Is anyone picking cejudo over merab?

[StonedLemur]

I've rewatched it a bunch because it's a great fight and it's incredible to see Merab absolutely solve the Yan puzzle in a way that only he could accomplish. Also shutting up Yan and his supporters is always a bonus.

49 td attempts on top of punching the shit out of him is wild... period.

these ladies will find anything to complain about sir lol.

 

[Chael_Sonnen]

49 td attempts on top of punching the shit out of him is wild... period.

these ladies will find anything to complain about sir lol.

Legit. How can anyone find the greatest cardio performance of all time boring. It's beyond me.

 

[HHJ]

I've rewatched it a bunch because it's a great fight and it's incredible to see Merab absolutely solve the Yan puzzle in a way that only he could accomplish. Also shutting up Yan and his supporters is always a bonus.

War Yan.


WAR YAN!

 

[StonedLemur]

Legit. How can anyone find the greatest cardio performance of all time boring. It's beyond me.

Sherdog will Sherdog sir lol.

 

[Chael_Sonnen]

War Yan.


WAR YAN!

Hahaha maybe I was too harsh, most Yan supporters are fine in my book but just there was a cadre of Yan fans who were insufferable post Aljo 1/Aljo 2 and O'Malley. It was nice to give them a loss that they couldn't complain foul about.

 

[HHJ]

Hahaha maybe I was too harsh, most Yan supporters are fine in my book but just there was a cadre of Yan fans who were insufferable post Aljo 1/Aljo 2 and O'Malley. It was nice to give them a loss that they couldn't complain foul about.

I knew Yan was gonna get stripped of the title but I hated aljo's antics.

Aljo won the 2nd fight fair and square even if it was due to stalling in the body lock for 2 rds.

O mally fight could have gone either way. Not robbery either way

 

[Chael_Sonnen]

I knew Yan was gonna get stripped of the title but I hated aljo's antics.

Aljo won the 2nd fight fair and square even if it was due to stalling in the body lock for 2 rds.

O mally fight could have gone either way. Not robbery either way

Yep agreed on all fronts, except that I didn't mind Aljo milking it as that was the only was he was going to get the DQ he rightfully deserved. Should have stopped milking it after the decision though, I didn't like that. Everything else you said is correct in my book, O'Malley fight was a toss up, and Aljo 2 was a close but fair dec.

 

[ExxA]

I'm picking Cejuda because nobody can stop the cringe man.. even when he loses he wins. you cant stop it! it will never stop!

 

[Safton]

You're entitled to your opinion, I'll wait it out till he Cejudo is actually losing to fighters he shouldn't be losing to.

Being competitive against then the world champion in Aterling and losing a close fight doesn't compute to me that he's out of his prime from what he showed in performance based also a long lay off.

Just because there hasn't been a champion post 35 or whatever age in the lighter doesn't always constitute to fighters being out od their prime, competition has a lot more value and the performances against saidncompetition to me is much more of a standard.

Cejudo matched up very well against Sterling on paper and at his peak was arguably the more talented fighter who had achieved more, so him being out of his prime at that time didn't mean as much because he had further to fall than most and was taking on a decent stylistic match-up... again, on paper. There's a reason he was the betting favorite.

But now Cejudo is even older, has taken more time off, and has had to recover from a lingering shoulder injury including surgical intervention. He'll be fighting Merab who has momentum and who beat Yan far more decisively than Aljo did (call it MMAth if you like).

There are good reasons for the lack of lighter, older champs. Yes, it could happen under the right circumstances but it is pretty much incontrovertible fact that athletic performance begins to decline noticeably after 35. Bantamweight in particular is a young man's game and Cejudo isn't even originally a Bantam. I am open to being surprised if Henry comes correct and puts on a good fight; I think he has the tools in theory to do so or at least show moments of success like I said. I just don't have much faith in him keeping Merab from implementing his game down the stretch.

 

[Question]

Yeah I don't get the hate for it. Merab was shooting a lot of failed takedowns and forcing constant scrambles, sure. But people seem to forget that he was legitimately outstriking Yan in between all of that in pretty much every round. It was a fairly high-paced fight and I didn't find myself bored at all while watching it.

Merab vs. Aldo was far more unwatchable IMO.

I think people were/are still upset about the Aldo fight and that Merab announced Aldo's retirement. That fight sucked(altitude) so I get the hate for that, but the Yan win was impressive and a very solid performance.
I guess people are also mad that he took out to fan favorites in a row in Aldo and Yan.

 

[Safton]

I think people were/are still upset about the Aldo fight and that Merab announced Aldo's retirement. That fight sucked(altitude) so I get the hate for that, but the Yan win was impressive and a very solid performance.
I guess people are also mad that he took out to fan favorites in a row in Aldo and Yan.

Yeah, I don't have many nice things to say about Merab as a dude because of how he handled Aldo's retirement and the fact that he basically willingly played top-shelf gatekeeper to Aldo while logjamming the division and hamstringing his own career... but he's very talented and most of his fights are exciting simply because of the pace he pushes IMO. The Aldo fight, IMHO, was the only one worthy of the amount and type of derision that he regularly draws from the fanbase but at the same time Jose was his stylistic Kryptonite on-paper, it was at altitude like you said, and his dance partner also didn't do much on his end to make it exciting.

100% on that last bit. Some people will come right out and admit they're annoyed at Merab for knocking off dudes like Aldo or Yan while others internalize those feelings IMO, whether they realize it or not. I also think that as a rule whenever a fighter gets a reputation as "boring grappling grinder" it's difficult to shake. People still talk about Curtis Blaydes like he's the same guy of like four years ago even though he doesn't really fight that way anymore.

 

[RockyLockridge]

Cejudo has 2 great wins at FLY against Demetrius and Tj
And 2 great wins at Bantam against Moraes & Cruz and arguably could've won against Sterling after a long lay off.

I really do not see it this way but I suppose it’s a matter of perspective.

The Mighty Mouse decision was highly questionable.

TJ had never fought at flyweight and looked like the skeleton of a zombie.

Morales was a great win where cejudo weathered the storm to come back and win. Props for this one.

Cruz off a loss, off a two year hiatus obviously a win over bw goat, but probably the worst version of him to date.

Sterling I thought he lost to very comfortably people say the fight was close I only found one round for Henry.

At flyweight he has a strong record but at bw? I dunno never been too impressed with him

 

[krelianx]

Cejudo has better wrestling and striking overall, but the age and inactivity factors weigh heavily here. I wouldn't bet against Cejudo, though.

 

[NGute87]

When you retire, and stop training like a hungry champion, you get passed up by the people who are still training luke champions.
Merab should take this fight with no problem, but if Henry wrestles non stop, I think he's got a shot.

 

[Quadtavius Tuck]

I really do not see it this way but I suppose it’s a matter of perspective.

The Mighty Mouse decision was highly questionable.

TJ had never fought at flyweight and looked like the skeleton of a zombie.

Morales was a great win where cejudo weathered the storm to come back and win. Props for this one.

Cruz off a loss, off a two year hiatus obviously a win over bw goat, but probably the worst version of him to date.

Sterling I thought he lost to very comfortably people say the fight was close I only found one round for Henry.

At flyweight he has a strong record but at bw? I dunno never been too impressed with him

No impressive wins at BW, one questionable good win at FW, and dominated by a questionable BW champ at his own game


Marbaschvallavillibavaschlavilliobad by snuggle

 

[Georges Hefner]

I would beat both of em

 

[Quadtavius Tuck]

When you retire, and stop training like a hungry champion, you get passed up by the people who are still training luke champions.
Merab should take this fight with no problem, but if Henry wrestles non stop, I think he's got a shot.

He got dominated and slaughtered in wrestling by Aljo who gets dominated and slaughtered in wrestling every day in the gym by Merhabashvaliogabahabibivillishvilli

 

[Iroh]

I really do not see it this way but I suppose it’s a matter of perspective.

The Mighty Mouse decision was highly questionable.

TJ had never fought at flyweight and looked like the skeleton of a zombie.

Morales was a great win where cejudo weathered the storm to come back and win. Props for this one.

Cruz off a loss, off a two year hiatus obviously a win over bw goat, but probably the worst version of him to date.

Sterling I thought he lost to very comfortably people say the fight was close I only found one round for Henry.

At flyweight he has a strong record but at bw? I dunno never been too impressed with him

Gotta say though, Cruz is a master at defying ring rust. So even if he was a diminsihed version, it probably wasn't as bad as any other athlete would have been in his situation.

 

[RonDante]

I really do not see it this way but I suppose it’s a matter of perspective.

The Mighty Mouse decision was highly questionable.

TJ had never fought at flyweight and looked like the skeleton of a zombie.

Morales was a great win where cejudo weathered the storm to come back and win. Props for this one.

Cruz off a loss, off a two year hiatus obviously a win over bw goat, but probably the worst version of him to date.

Sterling I thought he lost to very comfortably people say the fight was close I only found one round for Henry.

At flyweight he has a strong record but at bw? I dunno never been too impressed with him

I think the Cruz stoppage was pretty bad, cruz takes a knee to the face, clashes heads with Henry and gets dropped (no one talks about this), then gets stopped with just a few seconds left while making his way back to his feet in a title fight. Not saying cruz would have won but Henry was slowing rapidly and i think cruz would have taken over in the third

 

[AmonTobin]

I’m just going by memory which is becoming distant, but Merab looked like he had 7 rounds of wrestling in him in his last fight and Henry looked pretty wiped out after his last fight. I think Merab can outlast him in the cardio but I bet Henry still packs a punch and he doesn’t have the subs to worry about this time. Henry’s also smarter than Merab’s last opponent. Petr Yan had pretty poor fight IQ.