Strikeforce Miami Fight by Fight Coverage: Herschel Walker Wins a One-Sided Fight Over Greg Nagy ("nudge")
by Michael Rome on Jan 30, 2010 11:17 PM EST
in MMA News
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Herschel Walker's debut gave us more answers than expected, because we saw him go deep into the third round, and we saw him both on his feet and on the ground. Of course, getting the answers isn't always a positive.
In the first round, the two traded for a short period, and Walker got the better of it. Nagy tried to take Walker down, but Walker stuffed the takedown and ended up on top. After going to the ground, Walker dominated there as well, but lacked the ability to finish the fight against an opponent that was looking for a way out. It was an easy 10-9 round for Walker.
Round two was more of the same, but most of the round was on the ground, where Walker did virtually anything he wanted. Nagy was flat for a lot of the fight, waiting to be finished. Walker did not finish, but he did dominate.
Walker finally stopped the fight in round 3, which was again more of the same. Walker did not slow down at all, his cardio is very impressive. Watching a 47 year old go nonstop for 12 minutes without tiring is a pretty big indictment of other top fighters who can't go that long without gassing. Walker won via TKO in the third.
After earning his stoppage, Walker was all class. He thanked his opponent right away, and said he didn't do anything right, before saying this was the hardest thing he's ever done. Anybody complaining about Walker getting the chance to fight should really rethink things. He's not going to be a world beater, but he's a good ambassador, and I have no problem with him fighting.
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He looked pretty scary at first and i was really worried. Flat footed, no head movement, and the kicks(yikes!!) But i must say after watching it that Wes Sims and Nudge are so far the duds of the nite, Herschel got his win and looked decent for a beginner , but those 2 guys flopped around and just flat gave up.
Walker looked pretty good against a terrible opponent. He didn’t seem to know how to finish it but this fight was never in any doubt. Hopefully Walker will get a better opponent next time out and we can actually see what he’s got. Still he did really good considering how little training he’s had, his cardio was particularly amazing for a 47 year old.
Walker vs Mercer for CBS in April
for a 47 year old that had never fought before I was impressed. I would love to see him against another low level opponent….or Ray Mercer
Ray would KO Herschel
I'm like PacMan fightin you silly kids... throw ya Hatton the ring, and get knocked outlike Ricky did.
lol.
i dunno i wasn’t too impressed by walker, it was more of a situation where his opponent was shitty enough to make him look good… his standup reminded me very much of that black dude on chappelles show who did the robot in many skits.
no I don’t remember the guys name he was a minor cast character, he’d be doing the robot in many skits, he looks kinda like David Allen Grier
by kanodogg on Jan 31, 2010 10:52 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
yea
i thought it was horrible myself
I'm the kind of girl who loves to watch a GOOD fight!
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Um… I thought he looked fricken amazing considering the amount of time he’s been training and that he’s going on fifty. What exactly are you expecting under those circumstances?
I’m expecting him to not fight on tv on a main card, so high up on the billing until he has those skills.
by kanodogg on Jan 31, 2010 10:51 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
My dad died before I ever started training MMA and I’ve always wondered if he would have approved of my career path. Had he dissaproved, I’m pretty sure this night would have changed his opinion of the sport and those who compete in it.
I’m curious if anyone out there has seen this happen with their pops over the last couple weeks because of Herschel.
by casey manrique on Jan 30, 2010 11:48 PM EST reply actions
Did you win the Heisman trophy mostly because you were an athletic freak of nature?
I’m pretty confident Mark Coleman will prove those disapproving pops correct (again). As for Herschel Walker people need to stop substituting him for 47 year old X when analyzing the situation.
I wasn’t talking about his age per se. I’m just commenting on his power to convince an older demographic (40-55?) that MMA is ok for decent folk.
by casey manrique on Jan 31, 2010 12:35 AM EST up reply actions
Ok, that makes sense
I thought you were condoning this as evidence that it’s sane for anyone to start an MMA career over the age of 40.
Heavens no, my dear nerd. I re-read my original post and can see how you took that. I’m 30 years old.
by casey manrique on Jan 31, 2010 12:51 AM EST up reply actions
I agree about the Ambassador part. Nobody seems to be taking the long view for Walker’s arc as a fighter. I think if he takes 3-5 fights against increasingly challenging opposition and finishes above .500, then Strikeforce can consider the experiment a success from a fighting perspective. But Herschel can be an asset for them for years to come outside the ring as long as they just treat his whole foray with respect, which they have so far.
I honestly think he was hurt in this showing by just how bad his opponent was. He didn’t really have anything for Walker at all, nor did he ever push him in the fight. Obviously Walker doesn’t need to be fighting anyone good at this point but man they need to at least find him an opponent that can offer something in the fight. It really seems like Strikeforce underestimated Walker in their booking, which is pretty surprising considering how short of time he’s been training. Still I’m going to reserve judgment on him until he fights someone better than that. He sure didn’t embarrass himself though and that is a good start.
the card for the most part was completely lopsided to begin with you could see that before the show started. Walker was doing fine for his first fight but they kept forgetting to mention his opponent was just as green
"Frank Mir had a horseshoe up his ass. I told him a year ago. I pulled it out of him and I beat him over the head with it." Brock Lesnar
I don’t think the problem was the guy was just green, he just didn’t seem to be anything at all. It was a gimme fight for Walker from the start. Still Walker didn’t look bad for a first fight and his cardio was scary good for a 47 year old. Heck Walker’s cardio puts most veteran heavyweights to shame.
That was a good performance for anyone in their first pro fight. I don’t think the opponent was unsuitable, it was just a rough match in general, which you had to expect coming in. But now AKA have some tape to figure out exactly where Walker needs the most work… like “what to do once he gets to a good position”, for example.
If Walker really knew how to finish he could of ended that fight in the first round, he just way over-matched Nagy in that fight.
Knowing how to finish isn’t exactly an easy skill set to acquire. Jon Fitch and the rest of the UFC Lightweight division are still looking to get better.
Not being able to finish other high level competition is one thing, being able to finish a guy who does nothing and is completely finished in the first round is something else entirely.
I’ve seen enough fights to know finishing is related more to the skill set of the fighter than the caliber of opponent. If a fighter doesn’t have knockout power or slick submission skills than finishing fights is a challenge. At that point the only TKO option is ground and pound, which can be time consuming.
Really? I would think that finishing a fight would have a lot to do with how hard the other guy is trying to stop you from finishing the fight. Nagy was just laying there waiting to be finished for most of it, heck I’m surprised he just didn’t tap out due to lack of will to continue.
Exactly
I'm the kind of girl who loves to watch a GOOD fight!
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by funnytiger on Jan 31, 2010 9:46 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
Stunt fights like this shouldn't have been on the main card of the so called #2 MMA promotion.
Walker should have fought on the undercard and if the fight was good then they should have shown it.
by snakecharmer1340 on Jan 31, 2010 12:22 AM EST reply actions
Free UFC fights on Spike is good for the business. Why? Attention.
Nah. It’s the same reason James Toney shouldn’t fight in the UFC.
by snakecharmer1340 on Jan 31, 2010 12:31 AM EST up reply actions
b..but only Japan does freak show fights!
by George Lucas on Jan 31, 2010 12:43 AM EST up reply actions
When you are paying the bills and hoping to make a profit from the event than you can decide who fights when and where however you want.
As a Showtime subscriber, I can say that I didn't like that.
I don’t stream the fights. I pay for Showtime.
by snakecharmer1340 on Jan 31, 2010 1:12 AM EST up reply actions
proper pronunciation of Greg Nagy's name.
Can you hear the difference between these two words?
nudge
knaw-d-ye (silent “e”). You pronounce the y as in you.
My wife is hungarian. Nagy is a very common surname, meaning “big”. Everytime these guys called greg “nudge” it stuck out about as much as calling our roof, a raff.
Walker looked reasonably impressive.
This was a terrible fight live. Everybody was booing. Can’t really say much more. Dissapointing to say the least.
"I will do nothing lightly. When I walk, I will walk heavily. When I fight, I will fight with conviction. When I speak, I will speak strongly. When I love, I will love with everything"
by dedstrk316 on Jan 31, 2010 1:23 AM EST via mobile reply actions
it was terrible. I was there too and after talking to a few of the guys working the event it smelled a lot like a work. Nagy had NO business on the undercard (considering the two guys at 0-2 that’s saying something). Even if this fight wasn’t a full work it may as well have been. I actually defended Walker getting into the ring, but that was on the premise that he was looking to compete and not just stroke his ego in front of everyone who watched.
Walker beat the Tomato Can they assigned him?
I.
AM.
SHOCKED.
Don't believe a word I say, I don't train BJJ.
I blog at TangleBones - you should follow me on Twitter here.
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