Mixed Martial Arts!

[Jaakko]

Originally posted by Pekka
True, but let's not forget the weight difference. It makes all the difference in the world .

I think it only proves, that Hunt was already a bit better than most expected. Of couse he should dominate stand up, being a K-1 champ, and that much heavier. But sure, I expected him to be a bit more sloppy, so he pulled it off quite nicely.

I don't think Silva was getting owned. But he didn't have the edge either.

I may be a bit biased, 'cuz I'm a big fan of Hunt.

[Jaakko]

Originally posted by Pekka
LeBanner vs Sapp? Not sure.. Are you sure you don't mean Sapp vs Kimo? Anyway, I haven't seen Sapp vs Lebanner I think.. LeBanner was supposed to come to Pride, he's taking too much time! Me thinks he never comes..

The fight was in K-1. First and third round were K-1 rules, second and fourth were MMA. Very weird.

The highlight was in the first round, where LeBanner chased Sapp around the ring beating him senseless. When the time was almost up and Sapp cowered in a corner, LeBanner suddenly lowered his guard and stuck his chin out, motioning for Sapp to hit him. All Sapp could literally do was to reach out with a limp hand and graze LeBanner's chin. I fell off my chair laughing and couldn't get up for several minutes.

[Pekka]

Sure.. WEll you have to understand that I'm a long time MMA fan (saw my first ufc in 1994!1), so I have trained my eye to the max!!!!!! I don't think I'm biased against K-1 fighters, because I quite like it myself. And Hunt too. I was looking forward to see someone beat Silva. Of course he is still dominant in his own weight class but no less of an achievement by Hunt. To his credit, he has worked a lot and it's paying off. I hope he stays in Pride.

But yes, I mean, in Pride as well as all MMA, the damage factor usually counts, meaning that it doesn't matter if he gets few more punches in. Well just like in K-1 so you know the deal. But Hunt also got a yellow card which is automatic point reduction, and it's a big deal, and that's why it was a bit controversial judging. If there was no yellow card, the edge might be enough to judge it to Hunt, because of the few flurries he was able to do, and the fact that he was pushing the stand up. I don't think it was decisive enough to rule it to Hunt after yellow card though.

I think the mistake Silva made was that he thought he could trade with Hunt, which he obivously couldn't do. He should have sticked with take downs and ground fighting. But it's not his style, even though he is a black belt in BJJ. He wants to bang. Didn't pay off this time.

Also what must be known is that Japanese have long time wanted to see Silva lose. He is not hated, but .. he's the guy they wanted to see lose, because of the long rivalry between Silva and Sakuraba, plus the fact that he has kicked Japanese ass for years lkie it was nothing. Pride is partly to be blamed, because they put tomato cans in front of him. But they wanted to see a local guy win Silva, because who ever would win Silva, would become a superstar and a hero. It's a big thing in there and it means a lot.

Hunt wasn't getting his ass kicked. That's for sure. He always looks like he's drunk. Some people mistake that for being dazed. But he really wasn't in trouble standing up. But the yellow card and the fact that it wasn't decisive enough after that, I don't know, I thought it was a tie. But I wouldn't have ruled it to Silva either, so as a .. overall I think tie or Hunt win. So it wasn't TOO far off.

[Pekka]

"The fight was in K-1. First and third round were K-1 rules, second and fourth were MMA. Very weird. "

never saw that! Sounds .. weird! Maybe I'll look it up.

[Space05us]

Once Hunt was in the air jumping, it was too late to do anything except to defend and ride it out.

If he was half out of it. If I were him I would have been rolling or crawling like a sunova***** the second big buys feet left the ground.

But in any case, the guy on the ground definitely doesn't want to show his back to the guy on who's on his feet

No need to show his back, he could roll out and get on his feet by the time the guy jumping was just starting to readjust his weight to stand back up. Then he could have done any number of things.

[Pekka]

Space, don't embarrash yourself anymore

[Space05us]

Space, don't embarrash yourself anymore

What you dont think he could have gotten out of the way?

[Space05us]

My friend who wrestled for 5 years on the state level even agrees that the guy on bottom had plenty of time to roll out of the way.

[Pekka]

Did you see the whole fight? No you didn't. Don't matter what you experts think, you're wrong.

You don't ****ing roll out when someone is coming to stomp you. You don't turn your back. The only way to defend a stomp is to be face to face and soften the blow by doing what Silva tries to do and avoid the worst punishment. Yeah Hunt doesn't stomp, he just jumps on you. How could he have known that? He couldn't have. Oh but Hunt's left toe gave it up now didn't it! Come on.

You don't roll when someone jumps and is going to stomp you. Or you know.. go ahead and try.

[Pekka]

No, now that I look at it again, it looks like a stomp coming in. That's the way it's done. And Silva does the ONLY thing that defends against that stomp. And it's not rolling. Sorry. The idea is not to avoid getting hit. It is to survive.

[Space05us]

As soon as Hunts feet left the ground he lost all control of his body, Silva could have been late on moving and gotten out of the way. Theres no way a man over a foot in the air is going to mysteriously redirect his momentum to land a foot or two away from his original target.

I agree theres very little that can be done to avoid a stomp, but Hunt wasnt stomping he was jumping.

[Pekka]

True, true, but you don't know he's just jumping. No one has ever done that. When they do that, they always stomp. And yes, they are amazingly good to land that feet to the face from the air, even when you move. If you roll, you expose your back and the back of your head and neck. That's just outright dangerous and easy target. THat's why they lift the legs up like Silva does, if he would have stomped, Silva would have caught his hips/legs with his feet, and divert the stomp and THEN dodge the foot. That's how they do it. If you roll, you will get hit for sures.

I agree, from the JUMP alone, he could avoid it, but he got whooped with atomic butt drop!

If that becoems a trademark move for Hunt, which I doubt, then sure, roll away. But I wouldn't risk it, thinking it would be a stomp.... you have to see how they do the stomp, then you see why it is defended like Silva goes on defending. They are amazingly accurate. Besides, if he would have rolled and it would have been a .. succesful roll, and Hunt would have missed the stomp had he done that, then it would have been a free soccer kick. And that happesn a lot too. So that's why they rather 'clinch' than try to dodge it all together.

[Space05us]

you have to see how they do the stomp, then you see why it is defended like Silva goes on defending.

I'll have to agree with you on that I suppose.

Besides, if he would have rolled and it would have been a .. succesful roll, and Hunt would have missed the stomp had he done that, then it would have been a free soccer kick.

When I say roll out I dont mean roll out and lay there, I mean roll out, post an arm, get up on your feet spin around and face the opponent. It can be done in barely a second if you're fast enough.

[Pekka]

RIght, but if the one jumping is stomping, you have to be a superman to avoid it. It doesn't even take that second to kick a soccer kick. Let's not forget, even world class olympic wrestlers don't do that in the Pride ring . And yeah, they got those.

But say it's just a jump the Hunt is doing, sure you can avoid it by rolling. The thing is, that was the first time it was done like that so he wasn't expecting it to go down like that. Had it been stomp, better stay cool and face the music.

[Straybow]

I'm surprised Hunt didn't get a kick in the chin in the process.