Uke,
Kevin Jackson was an olympic gold medalist and Townsend Saunders was a silver medalist. Yoshida was a gold medalist. Their skills don't make them top mma fighters. MMA is a hybrid fighting style these days, even if you're not good at everything you have to be aware of all the techniques of striking and grappling. The top fighters, while trying to steer the fight to their strengths, are skilled enough to avoid certain pitfalls of MMA.
There are still some toughman types in MMA, but none of them are top fighters. But you can't refer to any standup slugger that isn't of K1 caliber as a 'toughman' type, take Igor Vov. He definitely isn't of the caliber to fight in the best standup-only events, but he had little trouble dispatching the unprepared Gilbert Yvel by choke, and Yvel was truly a world class kickboxer.
Not all of the athletes that are the best in an individual art are the best ones from that art to compete in MMA. Guys like Saulo Riberio, Wallid, Jackson and Saunders, Yvel, are among the elite of their sport but aren't cut out for MMA. Saulo could hang with just about any elite grappler but he couldn't make the transition to MMA. Tito Ortiz isn't even close to the wrestler that Kevin Jackson is, but Tito did a better job in using his skills for MMA. Chuck Lidell isn't anything special as a kickboxer, but his striking along with his takedown defense and tenacity make him one of the top fighters. These days MMA has little to do with the individual art.
The art has evolved a lot. You mentioned Severn earlier. Nowadays, it is quite rare for a top MMA fighter of wrestling background to get caught in a triangle and not know what it is, or get guillotined while shooting, etc. The top MMA fighters of wrestling background have ways of dealing with this, they either use grappling technique to counter (Couture, Henderson) or they escape these things by brute force (Rampage, Trigg, Randleman). But they have a plan to defend subs, something Severn did not have.
Last thing, as MMA spreads and becomes more popular, things will evolve further. There needs to be more money for the fighters, and then the talent will come. Besides the UFC and PRIDE, MMA shows pay peanuts to their fighters. And even UFC and PRIDE don't function enough like offical sports, they resort to circus attractions to make their shows popular too often; the UFC bringing all those old farts back is just as bad as PRIDE using pro wrestlers and guys like the giants Silva and Ochai, and Takada.
Kevin Jackson was an olympic gold medalist and Townsend Saunders was a silver medalist. Yoshida was a gold medalist. Their skills don't make them top mma fighters. MMA is a hybrid fighting style these days, even if you're not good at everything you have to be aware of all the techniques of striking and grappling. The top fighters, while trying to steer the fight to their strengths, are skilled enough to avoid certain pitfalls of MMA.
There are still some toughman types in MMA, but none of them are top fighters. But you can't refer to any standup slugger that isn't of K1 caliber as a 'toughman' type, take Igor Vov. He definitely isn't of the caliber to fight in the best standup-only events, but he had little trouble dispatching the unprepared Gilbert Yvel by choke, and Yvel was truly a world class kickboxer.
Not all of the athletes that are the best in an individual art are the best ones from that art to compete in MMA. Guys like Saulo Riberio, Wallid, Jackson and Saunders, Yvel, are among the elite of their sport but aren't cut out for MMA. Saulo could hang with just about any elite grappler but he couldn't make the transition to MMA. Tito Ortiz isn't even close to the wrestler that Kevin Jackson is, but Tito did a better job in using his skills for MMA. Chuck Lidell isn't anything special as a kickboxer, but his striking along with his takedown defense and tenacity make him one of the top fighters. These days MMA has little to do with the individual art.
The art has evolved a lot. You mentioned Severn earlier. Nowadays, it is quite rare for a top MMA fighter of wrestling background to get caught in a triangle and not know what it is, or get guillotined while shooting, etc. The top MMA fighters of wrestling background have ways of dealing with this, they either use grappling technique to counter (Couture, Henderson) or they escape these things by brute force (Rampage, Trigg, Randleman). But they have a plan to defend subs, something Severn did not have.
Last thing, as MMA spreads and becomes more popular, things will evolve further. There needs to be more money for the fighters, and then the talent will come. Besides the UFC and PRIDE, MMA shows pay peanuts to their fighters. And even UFC and PRIDE don't function enough like offical sports, they resort to circus attractions to make their shows popular too often; the UFC bringing all those old farts back is just as bad as PRIDE using pro wrestlers and guys like the giants Silva and Ochai, and Takada.
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