re: UFC on ESPN: Emmett vs. Murphy (4/5/25, 5PM CT)

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Yeah Gordon def won that fight

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One of the clearest instances of the UFC protecting a rising star.

As a side fighting note, it's been kind of cool to watch the grudging respect between Emmett and Murphy develop over this fight--from refusal to touch gloves before the bell, to staring each other down after the end of round one, to touching gloves after round 3.

That should finish Emmett's "final championship run." Wonder if he'll call it a day now, ending his career as a top 10 UFC featherweight.

MMA Guru was saying that Islam, by waiting to see the outcome of JDM vs. Belal, is holding up the lightweight division. Because if JDM wins, Islam wouldn't be fighting him until probably October at the earliest, and depending on how that fight goes, he might not be taking another fight at lightweight before 2026. And MMA Guru pointed out that there are a number of lightweights who are ready for a title shot right now. Arman, Charles, Topuria.

Just from a business standpoint, it would be crazy if Islam vs. Topuria doesn't happen. Outside of maybe Jones vs. Aspinall, it would be the biggest fight they could make this year. The fighters must have a lot of say if they can't sit them down and say look, we don't care what you want, we stand to make a ton of money on this fight and for the good of the company you're taking it.

Unrelated--I think there's a chance that, win or lose, this Saturday might be Volkanovski's last fight. The more so if he loses. But even if he wins, it might be very tempting to end on a redemption win, reclaiming the belt. He sounds determined to get that one back vs. Topuria, though, so maybe not.

It was interesting, someone on X posted a video from Diego's camp showing him throwing a bunch of hard hooks, left and right, for like 30 seconds straight.

But then they posted a video of Topuria practicing his technique, and you can see that he was mixing in a bunch of head movement, evasive maneuvers, setups, precision, etc.

Obviously it was just one moment from each camp, but basically it was saying that Diego is more of a Tasmanian devil type, just gets in there and wildly throws a bunch during moments of chaos.

Would that style be easier to defend against than Topuria's, where he's kind of patiently and tactically setting up the killing blow?

It would actually be very impressive if Volkanovski is able to win. Recent UFC champions have had a hard time winning at all after losing their belt, much less regaining their title.

Losing a bit of speed and reaction time in your 30s is significant in MMA where a split second makes the difference.

Just noticed Geoff Neal-Carlos Prates got cancelled. We can’t ever keep a whole card intact