News Bellator signs 3x NCAA Bryce Meredith

[Dreyga_King of Sherbums]

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Not sold on Bryce yet. He's made fairly hard work of some very low level competition. Hopefully he improves in Bellator.

 

[JustOnce]

Nothing we haven't seen before. I'm not all that excited about even Bo Nickal, much better than this guy, but also nothing we haven't seen before.

Only signings that would be exciting would be Taylor, Sadulaev, or Gable.

Yikes, this guy went 18-14 in freestyle.

 

[JustOnce]

I will say this though. Storley turned out to be a legit welterweight. Maybe this guy wiill do and his credentials ARE way better.

Personally, wanna see someone outwrestle Sabatello.

 

[careto]

I wish Bellator abandoned the idea of turning NCAA wrestlers into MMA fighters. There are few exceptions but most have turned out to be duds. You would think that by now they would have learner this. The two wrestlers they should have made a real effort to sign (Nickal and Gabel) slipped away. Plus, the promotion is packed with wrestlers, maybe start signing some strikers for a change. Maybe even some BJJ guys for old times sake.

 

[careto]

I will say this though. Storley turned out to be a legit welterweight. Maybe this guy wiill do and his credentials ARE way better.

Personally, wanna see someone outwrestle Sabatello.

Storley is probably their most successful experiment, along with Pico. Aside from that, its a mixed bag of utterly forgettable fighters and guys who can never get passed regional level of competition.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Storley is probably their most successful experiment, along with Pico. Aside from that, its a mixed bag of utterly forgettable fighters and guys who can never get passed regional level of competition.

Yeah it's not 2005 anymore, everyone has some degree of TDD

 

[JustOnce]

Storley is probably their most successful experiment, along with Pico. Aside from that, its a mixed bag of utterly forgettable fighters and guys who can never get passed regional level of competition.

He probably beats a lot of guys in UFC too. Too bad he may go 0-2 against Amosov.

Pico, I feel like they rushed him too much, and not sure if he will ever be able to recover. Yes, he's only 26 though, so we will see. Got all the talents in the world, but if I have to guess, not sure if he ever will.

 

[HuskySamoan]

Not sold on Bryce yet. He's made fairly hard work of some very low level competition. Hopefully he improves in Bellator.

Jacobe and Piccininni have looked better, wonder if Bellator goes after them too?

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Jacobe and Piccininni have looked better, wonder if Bellator goes after them too?

I think they probably already have.

Jacobe is on a schedule which suggests contender series to me though.

 

[HuskySamoan]

I think they probably already have.

Jacobe is on a schedule which suggests contender series to me though.

I think Jacobe should do the Contender Series in 2024 but I agree with him and Piccininni doing the Fury fights on Fightpass they are on the likely contender series. Who knows though, Coker might offer them a better starting contract and sway them, Coker seems very closeknit with AKA too.

 

[Thesnake101]

Yeah it's not 2005 anymore, everyone has some degree of TDD

Jarod Trice would have ran over prime Shogun if he fought back then tbh. Such a shame he instead had to take on the new breed of LHWs.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Jarod Trice would have ran over prime Shogun if he fought back then tbh. Such a shame he instead had to take on the new breed of LHWs.

I should clarify that there were fighters who were good anti-wrestlers then too lol, it's just it's a lot more prevalent now.

Even I know how to wrestle to an extent and I'm an office worker from England, the knowledge is so out there now.

 

[David Street]

Forget wrestlers sign Capoeira guys!!!

 

[HuskySamoan]

Nothing we haven't seen before. I'm not all that excited about even Bo Nickal, much better than this guy, but also nothing we haven't seen before.

Only signings that would be exciting would be Taylor, Sadulaev, or Gable.

Yikes, this guy went 18-14 in freestyle.

Taylor is 32 years old, you're going to name drop him but not Otoguro who's only 24? I'd much rather see a guy like Roman Bravo Young who's been training with Dominick Cruz and for MMA off and on a couple years now cross over to MMA at 24 as a 2x D1 national champion (if he chooses to instead of pursuing the 2024 olympics) than a 32 year old David Taylor. Not every elite wrestler has the style, cardio or talent to he a great fighter. To be quite frank, wrestlers spend a lifetime conditioning themselves for 2 three minute periods, reconditioning themselves for three 5 minute periods can sometimes take a couple years, even guys like Yoel never really got the hang of it. 32 if you're not a Heavyweight or light heavyweight seems like a wash to begin your career.

Sadulaev and Gable don't strike me as "the type" you gotta want MMA and have some real natural ability with striking a lot of the time too. What makes Bo and Rinya special besides moving to MMA full time in their mid twenties instead of trying to grind out the next Olympic Trials is that they have natural ability when it comes to hand speed and power. (Bo was 2nd best in the US behind Taylor and same for Rinya behind Otoguro, elite world class wrestlers in freestylers they both are).

The best candidates to come to MMA are U23 Worlds medalists who maybe lost in their trials but are still elite. It takes time to develop a fighter.

 

[Goatenstein]

Taylor is 32 years old, you're going to name drop him but not Otoguro who's only 24? I'd much rather see a guy like Roman Bravo Young who's been training with Dominick Cruz and for MMA off and on a couple years now cross over to MMA at 24 as a 2x D1 national champion (if he chooses to instead of pursuing the 2024 olympics) than a 32 year old David Taylor. Not every elite wrestler has the style, cardio or talent to he a great fighter. To be quite frank, wrestlers spend a lifetime conditioning themselves for 2 three minute periods, reconditioning themselves for three 5 minute periods can sometimes take a couple years, even guys like Yoel never really got the hang of it. 32 if you're not a Heavyweight or light heavyweight seems like a wash to begin your career.

Sadulaev and Gable don't strike me as "the type" you gotta want MMA and have some real natural ability with striking a lot of the time too. What makes Bo and Rinya special besides moving to MMA full time in their mid twenties instead of trying to grind out the next Olympic Trials is that they have natural ability when it comes to hand speed and power. (Bo was 2nd best in the US behind Taylor and same for Rinya behind Otoguro, elite world class wrestlers in freestylers they both are).

The best candidates to come to MMA are U23 Worlds medalists who maybe lost in their trials but are still elite. It takes time to develop a fighter.

Finally someone on Sherdog who knows everything and isn't speculating at all.

 

[JustOnce]

Taylor is 32 years old, you're going to name drop him but not Otoguro who's only 24? I'd much rather see a guy like Roman Bravo Young who's been training with Dominick Cruz and for MMA off and on a couple years now cross over to MMA at 24 as a 2x D1 national champion (if he chooses to instead of pursuing the 2024 olympics) than a 32 year old David Taylor. Not every elite wrestler has the style, cardio or talent to he a great fighter. To be quite frank, wrestlers spend a lifetime conditioning themselves for 2 three minute periods, reconditioning themselves for three 5 minute periods can sometimes take a couple years, even guys like Yoel never really got the hang of it. 32 if you're not a Heavyweight or light heavyweight seems like a wash to begin your career.

Sadulaev and Gable don't strike me as "the type" you gotta want MMA and have some real natural ability with striking a lot of the time too. What makes Bo and Rinya special besides moving to MMA full time in their mid twenties instead of trying to grind out the next Olympic Trials is that they have natural ability when it comes to hand speed and power. (Bo was 2nd best in the US behind Taylor and same for Rinya behind Otoguro, elite world class wrestlers in freestylers they both are).

The best candidates to come to MMA are U23 Worlds medalists who maybe lost in their trials but are still elite. It takes time to develop a fighter.

i don't follow every new wrestlers that are coming up. He'd be much interesting yes. I'd like to see him for sure.

Not so much on Roman Bravo Young. Could care less about that one.

Rinya and Bo is interesting. Nothing we haven't seen before. I want to see something better than what's been done before, what's wrong with that? Rinya isn't a better wrestler than Pico. Bo isn't that much better than Ruth probably not at all.

And they are in MMA because they aren't good enough to be number 1. Let's not pretend they are good enough to go to olympic over the number 1 guys. Now, not that there's anything wrong with that, but what I'm saying is, all I said is, I want to see something we haven't seen before.

With that said, I'm excited about Rinya. I have to see Bo fight a legit competition first, but I'm on board Rinya bandwaggon. Perhaps I will be on Bo's, but have to see first. The guy talks a lot though.

And just to be clear, I'm not diminishing their accomplishments by saying that they won't make the olympics, nor that they aren't much better than some guys.

For example, I followed Askren, Cejudo, Romero, Pico, Ruth, Hendricks, and so on from the beginning of their careers, if not before their MMA careers. These guys aren't better wrestlers. That's all I'm saying. I want to see someone better.

Nothing wrong with that, I'd think.

I was excited about Bilyal Makhov. Still want to see someone like that in MMA.

 

[HuskySamoan]

i don't follow every new wrestlers that are coming up. He'd be much interesting yes. I'd like to see him for sure.

Not so much on Roman Bravo Young. Could care less about that one.

Rinya and Bo is interesting. Nothing we haven't seen before. I want to see something better than what's been done before, what's wrong with that? Rinya isn't a better wrestler than Pico. Bo isn't that much better than Ruth probably not at all.

And they are in MMA because they aren't good enough to be number 1. Let's not pretend they are good enough to go to olympic over the number 1 guys. Now, not that there's anything wrong with that, but what I'm saying is, all I said is, I want to see something we haven't seen before.

With that said, I'm excited about Rinya. I have to see Bo fight a legit competition first, but I'm on board Rinya bandwaggon. Perhaps I will be on Bo's, but have to see first. The guy talks a lot though.

And just to be clear, I'm not diminishing their accomplishments by saying that they won't make the olympics, nor that they aren't much better than some guys.

I just think wanting to see a 32 year old cross over because he's the best wrestler in the world is kind of a silly interest compared to Bo who was a top 10 caliber wrestler in the world cross over to MMA around 24 years old....Rinya too, the guy IS a better wrestler than Pico, he has beaten guys like Rei Higuchi and Islam Dudaev. You can Google them, they have wiki pages. The margins between a guy like Bo and Taylor as wrestlers isn't nearly as significant as Bo starting MMA at 24 (its when he was paid to do his first training camp with Masvidal) and Taylor starting at 32. You have have your interests, I get it, I'm just criticizing them for the sake of discussion. Bo and Rinya are considerably more accomplished in freestyle than Pico, U23 Gold>Cadet obviously and they've simply beaten more world class freestylists, especially Rinya.

I'd like to see a guy like Otoguro or Sadulaev come to MMA too though, still in their mid 20s and dominant Olympic Gold medalists. I tried to get Bekzod Abdurakhmanov to come back to MMA, funny thing is he was "just another all american" at the time, you would have had no interest in but he then went on to medal at the olympics, world's and upset Jordan Burroughs...

Anyways, I'd rather get them young than have them come over at like 26+ years of age. Being a Gold medalist doesn't mean they'll make a better fighter. I wish Satoshi Ishiis career was managed better he was special and it felt ruined by Japanese matchmaking.

 

[HuskySamoan]

Finally someone on Sherdog who knows everything and isn't speculating at all.

Sarcasm haha?

 

[JustOnce]

I won't argue whether Pico is better than Bo or Rinya, but if you want to go down the record pages and bring up names, Pico was 18 when he beat the world champion from literally a year before, against David Safarryan. They may have better credentials on paper, but it's most likely only because Pico retired from wrestling at 20 year olds. Pico was a phenom. He wiped the floor with eventual three time NCAA champion Zain many times, but like I said not here to argue that, but there's a reason why Pico was competing for the olympic spot at 20 years old, and Bo was nowhere to be found, and Pico is a year younger, well 8 months to be exact, I guess.

Sadulaev is a tier above Otoguro. I'd like to see them both, but otoguro I'm sure is a great wrestler, but Sadulaev is one of a kind. Bekzod, I wish he stuck with it. Yes, that IS true. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. You gotta prove yourself. If you can't come out of NCAA, then it is what it is. But he did eventually.

It's regrettable that Ishi's career didn't go anywhere. And yes, it was really badly managed from the very first fight. Why did they think it was a a good idea to make Fedor and Yoshida fight, I don't know. But just overall, I'm not sure if things would have changed much. He was a little too slow, I think. A little too small for heavyweight, but he wasn't fast either.

It's certainly better for them to transition young. Pico was really also one of a kind. Now, in this case, if they managed him better, the sky was a limit for the kid. He had it all, not sure if he can come back, though still young.

Otoguro would be very interesting. Would like to see that lots. Rinya is a real deal. Bo, we will see.

But, I'd like to guys like Sadulaev. He's a special wrestler.

I just think wanting to see a 32 year old cross over because he's the best wrestler in the world is kind of a silly interest compared to Bo who was a top 10 caliber wrestler in the world cross over to MMA around 24 years old....Rinya too, the guy IS a better wrestler than Pico, he has beaten guys like Rei Higuchi and Islam Dudaev. You can Google them, they have wiki pages. The margins between a guy like Bo and Taylor as wrestlers isn't nearly as significant as Bo starting MMA at 24 (its when he was paid to do his first training camp with Masvidal) and Taylor starting at 32. You have have your interests, I get it, I'm just criticizing them for the sake of discussion. Bo and Rinya are considerably more accomplished in freestyle than Pico, U23 Gold>Cadet obviously and they've simply beaten more world class freestylists, especially Rinya.

I'd like to see a guy like Otoguro or Sadulaev come to MMA too though, still in their mid 20s and dominant Olympic Gold medalists. I tried to get Bekzod Abdurakhmanov to come back to MMA, funny thing is he was "just another all american" at the time, you would have had no interest in but he then went on to medal at the olympics, world's and upset Jordan Burroughs...

Anyways, I'd rather get them young than have them come over at like 26+ years of age. Being a Gold medalist doesn't mean they'll make a better fighter. I wish Satoshi Ishiis career was managed better he was special and it felt ruined by Japanese matchmaking.