Post by Sandy on Jan 26, 2009 16:45:09 GMT -5
I was hesitant to post this in its own thread but I figured it deserved its own post. It is a long read from mmanews.com. Enjoy.
There will be plenty of discussion this week heading into UFC 94’s mega-clash between lightweight champion BJ Penn and welterweight champion Georges “Rush” St-Pierre in Las Vegas. After all, this is a highly-anticipated rematch pitting two of the world’s best pound-for-pound fighters, and big fights always make for big business—especially in the futile business of predicting who’s going to do what to the other.
Sensationalists, mostly found in blogospheres, will have you believe that Georges St-Pierre is an unmovable object with divined wrestling leverage, and that Penn flies around on a magic carpet and is made of Silly Putty; level-headed sports talk will center more around GSP’s chin and Penn’s cardio. Romantics will remind everyone that a chin is just an extension of the heart, and that cardio is more literally about conditioning.
It’s convoluted. The pre-fight hype, that is.
But only a small handful of people have actually been punched in the face by both GSP and BJ Penn. Matt Serra, Sean Sherk and Matt Hughes have. They’ve all fought both fighters, and know a little bit of what to expect on January 31 at the MGM Grand when the welterweight title is up for grabs.
“Personally, I think it’s going to come down to strategy,” says Matt Serra, who fought BJ Penn back in September if 2002 and belt-swapped with St-Pierre twice recently.
“You’re talking about two guys that are extremely gifted and dangerous in all aspects of the fight game. What I think is, if GSP stands in the center of the Octagon and tries to go blow-for-blow and tries to take out BJ on his feet, I definitely think that’ll be a disadvantage to him. If the fight stays in the center of the Octagon, BJ will pick him apart, hurt him and ultimately put him away.”
When Serra fought Penn he had a miserable time trying to take “The Prodigy” down, only succeeding once in the second round along the fence. In the end, Serra was picked apart in a reluctant stand-up war and held the single leg as collateral against Penn’s heavy hands. Serra lost a close unanimous decision, in large part because of his inability to kick the spoing out of Penn’s legs. And yet, he thinks that for GSP to be successful against the Hilo native, he’ll have to do just that.
“With GSP I think it’s going to be reminiscent of the last two rounds of their last fight,” the New Yorker says. “He’s going to use his wrestling ability—even if he can’t get him down right away—he will get him to the cage, take his time and work him over a little bit, keep wearing him down, and over the course of that five-round fight that’s going to take its toll and lead to a decision win. He can out-point him that way, and basically beat BJ with takedowns and his wrestling ability.”
Sean Sherk tangled with St-Pierre at UFC 56 and Penn at UFC 84, and when those two fights count for 66% of his losses (37-3-1), you know he’s had some time to contemplate their strengths and weaknesses.
“BJ’s flexibility poses a lot of problems, obviously, and he’s really hard to take down because his legs are like rubber,” the Muscle Shark says. “And when he gets on the ground, he’s able to do a lot of weird, different submission stuff that you wouldn’t expect because you don’t see guys like that everyday.”
Sherk eschewed the chance to test those waters in his title bout back in May of last year, preferring instead—surprisingly to some—to keep the fight standing. What happened was he absorbed three rounds of strikes, strafes and precision counter jabs from an all-too-happy Penn before being TKO’d in the third.
“BJ’s punching power, he’s probably one of the hardest hitting guys I’ve fought,” he says. “He hit real hard. His placement, I noticed when I fought him, was right on the money, every single time. And he’s real good at finding that chin, so that’s going to pose problems for St.-Pierre. His timing and his range are good, too.”
And if anybody can overcome that, Sherk thinks, it’s GSP. St-Pierre beat Sherk in the second round of their fight with a role reversal—taking the wrestler down and landing a barrage of elbows and punches that shattered his nose before the referee stepped in to stop it. At the time it surprised Sherk that GSP was able to dictate his will and take him down.
“What I’ve seen over the years, to be honest with you, I think Pierre’s evolved more since the last time they fought [at UFC 58 in 2006]. I see a lot of different attributes and I see him getting better at a lot of different stuff—crisper striking, tighter combos, better wrestling, his takedowns are really good, and his footwork and his Jiu-Jitsu have even gotten better, though we haven’t seen him on the ground a lot. Where with Penn, I think he’s been a little more stagnant, in my opinion, so I think St-Pierre’s evolved a lot more.”
Two-time welterweight champion Matt Hughes—widely considered the most dominant welterweight of all time—has fought Penn twice and St-Pierre three times. Even though he is 43-7 overall and a lock for a spot in the UFC Hall of Fame, he went 2-3 in these encounters.
He sees an attractive matchup on paper, but fights like this don’t follow scripts and can become one-sided in a hurry.
“Well, I think that cardio is going to be BJ’s nightmare,” he says. “He’s just always seemed to have that problem where when it gets in the later rounds he just gets tired, but hopefully he’s prepared to go all five rounds. The last time I fought BJ, he surprised me with his lack of gas and maybe not being prepared.”
To be fair, Hughes is a bona-fide cardiofreak, but he speaks from experience—maybe the one that changed BJ Penn’s philosophy on training. In their second fight at UFC 63 in 2006, Penn weighed in at an astonishing 166.5 and looked to be in the best shape of his life. But a late second-round triangle attempt that nearly finished Hughes gassed Penn completely, as evidenced when he came out of his corner wobbly in the third. With Penn’s hands low and his legs spent, Hughes was able to apply a sort of crucifix and tee off on Penn before the referee intervened.
“Georges had problems in their last fight with BJ’s speed,” he says, adding that he would have scored the first round 10-8 for Penn. “One thing I always tell fighters is don’t try and counter a quicker fighter, you’re going to be sitting there with nothing. For Georges to be successful, he’s got to go out there and be the dictator, go out there and be the first to pull the trigger. He can’t sit there and let BJ get off as many times as he wants and try and counter him, because you can’t counter a quicker fighter. That speed could hurt GSP.”
Though Hughes doesn’t think the fight occurring at 170 will matter in the slightest—“BJ balloons up between fights anyway”—he does remember how surprised he was by the sheer athleticism of GSP in their trilogy of fights.
“Georges is just an athlete, no doubt, and when you’re an athlete you don’t have to know all the submissions and all the technique, because your athleticism will overcome some of that. On the ground I see this fight being pretty equal, the wrestling going to GSP. BJ’s never been a great offensive wrestler, he’s been very defensive.”
All three fighters agree that there’s a flip-a-coin element to the GSP-Penn fight and that it’s nearly impossible to predict. Naturally, we asked them to predict the fight. Not surprisingly, each of them tapped their toes on this ledge for footing before giving their impressions.
Hughes merely laughed that patented
Hughes laugh.
“I believe this is going to be a close fight. I think if it ends early, BJ’s going to get his hand raised, and if it ends later, then Georges’ will get his hand raised.”
Serra, who says he’s looking forward to fighting Hughes later on this year in their own heavily anticipated bout, shakes his head at the question, but ultimately likes the French-Canadian’s chances.
“It’s tough to say because it could go either way,” he says. “Because that’s MMA, and of course the game’s so crazy. It’s tough to pick a winner. But, again, I think it’ll come down to strategy, and I believe Georges will be looking to put him against the cage, put him down, use his wrestling, his explosiveness and his athleticism and really just try and take him to deeper waters. Get him into the later rounds, and I think that Georges will win a decision that way.”
If anybody has proven that GSP is fallible, it’s Serra himself, who delivered the big shot heard around the world to temporarily heist the belt from St-Pierre at UFC 69 in spring of 2007. So then again . . .
“If Georges doesn’t have that gameplan and he ends up standing in the center of the Octagon,” he says, “I think BJ can end it within three.”
Sherk’s stance is more definitive—get these welterweight visitation rights out of your system, BJ, and get back to 155 so he can work towards another title shot. But though right now all lightweight challengers are in limbo, he concedes it’s one hell of a compelling match-up.
“I think both pose a lot of problems for each other, and it’s what intrigues people about this fight,” he says. “The last time they fought it was right down to the wire. A lot of people said Penn won, a lot of people said St-Pierre won. But I don’t see BJ getting knocked out. I don’t see BJ getting submitted. If anything, I see a decision by St-Pierre or a knockout by Penn.”
Pretty flush, when you think about it—Penn early, GSP late. And from the guys who’ve taken their lumps to earn the privilege of opinion.
Through any smokescreens, the subtext here is actually pretty clear: The guaranteed winner in this title clash will be the fans.
There will be plenty of discussion this week heading into UFC 94’s mega-clash between lightweight champion BJ Penn and welterweight champion Georges “Rush” St-Pierre in Las Vegas. After all, this is a highly-anticipated rematch pitting two of the world’s best pound-for-pound fighters, and big fights always make for big business—especially in the futile business of predicting who’s going to do what to the other.
Sensationalists, mostly found in blogospheres, will have you believe that Georges St-Pierre is an unmovable object with divined wrestling leverage, and that Penn flies around on a magic carpet and is made of Silly Putty; level-headed sports talk will center more around GSP’s chin and Penn’s cardio. Romantics will remind everyone that a chin is just an extension of the heart, and that cardio is more literally about conditioning.
It’s convoluted. The pre-fight hype, that is.
But only a small handful of people have actually been punched in the face by both GSP and BJ Penn. Matt Serra, Sean Sherk and Matt Hughes have. They’ve all fought both fighters, and know a little bit of what to expect on January 31 at the MGM Grand when the welterweight title is up for grabs.
“Personally, I think it’s going to come down to strategy,” says Matt Serra, who fought BJ Penn back in September if 2002 and belt-swapped with St-Pierre twice recently.
“You’re talking about two guys that are extremely gifted and dangerous in all aspects of the fight game. What I think is, if GSP stands in the center of the Octagon and tries to go blow-for-blow and tries to take out BJ on his feet, I definitely think that’ll be a disadvantage to him. If the fight stays in the center of the Octagon, BJ will pick him apart, hurt him and ultimately put him away.”
When Serra fought Penn he had a miserable time trying to take “The Prodigy” down, only succeeding once in the second round along the fence. In the end, Serra was picked apart in a reluctant stand-up war and held the single leg as collateral against Penn’s heavy hands. Serra lost a close unanimous decision, in large part because of his inability to kick the spoing out of Penn’s legs. And yet, he thinks that for GSP to be successful against the Hilo native, he’ll have to do just that.
“With GSP I think it’s going to be reminiscent of the last two rounds of their last fight,” the New Yorker says. “He’s going to use his wrestling ability—even if he can’t get him down right away—he will get him to the cage, take his time and work him over a little bit, keep wearing him down, and over the course of that five-round fight that’s going to take its toll and lead to a decision win. He can out-point him that way, and basically beat BJ with takedowns and his wrestling ability.”
Sean Sherk tangled with St-Pierre at UFC 56 and Penn at UFC 84, and when those two fights count for 66% of his losses (37-3-1), you know he’s had some time to contemplate their strengths and weaknesses.
“BJ’s flexibility poses a lot of problems, obviously, and he’s really hard to take down because his legs are like rubber,” the Muscle Shark says. “And when he gets on the ground, he’s able to do a lot of weird, different submission stuff that you wouldn’t expect because you don’t see guys like that everyday.”
Sherk eschewed the chance to test those waters in his title bout back in May of last year, preferring instead—surprisingly to some—to keep the fight standing. What happened was he absorbed three rounds of strikes, strafes and precision counter jabs from an all-too-happy Penn before being TKO’d in the third.
“BJ’s punching power, he’s probably one of the hardest hitting guys I’ve fought,” he says. “He hit real hard. His placement, I noticed when I fought him, was right on the money, every single time. And he’s real good at finding that chin, so that’s going to pose problems for St.-Pierre. His timing and his range are good, too.”
And if anybody can overcome that, Sherk thinks, it’s GSP. St-Pierre beat Sherk in the second round of their fight with a role reversal—taking the wrestler down and landing a barrage of elbows and punches that shattered his nose before the referee stepped in to stop it. At the time it surprised Sherk that GSP was able to dictate his will and take him down.
“What I’ve seen over the years, to be honest with you, I think Pierre’s evolved more since the last time they fought [at UFC 58 in 2006]. I see a lot of different attributes and I see him getting better at a lot of different stuff—crisper striking, tighter combos, better wrestling, his takedowns are really good, and his footwork and his Jiu-Jitsu have even gotten better, though we haven’t seen him on the ground a lot. Where with Penn, I think he’s been a little more stagnant, in my opinion, so I think St-Pierre’s evolved a lot more.”
Two-time welterweight champion Matt Hughes—widely considered the most dominant welterweight of all time—has fought Penn twice and St-Pierre three times. Even though he is 43-7 overall and a lock for a spot in the UFC Hall of Fame, he went 2-3 in these encounters.
He sees an attractive matchup on paper, but fights like this don’t follow scripts and can become one-sided in a hurry.
“Well, I think that cardio is going to be BJ’s nightmare,” he says. “He’s just always seemed to have that problem where when it gets in the later rounds he just gets tired, but hopefully he’s prepared to go all five rounds. The last time I fought BJ, he surprised me with his lack of gas and maybe not being prepared.”
To be fair, Hughes is a bona-fide cardiofreak, but he speaks from experience—maybe the one that changed BJ Penn’s philosophy on training. In their second fight at UFC 63 in 2006, Penn weighed in at an astonishing 166.5 and looked to be in the best shape of his life. But a late second-round triangle attempt that nearly finished Hughes gassed Penn completely, as evidenced when he came out of his corner wobbly in the third. With Penn’s hands low and his legs spent, Hughes was able to apply a sort of crucifix and tee off on Penn before the referee intervened.
“Georges had problems in their last fight with BJ’s speed,” he says, adding that he would have scored the first round 10-8 for Penn. “One thing I always tell fighters is don’t try and counter a quicker fighter, you’re going to be sitting there with nothing. For Georges to be successful, he’s got to go out there and be the dictator, go out there and be the first to pull the trigger. He can’t sit there and let BJ get off as many times as he wants and try and counter him, because you can’t counter a quicker fighter. That speed could hurt GSP.”
Though Hughes doesn’t think the fight occurring at 170 will matter in the slightest—“BJ balloons up between fights anyway”—he does remember how surprised he was by the sheer athleticism of GSP in their trilogy of fights.
“Georges is just an athlete, no doubt, and when you’re an athlete you don’t have to know all the submissions and all the technique, because your athleticism will overcome some of that. On the ground I see this fight being pretty equal, the wrestling going to GSP. BJ’s never been a great offensive wrestler, he’s been very defensive.”
All three fighters agree that there’s a flip-a-coin element to the GSP-Penn fight and that it’s nearly impossible to predict. Naturally, we asked them to predict the fight. Not surprisingly, each of them tapped their toes on this ledge for footing before giving their impressions.
Hughes merely laughed that patented
Hughes laugh.
“I believe this is going to be a close fight. I think if it ends early, BJ’s going to get his hand raised, and if it ends later, then Georges’ will get his hand raised.”
Serra, who says he’s looking forward to fighting Hughes later on this year in their own heavily anticipated bout, shakes his head at the question, but ultimately likes the French-Canadian’s chances.
“It’s tough to say because it could go either way,” he says. “Because that’s MMA, and of course the game’s so crazy. It’s tough to pick a winner. But, again, I think it’ll come down to strategy, and I believe Georges will be looking to put him against the cage, put him down, use his wrestling, his explosiveness and his athleticism and really just try and take him to deeper waters. Get him into the later rounds, and I think that Georges will win a decision that way.”
If anybody has proven that GSP is fallible, it’s Serra himself, who delivered the big shot heard around the world to temporarily heist the belt from St-Pierre at UFC 69 in spring of 2007. So then again . . .
“If Georges doesn’t have that gameplan and he ends up standing in the center of the Octagon,” he says, “I think BJ can end it within three.”
Sherk’s stance is more definitive—get these welterweight visitation rights out of your system, BJ, and get back to 155 so he can work towards another title shot. But though right now all lightweight challengers are in limbo, he concedes it’s one hell of a compelling match-up.
“I think both pose a lot of problems for each other, and it’s what intrigues people about this fight,” he says. “The last time they fought it was right down to the wire. A lot of people said Penn won, a lot of people said St-Pierre won. But I don’t see BJ getting knocked out. I don’t see BJ getting submitted. If anything, I see a decision by St-Pierre or a knockout by Penn.”
Pretty flush, when you think about it—Penn early, GSP late. And from the guys who’ve taken their lumps to earn the privilege of opinion.
Through any smokescreens, the subtext here is actually pretty clear: The guaranteed winner in this title clash will be the fans.
