Golden Boy MMA - Chuck vs. Tito III

[wandshogun09]

Yeah it’s a bit like a geriatric version of Khabib vs McGregor in the sense that it’s grappler vs striker when you strip it down to the basics. But there’s also the factor that Chuck’s chin was like wafer as far back as a decade ago. Even if Chuck manages to keep it a standup fight there’s every chance Tito, despite being the way inferior striker, catches him and Chuck goes limp.

Chuck’s chin died September 2008 when Rashad Evans flatlined him. Since then he got KO’d twice more and has been out of the game for 8 years doing fuck knows what. Once the chin is gone it’s gone, so he’s still going to be vulnerable there. Only now he’s also 8 years older, slower, rustier and his reaction times seem about on a par with my nan’s after her traditional several Christmas brandy’s. Her chin is probably less brittle than his actually. She’s 87. So now he’s still got the candyfloss jaw but the punches are now even more likely to land than they were in his last 3 fights because of his age, lay-off etc. 

I’ve been watching all the interviews with both Chuck and Tito and also their respective trainers Antonio McKee and Jason Parillo. And the more I see and hear, the worse my original bad feeling about this gets. McKee is making the right noises but I just can’t buy into what he’s selling. Chuck seems to still think it’s 2004 and seems way overconfident that he’s just going to breeze through Tito. He’s talking about Tito as merely a ‘warm up’ to kick off his full-on comeback. On the flipside, Parillo is saying they’ve prepared as if they were fighting prime Chuck Liddell. Tito’s being Tito and sounds a right plum but when you read between the lines he seems really motivated for this, as you’d expect when a guy is getting an unlikely third crack at his biggest career rival who he’s 0-2 against. He appears to have trained his arse off, has been way more active, fought 9 times since Chuck retired in 2010 and won 3 of his last 4. 

It’s a recipe for disaster IMO. I mean, Tito is far from peak form himself. He retired on a win for a reason and that’s because he’s been falling apart at the seams for years. He’s had more surgeries than this show will do PPV buys. If Chuck catches him early and can pop him before he gets walloped himself, I could well see Chuck winning. But weighing everything up, it’s a lot more likely Tito ballses this comeback up before it even gets off the ground. It’s not a 50/50 fight. Chuck was shot a decade ago, will be 49 years old in a few weeks and moves like he’s under water. He retired in 2010 and even then it was a few fights overdue. Also I find it very telling that John Hackleman has been very absent during this whole thing. That’s a massive red flag to me. Is he even cornering Chuck for this fight? 

All in all, it’s just got a bad vibe to it for me this fight. Like the uneasy feeling I got when Rousey fought Nunes or when BJ Penn fought Frankie Edgar the third time. 

[David]

It's one of the few times where I'll probably check the result and a review or two before watching it. If it ends badly for either, or something happens that's quite nasty I'll give it a pass.

[Egg Shen]

as far as im aware Hackleman isnt with Chuck, he seems to be doing his whole camp with Antonio McKee.

[wandshogun09]

Fucking hell, apologies for the crap quality but look at this for an old photo. Who can you spot here? I see Tito and Chuck (obviously), Ricco Rodriguez, a young and still dull looking Jake Shields, John Lewis, Tony DeSouza, Tiki ‘Rampage’s Man Slave’ Ghosn and I think that’s Egan Inoue at the back. The other 4 aren’t ringing bells with me. 

The black dude’s not Maurice Smith, is it? 

[jimufctna24]

I did a google search on the picture. 

Mark Laimon of TUF 4 fame is top left. The black dude is Marvin Eastman. Bottom left is Scott Adams. 

Edit: Fabiano Iha might be the dude bottom right (standing up)

[wandshogun09]

Fuck, Marc Lemon! Never would’ve guessed. He piled on the pounds between this picture and TUF 4, didn’t he? 

Iha was a decent fighter in that era from what I recall. That is obviously him now you’ve pointed it out. I should’ve got Eastman. Scott Adams is a name that sounds vaguely familiar but I’d have never got him in a million guesses. 

[jimufctna24]

Aye, most of them would have stumped me to be fair. After checking, Adams's last fight was in 2000. He heel hooked Ian Fucking Freeman at UFC 24. I therefore presume the photo was taken between 1999-2001

There is a similar photo from that period with Karo Parisyan in it. Which is amazing to consider, given that he's only 36 now. 

[Egg Shen]

thats an amazing photo.

whatever happened to Marc Laimon anyway? i havent seen him corner anyone in years.

[Egg Shen]

just went on the Fite App, this now being listed at £8.99 which isnt bad at all.

[jimufctna24]

It looks Laimon still teaches BJJ. There are Youtube videos of him from this year rolling around on the mats. He was also interviewed here - https://mymmanews.com/marc-laimon-talks-gracie-family/

He doesn't mince his words about Royce Gracie

It was easy to dislike Laimon. He had the charisma of a corpse and his appearance on TUF 4 didn't exactly endear him to the public. However, it could have been who he was arguing with, rather than what he was actually arguing. Very few fans dislike Matt Serra and relatively few dislike Royce Gracie. He was naturally going to be the villain of the piece. But he probably had a point about the Gracie clan being delusional carnies. If you read Jon Snowden's Total MMA book, you will understand what I mean. But aye, charisma of a corpse. 

[wandshogun09]

For me it wasn’t so much what he was arguing, it was more the dickish way he did it. He was gloating that Hughes beat down Royce and slagging the Gracies off in front of Serra, knowing full well that Serra is a Gracie black-belt under Renzo. He was being a cock there. For all the Gracie’s faults and at times twattiness, at least they got in there and fought. Like Serra said, Laimon was “an expert swimmer that never got in the pool”. 

There’s ways to critique things without being a prick and Laimon seemed to be going out of his way to be a prick. The unanimous joy from the rest of the fighters in the house when Serra ripped into him said it all about who was in the right and about Laimon in general. Even Hughes sat there looking confused when Laimon was trying to argue back. No doubt he knows a lot about BJJ and I don’t know if he’s matured since then, you’d hope so it was 12 fucking years ago, but he was a right twat on TUF 4. 

[Egg Shen]

i was a regular listener of MMA Junkie around the time of that TUF season and Laimon was a frequent guest. He was clearly abit of a dick and was a very opinionated but he was oddly likeable, the guy knew his shit though there was no doubt about that.

[wandshogun09]

Chuck and Tito on Ariel’s show yesterday;

 

 

[jimufctna24]

21 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

For me it wasn’t so much what he was arguing, it was more the dickish way he did it. He was gloating that Hughes beat down Royce and slagging the Gracies off in front of Serra, knowing full well that Serra is a Gracie black-belt under Renzo.

I searched for footage of the incident. Sadly, I could only find a transcript. 

Aye, Laimon could have shown more decorum. Serra walked into the gym halfway through the conversation. He asked Laimon what they were talking about. He could have just said the Hughes vs Gracie fight, but he instead emphasised that the fight was "utter decimation". He was right of course. But I understand why it pissed off Serra. I actually remember Laimon more for popping up on MMA podcasts in the late 2000s (as Ebb alluded to) more than I remember him training Hendricks earlier this decade. Not sure why.

[David]

Every time I see this thread bumped I actually hope it's with the news that one of the fighters is injured. Imagine my disappointment to find it's just more chat about Marc "master swimmer" Laimon.