MVP got a gift matchup and he still lost

[blaseblase]

And Brady is young with one loss vs the number one contender and he's a gatekeeper?

If you're getting KO'd by Belal Muhammad I can't imagine you're ever going to fight for a title. Gatekeeper isn't really an insult. It's a step below title contender.

 

[Mohawk Banditó]

There are different tiers of fighting backwards.

"I'm at 5, so I should only fight people 4 and up" can be pretty silly. Sure, you get more of an argument if you're on a streak, but due to timing issues, prior bookings, and injuries and stuff, you might have to fight 6, 7, or 8.

"I just beat the #8 ranked guy, so my next opponent should be 7 or above." Much more reasonable. However, although it is rare, it is an occasional thing for fighters to not always have their wins be in a numerical order in the ranks. This is especially true the higher you go, where the selection becomes much less and tops of divisions just get busy.

"The guy I beat fell to #10 after I beat him. This means I should not fight anyone 11 or below, as that is a literal step backwards in every single facet." Inarguable facts. And yet, not only did MVP get this kind of opportunity, but there was a bunch of backlash against Garry for even pointing out how dumb of an opportunity it was.

Not sure why anyone thinks MVP should have been fasttracked or was destined for greater or anything. This isn't like Chandler coming to the UFC after being a 3 time Bellator champ in Bellator's most hot division. This was zero time champ MVP, whose most notable career moment was rolling a pokeball at a dead body. Now sure, you can be excited that MVP killed him, but let's be honest, that shambling zombie was in the state of undeath before that fight started.

He got one of the most inconsistent and "ball-playing" fighters the UFC has that managed to have a ranking for his UFC debut, and then they picked the highest ranked and least aggressive striker they could to try and fast track him after that, but as it turns out, MVP is a nearly 40 year old fighter who still has ZERO level in one half of MMA. Shit was farcical.

 

[legcramp]

Gotta agree with the OP, MVP goes outwrestled by an inferior striker lol

 

[Mohawk Banditó]

It's always funny how people try to make the argument that beating a popular guy like MVP was going to help Garry. Not only does that almost never happen, it certainly doesn't happen with how minimally popular MVP is. People overrate his skills second only to how much they way overrate his popularity. He doesn't have a strong amount of followers, he's not a household name in any way.

Michael Venom Page got to 20-1 in Bellator, only losing to the champ Lima in a pretty rare way, but later avenging that loss (questionably) amongst a 6 fight win streak, and the rumormill is already swirling at that time about going to the UFC. It's surely the most well-known he's been in his entire career. Then he got beat. And since the guy that beat him must surely have become a megastar for doing so, I'm sure anyone reading this could pick who it was off the top of their head without looking up records from this list of Bellator fighters at the time

Yaroslav Amosov
Andrey Koreshkov
Jason Jackson
Logan Storley
Kyle Crutchmer

Yup, beating MVP definitely made that person much more popular.

I dont wanna see no more karate vs karate fights.


Just let MVP get taken down by anybody training wrestling for a week and be done with him.

He fought two strikers already, how much more do they need to coddle him?

MVP should just go straight to Karate Combat.

 

[carlosevenos]

sometimes I question MVP's hunger over his career. He was happy to fight can's in bellator for years, rather than pushing to get to fight the best in the UFC. In his interviews, he never comes across as wanting to do what it takes to be the best and be champ. It's almost as if he can take or leave it, and it doesn't mean much to him. If you listen to Garry speak, he's got that hunger and drive, that MVP never had. That's probably why his takedown defence never improved. Even though he was better on the feet, he still doesn't throw much.

It's frustrating as I've been a big fan of his over the years, and it's such a waste of talent as could have achieved so much more if he had that drive to be the best and worked a lot on his weaknesses, rather than focusing on ring entrances and putting down people who try to wrestle him.

 

[The_Renaissance]

It was a gift, he looked okay though. Garry fought well, as much as I hate the guy.