Matt Serra. How good is/was he?

Yup Serra threw a hard punch, it landed and it rocked GSP.

 

A true example that a fighters record doesnt tell the whole story

Quite under appreciated

 

His resume could so easily looked totally different. It was close but IMO he beat BJ, he was very close to knocking Hughes and Karo both out. Just sooo close if he won those 3 fights or 2 of them he would be held in much higher regard.

 

Exactly, he was tying Carter up in knots in spells and gave BJ the toughest night up after Jens.

Considered lucky for the GSP fight, but the break was well deserved

 

Nowhere near as good as that WW championship would suggest. He always had sloppy hands that could hurt if they landed but they only started landing in the very last part of his career, his BJJ game never translated that well into MMA, and he couldn't wrestle that well so I guess you'd say he was an above-average fighter that could beat B-level competition but not impressively.

 

So if I throw an overhand right at Anderson Silva, I intend for it to land and hurt him, and it actually does that then it's not a fluke?

Come off it, a fluke means something that isn't likely to happen again and if the odds came out for a GSP/Serra rubber match tomorrow you know damn well that you wouldn't put a penny on that going down again.

 

Serra was outstriking Gsp in that fight leading up to the stoppage, in the rematch Gsp took the fight to the ground... he learned his lesson.

 

That has nothing to do with a fluke, yes the outcome wasnt the same in the rematch but thats not the definition of a fluke.

If a dead bird fell out of the sky, GSP slipped onto it, landing face first into Serra's fist, that would be a fluke

But as Haggis stated, Serra threw the punch, it landed, the fight was over

What you are describing is an upset, which of course it was, and it's not the same as a fluke

 

He wasn't outstriking anything before the first blow landed on the back of the head, rather GSP was ineffectually jabbing and kicking and Serra was sitting down on and missing hook counters until GSP didn't duck low enough and the **** started.

Once again, we're going to have a fairly serious disagreement because the term "fluke" is abhored by MMA fans for the same reason "Glass Jaw" is, I suppose you seem to find that it disrespects or tarnishes their wins. Well, sorry to say, that was a fluke that would never happen again, plain and simple. Serra's stand-up is trash, always has been and always will be, and his only chance on the feet with a striker is to land with his power and that's happened all of twice in his entire career.

If a guy has exactly two stoppage wins in his career it's very, VERY safe to say that him stopping a dominant champion was a fluke. Once again, follow my analogy; if I tried to hit Anderson and I managed to do it and **** him up, that would be a fluke because he's far above my skill level and I couldn't EVER be expected to do that again. Serra wouldn't land that punch again even if GSP stood with him, therefore, it's a fluke and that's irrefutable.

 

Argue with the dictionary

[url]http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fluke[/url]

[url]http://www.thefreedictionary.com/upset[/url]

 

hey I would agree with you if Serra threw one punch that changed the fight in his favor, but thats not what happened, serra was landing on gsp before that big right landed. In fact Serra was outstriking Gsp. In the rematch GSP took Serra to the ground for a reason, serra hits hard and moves his head when he throws his timing and headmovement was throwing Gsp's game off.

Gsp was outstruck in that fight, give Serra credit for that win.:deal

 

I don't think that is what it means in the context of combat sports. A fluke win would be a win where some stroke of sheer luck intervened and took all the skill out of the equation, like someone slipping on the mat in Pride so that they were spread-eagled for a decisive KO soccer kick to the temple, or someone shooting for a takedown, pulling a muscle on the way in, and being unable to fight effectively afterwards. A fluke is not just something unlikely happening, a fluke implies the intervention of luck or chance which removes the fairness of a win gained through skill.

This was not the case with GSP-Serra 1. There was no intervention of any kind. Serra aimed to hit him with a hard shot, succeeded in doing so, and reaped the immediate rewards. No luck was involved, Serra did exactly what he planned to do and won, absolutely hands down fair and square. Every upset is not a "fluke", that's not what a fluke means in this context.

I've heard people call Shogun-Coleman 1 a fluke, that fight is closer to being a fluke than this one is, because this one isn't.

 

You've said in three lines what I just took about 10 minutes to type out an explanation for!

 

I'm well aware of the definition and the first applies. That punch, an ugly hook thrown by a guy with only extremely rudimentary boxing skills, would not land again if they fought eight more times. That means that regardless of whether he meant it to land or not, it landing was a fluke.

Back to the analogy. If I try to hit RJJ or Anderson and I manage to do it, whether I meant for the shot to land or not is irrelevant. I'm not that good of a boxer and there's no way in hell that if I did it once I'd ever be able to do it again and that makes it a stroke of luck. If West Brom beat Manchester United 5-0 it's a fluke because they aren't that good and it wouldn't likely happen again.