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Liu Ce: Potentially the Chinese Pereira?

achoo42

achoo42

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Liu Ce is a Chinese kickboxer who is the latest K-1 openweight tournament winner. Like Pereira, he's a lanky 6'5 and seems to be putting the fear of God into kickboxing heavyweights with his calf kicks.

Currently he is on an eight fight winstreak, all knockouts, with half of them by calf kick.





He also has a nasty left hand:



Liu Ce has expressed his interest in fighting in MMA and is currently 2-0 as an MMA heavyweight. He's also very young for a heavyweight (27) and it seems that he has time to work on his ground game if he wants to succeed at MMA.
 
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I'll believe it when I actually see an asian come into the MMA scene and start dropping dudes like a Periera or Ngannou
 
He isn't that athletic. He is relatively strong but not explosive. He also shells up as defense instead of moving his head. He is probably not going to transition into MMA if he can make it in the kickboxing.
 
NoSmilez said:
He isn't that athletic. He is relatively strong but not explosive. He also shells up as defense instead of moving his head. He is probably not going to transition into MMA if he can make it in the kickboxing.
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Pereira doesn't have good head movement either, nor is Pereira all that fast. At the high weight classes, being long and having a good chin is an acceptable defense. So far, Liu Ce has not been finished.

Certainly MMA is paying better than kickboxing now. Liu is trying to win the K-1 cruiserweight title on March 20th and then we'll see where he goes from there.
 
My only reservation is that he hasn't really fought any top heavyweights. Machado is his best win, but he hasn't been a contender in a little bit.
 
Fengxian said:
gonna keep an eye on both Liu Ce and Zhang.

I always moan to @Substance Abuse and @Question about Asian countries lacking combat fighters. Hopefully more can rise in the future.
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Zhang has a KO loss to the Russian dude who faked his record for the UFC. He can wrestle a little with throws but his ground game isn't great. It is serviceable against other strikers with limited ground game. I guess 205 works out for him since that division is filled with strikers. Zhang is sort of a round 1 can crusher. I can see him knocking people out fast but I can also see him getting flatlined.
 
achoo42 said:
Pereira doesn't have good head movement either, nor is Pereira all that fast. At the high weight classes, being long and having a good chin is an acceptable defense. So far, Liu Ce has not been finished.

Certainly MMA is paying better than kickboxing now. Liu is trying to win the K-1 cruiserweight title on March 20th and then we'll see where he goes from there.
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He is definitely not like Pereira. Alex's whole game is to hand fight and move away from strikes with a long guard. Alex does not fight like a typical kickboxer. Alex almost never shells up or combination fight in MMA.

Liu also has very short arms for his height. He isn't that "long".
 
NoSmilez said:
Zhang has a KO loss to the Russian dude who faked his record for the UFC. He can wrestle a little with throws but his ground game isn't great. It is serviceable against other strikers with limited ground game. I guess 205 works out for him since that division is filled with strikers. Zhang is sort of a round 1 can crusher. I can see him knocking people out fast but I can also see him getting flatlined.
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To be fair, the loss to Askar Mozharov was five years ago, and Askar was always a decent striker—he just always got exposed on the ground.

But I agree overall that Zhang Mingyang doesn't have the skill to become a contender. I suspect that he will have his place as a lower-level KO machine.
 
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NoSmilez said:
He is definitely not like Pereira. Alex's whole game is to hand fight and move away from strikes with a long guard. Alex does not fight like a typical kickboxer. Alex almost never shells up or combination fight in MMA.
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I agree that their styles are very different. Alex keeps his hands low and fences while Liu uses his guard a lot. My main point of comparison was their build (they have practically the same height, weight, and reach) as well their calf kicks, which are very similar and something that higher weight classes are very vulnerable to.
 
achoo42 said:
To be fair, the loss to Askar Mozharov was five years ago, and Askar was always a decent striker—he just always got exposed on the ground.

But I agree overall that Zhang doesn't have the skill to become a contender. I suspect that he will have his place as a lower-level KO machine.
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Liu took Askar to the ground in that fight a few times in that short fight. His control isn't great.
 
IDK man if it was an easy transition everyone would do it.. I think obviously Pereira is special for doing it, but who knows - he could do it maybe. Time will tell.

The higher the weight, the better chance they have - so its definitely possible.
 
I don't really follow kickboxing but doesn't K-1 suck now compared to Glory? I remember when a shot Cro Cop won a K-1 tournament.
 
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