Just watched Gokhan Saki vs Henrique da Silva

[Crimson Glory]

Youre all a bunch of fools.

The only flaw in that fight was his gas tank. Once he improves on that he'll be top 5.

 

[Crimson Glory]

Jones fought OSP after a 16 months layoff, it was a horrible fight for Jones.

Saki fights his first fight in the UFC, he hasn't fought for 30 months and destroyed Silva in the first round.

#andnew2018

Damn straight.

Ozdemir gassed against OSP and lost that fight imo, now look at him.

All of you naysayers can suck a lemon.

 

[pick999]

Jones fought OSP after a 16 months layoff, it was a horrible fight for Jones.

Saki fights his first fight in the UFC, he hasn't fought for 30 months and destroyed Silva in the first round.

#andnew2018

Cmon Silva is a unranked

 

[ImNotSurpisedDonks!]

Man that was worse than I thought. Saki ate 3000 punches,got outclinched badly(he started running at some point to avoid the clinch) ,gassed in litterally 3 minutes and was getting tagged bad by da Silva who was just throwing wild hooks lol. And he was fighting against a guy who's mediocre at best and an excellent stylistically matchup. I hope there will be some "this guy could be champion with 6 months of grappling training" less now lol.

Exactly, TS!

The skill gap A) isn't as large between MMA and other striking sports now (that was pretty much a straight kick boxing match)
and B) the skills from other striking sports don't translate to MMA as easily as people would think. It's much more complex than "Just learning Take Down Defense".

There are literally jabronis on here that think if May trained wrestling for 6 months, he would beat Conor in MMA.

 

[tenniswhiz]

Wtf? No kickboxer or boxer on the planet thinks that way

Not even one?

 

[Toco]

he just needs to improve his cardio BADLY

 

[moreorless87]

Exactly, TS!

The skill gap A) isn't as large between MMA and other striking sports now (that was pretty much a straight kick boxing match)
and B) the skills from other striking sports don't translate to MMA as easily as people would think. It's much more complex than "Just learning Take Down Defense".

There are literally jabronis on here that think if May trained wrestling for 6 months, he would beat Conor in MMA.

At the higher weightclasses I think things have actually regressed compared to a decade ago when it comes to striking skill although I'd agree there not as great as some talk up. That's obviously a big issue for a lot of MMA fans as well, there overly defensive due to boxing and kickboxing fans mouthing off so often, hence posts like the OP that give deliberately dishonest analysis of fighters like Saki.

I don't think you can throw any simple arguments about how skills translate as this depends a lot on the fighters in question. I feel guys like SPong and Overeem have more trouble moving between sports because there kickboxing style was naturally more based on using a high guard(made vastly more effective by boxing gloves) for defence whilst they timed counters. Someone like Crocop on the other hand always used movement(foot and head) for his defence a lot more so translated better to MMA whilst Hunt was naturally more an aggressive brawler. Saki is I think a bit of a mix of those two, I don't think he's technically quite as good as Mirko and doesn't have Hunt's chin but he throws fast very accurate and powerful punches.

As far as grappling goes I think Saki is likely much more experienced than people give him credit for. Not only has I suspect he been training for MMA for a lot of his 2-3 year layoff but I also would not be surprised if he's had a good deal of grappling experience going back to his Glory years where there was also talk of the K-1 and MMA guys cross training.

 

[wisdom blows]

Lol, he got punched maybe 5 times.

 

[mjcmma]

My prediction - future GOAT circa late 2018

 

[Kowboy On Sherdog]

Don't think he will ever be champion. I just want to see him after some more MMA training. #LETHIMBANG !!!

 

[moreorless87]

Don't think he will ever be champion. I just want to see him after some more MMA training. #LETHIMBANG !!!

Cormier would obviously be a big test of his grappling although how much longer he might be around is questionable and with Jones likely gone for years I wouldn't rule it out.

I could definitely see him beating someone like Gus who whilst eh has excellent grappling defence and high output has always looked rather hittable.

 

[TobikanJudan94]

Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one. Yours is particularly terrible. Wouldn't know elite striking if it hit you in the face

Your elaborated and well-explained opinion made me change mine. Thank you,idiot.