War Room Lounge v51: A Total Non-Starter

[Lead]

I mean that was the norm back in the day, most former champions would fight a journeyman plus a contender in order to get back to title contention.

Instant rematches weren’t a thing.

Yea it feels weird how detached from the norm that feels now. What started that? I think it was Shogun-Machida and I remember at the time being annoyed they did it.

 

[JDragon]

Yea it feels weird how detached from the norm that feels now. What started that? I think it was Shogun-Machida and I remember at the time being annoyed they did it.

But that was an instant rematch for a contender who arguably should have won, it was to right a wrong. Not because someone got close or earned it. Even GSP had to have a fight in-between.

 

[Lead]

But that was an instant rematch for a contender who arguably should have won, it was to right a wrong. Not because someone got close or earned it. Even GSP had to have a fight in-between.

I'm just saying I think that's where the trend began. Pretty much any close fight or even any fight where the champ got dethroned became a situation where you were going to see a rematch.

 

[MiniCraque]

Yea it feels weird how detached from the norm that feels now. What started that? I think it was Shogun-Machida and I remember at the time being annoyed they did it.

It was either that or Penn/Edgar. Don't remember for sure.

 

[Lead]

It was either that or Penn/Edgar. Don't remember for sure.

Looked it up. Penn/Edgar 1 was 2010, Machida-Shogun was 2009.

You could argue the WW division did it a little bit with the GSP-Hughes-Serra triangle. That whole thing was annoying cause ton of prospects were at WW and they all had to wait cause of the Serra line jump/upset.

 

[MiniCraque]

Looked it up. Penn/Edgar 1 was 2010, Machida-Shogun was 2009.

You could argue the WW division did it a little bit with the GSP-Hughes-Serra triangle. That whole thing was annoying cause ton of prospects were at WW and they all had to wait cause of the Serra line jump/upset.

Looked it up too. Arlovski vs Timmeh came way before all that.

Separated by a few years though so I wouldn't say it started a trend.

 

[Lead]

@Gandhi @BarryDillon

Who's your favorite guy to learn BJJ techniques from (aside from Danaher if that was your answer)?

 

[HockeyBjj]

Asteroid the size of a car hit the earth's atmosphere. Burned up completely and harmless

Damn. How big would an asteroid have to be to make it to earth even just the size of a bowling ball?

 

[Lead]

Looked it up too. Arlovski vs Timmeh came way before all that.

Separated by a few years though so I wouldn't say it started a trend.

Interesting. I'd give HW an exception to the rule. Also, it was the 2nd and 3rd fights that were back to back which is far more acceptable imo. They both got to the belt and were 1-1 and we got the rubber match. When it's simply lets do the 2nd fight immediately, that's annoying.

 

[Lead]

Asteroid the size of a car hit the earth's atmosphere. Burned up completely and harmless

Damn. How big would an asteroid have to be to make it to earth even just the size of a bowling ball?

Doesn't this happen often or is a car sized one fairly big?

 

[Sara]

Asteroid the size of a car hit the earth's atmosphere. Burned up completely and harmless

Damn. How big would an asteroid have to be to make it to earth even just the size of a bowling ball?

Based on my extensive research I'd say about the size of Texas.

 

[Trotsky]

Rich had such lively facial expressions while fighting. In both of his fights against Anderson you looked at his face while he was clinched and it looked like he was staring at death.

Perfect description tbh.

Always wondered why those were the only fights where Anderson used the clinch.

 

[HereticBD]

Yea it feels weird how detached from the norm that feels now. What started that? I think it was Shogun-Machida and I remember at the time being annoyed they did it.

I don't think that qualifies, because that was more of a do over for a shitty decision.

I don't even know if it's much of a thing to be honest. I guess Conor/Nate is one(although I can't remember if they had fights in between).

 

[Lead]

I don't think that qualifies, because that was more of a do over for a shitty decision.

I don't even know if it's much of a thing to be honest. I guess Conor/Nate is one(although I can't remember if they had fights in between).

Conor Nate weren’t title fights.

The thing is it was a contested decision. People were split on that fight in here. Maybe that was just a bunch of biased Machida fans but it wasn’t necessarily a robbery which is my point. Unless something gets completely screwed up, you should move on to the next fight. I know it’s a weird point but I think it also takes pressure off judges making bad calls if you do instant rematches for their poor calls. Don’t have instant rematches and people will be far far more pissed at judges and you’ll likely get it addressed better.

 

[MiniCraque]

Perfect description tbh.

Always wondered why those were the only fights where Anderson used the clinch.

Could be because his opponents were so hopelessly outmatched in regular striking distance that it seemed pointless. I don't know. The underutilization of the technique probably means that it can be exploited by good wrasslers.

btw I found one pic:

 

[Gandhi]

@Gandhi @BarryDillon

Who's your favorite guy to learn BJJ techniques from (aside from Danaher if that was your answer)?

Not Danaher for me but he has some big positives.

Jury is still out but I’ll give you my latest (sorry long post incoming).

I went through Danaher’s latest 4 DVD 7 volume Gi set on pin escapes. Super theoretical in creating concepts that back up the techniques. And some of the techniques are really really really excellent.

1.5 of the DVDs are so repetitive that I won’t watch them again. The rest is so poorly organized (more drawn out and not labeled well than bad organization) that I will have to really focus my notes and identify just the parts of video that give the most summary run through of stuff.

So my big complaint about Danaher is he has the massive brain that gets into the theory of mankind on BJJ but it’s not applied to the process of learning BJJ in an efficient manner.

My opinion is that this type of theory is good for understanding concepts so you retain a bit better but it’s not going to make you invent moves on the fly while grappling, that comes from instincts born of years of grappling, combined with targeted and progressive positional grappling / trigger training, not theory. So the danahaers and rob bernaki’s miss the mark here for me.

I have been thinking of getting Stephan Whittier stuff for a while because unlike Danahaer, his theory is focused on how to learn/ progress the game faster. I only hesitated because he is the 40 plus BJJ guy and well, who the fuck is this unknown dude teaching old guys how to last longer in BJJ life, I mean snore.

However I had seen some short you tube clips that I was able to implement against better opponents right away. So I got a very short DVD of his (BJJ accelerator course) and I think it’s brilliant. As an aside he is the east coast director of SBG, and his style reflects that’s. He breaks every position down to fighting to have the right posture in that position so that your opportunities for technique execution are maximized and your opponents are diminished. He then stresses that the 80/20 rule applies here, in that 80% of your time should be spend learning how to fight for this posture. Once position and posture are won, the remaining 20% can be spent learning the moves employed from these postures (the possibilities part) that fit your style. He of course also stresses Rickson style connection throughout.

He tops it off with a progressive style of positional sparring (opponent starts at 10% effort and slowly escalate t to max) to a) test position posture and then b) test transitions / subs / escapes / sub defense / etc from that position.

He starts off with SM bottom. I spent 10 minute watching it and it transformed my defense over night. Guys my level are not staying out of my guard retention from SM bottom or they are getting single legged, and much better guys are focusing 100% to flatten me out or advance to another position (and it takes them time to do it if at all):

Not all of his stuff are we game changing but they are still pretty good. He is my new guy for now and the 40 plus label he uses is silly. Anyone could benefit from this stuff.

In summary. Theory of BJJ = meh to ok for me. The theory off learning BJJ = great. DVDs that focus on learning how to control / protect the base of a position and how to ensure you can use it as a platform to launch whatever techniques you prefer for your style are the best. In retrospect my favorite dvds do this to some degree (Brandon mulling / Stephan Kesting bigger stronger opponent guard dvd specifically does this. So does Stephan kesting’s SLX set).

Ok sorry end rant.

 

[HockeyBjj]

Has there ever been a more athletically scary fighter than Ngannou? I think not. With the right camp, that dude should be unstoppable. He's 250 with the speed of someone who is 185 and the power of an elephant.

I'm also a big fan of the guy

Yoel Romero possibly. That's a 185er with heavyweight strength and a scary fast speed explosion

Yoel just seems to have to wait 3+ minutes between outbursts like he's waiting for his mana to recharge tho

 

[Gandhi]

Has there ever been a more athletically scary fighter than Ngannou? I think not. With the right camp, that dude should be unstoppable. He's 250 with the speed of someone who is 185 and the power of an elephant.

I'm also a big fan of the guy

The only one I can think of, from a pure athletics (so don’t laugh), is maybe Bob Sap.

JJ is scary but that’s his combination of crazy physical abilities and skill (which just outclasses Ng).

 

[Lubaolong]

As far as free tuition, I think that it has some consequences that are either purposely or accidentally being ignored. Just as one example, it almost completely disincentivizes the GI Bill (and other military service-dependent programs for college tuition payment/repayment), which I think has a sizeable impact on military enlistment and commissioning.

 

[PolishHeadlock2]

Yoel Romero possibly. That's a 185er with heavyweight strength and a scary fast speed explosion

Yoel just seems to have to wait 3+ minutes between outbursts like he's waiting for his mana to recharge tho

Imagine him in his physical prime.....