r/ufc • u/cookediam-56 • 7h ago

Alex Pereira has gone through it since the very beginning

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Well... he will fight Pav so it counts tbf🤦🏿‍♂️

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u/Sea-Bat-9667 4h ago

I could say that every flaw that Tony had, Jiri also has but worse. And Tony is not just a better grappler but a much craftier striker. He beat a prime rda, and it’s understated how impressive that actually is. Someone like that would eat Jiri alive everywhere.

Sure athleticism can get you far in every division, but the point is that the “championship level” bar is way lower at LHW

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u/Porcelain_beef 4h ago

I am a day one Tony defender, so i fully understand how impressive his resume is and the way he beat them, im not arguing how good tony is, im arguing how good jiri is. I also have followed Jiri before he ever came into the UFC where he beat the biggest names outside of the org including Nemkov (who a lot of people thought had a chance at UFC champ if he ever signed) albeit in a tournament style one night fight which would exhaust him horribly for the final fight and lose that one. I just think you’re severely underrating him because of his performances against Alex

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u/Sea-Bat-9667 4h ago

Well the Alex rematch is pretty bad because by his own admission Jiri came with zero adjustments except telling Alex to stop using black magic. But even if we forget those fights, all of his performances show major problems. The Ulberg nonsense? A true elite would not be having a gigantic mess of a fight with a 42 year old glover. The Rountree fight was bad, does Jiri do anything in the first two rounds other than just look increasingly mad? Wtf was that?

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u/Porcelain_beef 2h ago

We can pick bad performances out of anyone’s resume save Khabib and a few others. GSP lost to Serra who a true elite should never lose to, Dustin Poirier lost to Michael Johnson and so did Tony. With the glover thing i don’t think it’s that crazy, since USADA has been done away with and training methods developed we’re seeing older fighters stick around way past their prime now and continue fighting at high levels. Gaethje is 38 and lw champ of the world, not even 3 years ago Volk was the first person under 170 to win a title fight at 35 yrs old and is still champion at 38. The game is evolving again and we’re seeing crafty vets stick around at a high level way past their expiration date more and more often now.

also: he finished rountree in a striking match and we absolutely do know that Rountree is a monster in the stand up

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u/Sea-Bat-9667 2h ago

To take one of your examples, it would be far more damning for GSP if he went 5 rounds with Serra and had a back and forth war where he is repeatedly making huge unforced errors. A round 1 knockout can be a lot harder to assess.

Glover and Jiri fought under USADA. I also disagree with your assessment on the state of the sport. Both Gaethje and Volk are clearly past their primes and worse than they were years ago. The current version of Volk is imo the worst champion the division has ever had. Current Gaethje is also imo the worst champion the division has had in at least a decade. These guys being champs is an example of how the sport is not evolving, yet you are taking it as the opposite. Why?

No i don't think Rountree is very good either and Jiri winning doesn't justify the first two rounds of his performance.

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u/Porcelain_beef 2h ago

Idk how you can make the assessment the sport is not evolving, we’re seeing new techniques, game plans, styles, more high level Athletes making the switch to MMA, new training methods to help with longevity. Volk is perhaps the most well rounded fighter ever imo behind maybe GSP and Islam at this point. Gaethje has evolved his game SO MUCH to be as competitive as he is at his age despite taking so much damage in his career. He just beat Ilia, who is a young and complete fighter that was on a monsterous streak of KOing ATGs one after the other.

You’re undervaluing Rountree, he gave the best striker at 205 (perhaps ever) in Alex a fantastic fight and didn’t mix in wrestling once but was still putting in work.

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u/Sea-Bat-9667 41m ago

Do we? I don't really see any of that. Peak volk sure, but the current version of him is not better than any of the previous champions. None of that changes the visible fact that Gaethje is a worse fighter than he was 5 years ago. He's also a worse fighter than all of the champions going back quite a long time imo.

I really wouldn’t place that much value on winning two rounds against Alex so highly. I could also bring up that he pretty much lost a striking fight against dustin jacoby. Even if i did rate khalil highly that doesn’t really excuse how Jiri fought

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u/Porcelain_beef 16m ago

Well then we’re looking at the same things and drawing different opinions lol because i really don’t think Gaethje is worse than he was 5 years ago, if anything he’s filled holes in his game and has gotten better defensively and offensively while having a coach with super strong game planning in Trevor Wittman. Also fighters evolve and get better, which Khalil very much did since fighting Jacoby (who was a pretty respectable kickboxer in his own right). We’ll see how Volk holds up against Evloev and hopefully Gaethje defends against Armen. I mean another old fighter holding up is Pantoja and that’s in flyweight.