Does Maldonado Become A Top 10 Heavyweight If He Wins On Saturday

[SeattleFightFan]

even Sokojou needed 2 wins to be ranked.

going 1-0 over a #7 seed does not make the guy the auto #7, TS.

 

[BMFOAT67]

HW Maldonado defeats Fedor with ease, much less Stipe Miocic.

Could you imagine a Maldonado vs Cummins match up at HW? Just wow.

Ya know, after Maldonado get destroyed... I bet this is the fight that gets made. At LWH though.

 

[Sakurabinette]

Does Maldonado Become A Top 10 Heavyweight If He Wins On Saturday

No. I don't think so.
He's a LHW moving up for one fight.
He shouldn't be ranked at HW after this fight, no matter what the result is.

 

[RAFI BOMB]

yea this fight seems lopsided - i know people are high on maldando, but this is a tough fight for him

I think one of the primary problems for Maldonado in this fight is that he hasn't shown much raw power in any of his previous fights. So while he should be able to land clean shots, he will have to land quite a few to hurt Miocic. Even then the chance of him getting a stoppage is low.

Now while Maldonaldo hasn't shown that raw power in the past, doesn't mean he can't display it in this fight. Going up in weight class will help increase his power. Aside from that, having watched all his UFC fights hasn't really "sat" into his punches or "loaded" on any shots so he has the potential to get more out of his punches.

Another big question mark is Miocic's boxing credentials. He claims to be a golden gloves boxing champion but I can't find any details around that. From my understanding Golden Gloves hold two separate tournaments. One is the open class in which there are no regulations around the number of amateur fights a boxer has had before entering the tournament. This is the highest level because some boxers may have 40 to 100+ amateur fights. The other class limits the fighters to having less than 10 total amateur fights. So if Miocic won in the second class, while it is still somewhat impressive it isn't a strong indication of his boxing credentials and Maldonado should out class him in that department. If he won the first class (which doesn't seem likely based on the quality of his boxing in the UFC thus far) then he would have a good chance of wrecking Maldonado on the feet.

The other are where Miocic has a distinct advantage is in the wrestling department. He should be able to take Maldonado down at ease. But with that said, Maldonado has high enough calibre grappling to get back to his feet and possibly threaten submissions from his back. If Maldonado has the superior boxing then he can negate Miocic's wrestling advantage by wearing him out with body shots throughout the fight.

 

[RAFI BOMB]

No. I don't think so.
He's a LHW moving up for one fight.
He shouldn't be ranked at HW after this fight, no matter what the result is.

This win could get him ranked in the LHW division. After Jones, Gustafsson, Cormier, Johnson and Glover it is a bit of a wash. Most of the remaining fighters are either coming off of a loss or a long layoff. Maldonado could get the #9 or #10 ranking with a win here which will set him up for a matchup with a LHW just outside the top 5.

 

[O H]

I think one of the primary problems for Maldonado in this fight is that he hasn't shown much raw power in any of his previous fights. So while he should be able to land clean shots, he will have to land quite a few to hurt Miocic. Even then the chance of him getting a stoppage is low.

Now while Maldonaldo hasn't shown that raw power in the past, doesn't mean he can't display it in this fight. Going up in weight class will help increase his power. Aside from that, having watched all his UFC fights hasn't really "sat" into his punches or "loaded" on any shots so he has the potential to get more out of his punches.

Another big question mark is Miocic's boxing credentials. He claims to be a golden gloves boxing champion but I can't find any details around that. From my understanding Golden Gloves hold two separate tournaments. One is the open class in which there are no regulations around the number of amateur fights a boxer has had before entering the tournament. This is the highest level because some boxers may have 40 to 100+ amateur fights. The other class limits the fighters to having less than 10 total amateur fights. So if Miocic won in the second class, while it is still somewhat impressive it isn't a strong indication of his boxing credentials and Maldonado should out class him in that department. If he won the first class (which doesn't seem likely based on the quality of his boxing in the UFC thus far) then he would have a good chance of wrecking Maldonado on the feet.

The other are where Miocic has a distinct advantage is in the wrestling department. He should be able to take Maldonado down at ease. But with that said, Maldonado has high enough calibre grappling to get back to his feet and possibly threaten submissions from his back. If Maldonado has the superior boxing then he can negate Miocic's wrestling advantage by wearing him out with body shots throughout the fight.

Good post. Stipe won regionals in the open division I believe. From there they fly you elsewere, I'm not sure where exactly. I'm also not sure how far he got there but obviously he eventually lost.

While mma is different from boxing, he's showed off his boxing skills in multiple fights. Nelson probably being the best example, stipe absolutely destroyed roy. I believe it's mostly because he knew the fight would be all boxing and he probably had an advantage on the ground anyway. In fact after the Struvefight he admitted that he bought into the hype of Struves BJJ whereas he shluldchVe been more confident in his wrestling and been more comfortable as opposed to avoiding the ground altogether to the point of fearing it.

Just some things I noticed

 

[Diet Otsuka]

he does become a future hw contender though.

would love to see maldonado vs bigfoot, always been an intriguing match up for me

 

[BOTTICELLI]

Nope

 

[Wibblekitslaldi]

Maldonado has the biggest balls of any man! I fail to see how he'll even make weight with those giants nuts never mind win the fight.

 

[Human Bass]

It is a possibility. His only loss in my mind is to Glover. He was straight up robbed against kingbury and pokrajac.

I disagree, bodyshots dont make you win a fight when you have to eat kness to your face to delivery them.

 

[jmadtx]

lol, no.

 

[Mr. Hammer]

No but Miocic definitely wouldn't be top ten anymore.

 

[Mikeyz]

Yes and that will officially be the death of the HW division.

 

[Grimm911]

I disagree, bodyshots dont make you win a fight when you have to eat kness to your face to delivery them.

He beat the piss out of both of them. Body shots and heads shots. I dont think a few knees are over the amount fabio dished out. The igor fight was a lot closer than the kingbury fight though