The REAL TRUTH from a Poatan Fan

[BowserJr]

Yes I called him GOATan... Not cuz I actually thought he was a GOAT but because its simply 1 letter change and it made his haters go wild. He is probably the fighter I enjoy watching the most in the current era. Not because he only stands and BANGS but because he fights budo. He typically seems to fight with a kill or be killed ethos while having sound technique (not just brawling). He has that intensity. He doesn't come in with a bunch of trash, egotistical, WWE wannabe vibe. He lets his performances do the talking rather than depending on his mouth to get fans and good fights (Jiri is similar)

Anyways, here is the truth.
He was brought in as a foil to Izzy cuz MW was weak as he'll (even weaker now btw).
Similar to Contlrad He was given favorable matchups on a path to the title (I wish they did in the past with other established fighters who came to UFC).
He was given a quick path to 2 title fights.
He also was way more active than any champ in years (again true fighter ethos). This helped him curry favor with Dana co.
He was always going to lose to someone with decent wrestling and just enough striking acumen to not get instant death.

Yes he probably got too cocky and decided to focus on social media, traveling and the Rockstar life more than ever.
When he walked out to the fight he did look off
He didn't "have the look in his eye, Joe"

But regardless of that he will likely loses again. If Ank wall n stall him early on, even if Alex comes in his best form he will still lose. It's MMA Ank is well rounded and has good enough wrestling (not even top tier like guys from the golden era)

That is the truth

 

[Hostile1]

Don't remember Cain vs JDS? With power like that you don't know who is going to win.

 

[CasualBot]

Dear Diary,

 

[RoseHDCovington]

Yes I called him GOATan... Not cuz I actually thought he was a GOAT but because its simply 1 letter change and it made his haters go wild. He is probably the fighter I enjoy watching the most in the current era. Not because he only stands and BANGS but because he fights budo. He typically seems to fight with a kill or be killed ethos while having sound technique (not just brawling). He has that intensity. He doesn't come in with a bunch of trash, egotistical, WWE wannabe vibe. He lets his performances do the talking rather than depending on his mouth to get fans and good fights (Jiri is similar)

Anyways, here is the truth.
He was brought in as a foil to Izzy cuz MW was weak as he'll (even weaker now btw).
Similar to Contlrad He was given favorable matchups on a path to the title (I wish they did in the past with other established fighters who came to UFC).
He was given a quick path to 2 title fights.
He also was way more active than any champ in years (again true fighter ethos). This helped him curry favor with Dana co.
He was always going to lose to someone with decent wrestling and just enough striking acumen to not get instant death.

Yes he probably got too cocky and decided to focus on social media, traveling and the Rockstar life more than ever.
When he walked out to the fight he did look off
He didn't "have the look in his eye, Joe"

But regardless of that he will likely loses again. If Ank wall n stall him early on, even if Alex comes in his best form he will still lose. It's MMA Ank is well rounded and has good enough wrestling (not even top tier like guys from the golden era)

That is the truth

You just described Mike Perry

 

[orca]

Don't remember Cain vs JDS? With power like that you don't know who is going to win.

jds actualy is a real mma fighter and an experienced one

hes confident throwing bombs

 

[Hymen Crusher]

Fuck there are some fairweather Alex fans. He is legit what is wrong with you people

 

[clackers]

Now I have seen it all.

Alex is a legit great. You can call it however you like but winning two belts and beating the guys he beat who were former champs or current champs barely happens in the UFC.

The Adesanya storyline sold and regardless of how you see it, no one was able to go out there and ko Adesanya the way Alex did so he didn’t just win the belt he put Adesanya away. No one else was able to do this in the UFC up to that point.

We can sit here and name Champ after Champ who never went up and won a second belt because it’s just not that easy to do.

He beat whoever was out in front of him

 

[Tweak896]

I'm a huge Pereira fan and still am. Ank beat him to the punch and out clinched him. But I think it's a huge win that Pereira kept it on the feet vs his performance against Jan. It should of made people want him to go to HW more after that fight, not less.

Ankalaev should atleast be a better wrestler than Almeida/Blaydes/Aspinall if they were to have a grappling match only. Pereira passed the TDD test.

The issue is Ankalaev's speed of striking is what caused Pereira issues standing. At HW he won't have the issue of speed. But Ankalaev derailed the aura of anyone that stands with Pereira is going out before 5 rounds is over isn't there anymore.

Still I think Alex should repeat what he did at LHW, take someone with grappling at HW like Blaydes, KO him for a title shot. And hope his lucky stars align and he KO's Aspinall.

 

[Nimrod]

Yes I called him GOATan... Not cuz I actually thought he was a GOAT but because its simply 1 letter change and it made his haters go wild. He is probably the fighter I enjoy watching the most in the current era. Not because he only stands and BANGS but because he fights budo. He typically seems to fight with a kill or be killed ethos while having sound technique (not just brawling). He has that intensity. He doesn't come in with a bunch of trash, egotistical, WWE wannabe vibe. He lets his performances do the talking rather than depending on his mouth to get fans and good fights (Jiri is similar)

Anyways, here is the truth.
He was brought in as a foil to Izzy cuz MW was weak as he'll (even weaker now btw).
Similar to Contlrad He was given favorable matchups on a path to the title (I wish they did in the past with other established fighters who came to UFC).
He was given a quick path to 2 title fights.
He also was way more active than any champ in years (again true fighter ethos). This helped him curry favor with Dana co.
He was always going to lose to someone with decent wrestling and just enough striking acumen to not get instant death.

Yes he probably got too cocky and decided to focus on social media, traveling and the Rockstar life more than ever.
When he walked out to the fight he did look off
He didn't "have the look in his eye, Joe"

But regardless of that he will likely loses again. If Ank wall n stall him early on, even if Alex comes in his best form he will still lose. It's MMA Ank is well rounded and has good enough wrestling (not even top tier like guys from the golden era)

That is the truth

You just described Bob Sapp

 

[BowserJr]

Don't remember Cain vs JDS? With power like that you don't know who is going to win.

Meh, JDS had great TDD. Cain was an elite mma wrestler. Ank is not so it evens out somewhat but JDS soundly got beaten 2x by Cain

 

[BowserJr]

I'm a huge Pereira fan and still am. Ank beat him to the punch and out clinched him. But I think it's a huge win that Pereira kept it on the feet vs his performance against Jan. It should of made people want him to go to HW more after that fight, not less.

Ankalaev should atleast be a better wrestler than Almeida/Blaydes/Aspinall if they were to have a grappling match only. Pereira passed the TDD test.

The issue is Ankalaev's speed of striking is what caused Pereira issues standing. At HW he won't have the issue of speed. But Ankalaev derailed the aura of anyone that stands with Pereira is going out before 5 rounds is over isn't there anymore.

Still I think Alex should repeat what he did at LHW, take someone with grappling at HW like Blaydes, KO him for a title shot. And hope his lucky stars align and he KO's Aspinall.

Ank would lose to Blaydes, Almeida and Tom in grappling. They're so much bigger and Ank is not an elite wrestler

 

[BowserJr]

Fuck there are some fairweather Alex fans. He is legit what is wrong with you people

He's legit and I'm still a fan. I said from the beginning he'd lose to Ank. Being realistic doesn't mean I don't like him as a fighter anymore

 

[don't ask]

. He doesn't come in with a bunch of trash, egotistical, WWE wannabe vibe.

We talking about the guy wearing face paint, shooting arrows, using black magic and having the cameras go into the cage to capture the staring that gave Joe Rogan chills?

 

[jeskola]

... and Focused Poatan was born, joining Focused BJ, Sea level Cain, Chuck with that look in his eye, TRT Vitor and the rest.

 

[Reach Finesse]

He did look different walking out..i noticed that too

 

[BowserJr]

We talking about the guy wearing face paint, shooting arrows, using black magic and having the cameras go into the cage to capture the staring that gave Joe Rogan chills?

How exactly is that WWE at all?

The face paint isn't a shtick it's his native culture. The arrow thing is a preflight pump no different than dudes doing high jumps, getting slapped in the face or yelling any other random shit right before the fight. Stare downs are prevalent in all combat sports... are you even serious with that question?

 

[Safton]

Ankalaev should atleast be a better wrestler than Almeida/Blaydes/Aspinall if they were to have a grappling match only. Pereira passed the TDD test.

I'm not convinced about this bit. Ankalaev's base is grappling, yes, but in MMA he's always been a primary striker with a bit of wrestling in his back pocket. Almeida is categorically a superior grappler than him on both a technical and physical basis, I have no doubt about that. I suspect the same is true of Aspinall, but we haven't seen much from Tom in that department since his knee injury.

Blaydes is probably hit-or-miss since his grappling has regressed so much.

 

[don't ask]

How exactly is that WWE at all?

The face paint isn't a shtick it's his native culture. The arrow thing is a preflight pump no different than dudes doing high jumps, getting slapped in the face or yelling any other random shit right before the fight.

We're talking about Tatanka, right?

Stare downs are prevalent in all combat sports... are you even serious with that question?

What other time in UFC's history did the cameras follow both opponents into the ring to capture them staring at each other while the commentators talked about how amazing and chilling it was?

 

[Tweak896]

Ank would lose to Blaydes, Almeida and Tom in grappling. They're so much bigger and Ank is not an elite wrestler

It's a good hypothetical though. Size matters but Almeida is about the same size atleast, I would say Almeida is the best wrestler out of the 3.

I'm not convinced about this bit. Ankalaev's base is grappling, yes, but in MMA he's always been a primary striker with a bit of wrestling in his back pocket. Almeida is categorically a superior grappler than him on both a technical and physical basis, I have no doubt about that. I suspect the same is true of Aspinall, but we haven't seen much from Tom in that department since his knee injury.

Blaydes is probably hit-or-miss since his grappling has regressed so much.

I get it, it's MMA, but he also outgrappled Jan who is pretty tough to out wrestle. He's not Khabib level, but he seems to be the best wrestler at LHW. HW has Almeida and Jones, with Jones seemingly retired unless Aspinall fight comes, it's pretty much just Almeida. I wonder if they had Ank vs Blaydes/Almeida/Aspinall wrestling match like Khamzat/Hermansson who would be the favorite in odds.

 

[jeff7b9]

He lost one reasonably competitive fight to a high level guy.

It's not the end of the world.