No Mercy

[CroCopsLHK]

To rip off TTH its true that so many of these people that dare to be great get cursed. Woodly, Usman, Pantoja, Merab

What a crazy ass night

Here's Yan an all time great BW. He has his title run and a dubious pair of matches with Aljo. The former he looks indestructible. He falls off the title picture and Merab also shuts him out. But defending 44 takedowns was an important detail

I for sure wasnt paying attention to him. Not a fan of beating Marcus Mcghee for a title shot. Merab has all the glow. 4th title defense. What an incredible war. What a way to close out ESPN ppvs and all the strangeness prior.

Petr brought a second prime. Of all people I greatly overlooked him. What a damn performance!!!

 

[Pequeño Corey]

Yan needs to defend a title for once before I put him in the ATG conversation. He hasn't surpassed Aljo or Barao, let alone TJ, Dom, or Merab.

 

[jeff7b9]

I had a fairly in depth discussion about the main event (prior to the card) with @TheMMAnalyst

The one point we both were very interested in.... and got our answer

Would a 4th fight, 4th weight cut, short turnaround... would that sabotage Merabs most important weapon?


Not to take anything away from Yan, he fought brilliant, but I think we got our answer.

Merab was not able to out pace Yan last night or out work him.


@TheMMAnalyst you were pretty spot on with your breakdown sir.

Hope you cashed that bet

 

[CroCopsLHK]

I had a fairly in depth discussion about the main event (prior to the card) with @TheMMAnalyst

The one point we both were very interested in.... and got our answer

Would a 4th fight, 4th weight cut, short turnaround... would that sabotage Merabs most important weapon?


Not to take anything away from Yan, he fought brilliant, but I think we got our answer.

Merab was not able to out pace Yan last night or out work him.


@TheMMAnalyst you were pretty spot on with your breakdown sir.

Hope you cashed that bet

I was thinking of saying the fight was a mistake for Merab. He was trying to defend 4x in a year. Unfortunately all fights are circumstantial. What we have is what the fighters allow to happen and PPV is concrete

 

[RockyLockridge]

I had a fairly in depth discussion about the main event (prior to the card) with @TheMMAnalyst

The one point we both were very interested in.... and got our answer

Would a 4th fight, 4th weight cut, short turnaround... would that sabotage Merabs most important weapon?


Not to take anything away from Yan, he fought brilliant, but I think we got our answer.

Merab was not able to out pace Yan last night or out work him.


@TheMMAnalyst you were pretty spot on with your breakdown sir.

Hope you cashed that bet

I was there too! we both agreed if there was a time Merab would slip, it would be now.

 

[jeff7b9]

I was thinking of saying the fight was a mistake for Merab. He was trying to defend 4x in a year. Unfortunately all fights are circumstantial. What we have is what the fighters allow to happen and PPV is concrete

He tried to push himself to do something great and came up a little short.

If he would have pulled it off today would be a celebration of a record breaking 4th defense in a calendar year. 2-0 over Petr Yan. Undeniable BW goat, etc. "Lapping the dvision" etc.

Petr Yan had other plans. Good for him.

 

[TempleoftheDog]

The activity may have played a part in the loss. But it can’t be used as an excuse. Yan fought a great fight, and deserves full credit for the win. But activity hurt Burns, and Andrade a cpl/few years ago. Fighting often at the highest levels carries risks.

Back to the drawing board for Merab. Age is very relevant with him. As in he’s running out of time. But he should take a few months to relax, and enjoy the fruits of his labours. But he’ll probably be back in the gym as soon as he’s medically cleared to train with contact.

Congratulations to Yan. He fought a great fight, and is full value for the win.

 

[don't ask]

Yan was incredible, but I think Merab took Yan too lightly. The way he's been striking and showboating in his last few matches, I suspect Merab stopped being careful a long time ago and he's just extremely lucky that Umar broke his hand and O'Malley is a turd. (I'm not saying Umar would have beaten him, I'm saying Umar's broken hand prevented him from learning last night's lesson.)

Last night, Merab was confronted by the reality that he's not a superhuman and needs to prep as though every opponent might beat him.

 

[CroCopsLHK]

The activity may have played a part in the loss. But it can’t be used as an excuse. Yan fought a great fight, and deserves full credit for the win. But activity hurt Burns, and Andrade a cpl/few years ago. Fighting often at the highest levels carries risks.

Back to the drawing board for Merab. Age is very relevant with him. As in he’s running out of time. But he should take a few months to relax, and enjoy the fruits of his labours. But he’ll probably be back in the gym as soon as he’s medically cleared to train with contact.

Congratulations to Yan. He fought a great fight, and is full value for the win.

I agree that defending, cutting, 4x a year is dubious. But I saw a great Merab. That was FOTY candidate. I saw the best version of bith of them

 

[Marko Polo]

Yan is just one of those guys where you feel like you’re watching greatness. The closest thing to Mighty Mouse we’ve seen

 

[jeff7b9]

Yan is just one of those guys where you feel like you’re watching greatness. The closest thing to Mighty Mouse we’ve seen

I was very much expecting Petr Yan to "be the guy" for a decent run on top of the game in the post Cejudo BW landscape.

I'm still genuinely curious how things may have played out had he not gone full retard in the first Aljo fight.

Aljo fought pretty fucking weak/shot/old/injured guys

I'm pretty confident Yan beats Old Henry & One Armed Dillasnake... now we have seen that a healthy Yan can beat Merab (though we only technically know he can beat a merab on his 4th fight of the year on 60 day turnaround... but still)


Does changing just that one moment of tarding completely rewrite BW history and Petr Yan would have run the show and defended for the last 4 years?

 

[TheMMAnalyst]

I had a fairly in depth discussion about the main event (prior to the card) with @TheMMAnalyst

The one point we both were very interested in.... and got our answer

Would a 4th fight, 4th weight cut, short turnaround... would that sabotage Merabs most important weapon?


Not to take anything away from Yan, he fought brilliant, but I think we got our answer.

Merab was not able to out pace Yan last night or out work him.


@TheMMAnalyst you were pretty spot on with your breakdown sir.

Hope you cashed that bet

Appreciate the kind words sir.

There were a lot of signs that Merab was a little too comfortable and confident being champ as well.

I don't think it was Merab looking that different physically - I think the size of the cage gave Yan way more room to avoid the pressure and use his footwork and he started the fight with the right ideas (pressure early and look to land a hard shot to change the complexion of the fight).

He rocked Merab's whole shit with a punch that could've broken his nose in the first round and from that point on it was game on. As I said earlier, cardio doesn't mean your body doesn't react poorly to incredible damage, and Yan really broke him down on all levels starting early and gradually building over the course of the fight. Perhaps Merab lost a little something in terms of output, but I think it was the technical adjustments that affected his abilities far more so.

Also brilliant little adjustments like elbowing the forearms when Merab is holding the waist-cinch and time-stalling was genius. He basically took very opportunity to punish Merab when on on clinch breaks or when he got the initiative and went to the legs and body with full power shots when the moments presented themselves. Merab thought he could fight the exact same fight and get the exact same outcome, but with those adjustments the takedown threat got nullified much easier leading to Merab gassing himself instead of gassing Yan from defending.

And John Wood in Merab's corner lying to his face after the third round telling him he won all three rounds...embarasing.

 

[TheMMAnalyst]

Does changing just that one moment of tarding completely rewrite BW history and Petr Yan would have run the show and defended for the last 4 years?

It's not improbable to think so.

 

[Marko Polo]

I was very much expecting Petr Yan to "be the guy" for a decent run on top of the game in the post Cejudo BW landscape.

I'm still genuinely curious how things may have played out had he not gone full retard in the first Aljo fight.

Aljo fought pretty fucking weak/shot/old/injured guys

I'm pretty confident Yan beats Old Henry & One Armed Dillasnake... now we have seen that a healthy Yan can beat Merab (though we only technically know he can beat a merab on his 4th fight of the year on 60 day turnaround... but still)


Does changing just that one moment of tarding completely rewrite BW history and Petr Yan would have run the show and defended for the last 4 years?

This is exactly what I thought too. Petr should have a real legacy built right now, but he only has himself to blame. There were moments in the Merab 2 fight where he showed some questionable fight I.Q, but in that moment when Merab is getting beat up and wilting, the last thing he wants to do is be defensively wrestling, so I see why Petr choose to shoot in. He was giving Merab a dog fight the way Merab normally fights.

With that said I was thinking about what he did to Aljo, and I was just hoping he didn’t lose his head again and shoot in when he didn’t need to or something. But he fought perfectly

 

[don't ask]

And John Wood in Merab's corner lying to his face after the third round telling him he won all three rounds...embarasing.

This is some of the worst cornering I've seen in a long time. I was shocked.

 

[methrogenn]

I don't understand why people are saying the weight cuts affected Merab, Merab fought exactly like he always fights. He shot 30 takedowns & failed most of them just like he did in the first fight, his pressure was still the same, he tried to showboat like he always does.

Yan was just incredible & did more damage & stuffed most takedowns. Umar would have beaten Merab too if he didn't break his hand.

 

[jeff7b9]

Appreciate the kind words sir.

There were a lot of signs that Merab was a little too comfortable and confident being champ as well.

I don't think it was Merab looking that different physically - I think the size of the cage gave Yan way more room to avoid the pressure and use his footwork and he started the fight with the right ideas (pressure early and look to land a hard shot to change the complexion of the fight).

He rocked Merab's whole shit with a punch that could've broken his nose in the first round and from that point on it was game on. As I said earlier, cardio doesn't mean your body doesn't react poorly to incredible damage, and Yan really broke him down on all levels starting early and gradually building over the course of the fight. Perhaps Merab lost a little something in terms of output, but I think it was the technical adjustments that affected his abilities far more so.

Also brilliant little adjustments like elbowing the forearms when Merab is holding the waist-cinch and time-stalling was genius. He basically took very opportunity to punish Merab when on on clinch breaks or when he got the initiative and went to the legs and body with full power shots when the moments presented themselves. Merab thought he could fight the exact same fight and get the exact same outcome, but with those adjustments the takedown threat got nullified much easier leading to Merab gassing himself instead of gassing Yan from defending.

And John Wood in Merab's corner lying to his face after the third round telling him he won all three rounds...embarasing.

I gotta know...

Did you cash that bet?

I believe it was 4-1 odds or pretty close to that.

I don't gamble so living vicariously is as close as I will get to that rush.

Did you quadruple some money last night?

 

[TheMMAnalyst]

I gotta know...

Did you cash that bet?

I believe it was 4-1 odds or pretty close to that.

I don't gamble so living vicariously is as close as I will get to that rush.

Did you quadruple some money last night?

Only a small bet just above 3:1, I don’t gamble big unless I’m in Vegas sometimes.

My gut wanted to do underdog parlay on Van + Yan but I’ve gotten fucked by so many parlays I avoided the lure. Now that would’ve paid off at like 10:1.

 

[jeff7b9]

Only a small bet just above 3:1, I don’t gamble big unless I’m in Vegas sometimes.

My gut wanted to do underdog parlay on Van + Yan but I’ve gotten fucked by so many parlays I avoided the lure. Now that would’ve paid off at like 10:1.

Awesome. Congrats.

Your breakdown was fucking SPOT ON and I rather enjoyed discussing the fight this week.


Cage size is a key factor that I think most fans don't give sufficient acknowledgment to. Yan did a great job of avoiding being trapped and even when they were against the cage Yan had the answers