UFC 78 - Bisping vs Evans

[McBain]

Hi all,

Just got an email from the UFC saying that Bisping will be headlining UFC 78 with a fight against Rashad Evans!

Quite surprised, but it's about time Bisping got a reasonable opponent! This will be his toughest test so far bar none, and will give us some idea of where he stands in the division!

Still feel his best bet would be to drop to 185, but I guess we'll know if he can hack it at 205 shortly! Hope he pulls through.

Thoughts?

Cheers

 

[McBain]

I read a cracking article on the 185 division last night, and the future with regards to possible match ups.

If Franklin beats Silva ( a massive 'if' ) then who will he fight next? There's talk that the winner of Mcdonald/Okami could be next inline, but he's already beaten both of those. Hardly main event material. Naturally if Silva wins then they have a matchup, but what after that?

Judging by this, I really do feel Bisping needs to look at dropping to 185 to realistically stand a chance of becoming a UFC champion. I mean, unless he improves drastically can he stand with the likes of Jackson/Rua/Forrest/Tito/Henderson etc etc??? They're just so physically daunting, and much bigger than Bisping.

 

[McBain]

A week to go

Plenty of bad blood starting to boil between the two as well. Likely just hype, considering it's not the best main event the UFC have ever put together, but still, adds something to the mix.

MAIN CARD

* Michael Bisping vs. Rashad Evans
* Houston Alexander vs. Thiago Silva
* Joe Doerksen vs. Ed Herman
* Ryo Chonan vs. Karo Parisyan
* Frankie Edgar vs. Spencer Fisher

PRELIMINARY CARD

* Thiago Alves vs. Chris Lytle
* Joe Lauzon vs. Jason Reinhardt
* Marcus Aurelio vs. Luke Caudillo
* Akihiro Gono vs. Tamdan McCrory

Will be good to see Alexander again, as well as Parisyan. Not the greatest of lineups, but should be an entertaining night all the same. Bisping has his work cut out for him, just hoping he can pull it out.

 

[McBain]

Funny how two people can see things totally differently.

Bisping was far superior in his standup over Evans, who basically relied on lay and pray to take the fight. Bisping landed more shots, fair enough nothing particularly rocked either fighter, but he still landed more point scoring shots.

I felt the fight was very, very close and that it could've easily gone either way, hence the split decision. Bisping needs to improve his takedown defense, if he had better wrestling he would've taken the fight, Evans is all talk.

One thing is for sure, neither are remotely close to a title fight. Both would get cleansed by Rampage.

Other than that it was as I expected, below par card, below par event.

 

[McBain]

Oh, and Bispings first loss may be a blessing in disguise.... he may drop to 185, dooooooooo iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!!!

 

[McBain]

you think mir will be able to handle Lesnor?

I think your crazy. Mir used to be good but since the accident has lost his heart, cardio, flexability, defence.

Lesner is a world class wrestler (not WWE) and has been training in MMA a long time. I think he will walk through Mir with ease.

Mir is a master of submissions though. It's a recipe for disaster for Lesnar if you ask me, yes he might take him down, yes he might start a little ground n' pound, but it's certainly a possibility Mir can sink in a triangle with no problem.

I'm expecting Mir to take it. Training in MMA is different to actual experience, of which he has little.

I'd love Mir to win in fact, too many fans are hyping Lesnar up, expecting him to drop a rock bottom into the equation or something.

 

[McBain]

Not too sure if he's overrated, most people acknowledge he isn't the fighter he once was, certainly after his accident.

He's a submission expert, and he has won via Triangle before, so wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if he sunk it in on Lesnar

It'll be an interesting fight all the same, can Lesnar really make the transition from WWE into MMA? Or will Mir show him how it's done?

 

[McBain]

Firstly sinking a triangle on someone with shoulders and neck that large is very hard. Mir does not have the dexterity he once had. To apply the triangle he has to wrap his right leg (typically) around Lesnors neck and under his left knee. Not easy at all due to the size.

Secondly wrestling has become dominant in MMA. Lesnor is a NCAA division one champion. That means hes in the top 2 % of amature wrestlers in the US. Thats not easy at all.

He has also been training in MMA techniques for over 4 years and been a wrestling partner for many MMA athletes looking to work submissions on dominant wrestlers.

Mir was over rated. If im correct he was an abu dhabi champion in a weight class that has limited entries due to size. He got his name breaking tim silvias arm but that wasnt in a dominant fashion at all.

He has always had cardio problems and his diet has been poor even suring his best years.

Yes he has good submission skills but with limited wrestling, less strength, no standup, and hasnt got a fighters heart anymore (look at the imes and vera bouts).

I hate the WWE but have followed MMA since 97. Lesnors skills will dominate mir.

Feel free to bring this back up if im wrong but its very unlikely in this situation

I completely understand the logistics involved in a triangle.

As for wrestling becoming dominant in MMA, totally disagree. Who has dominated in recent MMA with wrestling alone? Sherk maybe, Hughes or perhaps Randy in a very poor heavyweight division but that's about it. The champions that you can't see being knocked from the top ( Rampage/Silva/GSP - when he gets his title back ) Are all there mainly from standup, or being well rounded. Sure Rampage loves the slams, but he clearly prefers boxing.

Wrestling is vastly overrated in MMA, and I feel Mir, or if Lesnar gets past him someone else with better standup will show him how it's done. There are plenty of very talented wrestlers out there who can't hack it when it comes down to the crunch, a boxer/BJJ always has the chance of a quick/or lucky finish, i don't feel a wrestler does.

I give him 2, maybe 3 fights before he's proven to be a phoney. ( That's if he even gets past Mir, which I don't think, and certainly don't hope he will )

Standup > Wrestling

 

[McBain]

So wrestling isnt dominate in the latest UFC's

Josh Koscheck - Dominated most bouts by lay and prey
GSP - Overpowered hughes and koscheck using his wrestling ability from training with the canadian national team
Hughes - Enough Said
Couture - Obviously wrestling over most opponants
Fedor Emelianenko - Dominant wrestler with great ground and pound from wrestling takedowns
Josh Barnett - Wrestler first and foremost with improved standup.
Rampage - Got into mma as an amature wrestler and had only ever wrestled on his KOTC debut. Yes he has power but uses wrestling in 90% of his bouts when evenly matched as its where he came from.
Dan Henderson - Wrestler in nearly all pride bouts and early training partner of Coutures when they focused on wrestling and positioning for submission defence (see the documentary 'fight')
Rashad Evans - Undeafeated lay and prey artist
Paulo Filho - Dominant wrestler with improved submissions
Matt Lindland - Olympic alternative and best MW in the world
Diego Sanchez - Isnt great at standup. dominated with wrestling aggresion and cardio but has been exposed now people realise his wreslting wasnt actually that good
Jake Shields - Wrestler with great ground control from the back!
Sean Sherk - Obvious
Urijah Faber - College wrestling coach
Frankie Edgar - Dominated one of the best well rounded 155ers with wrestling last bout. NCAA devision one wrestler

Now thats just a list of those successfull in the last 3 years. I think you will find that any wrestler who learns submission defence tends to win over JJ guys. Thats why there are significantly less submission victories nowadays and the most common are guillentine (strength cannot defend), RNC (technique over strength), Kimora (positioning with leveage strength).

Yes boxers have the ability for a one punch knockout and JJ guys have a good change for a quick submission but MMA since 96 has been dominated by the wrestlers. Its why most MMA fighters train with dominant wrestlers.

When met Jeff Monson he said the biggest problem he had were wrestlers who could overpower his posioning and take away his hip movement. This was before the Silvia fight when he found out he wasnt great defending the jab also!

I could write a similar, if not larger list of fighters that have actually accomplished something in the UFC of merit recently via standup, or BJJ.

What i'm saying is, how many fights have been won via TKO/KO/Submission from striking and BJJ? Compared to fights that have been won via wrestling? I am fairly confident it'd be a one sided stat affair, which suggests to me that Wrestling is far from the most dominant ability in MMA.

I think we'll have to agree to disagree tbh, one thing is for sure and can't be disputed, striking certainly is the more exciting over wrestling