UFC 179: Aldo vs. Mendes 2

On October 27 2014 14:06 Minsk wrote: What the fuck. You guys are comparing bubble gum to car tires. You cant compare a 145 pound fighter to a 195 pound fighter with completely different styles like that.

I agree you can't compare them as if they were all the same size. A 185 pound Mendes would be way slower and have way worse cardio, and a 145 pound Weidman would be ridiculously strong. It's impossible to adjust their skill sets to the size difference.

I'm just looking at skill sets, and I think Weidmans is definitely better than Mendes. I mean Mendes is great, but Weidman completely besmirched Silva on the feet and thoroughly out struck Machida as well, how do you say Mendes has better striking than him? He out wrestled Machida, a man known for having great TDD while undersized at LHW, at MW. I can't see anyone else at MW taking Machida down 3-4 times. Who at MW has better wrestling than Weidman? He's also got probably the 2nd best BJJ in the MW division.

I also think Weidman has superior fight IQ.

I don't think I mind Aldo's strikes "after the bell" at the end of round 1. The ref didnt step in to stop it yet (sure the ref might have been a little slow in doing so), Aldo was in mid-combination and had Mendes hurt before that. Hard to expect him to stop punching imo...

yeah I also belive the shots werent intentional

Pretty much everyone cageside has confirmed that you couldn't hear the bell, so definitely don't think they're intentional. Also I think the 2 eyepokes and nut kicks nearly evened it out anyways.

Aldo is the most complete fighter on the planet. This was his best fight to date and Mendes gave him a run for his money. I'm with Daut on this one.

Although GSP was super unattractive to watch, he was probably the best and most complete fighter in the UFC. Aldo s probably the best in attraction/completion ratios though

Fat Fedor is still goat, not the cardio, haymaker Fedor we saw in strikeforce

the top lighterweight guys are ridiculous. demetrious/dillashaw/barao/aldo are such incredible fighters in all aspects of MMA. toss in mendes/cruz/benavidez/edgar at those weight classes as well. always baffles me when people say they dont love watching the little guys. not saying some or all of them better/more complete fighters than guys like weidman/jones/gsp, but man, outside of a few elite top heavier guys, the little guys are just such better overall fighters. i know its an unfair comparison, but its a more pleasing fight to watch regardless

Btw you guys see how fast Aldo got up when Mendes took him down in the 1st round? Hoooollyyy shit that was quick.

Can someone link me to a replay of the Aldo fight?

Just watched aldo vs mendes and that was a sickkkkk fight, glad i watched. got no link for ya timdawg :/

Weidman is the top P4P fighter on the planet. His resume isn't there yet and I wouldn't expect anyone to rank him ahead of Jose on paper or agree with me, but I personally believe he is. Jon Jones is obviously also very much in the conversation and if dominates DC I'd have to put him there, but I just was not impressed with him (relatively speaking ofcourse, hes a beast) against Gus or Glover (who just got absolutely shit on by Phil Davis, given this was clearly a much worse Glover).

Weidman simply has no holes in his game. You could say the same about Jones but I think his striking, when he's forced to mix it up and be a bit more orthodox, is actually not very good. Aldo's cardio is clearly still a hole IMO, I just think Chad slowed down as much as he did so it offset. That's also why Chad didn't try to wrestle him - because he was conserving energy just as Jose often does, and it would have done more harm than good as Jose would just spring right back up anyway, or avoid the TD completely and make Chad pay with knees.

All that being said, Aldo is the fucking man, I picked Chad to win the fight and it's not that Chad underperformed, it's that I under-rated Jose, which is shameful in retrospect.

EDIT: Oh and of course DJ is right there, you could even say he's the best PfP, I just think its tough with the level of comp at Flyweight, so who knows, but he's definitely the complete package).

On October 28 2014 11:45 Daut wrote: the top lighterweight guys are ridiculous. demetrious/dillashaw/barao/aldo are such incredible fighters in all aspects of MMA. toss in mendes/cruz/benavidez/edgar at those weight classes as well. always baffles me when people say they dont love watching the little guys. not saying some or all of them better/more complete fighters than guys like weidman/jones/gsp, but man, outside of a few elite top heavier guys, the little guys are just such better overall fighters. i know its an unfair comparison, but its a more pleasing fight to watch regardless

I definitely agree with this. Always been a fan of the smaller weight classes. Overall we get way better athletes at the smaller weight classes because they usually don't have outlets like other professional sports such as football/basketball/baseball.

I'd have Jones over Aldo as most complete fighter in MMA by a long shot. Aldo is pretty one dimensional in his game plans. He's just so incredibly good at it no one can stop him. Jones on the other hand uses every single facet of MMA. Out strikes everyone, out wrestles them, submits them, best GnP in MMA by far, and he showed us in the Glover fight maybe the best clinch fighter in MMA too. His clinch fighting with Glover was nuts.

I do think Weidman will catch up to them. Gotta keep in mind Weidmans only really been training and fightings since late 2009, and has spent like 2 years not really training because of injuries. So he's still an infant in the sport and will still improve a lot. Which is scary because he improves at such a fast rate it's unbelievable. I mean who has ever been as good as Weidman 12 fights into their career?

I really dislike Jones but I'd have to have him as the best fighter in MMA right now.

I really think Ludwig is coach of the year and should be the hottest coach in MMA right now. It's really incredible what he's done with TJ & Mendes. It's no coincidence that they're giving Nova Uniao a lot of problems since he's been there. The feints, pressure, stance switches, checking kicks, great footwork, everything. It's mind blowing. They basically went from guys looking to land big right hands like Faber, to some of the best strikers in MMA in 2 years with Ludwig.

I really hope him leaving doesn't really stall out their rapid progression. I'd love to see Mendes keep improving and fighting Aldo a 3rd time. Because really Mendes lost that fight based on a hand full of mistakes that he could fix.

On October 28 2014 15:58 soberstone wrote: Weidman is the top P4P fighter on the planet. His resume isn't there yet and I wouldn't expect anyone to rank him ahead of Jose on paper or agree with me, but I personally believe he is. Jon Jones is obviously also very much in the conversation and if dominates DC I'd have to put him there, but I just was not impressed with him (relatively speaking ofcourse, hes a beast) against Gus or Glover (who just got absolutely shit on by Phil Davis, given this was clearly a much worse Glover). Weidman simply has no holes in his game.

Tbh JBJ has fought much more styles and very good opponents overall compared to Weidman. Weidman is far from 1st P4P, however he s progressing so fast i wouldn't be surprised to see him on top of the list. True I've only seen Weidman's past 4 fights, but i highly doubt that the previous ones are even worth seeing.
I expect JBJ vs DC fight to be the same as vs Sonnen, basically only chance DC has is to clinch him or get top ground position for 5 rounds which I don't see happening, too bad it will probably be a year till we see JBJ vs Gustafsson. If I were JBJ I'd probably try to get the heavyweight title as well tbh

On October 28 2014 17:21 Spitfiree wrote: Show nested quote + On October 28 2014 15:58 soberstone wrote: Weidman is the top P4P fighter on the planet. His resume isn't there yet and I wouldn't expect anyone to rank him ahead of Jose on paper or agree with me, but I personally believe he is. Jon Jones is obviously also very much in the conversation and if dominates DC I'd have to put him there, but I just was not impressed with him (relatively speaking ofcourse, hes a beast) against Gus or Glover (who just got absolutely shit on by Phil Davis, given this was clearly a much worse Glover). Weidman simply has no holes in his game. I expect JBJ vs DC fight to be the same as vs Sonnen,

For what it's worth Jones is currently -170 against DC, which he opened up at. He was like -300 IIRC against Gus when the rematch was booked.

I used to think that DC had a chance but the more I think about it the less I think he does, I just dont see him being able to handle Jones striking, it will still be pretty exciting to see what happens when Cormier gets a hold of Jones, I think its the first time im excited to see some wrestling lol

Exactly, I used to think that too. When I thought about it DC isnt better at anything compared to JBJ, unless a fluke happens it will be a pretty clean fight for JBJ

On October 29 2014 02:19 Spitfiree wrote: Exactly, I used to think that too. When I thought about it DC isnt better at anything compared to JBJ, unless a fluke happens it will be a pretty clean fight for JBJ

Cormier is a better wrestler than JBJ, not even close, and has more power.

If DC can't handle Jones' striking, it will because his threshold to take damage is low - which is quite possible, we've never seen him get hit with anything big - or because he can't close the distance, also quite possible.

With that said, if you look at Jones' fights without the 'awe' factor, his most impressive work has definitely not been striking, its been GnP and unorthodox submissions, as that's pretty much out of the equation with Cormier unless he gasses.

Glover was simply over-rated, and when Jones had to strike with Gus, he looked far less dominant.

I pick Jones, but it's definitely not a 'clear' fight for JBJ.

At the current odds, I'd rather bet Cormier.

DC cant handle Jones striking simply because Jones is much better at it, DC is mediocre at best, he has powerful wide hooks but Jones has faced people with those powerful hooks before like Rampage and Texeira and they have way more to offer standing than DC, so the only thing that DC brings to the table is that he will be the best and most powerful wrestler Jones has faced, but can he get in range easily and ragdoll Jones while he gets a hold of him? probably not