The MMA thread

I agree, I feel as though if I was fedor I too would consider retirement.
Fedor gave it his all in his youth to become a legend, hes getting a little old now and after losing twice in a row I think hes realized he can't just ride his previous training and if hes gonna be very competitive hes gonna have to go all out, learn completely new skills, and all sorts of stuff all over again.
I doubt he has the motivation to go through all that again, and the rewards are MUCH slimmer. he already left a legacy, he already has his money, and he will not be able to leave an even greater legacy so whats the point?

BUT, I predict after a little while he'll have the urge to fight again. not for glory, money, etc, but just because its what he enjoys and he will miss it. when michael jordan came back its cause he just missed playing, and I think fedor might just miss fighting after awhile but its gonna take him some time to appreciate it.

and like mentioned, MMA is still escalating rapidly. look at jon jones, the off the wall kick etc. the standard is getting higher and higher and the next generation seems like it has a lot of potential.

 

Good post. I agree.

 

Fedor was one of the first true mixed martial artists in my opinion. He was extremely well rounded, I want to say he is one of the pioneers of the sport and has helped a lot of fighters realize that they need to be well rounded to be competitive. If you look his resume of fights basically all of his past opponents have been one dimensional fighters with the exception of MAYBE Arlovski.

That being said, these newer breed of fighters are now real "mixed martial artists". A lot of fighters have great training camps that cover all aspects of the sport so we are starting to see less one dimensional fighters.

Fedor is a great fighter and I don't want to say he is out of his prime. I just want to say that his competition has caught up to his level now.

 

Is it safe to say fighters evolved then? Thats what it sounds like to me. I wonder what would've been Ken Shamrock if he had excellent Striking ability along with his excellent grappling.

 

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/02/13/2011-02-13_my_deadly_battle_with_madman_victim.html

one of the more telling parts of the story is where Lozito says he had no idea he was wounded because he couldn't feel the knife cuts. Most people who are involved in an altercation with blade weapons have no clue they've been stabbed or slashed until after.

 

I don't want to come off as a blasphemer, but I'd have to say that Fedor clearly didn't look right to me. In his last two fights, I think he looked a little slower and less accurate with his punches. Mentally, I don't think he handled the first loss of his career (to Fabricio Werdum) well at all, I think it shook him up pretty well and exposed his mortality to him and those who would later fight against him.

It's crucial because he literally suffered his first loss only a few months ago, it's so late into his career that it really threw him for a loop. When he entered the ring against Silva, he wasn't the exact same fighter mentally, he had finally been beaten and may have started realizing that he's not unbeatable. Just being unbeaten alone gives you an edge in the fight, it's a phenomenon that's well known in boxing, but also in many other sports - basketball is a good example too.

Some teams just don't know how to win, they can't seem to close games out in the 4th quarter. However, closing out matches was Fedor's specialty, he'd absolutely crush his opponents, the moment he smelled blood, and it made him a very intimidating opponent. Basically, it was understood that if you got hurt by Fedor, you were probably going to lose. He'd jump on you so aggressively, and so quickly that there was rarely any time to recover; his punching power was so awesome that it was more than likely you were going to get hurt and he was going to finish you way before the cobwebs cleared.

In every fight before Saturday night, Fedor, AND probably his opponents as well, truly believed Fedor was going to win (I mean, he'd never lost before and everyone knew how devastating he could be), that alone gave him a tremendous mental edge over every opponent. But when he got caught, and it cost him his first loss while going for the kill, I just don't think he mentally recovered. By the time he got into the cage with Silva, some of his mystique was long gone, he wasn't Ivan Drago anymore, he was the bloody Ivan Drago that became a mere mortal...

He can definitely still withstand even the most brutal punishment, and to be fair, he proved it vs Silva; but there's not many guys, if any, that can stay mounted for so long and take that kind of viscous ~5 minute beating (especially from a guy Silva's size)... The best historical example was the Pride match where he somehow survived that monstrous slam from Kevin "the Monster" Randleman and immediately submitted him. Fedor was seemingly unphased by one of the hardest slams ever landed in an MMA match (only Rampage's power bomb was harder as far as I know).

Once Fedor lost Werdum, he was a different fighter, a fighter without the belief that he was invincible -- in his own mind and that of his opponent.

I think Silva is guy to watch in the next round. He's got some skill for a guy his size and his head is so big I wonder if he can be knocked out at all. That watermelon head probably doesn't even move at all when you hit him.

 

Overeem fights 3 midgets, talks about Fedor VS Silva and even doles out a bit of life advice

 

For those who haven't watched this fight yet

 

awesome!

really shows you how nasty silva is, hes not just a guy who runs away a lot and stuff. actually he only really ran away against Maia, which was probably a good idea cause of how deadly maia's jujitsu is and maia has decent takedown/throws also.

7:20 - Silva taking it in the face with no care.

8:14- SNIPER PUNCH, seriously he punches from so far, so accurately, and it never looks like much but the other guys always stunned BIGTIME after and gets hit with a combo. Huge +frames on hit basically possibly huge dmg as well. I've seen him do this in nearly all his fights, so nasty.

also anyone notice Silva taking stuff from brad's moveset-
he did the spinning-back-side-kick thing alot in some of his earlier fights(croushing back kick of brad's)
the sniper punch is basically Brad's 3P+K.
and he has clearly mastered Brad's stances .
well Brad's a kick boxer so this isn't surprising but still fun to think about.

 

Here are the fights my student was in this weekend. This was a 2 day tournament. 3 fights in one day, the 4th on the 2nd day. WKA Amateur Muay Thai 170 lb division.

Sorry for the crappy camera work. It's hard to coach and record

Fight 2

again, sorry for the crappy video

Fight 3:

Props to my teammate for recording.

The Final fight

 

Really cool!!!

 

really, really sharp spinning back kick.

The guy saying "it's going down" needs four of those in a row.

 

Poor King Mo Team Blackhouse dominates again....

 

this kid...is amazing. wait until he hits his teens!

 

Holy shit...a competitor for the dudley twins!

 

Which BJ Penn will we see tonight?

 

Cheering for the Australian but that German dude is scary