autoidiodyssey

So happy to see the burgundy pants back. Hopefully we never see white over gold again.

1 hour ago, The Mayor of Fed Ex Field said:

Yellow?

If we wear Gold on Gold this year I might poke my eyes out.

Gotta suck to be a Browns fan and watch the guy you could've drafted pick your D apart while the guy you signed gets hurt.

1 minute ago, Koolblue13 said:

I swear he ran into him on purpose, to safely get injured.

 Hue Jackson quote from PFT:

“It’s really unfortunate because Robert worked extremely hard to put himself into position to be our quarterback, to be one of the team leaders, and it’s just very unfortunate,” he said. “

Please, let me make it known, Robert didn’t get hurt trying to run into a linebacker or a DB.”

Strange thing for a coach to say. That idea must be floating around up there.

5 minutes ago, Hooper said:

Just checked again. Can practice when healthy, but has to miss 8 games. 

Think Hue saw enough.

It certainly gives him an out. Now he can get a good look at McCown. If McCown sucks he can go back to RG3. If he plays well he has cover to keep RG3 on the bench.

The rest of the media pool should boycott the post fight presser in protest.

Rockhold deserved that. He looked completely disinterested in the fight. He thought he could roll in there coast to an easy win.

Very true.

As an Irish man this is fairly gutting. A day we were all dreading. I get the hate for him on here because he runs his mouth and that's fair enough. He's a hero over here though. Hope he comes back strong and I think he will but it's got to be really tough mentally for him.

His talk has never really bothered me. I've found it entertaining. Much better than say the brain damaged, expletive laced, mumblings of the Diaz brothers.

I think you saw in this post fight interview, and really all of his post fight interviews, that his talk is part of the show to sell the fight. And whatever people may think about his fighting ability, no one can deny his promotion ability. The dude gets it. He knows this is not a long term career and he needs to make as much money as possible as quickly as possible. 

Diaz is a tough SOB, that's for sure. Not sure if the rest of 170 would be able to handle that punishment. We may never know after this.

 

Moving up inevitably impacted Conor's training, but due credit should be given to Nate's all-around skill set.

Yeah, I doubt he will ever go back to 170 again. He may end up at 155 though. That cut to 145 is brutal.

Gotta give Connor credit for handling the loss like a pro in the post fight interview. You won't see him going back to Ireland with a pillow over his face.

Poor Dana. It has been a rough few months. The Hype Machine is taking on water.

EDIT: Damn, beat by one post.

 

Style decided the outcome of this fight. Conor's ground game is a known weakness and the matchup wasn't a good one for him. 

 

His power didn't translate at 170. At least not against Diaz. He would have finished most 145ers with the shots he was giving Diaz in the 1st round and a half. .

Poor Dana. Holm-Rousey 2 blown up. Connor Hype Train derailed, at least a little bit. Can't wait for the post fight presser.

At the post fight presser the guy standing in for Dana confirmed the two options. Edgar at 145 or RDA - Cowboy winner at 155. Conor says he will not vacate the 145 belt. His goal is to hold both belts simultaneously, defending each as contenters arise. That would be pretty cool if he could pull it off.

Dana White on FS1 talking like Conor might move up to 155. He said that Conor's coach said that was the last time he was going to cut to 145. White said if Connor moves to 155 he will get the winner of RDA - Cowboy. Immediate title shot.

 I can't stand watching disrespectful douche bags line Conor and Ronda hold titles.

If you get a chance you should try to catch the interview Conor just did with the FS1 crew. He was the polar opposite of a "disrespectful douche bag". Unlike Ronda, Conor is capable of being charming and engaging. Most of his talk is an act to sell the fight. When he eventually does lose he will give an interview after the fight and show up to the post fight presser. You won't see film of him covering his face with a pillow at the airport.

Definitely will be.

 

Should just put Rousey v. Holm 2 on the same night.

I don't know. After Aldo pulled out of the first fight I don't think Dana White is as fond of him as he is of Ronda. I wouldn't be surprised if White makes Aldo wait and gives the next shot to Edgar. Aldo is not the draw that Ronda is. Conor is the draw.

Who else does he coach?

Travis Browne who beat Brendan Schaub then lost in that epic 1 round slugfest to Arlovski. That was not exactly a brilliant display of striking defense, he got LIT UP.

Jake Ellenberger who lost to Kevin Gastelum. Beat Josh Koscheck. Then lost by spining hook kick to Stephen Thompson. The Thompson loss is notable because in the pre fight video clip Ellenberger scoffed at Thompson's karate. Saying something along the lines of "Karate? What is he going to do spin kick me in the head? Ha." He then went out and got spin kicked in the head in the 1st round.

Rousey is either done, because she'll never be able to discipline herself sufficiently to overcome the game-planning gap between her and Holm (and whoever else is capable of emulating Holm's gameplan), or she's going to get the training she needs, really buckle down, overcome her weaknesses, and beat Holm by not messing around, then proceed to continue what she was doing before 193.  She does not strike me as someone who wants to be a gatekeeper to Holm, just as Tate didn't want to be a gatekeeper to Rousey.  She might just go do the Carano thing and bail for movies and other media if she can't overcome Holm.

 

It's gonna be an interesting 2-3 years in women's MMA.  Between Rousey trying to right the ship, and the flurry of title defenses that Holm will have to go through, we could see some real interesting action.

If she gets beat in the rematch she is done. She is not going to Meisha Tate land to be a gatekeeper for Holm. She might do a catchweight fight with Cyborg to try and redeem herself then retire. 

In reality she is going to have to beat Holm twice. If she wins a rematch then you have the trilogy. I don't see her winning the rematch though. The skill gap is too large. Say they set it up for UFC 200. That gives Rousey 8 months. Minus the time spent filming the movies she has lined up. Minus the time she will have to take off to heal from the concussion and the plastic surgery. Meanwhile, while Rousey is off in Hollywood, Holm will be training with the likes of John Jones and Carlos Condit. She will be improving her anti judo techniques. Getting better in the clinch.

Rousey could train for the rest of her life and never catch up to Holm's striking. Everyone assumes that Edmond is an idiot and a horrible coach, and I am inclined to belive that. But it is possible the Rousey just can't pick up striking. She has been working with a boxing coach, out of a boxing gym for her whole career. She looked like she had no clue what was going on in there.

Two thoughts:

 

1. It's pretty weird to watch a woman get punched in the face repeatedly. Not sure I'm a fan of it to be honest.

 

2. Based on #1, it's obvious I'm not an MMA fan. The little I've seen of it makes me think that the fights are almost always decided by who gets in the first blow or, I guess, immediately counters the first blow. It seems like this fight was over the in the first 30 seconds even though it lasted a while. Do I just not watch enough? Are there fights where someone dominates the first round or two but still loses? That was one of the things I liked about boxing when I watched a lot of boxing - those fights where in round five or six you saw conditioning become a factor. But I'm a total ignoramus on this stuff. (And it seems like every fight I've ever watched ended in two minutes or less or could have ended in two minutes or less like this one).

There are comebacks. Cat Zingano has had a couple. In her fight with Meisha Tate she lost the first 2 rounds then finished it with a nasty knee in the 3rd. She also almost got finished by Amanda Nunes in the 1st round and came back to finish that fight in the 3rd.

There have been plenty of fights where a guy comes out like a monster in the 1st round and then gasses out and loses the fight in the later rounds. You see that quite a bit with the guys that are super jacked and carrying a lot of muscle.

Just recently in the Weidman-Belfort fight, Belfort came out on fire and looked to have Wiedman in touble for a minute. Weidman weathered the storm, composed himself, took Belfort down and beat him sensless.

I've found the video Edmond used to teach Rousey head movement.

Yeah, Ronda needs to skip town and go to a camp with a great striking coach. I think she'd benefit from a warmup fight before fighting Holly again (or whoever is champ). To be honest, Nunes & Pena are no slouches, she'll have her hands full with them if one of 'em is her next opponent. She can't get 'em with the armbar and they could mess her up too.

I'd be really interested in seeing her fight someone other than Holm now that the aura of invincibility is gone. Nunes has some power and we don't know what kind of chin Rousey will have coming off of such a devastating KO. I think Pena would rush in and get her arm ripped off, she seems like she is still pretty raw. They will go Rousey/Holm 2 (that is the big payday) and if Rousey loses that will be it. I don't see her playing gatekeeper until Holm gets knocked off.

I think it was the one Tate fight that lasted, is that Rousey doesn't like getting hit.  Now yes, no one actually likes getting hit in the face, but you have the fighters who get tagged, shake it off, move forward, keep trying to execute, then you have guys like Brock Lesnar, who it was clear really didn't like it.

 

I remember one or two instances where Tate managed to tag her, and it was clear it bothered Rousey. Tate just wasn't good enough to capitalize. 

That is a good point. I remeber reading a comment from her talking about how she wanted all of her fights to be short becasue she didn't want to get cut up. There is a real chance that she says "You know what? I don't need to get punched in the face and kicked in the head. I've got options here." Though I doubt her ego will let her go out on such a horrible loss.

That Jack Slack article is great. Luke Thomas has a good breakdown as well, though it is long.

Then we have this gem from Edmond.

I wouldn't say in the striking game she was getting the best of Ronda, you know, but I have to watch it again. But we know this was not a striking match...

Was not a striking match? Your fighter was repeatedly punched in the face and ultimately kicked in the head. Holm connected on 72% of her strikes! Compared to only 30% for Rousey.

The only hope she has of beating Holm is dumping this moron and going to a real camp. Even that might not be enough.

All of the people who said Rousey was a one trick pony were right. And this fight showed what would happen if that trick didn't work. Without the ability to rush in and get the clinch to execute her Judo she was lost. There was no plan B.

There is a huge gap in striking ability, a huge gap in cardio, possibly a gap in over all strength. That is a whole lot to improve before UFC 200 in July. Especially when she is going to be shooting a move or two between now and then.

If she doesn't change anything about her camp and traning, the only chance I see her having in a rematch is winning in one of the clinches she gets in the 1st round. After that she will have been hit a bunch and be in the same spot she was in this fight.

Another good GIF.

Could be KO of the year, all things considered. Trying to think of one more spectacular LOOKING. Don't think there are any that are close as far as significance goes. Aldo/McGregor and Weidman/Rockhold are still on tap. They'll have to do something insane to top Holm.

There are probably some that were that clean and looked that good. But nothing can compare to that moment. So based on style points and the magnatute of the event and who got KOd I'd say this takes it. Really this was an all timer. If the UFC was still doing their old style PPV intros this would be put into the montage.

I love the internet

 

very conceivable that Holm knew Rousey was going to throw that show 5 seconds before Rousey knew

She was extremely well prepared. I'd love to be able to take Zingano or Tate and put them in a chair like the Matrix and download Holm's training in to their brains and see how they would do vs Rousey.

So Dana White says Rousey will get the immediate rematch. I guess that makes sense from a PPV buys standpoint. But I don't think it does Rousey any favors. She can change her gameplan and try to make Holm come to her then work the clinch and thow game. But I didn't see anything last night to say that a plan like that wouldn't end up with Holm boxing her face off for 5 rounds. I doubt she can develop competent striking in 6-8 months.

A second loss to Holm in consecutive fights puts Rousey in Meisha Tate land for the rest of Holms reign. Which probably ends her career. I don't see her having any interest in being a gatekeeper.