Sylvia Vs. Monson

[behindthebook]

This has the potential to be one of the worst title matches in UFC history. Seriously. Who out there is going to pay to see Tim Sylvia defend the heavyweight belt against Jeff Freakin' Monson? The heavyweight division should just be dissolved and the title retired. It doesn't even need to be taking up space on a PPV.

[MikeMcKinney]

Yea the heavyweight division is pretty sad.....

[Mad Dog]

You can't do that. Someone will come along sooner or later and kick the division off. Though worldwide the division is pretty crappy.

[Cosmic Crippler]

World-wide? Do you mean Pride too? I think their division is pretty stacked.

[Vanilla Gorilla]

Lets face it that is a bad title match and I think that is why it is on the same show as Hughes' title fight, and your right that the heavyweight division is hurting and it has been for a long long time, sure some great heavyweight might come along a sweep through but he will be up against a lot of easy fighters, UFC should do what Pride did and start offering big money to high quality heavyweights

[Darth Turkish]

curlig76 said:

World-wide? Do you mean Pride too? I think their division is pretty stacked.

Yeah! they have about five or six top guys, all of which Sylvia is below

[Mad Dog]

Pride is very top heavy at heavyweight but they have a drop off in talent after those guys.

And might I add that the card they're putting on in the U.S. is awful.

[LWPD]

Jeff Monson is one of the best submission fighters in the world. He's fresh off winning the Absolute at the AGGRO Games, he's a 2 time ADCC World Submission Champion and he's won 16 MMA fights in a row. The man has earned his shot.

That said...on paper this is a very bad match up for him. Monson's weaknesses have always been poor stand up and questionable stamina. He's also likely to 'shrink' as title fights have mandatory testing. Tim Sylvia has a substantial height and reach advantage and shouldn't have a problem keeping the fight standing by sprawling and stuffing JM's takedown attempts. Tim is good from the clinch and Monson won't be able to win a fight that moves in that direction.

Sylvia should be able to maintain octagon control and win a judges decision standing....plus he's proven he can go five rounds if necessary. While the clock is not Monson's friend....if he somehow gets it to the ground all bets are off.

LWPD (fans of pure submission grappling may want to check out the annual Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Wrestling Championship...success in ADCC is among the highest of accomplishments in the grappling world and the comp videos surrounding it are usually top notch)

[habbalah]

Gentleman,

When did Filsinger get so darn whinie? Worst div. ever. Not to long ago (okay it was long ago kinda) the heavy weight division was pretty damn exciting. Remember M. Smith bought with coleman? Remember Don Fyre, Couture, and all the great talent that we had coming out the ears at heavy weight? So forth and so on?

I recall the days when all it took to be a talented heavy weight champ was damn good wrestling.

Now (and this is just my veiw) the main reason we don't see that at heavy weight is a trend in mma I think for the most part that was started by Randy Couture.

"Hell I'm pretty damn good at heavy weight.. I'd be a god if I cut weight and went down."
I see to many fights who could fight at heavy skip down to light heavy.

I mean it's cool, it opens up avenues to those who can do it... but it robs one weight class that could been better. Imagine a little earlier Randy Couture fighting Frank Mir or Tim S. for the belt a few ufc's ago.

And there’s nothing wrong with Pride’s heavy weight division. Your all just letting yourself get eclipsed by the top 4 or 5 fighters talent.

Roman Z. is a great fighter. He’s not Fedor, or Cro Cop, (so forth and so on) but he’s fun to watch. So’s Alex. I think with a little bit more time, and the right athletes (and a lot more patients from fans)

The heavy weight division will start to improve.

Things I’d like to see.
1
A heavy weight grand prix in Pride (again.) We haven’t seen one in a while and the open weight really wasn’t a true heavy weight affair. The last one I saw (2004?) Kicked ass and made me excited about the division.
2
More world class wrestlers. Is it that hard to find a younger Mark Coleman? Or Kerr?
I guess to many people take these kinda fighters for granted.
3
How about some new kick boxers taking a stab at mma. I know not everyone can make the transition but I’m sure we could find a few successes.

4
I know well rounded is fun and all, but why not find people who have just one solid base for a while? The division is sooo soft at the moment bringing in new talent that still needs to grow in the sense of well rounded mma fighters would be something new.

Lets look at some examples of one dimensional fighters that are fun to watch?

Mark Hunt. Okay, short list. (I enjoy De pano but I’m alone in this some what). We need more fighters like this. We is the next generation of Gary Goodridge? (Eilers?).

We need more B level heavy weights.

[Darth Turkish]

Habs you miss one important pieces of information: The "Good Ol' Days" you are reminicing about were when they made two divisions: 199 and under and 200 and over. Most of those guys would not be the same if they cut to under 2 bills, so they had more of their walk around weight.

When Randy dropped, it was that or he go find another line of work.

Yeah, the UFC heavies are not the best, but sooner or later you'll get a Anderson Silva type guy who will show the general UFC crowd what a good heavy is.

Arlovski has the potential; he just needs to fight some better competition.

[habbalah]

An Anderson Type S. Guy? Are you implying that Franklin was some hapeless bum to be picked off by real talent?

I should hope not. What is this Anderson S. type fighter going to do? Show people how to tap out to flying leg locks? We have Vera..... we just need 3 or 4 (more like 5 or 6) more fighters just like him.

Again better comp. I like Cruz. I will be impressed if Arlovski beats him.

As for Randy Couture... I'm sure he could have found work at Pride. After all I have little doubt he could own Coleman (who pride still markets out highly). I'm not suggesting he'd beat Fedor, but he could have impressed in pride.

[Darth Turkish]

No, I am not saying Frankiln was bad at all. I am saying that in comes this SIlva guy and totally dismantles a guy that has proved to be very dominant in that weightclass.

And yes, I am sure Couture would have been able to work for Pride or RINGS. But that was not the point. He was told to drop weight and fight Chuck.

[hofclemens]

I think the heavyweight divison is not beyond repair. I would almost like to see them either add/ increase the weight limit and have a super heavyweight divison. There are lot of very good fighters that would struggle to make the 265 weight limit.

I"m not down on Monson/Tim either. I mean how many times in the UFC do you get to see a matchup between guys that are so vastly different in size and style? it's almost like the old UFC days or when Pride makes the freakshow matches. You can't have these matches all the time but every once and a while they can be fun.

[DUCE]

Ricco needs to get back into shape and go about getting his rematch with Sylvia. Coleman should come in and give some credibility to some of the heavyweight fighters by fighting a few of them and probally losing. Monson isn't a bad fighter but he is seriously at a height disadvantage here. He better hope he can submit Tim before getting his face smashed in.

[habbalah]

See... that's the funny thing. The only thing I like about Tim is he stopped Ricco from having an extra long title reign. Most of Riccos' fights are boring. (Okay maybe I'm hating on Ricco for beating Couture... but so what?) I'd almost be happy to see him come back to the ufc... But in all honesty he has the same ego problems that Tim has and indeed beleives he's the best thing in mma.

I saw one of his last interviews. He still thinks he can take Nog. Balls.