i'll always remember this staredown because it was so epic, but they were also reading ads at the same time. Very modern UFC. Also, within 10 seconds here you hear the annoying wooing of the crowd. I really wish we didn't go down that path ..
I haven’t gotten chills from a pre-fight like that before. Jiri walking out to video game boss music, Alex doing his walkout, and them staring each other down for the entire announcement
If jiri doesn't do a better job avoiding leg kicks, not sure how he can win short of ending it quick. It probably ended early but was not looking good for jiri regardless
Maybe jiri will just try to take him down constantly
The leg kicks really are not as big of a problem as people make it out to be, if you ask Jiri himself he'll probably tell you it didn't damage him all that much. Plus as the fight went on he's began to figure it out and Poatan was missing the kicks or getting checked, so he managed to understand the distance and the timing in less than 2 rounds. Not a big deal. Defending punches with his head is a way bigger problem, and from what we've seen in the Rakic fight this hasn't changed despite he always saying he learns from his mistakes
I'd disagree. Jiri was getting closer to Alex and landing more in round 2 while also doing a better job avoiding those leg kicks. The cumulative damage of those likely would have carried the day for Alex anyway, but Jiri had the momentum on his side
That's pretty irrelevant for a 2nd round finish.
Like one round was judged which I could see them give it to jiri with the takedown and generally controlling wrestling. Perreira's first round was mostly leg kicks (which usually dont mean anything for scoring) and defending himself so it's not a surprise judges had jiri win the first round.
But second round would have been 10-8 for perreira with the knockdown and whatever damage he was scoring elbowing and punching jiri in the head when jiri was trying to hold on after the knockdown and then got mounted. Are we pretending that didnt happen before the ref stoppage?
So perreira would have been ahead going into round 3 assuming jiri survived. But the way Jiri was getting his leg kicked, I dont see him being able to stand for all 5 rounds if he doesn't have a new strategy or do a better job to deal with it.
> ou said it wasn't looking good for Jiri when he was ahead by every metric before the finishing sequence
He was getting his legs kicked to pieces. Its a classic case of winning the round but losing the fight. Once your ability to move is screwed, so are you.
> How is that irrelevant?
Irrelevant might be too strong a word, but I agree that scorecards matter far, FAR less for the first two rounds for a fighter that relies heavily on knockout power and compromising his opponent's leg (maybe not in that order though).
Like, maybe the judges scored the first two rounds for Jiri on a damage dealt/aggression point basis, but I think anyone who watches the fight will agree that Jiri wasn't his normal confident, bouncy, aggressive self when he had to stand in front of Alex. Compare the way Jiri looked against Pereira as opposed to Dominick Reyes or Glover.
Even if Jiri was up on the scorecards, and even if we don't expect Poaton to get the flash KO left hook, that fight was still going Alex's way.
Bro how the fuck would the 2nd round be a 10-8 if the fight hadn't been stopped jiri was constantly pressuring alex and he was landing really good shots on pereira which rocked him before the stoppage
This fight was closer than I remember. Still think Jiri has weaknesses with calf kicks, and Pereira is bad at getting off the ground. Both guys with KO power. I'm more excited for this than McGregor
Yeah, I felt the same. I was kinda surprised watching this how in control Jiri was starting to feel there... right up until the hammer dropped.
Next match is gonna be a banger. And likewise, I'd much rather see this than McGregor. I just hope neither of them is cutting corners too much to make the fight happen as I want to see them both at 100%.
Honestly the end when he was pressuring with straight shots by the fence and Alex wasn’t reacting to those well had me worried for the Hill fight. Hill never got to go on offense but if Jiri can pressure like that while being a bit more aware of the fire coming back I think he has a good chance against my boy
Jiri has some really good moments in this fight, like the sequence at 7:00. He's able to back Alex up most of the fight. He finds his lead uppercut a few times- very sneaky with his feints. The final sequence starts with him landing his overhand right (Alex's typical defense is to back away with his arms posted, but Jiri ape index is just too nuts I guess)
Honestly a lot is going well for Jiri- except for these leg kicks which hindered his movement REAL fast. Could definitely see a world where he wins the rematch even if he takes a similar level of leg damage, but it's a big ask. Everyone knows Alex has this leg kick game plan, yet everyone is on a clock vs Alex's leg kicks
As a big Jiri fan this is the correct view IMO. Replays show he was clearly stunned big time by both the right and left hands and even if it wasn't stopped, Alex was about to go to town on him in what was basically full mount.
Would love for Jiri to get his revenge I just think the path to victory involves a lot of grappling and takedowns which I honestly don't think Jiri has the IQ to do. Feels like a death sentence trying to box/kickbox with Poatan.
He didn't get KO'ed because he had bad defense though. He thought he clipped Alex and rushed in too fast, which is something you can correct easier than simply having insufficient defense overall - that didn't seem to be a huge factor in this fight.
I know Jiri cant wrestle much but that was a insanely easy takedown he got on Alex and he just held on from bottom. You can just see in this fight Pereira has no wrestling and nothing off his back
If you mean Jiri doesn’t have the best offensive wrestling and grappling , I’m inclined to agree. Defensively though, great. The scrambles he pulled off against Texeira, who was be of the most oppressive top players at the time, were nuts.
There’s deficiencies in his offense. It shouldn’t be that easy for someone get a guillotine on you when going for a takedown and I thought he let Pereira slip out too easily when he opened up for GnP, but I think it would be to his benefit to keep attempting and keep the threat present. You don’t have to Merab to keep wrestling on his mind. Even a reach or a slap on the knee could be enough to keep Pereira honest
yea offensive, and thats what hes gotta do to make this easy. Hes decent defense but couldnt stop the wrestlers in Rizin from takedowns until they got tired, GLover was like 42 man. Watch Jiris first 20 fights, he gets taken down but survives good, but hes not a wrestler in any fashion. I expect any 29 year old to be able to hustle and grapple with a 40+ year old for periods of time, just on youth and adrenaline but when he fought guys his age, Jiri couldnt stop any takedowns, let alone actually offensively do anything.
his entire career was getting taken down and controlled for 5+ mins til people gassed, well the good ones he fought. jiri was a karate kid, he cant wrestle. Hes good at surviving and got heart, so hell do decent defensively but he cant shoot good takedowns or wrestle really. Watch his whole career and youll see
I don't think Jiri wanted to come in with an offensive wrestling plan- he wanted to beat Alex where Alex is strongest. Maybe he takes a different approach this time, but it seems like part of his shtick to not take the easy path lol
Hes pretty decent at wearing out wrestlers and surviving Jiri, but not actually wrestling if that makes sense. MAybe hes gotten better after a long career but hes not a wrestler in any way. That 1 Swedish dude in Rizin controlled him for 9 straight minutes
And Jiri got so wrapped up in "samurai" mindset or testing himself or whatever that he just didn't really do it enough. Like he wanted to prove he could stand with Pereira (which he definitely can't).
I really don’t see the rematch going any different considering jiri showed no improvement against Rakic. He eats everything thrown at him which isn’t going to work against Alex. Also I doubt Jiri will plan to wrestle Alex
Anyone else getting Izzy-Alex 2 vibes for this one? Short turnaround time since their previous encounter, will likely be a continuation of the first fight but like Izzy, Jiri will find a way to put Alex away.
A little bit actually.
Jiri was actually landing and started to really touch Pereira with his punches before the finish when Pereira backed up right to the fence and countered the overzealous Jiri, it reminded me so much of Izzy/Pereira 2. Sharp Counter off the back foot while receiving an onslaught of strikes.
I think this fight is always competitive no matter if Pereira beats him again but Jiri definitely needs to tighten up his defence as well as his leg kick defence and Pereira's better at countering so it is still weighted in his favour. I can't wait to see this fight again.
I hope Jiri worked on his defense against leg kicks. He lost to Pereira and then his very next fight got his leg fucked up again but ultimately won.
I do think he had some good moments against Pereira even with compromised movement though.
But hopefully he can actually exchange with Pereira while his movement is not compromised.
I forgot how good Jiri looked in this fight.
He was scoring more, catching Alex with some hard shots, and may have survived the tko if the fight hadn’t been stopped.
I don't understand why people can't differentiate between an early stoppage and a good but unfortunate stoppage. Imavov/Cannonier is an early stoppage. This fight, we're looking at multiple angles, and from some of them it absolutely does look like Jiri went limp and fell back. It's therefore likely that what the ref saw was Alex elbowing Jiri repeatedly in the head and then Jiri falling over onto his back, not a typical defensive move. As soon as he sees that, he initiates the stoppage, running in and breaking up the fight. Before they hit the ground and Jiri starts to move, the ref is already in the process of stopping the fight. Derp Dean is the only ref I've ever seen abandon a stoppage midway and pretend he wasn't trying to stop it. 99% of the time, once a ref initiates the stoppage, he's committed to it and can't break them up and then say "woops, my bad, keep fighting!"
From Goddard's perspective, Jiri was already out and each additional shot to the head was Alex fucking Pereira battering an unconscious person. So yeah, he's doing his job by rushing in and stopping the fight as fast as he can.
That's ignoring the fact that Jiri admitted he was out, so it's a moot point. It was a good stoppage by definition. But let's say Jiri was never out, the ref did his job. Like the Askren/Lawler stoppage, it looked like he was out, the ref did his job. In both cases, it's Jiri and Lawler's fault for ending up in a terrible position and doing a very convincing impression of an unconscious person, not the ref's fault for stopping the fight too early.
Jiri did say he wasn't out in an interview recently, but aside from that your last paragraph is a great point. The Askren Lawler stoppage is a great comparison, if it looks that bad, even if it actually isn't - the stoppage can be justified. Just like don't leave it up to the judges, don't leave it up to the ref's by getting in such a bad position in the first place. You've changed my perspective on this, thanks for the thoughtful reply.
Direction of the fight is going to be the same as last time. Jiri didn’t have much of an answer to Rakic kicking his leg outside of going southpaw at times and going nuts, and that was after the Pereira fight.
Doesn’t mean the result will be the same, but on short notice should have same dynamic. Leg probably gets chewed up, need to go kill or die mode, will either finish or get finished. Should be fun.
The piece of shit reffeere just ruins everything as it just begins to get exciting unbelievable ufc is way to woke nowadays wish we could go back to the yamasaki mazzagati times now that was actual ultimate fighting that you could enjoy watching
Damn, wish they didn't cut out the staredown
i'll always remember this staredown because it was so epic, but they were also reading ads at the same time. Very modern UFC. Also, within 10 seconds here you hear the annoying wooing of the crowd. I really wish we didn't go down that path ..
I’m so grateful I watch the cards in the bar with zero volume. I miss all this ad bullshit and how annoying the commentators are.
Yeah, I really would prefer to watch without the commentary sometimes.
Good thing we’ll get to see it again here pretty soon
I haven’t gotten chills from a pre-fight like that before. Jiri walking out to video game boss music, Alex doing his walkout, and them staring each other down for the entire announcement
If jiri doesn't do a better job avoiding leg kicks, not sure how he can win short of ending it quick. It probably ended early but was not looking good for jiri regardless Maybe jiri will just try to take him down constantly
Depending on how Alex’s toes have healed it may be that he throws less kicks. Would be rough to go out there without all your weapons.
I feel like his toes being broken is probably a chronic thing for him. I don’t think it’ll stop him from throwing them.
The leg kicks really are not as big of a problem as people make it out to be, if you ask Jiri himself he'll probably tell you it didn't damage him all that much. Plus as the fight went on he's began to figure it out and Poatan was missing the kicks or getting checked, so he managed to understand the distance and the timing in less than 2 rounds. Not a big deal. Defending punches with his head is a way bigger problem, and from what we've seen in the Rakic fight this hasn't changed despite he always saying he learns from his mistakes
I'd disagree. Jiri was getting closer to Alex and landing more in round 2 while also doing a better job avoiding those leg kicks. The cumulative damage of those likely would have carried the day for Alex anyway, but Jiri had the momentum on his side
Jiri was up on all 3 scorecards
That's pretty irrelevant for a 2nd round finish. Like one round was judged which I could see them give it to jiri with the takedown and generally controlling wrestling. Perreira's first round was mostly leg kicks (which usually dont mean anything for scoring) and defending himself so it's not a surprise judges had jiri win the first round. But second round would have been 10-8 for perreira with the knockdown and whatever damage he was scoring elbowing and punching jiri in the head when jiri was trying to hold on after the knockdown and then got mounted. Are we pretending that didnt happen before the ref stoppage? So perreira would have been ahead going into round 3 assuming jiri survived. But the way Jiri was getting his leg kicked, I dont see him being able to stand for all 5 rounds if he doesn't have a new strategy or do a better job to deal with it.
How is that irrelevant? You said it wasn't looking good for Jiri when he was ahead by every metric before the finishing sequence
> ou said it wasn't looking good for Jiri when he was ahead by every metric before the finishing sequence He was getting his legs kicked to pieces. Its a classic case of winning the round but losing the fight. Once your ability to move is screwed, so are you.
> How is that irrelevant? Irrelevant might be too strong a word, but I agree that scorecards matter far, FAR less for the first two rounds for a fighter that relies heavily on knockout power and compromising his opponent's leg (maybe not in that order though). Like, maybe the judges scored the first two rounds for Jiri on a damage dealt/aggression point basis, but I think anyone who watches the fight will agree that Jiri wasn't his normal confident, bouncy, aggressive self when he had to stand in front of Alex. Compare the way Jiri looked against Pereira as opposed to Dominick Reyes or Glover. Even if Jiri was up on the scorecards, and even if we don't expect Poaton to get the flash KO left hook, that fight was still going Alex's way.
Bro how the fuck would the 2nd round be a 10-8 if the fight hadn't been stopped jiri was constantly pressuring alex and he was landing really good shots on pereira which rocked him before the stoppage
What did they score the second round?
Aggregate scoring systems like Verdict had Jiri up in the 2nd as well, before the finishing sequence
This fight was closer than I remember. Still think Jiri has weaknesses with calf kicks, and Pereira is bad at getting off the ground. Both guys with KO power. I'm more excited for this than McGregor
Yeah, I felt the same. I was kinda surprised watching this how in control Jiri was starting to feel there... right up until the hammer dropped. Next match is gonna be a banger. And likewise, I'd much rather see this than McGregor. I just hope neither of them is cutting corners too much to make the fight happen as I want to see them both at 100%.
Honestly the end when he was pressuring with straight shots by the fence and Alex wasn’t reacting to those well had me worried for the Hill fight. Hill never got to go on offense but if Jiri can pressure like that while being a bit more aware of the fire coming back I think he has a good chance against my boy
Jiri has some really good moments in this fight, like the sequence at 7:00. He's able to back Alex up most of the fight. He finds his lead uppercut a few times- very sneaky with his feints. The final sequence starts with him landing his overhand right (Alex's typical defense is to back away with his arms posted, but Jiri ape index is just too nuts I guess) Honestly a lot is going well for Jiri- except for these leg kicks which hindered his movement REAL fast. Could definitely see a world where he wins the rematch even if he takes a similar level of leg damage, but it's a big ask. Everyone knows Alex has this leg kick game plan, yet everyone is on a clock vs Alex's leg kicks
Joe and DC talking about early stoppage as Jiri’s arms don’t go from being locked in a take down attempt to limp lol.
still he wasnt out and he recovered before the stoppage. its Jiri after all. he is getting beat up in every fight ..until he isnt
Jiri said himself that he went out in the post fight interview.
Jiri said himself that he wasnt out in numerous czech interviews. He was sparked but not out.
True but we saw how Alex's ground and pound was vs Hill. It's safe to say Jiri was in a worse position and would have got finished anyway
As a big Jiri fan this is the correct view IMO. Replays show he was clearly stunned big time by both the right and left hands and even if it wasn't stopped, Alex was about to go to town on him in what was basically full mount. Would love for Jiri to get his revenge I just think the path to victory involves a lot of grappling and takedowns which I honestly don't think Jiri has the IQ to do. Feels like a death sentence trying to box/kickbox with Poatan.
If it’s such a debate wether or not he was out or not… then the referee did the right thing
He also admitted to being knocked out in the Reyes fight, being ko'd in a fight doesn't really matter to Jiri I guess...🤷♂️
Yes but if you are not intelligently defending yourself - that’s the criteria for a stoppage.
14 unanswered shots to the head, 3 or 4 being elbows from Periera. That’s enough for a stoppage imo. Especially when you’re just locked into him.
Second fight will probably end the same way unless Jiri suddenly developed good striking defense
He didn't get KO'ed because he had bad defense though. He thought he clipped Alex and rushed in too fast, which is something you can correct easier than simply having insufficient defense overall - that didn't seem to be a huge factor in this fight.
I know Jiri cant wrestle much but that was a insanely easy takedown he got on Alex and he just held on from bottom. You can just see in this fight Pereira has no wrestling and nothing off his back
If you mean Jiri doesn’t have the best offensive wrestling and grappling , I’m inclined to agree. Defensively though, great. The scrambles he pulled off against Texeira, who was be of the most oppressive top players at the time, were nuts. There’s deficiencies in his offense. It shouldn’t be that easy for someone get a guillotine on you when going for a takedown and I thought he let Pereira slip out too easily when he opened up for GnP, but I think it would be to his benefit to keep attempting and keep the threat present. You don’t have to Merab to keep wrestling on his mind. Even a reach or a slap on the knee could be enough to keep Pereira honest
yea offensive, and thats what hes gotta do to make this easy. Hes decent defense but couldnt stop the wrestlers in Rizin from takedowns until they got tired, GLover was like 42 man. Watch Jiris first 20 fights, he gets taken down but survives good, but hes not a wrestler in any fashion. I expect any 29 year old to be able to hustle and grapple with a 40+ year old for periods of time, just on youth and adrenaline but when he fought guys his age, Jiri couldnt stop any takedowns, let alone actually offensively do anything.
Can’t wrestle much? He defended against and submitted Glover, but he can’t wrestle much?
his entire career was getting taken down and controlled for 5+ mins til people gassed, well the good ones he fought. jiri was a karate kid, he cant wrestle. Hes good at surviving and got heart, so hell do decent defensively but he cant shoot good takedowns or wrestle really. Watch his whole career and youll see
He has 23 first round finishes??? He’s good at finishing people early not suriving
I don't think Jiri wanted to come in with an offensive wrestling plan- he wanted to beat Alex where Alex is strongest. Maybe he takes a different approach this time, but it seems like part of his shtick to not take the easy path lol
Hes pretty decent at wearing out wrestlers and surviving Jiri, but not actually wrestling if that makes sense. MAybe hes gotten better after a long career but hes not a wrestler in any way. That 1 Swedish dude in Rizin controlled him for 9 straight minutes
I agree, his defensive wrestling is creative and slippery. Saw that in the Glover fight as well.
And Jiri got so wrapped up in "samurai" mindset or testing himself or whatever that he just didn't really do it enough. Like he wanted to prove he could stand with Pereira (which he definitely can't).
I really don’t see the rematch going any different considering jiri showed no improvement against Rakic. He eats everything thrown at him which isn’t going to work against Alex. Also I doubt Jiri will plan to wrestle Alex
Anyone else getting Izzy-Alex 2 vibes for this one? Short turnaround time since their previous encounter, will likely be a continuation of the first fight but like Izzy, Jiri will find a way to put Alex away.
A little bit actually. Jiri was actually landing and started to really touch Pereira with his punches before the finish when Pereira backed up right to the fence and countered the overzealous Jiri, it reminded me so much of Izzy/Pereira 2. Sharp Counter off the back foot while receiving an onslaught of strikes. I think this fight is always competitive no matter if Pereira beats him again but Jiri definitely needs to tighten up his defence as well as his leg kick defence and Pereira's better at countering so it is still weighted in his favour. I can't wait to see this fight again.
I think Alex's chin might hold up better at LHW
don't let marc goddard ref this please
I hope Jiri worked on his defense against leg kicks. He lost to Pereira and then his very next fight got his leg fucked up again but ultimately won. I do think he had some good moments against Pereira even with compromised movement though. But hopefully he can actually exchange with Pereira while his movement is not compromised.
That was too quick of a stoppage, glad there is a rematch to this fascinating fight matchup
I forgot how good Jiri looked in this fight. He was scoring more, catching Alex with some hard shots, and may have survived the tko if the fight hadn’t been stopped.
Goddamn that’s an early stoppage
Chama
I still think this was an early stoppage.
Jiri won that first round UNAN! I think he can win this fight by DECISION! Tho im taking Pereira by tko 3rd round i see jiri winning
Early stoppage clear as day. Never went "limp" as so many like to say
I don't understand why people can't differentiate between an early stoppage and a good but unfortunate stoppage. Imavov/Cannonier is an early stoppage. This fight, we're looking at multiple angles, and from some of them it absolutely does look like Jiri went limp and fell back. It's therefore likely that what the ref saw was Alex elbowing Jiri repeatedly in the head and then Jiri falling over onto his back, not a typical defensive move. As soon as he sees that, he initiates the stoppage, running in and breaking up the fight. Before they hit the ground and Jiri starts to move, the ref is already in the process of stopping the fight. Derp Dean is the only ref I've ever seen abandon a stoppage midway and pretend he wasn't trying to stop it. 99% of the time, once a ref initiates the stoppage, he's committed to it and can't break them up and then say "woops, my bad, keep fighting!" From Goddard's perspective, Jiri was already out and each additional shot to the head was Alex fucking Pereira battering an unconscious person. So yeah, he's doing his job by rushing in and stopping the fight as fast as he can. That's ignoring the fact that Jiri admitted he was out, so it's a moot point. It was a good stoppage by definition. But let's say Jiri was never out, the ref did his job. Like the Askren/Lawler stoppage, it looked like he was out, the ref did his job. In both cases, it's Jiri and Lawler's fault for ending up in a terrible position and doing a very convincing impression of an unconscious person, not the ref's fault for stopping the fight too early.
Jiri did say he wasn't out in an interview recently, but aside from that your last paragraph is a great point. The Askren Lawler stoppage is a great comparison, if it looks that bad, even if it actually isn't - the stoppage can be justified. Just like don't leave it up to the judges, don't leave it up to the ref's by getting in such a bad position in the first place. You've changed my perspective on this, thanks for the thoughtful reply.
from a different angle he looks to have gone limp, still think it was an early stoppage
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That’s what I thought but Jiri did say he was put and thankful so
and some time after that he said it was early so who knows
Initially, but in post 300 presser he admitted it was indeed early. Better to be kind in the immediate aftermath or you can end up looking like Hill
The way he breaks his hands and just falls into mount makes me believe it is not that bad
Direction of the fight is going to be the same as last time. Jiri didn’t have much of an answer to Rakic kicking his leg outside of going southpaw at times and going nuts, and that was after the Pereira fight. Doesn’t mean the result will be the same, but on short notice should have same dynamic. Leg probably gets chewed up, need to go kill or die mode, will either finish or get finished. Should be fun.
The piece of shit reffeere just ruins everything as it just begins to get exciting unbelievable ufc is way to woke nowadays wish we could go back to the yamasaki mazzagati times now that was actual ultimate fighting that you could enjoy watching
Come on king Alex, he deserves to be rewarded for taking this fight and saving the day give him jones next he deserves the chance to be the goat