UFC 167 Discussion Page

Oh.

He doesn't. Not even close.

 

Well, his history speaks for itself. Inside the Octagon GSP has out-wrestled some great wrestlers.

He flat out manhandled decorated wrestlers like Hughes and Koscheck while ragdolling good MMA grapplers and former collegic wrestlers like Fitch, Sherk, Trigg, Shields, etc.

There have obviously been guys with far better wrestling credentials that have fought in MMA, however, no one has consistently used wrestling better in MMA at the highest level than GSP.

The dude has fought the absolute best at 170 for years and has among the very best takedown and takedown defense percentages.

To say he's not "even close" to being the best MMA wrestler is ridiculous.

That being said, I'd love to hear the names of a couple of guys that have done it better in MMA at the highest level of the sport.

Most people would mention Cain Velasquez, but Cain has yet to face a great wrestler in MMA. Well, unless you count Lesnar who had Cain on his back within 30 seconds.

So who is clearly better than GSP?

 

Mike Pierce, Johnny and Tyron Woodley are better just at welterweight.

The only good wrestlers hes fought were past prime Hughes, and Koscheck...and Johnny.

Koscheck probably could've outgrappled GSP and took him down in the first round easily.. in the second fight but he's an idiot and a terrible fighter

Koscheck was an utter waste of talent.

 

LOL. I guess if we are just speculating, then Josh Koscheck could have been the best WW of all time.

However, in reality, with all of Koscheck's wrestling accolades, he was easily out-grappled in an MMA cage by GSP, twice. That's called a fact.

It's also ignorant to deny that Fitch, Sherk, Shields and Trigg were good MMA wrestlers.

And I have to laugh even harder at the mention of Woodley. Did you miss him getting controlled in the grappling department on the ground and against the cage by freaking Nate Marquardt before getting elbowed into oblivion? I don't know for sure but I think Nate had better takedown numbers in that fight.

Again, I could speculate or I could point to GSP's 84% takedown defense or his 74% takedown success rate all while fighting the very best in the world. Again, these are called facts.

I'm shocked anyone is actually debating this.

 

i was most surprised by hendricks' strength and ability to reverse the clinch position while standing up. there were times where GSP went in for a double and was not only denied, but was put against the cage and had difficulty getting out.

i thought gsp won, but it's one of those fights where i can rewatch and can easily give it to the other guy.

if the rematch doesn't happen, there's plenty of other fights i'd like to see involving hendricks. there's the rejuvenated robbie lawler, condit rematch, even rory mcdonald, woodley, shields and ellengberger. welterweight division has been and is the best division in mma.

 

I agree Joony. And a Hendricjs-Story rematch might actually make sense if Story can put together a couple more wins.

 

http://www.tmz.com/2013/11/18/georg...ighter/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

this article addresses GSP's 'personal' problems he's been facing.

 

yea that was a very surprising win by story at the time. hendricks was outstruck, outwrestled, and backed up by a guy who was a division 1 wrestler, but not with the credentials that of hendricks.

not sure if it was televised it or not, but it was on the undercard of evans-ortiz 2 in philly, and i thought pierce actually beat hendricks. he's improved a lot since.

 

Yeah and then Story gets out-wrestled by Charlie Brenneman.

 

http://www.mmamania.com/2013/11/19/...-report-ex-manager-blames-massive-lawsuit-mma

apparently, that story tmz ran wasn't the case.

 

I fail to see how a lawsuit (wich if he lost would cost him $$$) woul want to make him take a break away from the sport (wich would also cost him $$ indirectly). Doesn't make a lot of sense imo. It's said that GSP has kind of a compulsive personality, I think it probably has something to do with that (constantly trying to improve and not able to turn it off even when he's not in the gym) more than anything else.

 

Yeah, and when you consider he also rehabbed from major knee surgery and then had 3 major fights all within 12 months, the dude deserves to be burnt out.

Think about it. GSP fought Diaz, Condit and Hendricks in a 12 month span.

And White has the audacity to say "GSP owes it to the UFC" to fight Hendricks again????

What a POS comment.

 

Agreed. Dana really wants to make money off of the rematch even though GSP, however legitimate his issues are, is clearly not in a good place mentally for fighting right now.

 

I hadn't watched the whole card yet..

Last night watched the koscheck-woodley fight... That was an entertaining scrap!

 

Woodley hit him so hard Koscheck couldn't decide whether he wanted to sit down or do squats. ::