Just watched the Gohkan Saki fight

[OriginMMA]

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.

Fair enough.

The top dogs at LHW are really only DC, Gus, Volkan and Glover at this point though.

 

[moreorless87]

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

Depends a lot on the situation your talking about, in this case Saki was fighting ultra aggressively right from the start looking for a very quick KO win, less "bad cardio" and more punching himself out a bit.

 

[KORMAN]

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.

Alright, I will. Will give a better assessment afterwards.

 

[KORMAN]

Fair enough.

The top dogs at LHW are really only DC, Gus, Volkan and Glover at this point though.

Eh, I'd take Glover out of there. I guess technically you have to, just because he is maybe the 4th or 5th best LHW, but from a realistic shot at getting the belt, standpoint, I don't think he has a real shot.

 

[Dead Kennedy]

Fair enough.

The top dogs at LHW are really only DC, Gus, Volkan and Glover at this point though.

I'm not even trying to hate on the guy. It's clear he is talented. I just think he is jumping the gun a bit. Their are glaring holes in his game, that at his age are going to be harder to fill, than if he wasn't 33. Granted 33 isn't that old, he's younger than me, but in combat sports, it can be.

 

[quantiqus]

- poor cardio
- powerful striking
- didn't do much with his legs, like I expected
- good clinching

He said in an interview that he will dominate UFC like Conor and that Conor will beat Floyd.
We all know how his second foresight turned out, let's see how he will do in UFC.
If he doesn't improve his cardio, he is fucked.
Also, he needs to learn how to fight on the ground. The UFC guys know that is his weakness and will try to take advantage. A guy like Antigulov might take him down easy.

Good thing that LHW doesn't have many good ground fighters.

 

[king of theRing]

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.

Spongs debut he looked way more technical and crisp. However he was fighting a punching bag

 

[FlyingDeathKick]

It's weird how everybody is only talking about his power, his hand speed is more ridiculous than his power. Who else at 205 can throw punches that fast? The answer is nobody.

 

[El Fernas]

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.

Dan Hardy looked bigger than him, being taller isnt exactly bigger but still, he did look kind of undersized there.

 

[moreorless87]

Again I think theres a difference between someone gassing fighting a tactical game and someone going in there looking to take an opponents head off constantly for 3-4 mins. Much easier to imagine Saki cutting back a little on the aggression to conserve cardio.

Lets be realistic as well he can't have been THAT gassed to throw punchs in the fashion he did.

Grappling is obviously still the big unknown, personally I suspect he#'s had more experience with it than people believe having trained with Glory for years and potentially having been in prep for MMA for a couple of years.

 

[KORMAN]

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.

Um yeah, holy crap he looked good lol. Good advice on watching the entire fight. He had really good movement, a nice spring to his step. Great speed, snap, and power on his punches. Really good strategy of sliding out, and pot shotting with power shots, and looked really good in the few grappling exchanges they had, and even took de SIlva down.

Also, you could tell it was rust, and a bit of an adrenaline dump he had. He hasn't fought in 2 years, and was definitely looking for an emphatic KO, and gassed a bit towards the end of the round, but for a LHW to have that much movement, and speed on his strikes, and actually pretty good cardio to throw as much as he did, with the amount of movement, I think he has a really bright future.

Yeah, de Silva's not a world beater, but with Saki's MMA experience, was the perfect opponent to match him up with, at this time. I'll definitely be rooting for him, and think he can be a very viable contender in a few years. His potential is great, because he looks to be a natural at the grappling aspect, and not a complete scrub, and doesn't look to panic when he does get into a grappling exchange.

Looked pretty damn good for his first fight in the UFC, and only his and pro MMA bout. Future's looking bright, for sure.

 

[OriginMMA]

I'm not even trying to hate on the guy. It's clear he is talented. I just think he is jumping the gun a bit. Their are glaring holes in his game, that at his age are going to be harder to fill, than if he wasn't 33. Granted 33 isn't that old, he's younger than me, but in combat sports, it can be.

Naw I gotchu.

I don't feel he will become champion at this point of this career, considering the ones who are actually at the top are actually extremely good, but I can see him running around in the top 10 (which isn't saying much really) throughout the remainder of his said MMA career.

 

[That209]

He looked like garbage against a nobody.

He really didn't.

He landed basically every single punch he threw until he started to slow down a little bit. His opponent deserves props for being able to take so many clean shots and stay in the fight. Saki did well stopping TD's, but one of the problems with how he did it is that he relied more on his strength to explode out of the position instead of remaining calm and using proper technique to work his way out. Muscling your way out of positions can slow you down very quickly.

Saki is a lifelong kickboxer that had one MMA fight before, but is only now taking MMA more seriously since he has now made the transition. He still has a lot to work on. Overall, his performance wasn't bad at all. He slowed down, but that's what happens when you don't have all the skills like a more experienced MMA fighter to work your way out of a clinch and/or fight off TD's with correct technique, instead using power and explosion to get out.

You, as well as most people here, obviously don't understand that kind of thing though, and since he didn't KO his opponent in 5 seconds, it means his performance was trash. What did his opponent actually do? All he did was get cracked over and over and over and fail TD's and fail to keep Saki in the clinch. Besides one elbow, his opponent didn't do shit and just got beat up and KTFO easily.

He only just transitioned to MMA. He's still lacking in very many important aspects of the game. The majority of other pure kickboxers likely would've been taken down and TKO'd or submitted. Give the guy a break. He's new to this sport and it's going to take him awhile to really get used to how thing work, especially when it comes to conserving energy. Like I said, you and most others don't and probably never will understand that kind of thing.

It's too bad his performance wasn't good enough for you and all the other couch potatoes, though.

 

[moreorless87]

Spongs debut he looked way more technical and crisp. However he was fighting a punching bag

Even in Spong's debut for me though he looked apprehensive, not comfortable with how open the big gloves made things. Saki's more aggressive style is I think potentially a much better fit for MMA.

Honestly as well I think its a good sign that he faced a bit of adversity and still came out ontop looking impressive rather than limping to a decision as Spong did.

Again give me slightly unpolished raw potential over some slick jack of all trades type today of the week, LHW has been full of the latter for years with the likes of Corey Anderson being hyped up but ultimately coming unstuck vs anyone good. A slightly cooler head and better tactics can be learnt a hell of a lot more quickly than high level kickboxing ability.

 

[NoSmilez]

I was just surprised how deflated he looked

 

[swarrrm]

I love Saki but shogun take him down and beats the shit out of him with ease.

 

[Liquid Samurai]

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 say Jackson's, they'll pump him full of gear and we'll get to see him knock someone's head into the upper decks.

 

[DLX]

He looked like garbage against a nobody.

Hey man, put some respec on Bruno Mars name.

 

[Jason Speed]

Been a big fan of his kickboxing for a long time now and last night he looked bad. Not sure what was up maybe it was just a fluke but he normally is so much crisper than that and doesn't take unnecessary shots like that. Hope he figures out what the problem was and fixes it before the next time.

 

[Dead Kennedy]

He really didn't.

He landed basically every single punch he threw until he started to slow down a little bit. His opponent deserves props for being able to take so many clean shots and stay in the fight. Saki did well stopping TD's, but one of the problems with how he did it is that he relied more on his strength to explode out of the position instead of remaining calm and using proper technique to work his way out. Muscling your way out of positions can slow you down very quickly.

Saki is a lifelong kickboxer that had one MMA fight before, but is only now taking MMA more seriously since he has now made the transition. He still has a lot to work on. Overall, his performance wasn't bad at all. He slowed down, but that's what happens when you don't have all the skills like a more experienced MMA fighter to work your way out of a clinch and/or fight off TD's with correct technique, instead using power and explosion to get out.

You, as well as most people here, obviously don't understand that kind of thing though, and since he didn't KO his opponent in 5 seconds, it means his performance was trash. What did his opponent actually do? All he did was get cracked over and over and over and fail TD's and fail to keep Saki in the clinch. Besides one elbow, his opponent didn't do shit and just got beat up and KTFO easily.

He only just transitioned to MMA. He's still lacking in very many important aspects of the game. The majority of other pure kickboxers likely would've been taken down and TKO'd or submitted. Give the guy a break. He's new to this sport and it's going to take him awhile to really get used to how thing work, especially when it comes to conserving energy. Like I said, you and most others don't and probably never will understand that kind of thing.

It's too bad his performance wasn't good enough for you and all the other couch potatoes, though.

I totally understand that. I also know he only had one MMA fight prior to that. It's just that he is jumping the gun a bit with the whole "this is my house shit". I'm not even trying to hate on the guy, it's just he has a long way to go if he ever wants to compete with the top guys.