YouTube - Ray Mercer vs. Tim Sylvia Bragging Rights in Birmingham Al
"An engorged former UFC heavyweight champion, Tim Sylvia, showed up for a fight in Birmingham, Ala., Saturday against lumbering, 48-year-old, ex-heavyweight champion boxer Ray Mercer, weighing 310 pounds.
Result? Sylvia got knocked into a previously undiscovered level of Internet infamy, teetering over just nine seconds into the bout. It was said to be MMA, but the event was such a disorganized and confusing mess -- bounced from New Jersey, rules debated, briefly cancelled -- that Sylvia may have thought they were set to play checkers when the bell rang.
You'd better believe Bob Arum, Lou DiBella, Floyd Mayweather, and other contentious boxing investors with an inferiority complex, will be reveling in this for the foreseeable future."
Did you guys pay attention to the fact that Mercer was almost 50 years old and weighed over 300lbs?
So much for this site's claim that MMA fighters have great hand skills. 9 seconds against MMA elite? That's priceless. I remember Tom Yum going on about how MMA fighters have great hand skills and other nonsense.
Its no different than I said it would be. Botha did it, and now a 300lb, 50 year old Mercer did it in 9 seconds. I said it before and I'll say it again: The ONLY unique quality that MMA offers that few other big venue events offers is the grappling. That's it. K-1 has better kickboxing/muay thai, and Pro boxing is a different pedigree all together as it pertains to pugilism.
This is exactly why MMA fighters seem so effective: They fight other fighter who fight the exact same way. Once someone with real(not crash coursed) specialized skill gets involved(Coleman, Couture, CroCop, Fedor, Nogueira, Botha, Mercer) you see how the hodgepodge of MMA fares.
Problem is, no one worth a damn gets involved with these sh!tty tournaments. Only over-the-hill, often overweight fighters. That's why you rarely see things like this happen. But like I told Tom Yum years back, the same thing would have happened even if it Butterbean Silva had fought. Skill is skill, and even though Mercer is almost 50, he beat one of MMA's top fighters in his prime in 9 seconds despite Sylvia being 6'8. Butterbean is a boxer. Not a great boxer but one much better than anyone you'll find in MMA. The only way MMA fighter could beat Butterbean was to butt scoot to the ground because they had no other choice.
Lastly, if you notice even after Mercer knocked Silvia's jaw to the back of his neck he went for the takedown. I mention this to show that a boxer can learn ground fighting and defense without having to become a BJJ player. That and once a fighter with real striking skills understands how to deal with and get passed the little Brazilian butt scoot tricks, MMA folds like a pair of freshly ironed pants.
I can guarantee that if Mercer chooses to fight again, no matter the opponent they will be shooting in as soon as he gets within arms distance. And IMO, that doesn't imply skill on the part of MMA. That implies desperation because butt scooting on the floor is all they have left at their disposal once someone with real skills step into the ring.
Source: Ray Mercer beats Tim Sylvia; boxing's death rattle delayed - ESPN
"An engorged former UFC heavyweight champion, Tim Sylvia, showed up for a fight in Birmingham, Ala., Saturday against lumbering, 48-year-old, ex-heavyweight champion boxer Ray Mercer, weighing 310 pounds.
Result? Sylvia got knocked into a previously undiscovered level of Internet infamy, teetering over just nine seconds into the bout. It was said to be MMA, but the event was such a disorganized and confusing mess -- bounced from New Jersey, rules debated, briefly cancelled -- that Sylvia may have thought they were set to play checkers when the bell rang.
You'd better believe Bob Arum, Lou DiBella, Floyd Mayweather, and other contentious boxing investors with an inferiority complex, will be reveling in this for the foreseeable future."
Did you guys pay attention to the fact that Mercer was almost 50 years old and weighed over 300lbs?
So much for this site's claim that MMA fighters have great hand skills. 9 seconds against MMA elite? That's priceless. I remember Tom Yum going on about how MMA fighters have great hand skills and other nonsense.
Its no different than I said it would be. Botha did it, and now a 300lb, 50 year old Mercer did it in 9 seconds. I said it before and I'll say it again: The ONLY unique quality that MMA offers that few other big venue events offers is the grappling. That's it. K-1 has better kickboxing/muay thai, and Pro boxing is a different pedigree all together as it pertains to pugilism.
This is exactly why MMA fighters seem so effective: They fight other fighter who fight the exact same way. Once someone with real(not crash coursed) specialized skill gets involved(Coleman, Couture, CroCop, Fedor, Nogueira, Botha, Mercer) you see how the hodgepodge of MMA fares.
Problem is, no one worth a damn gets involved with these sh!tty tournaments. Only over-the-hill, often overweight fighters. That's why you rarely see things like this happen. But like I told Tom Yum years back, the same thing would have happened even if it Butterbean Silva had fought. Skill is skill, and even though Mercer is almost 50, he beat one of MMA's top fighters in his prime in 9 seconds despite Sylvia being 6'8. Butterbean is a boxer. Not a great boxer but one much better than anyone you'll find in MMA. The only way MMA fighter could beat Butterbean was to butt scoot to the ground because they had no other choice.
Lastly, if you notice even after Mercer knocked Silvia's jaw to the back of his neck he went for the takedown. I mention this to show that a boxer can learn ground fighting and defense without having to become a BJJ player. That and once a fighter with real striking skills understands how to deal with and get passed the little Brazilian butt scoot tricks, MMA folds like a pair of freshly ironed pants.
I can guarantee that if Mercer chooses to fight again, no matter the opponent they will be shooting in as soon as he gets within arms distance. And IMO, that doesn't imply skill on the part of MMA. That implies desperation because butt scooting on the floor is all they have left at their disposal once someone with real skills step into the ring.
Source: Ray Mercer beats Tim Sylvia; boxing's death rattle delayed - ESPN
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