Unsigned Heavyweights - Thread Two

Status
Not open for further replies.
Ivanov joins wsof,,,,,him vs Rama nice hw title fight
 
Erokhin put on a shit performance. Wasnt expecting that. But thats the difference between regional scene and UFC.
 
Wow, crazy. But then again I can't really complain since he did lose to another prospect I had on my list. :icon_chee

I hope Pesta keeps evolving, he's super young and this fight showed he has heart and tenacity, and those are traits you can't really factor in sometimes.

Pesta and Krylov may also highlight the importance of age in MMA. Even though LHW's/HW's start later, younger guys who are already good prospects have more room to improve.
 
Difference of UFC, if he signed with WSOF or Bellator he'd be on prelims vs someone awful and he would have come out and destroyed them with the bombs he threw in that first round.

Instead he gets a 24 year old prospect in UFC debut and loses and doesnt look good.

Tybura is the best HW prospect.
 
Difference of UFC, if he signed with WSOF or Bellator he'd be on prelims vs someone awful and he would have come out and destroyed them with the bombs he threw in that first round.

I consider that a positive in prospect development, and it's a lot better easing them in for their debuts as opposed to their 2nd or 3rd fights like Bektic and Taisumov. We learned and gained nothing from those fights. Taisumov's opponent made Taiwan Howard look like Matt Hughes. I don't care if they were late replacements. They were horrible even for that distinction. They had 2-4 weeks.

BTW, it's not like Bellator didn't often match up prospects tougher than even UFC in their debuts when they had the tourney format and guys got dropped straight into it out of their insistence presumably. Sarnavskiy didn't get matched up with a prospect like Erokhin, rather a grizzled vet to take advantage of his inexperience like Clementi. Lima got matched up with tourney vet and future WSOF champ Steve Carl and was in a little early turmoil. That's why you should always learn to temper your overreactions to debut or early losses more, whether the fighter be in UFC or Bellator, i.e.: Tumenov, Sarnavskiy, Wonderboy, Ill Will, etc. Now maybe Alvarez and Erokhin. I haven't seen Erokhin to have an opinion on whether it was just a hiccup or not. But from history I am aware shit happens in the transition against more experienced opponents in the cage, the octagon, or even the circle. Not everybody is like Thatch. Some are like Pettis, Dillashaw, Brooks, etc.
 
I was surprised. Erokhin's a monster but Pesta is clearly a legit prospect himself. In the big leagues, you don't get an easy debut. I always use Bellator as an example....Jon above me countered that opinion and I can't disagree with it, but if Erokhin debuted in Bellator he'd be fighting Josh Burns.

In the UFC, there is no Josh Burns at HW. There are many Josh Burns' in LW, WW, where there are too many fighters and plenty of guys who probably shouldn't be there. But HW is so shallow, so few genuinely talented guys, (like flyweight), that your debut is always gonna be against someone coming off a loss who is likely more talented than any dude you fought on your local circuit.

Guys like Walt Harris, Josh Copeland, and Anthony Hamilton would clean house in the little leagues, and they have done just that. But when you make the step up, its a different story.
 
Tony Lopez beat Jesse Hernandez last night. Jesse was controlling the fight and got caught in a triangle in the second round.

Lopez is expected to drop to 205 to challenge Jeremy Horn for his title in March or may I forget.
 
Erokhin didn't just have a bad night, he showed no ground game at all.

He'd better start training fast.
 
I was surprised. Erokhin's a monster but Pesta is clearly a legit prospect himself. In the big leagues, you don't get an easy debut. I always use Bellator as an example....Jon above me countered that opinion and I can't disagree with it, but if Erokhin debuted in Bellator he'd be fighting Josh Burns.

In the UFC, there is no Josh Burns at HW. There are many Josh Burns' in LW, WW, where there are too many fighters and plenty of guys who probably shouldn't be there. But HW is so shallow, so few genuinely talented guys, (like flyweight), that your debut is always gonna be against someone coming off a loss who is likely more talented than any dude you fought on your local circuit.

Guys like Walt Harris, Josh Copeland, and Anthony Hamilton would clean house in the little leagues, and they have done just that. But when you make the step up, its a different story.

There's no one on a remotely close level to Josh Burns at lightweight or welterweight in the UFC and the rest of that second paragraph is a logic fail of epic proportions.
 
I was surprised. Erokhin's a monster but Pesta is clearly a legit prospect himself. In the big leagues, you don't get an easy debut. I always use Bellator as an example....Jon above me countered that opinion and I can't disagree with it, but if Erokhin debuted in Bellator he'd be fighting Josh Burns.

In the UFC, there is no Josh Burns at HW. There are many Josh Burns' in LW, WW, where there are too many fighters and plenty of guys who probably shouldn't be there. But HW is so shallow, so few genuinely talented guys, (like flyweight), that your debut is always gonna be against someone coming off a loss who is likely more talented than any dude you fought on your local circuit.

Guys like Walt Harris, Josh Copeland, and Anthony Hamilton would clean house in the little leagues, and they have done just that. But when you make the step up, its a different story.


Plenty of Bellator prospects come in and fight cans right away, a few like TIger came right in to fight in a tournament. But most come in on prelims and fights regional cans.


Bubba Jenkins fought Mike Barreras
Caldwell fought Surma
Neves fought Arocho
Koreshkov fought Tiawan Howard
Minakov fought Starcencov
MVP Fought Ryan Sanders

Any of these guys in UFC even on a Fight Pass prelim card would haev fought someone alot better.
 
Erokhin is always going to be too one-dimentional to be a title contender. He still has great boxing though and huge KO power, and he'll stick around. But if Ben Rothwell can be ranked as a top 10 heavyweight, so can Erokhin in a few years. Could see him being sort of a Roy Nelson style fighter, who gets a few KO's but then loses to the more athletic heavies.
 
Tony Lopez beat Jesse Hernandez last night. Jesse was controlling the fight and got caught in a triangle in the second round.

Lopez is expected to drop to 205 to challenge Jeremy Horn for his title in March or may I forget.

Lopez can be tricky, tough loss for Hernandez.
 
Don't think steve mock is going anywhere even with his wrestling pedigree
 
Don't think steve mock is going anywhere even with his wrestling pedigree

I get the feeling he will end up being a permanent coach at ATT. His wrestling credentials are hard to match, plus he has MMA experience. ATT also attracts lots of hevyweight talent, so having a larger wrestling coach will help.

Honestly he probably gets paid 10 times more as a coach than as an MMA fighter, especially with WSoF salaries.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top