Gatekeepers with Champion potential

John Cena

John Cena

Purple Belt
Joined
Dec 6, 2011
Messages
1,831
Reaction score
444
It seems like once you're labeled a gatekeeper, you're stuck there, never getting out. Your ceiling is fighting the young bloods to test and see if they're ready for the next level. Winning does little for your trajectory.

In rare instances, you have fighters like Charles Olivera, who was a career middle-of-the-pack kind of guy, that miraculously explodes up to championship levels after the birth of his child and "something just clicked"

In your opinion, are there other fighters labelled as "gate keepers" that we should look out for? Fighters that are lacking that final puzzle piece for everything to click, leading them to max out and fire on all cylinders?
 
John Cena said:
In your opinion, are there other fighters labelled as "gate keepers" that we should look out for? Fighters that are lacking that final puzzle piece for everything to click, leading them to max out and fire on all cylinders?
Click to expand...
i think it's not a matter of who but a matter of when. for example, when jones left LHW it opened the lane for Glover & Jan. Now glover could compete in a lhw division with no jones, no gus, no rumble, no dc, no bader, no davis. opens the lane for him completely.

So i start to look at circumstances rather than the particular skill sets of a fighter. guys like Bisping, Hill, Serra, Strickland, Montoya become champs through circumstance. A lot of the times, those very same circumstances are their "final peice of the puzzle" not a partciular tool in their kit, or weakness to be mitigated but simply being in the right place at the right time.


I'd say Geoff Neal could be a champion should he fill in last minuite to fight belal. He's beaten him before. Neal has his laser Left straight which is pure money and he has very good TDD maybe keeps it standing long enough to piece belal up for a bit, get his respect and take over the fight.
 
Last edited:
What about champions with early prelim fodder potential? We had Barao accomplish this in his last two UFC fights, and I think BJ might have also done that against Siver but I forget the card placement of that fight.
 
Thesnake101 said:
What about champions with early prelim fodder potential? We had Barao accomplish this in his last two UFC fights, and I think BJ might have also done that against Siver but I forget the card placement of that fight.
Click to expand...
Technically, all of them if they kept fighting long enough would eventually fit this category.
 
Song Yadong and Curtis Blaydes.
They both have the tools. Song just hasn't quite figured it all out yet, and Curtis folds in big moments. But I wouldn't be shocked if either got their hands on a title at some point.
 
Colby Covington and Chael Sonnen. I don't count interim championships (and yes, Whittaker was the real champion in that 185 pound mess despite Romero missing weight in their non-title fight).

I honestly can't think of better gatekeepers. Maybe Dustin Poirier, but I still think pound-for-pound both Chael and Colby beat Dustin (obviously in their primes).
 
seriously i really have never though that charles had a chance of being even a top 5 guy back then
its unbelievable how much this kid became a great fighter today
 
Geoff Neal could beat a lot of guys at 170 but needs to be smarter and follow a gameplan
I could see Nikita Krylov taking Poatan on short notice
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

D
Fights to Make After UFC Fight Night: Hernandez vs Pereira
Replies
14
Views
787
mister piscadinha
mister piscadinha
D
Fights to Make After UFC Fight Night: Moreno vs Albazi
Replies
17
Views
884
Xoleth
Xoleth

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,262,104
Messages
57,140,746
Members
175,551
Latest member
kyejay87

Share this page

Back
Top