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Hey everyone look at this MMA expert.
ONE: Northcutt KOd in 29 Seconds
- Thread starter AGEZ909
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Hey everyone look at this MMA expert.
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Damnnmm. The 3 ufc guys have had a tough go so far. Even mighty mouse had a tough fight.
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@TheMMAnalyst
Maybe I covered that comparison not enough. I only meant to compare Huerta to Sage in that he got delusional regarding his worth and went away from a very sweet deal with the UFC that would have given him a ton of media exposure and money. Would have really made him into one of UFCs biggest stars. In Huertas case he thought to be the next Movie star.
Huerta absolutely was a much better fighter than Sage will ever be. A legit Top15 fighter. I would never dispute that. The Guida fight really showed how tough he really was and well what his technical deficiencies were. A great heart nevertheless.
Maybe I covered that comparison not enough. I only meant to compare Huerta to Sage in that he got delusional regarding his worth and went away from a very sweet deal with the UFC that would have given him a ton of media exposure and money. Would have really made him into one of UFCs biggest stars. In Huertas case he thought to be the next Movie star.
Huerta absolutely was a much better fighter than Sage will ever be. A legit Top15 fighter. I would never dispute that. The Guida fight really showed how tough he really was and well what his technical deficiencies were. A great heart nevertheless.
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I dont even think he is that elite as an athlete. The blown up bodybuilder muscles imo give a false impression. Yeah he can do front flips etc wow but motoric skills include learning technical fighting skill and he seems to be pretty untalented in developing at all.
Certainly not CM Punk level as he is explosive but also not what we expect from a UFC fighter regarding stand up / clinch or ground game. Thats pretty damning after so many years of training.
A fantastic athlete imo is someone like Cejudo, TJ, GSP...etc.
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I think you are conflating athleticism with technique/skill in your analysis - when I analyze if someone has a high-level of athleticism I'm only asking questions about capacity, not ability. This entombs everything from speed, strength, flexibility, hand-eye coordination, endurance, etc. Sage is honestly probably in the upper 10% of MMA fighters in raw-physical attributes such as those (outside of endurance, though that is tied into technique/skill). Since Sage has a shallow skill-set he doesn't have a lot of moves he can effectively apply. And since his technique isn't great he tends to be overtly tense and wastes a lot of energy in his movement, which means he is inefficient and prone to gassing+mistakes.
I would argue he's only gotten this far because he is an elite athlete, it papered over the cracks in his game against lower-level opposition. That only carries you so far though, as you go up the ladder you fight guys that are better athletes and have deeper skill-sets/more refined technique to apply those skills. Developing technical fighting skills is not merely an athletic attribute, it's more of a mental one than anything. Look at Bryan Barberena (whom subbed Sage during his initial UFC run), dude is sub-par athlete that isn't fast or powerful but has a bunch of different skill and solid application of technique to the point where he can overcome opponents that are physically stronger/faster than him.
Cejduo/GSP/TJ are all elite athletes that have tremendous depth of skill and insanely good technique. They all committed themselves for over a decade to becoming elite MMA fighters training in the toughest camps. Sage trained for a long time in Karate but very little depth of training in BJJ, Wrestling, Boxing, Muy Thai, etc. It looks as if he trained under his dad until he became 18 then floated around to different camps never figuring out how to use his Karate to develop other skills. Victim of training hard but not smart perhaps, since you don't get that type of athleticism without putting in a lot of work.
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Well I would argue he got this far because of how UFC protected him. He is a little above regional level with a lot of well testosterone. Agree with near everything you write. Semantics. We are on the same page.
Only regarding athletics there is a reason this word originates in light and heavy athletics and was always correllated to concrete sports activities. So if you want to call doing a flip an athletic sport fine but regarding MMA after 6 years of training , gaining motoric skill development is a fundamental part of athletic talent and he is doing a shit job.
What the NFL for example tests (combine) is only athletic ability for american football. Its all about specific functionality. The reason people tend to only fixate on strenght or speed or jumping is because of the oldest sports like running etc from were it all originates. There this is most important but the last time:
Athletic ability will always only be measurable regarding the specific requirements of the sport you do.
In my book no Sage is nothing special regarding athletic mma ability and I would say quite some knowledgable people in physical sports therapy / training also at universities agree with me there.
Take Mousasi an absolute prime example. I saw him only 2 years into his career and even then he was way better than Sage is now because his athletic ability for MMA is at a much higher level (also his brain).
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Agreed.
To me Sage seems the type who is pretty decent at just about every individual discipline but has no way of connecting concepts, game planning, and putting it all together. A lot of his earlier fights he'd throw crazy flurries, have the guy hurt, then go for a really high amplitude double leg, then lose position within seconds allowing his opponent to recover. Like, wtf are you doing dude? You have the guy hurt and 4 strikes away from winning a TKO, why go for the take down?
He fought and still fights like he's playing a video game. Just going out there spamming special moves between button mashing with techniques that aren't applicable to the overall complexion of the fight. He certainly picked up that Team Alpha Midget head movement though...
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Yep was a clever move from One FC and Sage should have seen it coming that this would be their approach. Sage had the worst ratio of fame to talent level. Give him legit fighters instantly when he still is a known name in the west and if he wins against the odds they have a great talent that furthers their reach. loosing he accomplishes even more for the org.
I am pretty sure they saw the outcome of this fight a mile away. Sneaky asians
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Lol at sage going up against a vet like Cosmo. Shudda wrassle widdem
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You make a number of solid points that I don't disagree with at all - he got this far because of the UFC putting him against lower-level opposition. I would just say that even his lower-level opposition had far more skills (better BJJ/wrestling/striking) and better technique than him and the only reason he beat them was he was much stronger/faster...otherwise how do you explain how he won those fights?
I don't consider doing a flip an "athletic sport" (LOL) but I do consider it to be one sign of athleticism - no matter how much Bryan Barberena works to improve his leg muscles he will never have the explosiveness to pull off a standing front-flip or back-flip (even if he had started working towards it a long time ago he just doesn't have the genetics for it). But that isn't a skill/technique that translates to MMA, it just shows high-levels of output for explosive leg strength (which is a gauge of athletic capacity/potential). Sage will always have the capability to be a faster/more powerful kicker than Bryan because of this, but without all the intangibles he is not able to apply it so it doesn't really mean anything for him.
I see what you are saying about the NFL combine and it's an excellent point - athleticism only matters in the context of how you can apply it to a particular sport. So if we gauge Sage on an "MMA athleticism' stand-point he isn't able to effectively apply offensive/defensive techniques so it doesn't matter what his general athleticism is. When looking at athletic MMA ability things are much more tied into timing and making reads - it doesn't matter how fast or powerful Sage punches or kicks if he can't set-up the shots and he's wide-open to getting countered because he doesn't feint/keeps his chin straight-up/is tense and afraid so his movement is predictable.
To me Sage appears to be a natural athlete but not a natural fighter; he doesn't react well when he is hit, his skill-set and style aren't built for the current high-level MMA meta-game, and he doesn't seem to have inherently good timing or ability to make reads/adjustments in-fight based on his opponent. Isn't that all mental stuff though? Maybe it's a poor choice of phrase to call him an "elite athlete" then since he has never been elite in the athletic field he competes in (MMA); perhaps it's better to call him a "physical specimen" or something like that instead.
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Are we supposed to be surprised? Silver spoon kid on gear cant fight?
