News UFC signs 6’7” Cuban Olympic Taekwondo medalist Robelis Despaigne

[AstralPanda]

a HW that big, fast athletic with elite TKD is an interesting combo

He got hands, which is usually the biggest flaw with TKD guys.

Seems smart as well. The way he defends takedowns, albeit against bums, shows he's being trained correctly and learning fast. Being able to frame and control distance as a TKD guy helps a lot with that.

Probably one of the most Interesting prospects at HW I've seen for a long time.

A division that's been perpetually starved of raw talent.

 

[Brit_Brawler]

Thavage! Looks really fast too.

 

[AstralPanda]

Dude keeps his hands below his waist. That might not fly in UFC's heavyweight division.

The HW division isn't exactly full of elite strikers who would be able to take advantage of that.

 

[Xoleth]

Heavyweight from Cuba, 4-0 (4 KO’s)

His first 3 opponents' records are:
0-1
0-1
0-1

Wow!
Good job, UFC!

 

[Kb7]

He better brush up on his ground game, you got fighters like Aspinall& Almeida who are pretty skilled when it comes to grappling, the one dimensional Ko artist like Lewis and Tuivasa are slowly getting phased out.

 

[TRYHARD 2001]

About a decade ago there was a Cuban boxer, I believe at 175, who was starting to make some waves. Lost to Sillakh, iirc. Wonder if there'a a relation here, or if I've come across the Cuban equivalent of Smith with this guy's last name.

 

[UFCIsNOTRigged]

I smell another Braxton Smith... Parker Porter 'bout to claim another victim by taking this man down and smothering him with his belly for 15 minutes.

Would be neat to have another dynamic striker with his accolades added to the mix, though.

I imagine they are signing him for fun fights, not because they believe he is HW champion in waiting, but willing to change their mind if proven otherwise.

I could see them booking him against someone like Junior Tafa for the next card in the ANZAC region or Waldo Cortes for a Fight Night main card opener spot.

 

[KOPPE]

absurd power but his defense leaves a lot to be desired.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

I know he is a 6'7'' medallist and whatever but the 3 guys he faced where making their debut and their fight with him it's the only fight they ever had:

Robelis Despaigne ("The Big Boy") | MMA Fighter Page | Tapology

Robelis "The Big Boy" Despaigne (5-2-0) is a Pro MMA Fighter out of Florida, United States and the #76th ranked Top Heavyweight MMA fighter. View complete Tapology profile, bio, rankings, photos, news and record.

www.tapology.com

So, he beat 3 random people with no experience at all that went on to never even fight again. I don't know. Sounds pretty suspicious to me...



Edit: The guy he just beat is the only guy in his record that had fought before and was 1-0 (and 4-0 as an amateur). I guess that's enough to get signed in the heavyweight division...

It's very hard for someone like Robelis to find people willing to fight him on the regionals. Not many people are willing to sign up to fight a 6'7 Cuban olympic medallist for a couple of grand.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Anyway I think this is a very interesting signing. He has insane power, as soon as he touches people they get flatlined and he's fucking massive and really quick for a heavyweight. Needs to get tested at the highest level.

 

[Iroh]

I have no idea if it's a solid signing, but it at least sounds interesting from the description.

 

[Iroh]

Anyway I think this is a very interesting signing. He has insane power, as soon as he touches people they get flatlined and he's fucking massive and really quick for a heavyweight. Needs to get tested at the highest level.

What about ze grappling?

 

[Hellowhosthat]

What about ze grappling?

Dunno yet. Could be fine, could be shit. Dude was an olympic medallist so you figure he has the right mentality for learning it.

 

[Doctor Grudge]

Speed like that really kills at HW. He's gonna be a problem for a lot of guys.

 

[Iroh]

Dunno yet. Could be fine, could be shit. Dude was an olympic medallist so you figure he has the right mentality for learning it.

And maybe he has some Cuban Olympic rasslin and judo buddies that could help him out a bit.

 

[Safton]

I imagine they are signing him for fun fights, not because they believe he is HW champion in waiting, but willing to change their mind if proven otherwise.

I could see them booking him against someone like Junior Tafa for the next card in the ANZAC region or Waldo Cortes for a Fight Night main card opener spot.

I could see that. It all depends on how they want to bring him up. Are they going to feed him a steady diet of stylistically-favorable plodding strikers that he can melt? Or do they want to test his defensive grappling at some point? How slowly do they want to push him? Acosta is currently booked against Arlovski for mid-January, but Junior is free. Considering Junior is 1-1 in the UFC, recently transitioned from striking, and is still relatively inexperienced I think that's a fair debut. That said, Robelis is already 35 years old and seems like he has a style that will not age gracefully as his athleticism fades -- even at Heavyweight which is historically forgiving of older fighters. As such, I wouldn't be surprised if they dump him right into the mix against fringe ranked guy.

The UFC's Heavyweight roster just doesn't really have that much depth at the bottom end -- especially right now after the latest round of cuts. Even if they wanted to, it's hard to follow the same "rule" you see in other weight classes of building up a prospect with three or four wins in a row before throwing them at someone in the Top 15 these days. If you go and look at Tapology's Heavyweight rankings, the vast majority of the guys between #15-75 have either been recently cut from the UFC or are fighting with PFL/Bellator. Apropos of nothing really, it's just something I noticed. I guess I got so used to there being a steady supply of Jake Colliers, Chase Shermans, and Jared Vanderaas to fill up every Fight Night card that I'm still getting used to the current dynamic lol.

 

[pick999]

looks like ufc found a new francis

 

[Hellowhosthat]

I could see that. It all depends on how they want to bring him up. Are they going to feed him a steady diet of stylistically-favorable plodding strikers that he can melt? Or do they want to test his defensive grappling at some point? How slowly do they want to push him? Acosta is currently booked against Arlovski for mid-January, but Junior is free. Considering Junior is 1-1 in the UFC, recently transitioned from striking, and is still relatively inexperienced I think that's a fair debut. That said, Robelis is already 35 years old and seems like he has a style that will not age gracefully as his athleticism fades -- even at Heavyweight which is historically forgiving of older fighters. As such, I wouldn't be surprised if they dump him right into the mix against fringe ranked guy.

The UFC's Heavyweight roster just doesn't really have that much depth at the bottom end -- especially right now after the latest round of cuts. Even if they wanted to, it's hard to follow the same "rule" you see in other weight classes of building up a prospect with three or four wins in a row before throwing them at someone in the Top 15 these days. If you go and look at Tapology's Heavyweight rankings, the vast majority of the guys between #15-75 have either been recently cut from the UFC or are fighting with PFL/Bellator. Apropos of nothing really, it's just something I noticed.

Ignore tap ratings they're shit. Fight matrix is a lot better.

 

[Safton]

Ignore tap ratings they're shit. Fight matrix is a lot better.

That hasn't been my experience, weirdly -- with the exception of the promotion-specific Tap rankings. Those are often dated or downright biased to the point that they leave me scratching my head. The Global ones, minus a few quibbles I have here or there, seem to be fairly close to how I would arbitrarily rank fighters outside the UFC's official Top 15 (which is all I use them for anyway).

I've tried using FM in the past, but it always grated at my nerves for one reason or another. I'll try it again, though.

 

[Credo]

RNC´d in under 26 secs.