What Would You Make of Saki Performance in UFC?

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Ilk

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Just was able to watch the fight.
I think if we watch the game from a stand up department he completely dominated, and as soon as his oponent engaged in an exchange Saki knocked him down.
Wrestling department he seemed to defend ok, I am not sure how good of a wrestler his opponent is, he did try some take downs, but I ll leave that analyses to the people that know wrestling.
Conditioning - he seemed a bit tired after the 3rd minute. I think his body needs to get used to the 5 min format and the different cardio needed for wrestling and clinching.
His opponent looked very bad if you judge their stand up, like really bad.

What are you toughts on all that? I am not saying Saki can win the belt, I think he cant or needs a lot of luck to get there. But can he be top 5 in the division lets say?
 
He has the clinch defence of Rich Franklin, that's gonna be a bigger problem than anything else once opponents figure it out. He's lucky his opponent sucked balls at controlling the clinch and allowed him to pull out of it. I think he's going to have trouble with opponents who can get past his punching range and make it an ugly fight with takedown attempts and clinches, he doesn't defend well in close nor does have good offensive tools there. Anyone who hangs out in punching range with him is dead meat, but Saki looks vulnerable once an opponent gets inside that range.
 
It was a meh performance - not really a competitive opponent so it's hard to really take a lot from it.

Looking at his opponents record he's was on a four match losing streak - now five.

I think his opponent didn't really have that much to offer him. It was surprising though to see how awful Saki's clinching ability was and how his conditioning wasn't up to par.

It's going to take a very long time to adjust to 5 min rounds and to build the right energy systems required for striking and grappling - especially when he's been fighting 3 minute rounds his entire career.

I think he'd struggle against any top 10 fighter but he does have the opportunity to improve - but so do his opponents.

I think his striking was great in this fight but I'm not entirely sure how well it would hold up against better competition. He is by far the best technical striker in the division but that doesn't necessarily guarantee success with striking in mma - there are a lot of variables at work.

How well would he have done with the pressure of Oezdemir or the clinching & dirty boxing of Cormier etc.

It will be interesting to watch how he does. He does have the benefit of the light heavyweight division being one of the weakest divisions in the ufc at the moment. I'll reserve judgement till I see a more competitive opponent.
 
It was a great performance overall. His TDD looked much better than anyone could have expected. His opponent wasn't amazing but not horrible even with his losing streak and really experienced.

Saki gassed. That is exusable since it was the first time he went more than 3 minutes at ocne (he gassed after nearly 4 minutes), fought at a high pace and since even someone like him is probably nervous in his UFC debut and first MMA fight where he actually trained for it.

The only real criticism aside from cardio you can give im is his clinch. He admtited that he wasn't used to it and he really seemed to be lacking here.
I thought before that he has a real chancre against Anderson Silva but his mix of gassing plus questionable clinch defence might make him another Rich Franklin if he fights Anderson.
Allthough Anderson's cardio nowadays is on a major decline and he can't work for a long timealso hsi chin is shot so he would need to get into the clinch without getting tagged cleanly
 
Very good performance overall. Complaining that he beat a mediocre opponent doesn't make much sense considering he'd only fought in MMA once before.

He had good counter grappling, he kept a wide base against the cage, he made sure to fight off the opponents hand. When he was in the clinch he knew to push off the face, he's good good defensive grappling instincts. He got caught with the elbows and knees and that's something he will definitely need to work on,but to be fair, it was his first fight in two years and he got caught. No shame in that.

I didn't think he would have a good showing at all, but he was able to keep it off the ground, against someone with more grappling experience than him.

Also he has changed his approach to striking, he keeps back a lot more, that will serve him well when it comes to defending double leg takedowns, as so much of TDD against shoots is having the distance. He clearly understands this and is keeping himself back and pot shotting more, only throwing combinations when he's got his opponent near the cage.

That's a pretty good striking performance considering his approach to kickboxing was to be upclose and unloading vicious combinations.

All in all, he clearly understands the changes he's got to make for MMA both in striking and in avoiding the ground, I doubt he'll ever be the champion, but I reckon he'll have a few upsets and will have a few good fights in him. I don't expect him to go unbeaten in the UFC, but let's be real, he's here for fun fights and I think we'll get that out of him.
 
I thought he looked great for the first 3 minutes... makes sense given his background.

He didn't look good in the clinch later in the fight, but the first clinch attempt early in the round I seem to recall him shrugging off quite easily, so I think people are underestimating his clinch game because they saw him when he was tired.

Saki with a better gas tank and some more time to work on his TDD is a handful for any top 10 LHW imo. He's easily got the best striking in MMA.

Give him some more fights against lower comp and a couple of years to progress, he'll be 35, but I say he could fight for the title down the line if they don't throw him against anyone in the top 15 right away. It's not like Cormier was a spring chicken when he came into the UFC either, different skillset ofcourse, but he managed to develop the other tools to be a force at HW and a champ at LHW. They need to give him a Wrestler eventually to see how good his TDD really is, but they should let him develop it further...

He might have to go through what Gus went through and just get dominated by a Wrestler, which could spur him on to work heavy on his TDD.

Gus was younger when that happened, but there are quite a few fighters who've had long careers well into their 40's, who's to say Saki can't pick up enough skill over his time in the UFC to contend?
 
If he had fought a top 10 LHW he would have been demolished, hell, even a top 15 it would seem like. The guy he fought was on a four fight losing streak and was chosen SPECIFICALLY to build up Sakis debut.

That being said, if you feed him guys very slowly, and he works on his cardio and striking, he MIGHT be able to breach the top 5, but realistically, who here expects him, at his age, and this point in his career, to learn high level grappling?
 
MadSquabbles500 said:
Are we talking Sakuraba or Gokhan Saki or some japanese guy?
Click to expand...
GZy4yy.gif
 
Universal Kombat said:
If he had fought a top 10 LHW he would have been demolished, hell, even a top 15 it would seem like. The guy he fought was on a four fight losing streak and was chosen SPECIFICALLY to build up Sakis debut.

That being said, if you feed him guys very slowly, and he works on his cardio and striking, he MIGHT be able to breach the top 5, but realistically, who here expects him, at his age, and this point in his career, to learn high level grappling?
Click to expand...

Well, generally speaking...guys 0-1 in pro MMA don't get matched up against top 10 guys in the division. This isn't boxing.

<Fedor23>

Also:

<{danayeah}>
 
Looked like shit after the first minute
 
Paradigm said:
That's a bit extreme. Even when he was tired, his hands looked sharper than 99% of MMA.
Click to expand...

Yes his punches hit the target more often then from a mma brawler. That was expected.

But gassing like that? Looking that lost in the clinch.

I dont know man...

And i am a big fan of Saki in the kickboxing ring
 
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