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Why has Melvin Manhoef never signed with the UFC ?

People keep mentioning these bad fighters inthe UFC, but do you think Manhoef wants to get paid like a bottom tier UFC guy? Because with his grappling skills, that is his ceiling. He probably gets paid more to fight way easier fights in Asia.
 
Mikedh said:
Mizuno, a bad striker, dropped him standing.

Lawler Ko'd him too, and would later lose a striking match to an old grappler in his next fight. I get that a lot of people on this forum live like nothing in MMA has changed in the past 5 years, but Melvin hasn't beaten anybody worth anything in a long time. His last great MMA victory was four years ago against an out of shape Mark Hunt.
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Same reason Lawler dropped him. Manhoef is an explosive brawler with dangerous Muay Thai and great punching power. But his Boxing skills is not on point with his other strong attributes.

I am sure when spar or works on the mitts, his Boxing looks awesome. But when in fight, he tends to throw everything away and put himself in danger.
 
If he starts winning again, and they were willing to sign Geronimo dos Santos, I see no reason why he can't be signed in the future. I'd KILL to see Manhoef KO Lombard.
 
hes fun to watch and i think they should give him a fight or two to find out.

granted he is not the most consistent, but he is often fun to watch and is exciting.
 
if he beats kang, he says he is still planning on facing khalidov, who is a top ranked fighter in europe. if he can beat him, then why not? lot of fun fights could happen
 
Sivo The Ram said:
if he beats kang, he says he is still planning on facing khalidov, who is a top ranked fighter in europe. if he can beat him, then why not? lot of fun fights could happen
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That is a huge if. Khalidov will be like a -1000 favorite in that fight.
 
He has almost no ground game to speak of, he is passed his prime and his chin is going but they do have guys like Cote who also doesn't have much of a ground game and isn't nearly as good as Melvin is at striking so who knows?

Maybe Melvin gets payed well in Japan due to his style, his fights are always very exciting and I guess the UFC doesn't want to pay him much because he wouldn't be a draw till after he had a few fights against fellow strikers and they don't want to build him up when his career is nearing the end.
 
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He is getting older, I would like to see him in the UFC before his skills erode even more.
 
The Coolman said:
2lo6d02-jpg.gif
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He wasn't looking. And he still was not looking for a full1-2 seconds after he landed it.. Or he would have seen MM crumbling into a heap quicker.


Lawler has literally some of teh heaviest punches in the business.
 
Hamnabaki said:
You make a very valid point. I think my issue is when some is like "ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh you used to instead of too"

I mean to correct someone for the sake of doing it, is silly. I mean if you can not inderstand the cotext of a sentence or wall of text because of a simple slip like "to" and "too" maybe you need the help?
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Sure; jumping on typos is obnoxious.
 
NoBiasJustMMA said:
He has almost no ground game to speak of, he is passed his prime and his chin is going but they do have guys like Cote who also doesn't have much of a ground game and isn't nearly as good as Melvin is at striking so who knows?

Maybe Melvin gets payed well in Japan due to his style, his fights are always very exciting and I guess the UFC doesn't want to pay him much because he wouldn't be a draw till after he had a few fights against fellow strikers and they don't want to build him up when his career is nearing the end.
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I think thats actually overstated, like Hunt I think Manhoef has actually shown some decent takedown defence at various point of his career but has also shown a weakness to guys with strong sub games.

I don't think he stayed in Japan due to his style, thats exactly the kind of style thats loved in the US aswell and pretty much every non japanese fighter who can put on matches like that moved to the US post Pride. I'd say the issue was that he was also building a parallel kickboxing career and fighting for FEG(and SF on the side) allowed him to fight in K-1.
 
Amerikuracana said:
Yeah I boxed at Extreem and then Challengers in Sterling heights for about a year. Before that I took traditional Karate for 3+ years.

Since the Boxing I trained on and off with professional fighters. Not so much in the last few years, but I have boxed hundreds of rounds.

Next.

It was a great punch, but the fact is he WAS NOT LOOKING when he threw it. If you DO/HAVE boxed, then you realize you don't have to see your opponent to know where he is all the time.
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I completely agree. I fought MMA professionally and boxed probably a couple hundred to a thousand rounds in my life. I've trained full contact for 7 years. (boxing, muay thai, kickboxing ...)

I'm still one of the biggest Robbie Lawler appreciators out there, but it makes me insane when some fighting noobs (zuffa nuthugger), who probably sparred twenty rounds in their entire lives, claim that Robbie outstroke Manhoef. As a big Robbie fan I really have to admit that the fight looked like they didn't even belong in the same cage. Manhoef lit him up and Robbie landed on his last chance. Just 2-5 kicks more and it would have been a leg kick tko.
 
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