Soa "The Hulk" Palelei

You hear it all the time, that people later in their careers claim they are a different fighter than the past. He says he has vastly improved since he lost @ 79 to Eddie Sanchez. Maybe so.

He does hold wins over Henry Miller, Bob Sapp and Sean McCorkle, but losses to Sanchez, Mu Bae Cho (or similar, won't look it up for correction in Pride) and Daniel Cormier.

Where would he fit in the UFC if he was invited to compete again and how would he fare against (in or out of it):

Mitrione
Del Rosario
Kongo
Duffee
Hague
Barry
Rothwell
Yorke
Graham
Arlovski (was meant to fight but got cancelled)
Sylvia
Wain
Grove
Tuscherer
Schaub
McSweeney
James Thompson
Monson
Gonzaga
Cro Cop
Staring

etc

I think his wins are available online to view...

 

agree

 

I'm just not sure how much Palelei has improved since the loss to Sanchez. Sorry to say, but wins over Miller, Sapp, or McCorkle are hardly impressive.

If he wants to gain the UFC's attention, he's going to have to step up and face a bigger name...Arlovski, Kharitonov, Sylvia, Monson, Grabowski, Hayes, etc.

 

Hulk vs Barnett in some organization. Make it happen.

 

To clarify though, I'm all about the UFC expanding their heavyweight roster and I hope they sign Palelei for one of their Australian cards.

 

Hulk does not want that fight. That would probably be the worst possible matchup for him out of all the available heavyweight free agents.

 

I think UFC should sign more heavyweight fighters, I think they should lower the bar for them to join as well. The Heavyweight division is a major cash flow, and I think UFC should look to have at least 1 HW fight in each event.

Other suitable signings

http://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Kenny-Garner-40802

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyler_East

http://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Ruan-Potts-75842

http://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Smealinho-Rama-93351

http://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Vitaly-Minakov-63046

http://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Damian-Grabowski-30320

http://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Ante-Delija-75487

 

Garner is signed to an exclusive deal with M-1.
Tyler East is in jail last I read.
Vitaly Minakov is signed to an exclusive deal with Bellator.

I would like to see Grabowski sign with the UFC, but it seems as if the UFC won't sign anyone from Poland!

 

He clearly must have read Chef Overeems nutrition and dieting book. This guy is a fringe top 10 at best. Big, strong, slow, poor cardio, will be 40 in 5 years.

 

He could be useful for an australian card. I say give him another crack at it, and give him someone like Duffee or some shit, and see how it goes.

 

UFC should sign him, his getting way to much hype tho.

 

Too old. Even with TRT, he'd have a short career ahead of him.

 

agree on Garner, Grabowski and Minakov

 

absolutely w/r to his opponents

 

I'd stay away from Barnett for now, although props if Soa takes that fight.

Duffee, Volkov, Mitrione, Monson etc would be legit challenges and respectable decisions.

Not sure if he'd win any of them, but he'd be in the fight and I'd probably take him over Monson at this stage.

 

hes a beast physically, thats for sure

 

In heavier devision old guys can hang on.
Look at HW of MMA and boxing.

 

Hulk is great at hyping himself up and connecting with fans. Plus he's mates with Hunt. I think he'd be a nice addition to a weak HW division.

 

Yeah, his a pretty nice guy. Always answers questions on Twitter.