While he seemed kinda awkward in the first seconds of the fight… I was very impressed. He looks like he has hard hooks… and as made obvious in the video… some nasty takedowns. As a former highschool wrestler… I was very impressed by his single-leg takedowns. Often they are such a drawn out take down… and his looks as strong as a double-leg.
Seth Petruzelli put him in some dangerous positions on the ground and he was in danger of being submitted a couple times… but Vemola appears to have good submission defense (he got out of an armbar and triangle anyways) as well. His ground and pound looked nice…
he was just in a pre-lim for now… but what do you guys think of him? do you think we’ll see him climbing the ranks of 205 and eventually challenging for the belt?
He’s obviously very green and looked stiff, but it was his first UFC fight (to the best of my knowledge), so you’ve kinda got to cut him some slack. His nerves were probably what made him look so stiff.
He is definitely a powerful guy and has a good wrestling pedigree from which to develop his skills. Whether or not we’ll see him climbing the ranks of the LHW division is impossible to say. He is still relatively young, so he has time to develop, but it somewhat depends on who he trains with and whether they can help him to develop to his full potential. He’s got raw talent, it’s just a matter of whether or not he cultivates it.
Whatevs Lets talk about the rest of the card
Dennis Siver meh, I don’t know what to think. If you re watch the Maynard fight he gets Gray down, but Gray has one of those styles where he makes his opponents look good, but he still pulls off the W.
I want a Ludwig Sadollah matchup Really BAD, how many stand up wars are there at 170? Not many make it happen Joe Silva.
Post fight Nate said he thought he won. A lot of people are blaming his trainers. He was gun shy against Okami because he figured his over aggressiveness cost him against Sonnen. So he fought Okami the way he should have fought Sonnen and he fought Sonnen the way he should have fought Okami.
I see Okami having a much better shot at beating Vitor than Anderson.
[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
He’s obviously very green and looked stiff, but it was his first UFC fight (to the best of my knowledge), so you’ve kinda got to cut him some slack. His nerves were probably what made him look so stiff.
He is definitely a powerful guy and has a good wrestling pedigree from which to develop his skills. Whether or not we’ll see him climbing the ranks of the LHW division is impossible to say. He is still relatively young, so he has time to develop, but it somewhat depends on who he trains with and whether they can help him to develop to his full potential. He’s got raw talent, it’s just a matter of whether or not he cultivates it. [/quote]
Thanks for your thoughts, Sentoguy.
He fought Jon Madsen at heavyweight in his first UFC fight at UFC 116. According to sherdog he lost by unanimous decision. I guess he decided after that he was better suited for LHW.
I thought he looked great for a guy I never heard of before. He did some odd things though like half climbing on the other Seth’s back and sliding back into Seth’s guard.
[quote]sardines12 wrote:
Whatevs Lets talk about the rest of the card
Dennis Siver meh, I don’t know what to think. If you re watch the Maynard fight he gets Gray down, but Gray has one of those styles where he makes his opponents look good, but he still pulls off the W.
I want a Ludwig Sadollah matchup Really BAD, how many stand up wars are there at 170? Not many make it happen Joe Silva.
Post fight Nate said he thought he won. A lot of people are blaming his trainers. He was gun shy against Okami because he figured his over aggressiveness cost him against Sonnen. So he fought Okami the way he should have fought Sonnen and he fought Sonnen the way he should have fought Okami.
I see Okami having a much better shot at beating Vitor than Anderson.
Thoughts?[/quote]
I was glad Okami won but I was surprised it was unanimous decision. It was nice to see a few take-downs and a couple good punches didn’t land Marquardt the win though. I was afraid the judges would give Nate the decision based on his take-downs.
as for blaming his trainers… one was telling him to believe in his kicks over and over. I don’t think it was the trainers.
I thought Vemola looked pretty awesome, but I can’t wait to bet against him against a more accomplished submission fighter. He is obviously crazy powerful and has some sweet takedowns, but he was practically giving that triangle up every time. Somebody better than Petruzelli will finish him. But he is a tank of a LHW and anybody that can’t fight off their back will be in for a world of hurt against him.
I was impressed by Nate and the only thing that impressed me about Okami was how huge he looked. Neither let their striking go or threatened with much of anything on the ground. I guess you never know, but neither look like they have anything to threaten Silva with.
I like Sadollah, and love how clean and technical he is, but the dude has no finishing power. Sobotta was woefully overmatched but never looked in danger of being put away. I think Sadollah would be a huge favorite over Ludwig (to use an example cited in this thread), but he doesn’t have the standup power or grappling ability to be more than a mid-tier welterweight, in my opinion. He doesn’t seem big for a welterweight though, and I have to think that he could probably get down to lightweight if he really needed to. I’ve got to think he would be more competitive in that division. I actually think his leg kicks and technical striking would even give somebody like Frank Edgar headaches, and I don’t think that the lightweight guys are big enough to totally bully him like Kim did.
I’d be kind of surprised if McCray or Petruzelli don’t get cut. I guess McCray will get one more fight for being a TUF finalist, but I just don’t think he’s very good. Good to see Noke win, as I think he has more potential- despite his lost to McCray on the show.
Winner and Siver… meh. Entertaining fight, but I don’t think either guy is a serious contender. Hopefully, they will just keep giving Siver guys who want to have entertaining standup bouts. I was disappointed not to see the spinning back kick!
Kind of a crappy card, but fortunately UFC 123 more than makes up for it.
I was impressed by Nate and the only thing that impressed me about Okami was how huge he looked. .
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haha, I agree. whenever i watch Okami, about the only thing that stands out to me is how freaking big he looks as a middleweight. haha. [/quote]
Hah yeah he is enormous. I would say that would be an advantage over Silva, as Silva isn’t a particularly powerful dude, but he’s used to fighting LHW and is outstanding off his back, so I can’t see Okami beating him there.
I meant to say “was NOT impressed by Nate” though.
I was impressed by Nate and the only thing that impressed me about Okami was how huge he looked. .
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haha, I agree. whenever i watch Okami, about the only thing that stands out to me is how freaking big he looks as a middleweight. haha. [/quote]
Hah yeah he is enormous. I would say that would be an advantage over Silva, as Silva isn’t a particularly powerful dude, but he’s used to fighting LHW and is outstanding off his back, so I can’t see Okami beating him there.
I meant to say “was NOT impressed by Nate” though.
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what is Okami’s background btw, wrestling, judo? and has he ever competed at a high level in whatever discipline another (higher) weight-class?
i just got doen watching this and the sadallah fight (gotta love the DVR)…
Vemolla got lucky with Petruzelli…i’ll explain how i see it. Vemolla did a terrible job of leaving his arms out for arm bars, almost got triangled a couple times, etc…but Petruzelli is one of the worst game day fighters i’ve seen. if there’s no pressure, he performs. if there’s any pressure, he treats it like a damn sparring session and has no sense of urgency in his striking (he wasn’t throwing crisp shots) or in his sub attempts. Vermolla’s strong, quick and athletic, but tehcnically could use some work. still, he clearly dominated the fight… Petruzelli is a tough guy, but his performacce is friggin erratic as hell.
Saddallah looked great. i think he engaged as much as he could, and he did a good job of maintaining his guard while throwing shots (he used to drop his hands a lot). he also made an attempt to stay in the pocket, but when you;re chasing the guy and wailing on him for 15 minutes, it gets kinda tough.
i think at some point he’s gonna have to make a concentrated attempt to forcus on strnegth&power, as well as combining his muay thai with his MMA game, but right now, he looked good.