Smith>Rockhold

[Legendary]

Luke has a glass chin. Smith has an iron chin. Luke does terrible against guys with good boxing. Smith has better hands. Smith is tougher, Luke has a beach boy mentality. Luke's confidence is fake, compensatory. Smith is supremely confident. Smith is actually a top 5 at 205. Luke needs to get past Jan anways, who has a good chance of beating him too.

Luke peaked in 2014-2015 and looked great, but his best days are behind him. I understand he was a big middleweight, but now he is going to have deal with bigger punchers and bigger opponents. His size was a huge factor in his success. If Yoel and Bisping KO'd him, what do you think Walker, Smith, or Gus would do to him?

Even if he goes on a tear at 205, he will be 35-36 before he gets a title shot with his inactivity.

LOL at Luke calling him a Rookie, he has more fights and more UFC bouts then you.

 

[syct23]

Smith>Rockhold>Paper...

 

[Shaddows]

Luke would murder Smith on the ground
If Luke can take Smith down, you are blatantly wrong.

 

[Rdude92]

Disagree. Smughold have more weapons than Smith, and more talented

 

[Lukn4trbl]

Do you know where you are?

Youre in the jungle Lukey!

 

[theTKDguy]

Smith could catch him but luke is waay better fighter than him.

 

[DanAndroid]

Luke would murder Smith on the ground
If Luke can take Smith down, you are blatantly wrong.

Wouldn't it not be blatant since you have to factor in a special condition for him to be wrong?

 

[Kowboy On Sherdog]

Jones can beat both on the same night... but would be an interesting top 5 fight to get fed to Walker to make him a legit contender.

 

[Mga223]

Smith iron chin? Hasn't he been koed like 7 times?

 

[SKITZADACTYL]

rockhold is obviously waaaaaaaaay more talented, but yeah his chin/defense will always be a liability and probably cause him to lose more fights in the future to lesser fighters.


i really hope this move to LHW somehow gives him a better chin, or that he's been working on his defense. seems like a lot of the AKA guys have big defensive flaws but guys like DC and khabib get away with it because they have such good chins.

 

[Spath]

No one:

TS: LOL AT ROCKHOLD BEING BETTER THAN SMITH WHO IS TOP5 LHW GOAT!!

 

[Verace]

Im not sure if i agree in particular that Smith > Rockhold, but im pretty sure Jon Jones would dispose of Luke way earlier than Smith, which he actually didnt even finish

 

[Shaddows]

Wouldn't it not be blatant since you have to factor in a special condition for him to be wrong?

absolutely not.
MMA is comprised of standup and ground.
If the fight remains standing, Luke might be at a disadvantage. But if it goes to the ground, Luke is the prohibitive favorite.
In that sense, Luke has many more tools than Smith to win the fight.

And don't forget the effect than a ground threat can have on a stand up fight.
For instance, we just saw Khabib almost KTFO Conor mainly because of the takedown threat.

If Luke attempts a couple of takedowns, it opens up his standup game and he can catch Smith standing.
Not saying it is easy, but obviously much more likely scenario than then one you painted.


Note: I am not disagreeing with you that (on paper) Smith has the advantage if they stood and banged. I am just expanding that MMA fight goes far beyond that, and you need to count the variables as well... and THAT makes this fight a lot more close than you make it seems.

 

[JosephTessaro]

TS acting as if this will only be a stand up war.

 

[Blazmo]

Rockhold is the better fighter but at least Smith doesn’t sound like a prepubescent.

 

[MRT]

I think it might be a mistake to underestimate how much avoiding a pretty horrible weight cut is going to benefit Luke. I'm very curious to see how he looks against Jan.

 

[RxmDiaries]

Luke is the way better mixed martial artist out of the 2. If you disagree then you know nothing about fucking fighting and should go back to reddit. Lukes chin is also much better at 205.

 

[*Z*]

Smith iron chin? Hasn't he been koed like 7 times?

8 and he was fighting middleweights. Rockhold would smoke him.

 

[MuayThaiBX]

IMO Smith has a very live puncher's chance but Rockhold should be the favorite. More tools to work with.

 

[ferrisjso]

I doubt this very strongly. If this is true though god damm I am not looking forward to the almost inevitable Jones v Rockhold fight. Jones v Smith was the least anticipated and most boring fight Jones has had in a decade. At least with OSP you could scream "ring rust" though.