Basement X

Anyone watching? It's b een a while since I started watching, but than again, the board's been down a while as well.

I have been, mostly because everyone in my gym gets together wand watches it.
Saturdays night was awesome.

Absurd. It was absurd.

Too bad McGregor lost, because rumor has it he would've faces Lawler at UFC 200 if he'd won. And I think he'd definitely take Lawler.

Also, I've been in an argument with a few co-workers. They say the ref was too late with Holm, I say he had every right to not stop the fight sooner. It's not as if the choke was in place for a minute or so, she just was out quite fast. Your opinion?

Mcgregor losing is surprising, but not surprising if that makes sense.
That is a huge weight difference to walk into, and he would really had to be on top of his game, which he clearly was not.

Nothing looked sketchy ref wise to the choke to me. By the time they were on the ground the choke wasn't on for that long until the ref ended it.

I'm not that surprised Mcgregor lost. I think he could have won. He has displayed a very good use of range and boxing in general that has carried him to the top. But, on paper it wasn't that good a match for him.
He seems to be a natural,long lean lightweight. At featherweight where he clearly starves himself to make the weigh-in he enjoys a size and reach advantage,which plays into his skill set. At fight time he looked much bigger than Aldo and Mendes.
Nate is an awkward looking, but good boxer with a great ground game, who doesn't look like he cuts much to make lightweight, and he does not concede the reach advantage to Conor, which Conor otherwise normally enjoys.
You could make the point that Conor was landing strikes freely in the first round and first half of the second round, which would suggest that the absence of a reach advantage didn't mean much, but who knows. Nate took the fight on short notice. I don't know.
What is certain is that Conor started to gass out during the midway point of round two. Unfortunately for him it seems Nate can take far too many punches to the face.
When Conor shot for the takedown, he actually almost passed guard whilst his head was being locked into a guillotine, but with ease Nate controlled the scramble, quickly established side-control, then full mount, then back mount to RNC.
I'm looking forward to Mcgregor vs. Edgar. We might finally get answers to how Conor copes with top level wrestlers. We got a taste of it with Mendes, but Mendes was gassing early and to Conor's credit a lot of that wasn't just short notice fight prep, but Conor's kicks to the body.

The ref was quick enough on the Tate choke. It looked like as soon as Holm went limp he broke it up. From memory it looked like the RNC was a blood choke, because Hollie's eyes looked like they were open when she was out.

I've got a lot of BJJ friends. It's a bit annoying on FB to see them posting memes about how BJJ is awesome because of the chokes and in particular the Diaz one. But, as Diaz has said himself, he would have a lot more knockouts on his resume if opponent's didn't shoot on him when desperate. You can't really give full credit to BJJ for the win, when the trouble for Conor started on the feet.

Diaz was winning that fight on the feet before the finish, so I agree on that. And it seems we all agree that the ref wasn't too late with Holm.

Apart from that, is McGreger v. Edgar happening?

Apparently never.

Anyway, UFC Rotterdam today! 'Cause, why not?

Anyone seen UFC 199 this weekend? Quite a great event, actually. And what an upset.

I didn't see it. I was in Birmingham for UK Games Expo 2016.

From what I understand, it was a bit of a fluke?

What did you think of UFC Rotterdam and Overeem?

A fluke? The main event was great. Two awesome knock-outs in the first two fights, a great 3-round third fight, an awesome five-round display of being the absolute best by Cruz in the co-main event and the upset of Bisping in the main event.

I'll have to admit that Rockhold was a bit of a fluke. He clearly had a lot of disdain for Bisping and figured he'd cruise through the fight to an easy win. Which was strange, because you had to know that Bisping would come with all he's got and then some.

UFC Rotterdam was pretty fun to be at. I'm not completely sure on the actual quality of the fights, but De Marandie, Struve and OVereem obviously brought their game face. Overeem obviously getting a title shot after this (And I'm hoping he'll grab the belt), he looked pretty good. And I'd love to see De Marandie take on Cyborg. I think she'd be able to give her a real fight.