UFC 211, The Morning After: Conor McGregor gushes over ‘ferocious’ Joanna Jedrzejczyk

What a night! For fans of the mixed martial arts, UFC 211 was a gift that came signed, sealed, and delivered, with frenetic action and dramatic finishes. Stipe Miocic cemented himself as a contender for “best ever” in his weight class, and Joanna Jedrjezcyk turned in what she considers her best performance ever as the undisputed best ever in hers. For Stipe, that meant planting an old foe facedown on the canvas in round one. In Joanna’s case, we got five rounds of absolute artistry, a picture painted in footwork, pivots, stamina, jabs, crosses, elbows, knees, and kicks. It was the scintillating satisfaction of watching two champions assert dominance at the height of their powers.

The theme of watching fighters at their very best was one repeated throughout the night. We watched ageless Demian Maia slowly stifle the Gamebred Jorge Masvidal to persuade Dana White to grant him the Welterweight title shot on camera. We saw Old Man Frankie Edgar wipe the floor with prospect Yair Rodriguez, then remind us poignantly that none of this means shit, to go home and hug our loved ones. We saw Jason Knight and Chase Sherman come alive in the greatest scraps of their respective careers, making mental notes in the backs of our minds to remember their names. And, we saw Dustin Poirier demand respect for his opponent Eddie Alvarez from a Texas crowd unhappy their rough-and-tumble entertainment had come to an unsatisfying end.

Of course it wouldn’t be MMA without some drama and controversy, especially in Texas. Eddie Alvarez, still rocked from Dustin Porier’s leaden fists, hit Poirier with two blatantly illegal knees but saw his fight somehow become a No-Contest, when DQ was undoubtedly the right call. And Demian Maia’s win was a split decision, as Texas came one judge shy of screwing him out of his long overdue shot at Tyron Woodley’s belt.

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The McGregor Stamp of Approval

Conor McGregor tweeted just twice last night. Once, to say the fight between two of his former foes, Poirier and Alvarez, was good and they both deserved their hands raised. The second tweet was well-considered praise, honoring the greatest female strawweight of all time, Joanna Jedrzejczyk.

The support went beyond a single tweet, however; Joanna said in interview that Conor texted her in support before the fight. Conor has been an admirer of Joanna as a fighter for a long time before this bout. The footage below is of Conor after UFC 200, meeting both Stipe and Joanna.

For her part, Jedrzejczyk, Velociraptor of Violence, extended support to Conor after his loss to Nate Diaz.

As it turns out, Jedrjezczyk and McGregor are now managed by the same company. She revealed that and more in an interview after tonight’s fights. Joanna has aspirations to follow McGregor’s path to simultaneous belts in two divisions, with the new flyweight division.

Of course, Joanna garnered praise from more than Conor McGregor. Her sublime showing got respect from all quarters.

Up next for Joanna? Quite possibly this woman, Thug Rose Namajunas.

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Sunday Funday

Stipe Miocic used to win decisions. The Arlovski fight was when he started getting round one knockouts.

Jason Knight-Chas Skelly was such a great scrap. See the very late finish here

Jessica Andrade wasn’t the only female fighter to propose to her girlfriend last night

Stipe’s gonna get busy. You know. Doin’ it. Putting the work in.

Al Iaquinta patching relationships with UFC brass?

A reminder that even after UFC 211 payouts, the Reebok deal is an unmitigated disaster for fighters. They have gotten roughly half the money they should have had coming to them. Supposedly, the payouts increase over time, but that’s still a very low figure, meaning well over fifty million is due them over the next four years.

Retired UFC matchmaker Joe Silva is headed for the UFC Hall of Fame.

Jon Jones’ manager was very critical of Yair Rodriguez’ career moves after the Edgar beatdown, referencing Yair’s departure from the Jackson-Wink gym in Albuquerque.

Accurate

Unlike many veterans, Frankie Edgar is still getting better, enabled by his preternatural quickness of mind and body.

Someone had a horn in the crowd they were blowing and fighters watching got annoyed.

Angela Hill had the honor of being on tonight’s broadcast as part of Andrade’s highlight reel from their Fight of the Night eliminator bout.

The decisive statistic of this fight ended up being “share of total time in ground control”

Chase Sherman is awesome and Rashad Coulter is an incredibly tough man.

The Vanilla Gorilla is such a great nickname. He got the performance bonus too, but it should be said when a professional UFC fighter is begging for a bonus to buy diapers for his baby, he should be getting paid more to begin with.

The Poirier-Alvarez ending was yet another reminder how uneven rule changes can hurt the sport.

It’s such a shame, because this was shaping up to be an amazing scrap

Paige VanZant tweeted this right in the middle of the fights. On message, for her.

James Vick got another win last night too.

TJ Dillashaw found himself having to defend Mighty Mouse online.

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Post Fight Podcasts

MMAMania.com has it’s own Post-Fight show now.

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In Other Worlds

Some other stuff happened in the combat sports universe this weekend and some of it was awesome like this:

This was over quickly

This is why you are careful when you throw spinning shit.

Dillon Danis grapples Jake Shields today

I’m not sure when this happened

Tony Ferguson just does his own thing

Enjoy your Sunday, Maniacs! Don’t forget to call your mothers and thank them for giving you life.

(On that note, thanks, Mom! I sometimes cringe that you read these, but if you read this one, just know you are the kindest and most supportive mother I have... or could wish for)