Are Mental Gifts the Key to Paulo Thiago's Success?

Agreed, and I think he’d beat the other three. That being said, I’m not sure he’s quite ready for a beast like Alves yet. Stylistically, the Pitbull is a bad match-up for him.

I’d have all of those guys except Kampmann as the favorite until I see something from him that would lead me to believe he could take the fight to the floor. Those strikes that Swick landed that rocked Thiago would have ended his night if they came from Hardy or Semtex.

I have some doubt. I can’t see how they can promote that as an interesting fight. At least with Hardy they have the mouth and the chance to K.O. GSP standing ala Matt Serra. Hardy hasn’t shown that hes susceptible to takedown/GnP (he definitely is but the fans haven’t had it shoved in their face).

Paulo can’t build the fight with his words like Hardy and has shown that he can be taken down, controlled on the ground and dominated in the Fitch fight, which is tet exact strategy that GSP employs.

Unfortunately for Thiago I think your analysis is correct, however it will be Thiago that is passed over for a man that he has beaten as Koscheck gets a rematch with GSP.

it would be helpful if he had a nickname

AKA killer!

as a contender at WW imo.

How the mighty have fallen. Going from bashing Dan Hardy’s record and being one win away from a title shot, to going 0-2 in his last two fights and playing himself out of contention. I think it is actually a good thing for him, he needs to go back to MW, dude looks like he has to chop off an appendage to make weight, and that can’t be healthy.

I’d LOVE to see him fight Saunders. I think Diego would give him the Fitch treatment. Nate Diaz would be a very interesting match-up as well.

Yeah, it’s kind of crazy he sort of does MMA on the side… If he spent 7 hours a day 6 days a week with Nova or Black House, he could become something really special

Or Daley. I think Thiago wins either, then hopefully gets somebody huge next.

Kampmann/ Paulo would be an awesome fight.

Hes also one of the only fighters in title contention that have a day job.

And Kennedy may be on the same path. He’s improved immensely since moving to being a full-time fighter.

Not saying he’s better or anything, but it sure is different. (Kennedy is a bit closer to Thiago than Stann though)

UFC Undisputed 2011 – First Person Shooter?

Honestly, his striking has improved immensely. People aren’t in the wrong suggesting it was horrible in his fight with Koscheck. The combination that downed Koscheck was very good form and anticipating Koscheck leading in like that was brilliant. But most of the round saw Thiago throwing some horribly bad punches.

Kos was winging punches and did land a big right, but Paulo has a good Chin it seems.

heh, I was commenting something similar to my friend as we watched the fight. He deflected and blocked strikes very effectively against Swick, and mostly with slapping, sweeping hand movements, though his strikes looked fairly crisp. Thats one of the things that happened to really stick out for me during the fight

In your title "Are Mental Gifts The Key to Paulo Thiago’s Success", the use of the phrase "mental gifts" is weak at best ; readers will most likely think that you are relating to mental lapses in his opponents, as this would be proper use. I think you might have meant intellectual gifts, gift of mental fortitude, etc. People don’t usually refer to gifts of the mind in such general terms.

Thanks for the criticism. I’m not the greatest writer in the world, nor will I ever claim to be. I will say this… the mental gifts line isn’t the most solid, but it certainly doesn’t give me the impression that it relates to mental lapses in his opponents at all. Maybe that’s just me.

You need to learn punctuation and sentence fragments before you go into a long detailed post criticizing someone else’s English skills.

I could certainly improve my writing skills, although I tend to see that my writing skill flattens early in the week when I haven’t been writing over the weekends. I have mental lapses like everyone else, and I’m by no means a “gifted” writer. I’ll work on it though.

Also, your first sentence is "I was rectified". When something is rectified, it is corrected. Mistakes can be rectified. Erroneous opinions can be rectified. Political stances can be rectified. But people are not rectified. When reading further, it becomes clear that you not only used the word in the improper context, but also used it altogether improperly. I believe that you might have meant to say "I felt vindicated" or "I felt I redeemed myself" or something of that ilk.

Nate, you failed me, lol. Vindicated is actually a much better word. Thanks for the suggestion.

There are other areas in your text that could be polished of course, but having a weak title and a sentence with erroneous meaning to initialize your text cripples your message right out of the proverbial gate. There are thousands of people reading your blog. Don’t you think it would serve your work better if you were to present it without outstanding flaws?

I’m sorry I have failed you, dhurtubise.