I couldn't find one, would there be anyone else interested in a running UFC thread on here?

Watched the Holms/Bruno's Silva fight last night, what a surprise submission!

Sometimes the less flashy cards produce a great night of fights.

UFC threads seem to get some life here, but tend to eventually fall. Always worth a shot though.

I'm going to roll with it. Feel free to post any UFC updates in this thread.

Here is the fight card for this weekend. Excited for Aspinall V Tybura.

https://www.espn.com/mma/fightcenter

Nathaniel Woods keeps winning in Featherweight.

That was a good entertaining fight. Respect for both Fili and Wood for staying in the fight after getting rocked.

Agreed. I thought it could have gone either way, I think one or two punches in the 3rd made the difference.

Surprising that McCann went down so quickly.

Aspinall just dominated.

Aspinall looked good and tagged him right on the chin. I would've liked a longer fight but that was impressive.

Anyone do any MMA training?

I know there are some that post over on the H&F board. An old roommate of mine was doing BJJ, and that's what really started me watching UFC. But I just am mostly too grossed out by getting sweated on to ever try myself.

Here is the fight card for next weekend, should be a great event. Really excited for Poirier Vs Gaethje

https://www.espn.com/mma/fightcenter/_/id/600034052/league/ufc

It's not a martial art, but I started Krav Maga maybe 15 years ago. That kind of lead to me watching MMA. More recently, I've done boxing and kickboxing. One of the instructor likes to include some Muay Thai elements, which I really enjoy. I've tried BJJ a couple of times but I don't enjoy it that much. Striking a bag is much more therapeutic for me. I'm no badass - just an old guy that likes to spar, hit bags (spoiler: the bag always wins), and learn new techniques.

I'm not arguing with you, but is Krav Maga really not considered a martial art? What do they consider it?

No, it's a self defense system. It incorporates elements of lots of martial arts, but it's not meant to be a strict art. The idea is to be able to survive an attack (hand-to-hand, knives, firearms, club, whatever) by any and all means necessary. If you knee the attacker in the balls 3 times instead of 2, it's not an error in form. If you don't follow the "script" of a technique exactly, don't stop to correct it, just keep going until the attacker is down. Also, it's more about gross motor skills than fine motor skills. In an attack, the adrenalin will wear off in a short time, you have to be able to keep fighting when you're exhausted. They'll wear you out with 45 minutes of cardio and bag work, then start teaching you the techniques.

A few years ago, I was fortunate to have an Army reservist as an instructor. We were learning civilian Krav, but he'd include some of the military versions - fun stuff.

What a crazy fight night! I can't believe Poirier went down so quick. Gaethje is a bad dude.

Only got to watch the prelims last night. Gotta find a good local place that shows the PPV events. But yes, Gaethje is a bad bad dude.

FYI, this is a Cool Story bro.

I unexpectedly have the opportunity to chat with Paulo Costa and one of his coaches over FaceTime. He had his coach reach out to me to express gratitude for making a bunch of memes for him. I was genuinely surprised because I never requested, nor even hinted at chatting.

I triple-checked the coach's credentials and even spoke with another person who works with him to ensure I wasn't being pranked.

That's awesome! Report back to us please. Also, got links to your memes?

Anyone gonna watch Nate this weekend? I hope he can shut Paul up but not sure. I haven't paid for a Jake Paul fight yet but I'm goi g to this weekend just because I like Nate. Watched the Netflix last night about Paul…I still don't like him but seems to be pretty good for only being a few years into boxing. Will see.

I hope Diaz kicks his ass, but have family coming into town, so going to have to miss all the fights.

That Durden/Hadley prelim was great - can't believe Durden survived the arm bar in the 2nd.

To start, I don't know a lot about boxing or mma. Jake paul got the win and landed the bigger hits for sure but Diaz didn't look like he was trying too hard. Diaz had lots of energy late and felt like he was still in it. They both said they want to rematch mma and I don't see paul standing a chance

I hope an MMA fight is next, Diaz would end that early! This fight was pretty boring and the weight difference was the factor

I don't care if I'm coming across as a hater for saying this: I think it's wack that a dude can make this much money and garner this much notoriety from fighting washed up MMA fighters inside of a boxing ring.

I'm not so sure an MMA fight would be as lopsided as some think.

IIRC both of the Paul bros were state winning wrestlers in HS. So he has a wrestling background.

I don't like Paul and think that all of his fights are fixed. Just my opinion though.

That's a good point. Of the 'big three' (Wrestling, BJJ, Striking), I think wrestling is the best base to build an MMA style around (which hurts me to say, as I'm a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt).

But HS school wrestling and MMA style wrestling are so different that they are almost different sports. And even the worst wrestlers in the UFC have better MMA wrestling than most high school wrestlers who haven't cross trained. And Diaz's style has gotten him UFC wins over guys with high level wrestling and judo.

But I think the most important question is whether the fight is fixed (I say yes). And to some extent other factors like: Rule set, weight class, Diaz's conditioning, etc.

Where did you get your Black?
Secondly, how does have a wrestling background actually help someone's BJJ game? Or what does BJJ lack? TIA

Got my black belt at Gracie Barra Pearland in 2019, but previous belts were all at Gracie Barra Webster (where I started in 2008). Even though I'm a lot older than most of my training partners, I love the sport.

Good question re wrestling background.....I think a wrestler brings certain things to BJJ that most other sports don't. But it's not that either sport is superior or inferior....they just have very specific rules that result in focusing on different aspects of the combat sport. The best thing is to learn both BJJ and Wrestling if you have the time, $ and physical ability to stay healthy.

But back to your question re wrestling background.....here's what i see when train with wrestlers-turned-BJJ people.......

-Focus on strength, conditioning and cardio. The wrestler-turned-BJJ guy will always be in better shape (initially) than the brand-new-to-combat sports BJJ guy.

-The rule set in wrestling rewards attacking, dominant position, explosiveness, etc. the BJJ rule set can result in defense sometimes to the point of stalling.

-The takedowns (offense and defense) wrestlers bring are superior to any other combat sport. BJJ guys tend to focus more on what happens once on the ground and less so on how to get there.

-Muscle memory...wrestlers already know things like footwork, points of control, positioning, leverage, weight distribution, etc of getting on top and staying there. So they have a 'head start' over non-wrestling background folks.

-Points of control....wrestlers are used to using wrist, elbow, neck, head, etc. for points of control which very similar to MMA. BJJ guys will tend to rely more on using the traditional gi (as most BJJ schools focus heavily on the gi)

Hopefully that makes sense.....but I'd be curious if there are others with BJJ and/or Wrestling experience who see other things.

That's super helpful! My sons and I do BJJ and I've noticed anyone that has a wrestling background are at a huge advantage so I was looking to get my boys into wrestling as well. I'm sold! Ha! Thanks so much

You're welcome, and that's great to hear that y'all are training as a family!

Not sure how long y'all have been training, but there's a BJJ thread over in the Health & Fitness forum with a range of folks from 'thinking of starting' to 'old and beat up'.

There's not a ton of posting in it, but it's a cool place to connect and ask questions, share experiences, etc. (and I'm always happy to talk about BJJ).