MMA news updates

Instead of spamming the boards everytime I see some cool news, I’ll post it here. I’ll also keep track of prospects I like, new signings to ufc/dwcs/Bellator/etc.

* Edited at 05.02.2022, 4:44 PM ET *

Mansour Barnaoui is only 29 years old, yet he has been fighting since 2011, a time when mma was actually illegal in France. Barnaoui holds a record of 19-4 with 18 finishes; 6 by ko and 12 by submission. He has held multiple world titles for 100% fight (where he fought three times in one night. Then repeating this feat a year later), BAMMA, M-1 Global, and most recently, Road FC where he won their 32 man tournament to win a million dollars and the Road FC 155 belt. Unfortunately, Baranoui has been out of action since winning this belt, but it appears his hunger has once again been satiated as he has now signed with bellator to compete in the 155 division. The Tunisian-born Frenchman carries quite a big frame for 155 standing at 6 feet tall. Unfortunately, I cannot find his reach anywhere but he is very tall for the division. He also has very long legs which allows him to throw knees without telegraphing (see the islam or shamil fight for the best examples of this). His style is fascinating because its so unlike really anyone else’s that I have been able to find. On the feet, he is NEVER fighting more than 2 feet away from you at all times. He doesn't use a whole lot of technique, preferring to slug it out, but hes surprisingly good at finding his target and has improved his striking defense (althought its not that great). His power is insane tho. When he connects, he connects BIG. Where his style gets funky, is in the grappling. For someone with 12 subs and who is a proclaimed grappler, he does not take you down at ALL (I will say, he does do trips a lot in the clinch but almost never does he actually use takedowns). He fights in the clinch, preferring to dirty box and throws tons of knees and jumping knees from the clinch. Its funny, because his takedown defense is quite terrible, but he makes up for it with reversals that are nothing short of phenomenal. I mean this guy reversed islam makhachev at least 5 times when they fought (who does that to islam?) and hes able to do it with his primary grappling weapon, the giggler sweep. This is his trademark move where he isolates a leg, triangles it, and pulls his opponent closer to him, then pushes them off, thus allowing him to get a reversal. Despite being taken down with relative ease, hes never held down for long periods of time, finding his way back up with relative quickness. Again, in the islam fight, he was never held down for longer than 30 seconds on each takedown. Now, there is a blueprint to beating him. As you may notice, while he has only lost to elite fighters, they all have one thing in common and that is they are very high level wrestlers. Now, mansour was able to reverse and get back up, but his inability to avoid the clinch and his disregard for take downs is what cost him in those fights. I dont want it to sound one sided tho, because he was making fights competitive, but if he is to fight a wrestler, that is something to keep in mind (*cough* usman nurmagomedov *cough*). Thats what i love about him though is he truely is one of the only fighters ive seen who never accepts bottom position and is consistently able to get up. When he does get the fight to the ground and hes the one in control, he is very dominant. Because his limbs are so long, his body triangle is very ahrd to escape and hes able to effortlessly maintain it when opponents try to roll out of it. The same goes for his chokes. I believe he has something like 8 or 9 RNC’s on his record and this speaks to how long his arms are because he can sneakily sink it in. In his stretch of fights in ROAD FC, you can see he has improved his striking and learned more technique, going away from primarily fighting in the clinch. What shocks me the most about baranoui is that hes still not even in his prime, and with nearly three years off, I think he is going to come back greatly improved (on whats already an unbelievably impressive fighter). I think he is going to make a splash in bellator.

And I forgot to add, mansour has been training at tristar gym for his most recent fights 

Damn, ufc hopeful jack Becker just broke his leg today during his EMMA 170 title defense. He very well could have ended up on dwcs or even a ufc contract with a win but now not only is he going to need another win, he’s gonna be sidelined for at least 6 months (I’d guess he’s out of action for a year). Still a great prospect but his path to the big leagues has been delayed now

* Edited at 05.29.2022, 2:04 PM ET *

Great writeup AyyLmaonnaise! Very surprised to hear he reversed Islam a couple times in their fight.

* Edited at 05.29.2022, 2:41 PM ET *

Ty! Here’s the fight if u wanna watch. Pretty entertaining. Although, there were a good amount of fouls and it’s pretty clear mansour had no clue what the ref was saying nor did he really understand the m-1 cage LOL! Also, his striking has improved a lot since this fight. I will admit, it looks pretty bad in this fight but this was also 9 years ago so yeah

* Edited at 05.29.2022, 2:54 PM ET *

Do Bronx is gonna twist that man into a pretzel

**** yeah. If Charles gets him in that, he’s going to sleep 100%

Eagle fc and naiza fc joint promotion in Kazakhstan July 16 🔥 

The ufc is adding a lot of good talent to their womens 135 division. Days after resigning Lucie pudilova, they’ve just signed another prospect in Ailin Perez. She’s 7-1 with 3 ko’s 1 sub and is the SFH 135 champ. Her only loss came to the solid tameres Vidal and it was a DQ, so she could technically be 8-0

If I were to take a guess, I’d assume she’s gonna fight Lucie pudilova 

she kinda a can crusher tho she could easily flop in the ufv (perez)

Ya but it’s nice to see new talent signed. SFH is a good promotion

My money is that she’s gonna be fighting Lucie pudilova so she’s gonna get a big step up in comp if I’m correct 

I meant good in a lot of talent comes out of there. Yeah the matchmaking is not great lol, but it’s “good” in the relative sense that they produce a lot of talent. Like Titan fc, full of can crushing and blatant mismatches but lots of good talent comes out of there

Ya lol. Also I think he goes by Afro samurai now hahaha. Likely changed it when he went to road fc

Speaking of SFH, one of their better prospects is fighting on June 18th. Fransico Prado is 8-0 with 3 ko 5 sub and is only 19! He’s ran through everyone he’s fought, and hasn’t fought great competition but, he did beat his toughest test (an 8-2 fighter) with ease. He’s not fighting a great fighter, but someone with experience. I don’t hate the matchmaking because there’s no need to rush this kid. I say let him pad the record for a few years because he’s so young. He could easily get to 20 fights before he turns 25

was making my picks for EFC 94 and theres actually a few fighters ive got my eye on. 

the first is Jaco Du Plessis. Yes, that is indeed the brother of Dricus. Jaco actually does not have any combat sports background (funny enough) but he started his amateur career off 4-0 with 3 reported finishes (2ko 1 sub). He couldn't get pro fights because of covid but has restarted his career in the pro circuit last year and won by 2nd round sub. Now with brothers one is almost always worse than the other so where his ceiling is at is tbd. also there is a third du plessis in mma so maybe Jaco is also good lol. Jaco is 26 years old so im interested to see where his career takes him. 

The main event features the best 135er coming out of South Africa atm in 21 year old Cameron Saaiman. Saaiman is undefeated through pro and amateur, going on 5-0 as an amateur and 4-0 as a pro for a 9 fight win streak overall. Obviously, EFC doesn't have the best matchmaking available, but he hasn't struggled with anyone so far and has finished everyone as a pro with 3 Kos and 1 sub. not sure where his skill level is at either because he hasn't been tested yet, and probably still won't imo because hes fighting an 8-7 guy, but at least hes getting 5 round experience. With 9 fights under his belt and only being 21, im very interested to see where his career is going to take him. Hes pretty big for the division too, standing at 5'9. If he keeps winning, we could see him on dwcs or another big promotion in a couple years. 

Oh, and both these guys train at the same gym, team CIT

* Edited at 05.30.2022, 7:00 PM ET *