Smartest and Dumbest Fighters, In and Out of the Octagon.

Watching TUF 6 and Rampage doesn't exactly come off like the brightest guy in the room. Quite an amusing TV personality though.

Rashad, by contrast, seems quite articulate. He expresses himself very well.

But who in MMA in general comes across as a real smart guy, and who's a real dumb guy?

Who comes across like a smart guy in interviews and promotional segments, and who seems thick as pig****?

And in a similar but not the same category, who gets in there in and fights dumb, and who maximizes every advantage they have? And is there any connection between being smart and fighting smart?

:hat

 

Jens Pulver comes across as an absolute idiot.

 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmFnVkeO2VY&feature=related[/ame]

 

Nick Diaz

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJYtWuWshYM[/ame]

 

Nick Diaz is thick as shite outside of the octagon but he's pretty intelligent inside it. You've got to be if you can make someone like Gomi tap with a gogolplata.

 

I agree with this. Chuck Liddell doesn't really interview too well.

Also, I think that Frank Mir seems like a pretty smart guy in interviews.

 

Yeah anyone I have seen Rashad get into a verbal confrontation with, he has pretty much owned them. Just seems to be in control of himself even when he gets mad, and he comes up with the right things to say. Also it seems that he doesn't allow himself to be easily manipulated.

Like on TUF 6 when Rampage and co made the poster with the cartoons of him and all his fighters, making fun of them. Rashad immediately saw it for what it was - an act of passive-aggressive baiting from someone getting owned - and laughed it off. He wasn't threatened by it or annoyed by it at all. Many other fighters would have immediately gone ape****, but Rashad instantly saw what was going on and retained control of himself, thereby owning Rampage yet again.

:hat

 

Mayhem is like a big excited kid. He's mental. The only peave I have with them is he gets too close to the mic.

One that surprised me was Guida. In the octagon and in his post fight interviews you think, what you see is what you get. However, when he's doing the post fight conference, he's a lot smarter than you'd think. I really wish he'd stop giving shoutouts in the post fight interviews though, it makes me want him to lose. Same with Hamill.

 

dumb: wanderlei, palhares, diaz, leben, karo, dos santos
smart: mir, crocop, carwin, roger, fedor, florian

 

Chuck Liddell loves snorting cocaine and punching people in the arms at the clubs....

but to answer the question in and out smartest is Mark Coleman.

 

Bringing his kids to watch him get murdered by Fedor wasn't a very smart thing to do.

And I dunno Diaz is obviously very gifted but in terms of the gameplans he adopts in his fights, intelligent isn't the first thing that comes to mind.

 

Fighters who fight dumb - Andy Wang, Jorge Gurgel.

 

Krazy Horse Bennett - Smart

 

Beat me to it! He is the first guy that springs to mind when trying to think of someone who "fights stupid" and doesnt utilise their skill set. Always makes for exciting fights though, so who am I to critic?

 

... whatever happened to him?