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Every week I get e-mails from people. Here's a few interesting e-mails I've received in the last week, followed by my take on the subject.
FROM BEN OLIN
"Just thought it'd be interesting to write about how Georges St. Pierre must be thanking Heaven for Anderson Silva's and B.J. Penn's performances overshadowing his. I think he comes out of this as the impressive one when he's probably not the most talented champ the UFC has.
Just a thought. Have any thoughts of your own on that?"
HYDEN'S TAKE: Ben raises an interesting point, Georges St. Pierre doesn't come across as the most talented champion in the UFC. He doesn't destroy his competition in the same manner that Anderson Silva has or B.J. Penn have in the past. You could even throw Brock Lesnar into that.
GSP doesn't finish fights in as flashy or dominating a manner as those guys have. GSP leaves no doubt as to who won the fight, but 3 of his last 4 fights have gone all 5 rounds. It's the same reason we all jump on Jake Shields and call him boring. Shields doesn't leave doubt as to who wins his fights either, but his last 2 fights have gone all 5 rounds, with the action being fairly vanilla. I should note, however, that six of his last seven fights prior to that all ended in the 1st round. With all that said, Shields is considered boring.
However, GSP isn't exactly the most exciting fighter either. Due to all the talk about Anderson Silva and Jake Shields and others, GSP is able to coast along and continue being quietly dominant. I would say that he's not the most talented guy in the UFC, but what he is good at, he's great at. The question I would have about GSP is whether he has the killer instincts of a Champion.
I don't know if GSP has the heart that other greats do. For instance, if the roles were reversed, and he was getting dominated in the same way that he dominates his opponents, would he have the heart to keep coming and pushing forward? We would all like to think that GSP would have the heart to do so, but until he's placed in such a situation we won't know for sure.
When GSP lost to Matt Serra in their 1st fight, he showed some heart, but not a lot. He was too busy getting smacked around by Serra's powerhouse punches. The question becomes whether GSP could show the same heart that his opponents show when they face him?
Another question is does it even matter because GSP is talented enough that he hasn't had to have much heart up to this point. What happens when he starts getting older, though? When the physical abilities start diminishing, is GSP going to keep fighting? Look at Matt Hughes, he still has power, but his other physical skills are slipping. The only guys Matt Hughes can beat now are other old, over the hill fighters. Will GSP have the heart that Randy Couture does, or will we be talking about him retiring in his mid to late 30's?
I don't think GSP has the killer instinct needed to be one of the best of all-time. He needs to start finishing fights. Letting fights go to the judges is a recipe for losing. How many close fights have we seen where one of the judges makes a crazy decision? GSP doesn't have a highlight reel of exciting finishes. Now we could argue about whether winning or being exciting is more important, but they're not mutually exclusive. You can be both exciting and a winner. GSP is good enough that he can do both, let's hope he decides to reach his full potential.
FROM TIM HARRIS
"What sense does it make to put James Toney out against Randy Couture from the jump? He has a 95% Chance of embarrassing himself and even Dana White from my point of view. Even if he does catch Couture with a lucky punch, WTF would be next? He will get absolutely destroyed against a real contender, actually 99 times out of 100 he will be destroyed by Couture. Does this one fight have the drawing power of multiple fights? Is Toney's multi-fight contract worth one huge ass kicking?"
HYDEN'S TAKE: I have to totally agree here, I see no upside to this. It's like the UFC is going for a one-off or something. James Toney is done as a boxer, he can beat some cans, but he can't beat anybody good. Toney turns 42 years old a few days before his fight in August with Randy Couture, who turns 47 in June. Is the UFC going to create a Seniors division? What the hell's the point of this fight?
I personally think Randy beats Toney, he just has too much for a newbie. Yes, Toney can box, but that's about it. He can't wrestle, he can't do jiu-jitsu, he can't fight off the ground. Toney has trained his whole life to fight with his hands. He's accomplished a lot in boxing, but mixed-martial-arts is a different game. Randy's going to be able to take Toney down whenever he wants more than likely. Randy could easily cruise to a decision win if he wants. Toney's only chance is to land that power punch and knock out Couture.
No matter what happens, nothing can come from this fight. If Randy wins, he beat a boxer making his MMA debut. If Toney wins, he just beat a 47 year old man with a lucky shot. So regardless of the outcome, there's no short-term gain. There's damn sure no long-term gain. So basically we're stuck with a modern version of Antonio Inoki vs. Muhammad Ali. I'll admit that's an exaggeration because I highly doubt Couture vs. Toney will be nearly as boring as Inoki vs. Ali was. However, Inoki vs. Ali was 45 minutes of hell, whereas Couture vs. Toney will be 15 minutes of hell at most. Where does the UFC go from here? I still don't understand what they were thinking; if they want to have Toney be a viable MMA fighter, why have his 1st fight be against a legend like Randy? There's only a small chance that Toney wins. Why start him with a loss?
FROM DION MYERS
"I can't help but think EVERYTIME I tune in and watch a Strikeforce event that I'm basically watching Triple A baseball or Canadian football. Everyone always talks about how they have a handful of great fighters but I just don't see it. I was never sold on how allegedly 'great' Gegard Mousasi was and was puzzled as to why people had him in their top 10's. He hasn't really beat anyone worth mentioning when you really exam the people he beat at the time he beat them.
Great he dominated Renato Sobral... who was a shell of himself in that fight and hasn't beaten anyone of note in years himself. He beat Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou who beat... Bob Sapp and Antonio Rogerio "Lil Nog" Nogueira 3 years ago. Then he just laid on the ground as Muhammad "Prince Mo" Lawal laid on him for 5 rounds... Lawal couldn't beat the top 15 light heavyweights right now in the UFC.
Gilbert Melendez did whatever it was he could against an extremely over rated and one dimensional Shinya Aoki whose jab couldn't intimidate or hurt my 5 year old daughter. Then the main event just proved Dan Henderson's best years are behind him, unfortunately for him he was never able to suck up to Dana White enough to get kush "Gimme" fights like Matt Hughes manages to get. I know a lot of people aren't high on Jake Shields, but I personally love him. I have mild insomnia and Jake Shields puts me right to sleep. They should nickname him Jake "Warm Milk" Shields."
HYDEN'S TAKE: Well, it's hard to argue with any of what you said. Strikeforce has exciting fighters, they just weren't on that card. The Strikeforce: Nashville show almost seemed as though it was destined to be a boring snorefest. A few things I think they could do to improve the overall show is get rid of Mauro Ranallo, or at least put somebody in the booth with him who'll call him on his stupid commentary.
The guy's a never-ending stream of dumb. I personally don't mind Frank Shamrock, but several of my friends don't like him one bit. Strikeforce could definitely upgrade in this area, though. They make Mike "Tony Schiavone" Goldberg and Joe "Mushmouth" Rogan seem great by comparison. Is there a rule somewhere that states that every MMA show must have mediocre or average announcers?
I think it's right next to the section that says that every ring announcer has to have a nasally voice. Jimmy Lennon from Strikeforce and Joe Martinez from WEC sound like Steve Urkel giving you the hard-sell on a used car. Bruce Buffer's not really nasally, but he's a spaz. I'm not saying you've got to have Christian Bale doing that stupid Batman voice as the cage announcer, but I'm thinking more James Earl Jones and less Joe Pesci. I'd also love to see more of a Bas Rutten or Charles Barkley approach to calling the actual fights. I appreciate real announcing, not vanilla crap. Don't tow the company line, tell it like it is.
Thoughts, comments, suggestions? E-mail me at hydenfrank@gmail.com
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