I was really looking forward to this fight and thought it was going to be one of, if not THE MOST exciting fight of the evening. I can't believe what we ended up getting and the crowd in attendance, the online mob, and I presume the millions watching around the world agree that this wasn't a fight so much as it was a dancing contest.
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If you didn't see the fight let me go ahead and tell you that you do not need to seek it out since almost nothing happened. A highlight reel of the events of the fight wouldn't even be possible since they barely even touched one another. For the entire first round only 2 strikes landed and these we very weak and "searching" blows. Now I am very aware that in the first rounds of a 5-round fight that fighters commonly try to "feel out" their opponent rather than finish them quickly, especially if they feel as though their opponent has a weak spot or if they, themselves, have a weakness that the other excels in.
For Rose this might have been what she was initially trying to do because Rose is not very good on her back and wrestling is something that Esparza normally excels in. This is, i'm guessing, the reason that Rose threw very few kicks at all during the entire match out of fear that Carla would grab the leg and take her down.
There were a couple of takedowns in the fight even though nothing happened while they were there and Rose quickly stood back up and put herself at distance. I think that these 2 takedowns (it might have been 3) are the only reason why this fight wasn't declared a draw and why Esparza now wears the title belt.
They basically just circled the octagon for 25 minutes and even when they did throw punches they were very far away from making actual contact. The crowd was booing after the 2nd round of this being almost exclusively what was going on and I suspect that the sound engineers actually lowered the volume on the crowd noise to drown out the displeasure of the audience.
It's difficult to hate on Rose because she is one of the nicest fighters of all time, to the point where I don't think she has ever talked trash about any of her opponents before or after their fights. There was a lot of criticism from the masses though and even Dana White called the fight "weird."
People were hilariously responding in real time during the fight as everyone felt as though there was literally nothing happening in the fight as neither fighter seemed to be even trying to inflict any damage on their opponent.
I don't know who this person is but he isn't wrong. In each of the 5 rounds at least 4 and a half minutes was spent with the two of them well out of reach of the other with neither of them even trying to close the gap.
There actually is a rule of sorts in UFC where the ref can warn fighters that they have to work although this is normally directed at fighters that are on the ground and not fighting so they can have a rest. I have no idea what the ref could possibly do when both fighters are still standing.
The commentary team of Rogan, DC, and whoever the other person is are rarely critical of fighters who are currently in the octagon but all of them were calling this is real time and expressed their confusion as to why nobody was going for anything.
After 5 rounds only 66 strikes were landed and if you didn't see the fight, trust me when I say that I think whoever is counting these "strikes" is being very generous with this number. For 90% of the fight the swings both Esparza and Rose were throwing were nowhere near making contact.
In the end Esparza was declared the new champion and I don't think anyone actually cared. Both of these women lost a lot of street cred and almost certainly a great deal of their future earning potential by totally failing to put on a show that can be considered even remotely entertaining.
One boxing coach stated this: "I've seen shadow boxing more entertaining than this!" and he is not wrong at all. This was a truly embarrassing performance on the part of both women and they should accept the criticism and hopefully learn from it, because it is entirely deserved.
Very very shameful performance by both wrestlers, I understood absolutely nothing of what I was seeing, Esparza was not looking for the title and Rose was not looking to defend it.
I think like you what she won thanks to those takedowns, which didn't even give her control on the ground, because Rose was getting free fast, but since there was nothing else, they had to give the win to her.
I was surprised that Rose said, "they don't value defense", please what defense if she didn't land punches and didn't throw punches either. This has been a waste of time, I didn't watch the Canelo fight to watch this fight, the good thing was that Oliveira got my emotions back together.
Greetings my friend.
This was such a massive departure from every single Rose fight that I have ever seen her in during the past. That wasn't "Thug Rose" that was "Slug Rose."
I have to admit that even though at that point I was falling asleep on the bar I was happy when they gave it to Esparza... not because I feel as though she deserves it but because Rose needed to be punished for not bringing a fight to this contest at all.
Such a lame excuse. There was nothing to defend against when you stay at a comfortable distance from your opponent the entire fight.
I didn't watch the fight but it seems it is not a good one. I am thinking of watching it but at the same thinking that it might not worth my time. :)
Thank you for sharing. :)
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if you want to see any of the highlights, check out the Michael Chandler vs Tony Ferguson highlights or even watch the entire match. Gaethje vs Oliveira was a real cracker as well.
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i don't really even follow this sport but saw this on the news and how everyone was bagging on the two of them for putting on a terrible show. It was funny because it's my understanding that there were many other fights that night and I presume that they were pretty good, yet this is the one that everyone was focused on. Maybe the world is just thriving on negativity.
I wouldn't go so far as to say that we thrive on negativity but this was a highly anticipated title match, dude. The world kind of expects these to be on a different level of awesomeness. It was garbage and the two of them and their teams deserve all the criticism they are receiving right now.
Thug froze.
There is a weird interview with Helwani and Pat Barry, I might post about it, because there is something strange at play.
another great name for her. I'll have to look up that interview or will look for it in your posts. I have no idea what it is.
Well the entire internet is now convinced that Pat Barry has been grooming Rose since she was 14 😳
This is the first I am hearing of this but I looked into it a bit because of what you said and that's a bit creepy and weird. I'm sure that Pat would probably like this information to go away :)
Yeah as you say, don't worry there will be tons of youtube "documentaries" in no time hahah.