Official now - Out of UFC - Thanks for all your support - back to normal life and BJJ forever Apparently the above was on his Twitter page. BJJ forever? Didnt see any BJJ in his fight against Brendan Snob...
I think he had more potential to fill but he never did. He had the hands to put Carwin down, the kick to put Cro Cop out and the black belt to make him dangerous on the ground but he never put it together. I think he could also train harder and come in even fitter.
Yeah totally. He had so much potential, but failed to lived up to it. Instead of being monster, he became gatekeeper
It is clear he has fallen from elite level where he sparked CC and brawled with Couture BUT I think the UFC were harsh in cutting him after 2 losses. The same with Coleman. These guys do lose and do look bad and as a result to drop in our esteem BUT these guys should be given another fight as a prelim in a do or die situation. Instead alot of guys are brought in for the lower level fights. Gonzaga vs Kongo in a do or die fight would be good. Gonzaga vs Duffee had he stayed in the UFC. Those sort of do or die fights where both fighters know their career is on the line.
Kongo can't be to far off getting kicked out along with him. Kongo vs Gabe would of been a nice fight like you say do or die. Shame how Gonzaga turned out when he exploded onto the scene just could never put it all together.
excellent idea. would really get the fans behind the loser/winner as well. theres no reason not to do this. it happens in tuf all the time.
Maybe he'll put it down for a year or 2 and have a comeback. At 31 theres still life left in his career. Despite the losses he's still a fan favourite, that KO of Mirko has cemented him into history.
I don't think either of those two cuts were that harsh. Gonzaga may have won the odd match agenst lesser competision in recent years but he's lost every single big fight he's had since Crocop(Randy, Werdum, Carwin, JDS) and now he's lost to mid level opponant with a very uninspired display. Coleman is clearly past his best physically, I think he was lucky to last aslong as he did in the UFC and even main evented a PPV.
Gonzaga was 3-3 in his last 6 and in 1 of them he went the distance and in another one he floored Carwin heavy. Gonzaga would serve as a better gatekeeper for the new guys or guys about to get cut then the low level guys the UFC bring in. Coleman was old and past his best but he'd come off of beating Bonnar and main eventing with Randy. It doesn't make any sense that a guy can be cut after those 2 fights.
Coleman was clearly done. His fight with Couture was just sad to watch. Listening to some stuff after the WEC/UFC merger, the number of total shows between the two promotions together is going down by I think seven. There were something like 9 WEC shows per year on Versus, those are going away, and 2 more Versus UFC shows are going to be added. Dana White said that the Fight Nights and PPVs are not going to increase because he thinks they're saturated there. So with 7 less shows, the number of fighters per weight division are going to have to decrease just due to simple math. Obviously hardest hit will be lightweight where they now have 60 fighters but all your bottom guys in all weight divisions better start winning if they want to continue on in the UFC. Gonzaga obviously wasn't at the bottom of the division, but he lost to Brendan Schaub, and compared to other fighters he was getting paid more when I saw the payouts for UFC 121. What're you going to do next, have him face Matt Mitrione? So he probably wasn't living up to his paycheck, and it's not like anyone was buying PPVs to watch Gabriel Gonzaga either.
His 3 wins are all agenst lower level opposition though, thats really why he was kept around, because he was a fun to watch gatekeeper. Agenst Schaub though he put in an uninspired performance which I'd geuss most would agree didnt really do much to confirm Brendans status as a potential title challanger. I'd preffer to see Gonzaga stay around given the lack of depth at HW but by UFC standards that wasnt a harsh cut. Remember aswell that Gonzaga is pretty well paid(by MMA standards anyway) earning $70K a time and as a big name BJJ fighter who can earn serious money training people probabley wasnt prepaired to take much of a cut.