UFC 79: Nemesis

[Darthtiki 0]

I've been out for several days and I read this...I'm now once again very, very excited. I just wished it wasn't for an interim title, but good god do I want to see GSP turn Hughes into an order of poutine.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

Hughes said on his blog that he was given a choice of Koscheck, GSP and Alves and chose GSP which tells us a few things...

 

1) Matt doesn't want to take the easy road so props to him for that

 

2) He doesn't remember the second fight

 

3) He possibly saw something in the Koscheck fight that he feels he can exploit and he's also likely taking advantage of the fact that GSP has four weeks to train for a five-round fight against a guy with possibly the best cardio in MMA.

[starvenger 0]

Hughes deserves way more credit here. When he fought GSP the second time it was just within the two month battle he had with Penn.

As Matt himself posted on his site:

As everybody knows you never go into a fight 100%.

And I think we give Hughes plenty of credit for that first fight. The armbar was a nice transition, and clearly caught GSP napping - I don't think he even considered that Matt would try for a submission, and you have to give Hughes props for pulling it off.

 

Also, George hasn't exactly been having an outstanding year. He lost the belt and if it wasn't for the third round, would've lost to Koscheck. I say he won't be up to par in some way and Hughes is going to sub him.

And if it weren't for Kos being on top and throwing some punches at the end of round 1, the scoring wouldn't have been as close as it was. And if Tom Brady throws an interception, New England is probably 10-1 right now. I like Kos, but you have to be realistic about the results that night. With maybe 3 minutes of total offence, Koscheck was never in any real position to win that fight.

 

And a second submission win over GSP would be very impressive, but it's unlikely and frankly the wrong strategy. It's a five round fight, and GSP is fighting on one month's notice. The smart thing for Matt to do would be to utilize his strength and wrestling ability to get the takedown and use GnP to wear St. Pierre down going into the title rounds. Obviously, easier said than done, but as we've seen, Matt's striking isn't exactly world class and based on their first two fights going toe-to-toe with GSP is again gonna lead to trouble.

 

Curry, there's a chance I might not be in town for this fight, but I appreciate the offer...

[Brush with Greatness 0]

Courtesy Da Meltz...

 

--As noted last night, Georges St. Pierre will replace Matt Serra on 12/29 in a five-round match for the interim welterweight title against Matt Hughes. UFC announced it last night and will hold a press conference with St. Pierre, Hughes and Dana White tomorrow morning. St. Pierre's people asked for the fight as soon as they found out it was open. Hughes agreed to it, but wanted five rounds and the interim title at stake. With Serra's prognosis still unknown, it was agreed to. UFC had considered several other names (we know Jon Fitch, Josh Koscheck and Thiago Alves or their reps were all spoken with about potentially getting the match), figuring St. Pierre was already guaranteed his shot in Montreal in April. Hughes has an edge going in, since he's been training for weeks, while St. Pierre is just starting out, and having a shorter training camp than most fighters would have for a title match, particularly if it goes to round four.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

Everybody keeps talking about the later rounds, but odds are GSP will TKO before three are even up. Matt's probably hoping to stall and wear him down any way he can, because he realizes that the odds of him winning the fight early are pretty low, while extremely high for GSP. Also, it's not like GSP is out of shape, he's always training so I don't think the fight being taken on short notice will be that much of an issue.

[Lt. Al Giardello 0]

1) Matt doesn't want to take the easy road so props to him for that

 

I've been telling YOU that all along.

 

Anyway, GSP was getting Rashad Evans prepared for Bisping, so he's in good shape. According to MMAJunkie, as soon as GSP found out about the injury, he got ahold of Dana to try to get the fight with Hughes. So if he wasn't prepared or in shape, why would he ask for the fight? GSP would never go into a fight unless he's fully prepared.

[Lt. Al Giardello 0]

Also it puts Matt Hughes in just as much of a disadvantage as GSP. Hughes wasn't training to fight GSP, he was training to fight Matt Serra which is 2 completely different fighters. In the Serra fight, he would be expecting a ground fight where Serra would like it as well, where as with GSP he has to worry about trying to takedown a fighter who has the best takedown defense in MMA right now, and also worrying about eating a lot of shots.

[Insanity 0]

What were you smoking when you watched GSP/Koscheck? That was three rounds of domination, plain and simple.

 

No, they both had a round on each other according to the score cards. The third round was where whoever got it had the win in the bag. Domination is more like Couture/Sylvia.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

Good thing to know you base your opinions on what judges say and not what your eyes tell you.

[starvenger 0]

What were you smoking when you watched GSP/Koscheck? That was three rounds of domination, plain and simple.

 

No, they both had a round on each other according to the score cards. The third round was where whoever got it had the win in the bag. Domination is more like Couture/Sylvia.

This is where the 10 point must has some flaws. If you look at the first round, it was probably 10-10 as both guys had some time on top. But Koscheck finished on top and finished strong, which left the biggest impression in the minds of two of the judges. However, if you look at the fight as a whole, there was no point where GSP was truly in trouble, whereas Kos was on his back most of the fight. Dominating might be a bit much, but to call it anything less than a clear-cut victory for GSP is ridiculous. Again, I'm a Koscheck fan, but there was no point where I could say "he's winning this fight".

[Insanity 0]

Good thing to know you base your opinions on what judges say and not what your eyes tell you.

 

No, I don't. But domination clearly isn't the word to use, and their scorecard is just more back-up on my opinion.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

Pwnage?

 

Schooling?

 

Tooling?

 

Takin' him to the woodshed?

 

Exposure?

[Lord of The Curry 0]

Oh shit, Matt Hughes is just talkin' some king-sized shit on Serra up in hyah. Some excerpts from the UFC media call on Monday (at which Serra was not present)...

 

 

On the downside of fighting St. Pierre instead of Serra: “It’s bad because I am fighting a lot tougher opponent than Matt Serra. There’s such a difference in competition between Georges St. Pierre and Matt Serra. Like I said before, Georges knocks Matt Serra out nine out of 10 times.”

 

The upside of fighting GSP: “The good thing about the fight is that I’m fighting somebody I have a lot of respect for. I was really looking forward to fighting Matt because of what he said about me. It was easy to get up and hit the bags because I disliked him. I don’t have that hunger that I had before, but at least I’m fighting someone who is a good role model. People would rather see this fight than me and Matt Serra anyway. I don’t know how I will beat Georges St. Pierre, but I am a true believer that it is going to happen.”

 

On Serra’s future in the UFC: “I would much rather fight Matt Serra. Georges is one of those guys that will always be around. He is that good. Matt Serra is not. If Matt Serra loses his next fight, he will probably lose his next and then be out of the UFC. If I don’t fight him soon, I probably won’t get to fight him at all. You have to remember the reason he was on the reality show was because he couldn’t make it in the UFC.”

 

More on Serra: “Another thing I dislike is that I feel Matt Serra is getting the good end of the deal. If he had beaten me, he would have fought Georges again. Now, he is getting the easy way out and will be fighting just one of us

[starvenger 0]

The upside of fighting GSP: “The good thing about the fight is that I’m fighting somebody I have a lot of respect for.

 

I guess respect doesn't get you a whole lot when it comes to Matt Hughes.

[The Niggardly King 0]

You tell 'em Hughes. Beatdown GSP, kill Serra, send Jiu-Jitsu Yoda back to Jersey, and reign supreme.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

You are a funny character.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

So there is going to be an All Access: Wanderlei Silva and it's going to be on MTV2, the day before the fight. Kinda retarded to schedule your hype programs on Friday night at 10.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Now this is great:

 

[The Niggardly King 0]

...

 

 

I actually hope to see that before Chuck retires.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Josh Koscheck with, perhaps, the quote of the year...

 

"Matt Hughes is, he’s kind of…you know…alright, I’m just going to say it. I’m arrogant and I’m cocky but goddam, he’s way arrogant and more cockier than me."

[Guest]

...

 

 

I actually hope to see that before Chuck retires.

I don't. MMA doesn't need a high-profile death.

[Lt. Al Giardello 0]

...

 

 

I actually hope to see that before Chuck retires.

I don't. MMA doesn't need a high-profile death.

 

You do know that Chuck is a lot bigger then Anderson, right?

[Lt. Al Giardello 0]

If Bushido shows taught me anything 20 - 30 pounds doesn't always matter.

 

Same with the old UFC, but it's not like THAT makes a difference, NOW.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

It also depends on the weights in general. 230 and 250 is not as bad as 150 and 170.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

Watched GSP/Hughes II again tonight. What a fantabulous display of pushing somebodys shit in. Randy going bananas over GSP on commentary is the icing on the cake.

[Mik 0]

“Honestly, I’m going to tell you the truth, I knew that it might be, or probably be, that one of Serra or Hughes would get injured. So I was keeping myself in shape in case. Normally I’m always in shape, as a matter of fact, I always train, that’s my job so I’m always in good shape. So when I heard that Matt Serra got hurt, right away I called my manager …. [Training camps are usually] Two months, but it’s been more than two, three months that I’ve been training. I’ve been training since the summer so I couldn’t be in better shape than I am right now actually…. It’s crazy, I have like an all-star training camp right now. A lot of guys are coming from out of town, plus with all the guys I have here it’s pretty amazing. I have Denis Kang, Nathan Marquardt, Keith Jardine, Rashad Evans, my coach, Greg Jackson, Phil Nurse are coming down. I have in Montreal Patrick Cote, David Loiseau. I’m training with all the best guys. I cannot be surrounded by better people than I have right now. So I’m going to be very well-prepared. I am actually right now very well-prepared for that fight, I’m just going to get better and better and better.”

 

GSP is ready, bitches. Looks like Matt Hughes' brilliant strategy to get him on a lighter training camp might have backfired.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

It's hard to judge how GSP is before fight-time. He put on such a front before his first fight with Hughes, saying how he wasn't intimidated and whatnot, and similarly with Serra with how he was going to train his hardest for the lesser opponent; then after he loses he says he was wicked-intimidated by Hughes and that he didn't prepare at all for Serra. I take what he says pre-fight with a grain of salt, and I think the world of Rush.

[starvenger 0]

I think that, as long as GSP keeps his head in the game, he's good to go. But as you noted, he's very good at saying the right things, so we can't really tell where he's at.

[starvenger 0]

Koscheck at Philthy McNasty's (Hamilton) for UFC 79

 

We should probably add "crazy" to "arrogant" and "cocky". Not so much for agreeing to host a party in Canada for GSP's fight (I expect he'll be heckled a lot), but more because he's got to go to Hamilton to do it...

[Mik 0]