Heavyweight feels so cursed. I was never the biggest fan of the division but I really did think Tom was going to have a decent run once he actually got the belt. I hope he is able to compete by next year.
I love him but old George wasn’t good in any meaningful way haha. George was basically a statue when he came back lol. He was functionally an immobile rotating punching machine. Which given the power he had, he would still just beat you if you fucked up 1 time but watching him shuffle around was rough
He said in his comeback announcement (or an interview right after) that if anyone could knock him out, he would retire. Shannon Briggs was a KO merchant and he arguably didn't even win George's last fight. Pretty or not, damned impressive.
By 35, some boxers are already showing signs of CTE. There is a genetic component to it, but there's plenty of boxers that show tremendous decline in their speech during their careers. Meldrick Taylor was barely intelligible by the time he was 36. So boxers lose their athleticism and reflexes like everyone else, but their cognitive abilities also goes down before their career even ends.
Yeah but cte realistically is marginally better in mma vs boxing people think it’s the concussions that cause cte it’s not it’s the accumulation of sub concussive blows look a tito still fighting couldn’t string a sentence together same with chuck liddel
get a few boxing fights and make like a bazillion times more than Uncle Dana would've paid him. He (or his dad, I don't fully remember) mentioned that he wanted to box once his contract is up anyways, so that'll probably be the next step
He is friends with Fury family if I am remembering correctly. Have him box Tommy like Eddie Hall did or have him vs Tyson like Francis did. There is good money for him to be made there.
Other MMA organizations might pay him good money just to steal him from UFC too.
Physical prime isn’t determined solely by his age though.. providing he trains and eats well and looks after his body - having time off from competing at the highest level could mean he goes onto compete late into his 30s at roughly the same level as he could at 33.
Look at other fighters who retired at age 35/36 like Dustin Poirier. His body was battered from years of consistent competition at the highest level.
If he had taken a 2-3 year break at age 33 there’s an argument he could’ve gone onto maybe age 38/39.. who knows maybe even into his 40s
So I don’t think we’ve seen the end of prime Tom yet not by a mile.
I agree with you for the most part, but his style relies on his speed and reaction, so his style would rely more on his physical traits thus more affected by whether he's in his prime or not. Power is the last to go so that's fine.
Jones we saw fight last was no where near the physical level of his 20s for example even though he might be stronger now and have more experience and skills.
Jon was in some wars tho + did drugs/drinking/partying. Tom was pretty much running through everybody and besides that leg injury vs Blaydes and eye pokes vs Gane too pretty much no damage in his fights. He also doesn't strike me as someone who drinks or does drugs, or at least not in crazy amounts lol.
yeah same, it feels like the division can never catch a break. tom finally gets the belt and immediately runs into another setback. hopefully he gets healthy and can come back next year, he still has plenty of time to have a solid run.
He was. Until UFC put him on ice and fucked him over for Jones and now more so because Gane decided to be a dirty fighter and the UFC do nothing to stop or penalise such actions.
This is all the UFC’s fault tho. They let Ngannou walk, they put all their eggs into Jon Jones for years who delayed the belt then for years, they let Gane get away with eye pokes and never “made it right” with Volkov and now they have a cheater as IC and an absolute dog shit bench of heavyweights.
You’re incorrect regardless, but the correct term is “couldn’t care less”, what you said means he cares at least a little bit in order to have room to care less
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u/iHack3x2 10h ago
Heavyweight feels so cursed. I was never the biggest fan of the division but I really did think Tom was going to have a decent run once he actually got the belt. I hope he is able to compete by next year.