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411 Fact or Fiction MMA: Are We Being Too Hard on Amanda Nunes?

July 12, 2017 | Posted by Lorenzo Vasquez

Welcome back to another edition of 411 Fact or Fiction MMA! I’m your host, Lorenzo Vasquez III, and it is my pleasure to bring you into the realm of mixed martial arts opinions with another round of 411 Fact or Fiction. By the way, thank you, for your votes and comments last week, it is appreciated and encouraged. Last week, Robert Winfree stepped up to the plate and put it all on the line as he challenged Wyatt Beougher in what turned out to be a back and forth brawl. They locked horns over Demian Maia getting shaft with a short notice title fight, Gilbert Melendez dropping down to featherweight, and Justin Gaethje getting a title shot in addition other hot topics. Both pushed forward and blasted one another with punches. They went for the kill, unfortunately, Robert was the last man standing. Congratulations, Robert, on your 15-to-10 victory. Thank you, both for your efforts and contribution.

This week, Alex Rella and Jeffrey Harris will go to war over Michael Bisping possibly choosing Georges St-Pierre over Robert Whittaker as his next opponent, Amanda Nunes dropping out of UFC 213, Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series, and much more! It’s time to strap in. Go get some grub and get comfortable because it’s time for another round of, 411 Fact or Fiction MMA! Let’s get the show going…

TALE OF THE TAPE
RED CORNER
Alex “Little Mac” Rella
Contributor, 411 MMA Zone
4-6-0

VS

BLUE CORNER
Jeffrey “The Vile One” Harris
Contributor, Various 411 Zones
2-5-4

Unfortunately, for the new interim middleweight champion, Robert Whittaker, Michael Bisping will choose not to unify the title but instead to fight Georges St-Pierre.

Alex Rella: FICTION Fortunately, it seems as though everyone has moved on from the Bisping-GSP fight at this time. One can’t possibly pass over Whittaker at this point. Only GSP is still delusional as he’s hoping to make this fight happen in the fall. White said GSP lost his chance and Bisping has already started hyping his fight against Whittaker. He wouldn’t have gotten in the cage to talk trash after the fight if he still had any intentions of fighting GSP. It also seems that the UFC would like GSP to take on the winner of Woodley vs Maia. They rushed to put that fight on UFC 214 because they want GSP to fight for the welterweight title at MSG in the fall. Luckily for everyone, it appears the logjam at 185 in the UFC is starting to clear up.

Jeffrey Harris: FICTION I’m saying Fiction for now. Michael Bisping has continued to make a play for that fight, but it just isn’t there right now. As of now, unless there are any unforeseen circumstances, I expect Bisping to face Bobby Knuckles at some point. Now depending on Whittaker’s knee injury that might take a while. Plus Bisping is apparently recovering from his own knee injury. But unfortunately for Bisping, the ship for the St-Pierre fight has sailed.

It’s difficult to imagine Justin Gaethje staying at the top of the lightweight division for a long run with his style of fighting; however, he seems to have grabbed the eye of the almighty Conor McGregor and if he can get the talk going or beat another ranked opponent, the Irishman may cozy up to giving Gaethje the next title shot.

Alex Rella: FACT Yea, I can see this happening. Justin Gaethje and his fighting style of pure brutality have gotten better with each fight. Before coming to the UFC, Gaethje had wins over solid veterans and former UFC fighters in the WOSF, but the former WSOF champ just beat one of the best lightweights in the world in his debut. In one of the best fights I’ve ever seen, Justin took everything Michael Johnson threw at him and retaliated viciously. It’s rumored that his next fight could be against Eddie Alvarez, but who knows if we’ll ever get Khabib vs Ferguson. Even Dana White mentioned that Gaethje vs Ferguson could be the next fight up if Khabib isn’t ready to go. Gaethje isn’t a bad trash talker, he’s a certainly a good fighter, and he’s riding the momentum of a truly amazing fight. A couple things still have to fall into place for him, but he could be one win away from challenging Conor McGregor (if he doesn’t retire after fighting Mayweather).

Jeffrey Harris: FACT Justin Gaethje’s fight with Michael Johnson was fun and definitely entertaining. However, Johnson was also a very beatable opponent. As Kevin Lee pointed out, Johnson is no killer and loses half of his fights. I think Gaethje can be quite a force in the division. His style might shoot him up the ladder very quickly. However, if he faces a strong and more technical lightweight, I think that could be a proverbial death sentence for his future in the UFC.

The soreness surrounding Amanda Nunes’ decision not to fight because chronic sinusitis is overblown as it would have affected her cardio and stamina and lessened her chance of having a competitive fight with Valentina Shevchencko.

Alex Rella: FACT I’m torn on this one as I truly see the arguments on both sides. The doctor cleared her to fight and other fighters have competed with worse ailments/injuries than that. She also cost the company money in one of their biggest weeks of the year and disappointed a lot of fans. Then again, only Nunes knows how truly sick she was. It doesn’t seem like an immobilizing ailment to me, but I wasn’t the one going through it, so it’s not my place to say. It’s the first time she’s pulled out of a fight in a couple years and her first time doing so as a champion. It sucked that we didn’t get to see the fight, but we should probably give her the benefit of the doubt at least once. I apologize if that wasn’t an exciting answer, I just don’t get overly worked up when fights get canceled- it is just a normal part of the sport now.

Jeffrey Harris: FACT A part of me feels many are being too quick to throw Amanda Nunes under the bus. That being said, a part of me feels we aren’t getting the whole story from Amanda Nunes. She didn’t look good at the weigh-ins on Friday at all. Just because she was “cleared by the doctor” doesn’t mean she should’ve been fighting. Something could’ve been wrong with her that doctors couldn’t detect. I really have no idea how bad her sinusitis was if she did indeed have it. My feeling is, if a fighter was sent to the hospital on the same day of the fight, she probably shouldn’t have fought. My reasoning is if she did that and still fought later that day, then if she got destroyed…it just doesn’t seem like a good look. This is the first time something like this happened with Nunes, so I can’t necessarily believe this was a case of Didn’t Want to Fight Shevchenko-itis than sinusitis.

SWITCH!

Ronda Rousey better appreciate her man, Travis Browne, because he destroyed his career to have a relationship with her.

Jeffrey Harris: FICTION What’s weird is, I said basically the same thing on Facebook during UFC 213, and I think this is where Lorenzo got the question from. But, Lorenzo made one mistake to keep me from writing fact, and that’s the first part, “Ronda Rousey better appreciate her man.” That part just doesn’t sit well with me to write an easy “FACT” down here. Now, I believe the second part of this statement to be true. Why? Travis Browne was in a marriage with another woman when he got together with Ronda Rousey. Besides that, he left his previous team of Greg Jackson’s MMA and then went to train at Rousey’s camp of Glendale Fight Club and shared the same coach, Edmond Tarverdyan. If you want to find a clear shatterpoint where Browne’s career started to decline, it seems to have basically gone downhill after his alleged relationship with Rousey started. You can see how his style changed. He didn’t look quite like the polished and scary heavyweight when he was close to the top of the division. Since he’s been with Rousey, his career has taken a nosedive. His second marriage evaporated, and he was accused of domestic battery by his ex-wife. But I’m not going to say Ronda Rousey better appreciate Browne for ruining his career for her. Because maybe he shouldn’t. Other than that they are together, I don’t really know much about their relationship. I don’t really know what’s going on behind closed doors between those two. I hope things are OK and they are happy, but to say that Rousey better appreciate that, I dunno, it just sounds wrong.

Alex Rella: FICTION While I despise Browne and have been severely disappointed in Rousey in recent years, I don’t think you can 100% blame her for his career falling off. You could make this argument if he was still training with Edmond Tarverdyan, but he’s been training at Blackhouse MMA for his last two fights and he lost both of those too. And we have no idea how their relationship works. I doubt they wake up in the morning and Rousey is like, “Oh Hapa, don’t go to fight camp training today. You should just hang out with me instead.” She was one of the most disciplined athletes in the world for years, I highly doubt she does anything to hold him back or negatively affect him. Browne’s decline is entirely on him, he just isn’t that good. He had a nice run in 2013, but that’s a lifetime ago in MMA. Since then, he’s only beaten Brendan Schaub and Matt Mitrione in a fight where even Josh Koscheck probably thought he fought dirty. Browne isn’t a great fighter and that’s his fault.

Alistair Overeem versus the winner of Junior dos Santos vs. Francis Ngannou makes more sense then Overeem challenging for the heavyweight strap in a rematch against Stipe Miocic.

Jeffrey Harris: FICTION I’m going to say fiction for right now. Stipe Miocic needs fresh opponents, and Francis Ngannou is just what the doctor ordered. He’s already 5-0 in the UFC. If he beats Junior dos Santos, he’s 6-0 and just beat a former UFC heavyweight champion. I want to see Ngannou fight for the heavyweight title at some point. Alistair Overeem already fought Stipe Miocic and lost. And after his performance against Fabricio Werdum, I never see Overeem beating Stipe Miocic.

Alex Rella: FICTION I’m really hoping Ngannou beats JDS and can then take on Miocic. Overeem vs Miocic isn’t a terrible rematch, but I’d like to see something fresh and exciting if possible. If Ngannou loses, I’d even prefer to see the winner of Stefan Struve/Alexander Volkov get the next title shot before Overeem. Overeem is the next person up according to the rankings, I just don’t really care to see him get a rematch so soon (if ever).

By all appearances, Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series looks like it could become a bigger hit and more enjoyable than The Ultimate Fighter.

Jeffrey Harris: FICTION I’m not saying it will not. However, I’m not yet convinced. I think Looking for a Fight really should’ve replaced The Ultimate Fighter as a quarterly series or some such. The Ultimate Fighter has basically run its course and really should go into some type of temporary hibernation. I will check out Tuesday Night Contender series, and maybe it will be awesome. I’m just not sure about moves like using Snoop Dogg as an announcer. No offense to Snoop Dogg and his fans.

Alex Rella: FACT Absolutely. I’m totally down for somethings new with weekly fights. I’m not one of those people that enjoy shitting on present day TUF, but it is a struggle to watch sometimes. It still serves a purpose, but offering up a new way to find young fighters is great. Especially when it seems like it’ll be more fighting than obnoxious backstory. I’m sorry random welterweight from season whatever of TUF, I just don’t care that about how difficult it is that you left your wife and 7 newborns home for 6 weeks. The first couple weeks have a couple familiar names too like Kurt Holobaugh and Daniel Spohn. Plus I’m all for Snoop Dogg on commentary, have you seen him narrating wild life? It’s hilarious.

So who won? Did Alex overcome the gritty Jeffrey Harris or was Jeffrey able to tarnish another man’s record? You’ve got until midnight eastern on Saturday to vote, so make sure you make your voice heard!

And that’s it for today but, as always, we’ll be back next week with another contest! And please, be sure to vote!

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