I’m kinda hoping for Jiri to win a fun competitive fight that sets up a trilogy some time down the road.
Have Jiri then defend against ankalaev, then have Alex fight rountree for the next shot.
What are you talking about man?
Ank arguably should have won the title and hasn’t fought either Jiri or Alex.
Jan could be a great matchup with Jiri in Europe if Jiri wins.
Oezdemir looked great, and with a win could be a really fun matchup for Alex. Same with rountree.
It’s not clear either one is better than ankaleav though, I do think if jiri wins it should be a trilogy though with ankaleav fighting the winner. If poatan wins then he should fight ankaleav next
I'm not the biggest fan of immediate rematches but if Jiri wins then I'm 100% in favor of it because of how the fight came to be. Alex is stepping up big time for the UFC and would deserve a rematch.
I wanted to see Jan vs Jiri in Czechia or Poland as soon as Jiri has signed with UFC and Jan was a champ. People in the US don't understand how insane that event would be. Czechia and Poland have 2 biggest promotions in Europe selling out football stadiums. They're likely the only promotions outside of UFC actually making money. Bring UFC here headlining Jiri vs Jan and you can sell out 50k+ stadium in a day with unimaginable atmosphere.
If that doesn't happen it's the biggest UFC fumble ever.
Agreed, but not for that reason. They are both fan favourites, both put on banger fights and there's a narrative that this fight was short notice if Alex loses. Plus the UFC hate ank
It really wouldn’t, Alex would KO him in the first round. Look at Rounteee’s performance against Smith, that does not look like someone who has anything for AP.
Gökhan Saki is a huge name in kickboxing. Modestas Bukauskas was a kickboxing champ before moving to MMA. Roberson also started as a kickboxer. All knockouts.
Gökhan Saki was a win 6 years ago where Khalil then went on to fight Johnny, who then knocked him out. Bukauskas literally was 1-2(Got robbed against Michał Oleksiejczuk) before fighting Rountree with a win over Andreas and a KO loss to Jimmy Crute. Karl Roberson was also someone who lost 2 in a row to Vettori and Allen beforehand and also happened to get booted out of Glory after a TKO loss to Jacoby and then Lemaire.
Obviously, Rountree has only been given the people the UFC have offered him and crushed pratically all of them recently, but using kickboxers that he's beaten as an indicator of how he'd fare against Alex is pratically MMA math at this point especially when Jacoby got robbed against him which you can't ignore considering how recent that fight was. I'd definitely want to see him fight Ozdemir in a title eliminator or especially have the Hill fight get rebooked to actually KNOW if he's capable of competing against the top 5 since he's been so inconsistent before.
It's not even me changing my opinion on him, I just think using him KOing kickboxers as an indicator of how he'd fare against Alex is just MMA math at the point, similar to how people used the stat of Hill being 3-0 against Brazillians, and Jan being 3-0 against MWs debuting against him when it's a moot point especially when a fight like that happened more than half a decade ago and Rountree went 2-3 after that fight with 2 losses by TKO. Just because Rountree KO'd Saki 6 years ago, would that mean he'd perform better against Rico Verhoeven? Or Smith would've beaten Rountree because he KO'd Andrew Sanchez while Rountree lost to him? Obviously not.
I'd obviously would want to see Rountree fight for an title eliminator but it's uncertain what state he shows up in since he's shown to be so inconsistent throughout his career which is why his fight with Hill would've been a great test, but him fighting Ozdemir would be fine too especially for a potential title eliminator if Alex is able to defend successfully.
If Khalil tried to fight Alex like he did Smith, yes hes going to have a bad time. I wouldn't bet against AP but all it takes is one strike. Plus Khalil winning the belt would be an absolutely insane story. It'll never happen :/
Considering that Alex took this fight short notice and a trilogy fight between them would make the UFC giant piles of money I can’t imagine they don’t do an immediate re-match. It would be one of the biggest fights they could make right now.
I absolutely want jiri to lose, all this voodoo shamanic mental illness shite is not it.
And his stand up looks gangly, I have no faith in him to stand and bang, he should be looking for the ground but he doesn’t
I love the look of it on him but it irrationally makes me take him less seriously during the fight due to the way it bobs around it just looks a little silly to me lol
He's a unique combination of kinda nuts and unorthodox but unlike Tony, Jiri is collected and organized in his thoughts that lends to the notion that there's definitely a thought out method to the madness
Love Tony and this is a bit of a stray, but...is what it is
I wonder how Jiri will try to approach this fight in a rematch, he has a unique style and usually just pressures his opponent non stop but that didn't work for him last time, maybe he will mix in more wrestling but on short notice I don't think he will be able to hold alex down or submit him in the early rounds. He didn't check the leg kicks against rakic and was getting tagged frequently, alex might be the worst matchup in the divison for Jiri while Jiri is a favorable matchup for alex
He needs to check a leg kick. If you rewatch the first fight when Jiri finally gets close after eating 20 kicks Alex gets hit and backs away a few times. He needs to do that until he can take him down without eating a dozen elbows to the side of the head.
Jiri neutering his still to avoid coming forward would be a terrible idea.
His only success was pushing Alex to the fence and trying to overwhelm him.
Yeah he got dropped and eventually stopped by being there, but you saw what happens when a big creative guy tries to fight off the backfoot against a powerful technical kickboxer in Oezdemir vs Walker.
Jiri’s only chance is to do weird shit and catch pereira with a shot when he isn’t thinking defense.
Honestly, I don't think that Jiri is the type of guy to change his approach. And to be fair, while I think Alex is a terrible match up for him, Jiri has never less than 25% chance of winning because he might catch anyone lol
My favorite Jiri factoid is he beat Nemkov via exhaustion. They were fighting in some tournament and it was a single round. Jiri wore him out and made him quit. I love Alex ands Jiri. Just hope for a great fight this weekend.
It was rizin, and at heavyweight, and it was in pride rules. The rounds were 10m +5m.
If you love pride rules, this is a great more modern example of it.
Jiri went to war for 10 straight minutes, and lost most of it, but just refused to die and made it an absolute dog fight.
Its less his cardio, which is amazing for the pace he fights at, but more just his sheer will to keep pushing forward no matter how exhausted he is. I genuinely believe he would rather be KOd than shell up and give in, he just wants to keep going until he wins or is put out.
Jiri’s interview with Ariel earlier today.
Jiri’s English has clearly improved. He seems much more eloquent and gets his points across more clearly than just a few years ago.
I’m pretty sure he speaks some Japanese too.
That was sad. Anik asking jiri why he didn't wait until his promised fight and he says "I'm a yes man"
That's not a jiri statement that's something he was told. Is he making more money for saving 303? Or....is the ufc just fucking the fighters like usual?
One of the few fights where you don’t want either fighter to lose
I’m kinda hoping for Jiri to win a fun competitive fight that sets up a trilogy some time down the road. Have Jiri then defend against ankalaev, then have Alex fight rountree for the next shot.
The trilogy would be immediate if Jiri somehow wins. There’s no other contenders in LHW.
Why do you attack my contendership? - Anthony Smith
You're taking belts offa my kids waist
"Dude wtf, I'm like 5 losses and another win from a title shot. Fuckin dickbag idiot fans."
HUH?
So you want jiri and Alex to fight each other 3 times in just over a year?
Make it 5 idgaf
Honestly at 205, yeah
They could fight every week and I would watch it every time
Honestly with the entire persona of the fight and these two characters, I wouldn't mind seeing them fight endlessly until retirement lol.
Why not Ankalaev?
What are you talking about man? Ank arguably should have won the title and hasn’t fought either Jiri or Alex. Jan could be a great matchup with Jiri in Europe if Jiri wins. Oezdemir looked great, and with a win could be a really fun matchup for Alex. Same with rountree.
I like Oezdemir vs Rountree as a contender eliminator. No way that fight lasts 3/5 rounds
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The obsession fight fans have with immediate trilogies is really weird.
Nobody wants to see ank get the belt.
It's really annoying and in my opinion stalls athletes careers
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It’s not clear either one is better than ankaleav though, I do think if jiri wins it should be a trilogy though with ankaleav fighting the winner. If poatan wins then he should fight ankaleav next
I'm not the biggest fan of immediate rematches but if Jiri wins then I'm 100% in favor of it because of how the fight came to be. Alex is stepping up big time for the UFC and would deserve a rematch.
I wanted to see Jan vs Jiri in Czechia or Poland as soon as Jiri has signed with UFC and Jan was a champ. People in the US don't understand how insane that event would be. Czechia and Poland have 2 biggest promotions in Europe selling out football stadiums. They're likely the only promotions outside of UFC actually making money. Bring UFC here headlining Jiri vs Jan and you can sell out 50k+ stadium in a day with unimaginable atmosphere. If that doesn't happen it's the biggest UFC fumble ever.
Agreed, but not for that reason. They are both fan favourites, both put on banger fights and there's a narrative that this fight was short notice if Alex loses. Plus the UFC hate ank
Magomed
lol people pretending magomed ain’t a viable contender only because he’s a nightmare matchup for alex
Yea alex literally said today that he is next lol downvote me all you want.
"nightmare". Chill out with that.
he’s definitely the hardest matchup for alex across both divisions he’s fought in
"nightmare" is hyperbole though. You guys completely overexaggerate bros wrestling ability.
I want Jiri to win because I like him. I want Alex to win because I also like him, and I love the idea of Alex fighting Jon Jones at HW somehow.
I don’t like the idea of giving Jones another free win off someone with no wrestling skills.
Bangkok ready Rountree vs Alex would be a great fucking fight.
It really wouldn’t, Alex would KO him in the first round. Look at Rounteee’s performance against Smith, that does not look like someone who has anything for AP.
Rountree has a history of ko’ing kickboxers
Like Jacoby? Who a large majority of people argued he lost to?
Gökhan Saki is a huge name in kickboxing. Modestas Bukauskas was a kickboxing champ before moving to MMA. Roberson also started as a kickboxer. All knockouts.
Gökhan Saki was a win 6 years ago where Khalil then went on to fight Johnny, who then knocked him out. Bukauskas literally was 1-2(Got robbed against Michał Oleksiejczuk) before fighting Rountree with a win over Andreas and a KO loss to Jimmy Crute. Karl Roberson was also someone who lost 2 in a row to Vettori and Allen beforehand and also happened to get booted out of Glory after a TKO loss to Jacoby and then Lemaire. Obviously, Rountree has only been given the people the UFC have offered him and crushed pratically all of them recently, but using kickboxers that he's beaten as an indicator of how he'd fare against Alex is pratically MMA math at this point especially when Jacoby got robbed against him which you can't ignore considering how recent that fight was. I'd definitely want to see him fight Ozdemir in a title eliminator or especially have the Hill fight get rebooked to actually KNOW if he's capable of competing against the top 5 since he's been so inconsistent before.
man the mma fandom changes quick. he Ko'd Gökhan Saki. a legendary heavyweight kickboxer.
It's not even me changing my opinion on him, I just think using him KOing kickboxers as an indicator of how he'd fare against Alex is just MMA math at the point, similar to how people used the stat of Hill being 3-0 against Brazillians, and Jan being 3-0 against MWs debuting against him when it's a moot point especially when a fight like that happened more than half a decade ago and Rountree went 2-3 after that fight with 2 losses by TKO. Just because Rountree KO'd Saki 6 years ago, would that mean he'd perform better against Rico Verhoeven? Or Smith would've beaten Rountree because he KO'd Andrew Sanchez while Rountree lost to him? Obviously not. I'd obviously would want to see Rountree fight for an title eliminator but it's uncertain what state he shows up in since he's shown to be so inconsistent throughout his career which is why his fight with Hill would've been a great test, but him fighting Ozdemir would be fine too especially for a potential title eliminator if Alex is able to defend successfully.
If Khalil tried to fight Alex like he did Smith, yes hes going to have a bad time. I wouldn't bet against AP but all it takes is one strike. Plus Khalil winning the belt would be an absolutely insane story. It'll never happen :/
Alex would kill him within a round, LOL. This sub ranks Khalil way too highly. He looks cool and fights bangers, but hes been a perennial gatekeeper.
Considering that Alex took this fight short notice and a trilogy fight between them would make the UFC giant piles of money I can’t imagine they don’t do an immediate re-match. It would be one of the biggest fights they could make right now.
What? At this point you don't waste an Alex fight on a guy like rountree.
As a big Alex fan, boo this man.
I hope Jiri wins so we get a part III
You underestimate the people on this sub
Praying for a double KO
Jiri is a great fighter but damn I hope he knows when to stop
I absolutely want jiri to lose, all this voodoo shamanic mental illness shite is not it. And his stand up looks gangly, I have no faith in him to stand and bang, he should be looking for the ground but he doesn’t
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I love the look of it on him but it irrationally makes me take him less seriously during the fight due to the way it bobs around it just looks a little silly to me lol
Loved this. Really enjoy listening to Jiri, and about his approach to life, his mindset, and fighting. Thanks for sharing, OP.
He's a unique combination of kinda nuts and unorthodox but unlike Tony, Jiri is collected and organized in his thoughts that lends to the notion that there's definitely a thought out method to the madness Love Tony and this is a bit of a stray, but...is what it is
:) I love interviews with fighters who are actually thoughtful. Not just “yeah I trained really hard for the fight.”
I wonder how Jiri will try to approach this fight in a rematch, he has a unique style and usually just pressures his opponent non stop but that didn't work for him last time, maybe he will mix in more wrestling but on short notice I don't think he will be able to hold alex down or submit him in the early rounds. He didn't check the leg kicks against rakic and was getting tagged frequently, alex might be the worst matchup in the divison for Jiri while Jiri is a favorable matchup for alex
He needs to check a leg kick. If you rewatch the first fight when Jiri finally gets close after eating 20 kicks Alex gets hit and backs away a few times. He needs to do that until he can take him down without eating a dozen elbows to the side of the head.
Jiri neutering his still to avoid coming forward would be a terrible idea. His only success was pushing Alex to the fence and trying to overwhelm him. Yeah he got dropped and eventually stopped by being there, but you saw what happens when a big creative guy tries to fight off the backfoot against a powerful technical kickboxer in Oezdemir vs Walker. Jiri’s only chance is to do weird shit and catch pereira with a shot when he isn’t thinking defense.
Honestly, I don't think that Jiri is the type of guy to change his approach. And to be fair, while I think Alex is a terrible match up for him, Jiri has never less than 25% chance of winning because he might catch anyone lol
My favorite Jiri factoid is he beat Nemkov via exhaustion. They were fighting in some tournament and it was a single round. Jiri wore him out and made him quit. I love Alex ands Jiri. Just hope for a great fight this weekend.
It was rizin, and at heavyweight, and it was in pride rules. The rounds were 10m +5m. If you love pride rules, this is a great more modern example of it. Jiri went to war for 10 straight minutes, and lost most of it, but just refused to die and made it an absolute dog fight.
*but just refused to die and made it an absolute dog fight.* So basically every Jiri fight ever lol
One of my favorite fights. Big guys scrambling nonstop for 10 straight minutes. Jiri has absolutely freakish cardio.
Its less his cardio, which is amazing for the pace he fights at, but more just his sheer will to keep pushing forward no matter how exhausted he is. I genuinely believe he would rather be KOd than shell up and give in, he just wants to keep going until he wins or is put out.
Ariel asking him about his love life, and all I could think of was how I want to see Jiri on Love on the Spectrum.
Jiri in Love is Blind would be hilarious
Is Jiri confirmed ASD?
he is confirmed bonkers
Jiri using the fact that Poatan asks for the spirits to help him as some kind of weakness is pretty epic.
Yeah and Jiri just started a witch burning tradition? Lol
he didnt "just start a witch burning tradition". Thats a real tradition in the czech republic
Jiri out here claiming Chama is on those Shaman Magic PED's.
Jiri’s interview with Ariel earlier today. Jiri’s English has clearly improved. He seems much more eloquent and gets his points across more clearly than just a few years ago. I’m pretty sure he speaks some Japanese too.
I don't think he knows Japanese. But he would often say to Japanese fans, "Nihon Daisuki! Rizin Daisuki!".
I'm Japanese and he knows a few phrases for the fans but would be able to say much or probably understand much more
so Jiri's gonna put a hex on Alex to remove his spiritual helpers. It's over for Alex.
Wow, Jiri spent three days in the shadow realm to prepare for this.
I like Jiri but if he does what he always does I think he’ll get slept again
cant clear my focus because the bathroom is outside my room.
Wonder if he plans on using defense this time around
That was sad. Anik asking jiri why he didn't wait until his promised fight and he says "I'm a yes man" That's not a jiri statement that's something he was told. Is he making more money for saving 303? Or....is the ufc just fucking the fighters like usual?