Essential The Official MMA Thread

[Medulla Oblongata]

Cain is injured, and Hunt/Werdum will fight for the interim belt.

 

[semtex]

Cain is injured, and Hunt/Werdum will fight for the interim belt.

I give up

 

[puppetmaster]

Damn.

Cain is only 32 it's getting sad watching him spend so much of what should be his prime constantly mending.

Kinda feel for JDS here too. He's flat lined both Hunt and Werdum but has to watch them fight over the interim belt due to his history with Cain.

 

[Mowgli]

This has got to be the biggest generation for injuries before a fight, ever. That money got these cats sitting back like fukk that nikka my toe hurt.

Hunt fighting for an interim title ? Get this george foreman shyt outta here.

 

[The G.O.D II]

Man they gotta calm down over there at AKA. You always hear stories of Cain going super hard in the gym. As far as Hunt/Werdum, I not looking forward to it honestly. I still have visions of Werdum flopping on his back against Overeem. I expect a lot of clinching and guard pulling in route to an easy sub

 

[So UnThotful]

Hunt gettin that interim title shot

 

[The Infamous]

Wow. Knee injury too. What the fukk.

 

[Pool_Shark]

2014: YEAR OF THE INJURY
FIGHTLAND BLOG
By Nick "The Tooth" Gullo

Fall is in the air, but it feels like Spring with all the ice finally melting off these injured UFC champions and top contenders. Not that we’re quite ready for a year-end retrospective, but I bet looking back during the coming New Year’s celebrations—amidst exploding fireworks and screeching kazoos—we’ll dub 2014 the Year of the Injury.

Just look at the current state of each division:

Flyweight. Champion Demetrious Johnson is healthy. But John Dodson, the #1 contender, tore his ACL a few months back and won’t fight again until summer 2015. This sucks because a champion is only as interesting as his challengers, and Johnson has few. With every win his shadow grows, and his box office draw, well—let’s just hope Ian McCall, who fought Johnson to a stalemate a few years back, quickly recovers from his recent hand surgery.

Bantamweight.Champion T.J. Dillashaw is ready and able. But Dominick Cruz, the #2 contender and former belt holder, just returned from a three year hiatus due to an ACL tear, and with a convincing win over Takeya Mizugaki, Cruz will next face Dillashaw in a bid to recapture his crown. An awesome matchup.

Featherweight. Champion Jose Aldo injured his neck this summer, which forced the cancellation of not only his rematch with Chad Mendes, but also the entire UFC 176 card. Luckily, he’s shaken off the ice and will battle Mendes, the #1 contender, later this month at UFC 179. The winner faces Conor McGregor, who just returned from his own ACL surgery, and is rumored (unsubstantiated) to have KO’d Dustin Poirier with a broken hand—the Irishman wasn’t medically suspended after the bout, so this was probably bullshyt.

Lightweight. If 2014 is the Year of the Injury, Champion Anthony Pettis is its poster boy—at least according to division contenders Benson Henderson (#5) and Khabib Nurmagomedov (#2). The Russian recently taunted Pettis, who was out most of 2012 with issues, via Twitter: ‘@Showtimepettis I do not touch the disabled, and fight at least once a year if you are a champion.’

In a case of black kettles, Khabibis also on the bench, recovering from a torn meniscus, and won’t return until March, 2015. Lucky for us, Pettis is healthy enough to fight Gilbert Melendez, #1 contender, at UFC 181. Another insane bout.

Welterweight. Champion Johny Hendrickswill also return at UFC 181, after an eight month rehab for a torn bicep, to again battle Robbie Lawler, the #1 contender. The winner will likely face Rory MacDonald, ranked #2. The missing piece here is division standout, Carlos Condit, who tore his ACL in a March bout with Tyrone Woodley (#3). Condit recently tweeted: ‘For all the people asking, the knee is healing really nicely. Rehab is going great. No clue when I'll compete again though.’

Middleweight. Champion Chris Weidman recently pulled out of UFC 181, postponing his fight with Vitor Belfort until February, 2015, due to a fractured hand. Weidman also pushed back his fight with Lyoto Machida (#4), giving himself a few months to recover from meniscus surgery. Otherwise, the division seems healthy, unless, of course, you consider former champion Anderson Silva who out all of 2014 due to the horrific leg-snap via Weidman.

Light Heavyweight. Champion Jon Jones squashed his UFC 178 bout with Daniel Cormier (#1) because of a torn meniscus and sprained ankle. Cormier, who is rehabbing a partially torn ACL and LCL, slid into the title shot when number one contender, Alexander Gustafsson, injured his knee and required surgery. That’s the champ, #1 and #2, all on crutches or limping. Like I said, Year of the Injury.

Heavyweight. Champion Cain Velazquez suffered a torn labrumduring last year's rubber match with Junior Dos Santos (#2), which required surgery. Then he he hurt his hand and won’t fight until his mid-November return at UFC 180, against Fabricio Werdum (#1). Dos Santos has also sat the bench since their last bout, nursing a fractured hand, but also returns to battle soon—December 13, against Stipe Miocic.

Women’s Bantamweight. Champion Ronda Rousey required surgery after her July 4th whooping on Alexis Davis. As for the rest of the division, uh, well, I’m not going to say they don’t matter, but—until someone drags Ronda into deep waters, they don’t matter.

Anyhow, that recap reads like an Old Testament list of plagues afflicting the best of the best. But the real question isn’t, ‘When can they fight again?’ It’s, ‘How do fighters and trainers avoid repeating this cycle in 2015?’

Obviously there’s no way to avoid mishaps during a bout. That leaves training and sparring sessions, which account for the greatest portion of cumulative time lost by the fighters. All told, I’d say nearly a decade of total rehab during 2014.

So what’s the solution?

I don’t know.

For years, Lawler quit sparring to avoid injuries. Focusing on cardio, he’d hit mitts, shadow box, bang the bags—but he refused to enter the cage until fight night. “I didn’t spar for four or five years,” he said. “I was still knocking a lot of people out. I felt like I already knew how to fukking fight, and now I had to get in shape. I didn’t want to do too much hard sparring.”

But after a while he felt like he wasn’t fighting to his potential, so he resumed sparring, and his post-2013 run supports that decision.

Johny Hendricks spars with a helmet. ‘Well, if you look at my training,’ he told the media at a scrum, ‘if you see my helmet it’s like two inches thick—I got a big nose bar. [So] I don’t take head shots. The reason why, is that you don’t get paid in the gym, you get training in the gym. I want to save [hard shots] for in the Octagon, and I think that’s what helps me a lot, is I don't take them in there.’

It’s a conundrum with no clear answers. Economists often tally the cumulative cost of workplace illnesses, and if pressed I’d estimate this ‘lost decade’ accounts for millions in forgone purses, bonuses, viewership, tickets, merchandise, etc. An industry wide crisis demanding the brain-trust of all involved.

As these last minutes ticks down, let’s raise our glasses in hopes that 2014 serves as a crucial step in the evolution of safe training. Because the status quo of fighters spending so much of their short careers nursing injuries, while we fans pine for their return, must change. Because it sure can’t get any worse.

http://fightland.vice.com/blog/2014-year-of-the-injury

Only upside to all these injuries is that 2015 these guys come back healed. Then Silva is coming back, GSP is rumored to be making a return.

Perhaps concerns that the UFC is spreading itself too thin will fall by the wayside once everyone comes off the disabled list.
Or perhaps not.

It’s highly possible, after all, that the injury bug doesn’t know what year it is. It’s possible that 2015 provides no relief. It could be that injuries are just a part of life in MMA—remember 2012? Anyone? Anyone?—and that they will continue to cramp the UFC’s style.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...-2015-shapes-up-as-make-or-break-year-for-ufc

I was really looking forward to this card cause I'm a fan of Cain, Gastelum, Sanchez, and have been watching TUF Latin America. On top of that the 181 card looked stacked I thought things were really gonna pick up.

 

[Change]

Man they gotta calm down over there at AKA. You always hear stories of Cain going super hard in the gym. As far as Hunt/Werdum, I not looking forward to it honestly. I still have visions of Werdum flopping on his back against Overeem. I expect a lot of clinching and guard pulling in route to an easy sub

Werdum dislocated his knee in the first round against Overeem. He just doesn't mention it. When i have the time i'll let you know the exact time it happens. If you know when it happens and watch Werdum it's pretty clear. That's why he kept going down.

 

[Ronnie Lott]

Man they gotta calm down over there at AKA. You always hear stories of Cain going super hard in the gym. As far as Hunt/Werdum, I not looking forward to it honestly. I still have visions of Werdum flopping on his back against Overeem. I expect a lot of clinching and guard pulling in route to an easy sub

AKA is a trill ass gym

 

[jackswstd]

You've got to be fukkin kidding me well there goes a successful debut in Mexico.

 

[RubioTheCruel]

If Mark Hunt wins the title though...

 

[Roman Brady]

I give up

goat gif makes me everytime

 

[joeychizzle]

HUNTOOOOO
PRIDE NEVER DIES

on a side note.. all these injuries remind me of 2012. p4p worst year to be an mma fan. main and co main swaps on basically EVERY CARD
2015 though :fukkyeah::moshaq::yayuhh::bawsin:

 

[Roman Brady]

2015 though :fukkyeah::moshaq::yayuhh::bawsin:

whats good? are wandi, chael going to unretire? you got word gsp will be back? or that anderson wont be a year older? is there even a guarantee that we wont get more of this BS again? We already know we are losing big nog (which is long overdue) and I could easily see hendo the other nog and belfort following suit. With zuffa inability to create stars thats looking like a gaping hole in headliners