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OT: WWE/MMA/Boxing Thread

GGpX said:
A very high in boxing this week: Ryan Garcia & Devin Haney are publicly negotiating to get a fight. Major props to Ryan Garcia, one of the very rare boxers who says fuck this record shit, I want to fight the best dudes for real.
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This is why I’m such a big fan of King Ry….as much as the purest in me much prefers other fighters, the fan of boxing as a whole wants to see Ryan be the face of boxing for a while, pull in new fans in droves….and set a new precedent in the sport for coming in and fighting the best fighters you can.

Forget being willing to fight Gervonta Davis or Devin Haney at this point….it’s still kinda crazy he fought Luke Campbell when he did…most fighters with his star potential still wouldnt be stepping in with the likes of Luke at this stage of their progression.

Haney deserves his props too tho, despite being much more advanced development, he’s been more than happy to take on all the big fights too.
 
soco22 said:
So many belts on the line already - a bit limited if they want 3 championships for 300.

Does anyone really care about seeing Conor fight anymore on this board? Is he even top 40 at 170, top 50 at 155 or ufc level at 185? His trash talk was great when he was a top guy - just awkward now.
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It's not about weightclass for Conor, it's just about not having to cut weight. Which is something I actually admire.

Everyone knows Gaethje, Poirier, Oliveira, Mahkachev are 155ers, but they're still going through that stupid weight cutting nonsense. Just let them fight 170 or higher, we know what the deal is.
 
BJ Penn was the OG in that regard….was all about the challenge for him. Won the belt from Hughes, then was more than happy to face Renzo and Royler at 185, and Lyoto Machida at open weight (with Lyoto coming in at nearly HW, if memory serves.)

Hell, same can be said for BJ fighting Gomi & Pulver etc at 155, and Hughes at 170, when in todays era of extreme weight cutting he’d have likely been a 145 much of his career.
 
Meanwhile, in the UFC's Heavyweight division, where "the best fight the best",

-There hasn't been an actual title defense since Ngannou beat Cyril Gane in 2022, almost two years day for day.
-The current Heavyweight champion has one single fight in his career at heavyweight and is injured long-term.
-When said current Heavyweight champion returns to action, he wants to fight a 42 year old who seems like he's physically hampered based on the last time he was seen publicly and nobody else.
-Increasingly implies that he'll retire after that fight.
-Made an interim Heavyweight championship belt, and the winner seems to be the real deal. A future star and he wants to be active...
-But the UFC seemingly want to shelve him, refusing to give him a fight against either the "real" Heavyweight champion or the 42 year old he was supposed to fight.

What a fucking shitshow. I really, really hope the fighter lawsuit destroy's the UFC contract structure.
 
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GGpX said:

View: https://twitter.com/arielhelwani/status/1743383974041268376

Boy, I really wonder how this would have all played out if Francis didn't "fumble the bag" as these dumb kids love to say.

In two boxing fights, Francis will have made more money than any single UFC fighter in their whole career fighting under Dana's thumb.

Pretty incredible.
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Holy shit that’s incredible. Super pumped for Francis….even though I’m a Joshua fan (I know, I know)….Im mainly excited for the big picture significance of this.

The more success Francis has, the more leverage big name fighters have when negotiating with Dana….not to mention we’ll see some interesting names also make the jump one day, I suspect.
 
To a small extent.

What has kept the UFC on top is not necessarily their shrewd business moves or their talents at fight promotions.

It starts & ends with their restrictive contracts that doesn't allow their fighters to get into a bidding war between the UFC & other promoters.

The UFC doesn't let fighters use them as leverage. They always keep the fighters they want & by renewing their contracts early. In the rare situations when you have fighters that don't want to renew their contracts and want to leave, their careers are put on hold during their peak earning potential, somewhat forcing them to re-sign with the UFC or to remain inactive (see Diaz & NGannou).

While Ngannou got out, the PFL has a major problem: Who's the best Heavyweight fighter in the world that isn't signed to the UFC? Vadim Nemkov, Bellator's current LHW champ? Ryan Bader, the Bellator champion? Anatoly Malykhin, ONE's LHW & HW champion trying to become the first triple champ in any major MMA organization?

Whomever it might be, there are very slim pickings for who Ngannou could fight in the PFL.
 
There's soon going to be a day of reckoning for the three major MMA organizations behind the UFC.

Bellator, PFL & ONE FC don't make money. Nome of them make any profit. Viacom, the company that owns Showtime, bought Bellator for something like $50M. Eleven years later, they sold it for stocks and $0 in actual money.

PFL is spending money left & right, but there's no actual way they're making any kind of profit with the outlandish spending they've done.

ONE FC, despite the Head Bullshitter In Charge Chatri saying otherwise, might fold by the end of 2024. Their MMA side wasn't all that active in 2023 and just recently, this happened:


View: https://twitter.com/kristieneo/status/1742842060590485969
 

View: https://twitter.com/arielhelwani/status/1744223891814236539

Oh shit.

Holy Fucking Shit.

I'm clapping like a fucking seal right now.

Those two fights are fucking spectacular. Hot fucking damn, I'm in!

One of the Kings of Violence against a future candidate to be in the discussion for the Kings of Violence.

That's got Fight of the Year contender written all over it.

And Oliveira - Tsarukyan? Superb stylistic matchup and a fresh new matchup.

Fucking love it.
 
Guess that’s setting up Justin for the title shot for 302 or 303.

Edit - this is a #1 match as Islam is injured. Just saw the report
 
Jorge Masvidal said he's unretired.

With this announcement, I think Masvidal - Gaethje for the BMF at 300 seems like a logical shoe-in.
 
GGpX said:
Jorge Masvidal said he's unretired.

With this announcement, I think Masvidal - Gaethje for the BMF at 300 seems like a logical shoe-in.
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Sounds like a very one sided fight, if that’s the case lol. I was think Diaz v Masvidal II when I heard that.
 
Doesn't matter. It's a fight that will get eyeballs on the screen and will get Gaethje a "stay busy" fight.

Plus it has a natural, wrestling-esque storyline that will be easy to sell. Original BMF champ, saw his friend & teammate Poirier get KOed by Gaethje to get the vacant belt, Masvidal out for revenge, etc.
 
I’m not understanding the Poirier Saint Denis fight. Wasn’t he holding out for a higher ranked guy? What’s the incentive for Poirier fighting a 12th ranked guy? Besides money.

299 and 300 are looking stacked.

298 in Toronto is a joke of a card. They should be ashamed for the prices I saw when tix went on sale.
 
Leafin' said:
I’m not understanding the Poirier Saint Denis fight. Wasn’t he holding out for a higher ranked guy? What’s the incentive for Poirier fighting a 12th ranked guy? Besides money.

299 and 300 are looking stacked.

298 in Toronto is a joke of a card. They should be ashamed for the prices I saw when tix went on sale.
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I just think nobody was available.

Islam's out, Oliveira wasn't going to fight him, Tsarukyan wasn't going to fight him, Gaethje's titleshot or bust, Chandler's waiting on Conor.
 
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