FightLines: UFC Lightweights
by Mike Fagan on Jul 31, 2009 9:10 PM EDT
in MMA News
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GUILLARD > TIBAU > CLEMENTI > GUILLARD
GUIDA > DIAZ > NEER > THOMAS > GUIDA
This one's a beast, ladies and gents.
B.J. Penn, handful, and chaos. Name three things to describe my sex life the UFC lightweight division.
Let's start from the bottom and work our way up. When we speak about the depth of the lightweight division, we're really just talking about the revolving cattle at the bottom of the heap. Fighters like Kurt Pellegrino, Matt Grice, and Matt Wiman exemplify the meaning of minutiae. Sure, each guy has his own unique style and various strengths and weaknesses, but they all end up as fodder for the guys at the top.
And who are those guys at the top? Outside of UFC 101 challenger Kenny Florian, I see only three guys who can lay claim to a title shot within the next year: Diego Sanchez, Gray Maynard, and Frank Edgar. If you ask Sanchez, he's been guaranteed a fight with the winner of the Penn/Florian contest. Maynard, who holds a win over Edgar, should get by former posterboy Roger Huerta with little trouble, but will probably have to take a fight in the meantime.
Edgar looked to be in trouble going into his UFC 98 bout with Sean Sherk. After being outmuscled by Maynard in April of 2008, many wondered if the New Jersey native had the size to compete at 155. Edgar dismissed those notions with a 15 minute thrashing of the former champ, outstriking him from bell-to-bell and nullifying his takedowns.
At the summit, a Hawaiian king stands tall above the rest. Don't let his lopsided loss against Georges St. Pierre fool you; Penn remains a monolith at 155. Few in the division possess his jiu-jitsu, heavy hands, and rubbery wrestling separately, and it's safe to say no one puts those skills together like Penn. Kenny Florian has quite a task set in front of him. Even a perfect fight may not be enough to dethrone the king.
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I don’t know what makes you think that Maynard will get by Huerta without trouble. Maynard is a top control wrestler with almost zero passing abilities and not that great of GnP. Huerta is a scrambler who is a huge lightweight so I doubt Maynard will be able to muscle him around like he did against Clementi or Edgar. I think Maynard will be the favorite to win, but you can’t sleep on Roger.
Well, it’s a couple things.
1) Maynard is arguably the strongest guy with the best wrestling base at 155, though you can make the case for Sherk.
2) Roger hasn’t fought in a year and has openly discussed getting into Hollywood.
3) Roger, by most people’s estimates, was losing the Guida fight until he KHTFO. Gray’s a bigger, more technically sound version of Guida.
Twitter: @Mike_Fagan_13
http://www.sackmikegoldberg.com
Is Lauzon not worthy of a headshot?
Shameless self-promotion! http://twitter.com/scb0212
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better. -Samuel Beckett
by Scott C. Broussard on Jul 31, 2009 8:17 PM EDT up reply actions
When I first looked, it just gave his name, no pic.
Shameless self-promotion! http://twitter.com/scb0212
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better. -Samuel Beckett
by Scott C. Broussard on Aug 1, 2009 3:36 AM EDT up reply actions
BJ has beaten two of them.
Florian has beaten two of them and lost to two of them.
Sherk has beaten two of them.
Edgar has beaten three of them and lost to one of them.
A man should never waste an opportunity to keep his mouth shut.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5G2R0N5E
http://www.tapoutlive.com/media/7582/7-31-09_UFC_Press_Conference/
by Nick Thomas on Jul 31, 2009 8:14 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
these fightlines
make a strong case for Edgar being ranked above Maynard in the meta-rankings — at least justify the two of them being seen at very comparable levels.
Follow me on Twitter @KidNate
Totally, except one beat the other.
When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are in a confederacy against him. - Jonathan Swift
by Derek Suboticki on Jul 31, 2009 10:18 PM EDT up reply actions
3 fights ago. Edgar has done more since the loss than Maynard.
A man should never waste an opportunity to keep his mouth shut.
3 fights ago is not 5 years ago. I dont think you can just chalk that one up to improvement on Edgar’s part. Maynard is still undefated since then and really should be ranked above Edgar.
Maynard gets ranked above Edgar due to the leapfrog effect. After this, they both have two fights which they won, but Edgar was against better ranked opposition. They both go high up the charts, but the competition that Edgar faced squeezes him above Maynard in my opinion.
A man should never waste an opportunity to keep his mouth shut.
I think Joe Lauzon is being overlooked big time. Flying under the radar. BTW – where the hell has he been. The guy had a good amount of momentum and coverage and in his last fight looked great at UFN in Tampa (as I watched from row 4) and then he just dropped off..nothing…no fight announcements and no blogs.. what gives?
Fagan, I probably shouldn’t even ask, but how does BJ Penn describe your sex life? It’s short and always unsatisfied?
I don’t think they’re actually going to let him kill me... And if he does kills me, book sales will really go up. Boom…win-win, bitch.- Forrest Griffin on Anderson Silva
by ufc4 on Jul 31, 2009 10:24 PM EDT via mobile reply actions
It’s part of the Guida loop that got deleted. When a beats b who beat c who beat a then that whole line gets removed.
I don’t think they’re actually going to let him kill me... And if he does kills me, book sales will really go up. Boom…win-win, bitch.- Forrest Griffin on Anderson Silva
by ufc4 on Jul 31, 2009 11:06 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Are you fucking BJ Penn?
Let me fix that for you:
B.J. Penn, The prodigy, handful, and chaos. Name three things to describe my sex life the UFC lightweight division.
A wise man told me don't argue with fools
Cause people from a distance can't tell who is who
Finally some BJ love.
People can trash him for being close to his family (mom at hearing) or his physical appearance (cabbage patch) but he is a nasty nasty fighter.
His career really is a “whos who” in the terms of fighters he has stepped in the ring with. I think if BJ is motivated and has a good training camp (mentally and physically) he will give just about anyone on the South side of 180 a real fight.
Flame away!
PS WAR Diaz Brothers, Hughes, Penn, Torres, Lesnar, Mayhem, Shields, Rampage and my newest member Barnett.
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