Just watched the Gohkan Saki fight

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Was a little worried from what I read on here at first, but he didn't look as bad as I expected him to. Crisp striking, especially in the beginning. Hes also younger than I thought he would be at 33. I wouldn't really say he was in any trouble at any point in the fight to be honest.

Work on his cardio, or just get more used to MMA in general and he could do pretty good at LHW considering how shitty the division is. Give him favorable match ups like Shogun (at this point of his career) and I can see him climbing the ranks fast.
 
Cardio, ground game.....Dude could be champ.

SICK power.
 
He looked like garbage against a nobody.
 
He looked like garbage against a nobody.

He was beating the crap out of that nobody for almost all of the round, looked slightly gassed for about 30 secs and then KOed him, stuffed several takedown attempts as well.

Honestly I felt he looked much more comfortable than Spong did in the cage, Tyrone to me looked nervy without the big gloves to hide behind were as Saki was much more willing to come forward and throw accurate bombs. Perhaps somewhat over aggressive at points but I think you can potentially put that down to wanting to make an impression.
 
I agree he didn't look god awful, but he didn't look very good either. He has a long fucking way to go if he thinks he will ever be a UFC champion.
 
He looked like garbage against a nobody.
With that logic Saki would also be considered a nobody with a record of 0-1.

Let him get his feet wet and he could do a lot better against better opposition. I just feel hes a little overaggressive as @moreorless87 mentioned. Could tone it down a bit.
 
He's always been a legitimate killer.
Just needs to adapt his game to MMA and his cardio.

2nd MMA fight and first in 2 years..
Boy did pretty well tbf..
 
It's his second ever mma fight and first fight in two years..,,

Pretty obvious he needs to improve but for his inexperience he looked great,

Don't know what you expected lol
 
With that logic Saki would also be considered a nobody with a record of 0-1.

Let him get his feet wet and he could do a lot better against better opposition. I just feel hes a little overaggressive as @moreorless87 mentioned. Could tone it down a bit.

He didn't look like a world beater or anything resembling that. He will struggle with the elite guys. I also don't want to see him given favorable match ups, too much of that shit goes on as it is. If he thinks he can hang with the top guys claiming "this is my house", I say throw him in the deep end and see if he can swim.
 
He also needs to move down to 185lbs.

Hmm possibly, he looks soft at LHW so he might be able to drop another weight class.

He should probably train in the US at AKA or Jackson wink to work on his MMA skills, conditioning and diet.
 
I just watched a brief clip of the ending, and gotta say, he doesn't look like a contender, IMO. Possibly, if he really works on cardio, and his grappling, and the ability to deal with it, and be more efficient in the clinch, and other positions, but he looked like an older fighter to me.

Could've been Octagon jitters, and rust, which isn't out of the realm of possibility, since it happened to DC as well, against Mir, but he's been in many striking battles, and could be damaged goods as far as his physical prime goes. Hoping he does become a force, because the more contenders at LHW, the merrier.
 
His striking looked phenomenal. Lots of power behind all of his strikes.
 
I agree he didn't look god awful, but he didn't look very good either. He has a long fucking way to go if he thinks he will ever be a UFC champion.

I can't agree, his cardio and the degree of aggression he showed early on might be somewhat questionable but in terms of raw ability that was an excellent display of MMA striking for me and again decent takedown defence when needed. I'll take that ability over the endless bland jack of all trades tactical guys we've had hyped as LHW "prospects" over recent years.

Personally I think people are taking way too much from the commentary thinking Saki was in trouble when really theres not much sign he was, at worst I think he was taking a break having blown himself out a bit.
 
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I can't agree, his cardio and the degree of aggression he showed early on might be somewhat questionable but in terms of raw ability that was an excellent display of MMA striking for me and again decent takedown defence when needed. I'll take that ability over the endless bland jack of all trades tactical guys we've had hyped as LHW "prospects" over recent years.

Personally I think people are taking a way too much from the commentary thinking Saki was in trouble when really theres not much sign he was, at worst I think he was taking a break having blown himself out a bit.

tenor.gif
 
Hmm possibly, he looks soft at LHW so he might be able to drop another weight class.

He should probably train in the US at AKA or Jackson wink to work on his MMA skills, conditioning and diet.

Yeah, he did look soft, but he's never really been ripped or anything, so could just be his body type. But I would like to see him at 185, since grappling and body strength plays a huge role in MMA, compared to kickboxing, so he might be more comfortable at that weight, and could do more damage.
 
His striking looked phenomenal. Lots of power behind all of his strikes.

Honestly I think that looked like one of the best instant translationes of kickboxing to MMA striking I'v seen since Crocop and Hunt, guys like Overeem and Spong you could tell they were nervy without the gloves to thropw counters from behind, Saki looked much more willing and able to just march forward and destroy opponents with accurate punches.
 
I always find it funny when people are like " all he has to do is fix his cardio"

Do people not understand how hard that is?

Not even talking about gohkan just all fighters who gas a lot
 
I just watched a brief clip of the ending, and gotta say, he doesn't look like a contender, IMO. Possibly, if he really works on cardio, and his grappling, and the ability to deal with it, and be more efficient in the clinch, and other positions, but he looked like an older fighter to me.

Could've been Octagon jitters, and rust, which isn't out of the realm of possibility, since it happened to DC as well, against Mir, but he's been in many striking battles, and could be damaged goods as far as his physical prime goes. Hoping he does become a force, because the more contenders at LHW, the merrier.

Watch more than that, the first 3 1/2 mins of the fight he's laying a very impressive beating on de silva and again I think the commentary goes way overboard just before the finish looking to play him up as hurt when theres no sign he was.
 
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