can lead to the fight finishing to score.

I scored the third for Valentin but it was in no way a 10-8 round.

I love grappling, but Finney didn't deserve to win that fight. He got beaten in everything besides control time, the lowest criteria in MMA.

He clearly won the first two rounds with his grappling IMO. You are free to disagree.

Good one to look at and address how fights are judged.

Fair enough. Under the current scoring criteria he won 29-28 with little controversy IMO.

 

[Ares Black]

I considered the same thing. Gautier looks incredibly dangerous and athletic, but his grappling and cardio are untested. Both prospects, 1-0 in the UFC. I typically like to keep those guys apart from one another, though I can't really claim my own pick of Khizriev is any better in that regard lol.

I typically like to keep prospects away from each other too, but Finney needs a hype boost bad, and I think he'd probably steamroll Gautier to a first round finish and Gautier is young enough to bounce back.

Both are green, but Finney has faced MUCH better competition and is currently one of the least hyped, least popular prospects in the UFC. If he starts smashing people like I know he can, he might get some momentum.

Also, Gautier is like 8 inches taller than Finney. The staredown alone would be hilarious.

GM3 would be fun. I think Finney could handle him, but then again Gerald beat Deron Winn...

It would be such a crazy style contrast, athleticism gap, and experience gap. I kinda love that matchup actually, even if it's pretty unrealistic.

 

[Safton]

I typically like to keep prospects away from each other too, but Finney needs a hype boost bad, and I think he'd probably steamroll Gautier to a first round finish and Gautier is young enough to bounce back.

Both are green, but Finney has faced MUCH better competition and is currently one of the least hyped, least popular prospects in the UFC. If he starts smashing people like I know he can, he might get some momentum.

That is actually why I like the idea of the Khizriev fight. While he doesn't have Gautier's physicality, he has the "aura" of being a 14-0 Dagestani Sambo guy with big wins on his record. There's always a segment of the fanbase who goes crazy over the idea of "D1 wrestler versus Russian Sambo dude" and if Finney managed to outwrestle him I think it would at least force people to take notice. Failing that, it's still a fight between solid undefeated grapplers at Middleweight. And unlike Gautier, Khizriev is nearing the end of his shelf life.

That having been said, I would absolutely watch him maul Gautier with interest too, lol.

It would be such a crazy style contrast, athleticism gap, and experience gap. I kinda love that matchup actually, even if it's pretty unrealistic.

I suspect it would end up looking a lot like what we just saw. I'm not sure it's physically possible to choke Finney and Meerschaert does all his work in opportunistic scrambles. He's not actually a particularly good wrestler or positional grappler. He doesn't have much of a guard game. Dudes like Jotko, RDR, and Hermansson all ran through him in his own wheelhouse. Even Stoltsfuz nearly did the same.

That being said, I love Gerald, he's a gamer. He builds into fights and if Finney were to slow in Rd 3 like he did against Valentin, well that's historically where Gerald's most dangerous so you never know I guess.

 

[maximus__]

That judge was wrong. Weeks is primarily a boxing referee and he knows fuck all about grappling.

I scored the third for Valentin but it was in no way a 10-8 round.

He clearly won the first two rounds with his grappling IMO. You are free to disagree.

Fair enough. Under the current scoring criteria he won 29-28 with little controversy IMO.

I am ok with the decision and see why it was scored how it was, don't get me wrong.

Finney did so little though I feel we nearly should have been seeing 10-10 rounds.

It was one of the few times I would have been ok with faster stand ups. At the end the only reason they weren't being separated was because Valentin was doing offence from the position Finney was in.

 

[taugrim]

Pat Sabatini and Torrez Finney can both go to hell after their performances.

There's always a risk with a high level BJJ fighter and high level wrestler of these kinds of performances.

Sabatini's control on the ground was superb. While it wasn't an exciting fight, it was pretty technical. He shut down a very dangerous opponent.

Finney's performance was very boring, but what else is he supposed to do when he is so short for the division? Stand and get picked apart? Valentin had some great TDD.

 

[TITS]

Lerone Murphy vs Movsar Evloev
Josh Emmett vs Jean Silva (with win)
Pat Sabatini vs Elkins/Erosa winner
Joanderson Brito vs Christian Rodriguez
Chang Ho Lee vs Garrett Armfield
Cortavious Romious CUT
Brad Tavares vs Shara Magomedov
Gerald Meerschaert vs Rodolfo Vieira
Ode Osbourne vs Hernandez/Park winner
Luis Gurule vs Jose Ochoa
Torrez Finney vs Sedriques Dumas (with loss)
Robert Valentin vs Djorden Santos
Dione Barboza vs Fatima Kline
Diana Belbita CUT
Rhys McKee vs Billy Ray Goff
Daniel Frunza vs Pete Rodriguez
Loma Lookboonmee vs Pinheiro/Pennington winner
Istela Nunes CUT
Victor Henry vs Davey Grant
Pedro Falcao vs Angel Pacheco
Martin Buday vs Kennedy Kzechukwu
Uran Satybaldiev vs Diyar Nurgozhay
Talita Alencar vs Fatima Kline
Vanessa Demopoulos vs Bruna Brasil

How fucking dare you suggest Cortavious Romious be cut while you're matching up nobodies, jobbers with worse records, and absolute bums.

 

[The_Renaissance]

The Winners
Lerone Murphy vs. Youssef Zalal
Pat Sabatini vs. Chepe Mariscal
Lee Chang-Ho vs. Davey Grant
Ode Osbourne vs. Lon'er Kavanaugh
Torrez Finney vs. Jacob Malkoun
Rhys McKee vs. Punahele Soriano
Victor Henry vs. Ricky Simon
Martin Buday vs. Kennedy Nzechukwu


The Losers
Josh Emmett vs. Arnold Allen
Joanderson Brito vs. Nate Landwehr
Luis Gurule vs. Felipe Dos Santos
Robert Valentin vs. Jose Medina
Daniel Frunza vs. Uros Medic
Pedro Falcao vs. Cody Gibson
Uran Satybaldiev vs. Marcin Prachnio


The Cull
Cortavius Romious

 

[Koala]

The Winners
Lerone Murphy vs. Youssef Zalal

Will not watch

The Losers
Josh Emmett vs. Arnold Allen
Joanderson Brito vs. Nate Landwehr

Will watch