Aspinal is far more well-rounded than any heavyweight in history, his ability to finish fights early is insane.
I am a big Aspinall fan and agree that he passes the eye test big time, but its against a not particularly great level of competition. Its hard to gauge exactly how good he is because of that and also because his fights are so short.
I have some bets on buckley but seeing the face to face at the weigh in, really starting to doubt my pick... Usman looks huge. Will probably come down to just how bad Usmans knees are tomorrow.
Couple things tonight * Very happy for Usman getting the win tonight. Awesome seeing him back in the winners circle. * I was only able to catch the last round and a half or so, but I found it to be quite odd. Usman looked like he was in slow motion, his takedowns looked completely halfassed, he didnt really sit down on anything, and his base/ legs did look a little weak to me. Despite this, Buckley could barely manage to stop these slow motion semi takedowns, and he wasnt able to do anything with Usman until like the final two minutes or so. I then see online how everyone is saying Usman looked great, completely inverted to what I saw, which was a slow, old, vulnerable fighter. Obviously the answer here is that I have to catch the first 3 rounds and Usman probably looked good in them. And I hope that is the case... but from what I saw not only was his effort odd but Buckleys inability to do anything with it is weird. Must go to show how many levels Usman is above Buckley for him to look like that and still win. Anyways, happy for him.
Usman had no trouble taking Buckley down in the first 4 rounds. He did it with relative ease, especially in the first round - when he held Bucley down for what seemed like 4 minutes. But each round it would take longer for Usman to find the takedown, even tho when he did, he only needed one shot. This changed in the 5th when Usman could not score a takedown to save his life. Either Buckley adapted, or Usman hit the wall stamina wise. Also, Usmans championship run was defined by his standup, but he barely did anything on the feet in this fight. And in the 5th round it looked like the fight was slipping away because he could not score the takedowns. And heck, Buckley clearly stunned him bad near the end of the round. So I have to agree, he looked very vulnerable, and he showed his age. Ring rust probably has something to do with it, guess we will find out in his next fight, which is likely to be against one of the following: Brady, Rakhmanov, Garry, or Morales. I think they will push Usman for a "title eliminator" with either Brady or Rakhmanov, as Usman is still a marketable name in the division.
I randomly stumbled upon the entire UFC 217 card. Still a really memorable night for me, even tho at the time I had just recently watching UFC cards. The marketing caught my attention, and what a card it was! This content is protected Btw, this was on the same night as Wilder VS Stiverne II https://boxrec.com/en/event/757361
Yea, but at least she had a couple of good years after that title win. The two fights with Zhang were quite something. She should go back to Wittman and dump her husband as her trainer. But I doubt she will be able to turn her career around.
Man, the upcoming UFC schedule is rather dire. The company built itself on putting on good cards, but there are barely any quality cards on the horizon. Sure, Max vs Dustin III will be a good fight, but the card itself is rather lackluster. Also, should Max and Dustin really be headlining given how their last fights have gone? First good card is probably 319, but it unfortunately has only one title fight on it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFC_319
Not to rub it or anything but man Buckley looked pretty bad even against old Wonderboy. It was only a matter of time when he diet of old over the hill former top fighters backfired on him. I think the UFC really wanted Buckley to succeed, but he's not what they were hoping for.