Apart from his annihilation of Frank Mir iv never seen this 'incredible' form in any of his fights. But i do agree with Jimmy that most of his problems appear to be mental and attitude related.
Maybe you weren't following his career before the Mir fight? His highlight reel KO of Eilers was abslolutely BRUTAL. Yeah... it was ****** Eilers, but Vera looked incredible in his performance. Then he took apart Assuerio Silva and Mir both in the first round as well to follow that performance up. He hadn't had a fight that made it beyond the 2nd round in the WEC or UFC at that point. Taking apart Mike Whitehead in the WEC. You can say what you wish... but obviously that is where the hype came from and at that point... he seemed to be earning it.
Both those guys are cans though. The only time iv ever seen him look like the real deal was Vs Mir and that was off the back of Mir's career nearly being totalled in the motor cycle accident. So it does taint his win somewhat. Either way i believe the hype is completely unwarranted as i don't share your optimism simply based on what iv seen.
Destroying Frank Mir is going to get you a ton of hype. The man was a UFC Champ... and on top of that it was Frank's 3rd fight back from his injury having won his second fight back. After Vera dominated him Mir went on to win his next three fights against Hardonk, Lesnar, and Big Nog. So, let's not completely discredit Vera's win over Mir. Also... we were talking about Vera's "form" before his loss to Sylvia... not his high level of amazing opponents. I gave you examples of his incredible form and dominance which brought him that hype. You said that you don't recall ever seeing his "incredible form" outside of the Mir fight. That's why I pointed out that his entire career up to that point was an example of it. Vera looked amazing... ever since then he hasn't. It happens sometimes, however as I said before. If you look at his early career before his year off... and consider what these guys probably see from him in training... you can understand the hype that he carried, and the talent that he has which keeps people waiting for him to break out again. It doesn't seem like it's going to happen and it does seem to be mental.
Wiki...... :-( This content is protected There you go, scurla. I saved you the trouble of typing up a response. Pretty sure I just won the argument for you - that's the way it goes right? :good :hat
Its quite horrible. The bloke has mentally given up too many times to be given a shot like this. I'm quite sure they took advantage of a mainstream audience who would think the card had more credibility as an eliminator. They wanted a mainstream gimmick. In relaity Machida vs Shogun is a MUCH better fight or at the very least winner vs winner for another eliminator. The UFC standards for a title shot just dropped big time. Machida had an excuse for his first bogus title shot but heres another. Neither are his fault, its the UFC calling the shots.
I would favor Machida in a rubbermatch with Shogun at this point. I rewatched their first fight a couple of days ago, and it wasn't near the robbery that it felt like when watching it live. The first three rounds were incredibly close.
I thought Shogun won the first and obviously the second but with Shogun in the shape he is in and go on heart, I'd favour the technical approach of Machida at present. PS - Shogun on point can really make the high chin style of Machida pay the price.
Vera looked very good in his first fights at the UFC...but yeah, I agree that he was overrated by many at some point.....