MMA's Next Big Star, Context, Karate Hottie and Rankings

Isreael Adesanya is the new undisputed middleweight UFC champion. That walkout was next level. An amazing showman and the next big star in MMA. What was it? Over fifty thousand at UFC 243 in Melbourne? I didn't think it was his time yet for two reasons. First Robert Whittaker went ten rounds with Yoel Romero and got injured during one of the fights but fought on and still won. Second I underestimated how good Kelvin Gastellum is. Although Whittaker didn't use everything in his arsenal against Adesanya. But still, I'm glad the last stylebender proved me wrong. I'm a fan and have been following him on twitter for some time now. Whittaker was saved by the bell in the first round but didn't last another full round. Adesanya didn't look like he'd been in a fight at all afterwards compared to how he looked after Gastellum.

When I watched Al Iaquinta's fight against Donald Cerrone in the run up to his fight with Dan Hooker I suspected Al would be at the wrong end of another beating in Melbourne. I was right. Izzy and Dan are intelligent with intelligent coaches. There was plenty they could learn from the Cerrone fight. Not many made much of a deal about Hooker's comment after he heard Dustin Poirier turned down his call out. I thought, being Irish, Hooker's "chasing leprechauns" was insensitive, a bit ignorant and uncalled for. Maybe I took it out of context.

Speaking of out of context, I want to mention Ben Askren. I heard that Ben was talking about Israel Adesanya in a complimentary fashion and was becoming a fan of his. Ben talked about him being well spoken and some people, including online media personnel who cover MMA, took this to be a racial slur. I think it says a lot more about what goes on in other people's minds that they're actively looking to criticize and so easily triggered, than it does about someone giving compliments where they are deserved. 

I'm looking forward to "The Karate Hottie" Michelle Waterson fighting Joanna Jerdz... nope! I can't spell her last name... at the weekend. Her fight against Karolina Kowalkievic was the best performance I'd seen from her. Many are predicting Joanna to outclass her but I'm hoping Michelle can do it. The downside is we have to listen to Joanna's moaning excuses on MMA media if she loses.

I have to print out the newest UFC rankings in research for my own planned ranking system that I talked about in a previous post. I haven't researched the records of the old rankings because I haven't made the time to do so. I might not blog next week to make time to research the latest rankings instead. I keep talking about coming up with my own system to see how it compares with the real rankings and it's about time I did something to make it happen.