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- Aug 12, 2002
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I've been too busy/preoccupied to do much more of anything than shitpoast of late but all I'd have said would boil down to Carla does have some chance to get her wrestling going and make things interesting, but Weili's strength would be a formidable obstacle to overcome. I think the fight itself pretty much went that way
I don't agree with @Mmmmmmma1234 stock h8r comment that Carla deserves no hespect and did nothing in that fight (and others saying stuff like 'lol destrucion as expected', plus the usual cavalcade of ppl who for some reason can't give Carla the slightest respect for anything - 'least skilled champ ever' (really, when Pena exists!) etc) but hey that's normal for some reason and people do whatever other do...
What I watched was an actually competitive first round; Carla landed more/better shots early (!), Weili landed some heavier blows later; Carla scored a TD, Weili scrambled on top and landed some good GnP; then Carla scrambled on top and also landed some good GnP; up to that point it could well have been a split round (probably with a lean towards Weili); then in the last min or so Weili scrambled on top again making it clearly her round; if it had been the other way round it would have easily been Carla's round. That's not 'one sided uncompetitive destruction'. It was clearly an uphill battle though given the strength disparity. Strength aside you also have to say it was a slick move Weili prepared that won the fight (again, sad that a lot of people's reaction to the finish was dunking on Carla for tapping 'early, to a one arm choke' (?? fake news, was tight AF with both arms) rather than being like 'wow that was a great technical finish'. It's also odd that no-one respects Carla for 'struggling' all these wins and clinging on to the top as an undersized grappler, only to be sometimes overpowered. You'd think that'd be worthy of respect, but groupthink too stronk, must hate.
I didn't see something that says this version of Weili will be 'more dominant', she looked kinda sluggish/got punched in the face quite a bit early, which will be her main test against the next challengers like Rose/Marina/Xiaonan/Lemos/Andrade, quite a different set of tests for her; tho hopefully they keep Rose away from the belt as long as Weili holds it unless she gets at least 2 wins in a row or something.
further re. one dimensional fighters and size, think of the top (popular) fighters of the last several years - Conor, Ronda, Khabib - all one dimensional - that's fine if you can make it work - Carla's striking isn't 'good' but it's 'good enough' in MMA; BJ (before Joanna) she was hanging fine/beating fighters like Rowdy Bec (bareknuckle boxing champ of the WORLD!), Penne (defeated RENA in SHOOTBOXING!) on the feet; AJ she was hanging fine/beating ppl like Moroz (Ukranian NATIONAL BOXING TEAM member!); scrub the Joanna fight from people's minds 'men in black' style and the extreme criticism of her striking in MMA (and much of the hate she's received in general since then) just completely disappears IMO.
Size is a huge deal. What would happen to Khabib if he had to fight someone 1.5-2 weight classes bigger than him who was also a champion kickboxer with fantastic movement, TDD, and getups (the situation Carla was in against Joanna)? He'd be in deep shit. There's a reason he cut so much weight he ended up in hospital sometimes. Likewise, Joanna's TDD made her untouchable at 115, but just fighting Shev (primarily a kickboxer) at 125 - suddenly not so much. Or Adesanya - noone was able to grapple him at his normal weight, but when he went up to fight Jan (a jack of all trades type fighter), he lost due to takedowns. Battling your way to the top as a midget wrestler is deserving of hugest respect IMO.
as for what Carla does next I too expect she'll take the opportunity to get knocked up, seems like the perfect time as a newlywed, age 36, and will have ticked off quite a list of life's goals at that point, that pretty much none of her rivals can match. That's what's called #winning at life and it is just that someone who did things the right way (i.e. not the loudmouth fast track, but on merit, and against the odds), even if 'net trash didn't appreciate it. (in a related note, it kinda bums me out to see Karolina happy at her 'rejuvinated' career; not because I hate to see her happy (surely not!) but because don't think that happiness will last more than ~12 months, if that - and then what?). She could always come back in ~2 years for a title run at atomweight (in dreamworld where the UFC implements that division - although with serious rumours of 145 finally being closed, maybe?) or to make a bit of extra $ with a few fights gatekeeping the top 10 before final retirement. No need to spend the next few years facing physical abominations like Lemos or Andrade instead.
sorry Pascual failed you (for the last time?), but to make up for that I choose Demopoulos as a much more worthy champion for you to feel pride in carrying your banner; nothing bad can ever come of throwing money at a stripper (especially if they accept vCash).
Get your shit together nipponlady, and open your wallet for Ham asian organized crime chaps!
