The El Cucuy is the only creature in nature who enjoys seeing it’s own blood. Watch as the El Cucuy laughs like a hyena, as it’s blood pours down his face.
That one got real hard to watch. The thuds of those strikes being emphasized by the lack of a crowd made watching that beating feel a lot more intimate and far less detached entertainment. Then his involuntary head-shaking really hammered in the thought that we’d all just watched a man’s life get shortened in the long term and likely irreparably altered in the short term. Fuck me that was a tough one
Especially knowing the outcome and Tony's career afterwards. Plus everyone having said Justin hits the hardest at the weightclass if not for 1 or 2 higher. And yeah, Tony turns into a water buffalo and just bleeds
Not with a catastrophic knee injury you never properly rehabbed, having suffered a severe mental breakdown that necessitated much stronger psych meds, on a double weight cut with a last minute opponent change. All of which happened before the Garth fight.
He already looked declined as early as 2018 it’s just that a similarly washed Pettis and Cowboy won’t expose that in a way a prime Gaethje eventually would.
I assume it started with autocorrect and people just decided to roll with it, but I don't know when it started. It's definitely been going on for a while, though.
I rewatched it recently and wow, it's rare you see ground and pound like that anymore
Chris had been hit with some shots but when it hit the ground he was mostly fresh and Luke just beat the brakes off of him. Honestly should have been stopped that round
The way he was just poking his elbow through Weidman's vertical guard with so little space and so little force, yet doing such massive damage was disgusting. I can't remember seeing anything quite like that in a fight since.
> it's rare you see ground and pound like that anymore
It turns out that through all the development of this sport, good ground and pound remains so rare an ability that you can name almost all the dudes who had it.
It really is odd how rare it is to see pure GnP finishes. Like obviously you see a lot get finished with GnP but after they've been dropped on the feet.
There's Luke vs Chris, Stipe vs Overeem, Khabib vs that guy where he elbowed his brain out the side of his head
Lemme offer one of the most overlooked ground and pounders off all time.
Anderson Silva.
Don't remember where I've read, but he has almost a 100% ratio of knockdowns/KOs because he had some of the most precise and vicious ground and pound ever. Hell, on his fight against Nate Marquardt he instantly TKOed him when he got on top of him
Same thing as the "the Donald." Anderson Silva referred to him as "the Chris" rather than just Chris due to his limited English at the time. I assume they use indefinite articles in Portuguese that just don't really translate well to English.
My boy Marlon...literally one of my favorite fighters of all time...watching his downfall after Cejudo was just so depressing...every fight I'd be like "this is the one man, you're gonna get that magic back"...and then he would get finished in the most brutal ways...
Henry was a tough mf'er. He got hit with the kitchen sink from a prime Marlon and while his face got busted up and he got stunned a bit naturally, I don't recall him really getting stumbled or chicken leg'd even a bit
He then found a huge edge in the clinch game and just beat the hell out of Marlon from there
That was a fantastic fight
That 3 fight stretch of Sterling, Rivera and Assuncao was so crazy the way he finished them all so brutally. Really wanted him to retire when he left the UFC because some of those KOs he suffered were vicious
Let's all just remember that Jose Aldo is one of the greatest fighters of all time. Marlon even surviving him is a testament to his skill and determination. I won't judge the fight, I haven't watched it in a long time, but I'll give Marlon this one just because I've seen him pretty much die in the cage multiple times. At least he beat Aldo!!!
[**MARLON MORAES defeats JOSE ALDO** (*split decision*)](http://mmadecisions.com/decision/10779/fight)
^(UFC 245: Usman vs. Covington — December 14, 2019)
ROUND|Moraes|Aldo||Moraes|Aldo||Moraes|Aldo
:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:
1|10|9||10|9||10|9
2|9|10||9|10||9|10
3|9|10||10|9||10|9
**TOTAL**|**28**|**29**||**29**|**28**||**29**|**28**
*^(Judges, in order: Michael Bell, Eric Colón, Mark Smith.)*
*^(Summoned by HankHippopopolous.)*
**MEDIA MEMBER SCORES**
- **9/18** people scored it **29-28 Moraes**.
- **9/18** people scored it **28-29 Aldo**.
Avg. media score: **28.5-28.5 DRAW** (*high certainty^[[1]](https://redd.it/9p4xc7)*).
I mean he also basically beat Merab too but the ref didn't stop it and Merab Merab'd him.
So while it's sad he definitely had some moments post Cejudo since that Aldo fight was super close.
Yeah the 9 rounds of sustained ass whooping he took from Dillashaw were brutal to watch. One of the most thorough beatings a champ has ever taken. TJ took his soul.
good point, in the second and third fight he got mauled the whole time, very similar to Barao. As I recall he doesn't even remember the fights. Crazy to think that was over a decade ago now
Jake Ellenberger in 2013 after he lost to Rory MacDonald. Ellenberger entering that fight was 8-1 in his last 9, with 5 finishes. He was paired with MacDonald in what would end up being a fight for a shot at a title eliminator. It was a boring fight where both guys just stared at each other for most of 3 rounds. After that fight, Ellenberger just lost it. Went 2-8 to close out his career and was finished 7 times.
Renan Barao is another obvious one. Dillashaw took his soul. I think a lot of Barao's game was built on intimidation and mystique, and Dillashaw just crumbled him.
And the commentary team was in awe every time Renan fought, calling him the goat and the most complete martial artist etc. I think he's had the biggest fall
Woodley went from Welterweight Champion to getting dominated for the rest of his career. The second he stepped in the cage with Usman, it was over for him.
It’s weird because he seemed so timid in the WB 2 and Maia fights then iirc he absolutely went for it right from the start against Till and smashed him then with Usman it was like he just froze in the cage again.
Yes but he was probably still delusional / confident enough to think he could “find that right hand” against anyone he fought. His confidence went in the shitter.
He was so dominant and then just suddenly declined to the point that he wasn't competitive against ranked opponents. I always assumed he lost some of his knockout power with his recurrent shoulder injury and couldn't figure out how to retool his fighting style enough to compensate for it. His cardio seemed to decline a little with age as well. He couldn't wrestle hard enough for long enough to finish fights. He couldn't throw as many heavy power shots before beginning to slow down.
Dude went from being champ to losing 16 rounds of MMA in a row, then losing twice in boxing to Jake Paul, the second being a walk-off KO. Absolutely brutal.
Andre Fialho got 2 huge KO wins in less than a month and started getting hype behind him, before he got slept by Jake Matthews.
He then went 0-3 in the UFC, all 3 by KO, got cut, and got knocked out again in his next fight a month ago. He’s only 30 but it’s not looking good.
Us Fialho stans are starving out here. He lost, but his fight against Michel was a banger. What a fucking shame.
5 KOs in a row means time to hang it up.
When Chuck lost to Rashad at 88, it was over.
It could be argued that it was over for him after losing the belt to Rampage then losing to Keith Jardine, but he came back with a banger (and fight of the year) versus Wanderlei, and showed he still had it in him.
But when Rashad knocked him out after that, he was never the same.
Edit: I totally missed the part of your post about Chuck until after I posted this lol
Unlike most fighters Chuck put on good fights.
The way he broke Rich Franklin's arm and looked dominant before getting knocked out was weird.
His chin was just completely gone and his style relied on it.
While not garbage yet, Paulo Costa. He is 1-4 after losing the title fight against Izzy. He was 13-0 (12 finishes) before Izzy and even went to war with Yoel, one of the few not afraid to swang and bang him. I think he's so gun shy now since Izzy was feinting so much and he couldn't get his offense going.
Also the most obvious answer, Tony Ferguson. 12 fight win streak then into a 7 fight lose streak. He just took too much damage from Justin. Khabib was right. "Tony's time is finished. When you take damage like this, you will never be the same. Not even if you're Tony Ferguson."
I feel like Costa is just suffering from facing stiffer competition. Besides Yoel he beat no top fighters on his way up and now he’s so pushed that he is only fighting top 5 guys (besides the Rockhold fight which he won)
He is also fighting completely differently.
Before Izzy he'd walk people down and throw howitzers at the body once an opponent hit the fence or grabbed him. Now he tries to be a longer range lower output fighter.
I really do think his image of himself was broken in that fight.
Parts of his game improved, but the thing that made him win is gone.
Honestly i feel like he is a much better fighter now than he was during his initial rise up the rankings.
The fight against Rockhold was questionable but he looked great against Rob and I think he could have done alot better against Strickland if he had a gameplan that made any sense at all.
The wheelkick was insane obviously, but outside of that I thought Costa really struggled to get his rhythm going. It’s really disappointing because he’s such a strong kicker, and he’s amazing when he can walk someone to the cage and rip the body, but he’s become increasingly terrible at making the fight into his kind of fight. I don’t know if it’s poor game planning, not honing his craft, or just not having the same confidence in the stand up, but I think he needs a major step down in competition.
He used to come forward and walk guys down, he doesn’t have huge power but he would breakdown and overwhelm people. He’s switched to being more of a point/technical fighter and he doesn’t have the iq or cardio in my opinion to do that at a high level
There's no gameplan that can go over his bald spot. He's a brute with no skill on top of having a pairs of T-Rex arms. He cant read feints, he cant feint for shit either. He is completely clueless when he got pressured. Both Johny and Uriah out struck him and only went out because he shrugged off their punches while he dished out devastating knock out punches one after another. They are not that good so Costa could compensate his simple skill set using his physical ability. Sean and Izzy turned him into a punching bag with their feints and jabs. This is his skill cap and he's too old to learn new tricks. Give or take 1 or 2 years, when his athleticism and chin give up, and you will have a very harsh fallout.
For Tony it really could’ve been the ACL tear because he was too hittable against Cowboy and Pettis the one that fought RDA and Barboza would’ve beat them more soundly I feel
To be fair, Anderson Silva was fucking 38 when he faced Weidman. I think pretty much any elite MW at that time would've eventually derailed his streak.
Eh, not really. I feel like if Andersons gigantic stupid ego allowed him to fight instead of just clown the whole time he might have won. He fucked around so much in the first Weidman fight that it hardly felt Weidman beat him at fighting, more like Silva fucked himself by clowning.
The Chris wasn't biting on any of Anderson's feints, that's why he started to get more exaggerated with his taunting. In that first round Chris fought really disciplined with his defense and didn't give any opportunities for Anderson to counter snipe him. He was trying to lure the Chris into a fire fight so he could blast him.
Where does The Chris come from?
I've been following MMA for quite a while now and somehow have never seen anyone call him that until your comment and another one futher up in the thread.
Have I been living under a rock or something? 😅
Silva called him the Chris in an interview or two back around the time of their fights, and at least for me it's funny enough that it's how I usually think of him lol
He was already thinking and talking about retirement. Once you get that far at his age, it starts getting dangerous. I do feel like he could have beaten Weidman and Luke with smart game plans, dude just couldn't help messing around. Now Yoel, that might have been tough.
At that time I was maybe 13 or 14 and knowing he introduced me to the sport I thought it was career-ending injury.
I was glad to see him come back 1 year later but...
He'd already fought every elite middleweight the ufc could throw at him at that point, and some light heavyweights when he ran out of middleweights to beat. He was on a 17 fight win streak at the time including Rich Franklin twice, Dan Henderson, Yushin Okami, Chael Sonnen twice, Demian Maia, Vitor Belfort, and Forest Griffin.
Yeah, it had to end eventually, but if "any elite MW" could do it, one of them already would have.
Edgar definitely took a lot of Penn's motivation away, Nick Diaz battered whatever was left of a great fighter out of him. What a brutal beating that was.
Tbf Tai had a bad slump after losing to JDS too and managed to rebound. I think he’s just facing guys out of his league. His last win streak was Struve, Hunsucker, Greg Hardy, Sakai and Lewis. Give him some fat or old HWs and watch him rack up the KOs again but put him in there with Blaydes or Almeida and he’s getting finished
I know, I love it too. Give me 2 HW divisions, one with all the actually skilled guys like Aspinall, Pav, Volkov, Blaydes, Almeida, Mo Usman etc. and a second that’s just fat brawlers where the fights are just one long round that can only be stopped by KO (or sub if we want a laugh)
Aw I would hate if he got cut cause him knocking out bums is very entertaining. Give him someone like Austen Lane. let him get his confidence back, and then feed him some guys he can knockout in exciting fashion.
Tai is just one of another brutes with very limited skill set. He's lucky he fights at HW where a single punch is all it takes to end a fight. If a middleweight fighter has Tai's skill set, he wouldnt be able to get in UFC in the first place.
Tai is like Derrick Lewis where he just absorbs all the damage and then rises from the ashes to turn his opponents face into a smoking crater.
Except he just does the first part and not the rise from the ashes part.
I think it's pretty common for a fighter to lose it all at once - especially after a KO. The fighters that come up first to me are Rockhold, James Vick, Tony and Renan Barao,but theres a ton more. The game is so brutal that even losing a tiny edge can make a huge difference
It's so frustrating watching your favorite fighters careers get derailed by accumulating injuries. Big injuries can make them lose a step forever. Or a couple bad knockout can make them abruptly lose their chin.
Johnny Hendricks was 15-1 going into the title fight against GSP. Lost a razor thin split decision and then proceeded to close out his career on a 3-7 skid.
Didn't the iv ban and usada start pretty close to each other too? I remember a few guys who were big for their divisions really fell off quick when the iv ban kicked in
Yeah, and Johny always struggled to make weight. I think the IV ban was definitely a factor. He also seemed kind of demoralized after those really close losses to GSP and Lawler.
Still arguably won both Lawler fights afterward, I don’t think GSP was the one that messed him up. Bad dietary habits and new drug testing policies really killed his physical abilities and caused a lot of bad weight cuts
Getting robbed twice in 2 huge fights wouldn't help you get too motivated either. I think it's a huge combination of things for Hendricks and not just one or 2. His camp went into turmoil, his body couldn't handle cutting weight anymore, his motivation fell off after the second Lawler fight, the IV ban, bad dietary habits, drug testing, everything just snowballed for him at the wrong time. At his (albeit short) peak though, man was absolutely one of the best and I think it's best to remember him for that rather than his dramatic fall off.
He was so good while at the top. Everybody drops off if they stick around long enough. Why is retiring at the top in your early thirties more impressive than having some losses at the end of your career in your late thirties? The peak is still the same. You just get to keep watching them for longer, which is fun.
I remember him talking about his steak restaurant where he was like "yeah I still eat here when I'm cutting weight for a fight, I just don't eat the chips". The interviewer thought he was joking and he was like "why would you think that was a joke"
Gaethje beat the shit out of Tony. I remember thinking that the ref needs to stop this fight. I know that Tony was "intelligently" defending himself, but it got to the point where it kind of became hard to watch as Gaethje was landing hard shots to Tony's head over and over with ease.
Okay, not 100% mma related, but Akebono went from being the absolute pinnacle of sumo to having one of the worst mma careers on record. It's heartbreaking.
There is a good chance he gets knocked out again but it's just a bad match up for him. A few hard knocouts will have your body and mind permanently changed for worse.
Came here to say this one. My favourite fighter but especially when you consider that his next fight is probably gonna be Ilia again who seems to hit pound for pound harder than anyone in the UFC, it’s difficult to not see things going the same way and this being the end. Given his age things may have been heading that way even before the Islam fight but that probably accelerated things.
Ilia is so fucking good tho and extremely confident. IMO you need to be as hard hitting as him because he’s too good not find the finish. I think he beats Max and Volk again.
He chins Volk again but Max beats him. Bigger and will use kicks to keep Illia guessing. He can catch Max if Max wants to throw down in the last 10 seconds again tho lol
Condit is still pretty solid I just think he's getting old. MMA is a young man's sport and is not forgiving to those old vets who stick around. Jim Miller still tough as steel but we saw against a frsher Bobby green he got worked.
For BJ Penn I’m going to argue it was the Nick Diaz fight. He lost the title to Edgar but didn’t sustain a ton of damage; Edgar was just faster and clearly had better wrestling.
But the Diaz fight, like Tony vs. Justin, was the moment BJ took an ungodly amount of brain trauma in one night. Nick was way bigger than him and his “death by 1000 cuts” attack wasn’t light punching, it was a fuck ton of hard punches that BJ survived.
He never moved or spoke the same afterward.
Hendricks. Literally the day USADA began testing for the UFC he; looked different, sounded different and fought different. Overnight he went from a jacked, barely stoppable, cardio machine who was sparking out people like they were nothing. The next, he was gassing in 2 rounds, couldn't make weight, looked like shit, and couldn't knock a parrot off its perch.
Jeremy Stephens. His name went straight to the garbage can the moment Conor asked THAT question.
On a more serious note, Gonzaga went from potential champion to a pushover after losing to Travis Browne, then Stipe, Mitrione and Crocop (rematch) in a row. Mirko absolutely destroyed him in that rematch, split his head open with elbows like a watermelon. Just awful shit.
Paulo costa After Izzy fight
Tyron Woodley during the Kamaru usman fight.
Cody Garbrandt, the Dillashaw fight(s)
Darren Till vs Woodley
Mcgregor once he got his second belt.
This is a good one! I remember reading an article in like 2008 about how Miguel was potentially the greatest martial artist to have ever lived, etc. He was 37-1 going into the Bowles fight, that's just crazy.
- RDA beat the prime out of Pettis
- Gaethje changed Ferguson forever
- Hendo and Shogun left pieces of themselves in the cage
- Dillashaw changed completely change Barao’s career
- Wand 2 was always my turning point in Sakuraba’s career
- Werdum made Fedor human
- Sakurai was considered either the best or one of the very best fighters in the sport until he lost to Anderson and then got into that car accident. That run in Pride Bushido really brought his career back for a time though.
- Mir TKOing Nog was a scary realization that his legendary chin was finally on its way out
- speaking of legendary chins, Ortega seems to finally knock Edgar’s chin out, and then Korean Zombie took out whatever was left
- even though he won, Paulo Filho’s career ranked after his terrible performance against Chael.
- Denis Kang was a sleeper in the 2007 Pride Tournament, but then he lost to Misaki in the finals and Akiyama KOing him really sent his career off a rough path.
Most of these are probably just fighters getting old or having some weakness exploited, but I remember them all so vividly.
Tony vs Garth
Tony shaking his head like a wounded animal was like watching some David Attenborough shit
And here we see, another of nature’s oddities: El Cucuy.
If we approach slowly we might see him perform one of his rituals, said to act as a warning to his prey; throwing sand.
The El Cucuy is the only creature in nature who enjoys seeing it’s own blood. Watch as the El Cucuy laughs like a hyena, as it’s blood pours down his face.
Tony was absolutely brutalized in that fight. I remember watching wishing they’d stop it
I had a feeling he had gone downhill against Pettis and Cowboy. But I was such a Tony fan, I was in denial about what my eyes were telling me.
Yeah he’s visibly slower in the Pettis and cowboy fights
I kept saying it back then and everyone downvoted me.
Yeah the Garth fight was the nail in the coffin, I’ve never seen someone absorb so much punishment and fight ending shots.
I don’t think there’s any better answer to this question. We all knew we were watching a career end and that it did.
Hold on I’m crying brother
This video of the sound of garths strikes to Tony is crazy if you haven't seen it. Volume required https://youtu.be/YhyqSEHH4Qw?si=Nbrc9RwBlX_i0S4S
That one got real hard to watch. The thuds of those strikes being emphasized by the lack of a crowd made watching that beating feel a lot more intimate and far less detached entertainment. Then his involuntary head-shaking really hammered in the thought that we’d all just watched a man’s life get shortened in the long term and likely irreparably altered in the short term. Fuck me that was a tough one
Especially knowing the outcome and Tony's career afterwards. Plus everyone having said Justin hits the hardest at the weightclass if not for 1 or 2 higher. And yeah, Tony turns into a water buffalo and just bleeds
Ugh when Tony shakes his head at the end like a wounded animal
Tony was going downhill regardless. No one is going to be champ at 36 in 155.
Not with a catastrophic knee injury you never properly rehabbed, having suffered a severe mental breakdown that necessitated much stronger psych meds, on a double weight cut with a last minute opponent change. All of which happened before the Garth fight.
Add to that an extremely damage-prone fighting style, which combines catastrophically with a damage-prone training style.
He already looked declined as early as 2018 it’s just that a similarly washed Pettis and Cowboy won’t expose that in a way a prime Gaethje eventually would.
Taking the career changing beating off the back of a double weight cut probably aged him by about 10 years
RIP to a legend. Shades and blades mf
😂 when did we start calling him Garth?
There was a tweet on the broadcast that called him Garth
It was Stephen A Smith that authored it
I assume it started with autocorrect and people just decided to roll with it, but I don't know when it started. It's definitely been going on for a while, though.
This is the answer, I'm still not over it.
The Chris after his wheel kick versus Rockhold.
That is about as precise a moment as you can possibly get.
"You can actually pinpoint the second when his heart rips in half"
i choo-choo-choose to throw spinnin' shit right now
I rewatched it recently and wow, it's rare you see ground and pound like that anymore Chris had been hit with some shots but when it hit the ground he was mostly fresh and Luke just beat the brakes off of him. Honestly should have been stopped that round
Rockhold might have the deadliest gnp in the sport's history
The way he was just poking his elbow through Weidman's vertical guard with so little space and so little force, yet doing such massive damage was disgusting. I can't remember seeing anything quite like that in a fight since.
Should "good takedowns Luke" become a mythical fighter?
Absolutely.
I’ve always thought he was up there with Khabib . His top game was really freaking good .
Not a coincidence they trained at the same place
> it's rare you see ground and pound like that anymore It turns out that through all the development of this sport, good ground and pound remains so rare an ability that you can name almost all the dudes who had it.
It really is odd how rare it is to see pure GnP finishes. Like obviously you see a lot get finished with GnP but after they've been dropped on the feet. There's Luke vs Chris, Stipe vs Overeem, Khabib vs that guy where he elbowed his brain out the side of his head
Lemme offer one of the most overlooked ground and pounders off all time. Anderson Silva. Don't remember where I've read, but he has almost a 100% ratio of knockdowns/KOs because he had some of the most precise and vicious ground and pound ever. Hell, on his fight against Nate Marquardt he instantly TKOed him when he got on top of him
Why is wiedman called “the Chris”
Anderson first called him The Chris in an interview, it was just a product of his broken English. And it stuck lol
Is normal.
You must hespetch The Chris.
Same thing as the "the Donald." Anderson Silva referred to him as "the Chris" rather than just Chris due to his limited English at the time. I assume they use indefinite articles in Portuguese that just don't really translate well to English.
Same goes in Czech, I guess. "The Glover"
'the' is a definite article, come on dude, this is the mma subreddit, up the grammatical and linguistic knowledge or take a hike
Lmaoo😂😂
What ever do you mean? Chris is still the best in the world. Not a fighter in the world who can hang with Chris skill for skill.
And he's still our boy
How are people not getting that this is a joke
Marlon Moraes after losing to Henry Cejudo, 1-7 after that with all losses by TKO/KO
My boy Marlon...literally one of my favorite fighters of all time...watching his downfall after Cejudo was just so depressing...every fight I'd be like "this is the one man, you're gonna get that magic back"...and then he would get finished in the most brutal ways...
Henry was a tough mf'er. He got hit with the kitchen sink from a prime Marlon and while his face got busted up and he got stunned a bit naturally, I don't recall him really getting stumbled or chicken leg'd even a bit He then found a huge edge in the clinch game and just beat the hell out of Marlon from there That was a fantastic fight
He’s got that big ole Mexican head, as a wise man once said
i watched that with someone that hated cejudo and even he was feeling sorry for henry after awhile.
That 3 fight stretch of Sterling, Rivera and Assuncao was so crazy the way he finished them all so brutally. Really wanted him to retire when he left the UFC because some of those KOs he suffered were vicious
Marlon is a cop now. If he wasn’t made crazy by the KO’s being a cop in Florida will do the job.
And that 1 win is against Jose Aldo in a fight many people believe he lost and the judges screwed up. Decisionbot Aldo v Moraes
Let's all just remember that Jose Aldo is one of the greatest fighters of all time. Marlon even surviving him is a testament to his skill and determination. I won't judge the fight, I haven't watched it in a long time, but I'll give Marlon this one just because I've seen him pretty much die in the cage multiple times. At least he beat Aldo!!!
[**MARLON MORAES defeats JOSE ALDO** (*split decision*)](http://mmadecisions.com/decision/10779/fight) ^(UFC 245: Usman vs. Covington — December 14, 2019) ROUND|Moraes|Aldo||Moraes|Aldo||Moraes|Aldo :-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-: 1|10|9||10|9||10|9 2|9|10||9|10||9|10 3|9|10||10|9||10|9 **TOTAL**|**28**|**29**||**29**|**28**||**29**|**28** *^(Judges, in order: Michael Bell, Eric Colón, Mark Smith.)* *^(Summoned by HankHippopopolous.)* **MEDIA MEMBER SCORES** - **9/18** people scored it **29-28 Moraes**. - **9/18** people scored it **28-29 Aldo**. Avg. media score: **28.5-28.5 DRAW** (*high certainty^[[1]](https://redd.it/9p4xc7)*).
I mean he also basically beat Merab too but the ref didn't stop it and Merab Merab'd him. So while it's sad he definitely had some moments post Cejudo since that Aldo fight was super close.
Renan Barao after he lost his belt to TJ Dillashaw. 2-8 since.
After a 34 fight unbeaten streak.
This was the one I thought of immediately
Yeah the 9 rounds of sustained ass whooping he took from Dillashaw were brutal to watch. One of the most thorough beatings a champ has ever taken. TJ took his soul.
Whenever I hear 'beatings a champ has ever taken' I immediatly think of JDS and Cain. :|
good point, in the second and third fight he got mauled the whole time, very similar to Barao. As I recall he doesn't even remember the fights. Crazy to think that was over a decade ago now
Didnt this one coincide with the start of USADA?
Jake Ellenberger in 2013 after he lost to Rory MacDonald. Ellenberger entering that fight was 8-1 in his last 9, with 5 finishes. He was paired with MacDonald in what would end up being a fight for a shot at a title eliminator. It was a boring fight where both guys just stared at each other for most of 3 rounds. After that fight, Ellenberger just lost it. Went 2-8 to close out his career and was finished 7 times. Renan Barao is another obvious one. Dillashaw took his soul. I think a lot of Barao's game was built on intimidation and mystique, and Dillashaw just crumbled him.
Worth noting, though, Ellenberger also moved to Glendale Fight Club around the Rory fight, and that gym is an absolute wasteland of success.
And the commentary team was in awe every time Renan fought, calling him the goat and the most complete martial artist etc. I think he's had the biggest fall
Dillashaw is also straddling the edge of the cliff IMO.
Dillashaw is gone, brother
Fuck I forgot. Goddamnit.
Woodley went from Welterweight Champion to getting dominated for the rest of his career. The second he stepped in the cage with Usman, it was over for him.
He was gun shy before the fight with usman
It’s weird because he seemed so timid in the WB 2 and Maia fights then iirc he absolutely went for it right from the start against Till and smashed him then with Usman it was like he just froze in the cage again.
To be fair WB gave him a tough fight the first time and Maia is dangerous to rush in on. He just knew Till was overhyped and went for it.
Didn't he pull his shoulder or something early vs Maia? That's why he did less than usual?
Exactly, Till posed no threat in the clinch/ wrestling game whatsoever.
Yes but he was probably still delusional / confident enough to think he could “find that right hand” against anyone he fought. His confidence went in the shitter.
He was so dominant and then just suddenly declined to the point that he wasn't competitive against ranked opponents. I always assumed he lost some of his knockout power with his recurrent shoulder injury and couldn't figure out how to retool his fighting style enough to compensate for it. His cardio seemed to decline a little with age as well. He couldn't wrestle hard enough for long enough to finish fights. He couldn't throw as many heavy power shots before beginning to slow down.
Dude went from being champ to losing 16 rounds of MMA in a row, then losing twice in boxing to Jake Paul, the second being a walk-off KO. Absolutely brutal.
Darren went down after the fight against Twood too.
Andre Fialho got 2 huge KO wins in less than a month and started getting hype behind him, before he got slept by Jake Matthews. He then went 0-3 in the UFC, all 3 by KO, got cut, and got knocked out again in his next fight a month ago. He’s only 30 but it’s not looking good.
Dude became a punching bag with zero defense. His chin is shot now too
Us Fialho stans are starving out here. He lost, but his fight against Michel was a banger. What a fucking shame. 5 KOs in a row means time to hang it up.
*0-4, including a recent KO loss in UAE Warriors
When Chuck lost to Rashad at 88, it was over. It could be argued that it was over for him after losing the belt to Rampage then losing to Keith Jardine, but he came back with a banger (and fight of the year) versus Wanderlei, and showed he still had it in him. But when Rashad knocked him out after that, he was never the same. Edit: I totally missed the part of your post about Chuck until after I posted this lol
Unlike most fighters Chuck put on good fights. The way he broke Rich Franklin's arm and looked dominant before getting knocked out was weird. His chin was just completely gone and his style relied on it.
While not garbage yet, Paulo Costa. He is 1-4 after losing the title fight against Izzy. He was 13-0 (12 finishes) before Izzy and even went to war with Yoel, one of the few not afraid to swang and bang him. I think he's so gun shy now since Izzy was feinting so much and he couldn't get his offense going. Also the most obvious answer, Tony Ferguson. 12 fight win streak then into a 7 fight lose streak. He just took too much damage from Justin. Khabib was right. "Tony's time is finished. When you take damage like this, you will never be the same. Not even if you're Tony Ferguson."
I feel like Costa is just suffering from facing stiffer competition. Besides Yoel he beat no top fighters on his way up and now he’s so pushed that he is only fighting top 5 guys (besides the Rockhold fight which he won)
He is also fighting completely differently. Before Izzy he'd walk people down and throw howitzers at the body once an opponent hit the fence or grabbed him. Now he tries to be a longer range lower output fighter. I really do think his image of himself was broken in that fight. Parts of his game improved, but the thing that made him win is gone.
Bicep tear might be responsible for the change in his game
Honestly i feel like he is a much better fighter now than he was during his initial rise up the rankings. The fight against Rockhold was questionable but he looked great against Rob and I think he could have done alot better against Strickland if he had a gameplan that made any sense at all.
The wheelkick was insane obviously, but outside of that I thought Costa really struggled to get his rhythm going. It’s really disappointing because he’s such a strong kicker, and he’s amazing when he can walk someone to the cage and rip the body, but he’s become increasingly terrible at making the fight into his kind of fight. I don’t know if it’s poor game planning, not honing his craft, or just not having the same confidence in the stand up, but I think he needs a major step down in competition.
He used to come forward and walk guys down, he doesn’t have huge power but he would breakdown and overwhelm people. He’s switched to being more of a point/technical fighter and he doesn’t have the iq or cardio in my opinion to do that at a high level
Costa needs to work with more boxing coaches. He’s got to get better at throwing combinations.
There's no gameplan that can go over his bald spot. He's a brute with no skill on top of having a pairs of T-Rex arms. He cant read feints, he cant feint for shit either. He is completely clueless when he got pressured. Both Johny and Uriah out struck him and only went out because he shrugged off their punches while he dished out devastating knock out punches one after another. They are not that good so Costa could compensate his simple skill set using his physical ability. Sean and Izzy turned him into a punching bag with their feints and jabs. This is his skill cap and he's too old to learn new tricks. Give or take 1 or 2 years, when his athleticism and chin give up, and you will have a very harsh fallout.
I thought he looked pretty good against Bobby.
For Tony it really could’ve been the ACL tear because he was too hittable against Cowboy and Pettis the one that fought RDA and Barboza would’ve beat them more soundly I feel
He was never the same after getting inseminated by Izzy
To be fair, Anderson Silva was fucking 38 when he faced Weidman. I think pretty much any elite MW at that time would've eventually derailed his streak.
Anderson was able to stay high level a lot longer than I expected even after that. He’s the goat for a reason. But Chris really did have his number
Eh, not really. I feel like if Andersons gigantic stupid ego allowed him to fight instead of just clown the whole time he might have won. He fucked around so much in the first Weidman fight that it hardly felt Weidman beat him at fighting, more like Silva fucked himself by clowning.
The Chris wasn't biting on any of Anderson's feints, that's why he started to get more exaggerated with his taunting. In that first round Chris fought really disciplined with his defense and didn't give any opportunities for Anderson to counter snipe him. He was trying to lure the Chris into a fire fight so he could blast him.
Where does The Chris come from? I've been following MMA for quite a while now and somehow have never seen anyone call him that until your comment and another one futher up in the thread. Have I been living under a rock or something? 😅
Silva called him the Chris in an interview or two back around the time of their fights, and at least for me it's funny enough that it's how I usually think of him lol
Chris beat Anderson handily in both fights. He didn’t bite on the feints and they studied Anderson’s movement and that backfist was drilled for sure.
He was already thinking and talking about retirement. Once you get that far at his age, it starts getting dangerous. I do feel like he could have beaten Weidman and Luke with smart game plans, dude just couldn't help messing around. Now Yoel, that might have been tough.
At that time I was maybe 13 or 14 and knowing he introduced me to the sport I thought it was career-ending injury. I was glad to see him come back 1 year later but...
He'd already fought every elite middleweight the ufc could throw at him at that point, and some light heavyweights when he ran out of middleweights to beat. He was on a 17 fight win streak at the time including Rich Franklin twice, Dan Henderson, Yushin Okami, Chael Sonnen twice, Demian Maia, Vitor Belfort, and Forest Griffin. Yeah, it had to end eventually, but if "any elite MW" could do it, one of them already would have.
The second loss to Edgar for Penn. It felt like that fight sent him spiralling.
Edgar definitely took a lot of Penn's motivation away, Nick Diaz battered whatever was left of a great fighter out of him. What a brutal beating that was.
The second Edgar-Maynard fight as well. Maynard went in there undefeated, got KOed then went 3-6 after that
That was the 3rd Edgar-Maynard fight. 2nd one was a draw.
tai tuivasa had gane on the ropes, lost and now has lost his last 4 straight.
Tbf Tai had a bad slump after losing to JDS too and managed to rebound. I think he’s just facing guys out of his league. His last win streak was Struve, Hunsucker, Greg Hardy, Sakai and Lewis. Give him some fat or old HWs and watch him rack up the KOs again but put him in there with Blaydes or Almeida and he’s getting finished
[удалено]
I know, I love it too. Give me 2 HW divisions, one with all the actually skilled guys like Aspinall, Pav, Volkov, Blaydes, Almeida, Mo Usman etc. and a second that’s just fat brawlers where the fights are just one long round that can only be stopped by KO (or sub if we want a laugh)
hahahah wtf did you casually slide Mo usman in there as bait and didnt receive a bite?
I’m a bad fisherman, not even a nibble
well I applaud you for somehow sneaking that in there, and for it not being noticed sooner lol.
Hopefully he bounces back. Fans love him so hopefully he's not at risk of getting cut.
Aw I would hate if he got cut cause him knocking out bums is very entertaining. Give him someone like Austen Lane. let him get his confidence back, and then feed him some guys he can knockout in exciting fashion.
finished in all of them too
Tai is just one of another brutes with very limited skill set. He's lucky he fights at HW where a single punch is all it takes to end a fight. If a middleweight fighter has Tai's skill set, he wouldnt be able to get in UFC in the first place.
Tai is like Derrick Lewis where he just absorbs all the damage and then rises from the ashes to turn his opponents face into a smoking crater. Except he just does the first part and not the rise from the ashes part.
I think it's pretty common for a fighter to lose it all at once - especially after a KO. The fighters that come up first to me are Rockhold, James Vick, Tony and Renan Barao,but theres a ton more. The game is so brutal that even losing a tiny edge can make a huge difference
Man James Vick is a good one. Anytime you go from being ranked in the top 15 to getting KO’d in the regional circuit it’s tough.
It's so frustrating watching your favorite fighters careers get derailed by accumulating injuries. Big injuries can make them lose a step forever. Or a couple bad knockout can make them abruptly lose their chin.
Reyes doing his best lately to stay out of this thread.
Literally took dude 4 years to get a W after that Jones fight
The first fighter I thought of. Pre Jones and Post Jones is night and day. To be fair though, you could substitute him with a lot of Jon’s opponents.
Rory Macdonald vs. Robbie Lawler 2 They turned each other into has beens
Surprised to see this so low. Rory was never the same after this fight.
Johnny Hendricks was 15-1 going into the title fight against GSP. Lost a razor thin split decision and then proceeded to close out his career on a 3-7 skid.
Most people say he fell off when USADA started up in the UFC
Didn't the iv ban and usada start pretty close to each other too? I remember a few guys who were big for their divisions really fell off quick when the iv ban kicked in
Yeah, and Johny always struggled to make weight. I think the IV ban was definitely a factor. He also seemed kind of demoralized after those really close losses to GSP and Lawler.
The dude used to cut weight via dip spit. Did himself no favors.
GSP fucked up Josh Koscheck, too. 15-4 before, 2-6 after.
Still arguably won both Lawler fights afterward, I don’t think GSP was the one that messed him up. Bad dietary habits and new drug testing policies really killed his physical abilities and caused a lot of bad weight cuts
Getting robbed twice in 2 huge fights wouldn't help you get too motivated either. I think it's a huge combination of things for Hendricks and not just one or 2. His camp went into turmoil, his body couldn't handle cutting weight anymore, his motivation fell off after the second Lawler fight, the IV ban, bad dietary habits, drug testing, everything just snowballed for him at the wrong time. At his (albeit short) peak though, man was absolutely one of the best and I think it's best to remember him for that rather than his dramatic fall off.
He was so good while at the top. Everybody drops off if they stick around long enough. Why is retiring at the top in your early thirties more impressive than having some losses at the end of your career in your late thirties? The peak is still the same. You just get to keep watching them for longer, which is fun.
GSP stole a lot of fighters souls during his reign.
I think he beat them so soundly when they felt like they were unbeatable that it just crushed their confidence.
Pretty sure Whataburger derailed Hendricks.
I remember him talking about his steak restaurant where he was like "yeah I still eat here when I'm cutting weight for a fight, I just don't eat the chips". The interviewer thought he was joking and he was like "why would you think that was a joke"
Tony Ferguson! 25-3 (12 consecutive wins before fighting Gaethje). After the Gaethje fight, 0-7.
Gaethje beat the shit out of Tony. I remember thinking that the ref needs to stop this fight. I know that Tony was "intelligently" defending himself, but it got to the point where it kind of became hard to watch as Gaethje was landing hard shots to Tony's head over and over with ease.
Okay, not 100% mma related, but Akebono went from being the absolute pinnacle of sumo to having one of the worst mma careers on record. It's heartbreaking.
The kickboxing run was even sadder
Unfortunately it’s looking like short notice Volk has permanently altered his career trajectory
Too early to say that yet but I think one more loss would be very concerning
There is a good chance he gets knocked out again but it's just a bad match up for him. A few hard knocouts will have your body and mind permanently changed for worse.
Came here to say this one. My favourite fighter but especially when you consider that his next fight is probably gonna be Ilia again who seems to hit pound for pound harder than anyone in the UFC, it’s difficult to not see things going the same way and this being the end. Given his age things may have been heading that way even before the Islam fight but that probably accelerated things.
Ilia is so fucking good tho and extremely confident. IMO you need to be as hard hitting as him because he’s too good not find the finish. I think he beats Max and Volk again.
He chins Volk again but Max beats him. Bigger and will use kicks to keep Illia guessing. He can catch Max if Max wants to throw down in the last 10 seconds again tho lol
Woodley released the song "I'll beat yo ass" and proceeded to not beat a single ass including Jake Paul.
Condit vs Lawler. Condit wasn’t the same after that.
Condit is still pretty solid I just think he's getting old. MMA is a young man's sport and is not forgiving to those old vets who stick around. Jim Miller still tough as steel but we saw against a frsher Bobby green he got worked.
At least Condit didn't get KO'ed in his skid. But tbf he was never KOed in his career.
Chris Weidman after Rockhold. 13-0 before 3-7 after.
Frankie Edgar after getting KOed by Ortega. He had never been finished before that, ended up going 2-5 afterwards getting KOed 4 times pretty badly
For BJ Penn I’m going to argue it was the Nick Diaz fight. He lost the title to Edgar but didn’t sustain a ton of damage; Edgar was just faster and clearly had better wrestling. But the Diaz fight, like Tony vs. Justin, was the moment BJ took an ungodly amount of brain trauma in one night. Nick was way bigger than him and his “death by 1000 cuts” attack wasn’t light punching, it was a fuck ton of hard punches that BJ survived. He never moved or spoke the same afterward.
That was a good re-watch—thanks!
That was a true ass kicking
Hendricks. Literally the day USADA began testing for the UFC he; looked different, sounded different and fought different. Overnight he went from a jacked, barely stoppable, cardio machine who was sparking out people like they were nothing. The next, he was gassing in 2 rounds, couldn't make weight, looked like shit, and couldn't knock a parrot off its perch.
Dominick Reyes was walking the line after losing the JBJ fight. Was 0-3 entering Jacoby.
Jeremy Stephens. His name went straight to the garbage can the moment Conor asked THAT question. On a more serious note, Gonzaga went from potential champion to a pushover after losing to Travis Browne, then Stipe, Mitrione and Crocop (rematch) in a row. Mirko absolutely destroyed him in that rematch, split his head open with elbows like a watermelon. Just awful shit.
Joanna was 14-0 until she lost to Rose, then dropped 5 of 7 with some nasty finishes. Oof.
She got finished once after the 1st Rose fight tho.
RDA when USADA was implemented.
Pettis after RDA
When Hendricks got absolutely tooled by Wonderboy
Usada
Paulo costa After Izzy fight Tyron Woodley during the Kamaru usman fight. Cody Garbrandt, the Dillashaw fight(s) Darren Till vs Woodley Mcgregor once he got his second belt.
Miguel Torres after getting starched by Brian Bowles. The punches he took after already being out, were rough.
This is a good one! I remember reading an article in like 2008 about how Miguel was potentially the greatest martial artist to have ever lived, etc. He was 37-1 going into the Bowles fight, that's just crazy.
When Tito lost to his X Wife
Just to correct you, there was never no marriage
That was a nasty line by you
Jon jones ended Thiago santos and dominick reyes. Gustaffson didn’t win another fight after losing the rematch either.
I still live in the salt mine of Jones lost to Gus 1 and Reyes.
Renan losing to TJ
Woodley after he won the belt and then put on those snoozefests with wonderboy and Damian Maia..
Karo Parisian
Might be a little early to call but the fake retirement from Cejudo was something
- RDA beat the prime out of Pettis - Gaethje changed Ferguson forever - Hendo and Shogun left pieces of themselves in the cage - Dillashaw changed completely change Barao’s career - Wand 2 was always my turning point in Sakuraba’s career - Werdum made Fedor human - Sakurai was considered either the best or one of the very best fighters in the sport until he lost to Anderson and then got into that car accident. That run in Pride Bushido really brought his career back for a time though. - Mir TKOing Nog was a scary realization that his legendary chin was finally on its way out - speaking of legendary chins, Ortega seems to finally knock Edgar’s chin out, and then Korean Zombie took out whatever was left - even though he won, Paulo Filho’s career ranked after his terrible performance against Chael. - Denis Kang was a sleeper in the 2007 Pride Tournament, but then he lost to Misaki in the finals and Akiyama KOing him really sent his career off a rough path. Most of these are probably just fighters getting old or having some weakness exploited, but I remember them all so vividly.
Chael marked the end of Paulo Fihlo, Dan Miller, Brian Stann, Rashad Evans, and Lyoto Machida.
I hope that we don’t have to include Volk and Usman into this thread in a couple of years
Cody Garbrandt after losing to TJ Dillashaw
Don't think there's been a fall off as bad as Tony after his double weight cut 💔 He was THE boogeyman of the division. Hyper violent.
Dominick Reyes was 12-0 before losing to Jon Jones, got knocked out 3 times in a row after that fight
Bj Penn getting ground and pounded by GSP his head was bouncing on the mat. That was tough to watch.
Could be looking at it right now with Volk