Monday, July 13, 2009

Reflections on UFC 100

Wow, what an awesome night of fights. I know a lot of planning went into this event to make it a memorable one, and from everything I could see, Dana White and Zuffa hit a home run. I agree with Joe Rogan when he said that UFC 100 was only the tip of the ice berg in terms of what is to come. The UFC, and MMA in general, is a juggernaut, and is going to take the world by storm over the next 10 years.

As for my thoughts on the fights--- I want to share them with you and see what you think, so here it goes:

EXPERIENCE MATTERS
The first thing I took away from Saturday night is that cage experience and maturity matter. Hendo absolutely destroyed Bisping and a significant reason for that is because he was far more seasoned and experienced. Bisping looked the best we have ever seen him physically and he was very fast and moved well on his feet. The difference was that Hendo came in and combined experience with attitude and determination, and took this fight away from Bisping from the very start. Hendo exposed Bisping and showed that he needs several more fights before he should be considered for a title shot.

SKILL MATTERS
There is no doubt that Thiago Alves is a devastating striker, and has a bright future, but he is too one dimensional at this point in his career to take that belt any time soon. St. Pierre showed everyone watching that being a gym rat like he is pays off. He showed an enormous advantage in skill in every aspect of the game. I don't see St. Pierre loosing this belt for a while, and I look forward to watching him make a sustained run at keeping his belt. BTW --- I have no interest in seeing him fight Anderson Sylva, that would be a huge mistake for him to make and hopefully the UFC has enough brains to realize that and simply market this guy for his incredible skill and talent.

SIZE MATTERS
Simply put, Brock Lesnar has such an enormous size advantage, coupled with great speed and tremendous wrestling skills, that I don't think that he is going to be beaten any time soon. He showed why you can throw out your black belts --whether they are ju-jitsu, karate, or muay thai---because it just does not matter when a skilled person runs into a freak of nature like Brock; he simply has far too much strength, size, and agility for technique to master him. Does that mean any ol lumbering giant can walk off the street and dominate a good ju-jitsu practitioner or boxer or kick-boxer? No, Kimbo Slice is proof of that. However, whenever you combine size, strength, athleticism, and solid wrestling, it seems to me, that Lesnar shows that those attributes will trump technique, as long as the guy who has these things has a Viking mentality like Lesnar. Can Fedor stop Brock? My unqualified answer is, NOT IN A MILLION YEARS, Brock is going to crush any of these guys they put in front of him right now.

3 comments:

Vic said...

I had Hendo over Bisping, Pierre over Thiago and Mir over Brock...2 of 3 not bad. If anyone missed the fights, you can find them on http://mmashare.com

PRCalDude said...

I wanted Hendo to stomp Bisping b/c Bisping is a typical prissy Brit: all mouth and not much to show for it.

Obviously, Bisping's boxing is not very good (neither is Hendo's) if he'll do something as stupid as circle into an opponent's power. Hendo pretty much closes his eyes and swings for the fences, and if you circle into it, you'll pay. Bisping paid. Bisping is not worth a title shot ever. Silva has way more raw talent than Bisping and a kickboxing game to neutralize anything Bisping tries.

I'm glad Hendo put in that last punch at the end, also. Bisping needed to learn a hard lesson about letting his mouth move without thinking.

I agree re: Lesnar.

St. Pierre:

He works hard in the gym, no question. His corner is also a demonstration of how cornering ought to be done: there was only one guy talking and he didn't overload St. Pierre with information he couldn't use. He kept it a) short and b) simple. The relaxation techniques were key, also. After watching Aaron Piersol clobber Ryan Lochte in the 200m back at US Nationals on Sunday, I think relaxation during competition is way more important than it is given credit for. Piersol stayed relaxed and beat Lochte by a body-length. Lochte tensed up and his hips started to sink and he almost came in third.

Same thing with St. Pierre and Alves. St. Pierre stayed loose and never got caught be Alves' devastating power.

Regarding work ethic, though, it only goes so far. John Fitch works just as hard as St. Pierre, he just doesn't have the God-given raw talent St. Pierre has and it shows. You simply can't train into what St. Pierre has at that elite level. Sad, but true.

I think St. Pierre needs to put on 30 lbs and start fighting in at middleweight. It'll take him about 2 years to get there, so he'll have plenty of time to keep running a clinic on the guys in WW. He needs to move up in weight.

Vic said...

Barnett test positive for steroids.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-mma-afflication-barnett,1,1144452.story