As far as boxing in mma goes, Liddell was okay. He in no way, shape or form the epitomy of was mixed martial arts is though. I don't want to hate in him because he was a good fighter, but I've never though of him as anything more than a good striker. He never improved other areas of his game and paid the price in his last couple of fights. He was the go to guy for people who didn't actually know shit about mma but wanted to sound like they did.
I couldn't agree more. It's pretty fair to say it like you did "as far as boxing in mma goes, Liddell was okay." For mma standards of hand skills, obviously he was a cut above a lot of the other guys. I just could never stand a lot of the fans and the hype machine a lot of them fed into. It's the same thing as with the Juggalo's, same type of people, but gravitating to mma instead or something. You get what I mean?
Sylvia isn't as bad as that video would make him appear. Maybe he's not that bad now, but he wasn't always. He was a okay fighter during his day, but he was also the champion of an incredibly weak division.
Oh but listening to the UFC and most of the fans at the time you wouldn't have know the division is weak. That's the kind of thing I am talking about. While he was coming into his reign, in it, and exiting they passed off sub-par opponents for mma's standards even, and acted like Tim Sylvia was some fucking world beater or something when all he did was plow over some chumps that he was big enough to giver a hard time. There's another thing, he hardly ever fought anyone his size, always smaller opponents with shorter reaches.
On the flip side of the coin, people are quick to try and discredit the credibility of boxers records and competition. But, if you were to try and do the same thing about a lot of these mma guys you're completely in the wrong and know nothing about mma of anything else. Double standards like that and fans acting that way are some of the main things that turn me away from the sport.
I know not even you would try and use that fight as an argument for boxing being better.
Try me.......... No, I'm just kidding. I will say though that Ray Mercer was much better at what he did in his prime than Tim Sylvia was in his, and that is reflected in the outcome of the fight. In this case the Boxer was better than the MMA fighter, but don't get me wrong, I have seen it go the other way as well. Just not with people as well known as those two. That's probably the most high profile Boxer vs MMA fighter match ever though.
Both men were out of shape and way past their prime. You know there are a ton of strikers that would destroy Mercer in a fight. Sylvia hasn't been worth a damn in years and even you should know that.
Both guys were out of shape, and both are past their prime. But, Sylvia is still much younger and they were going by mma rules which means Sylvia could have done all that stuff that you guys generally say would happen, but as I've said it would happen before, he didn't get a chance. That should have played a role in that fight, unfortunately though ol' Tim couldn't go 30 seconds with the way past his prime old former heavyweight champion.
Mercer was 48 when he fought Silvia this year and turned 49 already. That's pretty old by Boxing standards, it's not as common for guys to fight to the end of their 40's. Bernard Hopkins is an exception not the rule. Time Silvia was only 34 which is still prime for Boxing, and still pretty young for mma, he should have been able to do something to Ray Mercer for God sake. I mean fuck, this guy is 6' 8'' and about 290 maybe don't to 270 when fit. Mercer as you saw was a short stubby 6' 1'' bu comparison, and maybe 250 out of shape. No Excuse Sylvia, None.
I would have liked to see both guys get more of an opportunity to use their crafts, and see the positives and negatives of each one play their roles in the fight.
He was never even considered a top five pound for pound fighter. Maybe top ten at one point, but definitely not top five.
As I elaborated on earlier, you wouldn't have known that when he was in the UFC and he was the Heavyweight champ, or even before of after his reign. Nope, he was "The Maaiiinnnneeeiac" big bad Tim Sylvia, shit wrecking ball busting bad ass Tim Sylvia, UFC Heavyweight Champion. He probably was ranked up there, especially if he was the champ, he's had to have been. Technically as he was the champ he was above the rankings.
