MMA/Boxing Thread
 

What are your opinions on the current state of affairs?

Joshua losing to Ruiz

Paulie losing to Artem Lobov

Cormier re-match with Stipe




UFC 239 is coming up, here's the main card:

Jones vs Santos

Nunes vs Holm

Masvidal vs Askren

Blachowicz vs Rockhold

Sanchez vs Chiesa


I'll bold my predictions, although full disclosure I'm dying for anyone to beat Jones at this point.

Joshua losing to Ruiz was a fluke. He's beaten people that are much better than Ruiz (Klitschko, Parker, Povetkin, etc). I think his mind just wasn't in that fight and that's why he lost. I expect he'll be winning all the belts back in the rematch later this year.

Smh. It wasn't a "fluke". Joshua was struggling with the jab to the body and when he landed a good shot, Ruiz didn't move and stood still throwing back. Ruiz knocked him down four or five times over like 3 rounds, nit a "fluke".

I'm not sure I'd pick Ruiz again but don't act like it was some hail mary shot.



For the others, I have the same predictions as Nick, although Jan has a damn good shot with Luke.

Artem beating Paulie is one of my favourite things in combat sports.

DC Vs Stipe 2 is meh. Don't like immediate rematches. I thought Stipe the first time but I reckon the loss will have effected him.

I'm kinda with EtH on this one I think you have to give Ruiz his credit although the rumours of something happening to Joshua before the fight I think might be true. That combined with a kind of overconfidence which comes with being unbeaten spelled disaster. I think when Joshua put Ruiz down the first time he let his guard down and was fully expecting to finish him shortly after then he got hit with a bomb and was never right after that.

The rematch is going to be so important for Anthony now. He really needs to win and he's going to have to fight a whole lot smarter.



Agreed, I wasn't sure about Jan vs Luke. Luke needs to find his way again.

TBH as funny as it was I thought Paulie won that fight on points. That's not to say he was brilliant, the fight was there to be taken Artem was just far too stupid to take it. He had success every time he pressured Paulie but only did it once or twice it was incredibly frustrating to watch.

DC vs Stipe is so hard to call. I'm rooting for DC just because I'm a fan.

I don't buy into the rumours beforehand. If Joshua doesn't want to discuss them and take away from Ruiz, I don't either.

Artem was screwed over by the ref to be fair. He was breaking clinches which are perfectly legal in bkb.

I like DC but he's retiring soon so I wouldn't mind seeing Stipe take it back.

Oh that's eth? Makes sense now. I didn't say or didn't mean to imply that Joshua didnt get his ass beat solidly in that fight. Ruiz did his thing and deserves all credit, especially on being the first person of Mexican descent to win a heavyweight belt. By saying it was a "fluke", I mean he's not actually a better fighter than Joshua, just better on that night. If it wasn't a fluke in that sense, then Ruiz should definitely win the rematch as well, but we don't seem to be in disagreement on that prediction, do we? Either way, we'll see what happens.

Ngannou with that brutal knockout. I actually predicted a first round knockout before the fight based on JDS's pre-fight interviews where he spoke about wanting a knockout and not being concerned with taking Francis down. JDS seemed to have no intentions of fighting a smart fight and trying to out-power Francis is just suicide.