GSP announces retirement (and other MMA weirdness)

[Beetlegeuse]

The only fight he's had in six years was the one against Michael Bisping (who in my humble but unerringly accurate opinion didn't merit being in the cage with GSP) so it's not like the retirement is a surprise.

Now the story is that GSP has been fighting ulcerative colitis, which I don't recall having heard of before. I know he suffers from extreme bouts of pre-fight anxiety but I thought he stepped away from the UFC just because he had a bone to pick with Dana White over lax anti-PEDs enforcement in the UFC.

But all retirements are not created equal and Georges says he remains open to "legacy" fights, which I guess means he wants to cherry pick his opponents. He claims he's open to a fight with Khabib Nurmagomedev but says the UFC isn't interested in that match-up.

He was an extraordinary talent and I've hated that he sat out so many years. It's an ignominious end for a career that should have seen him on everybody's GOAT list.


If you watched this weekend's UFC on ESPN, you know the finish to the Velasquez-Ngannou fight was a little unsatisfying because it seemed to be as much Cain's knee giving way as it was Ngannou's punch. Anyway, Velasquez's people are claiming the end came from an illegal punch in the back of the head. I watched the video again and I did see one of those kind of on the back of the side of the head punches (or is it the side of the back of the head?) that happens in just about every fight, but nothing that came close to being a certifiable rabbit punch.

That one only slightly suspicious punch came after his knee gave out, and Velasquez was going to need a lot of mobility to keep Ngannou from rearranging his face, so I think the ref did Velasquez a mercy stopping the fight when he did.


And did anything look ...unusual to you about the finish to the Felder-Vick fight? (also UFC on ESPN) They're saying Felder suffered a collapsed lung in the final round. Which means something caused his lung to puncture. Felder won the fight on a unanimous decision and looking back at the last round, I can't see that he wasn't 100%. Even in the post-fight he looked fine. First time I ever heard of such an injury that didn't stem from a broken rib or something else penetrating the chest wall.


Also, Wanderlei "the axe murderer" Silva has been putting his stupid on display again. You had to know he wasn't the sharpest crayola in the box after he dodged an OOC in 2014, after which he took a belligerent stance and made no effort to appease NSAC. Which not only got him dumped by the UFC, it also got him a lifetime ban from NSAC. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago Wandy made a big show out of announcing that when he dies he wants his brain donated to medical science so they can study it for chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CET). And he claims he's showing multiple symptoms of CET. But he's fighting for Bellator now and because of his PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT, Scott Coker has benched him and won't let him fight again until he's received "a complete clearance from the Cleveland Clinic."

Slick move, Wandy.

I don't know who this Cleveland clinic is but apparently they are experts in concussive brain injury. But if they're going to examine Silva's brain, they better have a really, really powerful microscope ...just to find it.

[Ashop]

GSP was one of the greatest but I completely believe its time for him to retire.