He will. If Pudz scores a 'takedown', so what? If you can deal with Jeff Monson on the ground you can more than deal with a guy who has about a years training. If Sylvia loses this fight he will never fight for a major promotion again. Even an out of shape, 320lbs unmotivated SYlvia has the skills and experience to whup someone who isn't even a fighter. The reactions to this fight are a joke, saying Sylvia has no skills and sucks is fine,, but relative to a guy who isnt even a fighter at all and has about a years training, TS is a skilled veteran.
Let's wait and see then. I guarantee TS is going down... fast. Pudz would come up short against guys with size and skill like Fedor, Lesnar, Carwin, Velasquez. But against a busted flush like Sylvia, he'll just walk through him and mow him down. I think MMA requires an exceptionally high level of skill, but it's not inconceivable that a physical hulk can be tough enough and strong enough to make a mockery of that vs a wide cross-section of MM artists.
Dude your posts are normally good but this is a bit of a reach. Remember Bob Sapp? Yeah he beat Hoost twice under K1 rules!! This was the same dude that pile drived Big Nog through the mat under MMA rules. Sapp has a fraction of the physical talent of Pudz but simple physics took over in most of his bouts. He didnt win them because of skill he won then because of his strength and sheer size. Dont compare Tims win vs Monson to Pudz. Monsons my boy but he's about as mobile as a geriatric on a zimmer frame. Tim is no different. Expect Pudz to take him down quick and smash him into the mat. Id love Tim to win and at least keep MMA honest but its a tall order.
Popkins, It doesn't work like that. Pudz has no skills. It doesn't matter if he takes Sylvia down, he has no wrestling or grappling experience or skill. Tim Sylvia held his own on the ground against Jeff Monson. Do you have any idea how good a grappler Jeff Monson is? Do you realize how much functionally stronger Monson is than Pudz? Its not at all fair to Sylvia to judge him by the absolute worst preformance of his career. But since everybody hated him even when he was a dominant Champion, its seems ok in his case.
He still got the fight to the ground a few times and couldn't do anything. If you can nuetralize Jeff on the ground you have some decent grappling, at least. He beat Rico when he was the best in North America. He beat AA when he was an unstoppable beast everyone thought was a top 2-3 heavy. He's a multiple time UFC champ. He's not the fighter that beat RIco now. But its not fair to say he's always been the fat slob who lost to Mercer either. I don't seem him being able to control Sylvia. I can't see how a guy with no experience can control a fighter who can been in with and beaten the caliber of fighters Sylvia has. Don't forget TS is also a very big man himself and will enjoy a huge height and reach and overall striking adv. The only way Pudz wins this fight is if Sylvia is even worse than he was against Mercer (ie possibly entering the cage inebriated or with a bad injury), or if he is the fastest learner in the history of this and any other sport. WAtch his fight on youtube and I think you'll see he isn't that. He kicks like a character on an 8-bit computer game. WAR MAINE-iac. :deal
Rico is about 6'4, and when he was throwing leg kicks Tim could reach him with punches. If he tries that I hope he has a good chin.
Tim tested positive after that fight. Besides, hes a lot more lumbering now then before. His only chance is to drop pudz before he gets taken down. Its been said before. Do not under estimate being the worlds strongest man. He can easily get Tim to the floor and keep him there. It wont take him years of training to accomplish that. More like 6 months. Beating the **** out of someone already on the floor shouldn't take an athlete like him too long to figure out either. Pudz by violent destruction. Rd 1
If he gets Sylvia down, and simply hammer-fists him a la Lesnar-Couture, then how are Sylvia's skills going to help him? If you look at Pudz's 1st fight, all he does is kick then go for the hammer-fists. Now against a technician with physical strength to match like Fedor or even Lesnar (ok, maybe not a technician but a top wrestler), Pudz would be exposed. But sheer bulk and physical savagery will be enough for him to roll past the Sylvias of this world.
I am with Polymath on this one. Pudz is going to get knocked out. Monson would brutally humiliate Pudz in a grappling match so easily, he would control him on the ground like he was nothing. Anybody that can survive on the ground for any period of time at all with a grappler as good as Monson will not be controlled by a novice, even a very very strong one. Edit you also have to realise this is not the 300+ lb pudz you see in strongman, he was 277 for his first fight and most likley will be less for this one.
Because holding somebody down and 'simply' beating them up is not as easy as you seem to think it is - thats what skills were talkign about. Fighting on the ground. Especially somebody who is much better schooled than you are. Rico and Monson are much better at holding people down and beating them up than Pudz is, or ever will be. And Sylvia beat them. It was against a non-mma fighter. He looked terrible. Wrestling is the most technical apsect of mma. It looks simple but the reality is someone like Lesnar has been training since he was about 3 to hold people down. He was the best folkstyle wrestler in the world in 2000. Just being big isn't enough. There are many many fighters who have been bigger than Brock. Guys, when fighters don't have backgrounds in grappling and start training at alater age, they're pretty much always 'strikers' right? 'Coz its much much more difficult to become a skilled grappler.
I wasn't insinuating that a wrestler is not a technician, far from it. By technician, I was referring to all-rounder like Fedor who can do everything. By comparison, Lesnar is not a technician because he can only do one thing, wrestle. I am aware that he is a fantastic wrestler and this is what makes him such an effective MMA practitioner. That is why I'd back Lesnar to toy with Pudz and beat him whenever he wanted. But Sylvia is not Lesnar, and he certainly ain't Fedor. The Monson fight was over 3 years ago, Sylvia has clearly declined since then. We'll have to wait and see, but I honestly think an uncultured brute like Pudz will have enough physical advantages to ride roughshot over his carcass. Not as fast as Ray Mercer did mind you, but fast nonetheless.
THe Mercer fight was embarrassing and the worst Sylvia has ever looked, but other than that, he hasn't really looked that bad recently. He lost to Fedor. Everyone does. Then his last fight he looked ok beating some huge journeyman. Sylvia lost to Mercer 'coz he stood in front of him and boxed. And he was in terrible shape. Mercer might just be a boxer but he's really f'kin good at boxing! If he landed on most ppl with 4oz gloves theyre going out.