The Fight #78 LNT

We react to UFC Vegas with a blunt take: the card brings more real violence and momentum than some pay per views, but stalled grappling still drags the product down. We break down the key fights and keep coming back to what MMA should reward, plus what long-term damage means for fighters and fans.

Transcript

Why UFC Vegas Felt Better

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Lane LA, the fight, episode 78, UFC Vegas. Listen, I'm gonna say it right here, man. This is better than the BMF card. I'm gonna say it. It was more violence, more BMF shit. People were getting hit. People were getting hurt. Nobody was getting laid on except for Chris Curtis, and that was in the prelims. We're not talking about that. Chris Curtis got laid on, got wrestled fucked for three rounds. There's nothing we can do about that. If you can't get up, it's uh it's put up or get up. Get up or take an L, dog. 3027, clear UD for Chris Curtis taking that L. Listen, I don't understand why we are uh we're rewarding, you know, wrestling matches, grappling matches in the UFC. Even with the little amount of strikes that Chris Curtis land, he made his opponent bleed more than his opponent did with all that time and control. If I want to see time and control, I'll watch a grappling match. If I want to see people rolling around, I'll watch RAF. There's too many distinct single combat forms for a UFC company to ask us to go ahead and watch a grappling match for 20, 25 or 15 minutes. We got to change the rules and the simulate and the stipulations around this stuff because we got guys who are just stalling fights or keeping guys on the ground. It is great that you can keep them on the ground. And I understand that means you have control and you are winning the fight. That doesn't make it good to look at. It just doesn't. If we can complain about Shakur pitching a shutout, we can complain about fighters like this pitching a shutout in a boring fashion. I don't want to watch grappling for 15 minutes straight in a U of C fight. It is mixed martial arts. Another person who understands that it's mixed martial arts is Charles Johnson. He knocked out the champ, Joshua Van, and he just beat Bruno Silva by a split decision. I thought it should have been a UD. I thought Charles Johnson did way more, landed more accurately, and was doing more damage. I thought he was doing what you should do as an MMA fighter, mixing it up, stopping takedowns, stopping engagements where we're not ex, you know, we're not having a fight here. We're just stalling. A lot of these guys are holding and stalling. And then the fight after the fight, there's no damage on the fighter. There's no damage. Chris Curtis can go fight right now. He can go take another fight. He had no damage from that fight. And we're not watching grappling. I'll say it again. If I just want to watch grappling, I can watch UFC BJJ. They just put money into that. If I just wanted to do that, if I just wanted to watch a wrestling match, I'll go watch RAF. Like, there's too many single combat organizations that let you get what you want. The MMA is going to just slide with these 15-minute wrestling and grappling matches, bro. You're going to turn off fans. Not everybody's going to get it. Now talk about getting taken down and finished. Okay. Umar Sar just took the loss. He got subbed in round one by Ion, Utabella, by Guillotine choke. There it has to be some type of escalation of finishing the fight. If you're not going for a sub and the position isn't progressing, we gotta start standing these guys up. Shout out to him for the round one choke. Then we got Rocky Rahiki taking out Harry Harwick, round two, TKO. He broke that man's jaw. Punches and bunches and a lot of violence. These up-and-comers, these the skill gap between a new age fighter and a seasoned UFC fighter is not, it's not even. It's crazy how good these guys are coming in the sport now. These guys are throwing hands for people who have been in there much longer than them and putting them out. Rahiki gets the round two stoppage. He broke the man's jaw. His corner said he could not continue. Shout out to Harry. He is a tough guy. He's been having some tough fights. And I like that he still has fans. I like that people still want to tune into his fights. I just want him to understand they might like you now, but you got to think about later. And you got to stop taking all this damage. Just think about that, sir. There's a lot of people in your family and corner that should probably be telling you this as well. Stop taking all that damage. One of the best things I do like about the UFC is that even though guys like that are taking damage in their fights, unlike boxing, they're not concussed and then stood back up. And by will or skill, they get they go through another round or until they succumb to the punishment. That's why boxers are dying more than any other combat sport. So we really, really gotta be careful with these fighters taking all this damage. And then, hey, oh, he's a warrior, this and a warrior that. Listen, man, what about that warrior when he retired? So let's think about that as well. Now we did get Amanda Lemos. She got Russell fucked by Gillian for the first two rounds. No, for the first round, I'll give it to Lemos. And then the last two was Gillian all the way. She just couldn't handle the grappling. She couldn't handle the sub threat. And she got outworked, out, out, outpunished. It was a pedigree fight. You could definitely see who had the higher pedigree and who learned from their last encounters. Now, I don't like wrestling at that, you know, for 15 minutes, I'm not into it. But I understand Limos, whenever she got away from the grappling, got away from Gillian, was tuning her up. So listen, if it's a situation where this either gets knocked out or wrestle fucking your opponent, I'm always gonna say wrestle fuck him. Fuck it. Three rounds, UD, shout out to Gillian. She's on a five-win win streak. Now we got Josh Emmett versus Kevin. Listen, man. And this is why I kept talking about how these guys can come into the UFC, and now there's no skill gap, there's no fear. He walked down Josh Emmett, one of the hardest hitters in that division, and KO'd him. And what can I say, man? Kevin has a large future in that weight class, a large future in whoever he fights next. I can't wait to see what's next for him. He has history with John Silva. Maybe they should run that back. Two dogs in a dog fight. Josh Emmett, I think it's time to, you know, I think it's time for him to retire. This is the second fight, losing two fights in a row in the first round, I believe, or in the first one or two rounds. And he's been taking a lot of damage, and he's getting older, he's not getting younger. And the competition is getting stiffer, man. I think he should take a time, either take time out or retire. It's too much damage. Shout out to Kevin, shout out to the UFC. I really, I really like how these cards are more violent, more active than uh UFC main cards that the pay-per-views that we used to pay for. At least we got this all on pay uh, you know, on uh on Paramount Plus instead of having to pay 80, 90 bucks. So if I'm only paying 14 bucks, I'll take it. But shout out to the Kevin. He really, he really showed his pedigree and where he's going in the UFC. And of course, I will see you guys in the next one. This is the fight, episode 78.