I love Bendo, but what’s with the crazy toothpick stuff.
He will certainly own Pettis and his fancy kicks if they meet again, although i don’t think he will get past Cerrone.
[quote]kaisermetal wrote:
I love Bendo, but what’s with the crazy toothpick stuff.
He will certainly own Pettis and his fancy kicks if they meet again, although i don’t think he will get past Cerrone.[/quote]
Cerrone is my favorite LW at current, and this fight is pretty much guaranteed to be FOTY candidate, but i think Bendo will just be too unpredictable and multi-faceted for Cowboy. I got Bendo by decision.
And yeah, i think Pettis gets worked in a rematch, again by decision.
Man, Gusta did a decent job, but after watching that, at this point in time, he’s not ready for Jones. Shogun has two goto punches, the cheat punch (jab with rear leg stepping forward) and the overhand right lead, and he landed both with frequency. His takedown defense didn’t inspire much confidence either.
Benson put on a clinic. I’m sure everyone knew that the Diaz brothers were susceptible to leg kicks, but hell if he didn’t drive home the point. At one point he PUNCHED Nate in the lower quad, and Nate buckled. I disagree with him not being a smart-fighter. He kept falling for the leg lock attempts, but that was the only effective offense Nate had. Everything else was shut down. To add to that, I don’t think Nate is particularly well versed in that part of the ground game. He did a poor job of isolating the legs and never pursued the sweep when he should have.
Fun fights over all last night. I have yet to view the Penn/Rory fight, missed it… and am kind of dreading pulling it up on my DVR, hahah.
[quote]audiogarden1 wrote:
[quote]kaisermetal wrote:
I love Bendo, but what’s with the crazy toothpick stuff.
He will certainly own Pettis and his fancy kicks if they meet again, although i don’t think he will get past Cerrone.[/quote]
Cerrone is my favorite LW at current, and this fight is pretty much guaranteed to be FOTY candidate, but i think Bendo will just be too unpredictable and multi-faceted for Cowboy. I got Bendo by decision.
And yeah, i think Pettis gets worked in a rematch, again by decision. [/quote]
IMO Cerrone could have and should have beat Diaz, but he let Nate get into his head and sucker him into getting into a boxing match where Nate could use his superior reach and chin to overwhelm Cowboy. Cerrone landed some great leg kicks in that fight (even taking Nate off his feet on a couple of occasions) and it didn’t seem like Diaz had an answer for them. But foolishly (for whatever reason) he did not continue to utilize them.
[quote]rundymc wrote:
Benson put on a clinic. I’m sure everyone knew that the Diaz brothers were susceptible to leg kicks, but hell if he didn’t drive home the point. At one point he PUNCHED Nate in the lower quad, and Nate buckled. I disagree with him not being a smart-fighter. He kept falling for the leg lock attempts, but that was the only effective offense Nate had. Everything else was shut down. To add to that, I don’t think Nate is particularly well versed in that part of the ground game. He did a poor job of isolating the legs and never pursued the sweep when he should have.
[/quote]
The punches to Nate’s lead leg were pretty cool, but had he just kept mixing those with leg kicks and punches to the face from a distance he could have eventually dropped Diaz (pretty much what Matt Hughes did to Renzo Gracie in their fight). I also liked his use of the clinch to smother Nate, but IMO he should have continued to punish Nate’s left leg with knees.
My comment about him not being a smart fighter stands. He was destroying Nate from the feet (and again I think it could have been even more lopsided had he been less hesitant to pull the leg kick trigger) and instead of just standing back and kicking or kneeing Nate in his legs while Nate layed on his back trying to bait Bendo into his guard in hopes of pulling off a fight winning decision, Bendo continually put his legs in harm’s way. Yes, Bendo is a great scrambler and has great submission defense, but a smart fighter would never have put himself in unnecessary danger like that. Again, there is a difference between being the better fighter (which Bendo clearly was/is) and being a smart fighter.
Noted. On the flipside, he was having success with the GnP. Guess that’s where he’s most comfortable, and unlike Edgar, he was able to consistently grapple Diaz into bad positions.
Come to think of it, Benson medalled at the Mundials at brown belt. That likely puts his skills at the mid-tier for competition black belts. At the very least, he equals Nate in pure BJJ. Diaz never really had a chance as far as style matchups go, lol.
Yeah, in that light Diaz’s only real chance was that Bendo would be stupid enough to try to box with him (like Cerrone was).
[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
[quote]audiogarden1 wrote:
[quote]kaisermetal wrote:
I love Bendo, but what’s with the crazy toothpick stuff.
He will certainly own Pettis and his fancy kicks if they meet again, although i don’t think he will get past Cerrone.[/quote]
Cerrone is my favorite LW at current, and this fight is pretty much guaranteed to be FOTY candidate, but i think Bendo will just be too unpredictable and multi-faceted for Cowboy. I got Bendo by decision.
And yeah, i think Pettis gets worked in a rematch, again by decision. [/quote]
IMO Cerrone could have and should have beat Diaz, but he let Nate get into his head and sucker him into getting into a boxing match where Nate could use his superior reach and chin to overwhelm Cowboy. Cerrone landed some great leg kicks in that fight (even taking Nate off his feet on a couple of occasions) and it didn’t seem like Diaz had an answer for them. But foolishly (for whatever reason) he did not continue to utilize them. [/quote]
I agree, i was extremely disappointed in that fight. I still think Cerrone can and should beat Diaz if they rematch, but he let Nate get in his head. Its almost embarrassing that he let Nate irk him that badly. Dont think he would make that mistake again.
[quote]rundymc wrote:
Man, Gusta did a decent job, but after watching that, at this point in time, he’s not ready for Jones. Shogun has two goto punches, the cheat punch (jab with rear leg stepping forward) and the overhand right lead, and he landed both with frequency. His takedown defense didn’t inspire much confidence either.
Benson put on a clinic. I’m sure everyone knew that the Diaz brothers were susceptible to leg kicks, but hell if he didn’t drive home the point. At one point he PUNCHED Nate in the lower quad, and Nate buckled. I disagree with him not being a smart-fighter. He kept falling for the leg lock attempts, but that was the only effective offense Nate had. Everything else was shut down. To add to that, I don’t think Nate is particularly well versed in that part of the ground game. He did a poor job of isolating the legs and never pursued the sweep when he should have.
Fun fights over all last night. I have yet to view the Penn/Rory fight, missed it… and am kind of dreading pulling it up on my DVR, hahah.[/quote]
Its honestly not worth watching at all unless you want to see a timid, fading legend play the role of a punching bag for 3 rounds. Only lead to frustration for me.
[quote]audiogarden1 wrote:
[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
[quote]audiogarden1 wrote:
[quote]kaisermetal wrote:
I love Bendo, but what’s with the crazy toothpick stuff.
He will certainly own Pettis and his fancy kicks if they meet again, although i don’t think he will get past Cerrone.[/quote]
Cerrone is my favorite LW at current, and this fight is pretty much guaranteed to be FOTY candidate, but i think Bendo will just be too unpredictable and multi-faceted for Cowboy. I got Bendo by decision.
And yeah, i think Pettis gets worked in a rematch, again by decision. [/quote]
IMO Cerrone could have and should have beat Diaz, but he let Nate get into his head and sucker him into getting into a boxing match where Nate could use his superior reach and chin to overwhelm Cowboy. Cerrone landed some great leg kicks in that fight (even taking Nate off his feet on a couple of occasions) and it didn’t seem like Diaz had an answer for them. But foolishly (for whatever reason) he did not continue to utilize them. [/quote]
I agree, i was extremely disappointed in that fight. I still think Cerrone can and should beat Diaz if they rematch, but he let Nate get in his head. Its almost embarrassing that he let Nate irk him that badly. Dont think he would make that mistake again. [/quote]
I hope not.
not even his best weapon he was using that was the parry followed by the lead jab.
I’m not sure that’s the worst BJ Penn we’ve ever seen, I think Rory just made him look that way. He trained hard, but he’s also 34. Probably should’ve remembered what it was like to be a HUNGRY 23 yo who loves to train and fight. I was doubting everyone heralding Rory as the future of the division - no longer. I think he’s going to wreck Condit in their rematch
[quote]slimjim wrote:
I’m not sure that’s the worst BJ Penn we’ve ever seen, I think Rory just made him look that way. He trained hard, but he’s also 34. Probably should’ve remembered what it was like to be a HUNGRY 23 yo who loves to train and fight. I was doubting everyone heralding Rory as the future of the division - no longer. I think he’s going to wreck Condit in their rematch[/quote]
I agree with you.
But with Penn it’s more than just age. As we’ve found out with many other fighters 34 is not by itself a career stopper.
Penn has two other problems which are related.
-
He hates to train and always has. Some call him lazy but I would go that far. I think he just hates to do cardio. Just a guess.
-
He’s just too small to fight at that weight class. And this relates to him training and losing weight so he can fight at LW.
By the way how you been Slim have not talked to you in a long time.
[quote]ZEB wrote:
[quote]slimjim wrote:
I’m not sure that’s the worst BJ Penn we’ve ever seen, I think Rory just made him look that way. He trained hard, but he’s also 34. Probably should’ve remembered what it was like to be a HUNGRY 23 yo who loves to train and fight. I was doubting everyone heralding Rory as the future of the division - no longer. I think he’s going to wreck Condit in their rematch[/quote]
I agree with you.
But with Penn it’s more than just age. As we’ve found out with many other fighters 34 is not by itself a career stopper.
Penn has two other problems which are related.
-
He hates to train and always has. Some call him lazy but I would go that far. I think he just hates to do cardio. Just a guess.
-
He’s just too small to fight at that weight class. And this relates to him training and losing weight so he can fight at LW.
By the way how you been Slim have not talked to you in a long time.[/quote]
Yeah, his lack of development in the S&C arena have definitely hurt him as he’s gotten older. I think he did give it a good go this time around, putting in the work in the gym, it’s just no longer good enough for him to flip the switch training wise when he wants to perform - the athletes he’s competing against are routinely putting in work at the gym day in and day out - not just before their fights.
At this point in his life I would like to see him hang it up for good and maybe focus on teaching at his gym - family responsibilities have put a little too much on his plate at this point - especially when he has little interest in taking fights against lesser opposition - continuing to try to fight a weightclass up against the upper tier of the welterweight division without his full commitment is a recipe for disaster as his last few fights have shown.
I’ve been good - started with the fire department over here a couple years ago…trying to find the time to grapple, lift, and workout while making time for the family and job - I’ve almost forgotten what it was like to be 23 without responsibilities and endless time to train
[quote]slimjim wrote:
[quote]ZEB wrote:
[quote]slimjim wrote:
I’m not sure that’s the worst BJ Penn we’ve ever seen, I think Rory just made him look that way. He trained hard, but he’s also 34. Probably should’ve remembered what it was like to be a HUNGRY 23 yo who loves to train and fight. I was doubting everyone heralding Rory as the future of the division - no longer. I think he’s going to wreck Condit in their rematch[/quote]
I agree with you.
But with Penn it’s more than just age. As we’ve found out with many other fighters 34 is not by itself a career stopper.
Penn has two other problems which are related.
-
He hates to train and always has. Some call him lazy but I would go that far. I think he just hates to do cardio. Just a guess.
-
He’s just too small to fight at that weight class. And this relates to him training and losing weight so he can fight at LW.
By the way how you been Slim have not talked to you in a long time.[/quote]
Yeah, his lack of development in the S&C arena have definitely hurt him as he’s gotten older. I think he did give it a good go this time around, putting in the work in the gym, it’s just no longer good enough for him to flip the switch training wise when he wants to perform - the athletes he’s competing against are routinely putting in work at the gym day in and day out - not just before their fights.
At this point in his life I would like to see him hang it up for good and maybe focus on teaching at his gym - family responsibilities have put a little too much on his plate at this point - especially when he has little interest in taking fights against lesser opposition - continuing to try to fight a weightclass up against the upper tier of the welterweight division without his full commitment is a recipe for disaster as his last few fights have shown.
I’ve been good - started with the fire department over here a couple years ago…trying to find the time to grapple, lift, and workout while making time for the family and job - I’ve almost forgotten what it was like to be 23 without responsibilities and endless time to train[/quote]
Yeah, BJ was a great fighter with really lousy training habits. I’d like to see him retire now. I never like to see any of the guys fight past their peak. I was thinking the same thing after Chuck Liddell was knocked out repeatedly.