I believe that Josh Barnett took Randy down, Rico Rodregueiz did also and finished Randy from that position. Of course, both men out-weighed Randy by somewhere in the region of 30lbs. I could very well be wrong on this, but didn't Pedro Rizzo take Randy down to, in their first fight? I remember thinking that Randy was going to be stopped so i'm sure that was the case, or maybe Rizzo floored Randy. Anyone remember that fight? What a war!!!!
:good I agree with you, BJ Penn, thus far has the best take-down defence that I have ever seen at "His" weight anyone who tries it is wasting their time!! I remember during the build-up to the first Hughes-Penn fight, Randy Couture, having grappled with BJ, praising Penn and saying how difficult he found it to take BJ down and keep him down!!
That is probably all true, I'm not 100% sure. I'm just going from impressions here. I want to say BJ Penn but everyone cant hide their stiffys from his last performance. Anyone dare say Fedor?
Mirko had an awesome sprawl. Penn takes it for me just because I havent seen anyone else avoid takedowns once put in the positions Penn has been in. His balance in unreal.
I appreciated your comments regarding BJ! As for Fedor, hmmn, i'm sure i've seen him pull some sweeps/reversals whilst on the ground (I'm gonna have to dig out my old Pride dvds!!) and how did Rogers end up in the "Top" position in his fight with Fedor(I haven't seen the fight in it's entirety so I honestly don't know)? My guess is that it is excellent, but the best of all-time? Probably not! After all, sambo is largely a ground-based submission sport so Fedor doesn't mind being on the ground! But I could easily be wrong, in which case i'll happily accept that i'm wrong!.
Even St Pierre couldn't do it the entire first round of their fight and he had like 20lbs of muscle on him and is maybe the best takedown artist in MMA history, maybe.
How is that? So any wrestler in MMA would clearly be the better then BJ at takedown defense if they "focused" on it? Oh wait BJ did wrestle at some point so maybe he counts too. So BJ being pushed up against the fence for 3 minutes of the first round against GSP and avoiding the takedown the whole time, any wrestler (Maynard, Edgar, Koscheck, Griffin, Hughes, etc) could've done that as well if they focused on takedown defense??? Stop sucking off wrestlers, we all know you wrestled. Simply being a wrestler does not give you the god given talent.
Why are you so abrasive? You need a hug or something? Obviously if a top notch wrestler focused on his takedown defense he is going to be the most difficult to take down. It isn't rocket science, it's the simple logic that a wrestler has been doing that his entire life. The top notch ones are used to avoiding takedowns from the other top notch wrestlers of the world, who have also been working their entire lives on taking people down. However, normally a top notch wrestler isn't even considering takedown defense during an MMA bout because nobody is usually trying to take them down. As I said before, sometimes this even results in one of them being caught off guard and being taken down by someone who normally wouldn't be able to do that. A wrestler is going to be much more concerned and focused on striking on his feet, and takedown offense. And obviously it wouldn't be just any wrestler. That's like saying that any boxer has better hands than any MMA fighter. There are different levels of competitors in every sport.
I didn't mean to come off as abrasive, sorry dude. Things get taken the wrong way on the internet because you can't hear the tone of peoples voices. But the way you worded it was that you believe any wrestler would be better at takedown defense then any non wrestler. It's just bull****. All these guys now train in wrestling. GSP isn't a "wrestler" but he has been training in wrestling for years now and, I know you don't agree, but if most likely a better wrestler (yes wrestler) then Hughes or maybe even Kos. Your argument is this: If GSP started training in wrestling at the age of 18years old and is now 77(?) those nine years of adult training cannot overcome and surpass Koscheck or Hughes 20 years of wrestling right?? Same goes for many other MMA fighters. I disagree. Just because a guy trained in wrestling since he was a kid does not mean he is FOREVER ahead of somebody who takes it up later in life. He is at a huge advantage, but anything can happen.
yea the first fight randy took chuck down but the 2nd and 3rd he had a harder time. Tito tired many times to take chuck down but chuck kept stopping it that's why tito was force to strike and get KTFO. I forgot but machida's takedown defense is very good also.
GSP is a wrestler. Once you train for as many years, and at the level that GSP has trained at... you are a wrestler. Hell, wrestling is GSP's strongest asset in MMA. Plus, there is a such thing as just being a freak of nature like GSP is.... however you have to understand how crazy it is when a freak of nature like GSP has already been wrestling his entire life. When you wrestle as a kid, it just makes everything such a natural instinct. There is no hesitation or confusion involved when you have to make split second reactions during a wrestling match because it is just second nature. GSP is a very good wrestler... but a lot of his great wrestling success comes from the fact that he is so dangerous on his feet. His opponent can never focus on takedown defense because they will get ate up on the feet if they do. So, they are in a catch 22. Also dwarfing most of his opponents at 170 helps quite a bit too.
This belongs to GSP, and it's not even really debatable. The man has faced far better competition and competition that is likely to attempt to put him on his back and be successful. B.J. has fought, really, 3 guys who are likely (in recent years) to put him on his back via wrestling. Hughes, Sherk, and Pierre. Hughes was unable, Sherk barely tried (if at all), and GSP...well, he was successful numerous times. St. Pierre, on the other hand... Karo Parisyan, Sean Sherk, Matt Hughes (3x), Josh Koscheck, Jon Fitch. He was only taken down twice in all of those fights. Once by Matt Hughes at UFC 50, and the other by Josh Koscheck at UFC 74 (in which Koscheck barely and I mean BARELY got him down by an ankle pick from a failed single transition to a high single). Other then those two instances (in his whole career), GSP has been the aggressor in the takedowns and outwrestling NCAA Division I Champions, and All-Americans. B.J. gets credit for avoiding the takedowns of Hughes (which he should), but who now? Diego Sanchez? Kenny Florian? Great fighters but not exactly known for their incredible takedown abilities. GSP wins this and it isn't even close if you actually take a second and think about it.