SB Nation User Blog: Michael Rome

UFC 100 Preview: Georges St. Pierre's Impressive Training Camp for Thiago Alves

Michael Rome — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 07:50:20 -0000

Georges St. Pierre and Thiago Alves are finally starting to do some press for UFC 100, and St. Pierre spoke at length about some of his training partners today in an interview at Punch Drunk Gamer:

PDG: Are you using the same trainers/team for this fight?

GSP: I always bring someone in but its most of the same people with me. I did bring a couple of guys out from Paris, some Muay Thai specialists. I also have many guys who came in town recently - John Danaher from New York came for my jiu-jitsu – he showed me some amazing stuff that I will be able to use. I also work with Jean-Charles Skarbowsky, who’s a legend in Muay Thai who spent most of his life in Thailand. He came with two of his top students, and he showed me a bunch of stuff in Muay Thai that I’ll also be able to use during my fight. And the fact that he came with two of his top students – it give me a good idea of what a world-class Muay Thai fighter is and it’s gonna help me gauge the speed and the power of a real Muay Thai guy.

As usual, St. Pierre spared no expense bringing in high-end talent that will present more challenges in camp than his opponent is likely to present on fight night. I have seen a lot of tape of Jean-Charles Skarbowsky, and the guy is simply an incredible fighter. Thiago Alves is a very good Thai Boxer, but not anywhere near the level Skarbowsky was once at and probably nowhere near the level his top students are at. This isn't to say St. Pierre will outstrike Alves, but it's important because it makes it more unlikely that Alves will do anything to shock St. Pierre.

Reach is the most under appreciated factor in this fight. St. Pierre has a nice jab and a snap left high kick that he uses to keep guys out of reach, and Thiago's reach is particularly short. His usual offensive combinations are very effective in the pocket, but the classic right-left followed by right leg kick combination is a lot harder to pull off when your opponent is always circling away.

It wouldn't shock me if St. Pierre beats Thiago standing in this fight. However, I doubt that will be his game plan, because standing is the only place Thiago can win this fight. I suspect the strategy is to only be at two distances: far enough to stay out of Thiago's reach or in deep for a shot. I expect St. Pierre to circle to Thiago's right while keeping a distance in order to stay away from his left hook and left knee, and to force Thiago to extend himself to try to land that leg kick. I think St. Pierre will use striking at a distance early in each round to lure Alves into charging forward and opening himself up for a takedown.

I'm sure Thiago is training with great wrestlers for this fight. The problem is that it's nearly impossible to find a wrestler that can replicate the way St. Pierre mixes wrestling with striking almost seamlessly. Once this hits the ground, Alves is in serious trouble. I think St. Pierre takes this via TKO in the third round.

We're a week out and the line is narrowing. Will St. Pierre quiet the critics once and for all? Or will he go down in a heap and have to restart another journey back to the top?

UFC 100 coverage

Slowing Down on Cain Velasquez, Shane Carwin, and Junior Dos Santos

Michael Rome — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 23:46:18 -0000

Shane Carwin, Cain Velasquez, and Junior Dos Santos are hyped as the next generation of top UFC heavyweights. In the past few months we've seen Carwin and Velasquez defeat legitimate heavyweight competition, but in the process they exposed holes in their game that suggest they are far from being elite fighters. Nobody should be surprised; between the three of them they have 26 fights combined.

Is it any shock that six fights into his MMA career, Cain Velasquez doesn't have the ability to deal with Cheick Kongo's kickboxing? He has serious work to do on his striking, but this is a very young fighter that showed a tremendous ability to recover from serious danger and still put on a dominating performance.

A big part of the problem here is hype thrust upon these fighters by overeager fans looking for the next big thing. Not to mention hype from their camp members, who should really think twice before creating unrealistic expectations for their teammates to live up to. Is there any way Cain Velasquez can avoid disappointing people when his coach calls him the best fighter in the history of AKA?

Junior Dos Santos is fighting Justin McCulley in August. Many people don't understand it; Ariel Helwani claimed it made "no sense" on Steve Cofield's show last night. Actually, it makes a lot of sense. He has a lot of work to do on his wrestling and ground game, and there's no reason to put him in do or die situations before his game has fully developed. Similarly, throwing Carwin and Cain against one another at this point would be a ridiculous choice. Both men proved they can hang with the elite, but they'd be better off getting a few more training camps in before facing guys like Couture, Mir, and Nogueira, let alone a guy like Fedor. This isn't to say Cain couldn't beat any one of them right now; perhaps he could. But if he did it would be a result of brute strength and youth, and not because he's developed a complete game.

The winner of Randy and Nogueira should get the next title shot, because the next generation of heavyweights needs more time. More time to develop their skills, and more time to develop name recognition with UFC fans so the fans care about their eventual title shots. Instead of fighting each other now in a match that means nothing to casual fans, they can wait until it means something.

The problem is there's very little inbetween guys like Cheick Kongo and the champion in the UFC heavyweight division. There aren't a lot of lateral options, you can only go to the top or to the cans. Unfortunately, the weakness of the division may result in these guys biting off more than they can chew at this point in their careers.

Thoughts Coming Out of UFC 99

Michael Rome — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 21:54:48 -0000

First of all, it was nice to see Mirko unleash with his hands. I don't think he's going to be competitive with any top heavyweights, but it would be interesting to see him fight Cain Velasquez next.

Speaking of Cain Velasquez, his performance can be interpreted a number of ways. His kickboxing was not good, he was tagged in almost every exchange, and he didn't have the ability to finish an opponent that was just waiting to be finished. On the other hand, his wrestling control was very good, his conditioning was great, he had quite a chin, and he beat a top 10 (or so) heavyweight in only his sixth fight. I think Mirko would be an interesting fight just because Mirko has better takedown defense than Kongo, and certainly has the standing skill to put him away.

A few months ago, Shane Carwin crushed Gonzaga with a single right hand after a bad start. Cain's performance was almost the exact opposite; he dominated for 15 minutes but didn't have the power to finish. Cain almost reminds me of a more well-rounded version of the early Randy Couture, content to overwhelm guys and beat them into exhaustion. He needs serious striking improvement though, and I don't know if AKA is equipped to give it to him.

Mike Swick looked decent, but was overhyped by the announcers as usual. He is nowhere near GSP's class as a fighter, and does not deserve a title shot. I think they should match him up with Martin Kampmann in September.

Finally, the main event. What an odd fight it was. Both men looked cautious, and Franklin looked like he was on his way to an easy decision victory until he got caught in the second. Wanderlei really had a chance to put him away there, but missed the opportunity. Neither man looked particularly great, but they both had to deal with an opponent with such a unique style.

Wanderlei made a tactical mistake starting out cautious. He was most successful when he came forward aggressively, Rich did not punish him enough for coming in recklessly. He lost the fight, but I think Wanderlei will live to fight another day. The fans loved the fight, he obviously loves what he's doing, and if he can stay that competitive with a fighter as good as Rich Franklin, who are we as fans to tell him he needs to retire? I do think that perhaps he should stay at 205, as it looked like the weight cut just slowed him down.

The UFC Wants to Promote Wanderlei Silva vs. Anderson Silva

Michael Rome — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 05:42:26 -0000

I just finished watching the Countdown to UFC 99 show, and the most fascinating part to me was how heavily they focused on the Anderson Silva factor at UFC 99. They briefly explored the roots of the feud between Wanderlei and Anderson, and spent a lot of time building up a future fight between the two if Wanderlei wins. Dana White said the following on the Spike special:

If Wanderlei Silva beats Rich Franklin in this fight, obviously he's not going to be too happy about Anderson training Rich to beat him...and if Anderson Silva comes out of his fight with Forrest and he doesn't get banged up and can jumpright back in, we could see a Wanderlei Silva-Anderson Silva fight in the very near future.

This suggests to me that if Wanderlei knocks Rich out this weekend, they are willing to leapfrog him over Maia and Bisping and into title contention. They are in a bit of a bind this fall without main events to fill shows, and they may pull the trigger on this one sooner rather than later if they have the opportunity.

MMA in August Looks Tremendous

Michael Rome — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 22:47:40 -0000

Not to jinx it, but August is set to be one of the best months in MMA history. We're getting a number of fights people have anticipated for years, along with really neat fights like Gina-Cyborg and Forrest-Anderson. Rather than comment further, I'll just list the fights for everyone to salivate over after the jump to remind everyone why competition is a welcome thing in MMA.

August 1: Affliction Trilogy

Josh Barnett vs. Fedor Emelianenko

Gerard Mousasi vs. Babalu Sobral

Tim Sylvia vs. Paul Buentello

Jorge Santiago vs. Vitor Belfort

August 2: Sengoku 9

Featherweight GP Semi-Finals including: Hioki v. Kanehara and Sandro v. Omigara

Kitaoka vs. Hirota

Misaki vs. Nakamura

August 8: UFC 101

BJ Penn vs. Kenny Florian

Anderson Silva vs. Forrest Griffin

August 9: WEC 42

Miguel Torres vs. Brian Bowles

Joseph Benavidez vs. Dominick Cruz

August 15: Strikeforce

Gina Carano vs. Cyborg Santos

Alistair Overeem vs. Brett Rogers

Josh Thomson vs. Gilbert Melendez

August 29: UFC 102

Randy Couture vs. Antonio Nogueira

Demian Maia vs. Nate Marquardt

Keith Jardine vs. Thiago Silva

The UFC Should Sign Nick Diaz and Jake Shields When They Become Available

Michael Rome — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 20:11:16 -0000

Lots of people rightly wonder what happens to the welterweight division in the UFC if Georges St. Pierre beats Thiago Alves. Alves winning would open things up, and he has a good chance, but if GSP wins the next contender is an open question. Mike Swick could be a default contender, and Martin Kampmann is a few wins away, but unless the UFC brings in new talent they will have an Anderson Silva-in-2008 situation all over again.

Nick Diaz would be a boon to the UFC's welterweight division. His camp says he wants to fight at 170 from here on out, and it's clear to me that he is far better than he ever was when he was in the UFC. Fights like Diaz-Hughes and Diaz-Serra would be promotional gold mines, and a potential fight with GSP would probably do huge money if Diaz won a few in a row. From the pure sport perspective, fights with Alves and Fitch would be very interesting as well. He's finally hit his stride after a rough patch, and I'd really like to see him against some elite talent.

Jake Shields also earned a shot at GSP's title with his performance last night. Say what you will about Lawler's performance, Jake pulled out a great win over a good middleweight. He found himself in a nightmare position for a grappler, unable to get a hard-hitting opponent down. Instead of folding, he found a way to win, and he deserves a lot of credit for it. His kickboxing is still poor, he stands straight up and throws one shot at a time from way outside, but it worked last night. I think St. Pierre would throttle him, but he has earned a chance to prove the doubters wrong.

From Strikeforce's perspective, the natural fights to promote are Diaz vs. Cung Le and Shields vs. Riggs. Shields is obviously planning on leaving, so putting him in with Cung Le makes no sense. Diaz looks locked in, and a fight with Cung Le should be easy to promote.

Evaluating Wrestlers That Changed Their Style

Michael Rome — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 03:47:15 -0000

There's been a lot of justified criticism of wrestlers that have let their wrestling skills slip in the pursuit of exciting fights. The five fighters people highlight when they talk about this disturbing trend are Sean Sherk, Diego Sanchez, Josh Koscheck, Rampage Jackson, and Rashad Evans. All five changed their style for different reasons and to varying degrees of success, but it's worth remembering that with the exception of Sean Sherk, they didn't just abandon something that was working for no reason. The wet blanket wrestling decision style hasn't worked at the top level in MMA for a long time, and when each of these guys found out the hard way that it wouldn't get them the success they wanted, they made adjustments.

Rashad Evans changed his style abruptly at UFC 88. After drawing Tito Ortiz in a fight he really lost, he barely edged out a decision against Michael Bisping. His style focused on takedowns at the expense of doing damage, and his mediocre performances in 2007 highlighted the fact that his style wouldn't get him to the top. He re-tooled and came out with a newfound confidence against Chuck Liddell and Forrest Griffin, and got the biggest wins of his career. Now that he was clowned standing by Lyoto Machida everybody is criticizing him for not wrestling, but honestly, he was outwrestled by Tito Ortiz. Michael Bisping took him down at least once. That wrestling style was never going to beat Machida either, and it wouldn't have beat Chuck Liddell or Forrest Griffin.

Diego Sanchez changed his style following his loss to Jon Fitch. He found himself outmuscled and overpowered by Fitch, who used strength and positional control to secure a decision. Diego hasn't seen much notable success with his new style, but he's also yet to lose with it. Nothing about his last two standing performances makes me think he has what it takes to be a champion at 155, but it's not like he was on his way to championship status with his old style.

Most people thought Sean Sherk would steamroll Frankie Edgar at UFC 98, and instead of complimenting Edgar for his performance, people focused on Sherk's decision to box given his former wrestling dominance. It's worth mentioning that Sean Sherk shot for three takedowns in the third round of his UFC 98 fight with Frankie Edgar. Edgar stuffed two, and easily got up from one. Nothing about that third round suggests to me Sherk would have beat Edgar if he followed that strategy all three rounds. Sherk's style change is harder to understand because he didn't suffer a bad loss at 155 using his old style. Instead, it looks like he overreacted to jeers and fan hatred and decided to sacrifice his record in order to excite fans. He is one of the guys that should get back to his old style, even if it won't be enough to compete at the elite level at 155 anymore.

Josh Koscheck ran into a wrestling brick wall against Georges St. Pierre. I think he was shocked by the fact that someone out wrestled him, and realized he would need to be able to knock St. Pierre out standing if they ever met again. He was already promising a "new, exciting" style before the fight at UFC 74, but he's gone even further over to that style since the St. Pierre loss. I think he needs to find the right happy medium, but I also have doubts that any style change will get him into serious title contention. I do know that a style that gets you knocked out by Paulo Thiago and puts you in danger standing against Dustin Hazelett isn't a style worth pursuing.

Finally, we come to Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. You can make arguments that all four of the above fighters should return to their offensive wrestling roots, but the argument falls apart when it comes to Jackson. Against elite competition in Pride, Jackson's style failed him. He was knocked out twice by Wanderlei Silva, and completely obliterated by Shogun Rua. He also got a gift decision against Ninja Rua in a fight Jackson himself admitted he should have lost. Nobody can take away his incredible win over Chuck Liddell, nor his famous TKO of Ricardo Arona, but he was 2-3 against top competition in Pride, which is not as good of a record as nostalgic Rampage fans would like to remember.

After the Shogun loss, Jackson paired up with Juanito Ibarra, who radically altered Jackson's style and focused his raw power on punching instead of slams. Since the Shogun fight, Jackson is 8-1, with four wins against top level Light Heavyweight competition, and a loss that really wasn't a loss as far as I'm concerned. Even accepting that loss against Forrest Griffin, it's undoubtedly true that Jackson is far better off using his wrestling to stay standing and box than he was when he used it as an offensive weapon and left himself open in transitions.

It's too easy to say these wrestlers need to "get back to their roots." It's an easy crutch when they lose, but doesn't always tell the full story. Generally, what they need to do really depends on who they're fighting, but for the most part they each changed things up for a reason, and reverting to their old style won't bring them the success some people think it will.

Shocking News: Kimbo Slice to Compete on TUF 10

Michael Rome — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 03:20:10 -0000

Now this came out of nowhere. According to Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports, Kimbo Slice is going to be a contestant on TUF 10:

The UFC president has repeatedly insisted he would not allow Slice to compete in the UFC unless he won his way onto the show by competing on "The Ultimate Fighter."

Slice has called White’s bluff and will appear on Season 10 of the highly rated Spike TV series, White has confirmed. Fighters live in the same house and train together, and then fight during the show in a bid to earn a UFC contract.

This will likely be a ratings bonanza for the UFC on Spike. Good move? Bad move? I lean towards good, I have no problem giving him a chance on the reality show, it's much less offensive than bringing him in to lose to Chuck.

Greg Jackson Took The Wrong Lesson From Thiago Silva's Loss to Lyoto Machida

Michael Rome — Mon, 25 May 2009 22:19:11 -0000

I am no MMA coach, so I am loathe to criticize Greg Jackson for the strategy he designed for Rashad Evans. But I can't shake the idea that Rashad came into this fight with a terrible strategy. I heard the idea of making Machida strike first in a number of places, but dismissed it out of hand. Little did I know it would be Rashad's strategy at UFC 98.

People saw Thiago Silva get picked apart and concluded that you can't move forward against Lyoto Machida. They took the wrong lesson from the fight. It's worth first considering that Thiago moved forward with his hands down in reckless fashion. Nobody should conclude that because he lost via reckless pursuit, any pursuit at all is futile.

Thiago Silva was knocked down by Antonio Mendes, and had a very ugly slugfest with Drwal. Nobody ever confused him for an elite striker. That Drwal fight tells the true story of Silva's standing game, he is willing to be hit in the head over and over just to get his shots in, and that strategy had no chance against Machida.

I maintain that beating Machida will take a constant and measured pursuit. His opponent will have to continually move forward, try to cut off the cage, and smother him. Will it be easy? Hell no! Machida is amazing at moving around the cage, and nobody has been successful with this strategy yet. But sitting on the outside and allowing Machida to dictate the exchanges is a recipe for disaster.

The other bothersome thing to me was Rashad's head hunting. Machida's leaning stance combined with his reaction time and footwork makes it nearly impossible to hit him in the face from the outside. His leaning stance necessarily leaves an opening to the body, guys need to circle to their right (Machida's left) and attack his body.

Whenever people discuss fighting Fedor, they try to think of the one thing they can beat him. They look for the silver bullet. People are doing it with Machida too, but he's too good all-around. There is no silver bullet. Whoever beats him will need an excellent chin, good defense, patience, cardio, good wrestling, good balance, good clinch skills, and the ability to do significant damage on the inside. Oh, and one more thing...they'll need to be very lucky too.

Credit Dana White for His Support of Lyoto Machida

Michael Rome — Mon, 25 May 2009 16:18:33 -0000

Before his fight with Sokoudjou, I was among those that actively disliked watching Lyoto Machida fight. I was at UFC 76, and his fight with Nakamura almost completely killed the crowd. As we left the arena that night, a friend asked, "why don't they just fire him?" At the time, I didn't think that was the worst idea.

It would have been easy to get rid of Lyoto Machida. After boring performances at UFC 70 and UFC 76, they could have given him nothing but low end opponents and refused to re-sign him when his contract expired. Instead, they gave him the highly-touted Sokoudjou, and then Dana selected him to send Tito Ortiz packing with a loss.

Throughout his run in the UFC, when fans and reporters criticized Lyoto Machida's style, Dana never jumped on board. He's routinely argued that Machida is just getting comfortable and has the ability to be the best fighter in the world. They put the full weight of their marketing machine behind him to promote this fight, choosing to focus on him instead of Rashad. They are now supposedly going to put him on TUF, which is the UFC superstar seal of approval.

The UFC's timing with Machida was near-perfect. Even if Rampage got the first shot, Lyoto would have been next in line in the fall. People act like he was so screwed by the UFC, but in reality he got opportunity after opportunity handed to him, and he delivered. He got to fight Sokoudjou in his UFC debut on a huge year-end card. He fought Tito in a very high profile match. He fought Thiago Silva in the co-main event of one of the biggest UFC shows ever. Is it such a tragedy that they wanted fans to actually get to know who Machida was before giving him a title shot?

I suppose Yushin Okami is now going to be the posterboy for the "UFC screws foreigners" whine train. In reality, he was scheduled for a title shot, only to injure himself and lose it. And before he was injured again recently, he was in line to get his shot if he won at UFC 98. He's probably two wins away now.

Promoting foreign fighters is tricky when your business depends on convincing a mostly-white fan base to spend money on PPV shows. It takes a little more time building guys up before their shot, and they may have to win one or two more fights than an English-speaking, charismatic white guy. This is an unfortunate reality, but Machida proved that hard work and sacrifice can break those barriers.