I haven’t seen a whole lot of intelligent analysis about this fight yet. Well other than “GSP will crush him”, but that isn’t my idea of intelligent analysis.
Personally I think this will be Georges toughest test to date. Since the Serra fight Georges has turned into predominently a grappler. He stood up with Fitch for a bit, but Fitch has never been known as a striker and doesn’t have KO power. Obviously Georges’ best chance is to get it to the ground and GNP or submit Thiago. Alves, however, has good takedown defense (Koscheck couldn’t get him down) and for once Georges won’t be the bigger/stronger fighter in the ring.
If Georges can’t take it to the ground I think Alves will KO him. I do see Georges getting Thiago down and ending the fight by submission, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Alves pull off the win. Thoughts?
The first two rounds will most likely be, leg, body and head kicks mixed with knees and grappling against the cage. The remaining rounds will be on the ground. GSP may go for a submission but I only see that if he’s having difficulty dominating the fight. It will end with GSP’s brand of GNP.
GSP can take anyone down. I think he will take away Alves strengths: powerful striking and leg kicks by being faster and putting him on the ground. If he tries to strike like koscheck did then Georges can get caught like Koscheck did.
I’m very interested to see when GSP stikes with Alves how will he deal with those kicks. Georges always has a plan for dealing with everything his opponent brings. Its going to be a good fight.
Alves is equal in size and just having to deal with that is going to be fun to watch when clinching and take down attempts.
Alves will be limited to using his hands. He kicks, he gets taken down.
GSP will force the clinch like he did against BJ. Alves is big and strong and we will see how effective he is in the clinch. No way GSP gives him space for too long.
Even if Alves can defend the TD in early rounds, I doubt he will be able to in the later rounds.
It’s also hard to imagine anyone out working GSP or coming in with better cardio.
I think it’s natural to favor the last fighter you saw dominate, but in this case I just can’t bring myself to like Alves in this one.
I love watching Alves fight. I think he’s a fucking bad ass and I would love to see him win. Just don’t see it happening unless it’s by early KO.
GSP. Alves could not make weight for the Hughes fight, ankle injury or not, plus he has never had to go 5 rounds, i think his conditioning will be an issue. GSP makes marvelous gameplans also, and took down Koschek several times in their fight, while Koschek did not manage to get GSP on the ground. Alves may be slightly bigger and stronger, but I think GSP takes this one.
GSP is just too strong, too fast, too good. If he decides to go to the ground…then the fight will go to the ground…if he wants to stand up…then the fight will stand up.
Alves has a punchers’s chance, and thats it.
This fight does NOT get out of the 1st round unless Alves finds a way to stall.
GSP is just too strong, too fast, too good. If he decides to go to the ground…then the fight will go to the ground…if he wants to stand up…then the fight will stand up.
Alves has a punchers’s chance, and thats it.
This fight does NOT get out of the 1st round unless Alves finds a way to stall.[/quote]
I’m a huge GSP fan…like to the point where I think this whole greasing thing is bullshit and BJ’s just a smack-talkin’ bitch, but I still couldn’t say what you just said with any degree of seriousness.
alves has to bring his A-game to the max. Swinging for the fences isn’t going to work. He gets taken down and smashed. I dont see GSP standing up for this fight at all, because alves has massive power and all he needs is one punch/kick to end it.
If this fight goes longer than 2 rounds, it’s GSP by ground and pound or submission. I think his game plan will be ala BJ, make him defend the takedown until he’s too tired, then just make a fool of him on the ground.
Only other outcome is alves getting a massive KO, but i think GSP will be playing it defensively for the first couple.
GSP is just too strong, too fast, too good. If he decides to go to the ground…then the fight will go to the ground…if he wants to stand up…then the fight will stand up.
Alves has a punchers’s chance, and thats it.
This fight does NOT get out of the 1st round unless Alves finds a way to stall.[/quote]
Wow…really? I think if GSP can’t get Alves to the ground and keep him there (I think he can) Georges is getting KO’d.
I can see Alves scrambling George has never had to hold down a 205 pound person we all saw how much size was a factor in the Penn fight holding Alves against the cage wont work his clinch game is to slick.
[quote]drewh wrote:
I can see Alves scrambling George has never had to hold down a 205 pound person we all saw how much size was a factor in the Penn fight holding Alves against the cage wont work his clinch game is to slick.[/quote]
That may very well happen, at least in the earlier rounds. But if you watch the primetime specials that were aired leading up to the fight with Penn, GSP regularly trains with some very talented MW and LHW fighters who stated that he is as strong, or stronger, than a lot of natural 205 lbers.
We haven’t really seen Alves’s conditioning really get tested recently (much to his credit), so we really don’t know if he’ll be able to continue to scramble back to his feet if GSP keeps putting him there. Even though it was a long time ago, and Thiago has improved significantly since that fight, Fitch was able to control him on the ground, and GSP pretty much controlled Fitch.
I’ve heard varying reports that Rashad and GSP go back and forth during training with the takedowns…if that’s the case, I don’t know how Alves can stop Georges.
I hate to beat a dead horse, but at least GSP won’t have to worry about Alves coming in a little slick for this fight thanks to BJ…last one (I hope anyway.)
I’m picking GSP by late 3rd round stoppage. I like Thiago alot his MT is definately world class especially leg kicks but I think Rush will out-cardio him. I could see Alves making his way through the middleweight division. Probably wouldn’t defeat Spider but could definately be a top contender.
Also GSP’s awesome takedowns are better than Alves’ awesome takedown defense imo and that’s gonna basically screw TA.
All in all I’m much more excited about this fight than I was for GSPvsPenn. Couldn’t see Penn winning but Alves could really pull it off.
[quote]dhickey wrote:
Alves will be limited to using his hands. He kicks, he gets taken down.
GSP will force the clinch like he did against BJ. Alves is big and strong and we will see how effective he is in the clinch. No way GSP gives him space for too long.
Even if Alves can defend the TD in early rounds, I doubt he will be able to in the later rounds.
It’s also hard to imagine anyone out working GSP or coming in with better cardio.
I think it’s natural to favor the last fighter you saw dominate, but in this case I just can’t bring myself to like Alves in this one.
I love watching Alves fight. I think he’s a fucking bad ass and I would love to see him win. Just don’t see it happening unless it’s by early KO.[/quote]
I am 100% in agreement with this post.
Also, the cut is something to keep in mind. In title fights you do not get a 1 pound allowance. Alves has only made 170 even once in his life, and that was when he got busted for diuretics against the uber-beard.
[quote]Donut62 wrote:
dhickey wrote:
Alves will be limited to using his hands. He kicks, he gets taken down.
GSP will force the clinch like he did against BJ. Alves is big and strong and we will see how effective he is in the clinch. No way GSP gives him space for too long.
Even if Alves can defend the TD in early rounds, I doubt he will be able to in the later rounds.
It’s also hard to imagine anyone out working GSP or coming in with better cardio.
I think it’s natural to favor the last fighter you saw dominate, but in this case I just can’t bring myself to like Alves in this one.
I love watching Alves fight. I think he’s a fucking bad ass and I would love to see him win. Just don’t see it happening unless it’s by early KO.
I am 100% in agreement with this post.
Also, the cut is something to keep in mind. In title fights you do not get a 1 pound allowance. Alves has only made 170 even once in his life, and that was when he got busted for diuretics against the uber-beard.[/quote]
I also believe Alves may have weight difficulty. If he struggles to make weight it could effect his preformance. I think he was to drop to much weight. Which means a lot of his power and endurance will be gone.
Having said that. If Alves drop weight right now and maintains it till the fight he could be very dangerous. That last minute weight cutting has it’s toll’s.
[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
drewh wrote:
I can see Alves scrambling George has never had to hold down a 205 pound person we all saw how much size was a factor in the Penn fight holding Alves against the cage wont work his clinch game is to slick.
That may very well happen, at least in the earlier rounds. But if you watch the primetime specials that were aired leading up to the fight with Penn, GSP regularly trains with some very talented MW and LHW fighters who stated that he is as strong, or stronger, than a lot of natural 205 lbers.
We haven’t really seen Alves’s conditioning really get tested recently (much to his credit), so we really don’t know if he’ll be able to continue to scramble back to his feet if GSP keeps putting him there. Even though it was a long time ago, and Thiago has improved significantly since that fight, Fitch was able to control him on the ground, and GSP pretty much controlled Fitch.
We’ll see what happens come fight time though.[/quote]
Yes. The pre Penn sparring against Evans reallly impressed me. Now it maybe was edited a lot to help toot GSP’s horn, but that would just make their Light Heavy Weight Champ look bad. After seeing that though, I am much more confident in GSP’s abilities to move up in weight classes, seeing how Evans outweighed him by probably at least 30 pounds
[quote]Pluto wrote:
Sentoguy wrote:
drewh wrote:
I can see Alves scrambling George has never had to hold down a 205 pound person we all saw how much size was a factor in the Penn fight holding Alves against the cage wont work his clinch game is to slick.
That may very well happen, at least in the earlier rounds. But if you watch the primetime specials that were aired leading up to the fight with Penn, GSP regularly trains with some very talented MW and LHW fighters who stated that he is as strong, or stronger, than a lot of natural 205 lbers.
We haven’t really seen Alves’s conditioning really get tested recently (much to his credit), so we really don’t know if he’ll be able to continue to scramble back to his feet if GSP keeps putting him there. Even though it was a long time ago, and Thiago has improved significantly since that fight, Fitch was able to control him on the ground, and GSP pretty much controlled Fitch.
We’ll see what happens come fight time though.
Yes. The pre Penn sparring against Evans reallly impressed me. Now it maybe was edited a lot to help toot GSP’s horn, but that would just make their Light Heavy Weight Champ look bad. After seeing that though, I am much more confident in GSP’s abilities to move up in weight classes, seeing how Evans outweighed him by probably at least 30 pounds[/quote]
I doubt it was that big of a weight difference. Georges walks around at almost 190lbs and Rashad is a small LH. I wouldn’t be surprised if he cut little, if any, to hit 205lbs.