UFC 285: Jones vs. Gane

The official Tapology discussion thread for the event!

I had nothing better to do today, so I just checked if Andrew1047theory checks out. In total there are 122 fighters that came off of DWCS that lost their debuts and 116 fighters that won their debuts. I wanted to show you guys which fighters won or lost their debuts, but the summary appears to exceed the limit of 15,000 characters. Anyways... Not sure if this info was useful, but thought I'd let you guys know

I think the recent trend is to give them easy match ups. Not match ups that check where their level is like they did previously.

The reason for that is simple economics. Within the next 2 years most of the old big name, expensive fighters will be gone
 And the majority of UFC fighters will be from DWCS and affiliated feeder promotions that have a deal with the UFC like Cage Warriors or LFA.

Therefore because that will become the majority of the roster they cant have them lose their first fight. They will get favourable matchups.

Loik is a different story because Ribovics original opponent dropped out so they had to find someone on short notice. And what I heard is Loik got kicked out of the TUF house by Conor who wanted to get his own fighters in. So the UFC signed him directly on short notice anyway. 

* Edited at 02.28.2023, 8:28 PM ET *

Turner By submission 
I like Turner as well but I see him catching Gamrot going for takedown with any type of front choke.

T. Jones By KO/TKO
Cody’s shot.

Those are my 2 top dogs but I could see other upset possibilities like Manaboi +255 ML W, Marquez +130 ML W & Brunson +195 ML W all have paths to victory.

Turner by submission? Not a chance 

I agree that Marquez, Mana and Brunson could all win

Shevchenko still got a lot of fight in her, and Grasso isn't the one to stop her. Shevchenko by sub

Just watched the second embedded episode. Apparently Jones has been training with Walt Harris and Maurice Green. With training partners like that, I don't see how he could lose. Bet the house guys.

Don’t forget mike rodriguez lol

I say this about the Andrew contender series theory, I think at least use common sense and not bet on the bums coming off the show, Bet on the Jack Della Maddelna's of the contender series, And not the Shannon Ross's . I think you also should do some due dillegance on the matchup

I have the same thing with women underdogs, But I'm not betting every women underdog, I'm more dog or pass, And I pass a lot of women fights

* Edited at 03.01.2023, 12:10 AM ET *

I have to agree with @Rah123 that the UFC is run differently now.  They are more of a content producer who would prefer not to pay out millions to superstars anymore.  We saw them shrug their shoulders at Ngannou and we might see the end of Jon Jones on Saturday and the end of Conor McGregor later this year against Chandler who are really the only two stars actively left who can command an absurd amount of money due to their legacies in the sport.

We will find out if they threw Jon to the wolves here against Gane soon.  If they wanted an easier matchup for Jon, Stipe would have probably been better to do.  In fact, Stipe was the previous champ whereas Gane just lost to Ngannou so it would have made more sense for Jon to have fought Stipe instead for the interim belt while Gane should have fought Blaydes or Pavlovich before getting another title fight.  

I also think Conor loses to Chandler when they do fight later this year.  If they wanted to give Conor a guaranteed win like when he fought Cerrone, it should have been Tony coaching against him especially with Tony being a previous TUF winner himself. The fight would have done big numbers, Conor would have probably gotten a highlight reel finish and then he could have probably been thrusted into a title fight with Makhachev right after despite not being a real contender.

It's not really a conspiracy theory... @Rah123 brought up a good point.  The UFC gets guaranteed money so it makes business sense that they would want to phase the legends out and bring in a nonstop flow of people from the Contender Series, TUF and other platforms at lower prices. 

But who knows man.  I like to talk out of my ass sometimes so maybe Jon and Conor do return in superstar form and it feels like the good old days again.  
 

* Edited at 03.01.2023, 1:11 AM ET *

Gamrot vs. Turner
Jalin Turner, SUB, R1
Mateusz Gamrot has an impressive resume. They immediately threw him to the wolves and dominated. Championship material right out of the box. Jalin Turner is what they hyped Terrence Mckinney to be. Jalins explosiveness and submissions brought him to the top of the division. If Jalin gets top control early it's over.

Adding Basharat you have a legit great parlay though personnally i'm not a fan of adding WMMA to big parlays

Penne vs. Ricci
Tabatha Ricci, SUB, R2
armbar

Boys you have to understand majority of fighters outside UFC are juicing. DWCS  fighters are not in the testing pool until they get UFC contract. The drug testing is different, the weigh in requirements are often different, particularly when you have non-US based fighters. this is why you should treat most DWCS fighters the same as pure debut fighters the first time they appear in UFC.

Andrew1047  I just checked, since I had made a spreadsheet of all the fighters that came from DWCS. There are still a bunch of fighters from DWCS last year that have yet to make their debut. A bunch of them are scheduled to fight soon. So I checked and it seems that you're right. 10 fighters have lost and 15 have won. So it remains to be seen how the rest of them will do in their debuts these upcoming months.

Rah123  I completely agree. It would make a lot of sense for the UFC to give them easier/favorable matchups, since it would be better for the business model that DWCS is. A DWCS alum that will eventually fight for the title is better for business and reels in more viewers. I believe that it also reels in more fighters which want to take that chance to get that contract that way. Especially because it does seem that they are being "groomed" and favored by the company (with a few exceptions). 

DWCS is also a lot more appealling and makes more sense for fighters than (for example) TUF. Which purely still exists because it's Dana's "creation." It's just very evident that smarter and highly skilled fighters won't compete on a show like that anymore. There are more alternatives these days. Besides, imagine fighting exhibition fights for a small amount of money with the chance that you won't even end up in the UFC. Fortunately it's a different era and the majority of fighters are more educated than they were 15 years ago.

* Edited at 03.01.2023, 7:11 AM ET *

Julian Marquez
Shavkat 
and Jalin Turner 

all have 100 % finishing rate

Also Bojack but I mean yeah put him on the main? He's obviously gonna smash his opponent, does that really even interest anyone?

* Edited at 03.01.2023, 8:01 AM ET *