Not-So-Live-Blogging: Greg Nagy vs. Francisco Navarro

I was finally able to find video of Herschel Walker's Strikeforce opponent Greg Nagy in action and rather than simply describe his fight from Rage in the Cage 136 I decided to blog it as I watched it as I do with any of my regular live blogs.  Here's the fight as I saw it:

Round 1 - Navarro is wearing a rashguard.  Nagy imediately kind of...hops in the air a few times before clinching up with Navarro.  They move around the cage in the clinch and Nagy is able to finish the takedown.  Half guiard but Navarro is able to reestablish guard and lock up an armbar.  Nagy powers out by standing up and slipping out.  Both men standing at a distance.  Nagy with a leg kick that completely lacked any sort of techique and clinches up.  Pushing Navarro into the cage but can't complete the takedown.  Francisco reverses the attempt into a takedown of his own and quickly into side control.  Body punches by Navarro and Nagy is able to stand up but gets caught in a guillotine.  Nagy able to pop his head out and is now in Navarro's guard landing tapping punches to the body.  Round ends and it was 10-9 Navarro.

Round 2 - Nagy jogs forward and eats a right hand before pressing Navarro into the cage.  Nagy reaching for the takedown and Navarro avoids.  Francisco landing small punches from in the clinch.  Nagy still looking for the takedown and he folds over from a knee to the body.  Navarro with another knee to the body and some body punches.  Nagy throws a few arm punches and then eats a knee to the head which is apperantly illegal as the ref issues a warning.  They exchange "punches" and Navarro hurts him with an ugly  winging shot.  Navarro follows him to the ground and takes his back.  Nagy turns and is mounted. Navarro throws a few punches and starts looking for the armbar but the round ends.  10-9 Navarro.

Round 3 - Again they exchange ugly shots and Navarro gets the better of it.  And again, Nagy pushes him against the cage.  Navarro spins and takes Nagy's back standing and takes him down.  A few body punches landed by Francisco and Nagy rolls over and Navarro has side control.  Navarro continues to alternate between looking for an armlock from side control and landing body shots.  Pass to mount now by Navarro and he's dropping punches to Nagy's face.  For some reason the ref stands them up while Nagy was mounted and getting punched.  Nagy pushes him into the cage and both fighters fall to their knees more than any sort of takedown.  Finally Nagy completes the takedown and the round ends.  10-9 Navarro makes it 30-27 on my card.  Francisco Navarro wins by unanimous decision.

What did I learn about Nagy from watching this fight?

- His striking appeared to be laughable at best.  Standing up he did a lot of odd things like running forward into a punching opponent and hop up in the air.

- He seems to want to use wrestling, but lacks any strong takedowns.  Mainly he looked to secure a body lock and try to press into the cage.  On the occasions where he was able to get a takedown it was more on Navarro's tripping during scrambles than anything.

- Nagy continually put himself in bad positions.  He had half-guard in the first round and made no effort to avoid Navarro moving his hips and regaining guard and then quickly grabbing an arm.  He stuck his head into a guillotine.  He allowed Navarro to take his back on the ground and standing as well as had no defense for getting his guard passed into side control or preventing the mount once Francisco had side control.

- I should point out that I also watched Nagy's first RITC fight against Robert Principato and he hurt Principato early with a wide right hand.  He then came close to getting guillotined after pushing into the cage and attempting a double leg.  Nagy then laid on top not mounting any offense, unable to pass a loose half guard until the ref stood them up.  The doctor then stopped the fight on a cut suffered by Principato on the initial punch of the fight.

This would all seem to point to him being exactly the correct guy for Walker to be fighting.  His stand-up is poor, he doesn't appear to have good wrestling, and his ground skills appear to not be anything to worry about.  As long as Walker has some technique he can likely coast based on having a solid jab and enough strength to get out of any sort of clinch against the cage.  I suppose the Principato fight could serve as a reminder that maybe Nagy can land a looping punch and hurt Walker, but it was not an impressive double-feature.