What's Going On Lately

I'm just going to talk a bit about what's going on in MMA lately. I didn't see any of the fights from Wednesday of last week or Saturday but I saw a few clips here and there and got the results. Anthony Smith took a beating from Glover Texeira. He went all out for a knockout in the first two rounds, gassed out and then lost teeth and suffered a broken orbital bone. Many were saying the fight should have been stopped much earlier. Excellent result for Glover because Smith went five rounds with Jon Jones. More on Jon Jones later.
Edson Barboza lost a close decision on his featherweight debut to Dan Ige. It's understandable that fighters will feel robbed if they lose a close decision at times but some take the loss better than others. Barboza's fellow countryman Jose Aldo seemed to take his loss against Marlon Moraes well even though many thought he won. Joanna took her loss to Weili Zhang well despite being known to moan about losses and I thought she did enough to get the decision. But Barboza is trying to get the decision overturned just because Dana White thought he won the fight. Well there have been decisions that went against how Dana saw them before and they stood. I think Barboza needs to learn from it and move on.
Walt Harris returned to the octagon after the tragic loss of his daughter. Somehow Overeem's chin held up to an early beating and he came back to win. He hurt Harris with a leg kick and that conditioned Walt to protect the leg so Overeem could go for a head kick. The Weasle pointed out a comparison between how Overeem got the finish and how Khabib holds his opponents down against the cage and his ground and pound. It was interesting. Did Overeem and his team drill that tactic because of Khabib I wonder? Looks like they were influenced by it and Alistair has significantly more weight to hold an opponent down with.
There has been a lot of talk about Jon Jones interested in a fight with Francis Ngannou since Jones and Francis tweeted that they were both interested in it. I think Jones saw something in the way Francis beat Rozenstruik and thought he'd fair better because of his movement, technique and fight IQ. The other thing is that Ovince St. Preux moved up to heavyweight too and even thought he lost to Ben Rothwell by split decision, I think that gave Jones the confidence to take a more serious interest. I said myself in my reaction to UFC249 "I think if he had more technique and straighter punches to harness the power he'd be unbeatable. He probably is anyway but I get a feeling that a fighter with great footwork and movement, better technique and a granite chin with the ability to use going for takedowns to stop Francis' attacks can beat him. But it looks like most fighters won't at the moment", about Francis and perhaps that's similar to what Jones saw. But the other thing is something that the Weasle pointed out. Francis took a counter shot to the head from Rozenstruik and an equilibrium shot behind the ear that normally finishes fighters or dazes them just enough to lead to them getting finished. Francis walked through these! Jones isn't allowing for that enough in my humble opinion. I also saw a clip of Francis saying he wasn't entirely happy with how he got the finish against Rozenstruik having watched it back. Francis is a fast learner and will probably improve on those things for his next fight in the octagon. There is also the fact that when Curtis Blaydes and Cain Velasques (known wrestlers) went for takedowns Francis stopped them easily because he didn't blow his load and gas out like against Stipe. So at the moment I think Francis v Jones would start off with Jones frustrating him but if Francis keeps his composure and fights smart he'll connect eventually. I'll go with Francis victory by early 3rd round KO as my prediction for now.
One more fight I want to talk about that's definitely due to happen is Tyron Woodley v Gilbert Burns at the end of the month. I watched Chael Sonnen on Youtube the other day and he's thrilled that this fight is happening. Tyron Woodley is a wrestler with knockout power and also has a black belt in Jiu Jitzu now. He beat Damien Maia in one of his title defences. Gilbert Burns is a Jiu Jitzu expert who also has knockout power. He was the first person in something like 10 years to knock out Maia. A wrestler against a grappler who both have the punching power to put their opponents' lights out is essentially how Chael put it. All of a sudden this fight is a lot more intriguing. I also tweeted that I can't wait for the Weasle's prediction video for that one and he acknowledged it with a like. So it should be an interesting fight.