A few days ago, we posted an interview the always excellent Jordan Breen did with our local favorite MMA prospect Gian Villante. The other guy that he interviewed on that same show was Gunnar Nelson. Gunnar is a young BJJ fighter with a black belt under Renzo Gracie and a win to his credit over Jiu-Jitsu expert Jeff Monson who is a heavyweight. Gunnar fights at 170. So, yea, he’s good. Here is video of his latest fight. Most of the vid is just hype, because the fight ends pretty quickly.
I am still amazed by how many people think that strategy is a big part of mixed martial arts. How much money does Greg Jackson have to make before people realize that having a good corner is just important as being well prepared for your fight.
Just ask Mark Coleman. Coleman brought former Randy Couture confidant Shawn Tompkins to the cage with him, and Tompkins gave him some TERRRIBLE advice. Here’s what Josh Gross of SI.com had to say about it:
“Coleman made Couture’s night easy when, at the advice of his trainer Shawn Tompkins and the despite the fact it has never been his path to victory, he chose to stand and trade.”
“…Shortly into the bout, Coleman carried the attitude of a confused athlete, one who was thinking instead of fighting.”
“Between the first and second round, Coleman looked up at Tompkins as the Canadian offered instructions on how to keep distance and how to fire off combination. I’m fairly certain he would have loved if Tompkins told him to run out there and take a shot on a double-leg. If you’re going to go out, go out at what you do best.”
Who besides Tompkins could possibly believe that Coleman had any chance standing and trading with Couture? Over the last few years, Couture has drilled his boxing to the point where it is on par with his wrestling. He has some of the best head movement in the game. As supposed to Coleman, who had no head movement.
Starting in October 2009, a partnership with MMA Warehouse will allow us to highlight some of the best Mixed Martial Arts gear that they have on their website. Here’s all the newest stuff.
Griffin looks like he’s going to take on Evan Dunham at UFC 115 and try to avoid the fate that Efrain Escudero suffered. At the very least he should try and keep his arm.
Slice is confirmed to be fighting Matt Mitrione at UFC 113. I never thought I would say this, but I’m rooting for Slice. I don’t think he’s gotten a fair shake from a lot of people. Plus, Mitrione is kind of a dick.
Velasquez gets thrown into the fire against Antonio “Minotauro” Noguiera in just two weeks. Anyone else pumped for the end of these UFC cards that have been gutted by injuries?
How good is Couture? It’s scary. It’s always good when a wrestler in rear naked choking people. Don’t be shocked if Couture is in the title picture, and soon.
Does Dana honestly expect us to believe that he won’t capitalize on the hype that Tito Ortiz and Mark Coleman put on the other day? When Ortiz loses to Liddell again, we’ll see Tito and Coleman.
It’s been no secret that WEC poster boy Urijah Faber has long wanted a rematch with Tyson Griffin. Griffin defeated Faber when they were both in Gladiator Challenge. Some time ago, rumors were running rampant that Griffin would drop to 145 and the two would get it on.
Tyson quickly debunked those rumors citing the fact that he had added too much extra weight since fighting at 145. Now, Faber is willing to put on some weight to get another shot, according to MMA Junkie.
“I’ll be around here for a while, and I’d love to get that fight again,” Faber said at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.
“(It’s the) same with going up in weight. I’m not trying to mow through the weight class; I’m trying to fight superfights that fans want to see. At this point for me, I’ve had 26 fights, and I just want to do big, exciting fights. Go up? Go down? It’s all good.”
As before, Faber admitted his frame is not ideal for fighting at lightweight.
“I wrestled in college at 113 pounds for five years,” he said. “I know I could go to [135 pounds] if I wanted, but I’ve also been trying to put on weight for the last six years, so I feel most comfortable at [145].
“I would feel really comfortable at [155], but I would be at a disadvantage size-wise with my body structure and everything, and I’d be just about right at [135].”
While Faber would be at a huge size disadvantage at lightweight, it would be a huge fight for the UFC and certainly would bolster the popularity of the WEC. However, Faber needs to get past Jose Aldo first at the WEC’s Pay-per-view debut.
When the UFC signs an international star I get giddy.
Whenever the UFC signs an international star my friends that are casual MMA fans ask “who is this guy and why should I care?” Usually if you give me 15 minutes acces to Daily Motion and Youtube I can make a pretty convincing case for just about anyone.
Ramapage Jackson? Show the Arona slam. The dominant performance over Liddell (in Pride.) And just about any interview he’s ever done. Like the one where he talks about what he’s going to do when he wins the Pride belt. “When I shit I’m gonna shit with the Pride belt.” Or what about when he said to El Guapo that his strategy was to “whoop that ass.”.
Vitor Belfort? The Phenom. The 8 second KO over Wanderlei. The unfortunate kidnapping of his sister. The highlight reel of KO’s. Easy. Anderson Silva? The entrance to the ring as Michael Jackson. Any of his highlight reel KO’s.
Gomi? Thinking…still thinking. I can’t think of one single achievement in Gomis career that really stands out. He had an epic winning streak but fought his fare share of cans along the way. Does he really have any singular stand out moments?
This was made obvious when they showed Gomi at UFC 108 and the crowd reacted with indifference. Who’s this guy? Oh he’s an old pride lightweight champ. Is he any good? Yea, but he might be past his prime, he’s lost 2 of his last 4 fights. Does he have a shot of beating Penn? No, actually they already fought once and Penn beat him convincingly.
To me this is why the Gomi signing makes no sense. Because the above conversation is the way any MMA fan would describe Gomi to someone who didn’t know who he was.
Why Gomi, why now? Did Dana White get his Japanese lightweights confused? Did he mean to sign Shinya Aoki?
The loigcal answer is simply Gomi is the one that got away. When the UFC and Pride merged Fedor and Gomi were the two fighters that Dana White coveted that he couldn’t get. Now he has a chance to get Gomi and he got him.
The more abstract answer is that the UFC is planning on holding a card in Japan soon. I’m not claiming I have any inside info, I’m just connecting the dots.
Between the Pride stars of old, Machida, Gomi and Sexy-ama the UFC has more then enough talent to appease the Japanese crowd.
Think the Japanese crowd wouldn’t eat up Lesnar vs. ‘Nog? What about Akiyama vs. Anderson or Wanderlei Silva? Machida vs. Jackson? Gomi vs. anyone really? Hell, you can even dig up Mirko Cro-Cops corpse and hope he head kicks someone.
The UFC is dead set on perusing the international market. That much is obvious. First Abu-Dhabi then the world. It only seems logical the UFC would put a card in Japan.
I’ve been really critical of Rashad Evans. I think that he is remarkably talented, but has never really put his game together. At times, he’s shown the dominant wrestling that made him a star at Michigan State. At times, he’s shown the kind of striking that knocked Chuck Liddell into the fourth dimension. However, when were we going to see a complete Rashad Evans?
The answer: 01/02/10.
What we saw last night was the classic Greg Jackson gameplan. Strike to set up the takedown, and control the fight. Throughout the first two rounds, Evans dominated Thiago Silva by using crisp combination and following them up with strong takedowns. This gameplan reminded me of another Greg Jackson disciple, welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre. He just didn’t execute that plan nearly as well.
With a little review of the FightMetric stats, Evans was 8-for-16 on takedown attempts. That’s not exactly a St. Pierre-like number. Further review shows how dominant he was in round one. He was 4-for-4 on his takedown attempts. In round two, he was 3-for-7, and in the final frame, he was just 1-for-5, but he was scrambling for a takedown after being tagged by Silva. What does this all mean? It could mean that he gassed, but that doesn’t really sound like Rashad. More than anything, I think he got less aggressive as the fight went on and that wound up hurting his overall performance.
The other thing that Evans still needs to improve is his ability to keep his opponent neutralized once they are down. Many of Evans attempts at passing guard were neutralized by Silva’s black belt level BJJ. One could make an argument that what makes St. Pierre so good is not just the dominant takedowns, but his remarkable ability to keep his opponent from sweeping him. Let’s just put it this way: St. Pierre hasn’t had his guard passed since fighting Jason “Mayhem” Miller in 2005. Being on top more means more opportunity for offense.
If you look at the striking data on the report, it would suggest that Silva won the stand-up game with some authority, which I think he did. However, there was one area where you can definitely say that Evans won the battle, and that was in the clinch. Once Rashad was able to close the distance, he hit a very high number of his strikes, and those strikes set up the take downs.
Don’t get me wrong, Evans didn’t fight the perfect fight. However, he finally was able to execute a gameplan that display both his phenomenal wrestling as well as decent power striking. While he attempts to find the perfect balance, it’s good to see that we aren’t going to see the Machida game plan where he looks like a training dummy. This gameplan is the best bet for Evans to become a dominant champ, which I think he can.
February 24, 2010, at 3:23 pm
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