although i wished royce would win i still dont think he fought all that bad. he was just unfortunate that matt got his back standing then he spent the whole fight one step behind and playing catch up. having said that though he still took very little damage in what was probably hughes best performance. its was a very technical fight and one of the most intruiging to watch
Sheilds in patches looked on another level in terms of " grappling " against Kampmann , and he was in bad shape from a tough weight cut , Sheilds fights in a division where in any one fight you can have your lights turned out , its a shark tank of a division , its without doubt the most competetive in MMA , maybe not the most outstanding in terms of pure ability , but for competetiveness , its the number 1 division , its because of this outstanding grappling ability that he is considered the one of the best in the world , if Sheilds cant secure a TD he's in trouble , and i stated on this forum , he will not control Ellenberger with his wrestling , Ellenberger was all wrong for Sheilds , that doesnt make him bad fighter Look at Hardy and Thiago Alves , both former world title challengers , but cant buy a win these days , this is more in reference to Alves who is world class , and just because he has small holes in his game , he's finding himself losing fights Sheilds is a world class grappler / wrestler who just lost his Dad 3 weeks ago He'll be back ...................
Its more the intense matchmaking- In other orgs maybe Shogun would have fought a F. Griffen rematch for his defence, in boxing it would have been a Matt Hamill..instead he had to fight a scary up and coming dangerous unbeatable looking fighter in Jon Jones. Jones wins and now has to fight Jackson a dangerous foe...if this was boxing Jones could well defend his belt against a Mike Kyle...UFC constant hard fights. In the UFC they generally force fighters to fight the very best possible guy they could fight at the precise time. Lesnar is fighting the best guy he could fighter which is unlucky for him....no one else matches Overeem as most consider him top 3...JDS and Cain are locked. Same for Overeem, best match up that is made. This is where boxing loses out, Manny and Floyd are past the date they should have fought (2009)...Povetkin can defend his belt against Holyfield, Chagaev rematch, Ustinov, basically you could name 10 guys better. Shields is still a good fighter he has just lost two of the better 170 pounders in the world. Simple.
HOw can a guy that wrestle ****ed Dan Henderson, and that basically wasn't allowed to do the same to Anderson be considered a disappointment?
Well in his last 5 Jake has nearly been stopped twice by Mayhem and Hendo, until he wrestle ****ed them both, got beat up by Kampman and all he could do was wrestle **** him, could not wrestle **** a half blind GSP, and got knee'd diving in sloppily in an attempt to wrestle **** Jake Anyone truly surprised? |Jake's very good at what he does. But the weakness' in his game are starting to tell now he's moved up a notch in quality. His last 5 are proof of this
He never should have been forced to go back down to 170. That just isn't his weight class anymore. Or he forgot how to cut. I refuse to call him a disappointment, when the whole reason that he is fighting those guys, is because Zuffa got scared a "Strikeforce" guy would beat Anderson.
Why, because Shields likes to take people down, Sonnen took Anderson down = Jake beats Anderson because he wont get submitted..... Nice in theory. But Jake would not beat Silva for the same reasons that Okami didnt. He doesnt set up his take downs with strikes. Sonnen faked a takedown, caught cold Anderson with a right hand, then dropped down, drove his shoulders through Anderson's hips, and literally took him off his feet and onto the matt Jake doents do this, he likes to get a hold of someone in the clinch, and drag them down, maybe using a trip, or good old fashioned body weight. Go rewatch the Ellenburger fight, Jake trying to take Hendo down after THAT punch on;y to eat another which dropped him, and the GSP eye poke. Jake each time put his chin on his chest and dove forward with his arms outstretched like and extra in a zombie film. Anderson steps to the side and drops Jake the same way he drops Okami when Yushin pressed forward without setting up the takedown with strikes. And if Jake throws that weak jab to set it up, I wouldnt be surprised if Anderson kods him with a counter either The difference between a Shields and Sonnen takedown is much the same as the difference between a GSP & Anderson strike
Shields should have stayed at 185lbs. He'd not fought below 182 in 2 years before the Kampmann fight and has looked like **** ever since.