UFC FN113 - Glasgow: Nelson -v- Ponzinibbio

The White Feather

wonderfullife wrote: »

The whole set-up with Gunni is a strange one. John was saying he's been coaching him via phone, basically he sent over Queally to spar, and was reviewing his sparring footage and giving him advice over the phone.

After building a brand spanking new gym at Mjolnir, I can't see Gunni doing future camps in Dublin and I can't see John spending 10 weeks of camp in Iceland.

You'd have to question if it's possible to coach someone over the phone.

Nightmare night for the lads, both of them KO'd stiff.

I was just about to mention this too. Thought it was bizarre that he was reviewing tape and giving feedback over the phone.That is not the reason for the loss though and it would still be strange even if Gunni won.

As you said earlier there was no upside to this for Gunni other than headlining a card.So he shouldn't even have been in the fight.

Then he is in the fight, he should be getting it to the ground ASAP. Maybe that was the plan but it didn't look like it.

Ultimate Seduction

wonderfullife wrote:

He won't even look big at LW. 72" reach and walks around at 172lbs he's basically a LW fighting at WW.

Gunni v Nate is a fight I'd love to see

EagererBeaver

The White Feather wrote: »

Then he is in the fight, he should be getting it to the ground ASAP. Maybe that was the plan but it didn't look like it.

He didn't have wraps on so the plan evidently wasn't too stand and trade. Can't just shoot in at the outset of a fight, especially against a lad who hits that hard.

Chris.

wonderfullife wrote: »

One option for Gunni (if he can be convinced) is to move down to LW.

He won't even look big at LW. 72" reach and walks around at 172lbs he's basically a LW fighting at WW.

You know as well as I do that he wouldn't even consider it, being such a critic of weight cuts and all. To be fair though I didn't think he looked much smaller than ponzinibbio.

wonderfullife

Nelson by Decision

The White Feather wrote: »

I was just about to mention this too. Thought it was bizarre that he was reviewing tape and giving feedback over the phone.That is not the reason for the loss though and it would still be strange even if Gunni won.

As you said earlier there was no upside to this for Gunni other than headlining a card.So he shouldn't even have been in the fight.

Then he is in the fight, he should be getting it to the ground ASAP. Maybe that was the plan but it didn't look like it.

Gunni's striking has improved a lot but you're right, why even bother? Just do what Maia does... a couple of feints and go straight for the single leg, shove him against the fence, drag him down and choke him out.

I suppose the reality is he can't be in 2 places at once and if your choice is a) be in Dublin to oversee Conor v Floyd camp or b) be in Iceland 8 weeks for Gunni v #14 ranked opponent... we'd all have done the same thing.

The White Feather

Mean Laqueefa wrote: »

A great day of sport though, a full ufc event over before 11pm our time.
Seery goes out a legend as rightly so.

Gunni loss but will be back
Felder doing it for his da

In the tennis Roger staying classy

ANd the dubs smashing kiildare

Shame it all seems over so quick

I am glad it is over! Whole day was a bit sad.

Sad seeing Gunni Koed, Seery retiring on a loss, JoJo gets beaten, Ward dropped on his head and our fellow male Celts getting beaten!

Sad that no one I know or me watches Tennis anymore!

Sad that I knew that Dublin would hammer Kildare and when I flicked it on after 10 mins game was already over! By the way not that I want Dublin to lose, just hoped to see a close game.

So all in all a sad day but at least I am not up until 6 am !!

darced

Nelson by Decision

This post has been deleted.

Amazingfun

Nelson by Decision

Whoa, I didn't realize this was Stevie Ray's do or die fight. Will he be cut loose?

https://twitter.com/arielhelwani/status/886685919687921664

gzoladz

Ponzinibbio by Sub

Ponzinibbio... what does the future hold for him? Does he have the potential to become a title contender?

wonderfullife

Nelson by Decision

Chris. wrote: »

You know as well as I do that he wouldn't even consider it, being such a critic of weight cuts and all. To be fair though I didn't think he looked much smaller than ponzinibbio.

I hate to be blunt about this but Gunni is 3-3 in his last 6 fights and arguably the best opponent he beat is Tumenov, and he has since got cut from the UFC.

It was less than a year ago that John was saying Gunni would be welterweight world champion by the end of 2017 and beyond an act of God, that won't be happening.

I love Gunni and I'm sick for him, so I'm not kicking him while he's down, but the simple reality is he is a lightweight fighting at welterweight and I just don't see how he gets to the 170lb title.

Paully D

The worst thing that happened in that fight was for Gunni to light him up in the first exchange. It probably gave him a false sense of what he could do when trading.

I said on here when the fight was made that Ponzinibbio was very underrated and dangerous, though I won't pretend I didn't expect Gunnar to have too much for him.

Unfortunate, but that's the way it goes. It was a rough night for the home fighters but a good card overall in terms of entertainment and the crowd brought it all night.

A word to Neil Seery who is a legend of Irish MMA. The ability to have a career at the top level of MMA, while maintaining a full-time job and raising a young family is something else. I have no idea how he did it. Hopefully he will enjoy retirement.

John_D80

Nelson by Decision

Amazingfun wrote: »

Whoa, I didn't realize this was Stevie Ray's do or die fight. Will he be cut loose?

https://twitter.com/arielhelwani/status/886685919687921664

No what he means is that he has one more fight left on this contract. Probably needs a big win next time out.

Edit: Actually no this was his last fight on current contract. Will surely be renewed though. But on ****ty terms for him.

Chris.

darced wrote: »

I thought Gunni started cutting weight around the Maia fight, he was giving little to nothing away size wise tonight it seemed.

The little bit in height is all I could see In the difference .

Paully D

John_D80 wrote: »

No what he means is that he has one more fight left on this contract. Probably needs a big win next time out.

It was the last fight on his UFC contract tonight mate.

It's hard to know what will happen with him. Not really a big enough name for Bellator to go all in for but he is quite popular in Europe.

He could end up with someone like ACB who pay pretty well and are taking on plenty of UK fighters.

John_D80

Nelson by Decision

Paully D wrote: »

It was the last fight on his UFC contract tonight mate.

It's hard to know what will happen with him. Not really a big enough name for Bellator to go all in for but he is quite popular in Europe.

He could end up with someone like ACB who pay pretty well and are taking on plenty of UK fighters.

Yeah just checked it after I posted.

I really cant see him being cut though. I reckon he will be resigned but on very poor terms.

Paully D

John_D80 wrote: »

I reckon he will be resigned but on very poor terms.

Aye, I would think that is the most likely scenario too. He has very little bargaining power now.

Chris.

wonderfullife wrote: »

I hate to be blunt about this but Gunni is 3-3 in his last 6 fights and arguably the best opponent he beat is Tumenov, and he has since got cut from the UFC.

It was less than a year ago that John was saying Gunni would be welterweight world champion by the end of 2017 and beyond an act of God, that won't be happening.

I love Gunni and I'm sick for him, so I'm not kicking him while he's down, but the simple reality is he is a lightweight fighting at welterweight and I just don't see how he gets to the 170lb title.

Don't get me wrong wonder, I agree 100% with what you said. I think he would be a killer at lightweight but I just don't see it because of his criticisms of weight cutting.

I would take what John says about Gunner with a pinch of salt though. It's the most confusing set up I have seen. In the sense that I don't know who his head coach is, I know John corners him and all but when is the last time he has trained in Sbg. Maybe he has but from what I have seen on social media it's been 100% Mjolnir for a while now.

Anyways I can't be arguing with you, you'll have me made a show of with your dedication to the sport lol

wonderfullife

Nelson by Decision

Chris. wrote: »

Don't get me wrong wonder, I agree 100% with what you said. I think he would be a killer at lightweight but I just don't see it because of his criticisms of weight cutting.

I would take what John says about Gunner with a pinch of salt though. It's the most confusing set up I have seen. In the sense that I don't know who his head coach is, I know John corners him and all but when is the last time he has trained in Sbg. Maybe he has but from what I have seen on social media it's been 100% Mjolnir for a while now.

Anyways I can't be arguing with you, you'll have me made a show of with your dedication to the sport lol

Haha. Ah no you're right we're in agreement here.

Gunni just had his press conference. He said Ponzinibbio poked him in the eye and he was seeing double so didn't see the shots coming. Says he regrets not saying anything to the ref about the eye poke.

Outlaw Pete

Zero-Cool wrote: »

Also why in the Jaysus do people vote on the poll after the result.

I thought it was a quiz.

Chris.

Well that changes things at least. Gunni never struck me as the type to make excuses or lie.

Outlaw Pete

Cheeky.


https://twitter.com/ColbyCovMMA/status/886706772093829121

Chris.

Outlaw Pete wrote: »

Cheeky.


https://twitter.com/ColbyCovMMA/status/886706772093829121

That reply though haha

Gutted for Gunni.

I would like to see him train at a proper gym. For me SBG is the Conor McGregor gym. His success has been a double edged sword. Conor put them on the map and his association brings in a lot of membership fees from soccer moms and weekend warriors.

But the flip side is that the whole gym is centered around Conor, including Kavanagh. If Conor has a fight then everybody drops everything to travel with him to LA/Vegas and is on his beck and call for however many weeks. The guys who are left behind, who are they training with? Who is their coach?

And you have to ask whether Conor is then 'giving back' to these guys who drop everything for him. When was the last time you saw him in a teammates corner? (or even attend their fight). How often does his attend group training sessions and pass his knowledge to the younger guys? In the 8 months since the Alvarez fight, how much time did he spend in SBG acting purely as training parter for guys who previously gave up their time for him?

Outlaw Pete

John didn't go on the MayMac world tour though and he was there tonight and indeed with him all week.

Outlaw Pete

Outlaw Pete wrote: »

John didn't go on the MayMac world tour though and he was there tonight and indeed with him all week.

Yeah he was with him for the last week of probably an 8-12 week camp. Skyping or whatever the rest of the time. That's not a good arrangement. Maybe he should have been in the MMA camp where he knows a few things instead of the boxing camp where he knows absolutely nothing.

Where was he when Artem fought? Blowing his own trumpet in Australia.

wonderfullife

Nelson by Decision

Deleted User wrote: »

The guys who are left behind, who are they training with? Who is their coach?

And you have to ask whether Conor is then 'giving back' to these guys who drop everything for him. When was the last time you saw him in a teammates corner? (or even attend their fight). How often does his attend group training sessions and pass his knowledge to the younger guys? In the 8 months since the Alvarez fight, how much time did he spend in SBG acting purely as training parter for guys who previously gave up their time for him?

You'd get better answers from Tazz, Clive or one of the SBG'ers but just from social media I can tell you Conor taught at least 2 classes this year in the gym, both boxing/striking. Last fight he was at Octagon side was with Artem in Belfast last November.

I get your point but you need to be very selfish in the fight game. He was having a kid and a $100 million fight upcoming, there's only so many ways he can split his focus.

I'll tell you what sort of worried me about Gunni this week - when he was on The MMA Hour last week, he was in his parents attic and saying his kid was jumping into a big pile of pillows behind him.

I remember Chris Weidman saying he got too comfortable and was considering moving out of his gaf for training camp because it's so difficult at the highest level to try be a fighter and a daddy and be going home to do this, that and the other with the kids.

I suppose everyone has their own way of doing things but you can definitely see how it might be difficult to juggle them both. Maybe he could do with his next camp being in Dublin, just to isolate himself from distraction.

Subcomandante Marcos

Nelson by Decision

wonderfullife wrote: »

He was having a kid and a $100 million fight upcoming, there's only so many ways he can split his focus.

Made time to spend the guts of a month in Liverpool on the laughing gas and marching powder. Seems he had plenty of time to split.

finglashoop

Ponzinibbio by Sub

Wonder your really stretching. 2 classes in a year? Probably spent more time in that tree house.

As for win or learn. They can learn all they want but they are average (ufc average, so good but average in the grand scheme of things) at best and what they learn never seems to be applied so win or learn is a little cath phrase for when they inevitably lose.

wonderfullife

wonderfullife wrote: »

You'd get better answers from Tazz, Clive or one of the SBG'ers

Nobody is going to trash him on the record. We can just go by what we see which is that everybody drops everything to be part of Conor's training camp...and then he is not part of theirs. He's busy trashing hotel rooms with lads from Crumlin.

Compare to fighters from other gyms.

Subcomandante Marcos

Nelson by Decision

Gunni will bounce back, he's a legit top 10 fighter and could still challenge for a title. I do think he needs to go somewhere and get a new look though. There's only so much you can learn in a limited environment and sadly Dublin and Iceland are limited environments.

Even if he just went somewhere like Tri-Star or JacksonWink for a little while to train with a different type of fighter it will benefit him, he could still do his fight camp in Dublin or Iceland.

I think he's part owner in Mjolnir though, so maybe commitments there and the fact that he has a young family limit his ability to travel to train.

wonderfullife

Nelson by Decision

Subcomandante Marcos wrote: »

Made time to spend the guts of a month in Liverpool on the laughing gas and marching powder. Seems he had plenty of time to split.

Well you obviously know I was highly critical of the nitrous oxide stuff and being legless in a treehouse partying with Dublin "gangsters" for 4 days in the back-arse of Liverpool.

Whatever about that situation, I always felt it was a bit strange he flew 7 hours to NY to be in Mick Conlan's corner but didn't head to Artem v Cub.

If we're being realistic, is there much he could have done to help Charlie or Gunni tonight? Conor isn't very similar stylistically to either Bofando or Ponzinibbio so I'm not convinced it'd have made much difference.

ricero

Nelson by Decision

Team SBG are looking very one hit wonder. A fantastic hit though but god the rest of the gym are looking like a pack of jabronis

Gamebred

Nelson by Sub

No idea how Conor has been brought into the conversation here its his fault Gunni got caught its mma in 4oz gloves **** happens, cant expect JK to head over to Iceland for 3 months either if Gunni didnt wanna train here for it then its his own decision he made his bed tonight he sleeps in it,


SBG is nothing like a one hit wonder if were honest the likes of Pendred exceeded their potential in winning fights in the UFC, they are from an old generation where hard work got them that far, the games changed too many good fighters at that high level now, as much as I like his his act Gallagher is a product of SBG from the start basically and is the hottest prospect in Bellator I think you'd do well to find a better 20 year old fighter in mma.

wonderfullife

Nelson by Decision

ricero wrote: »

Team SBG are looking very one hit wonder. A fantastic hit though but god the rest of the gym are looking like a pack of jabronis

Well, at UFC level if you take Conor out it's not a pretty picture...SBG's record in the last 2 years is 8-12... but on the other hand it's far too early to judge things.

Gunni 2-2
Holohan 2-1
Artem 2-3
Pendred 0-2
Daly 1-1
Makwan 1-1
Charlie 0-2

You'd have to imagine Charlie will be joining Paddy, Ais and Pendred in retirement, Makwan and Artem who knows what way that goes...so that only leaves Conor (boxer??!), John Phillips (debut), and Gunni.

Even Gunni... most UFC fighters are only really 2 or 3 consecutive defeats away from being in danger. Look what happened with Tumenov. He was the next big thing, 2 defeats later he gets cut. Obviously Conor has a lot of power now so he could probably keep both Artem and Gunni around indefinitely if he wanted to...

They've only really become very professional in terms of nutrition, equipment, cardio etc in the last couple of years. It's easy to forget but they didn't have replica Octagon's and all that jazz even 3 years ago and Conor was still cutting weight in ridiculous risky ways.

James Gallagher, for all the abuse he takes, does seem a legitimate prospect. I actually think John Phillips is capable of putting in a good run of performances if they don't feed him to the dogs like they did with Charlie. Blaine O' Driscoll looks a perfect Bellator type of fighter as well with another win or 2, I'm pretty keen on his chances and Smullen has the potential too.

Sure we'll see. At the end of the day if it does come down to it... if the history books in 40 years show SBG was basically just a Conor McGregor supernova... that wouldn't be so bad

Wrongway1985

Nelson by Decision

wonderfullife wrote: »

Even Gunni... most UFC fighters are only really 2 or 3 consecutive defeats away from being in danger. Look what happened with Tumenov. He was the next big thing, 2 defeats later he gets cut.

Tbf Gunni has headlined a few events I'd gather he needs a severe amount of losses (Travis Browne style) to be in danger, Tumenov is a great fighter but not noteworthy enough to have around clearly, terrible showing in Manchester too by all accounts.

Wrongway1985

Nelson by Decision

tinpib wrote: »

Your best bet would always be Sinnotts at Stephens Green shopping centre main entrance, if you ask the staff at the very least they will stick it on one telly in a corner.

Sound, Bruxelles stuck it on for me.

Wheeliebin30

Lads let's be honest we have been absolutely spoiled with mcgregor, once in a lifetime.

When he goes reality will hit again as it's already starting to.

cloudatlas

Gunnar says he was poked in the eye and should have stopped the fight at that point.

http://mmajunkie.com/2017/07/gunnar-nelson-complains-of-eye-poke-during-ufc-fight-night-113-ko-loss-to-ponzinibbio

From what people say on here Charlie Ward is a thug so the sooner he is retired the better.

akelly02

cloudatlas wrote: »

Gunnar says he was poked in the eye and should have stopped the fight at that point.

http://mmajunkie.com/2017/07/gunnar-nelson-complains-of-eye-poke-during-ufc-fight-night-113-ko-loss-to-ponzinibbio

From what people say on here Charlie Ward is a thug so the sooner he is retired the better.

i wouldnt call charlie a thug , he was only brought in because of conors pulling power. he is just not ufc level, simple as that

maximoose

cloudatlas wrote: »

Gunnar says he was poked in the eye and should have stopped the fight at that point.

http://mmajunkie.com/2017/07/gunnar-nelson-complains-of-eye-poke-during-ufc-fight-night-113-ko-loss-to-ponzinibbio

From what people say on here Charlie Ward is a thug so the sooner he is retired the better.

Saw this on reddit:

Wheeliebin30

maximoose wrote: »

Saw this on reddit:

That's nasty and malicious.

Gunner did try run off for a bit after it to compose himself.

Seems very unfair now.

Easy Rod

Wheeliebin30 wrote: »

That's nasty and malicious.

Gunner did try run off for a bit after it to compose himself.

Seems very unfair now.

Not sure how you can say it's nasty and malicious from a screen grab with no context?

Definite poke and I'm sure it affected him though.

John_D80

Nelson by Decision

ricero wrote: »

Team SBG are looking very one hit wonder. A fantastic hit though but god the rest of the gym are looking like a pack of jabronis

I have no loyalty or affiliation to SBG but I have no hesitation in saying that is absolute b0llocks.

The vast majority of teams in this country and thousands of teams across the world will NEVER have a single fighter in the UFC, never mind getting to the same level as SBG where they have 7 or 8. Team Ryano have 2 and even that is a phenomonal achievement.

And thats not to mention their (SBG's) MMA success at regional level and in Jiu Jitsu competition. If they are a one hit wonder thanks to having McGregor in their stable then pretty much every other team in the world is a no-hit wonder. And if the rest of the team besides McGregor are ''jabroni's'', you must have impossibly high standards.

SBG are in the top 1% of MMA teams.

Django99

Wheeliebin30 wrote: »

That's nasty and malicious.

Gunner did try run off for a bit after it to compose himself.

Seems very unfair now.

It happens the whole time, one of the big issues which MMA is trying to sort out at the moment. Unless a fighter has history of doing it all the time it's unfair to say it's nasty and malicious.

Definitely very unfortunate thing to happen. But loads of fighters risk doing it by the way they control distance, with hands strechted out as far as possible. Even in the Felder fight the ref told both fighters to stop leading with the fingers.

MMayweather

Sad to see Gunner make excuses like that.

Eye pokes are part and parcel. Look at Gustafson and Jones.

Jiu jitsu is his strong point but he tried fighting standing up. Bad mistake.

John_D80

John_D80 wrote: »

The vast majority of teams in this country and thousands of teams across the world will NEVER have a single fighter in the UFC, never mind getting to the same level as SBG where they have 7 or 8. Team Ryano have 2 and even that is a phenomonal achievement.

In fairness I don't think simply having fighters "in the UFC" is a good judge of gym quality.

UFC are a business and we know they sign many fighters for commercial reasons...to break into new markets etc.

Most people will agree that a lot of those SBG guys did not get signed purely on merit. They got signed due to Conor's influence and UFC wanting to have a few token Irish guys on Conor's undercards. We saw the shenanigans with Artem on TUF. In the case of Charlie I suspect Conor requested his signing and subsequent second fight.

Frank Bullitt

wonderfullife wrote: »

Well you obviously know I was highly critical of the nitrous oxide stuff and being legless in a treehouse partying with Dublin "gangsters" for 4 days in the back-arse of Liverpool.

Whatever about that situation, I always felt it was a bit strange he flew 7 hours to NY to be in Mick Conlan's corner but didn't head to Artem v Cub.

If we're being realistic, is there much he could have done to help Charlie or Gunni tonight? Conor isn't very similar stylistically to either Bofando or Ponzinibbio so I'm not convinced it'd have made much difference.

I did think of this myself, and I honestly think he went to NY not just to support Conlon, but he knew the boxing press would be there, it was a prime opportunity to make a bit of noise.

As for Charlie, when I saw that last night i thought he broke his neck, it was terrifying. No harm in retiring now though, no shame in it.

John_D80

Nelson by Decision

Deleted User wrote: »

In fairness I don't think simply having fighters "in the UFC" is a good judge of gym quality.

UFC are a business and we know they sign many fighters for commercial reasons...to break into new markets etc.

Most people will agree that a lot of those SBG guys did not get signed purely on merit. They got signed due to Conor's influence and UFC wanting to have a few token Irish guys on Conor's undercards. We saw the shenanigans with Artem on TUF. In the case of Charlie I suspect Conor arranged requested his signing and subsequent second fight.

2 of them (Lobov and Ward) got their shot thanks to Mcgregor and I'm sure they wont be the last either, but in fairness to Lobov he proved on the show that he was more than good enough to be there. The rest of them IMO earned their own way in and had varying degree's of success. Nevertheless its a huge achievement for the gym and the individuals themselves

I agree with you by the way that there is a lot more to determining the quality of a gym by how many fighters it has in the UFC but I was responding to another poster who was calling the gym a one-hit wonder and was merely using that as a jumping off point.

As an MMA gym there is so much more to SBG's success than just the UFC but it seems some people dont see it if they are calling a gym like SBG a one-hit wonder.

John_D80

Nelson by Decision

Gintonious wrote: »

I did think of this myself, and I honestly think he went to NY not just to support Conlon, but he knew the boxing press would be there, it was a prime opportunity to make a bit of noise.

As for Charlie, when I saw that last night i thought he broke his neck, it was terrifying. No harm in retiring now though, no shame in it.

True but I reckon whoever represents him will be getting a phonecall from the likes of BAMMA or CW pretty soon.

Frank Bullitt

John_D80 wrote: »

True but I reckon whoever represents him will be getting a phonecall from the likes of BAMMA or CW pretty soon.

A few easy fights might not be a bad idea, just don't put him in there with animals like last night.