Understatement of the year: "Dana was a little upset at Merab." Actually Dana went full scorched Earth in Merab, to the point that it may have permanently soured Merab's relationship with the UFC going forward.
Honestly, the solo content is pretty great, especially in the whole community of MMA news coverage. No toxicity, total honesty about your biases and a lot of insight being close friends with an active fighter. You're killin it Johnny!
The fact that the ufc wont pull ankalaev from an abu card to fight for the title is actually insane - and now we have this. Why is a location more important than the correct fight to make, I wonder.....
One piece of the Pereira versus Magomed Ankalaev puzzle that you might be missing is that it seems like the UFC might be on bad terms with Magomed. I think he might be a pain to deal with especially when he says he only wants to fight in the Middle East.
This is pretty likely, but it just adds to the inherent mistrust of anything Dana says. "We can't give it to him because he's booked" is obviously not the whole truth, as the video mentioned.
Ive been listening to you while im at work and so longer videos are something I look at to let something play while I can focus on work instead of spending time trying to find something else.
This is the perfect length to ingest my MMArcade news updates and your insights , during my coffee breaks at work Appreciate it 👊🏼 Greets from the Netherlands ✌🏼
Johnny, my man. I love Rob but a KO loss to the champ is not the same as a "close fight" were the champ outstruck the challenger by 50 strikes...60-70% of the viewers thought he won...and then his belt got taken anyways because 1 questionable judge leaned more one way on a given night. Personally I had wanted Rob vs Sean just because I have no clue what the hell would happen but to say Rob deserves it more just isn't true. The champ essentially had his title stolen, in the eyes of the public and the head of the UFC. Rob was on the come back, the story is not the same. That Said when Rob gets through chimaev lets break out the gold, cuz there's not one bone in my body that thinks Driccus or Sean could beat chimaev.
Robert Whittaker had more title defenses than Sean. Robert arguably beat Izzy in the rematch and Sean arguably beat Dricus. All I'm saying is Robert Whittaker isn't some schmuck. He was a staple champion in this division unlike Strickland. Robert and Sean should be fighting imo
Love these solo vids Jonny, knowing Rob is working his ass off to startch Khamzat in October, he won’t be that available. But I love listening to your insights and opinions on ufc news, always a calm ride to work listening to these videos. We all appreciate your hard work, and can’t wait to see the channel grow more and more over time. Also, great work at 305, bounced back greatly from the Izzy blunder too lol. Keep the solo videos coming 🙏
12:27 But Ankalaev's manager said that they booked Rakic because the UFC didnt want to make the Periera fight next not cos of injury healing time so there isn't any doubt to benefit them with anyway, there's just GenZ Pereira fans stopping us from seeing the best fight the best, other than that I agree. Thanks for the update Johnny
What’s up johnny. Another great one man. Just wanted to answer the question on Steve erceg being ranked below Mateusz Nicolau. People seem to forget that Steve Ercegs last win before getting the title shot was Matt Schnell. Nobody knew of Erceg, or at least the vast majority of people who watch this sport. Yes he had a very good performance vs Pantoja but he lost that fight so ranking technically shouldn’t have changed , but now he’s been knocked out so he can’t get the nod of Nicolau who has more notable wins than erceg. You can’t really compare losses, a loss is a loss although I feel they robbed Astroboy😔💔. And listen I hate to sound like that guy who told people so but for me seeing erceg perform the way he did vs pantoja was amazing , and pantoja still won that fight , so fighting a guy like Kai who’s a mainstay Top 5 guy with knockout power to switch your lights out?? And who’s had waaay more experience and big wins than erceg? Yeah that’s maybe looking at it in a different way I suppose but erceg still needs to run the gauntlet of the top 10 guys because Pantoja was his first top 10 guy . Keep doing your thing mates .
Johnny my boy! I will watch whatever content you wanna put out, game play, game news, fight news, you name it! Keep the content coming and we’ll keep watching 😎👊🏻
Magomed is allowed to fight in the states. But i think with the UFC now securing several cards per year with oil money, they prefer to save certain fighters that are well received over there Im not mad at either fight tho. Khalil got retired by Cutelaba then came back a literal demon. And Rakic looked so good vs Jiri too Fun scraps either way
The Rountree titleshot can't be explained by "Ankalaev was already booked" Ank is scheduled to fight 2 weeks after Alex and it's the UFC that does the damn bookings for fights lmaoo. Ank was obviously skipped over and no amount of bullshit will change that fact
Jonny, I want marob to win cause he's such a good human being, Sean winning is better for the sport so if he ends up winning its good cause you have double champ ops and bmf ops etc.
DDP vs Strickland was a split decision that many thought Strickland won. Whittaker on the other hand got his clock cleaned by DDP. It’s pretty clear why DDP prefers Whittaker over Strickland.
Cpuple things on Ankalaev. He is 1-0-1-1 in his last three. His best wins are anthony smith and Johnny Walker. He has not beaten anyone in the top 5 of the division. The only reason he is deserving is because Alex is cleaning out the division. This is not near as bad as Merab or Belal getting leapfrogged in recent years.
'It wasn't the biggest cut in the world!?' Do you mean decapitation? It's a head wound and since they tend to bleed copiously it's hard to tell how bad they are.
Ankalev can’t get into America at this point. I know he has in the past but as of right now Ankalev can only fight in Middle East. (After Khabibs gym was raided)
I agree with everything here Johnny! Sean shouldn't be sitting on his hands and ass. And the rankings need WORK to say the least... Chandler still there? Gamrot pushed way to far down. Belal number 5? Geez...
Well reasoned summary and agree entirely with your comments.. in the words of Bobby Knuckles.. "hmmm I dunno".. "its tricky".. " it is what it is" ??😂😂😂🙄 🙏🙏
The positive test for Roundtree was for DHEA which is an OTC supplement that doesnt realistically give any performance benefits, so thats not a big deal, but Ankalaev is getting screwed over, sport integrity is compromised and Pereira looks like he's getting favorable matchups, even though I don't think he's the one pushing for it.
sports integrity may or not be compromised. but the real question is: is it justified? i mean, let's be honest, would Ankalaev becoming champ really be good for the UFC as a brand and MMA as a sport? would it actually be that cool compared to Alex Pereira, building an awesome resume and being one of the few fighters closest to the possibility of becoming a champ in 3 weight divisions in UFC history? The UFC's making the right call, it may or not be "right", but the cool factor and sport enjoyment is definitely on the side of Pereira keeping the belt. Plus its not like hes a pussy or anything, what champ steps in on short notice twice, risking his title defenses just to stay active and be a company man? hes more than earned the "help". (also disclaimer, my argument against Ankalaev isnt that all Dagestanis dont have star quality, just him. Even though im not a fan of them, i can admit Khabib and Islam have auras that make them big stars, Ankalaev isnt what they are.)
i love rob but sean arguably shouldve gotten an immediate rematch over izzy, i think they just do sean vs ddp soon and then the winner of rob khamzat next
I think it's gonna be Rob vs Strickland for the title in the end. Because I believe Strickland will beat Dricus and Rob hopefully will beat Khazmat if he shows up. I think that's what the UFC is hoping for.
Ever since Dana white has gotten on steroids he’s stopped caring about people popping for steroids. He used to be so anti steroids it’s crazy to him completely not give a fuck about it.
This is why the ufc just isn’t the same anymore and it’s basically wwe with real fights. The most obvious fight in all of the ufc other than merab vs O’Malley is Strickland vs rob for the number one contender. Wtaf Dana
magomed v rakic makes more sense when you consider Alex just KO'd the two former champs that Magomed could have fought. Him and Jan were one of the worst fights of all time. and Rakic is the next highest ranked fighter in the division that anyone would even think about watching.
Hey Johnny, Ankalaev isn’t getting a title shot because in recent memory he has put on absolute stinkers. The UFC put him in the position to impress and he failed miserably
Rountree got knocked out in the first round by both Johnny Walker and Ion Cutelaba, both of which got KO'd by Ankalaev, so tell me how is Ankalaev "not gonna bang as well as Khalil Rountree"?
Ankaalev doesnt deserve a title . However he is the most deserving from any top LHW but in any other division any contender in the equivalent situation would need to fight a guy in top 5 to get a shot after going 1-1 with a guy ranked in n 7. Also Whittaker got easily knocked out by DDP just last year . Strickland arguably won against him . Whittaker may get another 2 wins over Strickland in his claim for a title shot but he still got KO'ed by the guy while the other guy probably won
as i said, i don't believe khamzat deserves to be in that spot and it should have been rob vs sean, but now that he is, imo khamzat gets the title shot if he beats rob. it isn't ideal though and i think sean deserves it more than khamzat - sean just needed to be in that spot
