Current Top Five

[Mulletsoldier]

Id like to see Hughes do some serious standup training. He needs to bring in a new training style for his standup. He wont stand a chance with GSP unless he vastly improves on his feet. If he could, he'd have a shot at a good takedown, and hes damn sure got a ground game. I hope he realizes that the competition is getting better and he needs to change a few things.

Yeah, GSP literally toyed with him in that rematch. If a rematch is to happen, and I'm sure it will, Hughes is going to have to learn to engage in the pocket and try to take GSP down from the clinch ala Cotoure. If I am not mistaken that is how he scored his only successful takedown against Penn in the second match. IMO, GSP is too strong to shoot from a mile away against and he also has a very competent sprawl from training with the Canadian Oly. wrestling team.

 

[size]

My thoughts:
Hughes would not be dominant in Pride. Just an example, Henderson is a better wrestler and striker than Hughes.
Franklin would be good as he has well rounded abilities but he would not be at the top.

 

[somewhatgifted]

I think hughes would be torn apart, he's a shell of a once great fighter and now that the strikers of the game have excellent take down defence its no enough for most to GnP.
rich franklin his chin is definetely suspect and his clinch sucked vs silva. Id like to see how patrick cote develops and crosses over to pride. Id like to see travis lutter fight someone who he cant take down, like chuck.

 

[Beowulf]

I think hughes would be torn apart, he's a shell of a once great fighter and now that the strikers of the game have excellent take down defence its no enough for most to GnP.
rich franklin his chin is definetely suspect and his clinch sucked vs silva. Id like to see how patrick cote develops and crosses over to pride. Id like to see travis lutter fight someone who he cant take down, like chuck.

I don't think it is fair to say Rich has a suspect chin. He got his a$$ beat by Silva, but he was never close to going out. He simply couldn't retaliate b/c he trained wrong to defend the MT clinch. I didn't see his other loss, but it was a TKO, so as of right now he has never been KO'd.

I honestly wonder how confused Rich was b/c he said that he thought the clinch would be his strength, but he didn't seem to realize that he was stuck in a MT clinch, not in an equally advantageous wrestling clinch.

 

[Alexander]

I don't think it is fair to say Rich has a suspect chin. He got his a$$ beat by Silva, but he was never close to going out. He simply couldn't retaliate b/c he trained wrong to defend the MT clinch. I didn't see his other loss, but it was a TKO, so as of right now he has never been KO'd.

I honestly wonder how confused Rich was b/c he said that he thought the clinch would be his strength, but he didn't seem to realize that he was stuck in a MT clinch, not in an equally advantageous wrestling clinch.

He has a poor man's Wand chin, Franklin that is. He gets clipped and goes down and is immediately coherent. And yeah, what the hell was Franklin thinking. It was as if he had already taken the beatdown before the fight started.

As far as Hughes and Franklin, like Rodja said there is no weight division for Hughes in Pride. Franklin has huge potential, and could probably be champ in Pride or UFC.

 

[MisterEZE]

I don't think it is fair to say Rich has a suspect chin. He got his a$$ beat by Silva, but he was never close to going out. He simply couldn't retaliate b/c he trained wrong to defend the MT clinch. I didn't see his other loss, but it was a TKO, so as of right now he has never been KO'd.

I honestly wonder how confused Rich was b/c he said that he thought the clinch would be his strength, but he didn't seem to realize that he was stuck in a MT clinch, not in an equally advantageous wrestling clinch.

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuyDlSujlic"]YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.[/nomedia]
His other loss was pretty much a straight KO by kick. I think it's fair to say Rich has a suspet chin though, Tanner dropped him and so did Louiseau, only to be KO'd by Silva.

However, I think Rich is a great fighter and would do reasonably well in Pride. He has good hands and decent mat game. Going up against Hendo, Kang, Filho would be a great test of his ablility.

Someone said it before, Hughes has to work on all aspects of his game if he wants to regain and maintain domination in MMA. Hate on me, but I have never really been impressed by Hughes' game. Granted, he has done some things that have impressed me (slams, gnp), but never as a complete fighter. Look at this:

• Hughes win over Newton by slam was a last ditch attempt before passing out from the triangle; whoever got up first won that fight. He later showed that he could defeat Newton in definitive fashion.
• Mach Sakurai took Hughes to 4 rounds after accepting the fight on a week's notice. I know Mach is world-class, but he belongs in the LW division.
• Sean Sherk took Hughes to a 5 round decision. Sherk is a solid fighter but he obviously couldn't cut it at 170. Impressive record, but a not so impressive list of victories.
• Frank Trigg 1-2 - I know Hughes choked him out twice, but Trigg had him in trouble and I'm still not sure how Matt pulled out the 2nd fight.
• Renato Verissimo - Decision victory that I, and many others, believe Verissimo should have won.
• GSP 1-2 - Far from dominating victory in the first fight. Very nice armbar to end the fight, however, had GSP been aware of the clock the fight could have gone differently. We all saw what happened the second time around.
• Joe Riggs - Took the fight on short notice and has no business being in the cage when a title shot is mentioned. Outclassed.
• Royce Gracie - He beat an aging man that the game has passed by...how ironic.
  • BJ Penn 1-2 - Got choked out once, then got dominated until BJ's rib injury (gas tank) problem.
  
  I'm not trying to knock Hughes, but he has been given this superhuman status and IMO doesn't quite deserve it. Sure, he's had some very dominating victories and he's a proven winner, but when you actually watch his fights...eh. I'm not too sure where I'm going with this, but think about it.

 

[somewhatgifted]

The problem with some fighters is even if there conscious thought process is interuppted (unconscious) they go into auto pilot and just stand there. Now this makes them look tough when in fact if they dropped like a rag doll it would save their brains all the addional trauma they recieve for standing there. Franklin is tactical in his dieting and training, but he looked so stupid in his last fight i cant believe he'll do anything significant again.

 

[somewhatgifted]

hughes is IMO a bum and i called his loss, his first round knock down and his second round KO. Attitude is IMO the most important aspect of your life and im most cases the "good guy" will prevail. Its as simple as karma or just inteligent planning, thinking your the big dog is bad strategy and gsp gave matt hughes respect, respect that pushed him to be prepared.

 

[Alexander]

Hughes a bum? He may be a prick, but he is one of the toughest MMA fighters of all time, far from a bum. I do think his best days are behind him. I can see why you dislike him though.

 

[somewhatgifted]

Hughes a bum? He may be a prick, but he is one of the toughest MMA fighters of all time, far from a bum. I do think his best days are behind him. I can see why you dislike him though.

Who he is and was has changed dramatically, this will be proven when he losses to a mediocre offerring tossed to him in his nexy fight. maybe i shall salt my shoe for itll taste better. lol.

 

[Sir Savage]

I would definitely take Gomi against Sherk. Did you see Sherk's only appearance in Pride? If you did you would know why he wasn't invited back. He had trouble with a low B level fighter and was very boring. Gomi would treat Sherk about the same way GSP did in my estimation.

Come on, man. Sherk was fighting out of his natural weight class in that fight. In fact, he was fighting out of his natural weight class 99% of his career.

He had no trouble with Ryuki. He put on a frickin' wrestling clinic on homeboy. It was damn impressive that he was able to toss around a bigger dude like that. He was utterly dominating.

And that aside, Mach didn't finish him, either.

He wasn't invited back because Pride wanted to protect their one Japanese champion. Pride definitely has a Japanese bias.

 

[Alexander]

Come on, man. Sherk was fighting out of his natural weight class in that fight. In fact, he was fighting out of his natural weight class 99% of his career.

He had no trouble with Ryuki. He put on a frickin' wrestling clinic on homeboy. It was damn impressive that he was able to toss around a bigger dude like that. He was utterly dominating.

And that aside, Mach didn't finish him, either.

He wasn't invited back because Pride wanted to protect their one Japanese champion. Pride definitely has a Japanese bias.

Yeah, that's what sucks for Sherk, I don't know that he has a weight division. 155 may suit him, we'll have to see. That's a lot of muscle mass to cut down to 155. I'll have to watch Ryuki/Sherk, from what I remember Sherk controlled him, but never had him in any real trouble. Sherk has huge potential, hopefully the UFC will give him some good fights so he can prove himself.

 

[Rodja]

He has a lot of muscle, but he is only 5'6" and has wrestled for many years, so cutting weight is lot a new thing for him. There really are not a lot of legitimate threats to him in the UFC, minus Guillard, Penn, and Griffin.

 

[Quil]

Who he is and was has changed dramatically, this will be proven when he losses to a mediocre offerring tossed to him in his nexy fight. maybe i shall salt my shoe for itll taste better. lol.

Looking like it's going to be Hughes v Lytle...you see him losing that fight? Not a chance in hell...Maybe if it was Karo...

 

[jas123]

Franklin is tactical in his dieting and training, but he looked so stupid in his last fight i cant believe he'll do anything significant again.

Franklin will be back and I still think that he has the potential to beat Silva. He's still top 5 IMO. His chin isn't really suspect either. He gets dropped easily but recovers quickly as Alex said.

Hughes says stupid ****, but he's accomplished a lot and will still be competitive if he sticks with his bread and butter. He's a tough SOB and has the best comebacks on his resume next to maybe Nog. He may not ever beat BJ or GSP again though.

People count a fighter out too quickly after one loss. Hell, CC's unstoppable now but had lost the desire to fight around the start of the OWGP. I'm guilty of this as well.

 

[Rodja]

Many are guilty of jumping on and off the bandwagon too quickly, but even more are guilty of over hyping a fighter. I like Bisping, but I don't know if he has all of the tools to be champ; he can definitely be top 10, but that may be it. Hughes will continue to be at the top of the list until he retires because of his ability to analyze and improve on his weaknesses. I personally don't like him, but I respect his work ethic and how he never makes excuses.