🥊 The UFC Info and Prediction Thread

[TopTort777]

Merry Christmas from Paulo and secret juice to everyone Maybe this is just mine vision of Costa, but he looks unreliable for me. There is always an excuse for cancelled fight. Ok, I can accept that there is a serious reason to cancel the fight, but why he cancels the fights weeks or days before it? With that elbow injury for example. He had surgery month before fight, but announce that week before fight, and days before fight he was talking that he is ready, but pulled out 1 or 2 days before fight might really happen. Totally set up UFC match makers. Or all those cases when he asked for a bigger payment.

Costa has been cancelling, avoiding fights, caught by USADA (2 year ban) and fined since 2018. Since then he has won clearly Hall, Romero and Rockhold who retired after. Imho he talks more than fights.

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[YuginKadoya]

-snip-

But with Costa as big as he is, he could prolly stop the blitz Whittaker does like how DDP did it.  Dunno but DDP might have exposed Whittaker and showed everybody the blue print in how to bear him.  If the books give something like Costa at 2.75 or something, it's almost forcing you to make the value bet with the underdog as there are are not lots of queston marks about Whittaker after getting totally dominated. 

Whittaker never experienced a loss like that before, I don't think.  :/

But on the other Costa has had a long lay off, so that's prolly gonna work against him.  He's had weight cut issues before.  Lol.  Let's see how he looks a week before 298.

If Robert Whittaker is a guy who doesn't do the same thing all over again or a guy who is learning in his every fight but maybe Paulo Costa can catch his blitz, for sure I will still go with Robert Whittaker, on this fight, as it doesn't really matter if you have a great body like Costa or Vettori as for Whittaker I think I will go with his striking for this fight, and I never trust Paulo Costa at all and if he will not cancel and make some weird excuses again,

Big muscled did not help Costa in a fight against Izzy or Vettori. Btw this is the second time Costa and Whittaker are going to fight. First fight was cancelled due to Costa. Costa has also cancelled fights against Chimaev, Aliskerov, Cannonier and if not mistaken, first fight with Rockhold was also cancelled. Does not look like he is a man who UFC could rely on. And if I am not confusing something, he cancels his fight quite late, week or two before the fight. People laugh and say that this is the way he saves his record.

I sure hope Paulo Costa will not cancel this fight as he now has the most canceled fights in the UFC if this continues, but yeah huge muscle will not help Costa at all, as Whittaker has great striking so he could win this with a decision and could get a huge output of strikes for this fight, and yeah I am really into Robert Whittaker for this fight if the fight continue that is,

And yeah the number of Cancel doubts was that much that the Alikerov match was canceled because the UFC decided that the hype on the Khamzat Chimaev fight was much better and if Costa lost to Aliskerov then that hype for Chimaev would be gone, as fans is comparing Aliskerov to Chimaev with light setup, but it was canceled again,

[Synchronice]

McGregor is one of the few fighters still fighting on the UFC stage when currently most of it is filled with new fighters who are more hungry for the title. But I will still look forward to The Notorius' fight because as we know, apart from being good at fighting, I think Conor is the greatest fighter in bringing the fighting atmosphere in the direction he wants. He is so great at controlling the stage at press conferences either with his style or his trashtalk. But in the last few fights, he was the same as Colby, where for me his trashtalk was too much because it brought up religion and personal matters. BTW, is it true that Conor will fight at UFC 300?

Those Trash talks are not going to be helpful inside the Octagon, even if he surely is a great fighter and good at the press conference that could get the fight on hype, it is all that Conor McGregor can do and nothing more, and his strength for sure is all in the past his bulk body is just lie, it is just used to intimidate his sparring and training videos are just for show, you can clearly see all McGregor is after was the hype and money for the UFC 300, he will surely do anything, he is just a fighter in the past but if his opponent would be Michael Chandler I think I will go with Chandler for sure,

The reason Conor McGregor become successful is that he was winning fights after his trash talks. He was trash talking but was backing up his words every time, that attracts lots of attention. By the way, trash talk was helping him. I remember, Dustin Poirier said in one interview that it was easy to fight Conor when he wasn't trash talking and was calm. By trash talking, Conor goes into their head and makes them nervous, pressures more on them, it's a huge psychological advantage, that's why he won against Jose Aldo.

Realistically, if not Chandler, who else can he fight?

He wanted to fight Dustin Poirier again but Dustin doesn't give a shit about Conor.

[tokeweed]

Big muscled did not help Costa in a fight against Izzy or Vettori. Btw this is the second time Costa and Whittaker are going to fight. First fight was cancelled due to Costa. Costa has also cancelled fights against Chimaev, Aliskerov, Cannonier and if not mistaken, first fight with Rockhold was also cancelled. Does not look like he is a man who UFC could rely on. And if I am not confusing something, he cancels his fight quite late, week or two before the fight. People laugh and say that this is the way he saves his record.

Some sources claim that Costa had two previous fights with Whittaker cancelled, not one, but not sure if that's true.
Some of the pullouts you've mentioned were justified, e.g. Aliskerov, where UFC wanted Costa to fight Chimaev instead. Some other ones were, allegedly, cancelled due to contract disagreements, in such case, it's entirely UFC's fault to announce a fight before a contract is signed. The last one was due to injury, he posted photos, so I don't think he made it up.

The risk of Costa pulling out again is minimal. He needs to fight to stay relevant.
I give Whittaker more chances, but it could be an even fight.

Anyhow, Merry Christmas from Paolo Costa:

https://twitter.com/BorrachinhaMMA/status/1739366911652004275

^  That pic really him or is it just a meme or something?    If that's really him, he looks like he's not been letting go and has been keeping is weight n check.

-snip-

But with Costa as big as he is, he could prolly stop the blitz Whittaker does like how DDP did it.  Dunno but DDP might have exposed Whittaker and showed everybody the blue print in how to bear him.  If the books give something like Costa at 2.75 or something, it's almost forcing you to make the value bet with the underdog as there are are not lots of queston marks about Whittaker after getting totally dominated.  

Whittaker never experienced a loss like that before, I don't think.  :/

But on the other Costa has had a long lay off, so that's prolly gonna work against him.  He's had weight cut issues before.  Lol.  Let's see how he looks a week before 298.

If Robert Whittaker is a guy who doesn't do the same thing all over again or a guy who is learning in his every fight but maybe Paulo Costa can catch his blitz, for sure I will still go with Robert Whittaker, on this fight, as it doesn't really matter if you have a great body like Costa or Vettori as for Whittaker I think I will go with his striking for this fight, and I never trust Paulo Costa at all and if he will not cancel and make some weird excuses again,

As always, it will depend on line value.  If the books line Whittaker at 1.50 or lower, could we really trust him at that price tag and after he was exposed by DDP?  I think there will def be better spots in the event esp if you can't or won't take the underdog.

McGregor is one of the few fighters still fighting on the UFC stage when currently most of it is filled with new fighters who are more hungry for the title. But I will still look forward to The Notorius' fight because as we know, apart from being good at fighting, I think Conor is the greatest fighter in bringing the fighting atmosphere in the direction he wants. He is so great at controlling the stage at press conferences either with his style or his trashtalk. But in the last few fights, he was the same as Colby, where for me his trashtalk was too much because it brought up religion and personal matters. BTW, is it true that Conor will fight at UFC 300?

Those Trash talks are not going to be helpful inside the Octagon, even if he surely is a great fighter and good at the press conference that could get the fight on hype, it is all that Conor McGregor can do and nothing more, and his strength for sure is all in the past his bulk body is just lie, it is just used to intimidate his sparring and training videos are just for show, you can clearly see all McGregor is after was the hype and money for the UFC 300, he will surely do anything, he is just a fighter in the past but if his opponent would be Michael Chandler I think I will go with Chandler for sure,

The reason Conor McGregor become successful is that he was winning fights after his trash talks. He was trash talking but was backing up his words every time, that attracts lots of attention. By the way, trash talk was helping him. I remember, Dustin Poirier said in one interview that it was easy to fight Conor when he wasn't trash talking and was calm. By trash talking, Conor goes into their head and makes them nervous, pressures more on them, it's a huge psychological advantage, that's why he won against Jose Aldo.

That's not gonna work anymore tho.  Lolol. 

[pawel7777]

Merry Christmas from Paulo and secret juice to everyone Maybe this is just mine vision of Costa, but he looks unreliable for me. There is always an excuse for cancelled fight. Ok, I can accept that there is a serious reason to cancel the fight, but why he cancels the fights weeks or days before it? With that elbow injury for example. He had surgery month before fight, but announce that week before fight, and days before fight he was talking that he is ready, but pulled out 1 or 2 days before fight might really happen. Totally set up UFC match makers. Or all those cases when he asked for a bigger payment.

He gave some interview before the fight got cancelled, saying that doctors told him he should be able to recover before the fight, but things didn't go as planned. If he was to pull out of fear, there was no reason to wait for the last moment, he could've notified UFC as soon as he knew that surgery was required. Waiting that long  indicated that he really wanted to fight. But maybe I give him too much credit. I have no doubts Khamzat would run him over easily.

The reason Conor McGregor become successful is that he was winning fights after his trash talks. He was trash talking but was backing up his words every time, that attracts lots of attention. By the way, trash talk was helping him. I remember, Dustin Poirier said in one interview that it was easy to fight Conor when he wasn't trash talking and was calm. By trash talking, Conor goes into their head and makes them nervous, pressures more on them, it's a huge psychological advantage, that's why he won against Jose Aldo.

I know Conor believes that. You could tell that from how he changed his approach by 180 degrees between his 2nd and 3rd fight with Poirier. But it didn't look like reverting to the trash talk helped him too much. If anything it made him look weak, as if he was mimicking his past self hoping this would magically turn back the time and put him back into the good-old Conor mode.

He wanted to fight Dustin Poirier again but Dustin doesn't give a shit about Conor.

Oh, I'm sure Dustin would not refuse to fight him for the 4th time if the UFC made him an offer (but they won't). Much easier rival than anyone from the top 10 plus a massive payout - a dream fight.

^  That pic really him or is it just a meme or something?    If that's really him, he looks like he's not been letting go and has been keeping is weight n check. 

Probably edited, but I don't suspect Costa has any Photoshop skills himself. Likely he has someone to help him with promoting himself on social media, and they've been doing a pretty good job so far.

[owengtam09]

Likewise, I don't have a problem with him fighting in between the main card matches you mentioned at UFC 300, but I'm not very interested. I'm more interested in the standout strikers O'Malley and Marlon Vera, they are the best in their class. Also about what happened between them before. I don't want to focus on UFC 300 for now. I'm sure it will be really difficult before O'Malley can defend that belt against Vera. In their first match at UFC 252, O'Malley injured himself and lost the match. We could not see where the match would go. Now, while O'Malley is trying to defend the belt, the second fight of this fight will take place and will last five rounds.

Yup! Many are just too excited with UFC 300 while we have a great set of cards coming this year, January 13, 2024, UFC Fight Night Ankalaev vs. Walker, even though the undercard is not that great it is not bad aswell the Main event is just juicy Ankalaev and Walker will have their chance, UFC 297 Strickland vs. Du Plessis now this is just a banger of a card main event is such a treat as we got an early press conference for the main event, and now we will see a champion for the UFC Vacant Women's Bantamweight Championship, Raquel Pennington VS Mayra Bueno Silva, for the Co-Main, and the Main Card with Arnold Allen VS Movsar Evloev, then February 3, will be UFC Fight Night Dolidze vs. Imavov as the Main event is against Roman Dolidze VS Nassourdine Imavov, I really think that is  just a great fight to see, Co-Main is special as Renato Moicano will go up against Drew Dober, the UFC 299 O'Malley vs. Vera 2 will be on March 09, 2024 and the UFC 300 is on April 13, 2024, that is a long wait in my opinion,

Actually, if you watch those guys' previous fights you can clearly see that their likely fights are interesting maybe you don't like those guys at all, Aljamain Sterling is going in his  natural weight class I think this is his real plan so he can give Merab Dvalishvili the other division for himself, and Calvin Kattar is a natural striker for sure he is challenged if he can take down Calvin Kattar, for sure the UFC 300 is going to be an interesting one, but yeah Marlon Vera VS Sean O'Malley will be the best card for sure,

I think I will maybe I was just not interested in those cards but the Sean O'Malley VS Marlon Vera will be a banger, we will see if Marlon Vera will win again, or if that 1st win was just a fluke because of the injury, or if Vera can win again so for sure both fighters reputation is on the line, for sure I am really excited to see this but we will got a couple of months before we could see it,

[Hanadawa]

The reason Conor McGregor become successful is that he was winning fights after his trash talks. He was trash talking but was backing up his words every time, that attracts lots of attention. By the way, trash talk was helping him. I remember, Dustin Poirier said in one interview that it was easy to fight Conor when he wasn't trash talking and was calm. By trash talking, Conor goes into their head and makes them nervous, pressures more on them, it's a huge psychological advantage, that's why he won against Jose Aldo.

In the past, McGregor could really play his role as the antagonist in every story in the UFC. And he also had a very good skillset in his prime. As you said, trashtalk and the ability to win fight after trashtalk really made McGregor a big star. People who hate him for his trashtalk hope the big mouth will lose. And the people who support him really like Conor's confidence and intimidation. So that would bring in a huge PPV with whoever Conor fights. That's why some say that fighting against Conor is a jackpot.

But that's just a story from the past. I think the current Conor is no longer The Notorius we know. His long absence from the UFC after winning the championship belt and his tragic defeat against Khabib made Conor with his trash talk truly become trash.

Chandler is also capable of playing a good role in the UFC as well. But unlike Conor, I think Chandler is really able to build enthusiasm from the fans with his extraordinary literary abilities. This can be seen how Chandler is able to play his role as a villain and a good guy at various times very well.

Realistically, if not Chandler, who else can he fight?

He wanted to fight Dustin Poirier again but Dustin doesn't give a shit about Conor.

It could be that Dustin cares because Conor is expected to be able to build hype. But the problem is, is Conor still the same person? As I said, trash talk without a win will only make a fighter's reputation very bad and belittled.

[TopTort777]

Since Conor has joked about running for 2025 president, then he has lost one of his weapons - trashtalk. If he has real intention to stand for election, then he should carefully watch what he talks about. One careless statement and his political career will end before it begins. Even if he just wants to get a position of minister of sports.

I dont think that he has won fights only because of trash talk, getting in the head. There were trash talkers in UFC before. Take Covington recent trash talks with Edwads, lost the fight, even though he got in the head. Or Chael Sonnen. One of the guys who has black belt in trash talk. Lost all most important fights in his career.

[pawel7777]

As I said, trash talk without a win will only make a fighter's reputation very bad and belittled.

Exactly. Covington is a great example. He went overboard with his trash-talk but didn't deliver in the octagon, now he's looking pretty pathetic and, I'm guessing, he has lost a lot of fans.

Since Conor has joked about running for 2025 president, then he has lost one of his weapons - trashtalk. If he has real intention to stand for election, then he should carefully watch what he talks about. One careless statement and his political career will end before it begins. Even if he just wants to get a position of minister of sports.

People who would be willing to vote for him won't expect him to act the same way "normal" politicians do. He would have to show he's capable of acting responsibly, but he would be excused from any occasional trashtalk-like episodes.
Take Javier Milei, for example. He made a lot of radical statements and harsh language and acted unhinged, but that didn't stop people from voting him in as the president of Argentina.

What McGregor is lacking is a clear political ideology. The "current politicians are bad" is not good enough, people need to know what they are voting for. He'd also need political structures, he can't do it alone.

I take his tweet as more of a trolling though.

[tokeweed]

The reason Conor McGregor become successful is that he was winning fights after his trash talks. He was trash talking but was backing up his words every time, that attracts lots of attention. By the way, trash talk was helping him. I remember, Dustin Poirier said in one interview that it was easy to fight Conor when he wasn't trash talking and was calm. By trash talking, Conor goes into their head and makes them nervous, pressures more on them, it's a huge psychological advantage, that's why he won against Jose Aldo.

In the past, McGregor could really play his role as the antagonist in every story in the UFC. And he also had a very good skillset in his prime. As you said, trashtalk and the ability to win fight after trashtalk really made McGregor a big star. People who hate him for his trashtalk hope the big mouth will lose. And the people who support him really like Conor's confidence and intimidation. So that would bring in a huge PPV with whoever Conor fights. That's why some say that fighting against Conor is a jackpot.

But that's just a story from the past. I think the current Conor is no longer The Notorius we know. His long absence from the UFC after winning the championship belt and his tragic defeat against Khabib made Conor with his trash talk truly become trash.

Chandler is also capable of playing a good role in the UFC as well. But unlike Conor, I think Chandler is really able to build enthusiasm from the fans with his extraordinary literary abilities. This can be seen how Chandler is able to play his role as a villain and a good guy at various times very well.

It more like McGregor was a breath of fresh air at the time with his style of getting people more excited during the build up of the events he was in.  But it kinda got old really fast after he fought Nate Diaz and lost.  That's when he started being more annoying than funny.  I mean it was still entertaining, but I could do away without it tbh.

Now it's like when somebody tries to copy McGregor's style, it's sooo cringe.  Like Ian Garry Machado for example...  Lol.  :/  They should come up with their own style and be themselves up there.  They can't just copy somebody else's personality and project it like it's theirs.

[TopTort777]

On UFC.com you can vote for various "... of the year" results. This can be found @ https://www.ufc.com/honors/fans-choice (to bad they dont offer a short video before voting). Since he have not much to discuss and plenty of time till next event, we can devote our time on KOes, submissions, fights, events of the year discussion. We can add a disappointment of the year to the list of discussion. I would say that Strickland vs Izzy is the first thing that comes to my mind as disappointment (for Izzy) of the year. Or maybe Jamahal Hill can be a disappointment of the year, he has lost his belt without defending it.

[yazher]

What McGregor is lacking is a clear political ideology. The "current politicians are bad" is not good enough, people need to know what they are voting for. He'd also need political structures, he can't do it alone.

I take his tweet as more of a trolling though.

Yeah! he couldn't be any serious about it since all he has been doing throughout this year was fighting in the UFC and parties, he has nothing to do with the politics but the guy always wanted to have a share of popularity whenever there is a new topic in the world of MMA and he couldn't help himself but still always have something to say about others or mocked them even after they win a fight especially the digital guys. This is just his another way of getting some attention and they shouldn't take it seriously because it doesn't really benefit them.

[TopTort777]

Founds some nice year 2023 in review for you guys https://www.sherdog.com/news/articles/Fight-Facts-UFC-2023-a-Year-in-Review-192123. Some interesting data to be found there. Just drop a look when you have free time.

"Mayra Bueno Silva landed an incredibly rare ninja choke on Holly Holm and earned a POTN bonus. After Silva failed her post-fight drug test, her win was overturned, and her $50,000 check was rescinded." this one looks interesting. Fighter got a bonus, and later that bonus was given away, even though it is never officially announced anywhere.

[bittraffic]

Founds some nice year 2023 in review for you guys https://www.sherdog.com/news/articles/Fight-Facts-UFC-2023-a-Year-in-Review-192123. Some interesting data to be found there. Just drop a look when you have free time.

"Mayra Bueno Silva landed an incredibly rare ninja choke on Holly Holm and earned a POTN bonus. After Silva failed her post-fight drug test, her win was overturned, and her $50,000 check was rescinded." this one looks interesting. Fighter got a bonus, and later that bonus was given away, even though it is never officially announced anywhere.

Pereira almost fighter of the year. But Strickland grabbed it. There may be some of us who wouldn't agree with being Strickland as the fighter of the year.

One insane fight fact was the Shout It Out Loud as Aguilar had to shout out to tap as a verbal submission in the UFC. Didn't see the fight but found out his hands were bound.

[YuginKadoya]

-snip-

The reason Conor McGregor become successful is that he was winning fights after his trash talks. He was trash talking but was backing up his words every time, that attracts lots of attention. By the way, trash talk was helping him. I remember, Dustin Poirier said in one interview that it was easy to fight Conor when he wasn't trash talking and was calm. By trash talking, Conor goes into their head and makes them nervous, pressures more on them, it's a huge psychological advantage, that's why he won against Jose Aldo.

I think it depends on the fighter he is fighting sure if his fighting a pure striker then the level of concentration is just limited so he can surely play mind games over them but if the fighter is somewhat of Khabib Nurmagomedov level of a wrestler and grappler that is a different story, as for sure he can not trash talk over Khabib when Conor McGregor is on the ground, it will not surely help to get inside Khabib Nurmagomedov's head, because he will just make you drown even deep into his grappling that is for sure,

-snip-

As always, it will depend on line value.  If the books line Whittaker at 1.50 or lower, could we really trust him at that price tag and after he was exposed by DDP?  I think there will def be better spots in the event esp if you can't or won't take the underdog.

I trust Robert Whittaker more than Paulo Costa, that is for sure, but if Paulo Costa does back down or cancels the fight again and Robert Whittaker gets a different opponent then it is going to be difficult because depending on the change fighter I may change my judgment regarding the fight, will have to surely looked thoroughly with the fighters stat and record for sure,

-snip-

I think I will maybe I was just not interested in those cards but the Sean O'Malley VS Marlon Vera will be a banger, we will see if Marlon Vera will win again, or if that 1st win was just a fluke because of the injury, or if Vera can win again so for sure both fighters reputation is on the line, for sure I am really excited to see this but we will got a couple of months before we could see it,

Well, the Sean O'Malley VS Marlon Vera fight is definitely a banger of a fight, and just like you I surely love to see these two fight again and for Marlon Vera to prove that he really defeated O'Malley, or for Sean O'Malley to prove that it was a clear injury and a coincident why he lost to Marlon Vera,

[owengtam09]

Since Conor has joked about running for 2025 president, then he has lost one of his weapons - trashtalk. If he has real intention to stand for election, then he should carefully watch what he talks about. One careless statement and his political career will end before it begins. Even if he just wants to get a position of minister of sports.

I dont think that he has won fights only because of trash talk, getting in the head. There were trash talkers in UFC before. Take Covington recent trash talks with Edwads, lost the fight, even though he got in the head. Or Chael Sonnen. One of the guys who has black belt in trash talk. Lost all most important fights in his career.

For sure I have never seen a trash-talking president before and this is the first time we could see a president in the MMA if Conor McGregor did win the election that is, and his recent Cristiano Ronaldo shared some inside while watching sports of boxing and I think I also heard he was talking about Manny Pacquaio and he loves Manny for sure, and then comparing their watches at each other while Ronaldo is wearing a Hublot Spirit of Big Bang King Gold Rainbow watch, that is worth $77,000 and Conor McGregor wearing a white gold Chopard L.U.C Tourbillon watch, that is worth $227,000 what an expensive watches they got,

Exactly. Covington is a great example. He went overboard with his trash-talk but didn't deliver in the octagon, now he's looking pretty pathetic and, I'm guessing, he has lost a lot of fans.

Some example of trash-talking gone wrong, and for sure after that fight Colby Covington's career would not be the same again, I am so sorry to say to all Covington fans that Colby Covington doesn't seem to have a bright future anymore after that incident with fighting Leon Edwards he was full of talk and no actions, and even Donald Trump has had enough of his non-sense,

Well, the Sean O'Malley VS Marlon Vera fight is definitely a banger of a fight, and just like you I surely love to see these two fight again and for Marlon Vera to prove that he really defeated O'Malley, or for Sean O'Malley to prove that it was a clear injury and a coincident why he lost to Marlon Vera,

A banger indeed, and that will be on March 09, next year, for that event there is a lot of waiting so for sure the currency fighters might change you will never know if there will be an injury involved or fighter backing out of the fight, and because it is a long wait and we don't have any event for this week, Dana White has a power slap if people wants an alternative thing to watch rather than waiting for the UFC,

[pawel7777]

Pereira almost fighter of the year. But Strickland grabbed it. There may be some of us who wouldn't agree with being Strickland as the fighter of the year.

I think it's deserved. He fought 3 times in 2023 and won all of those fights including the championship fight. It was a great year for him as he managed to elevate himself to one of the most recognised fighters.

"Mayra Bueno Silva landed an incredibly rare ninja choke on Holly Holm and earned a POTN bonus. After Silva failed her post-fight drug test, her win was overturned, and her $50,000 check was rescinded." this one looks interesting. Fighter got a bonus, and later that bonus was given away, even though it is never officially announced anywhere.

I didn't know they would do that, but this approach makes sense. If she won by cheating, then the bonus was not earned fairly and should be returned.

I am so sorry to say to all Covington fans that Colby Covington doesn't seem to have a bright future anymore after that incident with fighting Leon Edwards he was full of talk and no actions, and even Donald Trump has had enough of his non-sense,

Yup, Colby is becoming an inconvenient supporter to Trump, who probably doesn't want to be associated with him anymore.
It was also weak how Colby was calling out Stephen Thompson, who is 40, just lost a fight and is ranked below Colby. This shows he has low confidence in himself and is looking for an easy fight. But to be fair, it might be the best option for both of them and I wouldn't be surprised if that fight actually happened.

[Synchronice]

The reason Conor McGregor become successful is that he was winning fights after his trash talks. He was trash talking but was backing up his words every time, that attracts lots of attention. By the way, trash talk was helping him. I remember, Dustin Poirier said in one interview that it was easy to fight Conor when he wasn't trash talking and was calm. By trash talking, Conor goes into their head and makes them nervous, pressures more on them, it's a huge psychological advantage, that's why he won against Jose Aldo.

In the past, McGregor could really play his role as the antagonist in every story in the UFC. And he also had a very good skillset in his prime. As you said, trashtalk and the ability to win fight after trashtalk really made McGregor a big star. People who hate him for his trashtalk hope the big mouth will lose. And the people who support him really like Conor's confidence and intimidation. So that would bring in a huge PPV with whoever Conor fights. That's why some say that fighting against Conor is a jackpot.

But that's just a story from the past. I think the current Conor is no longer The Notorius we know. His long absence from the UFC after winning the championship belt and his tragic defeat against Khabib made Conor with his trash talk truly become trash.

Chandler is also capable of playing a good role in the UFC as well. But unlike Conor, I think Chandler is really able to build enthusiasm from the fans with his extraordinary literary abilities. This can be seen how Chandler is able to play his role as a villain and a good guy at various times very well.

It more like McGregor was a breath of fresh air at the time with his style of getting people more excited during the build up of the events he was in.  But it kinda got old really fast after he fought Nate Diaz and lost.  That's when he started being more annoying than funny.  I mean it was still entertaining, but I could do away without it tbh.

Now it's like when somebody tries to copy McGregor's style, it's sooo cringe.  Like Ian Garry Machado for example...  Lol.  :/  They should come up with their own style and be themselves up there.  They can't just copy somebody else's personality and project it like it's theirs.

It's true that Conor was at right place at right time with right style. But there is a huge difference between Conor and other trash talkers. Conor was very natural, you couldn't think that he was acting while others are very fake when they try trash talk and they all try to copy Conor and that's very visible. Conor himself wasn't very unique, he was copying some other people but he was doing it in a way that he was looking and sounding very unique. Also, to my mind, Conor's accent played a significant role into making him popular. His accent is very unique, bad but entertaining at the same time, very memorable too.

I think Conor's trashtalk didn't lose interest after his defeat against Nate Diaz, he was still doing good trash talk. If there was a moment when all of these was annoying, it was when he had a fight against Jose Aldo. Conor farted in front of his face, he did many disgusting things that were out of control. I can't believe Aldo didn't kill him behind the scenes after the fight.

[TopTort777]

"Mayra Bueno Silva landed an incredibly rare ninja choke on Holly Holm and earned a POTN bonus. After Silva failed her post-fight drug test, her win was overturned, and her $50,000 check was rescinded." this one looks interesting. Fighter got a bonus, and later that bonus was given away, even though it is never officially announced anywhere.

I didn't know they would do that, but this approach makes sense. If she won by cheating, then the bonus was not earned fairly and should be returned.

I think somewhere in November I have posted that fighters and we should not be that instantly happy about 50k reward from UFC, as they did not get it straight after a fight. I though that they get paid straight after the fight, as UFC get their money from PPV, selling translation on TV, commercial and etc immediately. But fighters get paid after USADA check as minimum. (maybe there are some other tests also, dont know).

Btw, a reminder to everyone that in 3 days, UFC and USADA parts. Whos gonna perform fighters testing next year - this is going to be first thing to announce from Dana, as their next and first in 2025 event will be on January 14.

[Rampagoe004]

Yup, Colby is becoming an inconvenient supporter to Trump, who probably doesn't want to be associated with him anymore.
It was also weak how Colby was calling out Stephen Thompson, who is 40, just lost a fight and is ranked below Colby. This shows he has low confidence in himself and is looking for an easy fight. But to be fair, it might be the best option for both of them and I wouldn't be surprised if that fight actually happened.

And if the fight really happened then what made the match interesting to watch. To be honest, I was disappointed with the appearance and role played by Colby at this time. It means that Colby who used to be really cool because it was really able to kill his opponents whatever their ranking. That's why he used to be nicknamed Chaos. But what happened right now made me think that the Colby era was over and he seemed to try to restore his lost prestige.