UFC mailbag: Is Reinier de Ridder’s win over Bo Nickal the biggest hype train derailment ever?

UFC Des Moines is within the books, and it’s on to UFC 315.

This previous Saturday, the UFC returned to Iowa for the primary time in practically 25 years, and in the principle occasion, Cory Sandhagen put a whooping on Deiveson Figueiredo to re-establish himself as a prime contender at 135 kilos. However nobody appears to care about that as a result of within the co-main occasion, former two-division ONE champion Reinier de Ridder scored an enormous upset, knocking out American super-prospect Bo Nickal at hand the previous wrestling standout his first profession loss.

Individuals had quite a lot of emotions about that, so let’s dive into this week’s questions.

Down goes Bo

“Is Bo Nickal the most important hype practice derailment of all time?”

Oh, heavens no. At the very least, not but.

The factor about MMA is that there are A LOT of hype trains. In case you’ve been a fan of this sport for a very long time, you’ll be able to hardly keep in mind all of the fighters who have been gassed up solely to be a flash within the pan. I may in all probability spend an hour doing the dude factor of “simply naming guys” who, at one level, folks thought was the second coming, myself included.

The rationale for this, I feel, is that MMA isn’t like standard sports activities the place you could have a crew and observe that crew for all times. In MMA, you simply gravitate in direction of fighters, and it’s all the time extra enjoyable to have been an early adopter (or early hater) of a fighter so you’ll be able to say I informed you so (I do know this as a result of I’m REALLY having fun with being among the many first DDP and RDR stans on the market). So when some new shiny fighter comes alongside, dividing traces are drawn far too quickly.

However for a hype practice to be derailed, it’s not nearly one loss. One loss is a setback. A derailment comes when a fighter who was on a hovering trajectory instantly sparks out like a bottle rocket and comes crashing again to Earth. We don’t know if that’s going to be the case with Nickal. Sure, he may lose his subsequent 4 in a row after which retire, or this could possibly be the catalyzing second that spurs him onto greatness. If Nickal wins the middleweight title in three years, it could be arduous to name this a hype derailment. Particularly since Reinier de Ridder is definitely fairly good. No, that is more likely to be a case of an excessive amount of too quickly for a gifted fighter who, I imagine, has mismanaged his profession egregiously to date.

However in that case, what’s the greatest hype derailment in MMA historical past?

Like I mentioned, there are many good choices. The juice behind Sokoudjou when he KOed Little Nog and Ricardo Arona in back-to-back fights was excessive, after which he promptly fell to Earth as a middling mild heavyweight.

And allow us to always remember the notorious “Houston Alexander is FOR REAL” line from Joe Rogan after Alexander demolished Alessio Sakara at UFC 75. However until I’m forgetting any person, my decide for greatest hype derailment of all time goes to a person by the identify of Brandon Thatch.

In case you haven’t been a fan for a thousand years like I’ve, I doubt you could have any concept who Thatch is, however let me let you know, for a second in time, the MMA world believed he was the subsequent nice welterweight. Thatch was an unlimited 170-pounder with a pink mohawk who ran by Justin Edwards and Paulo Thiago (who was an excellent fighter you don’t have any recollection of as properly) in his first two UFC bouts. Then, Thatch was purported to struggle Stephen Thompson, however “Wonderboy” pulled out, and profession light-weight Benson Henderson stepped in. Most anticipated Bendo to get trucked, and as an alternative he dummied Thatch earlier than choking him out within the fourth spherical. Thatch fought three extra instances and by no means received once more, leaving the UFC in 2016.

Shout out to Rukus. Hope he’s doing properly.

Greatest base for MMA

“With some of the prestigious American wrestlers of all time shedding fairly unceremoniously, what’s the true finest base for MMA?”

1. I don’t assume we are able to name Bo Nickal some of the prestigious American wrestlers of all time. “One of the prestigious American collegiate wrestlers of all time,” positive. However this nation has a protracted historical past with wrestling, and Nickal’s quite a few beginner accomplishments don’t even put him within the Prime-10 of MMA fighters ever, a lot much less simply pure wrestlers.
2. Strongman, clearly.

Reiner de Ridder vs. Dricus du Plessis

“How does a five-round struggle between Dricus du Plessis and Reinier de Ridder go?”

God keen, someday we’ll get to see it.

I’m fairly assured once I say that I used to be one of many first folks in MMA media to get behind each de Ridder and du Plessis. I’m 100% accountable for the MMA Combating employees beginning to put RDR within the middleweight rankings years in the past, and my shameless and overt love of du Plessis is well-documented. These guys are two of my 5 favourite energetic fighters (the others being Jiri Prochazka, Justin Gaethje, and, in fact, Jose Aldo) as a result of they’re all the pieces I really like about MMA.

Du Plessis and de Ridder are each extraordinarily good at fist-fighting, however they’re additionally fairly goofy, and that rocks. In a sport full of individuals attempting to change into technical savants, DDP and RDR do a number of issues a struggle that no coach on the earth would ever train their college students — and it really works! Positive, everybody desires to be Georges St-Pierre, however isn’t it cooler to be simply as profitable whereas being a weirdo? 100%.

A struggle between DDP and RDR is now my second-most needed struggle that could possibly be made in the present day (behind solely DDP vs. Jiri), and whereas I’d favor du Plessis by advantage of him being a hoss, that struggle is extraordinarily shut. Du Plessis is the higher kickboxer, however de Ridder isn’t useless within the water there, and the inverse is true on the ground. However the greatest factor that makes me wish to see it’s that whereas each males get made enjoyable of for being goofy, they’re each extraordinarily good about combating.

DDP is an elite game-planner, and RDR is sneaky good at adjusting to fights on the fly. What we’d get is 2 lovable goofballs combating at an extremely elite degree that one way or the other seems on par along with your common regional MMA struggle. I’d find it irresistible a lot.

Boxing

“Turki must ask for a refund, nobody delivered over two days.”

All of the boxing was dangerous this weekend, and the much less we communicate of it, the higher. Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford will definitely be a spectacle, and I hope will probably be nice, however I’ve some main issues in regards to the latter.

Thank god for Naoya Inoue. He’s the reality.

Thanks for studying and because of everybody who despatched in tweets (Xs?)! Do you could have any burning questions on issues at the very least considerably associated to fight sports activities? You then’re in luck as a result of you’ll be able to ship your tweets to me, @JedKMeshew, and I’ll reply all the nice ones! It doesn’t matter in the event that they’re topical or insane, simply as long as they’re good. Thanks once more, and see y’all subsequent week.