When the UFC brought back the Lightweight division earlier this year, they instantly created one of the toughtest divisions in any MMA promotion right now. The new Lightweight Title will recieve its first owner at UFC 64 when Sean Sherk and Kenny Florian will fight for the title.
Sean Sherk has an excellent record of 30-2-1 with his only losses coming against Georges St. Pierre and Matt Hughes. Kenny Florian is a relative newcomer to MMA getting his big break when he reached the finals the The Ultimate Fighter season 1. Florian has a record of 4-2 with losses against Diego Sanchez in the TUF 1 finale, and Drew Fickett. It should be an interesting fight and whoever wins will have a tough title defence against Jens Pulver.
Loading ...
Kenny is technically a great fighter, hes well rounded and hes very cerebral.. BUT, the problem with kenflo is that hes not a fighter at heart, i personally know alot of people like him in real life. Very well trained and disciplined, but when it comes down to it, hes afraid to get hit. If Sherk keeps the pressure on kenny he could blow right through him, bumrush style heh
BVRASP, I’m not sure you can comment on Kenny Florians heart or desire. I do not think you know him personally, and you can’t make character judgements on a person by the few minutes you see him on TV.
As much as I like KenFlo technically, he will get owned badly. This has the potential of being a repeat of Quarry vs Franklin. A TUF fighter way above his league.
hehe i hear you DrJ, im not trying to say kenflo is all that bad, like hes a wimp or something and i dont know him personally. I certainly think you can make character judgements in those few moments, trust me bro, kenny doesnt have that killer instict to make him a great fighter.
watch what happens in this fight, my predictions are never wrong hehe
Kenflo is amazing at this weight. Too many people remember what he was like in TUF, which was way over weight for him. He looked slow, and kind of tired the whole time. He’s totally in his ideal weight range now, and will give sherk a hell of a fight. Naturally sherk is very hard to submit, he’s short, stocky, short very strong arms. I look for this to go similar to Diaz vs Sherk. I look for sherk to pound out a majority decision over Florian. If Kenflo wins this it’ll be in the third when Sherk makes a mistake on the ground and gets caught in a triangle.
Kenny wins via some sort of second round submission. Sherk is over rated.
Good morning gentleman , I personaly think Sherk has got this one. I mean how can you go against a guy who’s only 2 losses are against Matt hughs and Georges St Piere?I mean dont get me worng I want florian to kill him , but I am not biased just becuase I am fan of one and not the other. If Florian takes it I will be happier then a pig in ****.
Oh man! i just rewatched hughes-sherk. Watch what happens Dr. J im down to put some $ against you on this one playa heheh
So, I take it you are picking Sherk then?
ya for sure, man he took it to hughes, i cant see kenny standing up to the intensity that sherk brings. Technically Kennys a great fighter, but there are so many variables besides skill. Conditioning is one thing kenny lacks, while im sure hes in shape, he doesnt train like a beast like sherk does. Then probably the most important in fighting is tenacity, thats probably the only reason guys like tank and baroni are even fighting. Nobodys the whole package, but i think sherk is really gonna put the hurt on kenny.
name your wager
I figured you were taking Sherk, so I don’t know what there is to wager on. I’m taking Sherk as well.
ah ok, so no bet on this one.. i wanted to ask your opinion on something cuz you obviously know your mma.
My buddy thinks that the only reason chuck has his “freakish” ability to stand up from the ground is because he uses the fence to get up. So if liddell was taken down in the middle of the octagon he can be submitted. I found that pretty interesting and ive noticed the same thing myself.. what you think? is this his kryptonite?
BV,
I agree that Chuck uses the cage to his advantage probably better than anyone. Having the cage at your back obviously provides extra leverage to be able to stand up. I don’t know that Chuck would easily get submitted if he was taken down in the center of the ring. Don’t forget Chuck was a wrestler at Cal Poly when he was in college. He hasn’t needed to use his wrestling much during his MMA career, but his wrestling is still good.
If you can manage to take Chuck down several times and wear him out, Couture proved you can ground-and-pound Chuck for a victory.
I think the real key is how Chuck uses the cage. Chuck is a counter-puncher. He waits for you to make a mistake and then he attacks. Chuck gladly lets his opponenets rush him up against the cage, so he can use that extra leverage. If an opponent is constantly shooting for the double-leg, Chuck will gladly back up against the cage where he knows he can get back up.
How does Chuck fair without a cage? Well we’ve only seen a few fights in a ring, but he had a hard time getting up against Jackson in Pride. I don’t know if I really answered your question, but yes, a lot of Chucks ability to stand up so easily is due to the cage. But I also don’t believe that without a cage to back him up, that he would get easily submitted. Chuck has good wrestling… we just never see it.
naw i wouldnt say hes easy to submit lol, but its definately possible, and obviously ground an pound is there. The point getting liddell down an keeping him down.
I really wish pride and UFC could collaborate better, or even adjusted their rules to be more compatible with each other. In some ways ufc is better in some ways pride is better.
I like the cage aspect of UFC, the fact that theyre adding another plane to the fighting round, tho it sucks cuz the cage is not much better than ropes except you cant fly out of the cage and get hurt lol.
It would be nice if they had some other kind of surface, something transparant so people can still see the action, but not like plexiglass cuz its still too solid, it need to be like the mat on the walls. Me and some of my buddies been training techniques against a wall, or near a wall, its pretty cool, cuz theres alot of variables that arent explored often, like submissions possible with your back against a wall, how to strike an opponent you have against the wall.. without breaking your hand hehe. But ya, i think they definately need to focus more on that aspect of fighting, in my opinion its just as different as standing is to fighting on the ground, its a whole different world.
in terms of the rules, i like the UFC elbows on the ground, which pride doesnt allow for some reason.. and i like the kicks and kness to the head on the floor which UFC doesnt allow. Why doesnt pride allow people to drop those elbows? if they did, they rules would go to pride for sure, but which one tips the scales? elbows on the ground or kicks and stomps to the head? Id probably say the bows, because it doesnt take alot of skill to kick someone in the head while theyre down, then those strange moments where they like to jump up and try to stop him and get a nasty upkick to the groin lol. The elbows on the ground are an integral part of any good ground game, if you cant drop elbows it changes the whole game, that what i dont like about pride. There are ALOT of fighters that have practically made a career out of those elbows, with a bit of wrestling or ju jitsu to back it up.
In terms of talent? its hard to say man, they dont fight enough in between the diff organizations to make any claims. I could probably say, pride has more talent in the heavyweight division. I mean arlovski and Sylvia are pretty much the cream of the crop in UFC, id love to see arlovski fight some Pride fighters soon, Sylvias a beast too! i really wanna see how they stack up against guys like minotauro and fedor. As far as the other divisions… the light heavy is pretty balanced in both organizations, but below that, who would you match up in pride vs guys like, rich franklin, matt hughes, or even at the lightweight division, UFC has a lot of good fighters..
I jus wanna know your stance on some of these points Dr J, cuz i know your a pride fan before a ufc fan, i dunno if you watch TUF show but if you dont.. you should, maybe its just me, all i watch is mma, but this season is awesome man, some great fighters, im very interested to see what matt serra is gonna do with this opportunity cuz im a big abu dhabi fan!
BV,
I wouldn’t say I’m a Pride fan before a UFC fan, and judging by the 3-to-1 ratio of UFC to Pride posts on this site, I think that is fairly obvious. I like many MMA fans, got my start in the sport back in the early days of the UFC. And, of course, being an American most of the access I have to MMA is by way of the UFC. Of course I watch the TUF series, I’ve watched every episode from Season 1 on.
As far as which do I like better, its not an easy question. I like the cage better than the ring. I like elbows and knees, but not soccer kicks. I think knees to a downed opponent are fine, but I honestly see no need for soccer kicking someone to the face. Elbows and knees can be a crucial aspect of a fight, and I wish Pride included elbows and the UFC included knees.
I think that Pride definitely has the better heavyweight division, and the UFC clearly has a much deeper lightweight division. The welterweight, middleweight, and light heavyweight divisions are fairly close in my opinion.
ok i gotcha, who would you like to see fight hughes or franklin, and in my opinion penn should drop back down to 155. what you think of that?
Well, Penn has fought in every weight class except for heavyweight I believe, so BJ is going to do what he wants to do. But I do think he would be best at 155lbs, but he would be dominant at 155 and I don’t think he wants that. Penn wants a challenge and he doesn’t really care about fighting and dominating the lightweight division when he can try to take out the welter and middlewieght guys. I do think he should drop down.
From Pride, I think a Dan Henderson vs. Rich Franklin matchup would be great. Or even Denis Kang right now is looking pretty impressive. Paulo Filho vs Anderson Silva would be a very interesting matchup and fun to watch
yea, i was thinking he would own the lightweight division, but you make a good point, that he doesnt want to own, he wants the challenge, especially with the amount of talent in the 170 division, it would make for some great fights. Id say UFC has more talent at 170 than pride. You got so many great fighters, like hughes, tanner, diaz, parysian, and personally im really liking diego sanchez. Some people may think hes cocky or whatever, but everytime he gets ready to fight, you can see the determination in his eyes, i knew he was going to take parysian right after the stare down. Hes definately not ready to take on hughes, but hes a tenacious kid and hes hungry! I like diego :)