Podcast/Interview Thread (MMA/Boxing etc) ?

[jimufctna24]

2 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

Yep. And trained/cornered Bob Sapp for his early fights when it actually looked like he might make a legit go of it. 

I recall Barnett was a talking head on the Decade of Pride documentary, and popped up in a section of the documentary dedicated to Sapp's brief run in Pride. 

Barnett claimed that Sapp was at his best when he was left to improvise during fights and wasn't informed about his opponents' skill level. Apparently Sapp knew very little about Tamura prior to fighting him. Sapp was gobsmacked he'd been able to beat Tamura after viewing the Japanese fighter's record after their fight. 

[Merzbow]

It's a pretty great interview especially once they go super nerdy over the original UFC/early MMA and BJJ days.

[jimufctna24]

On the subject of Serra. What do we think was his and Longo's greatest achievement?

Serra stopping GSP in one of the biggest upsets in UFC history.

Or

Training a fighter (Weidman) that was stylistic nightmare for Anderson Silva and helping him beat Silva twice.

It's probably the former, but after watching some peak Silva bouts lately, it's closer than I first thought.

[Egg Shen]

Gotta be Serra beating GSP. 

Weidman's Silva victories both have an asterix next to them of sorts despite them both being clean victories. Saying that, I can't really recall how both fights played out before the finishes.

Longo/Serra coaching Sterling to a title also deserves to go on this list.

[jimufctna24]

11 hours ago, Egg Shen said:

Gotta be Serra beating GSP. 

Weidman's Silva victories both have an asterix next to them of sorts despite them both being clean victories. Saying that, I can't really recall how both fights played out before the finishes.

Longo/Serra coaching Sterling to a title also deserves to go on this list.

Good point about Sterling. Would Sterling's win over Yan in their rematch be their 3rd biggest triumph? 

After watching a few peak Silva bouts recently, and drawing from memory of his other UFC fights, my appreciation actually grew for what Weidman and co were able to achieve. The likes of Griffin and Leben led aggressive on the feet and were countered and finished with ease. Whereas the likes Leites were cautious on the feet, so not to offer Silva the chance to counter, but got little offence going and were picked off in tediously dull fights. Meanwhile, Okami, a quite cautious clinch wrestler, also mounted very little offence against Anderson in their UFC bout, and was finished pretty quickly after failing to take down Silva while pressing him against the fence. Sonnen came closer than all of those fighters by plowing forward aggressively with strikes and initiating takedowns, but that strategy was high-risk. Not just because charging forward aggressively with strikes/takedowns opened up counter opportunities for Silva, but also because Silva was a submission threat off his back, which was what denied Sonnen in their first bout. 

What Weidman and company realised was that the answer to Silva was indeed a good grappling/takedown game, but also feinting to throw off his counter radar, specific strikes that he could throw without much risk of being countered, and doubling up on punches with the same hand to break Silva's head movement (the latter is how Weidman was able to knock Silva out in their first bout). In other words, it took a very specific gameplan to give Anderson fits, and Weidman with the help of Serra/Longo executed it wonderfully. Breen and Wand made some of these arguments at the time if I recall correctly, and others such as Slack have made them at length since. Bisping later took some of the Weidman's gameplan, specifically the feints to confuse Silva's counter radar, and was able to beat Silva also, albeit barely and at a time when Anderson had already turned 40. 

It's impressive that Serra/Longo/Weidman were able to render the game of one of the best heavier weight fighters in MMA history so ineffective. I will add that it's not like Weidman, even in his pomp, was a superior fighter to Silva, rather he was just a stylistic nightmare for Silva. I would pick Anderson against some of the fighters who later beat Weidman. Romero, for example, I believe would lose a decision against Silva in what would probably be an uneventful bout to say the least. 

Edited September 7 by jimufctna24

[wandshogun09]

3 hours ago, jimufctna24 said:

Breen and Wand made some of these arguments at the time if I recall correctly, and others such as Slack have made them at length since.

Yeah, those Weidman vs Silva fights are ones I think are pretty clear with what happened and it always boggles my mind when I see people, to this day, try to argue that Weidman fluked it or that it only happened because Anderson “fucked around too much”. It’s mental. Weidman handily won the first round of both fights with his grappling and at no point was he in serious trouble on the feet in either fight. Yet you had people at the time, and for years since, claiming Anderson was just about to turn things around and knock Weidman out before he got sparked himself or his leg turned into a noodle, depending on which fight you’re looking at. If you take the Anderson fanboy blinkers off it’s, as you say, an obvious case of Weidman being a bad style matchup for him, combined with great game planning from Longo/Serra, combined with Anderson just about coming to the end of his prime. It was the perfect storm for his reign to end.

3 hours ago, jimufctna24 said:

Romero, for example, I believe would lose a decision against Silva in what would probably be an uneventful bout to say the least. 

Anderson vs Yoel is an interesting one because at first glance you’d think he’d be a problem opponent for Silva because of his wrestling. But then you remember that Yoel barely actually used his wrestling most of the time and probably would’ve just stood around waiting for his perfect KO opportunity that most likely would’ve never came. Leading to Anderson winning one of his frustratingly dull decisions. Probably would’ve looked a lot like the dud Yoel had with Izzy in 2020.

While we’re on the subject of Longo’s coaching success stories, I’ll even throw Merab in there. With the benefit of hindsight now he looks like he was always a dead cert to become champ at some point but that wasn’t always the case, especially when Longo first took him on. He was still working construction a good few fights into his UFC run and lost his first two fights in the UFC (to Frankie Saenz by decision and then got submitted by Ricky Simon) before he went on the big winning streak towards the title.

Of course, Serra and Weidman will always be the biggest and more memorable title wins out of that camp considering they beat all time great, pound-for-pound guys. But really, all four of Longo’s world champions are pretty cool, kind of unlikely successes. Weidman was the only one that I think came in almost earmarked for possible championship success but even then, with prime Anderson as champ when he debuted it wasn’t a given he’d make it. The other three all looked pretty unlikely for various reasons earlier on in their careers and all beat guys who were either favoured or at least much more hyped to win the titles. 

Edited September 7 by wandshogun09

[jimufctna24]

12 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

Yeah, those Weidman vs Silva fights are ones I think are pretty clear with what happened and it always boggles my mind when I see people, to this day, try to argue that Weidman fluked it or that it only happened because Anderson “fucked around too much”. It’s mental.

Yeah, those arguments popped up on Twitter immediately after the fight. Breen tackled them on the Sherdog podcast in the hours after the fight, and I recall you dismissing them on here in the weeks after. I can kinda understand why some held those views, given how Anderson had beaten a variety of opponents previously and built up quite the aura, but yeah, they were bollocks. The "fucking around" was almost certainly desperate attempt to get Weidman to open up and leave himself vulnerable to counters. 

12 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

It’s mental. Weidman handily won the first round of both fights with his grappling and at no point was he in serious trouble on the feet in either fight. Yet you had people at the time, and for years since, claiming Anderson was just about to turn things around and knock Weidman out before he got sparked himself or his leg turned into a noodle, depending on which fight you’re looking at. If you take the Anderson fanboy blinkers off it’s, as you say, an obvious case of Weidman being a bad style matchup for him, combined with great game planning from Longo/Serra, combined with Anderson just about coming to the end of his prime. It was the perfect storm for his reign to end.

I'm glad you've brought up the finish of the second fight. As others have noted over the years, when Anderson couldn't tease out counters, and was forced to lead, he'd often chip away at his opponent with leg kicks. So Weidman merely punished a tendency that Silva had by checking the kick, not a freak occurrence. 

I remember the word heading into that fight was that Weidman had partied too much, and perhaps wasn't as well prepared as he was in the first bout. But you would have never guessed that given how the fight went.

12 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

Anderson vs Yoel is an interesting one because at first glance you’d think he’d be a problem opponent for Silva because of his wrestling. But then you remember that Yoel barely actually used his wrestling most of the time and probably would’ve just stood around waiting for his perfect KO opportunity that most likely would’ve never came. Leading to Anderson winning one of his frustratingly dull decisions. Probably would’ve looked a lot like the dud Yoel had with Izzy in 2020.

100% agreed. 

Good point about Merab too. 

[jimufctna24]

 

Long interview with Billy Graham for anyone interested.

I had no idea that Thomas Hauser played a role in the Graham vs Ray Hatton feud until now.

Regarding the Paul Speak character that Graham openly despises. According to Frank Warren, Graham and Speak almost came to blows in front of press members ahead of the Hatton vs Mayweather fight.

Edited September 9 by jimufctna24