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WMMA Discussion #28
- Thread starter PurpleStorm
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Even the most powerful curse in mma can't stop the Zhang train.
Also POTN 50K Zhang love to see it.
But also feels dirty the UFCheep only did 4 bonuses. Erin could have got one too and many men for a huge ppv is crap.
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Think that was my 1st time seeing Erin fight, pretty impressive.
Esparza/Zhang was fun while it lasted. Good to see Carla have some moments in the fight, on the feet and during scrambles. Not sure who is next, Andrade or Lemos for a title shot.
Esparza/Zhang was fun while it lasted. Good to see Carla have some moments in the fight, on the feet and during scrambles. Not sure who is next, Andrade or Lemos for a title shot.
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@Nintendomark you should watch Erin v. Miranda Maverick, she absolutely SONS maverick for the full 15min 
I'd go with lemos as the next title challenger (unless Rose wants to come back and play for funsies)
I'd go with lemos as the next title challenger (unless Rose wants to come back and play for funsies)
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Weili is too damn strong, too damn big. That was like watching Coenen vs Modafferi 2, not only is the bigger fighter very good, they're also much stronger. I was hoping Carla would weather the early storm and rally on during the later rounds, but Weili was simply too strong for her.
With each title fight, Joanna's reign becomes more and more impressive. None of these women can keep the belt for more than two fights. It's gonna take an enormous effort for any of them to hang onto that belt (either that, or Valentina dropping down to beat them all).
With each title fight, Joanna's reign becomes more and more impressive. None of these women can keep the belt for more than two fights. It's gonna take an enormous effort for any of them to hang onto that belt (either that, or Valentina dropping down to beat them all).
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A great night of fights, even though it was heartbreaking to see Edgar go out like that.
I knew things would go downhill for Carla when she started working that hard for the TD in the 2nd, always loved her toughness and grit when it came to grappling but it left her so open with a bigger, stronger woman on top of her.
I knew things would go downhill for Carla when she started working that hard for the TD in the 2nd, always loved her toughness and grit when it came to grappling but it left her so open with a bigger, stronger woman on top of her.
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Thought they'd give one to Blanchfield for sure. Wasn't the fight set up give her a visibility boost by taking out the newest WMMA hypetrain? She delivers big time, and then the UFC has to cheap out on her. Bad marketing all the way around, IMO.
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I really want UFC to open atomweight division. Not sure if Carla would want to drop that low at her age but she has always been small for strawweight. Either that or she concentrates on her strength and conditioning to add more muscle. Atomweight could have some great Thai strikers if they recruit.
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Great night of fights.
Weili Zhang vs. Carla Esparza. And new! Zhang got the RNC finish and showed she can grapple. As a Weili fan it felt like many scary moments as Carla certainly was contesting with all she had. And that is a lot. Impressed with Carla’s performance. Some of those scrambles were quite close. I also love Carla’s traditional poker face before the fights. What she has accomplished, especially at her smaller size, it’s truly impressive. You could tell that it was not an easy walk in the park for Weili. Glad the commentators especially Cormier were saying Carla deserves much respect. Weili remains exciting to watch and I’m glad NYC appreciates her skills and charisma.
Erin Blanchfield vs. Molly McCann. Total domination by Erin from start to submission finish. Just 23 years old and she’s slowly but surely getting these impressive victories. Enjoyed her in Invicta and now in seeing her progress on the bigger stage. She wants someone in the top ten next. Should get it and I’ll be watching. Cool seeing McCann lift Erin up at the end of the fight and congratulate her big time. Class acts, both of them.
Karolina Kowalkiewicz vs. Silvana Gómez Juárez. Hooray, Karolina wins her second fight in a row. Great seeing her happy again in mma. The move to Florida and ATT (which was at Joanna J’s suggestion) has renewed her career. She always has cool walkout music. In the past Iggy pop The Passenger and for the last two fights AC/DC TNT. Rock on Karolina.
Weili Zhang vs. Carla Esparza. And new! Zhang got the RNC finish and showed she can grapple. As a Weili fan it felt like many scary moments as Carla certainly was contesting with all she had. And that is a lot. Impressed with Carla’s performance. Some of those scrambles were quite close. I also love Carla’s traditional poker face before the fights. What she has accomplished, especially at her smaller size, it’s truly impressive. You could tell that it was not an easy walk in the park for Weili. Glad the commentators especially Cormier were saying Carla deserves much respect. Weili remains exciting to watch and I’m glad NYC appreciates her skills and charisma.
Erin Blanchfield vs. Molly McCann. Total domination by Erin from start to submission finish. Just 23 years old and she’s slowly but surely getting these impressive victories. Enjoyed her in Invicta and now in seeing her progress on the bigger stage. She wants someone in the top ten next. Should get it and I’ll be watching. Cool seeing McCann lift Erin up at the end of the fight and congratulate her big time. Class acts, both of them.
Karolina Kowalkiewicz vs. Silvana Gómez Juárez. Hooray, Karolina wins her second fight in a row. Great seeing her happy again in mma. The move to Florida and ATT (which was at Joanna J’s suggestion) has renewed her career. She always has cool walkout music. In the past Iggy pop The Passenger and for the last two fights AC/DC TNT. Rock on Karolina.
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Well that was one hell of a night of fights!
I'm still no closer to figuring out where Blanchfield stands, saw some good indications of improvements & maturity but it's hard to tell with how badly Meatball potatoe'd the fight. Molly is usually one of the better punchers in the division but it looks like the hype & pressure got to her as she went to pieces after the first few exchanges. Half a minute in and she's head down winging sloppy arm punches with her feet square, and then she throws a sloppy lead right hand that handed an easy takedown to Erin. And from there it was a wrap.
Karolina surprised me with her willingness to go forward even if she was eating punches, seems like more of the old KK was back in this fight. Still needed a bit of a luck to win the fight though, the takedown & control off the caught kick was huge as was the aggression late in the 3rd. KK still ate a lot of punches but she was at least moving with most of them so she wasn't taking the full impact, and that's probably what saved her from getting knocked silly like Silvana's last couple opponents. Karolina's grappling & control was surprisingly good too, but I guess we sometimes forget the Rose fight back in the day where she clinch abused Namajunas and had her grounded for almost half the 3rd round.
Carla vs. Weili went about how it should've gone. The only question I had was how good Weili's defensive wrestling is, and while it's not Joanna level it was still plenty good enough to shut down Carla. Weili took a page out of the Joanna playbook and went to work with the jab and low kicks, then mixed in the other strikes when the targets opened up. She gave Carla no respect and was fine with eating a few shots as long as she got to land much heavier strikes of her own. Same with the ground game, she went straight to the attack even if it gave Carla the chance to wiggle around and reverse position, and when Carla got on top from the over-aggression she wasn't able to blanket her or do real damage. End of the 1st round and you could tell Carla was done, she had the same shell shocked look on her face that she did in the Joanna fight. Good thing Weili went for subs, or it would've gotten really ugly & bloody for Carla.
Also, how good is Tecia Torres? She's fought every single UFC SW champion without getting finished or even getting knocked down.
I'm still no closer to figuring out where Blanchfield stands, saw some good indications of improvements & maturity but it's hard to tell with how badly Meatball potatoe'd the fight. Molly is usually one of the better punchers in the division but it looks like the hype & pressure got to her as she went to pieces after the first few exchanges. Half a minute in and she's head down winging sloppy arm punches with her feet square, and then she throws a sloppy lead right hand that handed an easy takedown to Erin. And from there it was a wrap.
Karolina surprised me with her willingness to go forward even if she was eating punches, seems like more of the old KK was back in this fight. Still needed a bit of a luck to win the fight though, the takedown & control off the caught kick was huge as was the aggression late in the 3rd. KK still ate a lot of punches but she was at least moving with most of them so she wasn't taking the full impact, and that's probably what saved her from getting knocked silly like Silvana's last couple opponents. Karolina's grappling & control was surprisingly good too, but I guess we sometimes forget the Rose fight back in the day where she clinch abused Namajunas and had her grounded for almost half the 3rd round.
Carla vs. Weili went about how it should've gone. The only question I had was how good Weili's defensive wrestling is, and while it's not Joanna level it was still plenty good enough to shut down Carla. Weili took a page out of the Joanna playbook and went to work with the jab and low kicks, then mixed in the other strikes when the targets opened up. She gave Carla no respect and was fine with eating a few shots as long as she got to land much heavier strikes of her own. Same with the ground game, she went straight to the attack even if it gave Carla the chance to wiggle around and reverse position, and when Carla got on top from the over-aggression she wasn't able to blanket her or do real damage. End of the 1st round and you could tell Carla was done, she had the same shell shocked look on her face that she did in the Joanna fight. Good thing Weili went for subs, or it would've gotten really ugly & bloody for Carla.
Also, how good is Tecia Torres? She's fought every single UFC SW champion without getting finished or even getting knocked down.
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Thoughts on last night, erin delivered the easy win I expected with meatball (I'm still shocked the UFC and her team wanted this matchup she could be KOing sw all the time). Even stranger post fight media "dana what did you think of Blanchfield's amazing performance?" Dana "bad night for molly for sure." Anyways I'm glad erin got this showcase and more people are getting on the train hopefully Lee signs up for next. I'd be really happy to see erin finish KGB lee in brutal fashion.
Edit: I respect molly tooķ this horrible matchup, I don't see her doubling down and excepting The Maverick's callout now tho, I wouldn'tbe surprised if she finds a way to fight Juarez next.
KK and Juarez fought a close one. Looked like Juarez won 2nd and 3rd then the commissioner got in and changed 2 scores and kk wins ... conspiracy?
It was nice to see Zhang do what Rose should have and give carla no respect. Zhang pushed her to the cage landed her strikes, chewed up her lead leg, carla shot her takedown no big deal she rolls with it, on the ground Zhang had the better ground and pound, closer submission attempts, and the round ends with carla being saved by the bell. Not sure what so many people are applauding in carla here, survival of a round, not being 10-8ed, landing a td and an insignificant amount of control time? Second round more of the same only this time Zhang sub attempt finds success while Carla shoots her desperate shot.
Edit: I respect molly tooķ this horrible matchup, I don't see her doubling down and excepting The Maverick's callout now tho, I wouldn'tbe surprised if she finds a way to fight Juarez next.
KK and Juarez fought a close one. Looked like Juarez won 2nd and 3rd then the commissioner got in and changed 2 scores and kk wins ... conspiracy?
It was nice to see Zhang do what Rose should have and give carla no respect. Zhang pushed her to the cage landed her strikes, chewed up her lead leg, carla shot her takedown no big deal she rolls with it, on the ground Zhang had the better ground and pound, closer submission attempts, and the round ends with carla being saved by the bell. Not sure what so many people are applauding in carla here, survival of a round, not being 10-8ed, landing a td and an insignificant amount of control time? Second round more of the same only this time Zhang sub attempt finds success while Carla shoots her desperate shot.
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Cool break down of Weili subbing Carla
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BT Sport uploaded the Meatball fight to youtube, maybe just available in UK? So much Molly and Paddy Omelette hate in the comments. I see people thinking the match was made to give Erin some shine, but I disagree. I think the UFC actually thought Molly would win, delusional. We know Dana loves boxers, maybe why Gillian has never got a bonus.
Missed @Xuh in the build up to the title fight, maybe he crossed the pond to attend the fight? Wonder if Carla will retire now, impressive career for an undersized straw.
I was another who changed their pick regarding Karolina, just decided you needed to give experience more respect.
Regarding the card mixup, someone must be from Arizona, reminiscent of the AES v Reneau scorecards from way back.
Missed @Xuh in the build up to the title fight, maybe he crossed the pond to attend the fight? Wonder if Carla will retire now, impressive career for an undersized straw.
I was another who changed their pick regarding Karolina, just decided you needed to give experience more respect.
Regarding the card mixup, someone must be from Arizona, reminiscent of the AES v Reneau scorecards from way back.
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Say what you will about Dana but Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard— the UFC MATCHMAKERS—- are not idiots. They know exactly what they are doing when they make these matchups.
There is no way they Molly had a chance. They were feeding Molly to the hometown super prospect. Come on this was Erin’s second time on an MSG card not a coincidence. They are trying to build her up as a local hero so 3-5 years from now she’ll be fan favorite in NYC when she’s the FLW champ
This shit right here is chess not checkers
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While I agree the matchmakers aren’t idiots, it’s clear the goal was to build Molly and it backfired. They’ve been bringing her along with the Paddy hype and they overmatched her.
Listen to the Dana post fight interview when he’s asked about the fight and he says it it’s unfortunate Molly lost and doesn’t even bother really mentioning Blanchfield at all.
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You know I might accept that all the shine the UFC were giving to Molly - the emotional letter to herself, the history of her friendship with Paddy etc - was all an elaborate psyop to boost Erin ....... but shouldn't they have laid out a couple of pointers to the actual object of all this elaborate planning? You know stuff like the fact that her house was thirteen miles from the Garden or her interesting ethnic background, something for the fans to run with when their cunning plan came to fruition and which would help create a local fan favorite.
Anyway, if you're correct we should see the UFC transferring some of that shine to Blanchfield.
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makes you wonder how many times this has happened before - Carla v. Alexa in Mexico City comes to mind immediately
oooof that's rather telling
imma play devil's advocate here for a sec: I don't think Molly v. Erin was a squash match setup at all.
- while Erin has a serious pedigree in bjj, her striking is not up to the same level and she definitely catches a lot of hits clean on the chin (see: JJ Aldrich fight) which could prove dangerous when coming up against heavy hitters like Vivi Araujo and Jessica Andrade. If Erin could work on her distance management or pocket punching game that would improve her chances.
- Molly's bjj defense isn't actually that bad - if you go back and rewatch her fight w. taila Santos, Molly does a very respectable job of preventing a Santos from finishing her on the ground. my only gripe would be that Molly was already too far into taila's guard and that her attempts to escape only served to drain her gas tank. I do love Molly's fearless striking and i hope she focuses on punishing takedown attempts more, instead of trying to escape from the mouth of a boa constrictor
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