UFC Atlanta Mail Bag: Kamal Usman watches, Rose Namajunas is 125 candidates, Paul Craig’s Doom upkick

UFC Atlanta It’s in the book Cameroon Usman Returning to the winner’s circle.

This past Saturday, Usman turned his clock back and gave a vintage performance against the surge Joaquin Buckleya unanimous decision will be made. This victory reinserted Usman in the photo of the welterweight title, reminding everyone that Usman is one of the best fighters to step into his cage.

On top of that, Rose Namajun He also returned to the victory column with a solid performance. Miranda Maverickand a few other things have happened, so let’s talk about it.

Cameroon Usman

How do you think Prime Usman fought against this current candidate’s harvest?

Here it is: Kamal Usman is perhaps the best welterweight of all time (the people sleeping in Matt Hughes, the certified demon of his time), and is arguably one of the best 25 fighters of all time. When you’re a fighter of that level, you don’t go quietly at night. True all-time greats continue to win meaningful victory years after their prime numbers, and saw it with Usman on Saturday.

Other things are: In particular, Usman helps to age gracefully. Uthman’s game wasn’t about explosive athleticism or response. In other words, he should be able to withstand longer as age comes first towards the characteristics of exercise. Usman is definitely past his prime, but even this version of Usman is still dangerous to the current candidate’s harvest.

It leads me to my answer: pretty well. On Saturday, Usman is still a handful for Shabkat Rakmomofs and Shawn Brady around the world. Usman from four years ago? He’s a problem for them. A big problem.

Usman is a defensively responsible grappler and has a solid and basic impression of an elite takedown defense. That’s difficult on the day of the week. God loves Sean Brady, but I still don’t know if he can put Ragdoll Usman around and around. 2020 Usman? I’m taking him comfortably. Now, like people like Jack Della Madarena and Ian Machado Garry, they have better shots on Usman in both forms.

That being said, I still choose Prime Usmann at almost all welterweights, perhaps Prime Georges Saint-Pierre. The man is amazing for the best reason ever.

Rose Namajun

Can Namajunas become a champion with 125?

can? of course. Will? no.

At this point it seems safe to call Namajunas one of the seven best flyweights in the world. can You’ll become a champion. Need a lucky break and a great evening in the office. She’s so popular, especially for Rose, that she needs less breaks than others. But I didn’t bet the farm to make her get to the belt.

The problem with Namajunas is that she is not flyweight. Elite fighters can always succeed in weight classes, but at some point there are serious physical limitations to fighting beyond your natural weight. Manon Phillott defeated Rose simply by growing bigger, and Erin Branchfield (not even a massive flyweight) did something similar. Even on Saturday, Miranda Maverick is close to tapped Rose as she gets caught up in the top and is Hoss. When you are fighting, the margin of error is very small, and it is now Namajuna’s core blocker.

Still, there are so many worlds where Zhang Weili moves to challenge Valentina Shevchenko. I prefer the “bullet” among them, but if Zhang wins, there’s a very good chance that the UFC will go to Zhang vs. Rose III. And when you win the first two encounters, you also like the third chance.

Rodolfo Berato and Doom upkick

Who is the better actor: Berat or Alho?

Will floping become something now? Last night was rewarded

For those who were off the loop, Rodolfo Berato vs. Paul Craig ended with no contest after an illegal upkick from Craig brought about one of the strangest reactions I’ve ever seen, clearly appealing to the judge after becoming unconscious and then awakening without a thought of what was going on. Since Saturday, I’ve seen every angle of this incident about 1000 times and broke it like a Zapruder movie.

What I can say with confidence is that two things have happened. Either Berato was hit by an upkick and the response to the blow slowed, Laschoen Burgos and Edson Barboza, or Berato, flops for the DQ victory, are world-class actors. After a lot of discussion and debate, I came down to the former side.

The big reason I think that’s an honest situation is that it doesn’t make sense. Berat wasn’t losing the battle, he had to do something extraordinary in order to get a free victory. Berat was probably winning the round and was much preferred to win the battle. Furthermore, REF is not the people of the UFC who are DQ. The most likely outcome in that scenario is that there is no competition, meaning Berat ruined his own chances with two paychecks or bonuses. That’s not zero. Plus, we’ve seen MMA fighters take action. They’re all awful with that. There’s no chance Berat is so good.

So, while it may be difficult to swallow, Occam’s razor is probably correct here, and the scene, although completely odd, is not evil. Strange things can happen in MMA.

Michael Church

What is Michael Chiesa doing in his career? There is no direction, no goal or desire.

The vibe, and it’s fantastic.

On Saturday, Chiesa wins a terribly boring decision victory over Court McGee, earning his third straight victory and, more importantly, moving to 4-0 with Fellows The ultimate fighter champion. After that, Chiesa loves it, so she opens up about the fight a bit and has a small goal to shoot. It was lovely and I hope more fighters will be so honest with themselves and us.

Chiesa is never going to fight for the belt, so why pretend? One of the things that frustrate me the most about sports in general, MMA in particular, is a ridiculous discourse about titles. Yes, the title is great, but there’s far more to do than winning the belt. Getting rewarded for doing what you want is something everyone should expect so far, and Chiesa does just that.

Plus, there was a time when Chiesa was one of the best people in the world for his work. It’s great and should be celebrated rather than viewing it as “Well, he didn’t win the belt.” If I can do what I love and spend my professional career as one of the best people living on it, I think I live my life well. We should all be very fortunate.

Islamic Makachev

What are your thoughts about Islam that you don’t want to abandon his 155-pound belt? Is the night before they had to drop Iranian Topria and Charles Oliveira as co-main, as Islam has refused to leave?

Of course, there was no one in Islam, so I didn’t want to free his title. There is no benefit to dropping the belt, and there is no pure advantage to maintaining it. Topuria also didn’t want to bail on his belt, but it appears that the UFC is taking place in the Champion Champ era, at least for now. I want to thank you, but I think it’s stupid.

The question is, what happens if Topuria/Makhachev is lost? If they lose and still have other titles, as we saw in Alexander Volkanovski, either/both men can simply stop by to defend it. But by freeing their title, this promotion now places someone else a somewhat paper belt and if Makhachev/Topria has to hide their tails and return to their respective divisions, it’s a bad look. If Topuria lost to Oliveira and returned to Featherweight to Cold Volkanovski again, what was all that point? The same goes for Makhachev.

And I’m afraid this will only last now that Topuria has opened Floodgates. Because he appears to be putting something at risk, but he is not actually like that and there is a good chance that more people will follow suit.

The real answer to this is simply to codify the opportunity for double-champs. We’ll bring you five title defenses, BAM and an instant title fight. Otherwise, you need to abandon the division completely and compete and compete against the candidates before you are in a position to challenge the belt. In a world of meritocracy, neither Toplia nor Makhachev deserves to compete for the second belt right now (for a very different reason), so that’s not the world we live in.

Thank you for reading and thank you to everyone who sent me a tweet (xs?)! Are there any burning questions about at least some relevance to combat sports? Then you are lucky because you can send your tweets to me, @jedkmeshewand I answer all the good things! As long as they’re good it doesn’t matter whether they’re local or insane. Thank you once more, and take a look at y’all next week.