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aldo is reiterating he is going to retire after this contract. Seems crazy cause he is only 31.
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My breakdown of Ansaroff vs Markos below. Did something different here and wrote up a separate writeup backing each fighter. After writing both I think it's obvious which way I'm leaning.
Here's the pro-Markos writeup:
Since a disappointing submission loss to Courtney Casey 2 years ago, Markos has had a career resurgence beating Carla Esparza and losing a controversial split decision against Alexa Grasso as a significant underdog. In her most recent fight, she outgrappled Juliana Lima in a dominant victory.
In this period she has shown improved striking and has employed a good gameplan against her opponents. These changes seemed to be necessary as Markos has never been a physically gifted fighter. She does not possess overpowering strength and her striking in the past has been flat-footed and plodding. Recently, she has shown a lot more movement in range, trying to be unpredictable before blitzing forward with punch combinations. Her more patient style has led to improved defense at range at the expense of some striking volume.
As far as grappling is concerned, Markos is a competent wrestler and BJJ practitioner. She was a wrestler in high school and recently received her BJJ purple belt. Her grappling was not quite good enough to stop takedowns early against Carla Esparza but good enough to reverse some positions and land strikes from the bottom position. She was able to land a lot of TDs against a very upright Grasso without much resistance and won the clearest round of the fight landing GnP in mount.
Although she's had some issues in the past, Markos's cardio is good enough for 3 round fights, only recently slowing down a bit in round 3 in Mexico City against Alexa Grasso. Being at an obvious striking disadvantage, she will attempt to do the same thing she did against Lima and look to grapple early. This seems obvious since Ansaroff is an even better striker than Lima. Randa's recent instagram posts show she's been working on her wrestling, specifically drilling TD attempts and drive.
Markos will look to engage long enough on the feet for as little as possible before clinching up or landing TDs against Ansaroff's upright stance. None of Ansaroff's recent opponents have made her work off her back, and Markos' scrambling ability and tenacity on the ground can score her points and win her rounds. Though she wasn't able to maintain top control against Grasso most of the time, she did control Grasso for a long stretch in Rd2 and against Lima during much of their fight.
As a +120 underdog, Markos would be worth playing if Ansaroff's isn't able to maintain range and stuff Markos' takedowns. Although we haven't seen Anasaroff on her back recently, she was a bit too content to hunt for submissions and keeping Lima in her guard 4 years ago. She was only able to get back to her feet that fight with the help of a ref standup. Although Ansaroff has improved her striking significantly, if she hasn't improved her TD defense and scrambling ability off her back, she may lose the fight on the mat.
Markos has beaten better ranked opponents than Nina Ansaroff so she is a proven commodity. Ansaroff on the other hand, hasn't proved that she can win a UFC fight against a quality grappler. If this turns out to be a close fight, Markos is also Canadian and the judges may be swayed in her favor if Markos has fan support.Comment -
Here's the pro-Ansaroff one:
Nina Ansaroff debuted as a favorite against Juliana Lima late in 2014 and lost. She fought Justine Kish about a year later and lost as well. After taking a year off, she came back to win her first UFC fight against Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger in early 2017. Late in 2017 she won the biggest fight in her career against Angela Hill.
Considering her 2-2 record in the UFC over 4 years, and 8-5 record overall, it's hard to think of Ansaroff as a world-beater. So why does Din Thomas believe that Ansaroff is the best strawweight fighter he's seen at ATT, a camp that has included Joanna and Tecia Torres?
Well first off, the record is a bit deceptive. Her UFC debut against Lima was close and some media members scored the fight for Ansaroff. On rewatch, I scored the last 2 rounds for Nina as well. Round 3 was a clear round with Ansaroff landing strikes and stuffing takedowns. Rd 2 was closer but Lima landed almost did nothing but secure a TD and lie on top of her.
Ansaroff's fight against Kish wasn't just a close loss, on rewatch it was pure robbery as Ansaroff landed at will on Kish's face for the first two rounds, hurting Kish pretty badly in the 2nd. Despite this, not one but two judges scored these clear rounds for Kish. The only innocent explanation except for utter incompetence is that both judges had the names of the girls switched.
Until Nina's fight with Angela Hill, we might have just thought Din Thomas was exaggerating, or perhaps that Ansaroff was a gym warrior who just can't put it together when it comes to fight time. But the Hill fight was a real signal to the division that Nina Ansaroff was for real. First off, it was one of the most entertaining WMMA matches that year and severely underrated. The thing that stood out most was that, despite an extremely impressive striking performance by Angela Hill, Ansaroff was a level above Hill at Hill's own game. Ansaroff landed 143 strikes against Hill in 3 rounds, mixing up punch combinations, low kicks, and front kicks in a dominant kickboxing win.
Ansaroff's kickboxing is as diverse as it gets. A tae-kwon do black belt in her youth, she possesses the best leg dexterity by far in the division (with maybe the exception of Waterson). She's not just sticking her leg out there either. Ansaroff's heavy leg kicks knocked Jones-Lybarger down 3 times with leg kicks (which is the most leg kick KDs I can remember at WSW). Her front snap kicks to Hill's body landed constantly and looked to really effect Hill's stamina as the fight progressed.
Randa's striking style will be no match for Ansaroff. Markos, already at a height and reach disadvantage, is almost a pure boxer. Though she employs some fancy footwork out of striking distance, she actually uses none of it during striking, moving in straight lines to dart in for punch combos and backing out straight on the exit. When attacking, she leaves herself very vulnerable which is a huge liability against Ansaroff who can land a variety of strikes (straight punches, left hook, even an uppercut) moving backwards.
Given the striking disparity, it's almost a certainty that Markos will look to clinch and grapple. Some will be tempted to view this fight as a striker vs grappler matchup, which in women's MMA generally seems to favor grapplers more often than not. But this would be a mistake.
Yes, the biggest problems Ansaroff has had in her fights was on the mat in her first two fights. The Lima fight was her debut and she ended up on her back for a lot of the first 2 rounds of that fight. However, she was never taken down in the 1st round, going to the mat on a slip. In the 3rd round of that fight, she stuffed all of Lima's TD attempts. In the Kish fight, Ansaroff actually took Kish down in the 3rd round and arguably won the grappling exchanges there as well.
Because she "lost" her first two fights due to grappling exchanges, and hasn't been matched with any grapplers since we might be led to believe that she's a vulnerable kickboxer who will get worked by a good grappler when she faces one. There's two potential problems with this theory.
The first problem is that Ansaroff isn't a pure kickboxer but is well rounded. Ansaroff has held a purple belt in BJJ longer than Markos who just received hers. Ansaroff also wrestled in high school like Markos. Ansaroff's loss to Kish was also well over 2 years ago. You could assume that Ansaroff has not developed her grappling much despite losing two very close decisions because of her lack of composure on the mat but that would be a stretch considering she trains at a top team and is a training (and life) partner of Amanda Nunes.
The other problem with the grappler vs striker paradigm is that Markos isn't really a dominant grappler. Against Esparza, Markos was taken down easily in the first 2 rounds and won that fight with her counter punching. Against Grasso, Markos would land multiple takedowns but Grasso would shuck her off or reverse her every time except for the 2nd round. In the 3rd round, Grasso stuffed all of her takedowns.
Finally, against Lima, Markos' tenacity came through and she was in top position just long enough to win 3 rounds. But it was back and forth, and Lima was 35 going on 36 at the time.
Physically, it looks like Markos is really making the most of her limited speed and athletic ability in every fight. Ansaroff, on the other hand, seems to have power and physicality in reserve. It may be a good thing for Ansaroff that she got the wake up call early in her career because she's acutely aware of how important top position is in winning fights. Every time she dropped Jones-Lybarger with a leg kick, Ansaroff went to the ground and employed strong positional grappling to make it obvious who was in control, eventually locking in the RNC in the 3rd (after coming very close to doing the same in the 2nd).
In short, it's unclear who is going to be the stronger grappler come fight time. It's very clear who has the striking advantage. Though there's a chance that Markos can get Ansaroff to the ground as often as she got Grasso there, she lost that fight anyway because, under the new MMA scoring paradigm control on the ground is less valued. If Markos is a better grappler than Ansaroff, then the lines should be about even as they are now. However, there's an equally good chance that Ansaroff can neutralize Markos' grappling, in which she should be a -200 favorite. There's also a chance that Ansaroff is a better grappler than Markos and she should be an even heavier favorite. Given the above, the small dose of juice at -135 on Ansaroff doesn't seem like such a hefty price to pay.
Though Markos is going to be representing Canada, the fight is scheduled as an early prelim where the crowd will likely not play a factor in the judge's decisions.Comment -
So Ansaroff then?Comment -
LOL no need to fire back...was over exaggerating on purpose. Thought you'd know my humor by now. Would have said pls mister Hugo if you were a new poster.
And now I'm unhappy because you ruined the example. You shouldn't have edited the quote.
Jesus God damn it!...now I do look like a lil bitch.
This is unacceptable for the greatest sports bettor in the history of mankind!Comment -
totally agree..he has what it takes but heart is not in it 100%
yes, it is easy to throw stones but it is tough to watch someone with a lot of talent let it all slip away. You're right Hugo, he might not want to fight anymore but has no other option?Comment -
looking at poirier, aldo and torres.
feel strangely confident in torres for some reason...I kind of feel like JJ has completely lost the plot and is beyond delusional. If you aren't honest with yourself how do you learn and grow? Torres is improving and hungry, JJ in lala land living off the past.Comment -
Was DP getting the better of Eddie Alvarez in their first fight before the illegal knee was thrown? I just don't remember that fight? I will re-watch it tomorrow but I think I remember DP busting up Eddie...
If that's that case I think you gotta go with DP again... Besides that DP is on a fight winning streak and has looked damn good in those wins... http://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Dustin-Poirier-50529
I do think Eddie has the better chin though.. Just saying..
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Here's how I remember the fight, though I haven't watched it super recently.Was DP getting the better of Eddie Alvarez in their first fight before the illegal knee was thrown? I just don't remember that fight? I will re-watch it tomorrow but I think I remember DP busting up Eddie...
If that's that case I think you gotta go with DP again... Besides that DP is on a fight winning streak and has looked damn good in those wins... http://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Dustin-Poirier-50529
I do think Eddie has the better chin though.. Just saying..
Round 1 was a clear 10-9 Poirier. He outpointed Alvarez with straight punches and body kicks from range. In R2, he cracked Alvarez with a huge Straight Left that had him on queer street. Alvarez had the dog brought out of him and hurt Poirier on the feet when Poirier swarmed him. Alvarez took Poirier down and hit him with multiple clearly illegal knees that resulted in the fight being stopped. Alvarez was fortunate that the bout was ruled a No Contest rather than a DQ Loss as the blows were clearly illegal.
I'm not entirely sure that Alvarez has the better chin (he gets rocked all the time) but he recovers really well.Comment -
How do you pass on aldo and Alvarez as dogsComment -
Porier is a better striker then Alvarez imo he should get the win
but Alvarez is very very dangerous when hes a cornered dog.. should be interestingComment -
I re-watched the DP/Eddie fight.. Eddie is the warrior, digs deeper.. Eddie might take DP that is if the same 2 fighters show up..
DP was winning early, rocked Eddie too.. Eddie came back and DP was fading.. Eddie by KO could be the call...Comment
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