MMA Updates: Georges St. Pierre (GSP) vs. Thiago Alves in Review
Well, UFC 100 is in the books. One of the most amazing fights of the night would have to be the GSP/Alves fight.
Both of the men were really amazing. By the end of the fight I felt like I had just watch Superman go 5 round with the Hulk. These guys were just beyond normal.
So, things that were not really a surprise:
1- Alves had quick, threatening hands and kicks. Especially early on.
2- GSP was still able to effectively take Alves down consistently.
But there were a lot of things that were a surprise:
1- Alves’ guard was really, really impressive. We have seen GSP move past that guard of the likes of BJ Penn with little or not effort. But Thiago Avles had a great guard and was really able to keep himself from getting damaged much.
2- Thiago’s ability to get back to his feet. Wow. For the first couple of rounds Thiago seemed to be impossible to keep on the ground. The problem was, that each trip to the mat stole some of his energy, and his spirit. By the third round he seemed to be protecting from damage a lot more than fighting to get back up. I think this was a real downfall for him.
A couple of other notes on this fight:
GSP is amazing. But… I think he lacks the finishing power of some of the other champs (Bock, Anderson Silva, Lyoto Machita.) GSP reminds me of Randy Couture (one of my all time favorites.) They outclass you, an chip away at you. But they don’t really seem to have that bone-rattling punching power, nor are they the absolute top-tier in submitting people. I don’t know for sure how you fix this if you’re GSP. Maybe you don’t need to… It works well for him (and it worked well for Couture.)
Another note: Thiago Alves is really, really impressive. Other than GSP I don’t know who is really a challenge for him. I’d love to see him move upa weight class and kick some heads in.
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