Good MMA Weekend

[Eff Pandas]

Lawler vs Cerrone got pushed back to the end of the month of of Cerrone's illness, but still a nice MMA weekend.

Justin Gaethje (ex WSOF champ) makes his UFC debut vs Michael Johnson + the TUF 25 finale on Friday.

Saturday is the big UFC International fight week PPV with:

Nunes vs Shevchenko II - should be a good one with 2 extra rounds this time...if they are needed cuz Nunes is a killa in those first 7 or 8 minutes

Romero vs Bobby Knuckles - idk whats gonna happen in this f#cking fight, but I'm ready for anything & will have my eyes glued to the screen cuz while I expect a lot of nothing for periods of this fight both these guys got snake like reflexes, with Tyson-like fight ending ability that will likely end this one with a replay needed just to fully grasp wtf just happened

Then we got Overeem vs Werdum & Anthony Pettis vs Jim Miller lower on the card which are likely to be fun fights. Travis Browne vs that insanely high level HW submission artist Oliynyk is kinda a interesting fight too.

And mucho fanboy rooting interest for me this weekend as two guys from my neck of the woods in Michigan are fighting. Drakkar Klose is going for his 2nd UFC W vs another prospect & Cody Stamann is making his UFC debut on Saturday. Michigan Mfers!!!

Who ya like? Which fights are you most looking forward to?

[Anthony342]

At least you have top guys from where you're from. Here in Long Island, we ended up with a lot of prospects that didn't really go anywhere. I know Matt Serra won the WW belt, but then lost it in his first title defense, so he's kind of more known as the first or one of the first Americans to get a BJJ black belt with one of the Gracies, I think? And he has his school in Levittown, even though he's from East Meadow. If you watch some of the old UFC PPVs from the early 2000s though, it's mostly a lot of guys with heavy New York accents that won a few and lost a few, but didn't go far. Or I should say some guys that got to the top, but didn't stay there long, like Chris Weidman as well.

[Eff Pandas]

At least you have top guys from where you're from. Here in Long Island, we ended up with a lot of prospects that didn't really go anywhere. I know Matt Serra won the WW belt, but then lost it in his first title defense, so he's kind of more known as the first or one of the first Americans to get a BJJ black belt with one of the Gracies, I think? And he has his school in Levittown, even though he's from East Meadow. If you watch some of the old UFC PPVs from the early 2000s though, it's mostly a lot of guys with heavy New York accents that won a few and lost a few, but didn't go far. Or I should say some guys that got to the top, but didn't stay there long, like Chris Weidman as well.

Well in fairness you've had guys like Serra & Weidman, as you've brought up, who've touched titles. And saying Weidman & Serra merely touched the title is severely downplaying what they did. Weidman gots two W's over a MMA legend & was among the top P4P guys for most of his time as champion. And Serra has one of the great upsets in MMA history which was also a win over a MMA legend.

Michigan has been slower coming to MMA I think. I haven't been to Michigan in awhile, but I know when I lived there we were a heavily boxing friendly state with one of the better amateur programs in the country. Now it seems MMA has made more of a impact as a combat sport there & we just now are getting some solid prospects on the rise with the guys mentioned & Kevin Lee + Mike Perry (although I think he mostly resides in FL now, but he's too entertaining not to claim as a MI guy). We don't even got a flash in the pan UFC champ yet lol.

[Anthony342]

Isn't Michigan known for good college wrestlers too?

And good point about at least touching titles. It's just when I think of MMA guys from Long Island, it's usually guys like Pete Sell or Phil Baroni that pop into my head a lot more often. Maybe Luke Cummo from a while back.

[Eff Pandas]

Isn't Michigan known for good college wrestlers too?

I lived in such a wrestling hotbed idk if I can say thats correct about Michigan as a whole or if it was just my specific area tbh. My English teacher was a state champion + had two sons that made major runs in the state championships every year (one of them won as a sop****re or junior iirc, but then never made it close again).

But despite wrestling being big I never recall hearing of a MMA gym anywhere near where I was from or anywhere in MI. I don't even recall a minor league outfit putting on fights every making much impact til more recently.

And I'd be hard pressed to name a MI UFC fighter at all til the last several years. Matter of fact that Cody kid who's making his UFC debut this weekend has been hyped as the best MMA guy to come outta Michigan for years now (edit: although now that I think of it a lil more I recall Dan Severn being from Michigan lol...in my defense that seems like a couple eras ago in MMA history).

[TX_BOXNG]

Nice, been watching tuf didnt know the finale was on Friday, all finale fights wil be good, idk if ill buy the ppv only interested in Romero vs Whittaker

[Eff Pandas]

[Eff Pandas]

Go place your bets my friends. EA Sports went 2-0 last time.

[TX_BOXNG]

Go place your bets my friends. EA Sports went 2-0 last time.

Whittaker is underrated on EA, thats actually who i choose on EA online before i even knew who he was

I see Whittaker being to agile for Romero, but there both real good, i see it as a toss up

[Eff Pandas]

Whittaker is underrated on EA, thats actually who i choose on EA online before i even knew who he was

I see Whittaker being to agile for Romero, but there both real good, i see it as a toss up

I don't know a damn thing about the EA Sports fighter levels, but I really don't know about Whittaker being too agile for Romero. I'm not sure there is anyone more nimble than Romero in the UFC. Certainly not for the build he is. Guy is built like a tank, but moves like that lizard in the snake video. Freak-ish sh^t.


But at least its negligible the difference & unlikely to decide the fight. And I think one of the reasons people think he might not be as light on his feet as Whittaker is cuz he does that weird, but intelligent Cuban thing where he fights to win with as lil risk as possible while expending as lil energy as possible which is a style unlike most fighters from any country we usually watch.

I think strategy will decide this fight & whoever makes that one right or wrong move vs the other quick & deadly guy is the one who'll be at the right place at the right moment to have the better night.

Whatever happens its the fight I'm most excited for this weekend.