Crouching Squirrel Hidden Acorn

This was just a brutal battle. Franklin and Silva met at 205 that day, with a bit of a strength advantage going to Silva since light heavy is much closer to Franklin’s walking weight then Silva’s.

When the match started I though Silva might have taken it but he just couldn’t pull through with any combinations. Franklin stayed on his feet well and countered the entire time. Excellent heart and conditioning shown by both fighters.

Did you see the callus’s on their hands? Can you imagine how long they had been training for this?

Truly the most viscious, drawn out, and epic battle in martial arts history.

This was an excellent fight with a really weird ending. I really don’t know how the scoring system in K-1 works exactly so I’ll just say 3 quick things.

1) Mike threw a fucking typhoon of devestationg body punches. That shit was insane. Just absolutley impeccable inboxing.

2) Kraus really stepped up to the occasion. He used his kicks well, his hands looked good, he used his knee’s extremly well and stuck it out with one of the toughest bastards on the planet.

3) Really weird ending to a really great fight.

If Mike would’ve been deemed OK to continue then Kraus would just lay down the knee’s again. That or Mike scores a miraculos KO but… I wouldn’t exactly put my money on it in considering the condition he was in anyway. I personally think they should have judged it out but whatever. If I knew K-1′s exact scoring criteria I would go back and count shots but since I don’t I’ll just end this with a few tips.

Mikes inboxing was working. Then it started to work against him when Kraus starting throwing those vicious knee’s. Keep your chin tucked, not your entire head. You can’t pull a Jack Dempsey when the other guy is cutting your face up with knees and kicks.

Kraus really braved the storm when Mike started throwing those hook combinations from body to head. If it was any fighter lesser then Kraus, a real K-1 Max competiter and former champ then I think they would’ve just been floored in round one. Kraus kept distance and used his kicks more which was good thinking on his part.

I’m thinking Yodsanklai vs Kraus and a Zambidis vs Kyshenko rematch would be epic to watch next year. Come on K-1, make it happen already!

I hated the end of this fight. I’m a huge Buakaw nut rider. Oh well, better luck next time.

Round One: Sato is much busier then Buakaw who is somewhere between analyzing his opponent or just being lazy. I’m not sure which it is. Regardless Sato is pushing the pace much more the Buakaw during round one from start to finish. Only real offense I saw from Buakaw were alot of teeps and a good trip. Sato was hammering those kicks and keeping distance pretty well. The hand exchanges were very minor this round and Buakaw only really looked like he was pushing Sato tward the end of the round, and even then it wasn’t by much.

Regular first round, kind of uneventful, but not dissapointing.
Winner by points (not official, in my opinion): Sato
Sato 10 – Buakaw 9

Rounds Two: This round starts just like the first expect after about 10 seconds both fighters just explode outward. Buakaw is looking much busier. Sato still looks like he was working his kicks more then Buakaw but Buakaw was setting up some excellent boxing exchanges when he did use his legs. Buakaw definatly preferred his hands this round and was bashing Sato for some time at about the 1:00 mark. I don’t beleive he should’ve started brawling with Sato with about 10 seconds left, but none the less he worked his hands very well. Sato counter punched pretty well early on and didn’t get caught up in the clinch. Early in the round Buakaw was looking for an over hand punch from the clinch to floor Sato with and it just wasn’t happening. Good movement on Sato’s part. Had Sato been pushed into a corner maybe we would’ve seen a defferent outcome but unfortunatly no such luck for Buakaw.

Great second round, Sato was only busier with his kicks, Buakaw showed excellent boxing, to give the round to one of the fighters I would have to re-watch and count kicks/punches/knee’s.
Winner by points: Draw

Sato 20 – Buakaw 19

Round Three: Both fighters just start going at it full force. The punch kick combinations Buakaw was pulling off looked great. Sato looked like he was getting verry frustrated with the straight punch combos Buakaw was throwing. Then at 1:30 left everything goes to hell. Sato starts stalking Buakaw and just drops bombs. At about 1:23 left Buakaw eats a vicious knee right to the sternum I beleive. Totally winded and barley standing Buakaw, like a real fucking champion, stands there and holds his ground. Sato follows up with a right hook and it’s lights out for Buakaw.

Buakaw’s boxing definatly looked crisper and Sato showed tremendous stamina being about 2x busier through the entire fight. This just might be Sato’s break through year.

One punch slipped through and that’s all it took. Honestly I was suprised how it ended. I was expecting Leonard to ending up getting counter punched twards the beggining of the round but I guess those round house kicks kept Hiroyuki at bay. Good thinking on Leonard’s part. The right straight that first floored Takaya was so well placed because from the angle his first left straight hit his opponent, the strike actually jarred the forearm just enough so the second punch could land clean. Truly impressive combination work.

The other aspects of Garcias’ game plan that helped him alot here was his foot work and ability to exchange. He was basically controlling the exchange of hands the entire time because of how quickly he was moving. Takaya wanted to take his time and let Leonard lead, which would have been a good idea had he just tried to counter box more and use more foot work. I could definatly see Takaya firing a left hook whilst back peddling, Ray Robinson style, and having it floor Garcia while in the beggining of an exchange.

Aside from that this was a good display of boxing ability from both fighters, good kicks as well, and excellent strategy from Garcia.

The most prominent thing shown in this fight is the use of breaking the opponents rhythem and perfect timing. Buakaw stepped in as soon his opponent got comfortable and hammered away. He stalled with the clinch, threw out a round house, and just stepped into his opponent. Rinse, wash, repeat.

Chahbari’s boxing was looking good round one and he almost took it but he just turtled up too much at the end. I barley saw any head movement from him. It looked like his game plan was to box or turtle. His kicks might have helped him but he telegraphed way too much and just ended up getting teeped. Even when he got the clinch it didn’t work out too well for him.

Second and thrid round was basically the end of the first. Minor scrap, round house, buakaw drops bombs. When Faldir managed to step in he was just out classed in the clinch and every time he tried to fire off a kick the same thing would happen or once again Buakaw would just drop bombs. His corner should have told him move his head more and take distance. I think he might have been able to mess with Buakaws’ head if he faked a kick or lead with a teep into an over hand punch.

On a final note Faldir was backed up into the ropes and the corner way too often. He should have been thinking about his position in the ring for the fight. You can’t play rope-a-dope with Buakaw, you’ll just get kicked in the head. He defended him self decently in the corner, and I don’t know if it’s just me, but sometimes it looked like he led Buakaw their just to try and turn the situation around. Even if he had managed to do so, I’m pretty sure he’d just get clinched up after like two shots and they’d be reset.

I admire the heart Faldir showed in this fight and I honestly think that with the right game plan he could’ve been able to come out on top.

Don’t ever shoot in on a charging opponent. Not only will you probably fuck up, there’s a slight chance you will get fucking knee’d in the face.

Running full speed into a closed fist might sound like a good idea on paper but it doesn’t look like all that practical in a fight.

You know I remember when the first round in boxing was then one where you concentrated on jabing, moving, gauging distance, and feeling out your opponent. Not staring at them swing while thinking to your self “Son of a bitch this is really gonna hurt… I should probably move out of the way… I wonder what I’m gonna have for dinner tod— *BANG*”.

Combinations are your friend. I have no idea what Souwer’s game plan was but where the hell was his teep and round house through out that entire fight? All I saw him use effectivley was his lead leg round house to Buakaws lead leg. Thats about it. Buakaw was gauging distance, teeping, pushing Andy back hard with a high round house kicks to the head and was working beautiful boxing as well as clinch offense.

Rounds 1: Can’t really see more then text book stuff. Bell rings, fighters paw at each other, a few nice combinations, one or two nice kick exchanges and then you go back to your corner to think of your game plan. Really vanilla looking stuff.

Round 2: Souwer develops A.D.D. for the rest of the fight and forgets how to kick properly. Buakaw keeps switching between in fight and out fight through out the entire round and then finally see’s an opening to work his in boxing. Falls in and out of Andy’s reach with clinch work and round houses, gets a knock down, rinse wash repeat, another knock down. Souwer STILL doesn’t realize he need’s to switch tactic’s and basically just stands there. One right straight later and Souwer is on the floor.

Buakaw showed great boxing and ability to manipulate distance. His footwork was on point, his combinations were great and his clinch work was brilliant. An over hand right from a tied up boxing clinch was just magnificant. Souwer never saw it coming. From then on all he had to do was keep doing what he did best and frustrate Souwer with a superior clinch and putting down steady pressure with hand combinations.

From what I see Johnson was about half a step or so ahead on Speer in the foot work department. Then again that’s not what won him the match. Johnson counter punched a slugger. Speer was looking for an exchange and a possible clinch to take down. Did Speer just randomly forget he was also fighting an experienced wrestler? Lot of fucking good those take downs did him.

What really made short work of Speer was Johnson’s quicker and more accurate boxing. You can’t brawl in MMA, no ones chin is that solid to risk the chance of eating shots just to in box, shit like that will as our friend Tommy learned will get you knocked the fuck out. What’s funny is that it started with a head kick, he stumbled, got up dazed, and after he lost the ability to trade and fire off Marciano-esque shots he had nothing. He should have suprised Johnson with some unconventional kicks and done more trianing to submit or sweep Johnson off his back. With proper training I could definatly see Speer submitting Johnson even if Johnson had him in side mount.

This fight also goes to show how cardio is more of an advantage then just raw strength. I mean come on, how often do you see big and huge heavy weights push the pace for more then half the round? Then it becomes a clinch fest of epic boredom or just a jab-a-thon. Boring and useless. Cardio is key. Speer should have made his work out more centered around endurance and speed work. I think Speer probably could’ve trained his kicks more then just his boxing. I personally don’t think he can be considered more then a ‘semi-decent’ striker unless he has about a year or so of solid striking work.

Anyway aside from needing a bit of cardio and a change of game plan I think if Speer and Johnson rematch after a year or so it’ll be a totally diffrent story.

What really helped Genki in this match was being unconventional. Why fight an oppoennt an extremley weird sized opponent in a normal way? Text book shit will not help against opponent who could probably bear hug you to death. Using the ropes as leverage to swing off of them, come in with big unconventional kicks, just nutty stuff slowly but surely threw Esch’s game plan out fo whack. Now I would shit my self if I ever tried taking Butter Bean down with a doble or single leg (I’m 5’8 at 140 lb.’s) but the way Sudo rolled a much larger and heavier opponent into the position he wanted was just masterful to say the least. Isolated one leg, waited for the fall and started to work. Second time around he simply saw a set up for a knee bar, used his legs to roll his opponent off and even when his opponent thought he was safe he simply shifted his leg for better leverage and cranked a heel hook. A solid base, better understanding in submissions and ability to pull out the most random moves out of your ass at will is what really brought Genki Sudo to victory.

Even though Esch has a better understanding of grappling since the fight he did state in post fight interviews that he wasn’t prepared to go to the ground in this fight. I think this fight served as a good start for him showing that sheer size and hand ability won’t save you in MMA. Funny, his 3rd MMA fight and first win was by submisson.

The reason this fight sticks out so much more then others is because it’s so UFC 1 esque. One huge guy without any heavy submission skills and one smaller guy putting him through a submission wrestling and juijitsu clinic. Looks like some things never chage do they?

The one. The only. The greatest heavy weight KO artist from the mid 60′s throughout the 70′s. Smokin’ Joe Frazier.

An olympic heavyweight gold medalist in 1964, Joe Frazier became a professional the year after. The start of his record, about 15 or 20 of the first fights, practically all of them were wins by KO or TKO within the first 4 rounds. BEAST!? Funny thing is, the reason he started boxing was because his familly was one of the first famillies in his neighborhood to own a television. One day he saw a boxing match told himself he would become a boxer. Guess he got a little more the bargained for? His first title shot was in 1968 against Buster Mathis. An eleventh round knockout would then lead to a 10 fight win streak, including fighting and beating Muhammad Ali, where he would eventually be stopped by George Foreman. He then met Ali a second time in a fight for the NABF Heavy weight title, where he would lose a 15 round decision. Their next meeting would be “The thrilla in Manilla” in the Quezon, Phillipines. In the 14th round his trainer Eddie Futch stopped the fight because Frazier had a nasty cut on his mouth and an extremely swelled left eye. Their were also many heath complication before the fight for Frazier.

FIGHT RECORD:
32 Wins (27 KO’s)
4 Losses
1 Draw
37 In all

While his fight record wasn’t huge (atleast by older standards) Joe Frazier probably had the most destructive left hook in the history of boxing.

Why he was the best:
- Insanley strong left hook
- A strong chin, and the ability to step forward at the right time
- Good head movement

Alot of shorter in-boxers don’t neccesarily have all of these things. You can have great power, but if you can’t atleast move your head right, you’ll get knocked out trying to take your opponent out from the inside. He had good timing, stepped in at the right time, obviously this isn’t going to destroy superior foot work but it can majorly screw up a counter punchers game plan.

Well that’s all I have to say, truly one of my hero’s, Joe Frazier.