MMA Discussion Thread Part XV

djcla

Tito Ortiz was on the joe rogan podcast a few weeks back if anyone is interested, his Pod's contains bad language etc.

BigStu1972

I'm gonna wait until i've seen GSP fight again before I pass judgement on who I think will win this one, but why the catchweight? Why not fight for the MW title?

DrPhil

Probably think that GSP would be too small a MW. 185 stacks the odds in Silva's favour.

mooperman

as it stands, i think silva would take GSP easily enough, GSP needs some fights under his belt but at the same time that may take to long and push silva into retirement.... bit of a catch 22....

Boris360

I agree. I thought the catch weight was going to be 178. I'm surprised it isn't given that there was talk of Silva going to 170 which I think would be extremely tough and ill advised for Silva.

What doesn't help is that Silva is taller than most middleweights and GSP is shorter than most welterweights. It makes it very difficult for Silva to move down and it's less than ideal for GSP to move up.

180 is Ok though. I think it's fair because I think GSP is a bigger weight cutter than Silva is.

Iirc, Mooperman and I have an avatar bet penciled in for Silva vs GSP. Needless to say, Mooper backed Silva and I backed GSP.

GSP has to get past Condit first anyway plus there's the unknown of how GSP will be after his ACL repair. I'm not building my hopes up too much until GSP answers those questions.

Shellkraker

Would a fight between GSP and Silva be all that spectacular though?

Can't escape the thought that GSP would take Silva down and control him for 5 rounds.

Boris360

I think the event would be so massive that even if GSP held Silva down for a UD, it'd could still be a spectacle. Silva Sonnen 1 was an exciting fight even before the sub.

DrPhil

It's true that even a takedown & control type fight can be gripping depending on the fighters and the situation.

Randy vs Tito and Randy vs Sylvia for example. Both fought mostly on the ground but both fantastic fights because of the circumstances. True Randy mixed in some good striking too like that legendary punch that dropped Tim after 8 seconds but he wrestled his way to the title both times.

Personally I'm putting my money on Silva for the "superfight" if it happens. Not just because of the possible fallout from the knee injury. I've backed GSP for this one before but if the much improved takedown defence shown against Sonnen (II) continues then I think Silva will be able to keep the fight standing enough times to do damage to GSP and take a 3rd or 4th round TKO.

Boris360

You should have an avatar bet with someone if it happens. It'd be funny if everyone on this thread went nuts and we had multiple Avatar bets going on to celebrate the biggest fight in MMA history. It definitely adds something to the drama of the fight if you think you might suffer the indignity of carrying a Loius Spence Avatar for a couple of weeks if your guy loses.

I'm not sure how many people will back GSP though.

BigStu1972

If GSP comes through Condit and looks back to his best doing it then i'll back GSP