It seems BJ has given up the weight hopping and now they are serving him tough contenders at 155. Florian, now Sanchez. Will BJ be able to dominate? It's not easy staying hungry, in shape etc
I disagree. I think it's only since he dropped down and avenged the loss to Pulver in June 2007 that he began his GSP like dominance. Before that he fought Hughes at 170, GSP at 170, Renzo at 185?, Lyoto at heavyweight, Rodrigo at 185?, Ludwig at 155, Hughes at 170 and so on. 1 lightweight fight in three years! Prior to that we were saying what we thought he could do - be invincible at 155 but the facts were he had the lost to Pulver, the draw to Uno, not that many 155 fights and little consistency. Now he has dropped back down, rededicated himself, looked brillant, destroyed arguably his nearest lightweight rival in Sherk and is now eating up the strong contenders ala GSP.
The difference being, BJ finishes fights. GSP has been grinding out decisions. Penn and Serra are lightweights and Hughes is a dinosaur. Kos, Alves and Fitch were all dominated by GSP but he could not put them away. If BJ is able to dominate you, you are getting knocked out or choked.
The main bar to B.J being the GSP of 155lbs is the strength of the lightweight division outside the UFC. Outside the UFC there was only really Jake Shields and now he has moved up to 185lbs. All the best welterweights were in the UFC and GSP just ran through them. Shinya Aoki, Eddie Alvarez, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Joachim Hansen, Gilbert Melendez...there are plenty of great lightweights outside the UFC.
No the main bar is the talent INSIDE the UFC. The UFC lightweight division is just as, if not more talented then the UFC welterweight division. The lightweights are much more well rounded then the welterweights.
Alves and Fitch were crazy big, crazy strong and crazy tough. GSP beat them up but they wouldn't fold. I agree GSP can grind em out but he does finish guys. Something like 13 out of 19 wins are by stoppage. Decisions over tough guys like Fitch and Alves carries no shame.
No man, I'm not insulting or saying anything bad against him. I just see BJ being a better finisher then GSP, that's all.
I don't agree with that. Only Diego Sanchez, Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard remain in the UFC for B.J to beat, but if he beats them he still won't be able to claim the status GSP has without fighting the fighters I mentioned, especially Aoki and Alvarez, who are ranked 2nd and 3rd in the world respectively.
GSP has Hughes == BJ has Pulver GSP has Alves == BJ has Diego GSP has Fitch == BJ has Sherk GSP has Kos == BJ has Florian GSP has Serra and BJ but they are lightweights Then there are Trigg, Karo, Heiron for GSP But Penn had Uno, Stevenson, Gomi Now whats left? GSP has Hardy, Swick and Johnson I guess BJ has Maynard, Edgar, Griffin, Guida (All very talented) The level of talent in their respective divisions that they have faced and beaten is virtually even. The difference is that BJ has fought up in weight and GSP has spent 4 fights fighting Penn and Serra who are two lightweights coming up.
If UFC merge with WEC then BJ will have a lot more luxury. He could be matched with quite a few guys then from 125, 135, 145 and 155. Aldo would be interesting, so would Brown.
nobody in the lower weights would be able to beat bj, the only person i could think of is aldo n thats based on the punchers chance, as for 155'ers outside the ufc the only ones worth mentioning are aoki and melendez