The Takedown MMA News Report 1.29.10: Striking With Force
Posted by Daniel Bonnizzio on 01.29.2010
Take a look at why some grapplers just don't seem to excel in MMA, a preview of Strikeforce's 2010 debut and its two championship bouts, a look at DREAM's 2010 schedule, DREAM championships, EA Sports MMA roster additions, fight announcements and more!
Welcome to another edition of
In My Opinion Just a section to discuss my opinion on something
So, in the years I have been watching combat sports I have always heard of how good someone's grappling ability is. Then it turns into grappling-in-MMA and that's where the fine line is drawn.
How does someone who is a great grappler not translate well into MMA? For instance, Satoshi Ishii (to use a recent example). The 2008 Gold Medalist in the Beijing Olympics for the 120+ kg division in Judo. Yet, in his fight with Hidehiko Yoshida, whether it was because of first-fight jitters, a good defense from the opponent or the lack of a gi, he didn't get to display ANY of his supposed skills; skills which, by the way, were able to net him a brown belt in BJJ after only a few sessions.
He supposedly has a crushing top game with monstrous strength and great hips which should translate well into MMA. However, we only got to see a taste of his skills at the end of the first round where he kind of fell past Yoshida's guard.
Personally I think it takes a certain type of grappler to really translate well into MMA. Strikers are more easily able to translate into MMA because, with a little takedown defense, they can turn into an anti-wrestler and keep the fight where they want it to be. Someone coming in with no striking skills, however, is not in the same boat. Take for example, Demian Maia. The guy has a ridiculous grappling game. He is often touted as having THE best pure BJJ in the UFC or all of MMA today. However, once he gets matched with another capable grappler with some nice striking like Nate Marquardt, for instance he runs into trouble.
I think this is why BJ Penn is probably one of the better people to adapt grappling into MMA. While he is a black belt prodigy in BJJ - along with winning the Mundials (the world championships of BJJ) his first year in that division - he also has possibly the best boxing in the sport. Along with that, he has the perfect MMA grappling game he has a crushing top game where he can pass guard with ease and choke you out.
Demian Maia, however, is more of a fights off his back' kind of guy which is not so good in MMA. Too easy to get pounded out you see. He covers for it by being ridiculous off his back which is something not every grappler can do.
All in all, it takes someone who is half good at striking, along with a crushing top game and the ability to dictate what position they want to be in to be an effective grappler in MMA.
Basically, this guy.
Strikeforce: Miami (But It's Really In Sunrise, FL) Preview
Well, Strikeforce first event of 2010 looks to be good until you hit the undercard. Frankly, while I was looking at these fights, I just had no idea how to really pick them. On a few of them I just used some perverted form of MMAth to figure it out. I mean, really, there are 3 fighters on the card with 0-2 records, and two of them are fighting each other. I was sorely tempted to pick that one as a draw, but it wasn't happening at all. Well, predictions!
Nick Diaz vs. Marius Zaromskis: Nick Diaz made famous the peppering punches style. Throwing literally hundreds of hands per round, even if they are all at a subpar level of power, the damage can add up easily. Zaromskis is by trade a striker and that's going to cost him here. While it is entirely possible that we see him give another Lil Cro Cop performance here and knock Nick's head off, I think that Nick will use his long reach to keep Zaromskis from getting comfortable enough to feel like throwing that big kick, and should Zaromskis manage to get comfortable enough to think he can turn the fight into a kickboxing match Nick will take the fight to the ground where he outclasses Marius and submits him.
Winner: Nick Diaz, Submission, RD 3
Cristiane Santos vs. Marloes Coenen: Santos is the female 145 pound version of Wanderlei Silva - she is really strong in the clinch, she is supposedly a good grappler but we haven't seen it, she has a decent tank, and she is very open to technical coutnerpunching. Coenen is going to have to exploit those weaknesses long enough for her to counterpunch her way into either an opening to put Santos on her back and try to finish her or she is going to have to stick and run for 25 minutes for the decision win, but unfortunately for her I think that Santos is going to be too aggressive for her to really take advantage of any openings that may come around and she is going to pull the win out.
Winner: Cristiane Santos, TKO, RD 2
Herschel Walker vs. Greg Nagy: Some may crap on DREAM for putting on some freakshow fights but this doesn't make Strikeforce much better. That being said, I do consider Walker a somewhat legit athlete in the sense that he is disciplined in his arts and should be well conditioned (although the recent season of TUF showed us not all ex-NFL stars are well conditioned for MMA). That being said, I'll take the word of a few respected AKA members and say that Walker walks away winning his first career fight.
Winner: Herschel Walker, Decision
Bobby Lashley vs. Wes Sims: Wes Sims, though a veteran of the sport, is far away from his days of stomping Mir's face in and being considered a prospect. Barring a freak submission from the Hammer House non-wrestler, Lashley should walk through Sims en route to a date with bigger and better names.
Winner: Bobby Lashley, TKO, RD 2
Robbie Lawler vs. Melvin Manhoef: Robbie Lawler is known for his propensity to stand and trade, and that is going to get him knocked out here. Lawler is a brawler for sure in every sense of the word. Manohef however is a veteran of K-1 standards with dozens of KOs to his name, and if Lawler is going to stand and trade with Manhoef his head is going into the fifth row.
Winner: Melvin Manhoef, KO, RD 1
Prelim Quick Picks
Hayder Hassan vs. Ryan Keenan: Keenan, TKO, RD 2
David Gomez vs. Craig Oxley: Gomez, Submission, RD 2
Sabah Homasi vs. John Kelly: Kelly, TKO, RD 3
Michael Byrnes vs. David Zitnik: Zitanick, Decision
Pablo Alfonso vs. Marcos da Matta: da Matta, Submission, RD 3
Jay Hieron vs. Joe Riggs: Hieron, TKO, RD 1
All in all it looks like a solid night of fights. We are going to see some stellar Kos, I bet there will be at least one really great fight, and we will get the first Strikeforce Welterweight Champion out of the deal!
EA Sports MMA Gets Bigger
A few new names have been added to EA's attempt at the mixed martial arts gaming franchise.
Joining the likes of Randy Couture, Fedor Emelianenko, and Shinya Aoki will be current Strikeforce stars Jay Hieron, Joe Riggs, Nick Diaz, Bobby Lashley, and DREAM Welterweight Champion Marius Zaromskis.
As of now details on the game are scarce but the screens and video clips I have seen make the game out to be visually stunning. Many people lauded the UFC's game for its visual acuity, but I think that EA's game actually surpasses it because for starters, it's more than clear that the majority of the fighters look almost nothing like their real-life counterparts. If you don't believe me, next time you use Hendo to recreate the KO of the Year take a look at his face and recoil in horror.
However, the EA Sports MMA models look nearly EXACTLY like their real-world counterparts, right down to the agelines on Fedor's face.
Very nice, eh?
In addition to that, EA has said they're working on making the fighters more accurately portrayed, fighting style-wise. For instance, my major complaint in the UFC game is that they assign ONE grappling art and ONE striking art to each fighter. What that doesn't take into account is the fighters' different styles. For instance, while he is well versed in it, I don't see Fedor doing many traditional hip tosses, Judo-style, and nor do I think I could respectfully assign him boxing, kickboxing, or Muay Thai because his punches are not accurate and technical enough for boxing, he doesn't kick enough for kickboxing, and when is the last time we saw him use a real knee or elbow? Never.
As of right now the game doesn't have the sheer depth that the UFC game has, but frankly, I am fine with that. While every game needs to have a few cannon-fodder fighters to start the career mode out on, how many guys do you know go out and try to play as Tim Boetsch or Kazuhiro Nakamura? Yeah, they're in the game too.
The roster currently stands at approximately 30 fighters but hopefully more get added soon. The fighters include:
Heavyweight
Fedor Emelianenko
Randy Couture (can also fight at Light Heavyweight)
Brett Rogers
Hidehiko Yoshida
Jeff Monson (unconfirmed but seen in press release)
Bas Rutten (unconfirmed)
Bobby Lashley
Light Heavyweight
Gegard Mousasi
Renato "Babalu" Sobral
Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal
Vladimir Matsyushenko (unconfirmed but seen in press release)
Middleweight
Frank Shamrock (can also fight at Light Heavyweight)
Cung Le
Scott Smith
Ronaldo "Jacare" de Souza
Robbie Lawler
Melvin Manhoef
Jason Miller
Matt Lindland
Benji Radach
Welterweight
Nick Diaz
Marius Zaromskis
Jay Hieron
Joe Riggs
Nick Thompson
Tim Kennedy (unconfirmed)
Jake Shields (can also fight at Middleweight)
As you can see, the most lacking divisions are the Light Heavyweight and Lightweight divisions. Seeing the lack of 205 pounders is unsurprising, considering the UFC has a death grip on them. However, I honestly expected to see more Lightweights. Names like Alvarez, Kawajiri, Ribeiro, and JZ come to mind. For the 205 pounder, the only one I can think of not already in the game is Sokodjou (and possibly Minowaman just for S's and G's).
Hopefully they can flesh out the divisions enough to get about 10 or so per weight class. If anything, I would also see about adding in a Featherweight division. Some top names such as Curran, Fernandes, Warren, Beebe, Maeda, Hansen (at FW), KID, Cullum, Imanari, and Tokoro come to mind for possible additions if they add a featherweight division.
In the Lands of the Rising Sun
DREAMing in 2010?
So FEG executives have announced a lineup for their 2010 schedule of MMA events. Among these events are scheduled to be both title defenses and new champions crowned.
As of right now, Bibiano Fernandes is scheduled to defend his DREAM Featherweight Championship against Joachim Hansen. Hansen will be dropping down a weight from his established division to try and earn some gold at a lower weight class. Personally, I think that that is going to be a FANTASTIC fight and I cannot wait to see it. Currently it is scheduled to take place at DREAM.13 on March 22.
The rest of the tentative lineup is as follows:
DREAM.13: March 22
DREAM.14: April
DREAM.15: May
DREAM.16: July
DREAM.17: September
DREAM.18: October
Dynamite!! 2010: December 31st
Among these events, they are planning to ONCE AGAIN try and crown a Middleweight Champion (seeing as to how the first two tries didn't go so well) as well as their first Light Heavyweight Champion and their first Heavyweight Champion. These are scheduled to be earned through yet more Grand Prix events.
The only participants confirmed for the Light Heavyweight Grand Prix is former DREAM Middleweight Champion and current Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion Gegard Mousasi.
It is this author's opinion that somehow, Alistair Overeem will compete in and win the DREAM Heavyweight Grand Prix. After eating three dead horses.
There are also plans to have yet another White Cage-styled event in the year, possibly in late 2010 (probably DREAM.18). I thoroughly enjoyed the first White Cage, although I hope they find new people to design/build the second one because the first seemed to be little more then a bunch of rather pliable fencing stuck together with wood and tape. And maybe a little taller; let us not forget the Flying Dutchman of DREAM.12.
Nick Diaz: PEPPERING PUNCHES
Future Fights
A small recap of potential fights in the future announced over the week.
Bibiano Fernandes vs Joachim Hansen, DREAM.13 (for the DREAM Featherweight Championship)
Pat Barry vs Gilbert Yvel, UFC 115
Bryan Caraway vs Fredson Paixao, WEC 47
Chad Mendes vs Eric Koch, WEC 47
Carlos Condit vs Rory Macdonald, UFC 115
Andre Glavao vs Luke Stewart, Strikeforce Challengers VII
Dave Herman vs Jeff Monson, Shine Fights III
Danny Castillo vs Anthony Pettis, WEC 47
Chad George vs Scott Jorgenson, WEC 47
Bobby Lashley vs Wes Sims, Strikeforce: Miami
Quick Jabs
Melvin Manhoef, Joe Riggs, Nick Diaz, Bobby Lashley and Marius Zaromskis have all been added to the EA Sports MM game. Honestly as this game goes they are getting more and more of my attention. I may have to buy it.
The UFC is soon going to be offering PPV to China which will be available via a paid internet stream. This is astounding news because if they can really sell the product in China then their buyrate numbers will go up quite a bit.
Round 5 has come out with a new series of their UFC figures. This set includes Forrest Griffin, Tito Ortiz, BJ Penn, Michael Bisping, Randy Couture, and of course, Kimbo Slice. I cannot believe I do not already own a Round 5 figure.
UFC on Versus 1 is tapped to be the lead-in show for season 11 of The Ultimate Fighter which is cool but at the same time bad because I know I will hear at least one complaint from my bum of a friend about having to change the channel from VS to Spike.
Speaking of TUF11, Dana White has mysteriously announced that there will be a new format for the show. Many are wondering about it because it's been confirmed that there are only 28 fighters for the show as opposed to the 32 fighters which start from the elimination rounds in the first two episodes. I'm thinking Royal Rumble maybe; then, suddenly, spot 29: RVD.
Bozo's Corner Just stuff about me for the week.
This week provided a much easier write than last week, thanks in part to Strikeforce: Miami giving me something to do, haha.
In other news, I am trying to convince my sister to get tickets for UFC Fight Night 21 because she is currently in school in Charlotte. Hopefully I can convince her and she can take pictures and send them to me so I can be jealous.
Thanks for reading again, hope to see you all sometime in the future!!
