I was a little bit harsh on Aleks but after rewatching it wasnt as bad.

The Penetrator said:
what the fuck bitch?
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Don't call me a bitch. Rude.
source.gif
 
Torrid said:
He won - after being taken down. In multiple rounds.

Those three things fucking shocked me. Yeah, he looked pretty piss poor in doing so, but whatever. I didn't expect him to win, I certainly didn't expect him to survive on the ground (especially after seeing Monson NS choke him), and after getting taken down multiple times now less? All unexpected.
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Wasnt the Monson fight before this comeback?
 
Physically he is best shape in his life, this is sure. His groungame is zero, this is also sure. Would be good to see him in UFC but this can not happen.
 
The Penetrator said:
Hes getting into it, Gonzaga is no easy task by any means, .
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Gonzaga looked really bad in his last couple of years in the UFC: Lewis, Mitrione, Browne, etc all destroyed him. And he's older now and fought after a long layoff.
 
mkt said:
Gonzaga looked really bad in his last couple of years in the UFC: Lewis, Mitrione, Browne, etc all destroyed him. And he's older now and fought after a long layoff.
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Yeah he is WAY past it. GG wouldn’t even be top 20 HW in the UFC at this point.
 
Mixfight said:
Aleksander is in amazing shape. Training very hard at a good camp and really putting everything he can into his training and you can see it. With that said he is 37 and battled with alcoholism and you can see moments when his brain wants to shoot off a Ricardo Morais combo but he just doesnt have the legs to execute it and he just stands there with his feet planted swinging his arms and looks a bit silly. During those moments he is very counterable and even Gonzaga landed some bombs on him. This is a major concern for future fights against guys who can really counter with pop in their punches. Its almost like Aleks is in that Fedor stage where he no longer has the athleticism to get away with shit he would get away with back in the days.

Aleksander got taken down twice by Gonzaga and I must admit that his reaction time to the shots wasnt very good. From another perspective Gonzaga is a BJJ world champion and took down Stipe Miocic and CroCop so its not that shocking that Aleks couldnt stop his shot. Aleks definitely needs to work on his wrestling regardless. On the ground Aleksander did exactly the same thing as Anderson did against DC. It wasnt pretty but it was very effective. He maintained a defensive half guard,not letting Gonzaga pass and locked Gonzaga down and completely neutralized his attack until the ref stood it back up where Aleks knocked Gonzaga out.

Aleks had a good performance and showed a good chin and good defensive half guard against a BJJ world champ. It was nice to have to Emelianenko wins in a row against UFC guys.

PRIDE NEVER DIE.
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I think you summarized it pretty well. Aleks has always been vulnerable to takedowns but he used to have quicker feet and faster reflexes. I liked how he held on from half guard though. Showed patience. I look forward to the next fight. I hope he gets more wrestling oriented training...
 
It was terrible. He sucks and has always been very overrated here.
 
Mixfight said:
How the fuck do you have 5k posts in a year? Get out of the basement bro.
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I am/was unemployed for the last entire year, i'll be occupying my self again in the next month so right now i have a lot of free time to shitpost and MMA has been one of my main interests lately.

That said, you're right and i probably should go out more.
 
hearthstone25 said:
But since it was way before why would you write him off now?
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I don't understand?

The term 'wrote him off' means just that, you wrote them off as a quality talent. I did several years back and that remains so today, to such a point that I figured if Gonzaga took him down, he'd stay down and be submitted. The fact that he was able to survive and win was surprising to me.
 
executionermma said:
I am/was unemployed for the last entire year, i'll be occupying my self again in the next month so right now i have a lot of free time to shitpost and MMA has been one of my main interests lately.

That said, you're right and i probably should go out more.
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I appreciate your honesty you worthless bastard. <[analyzed}>
 
Torrid said:
I don't understand?

The term 'wrote him off' means just that, you wrote them off as a quality talent. I did several years back and that remains so today, to such a point that I figured if Gonzaga took him down, he'd stay down and be submitted. The fact that he was able to survive and win was surprising to me.
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But thet was a long time ago so alot can change.
 
Aleks looked good after a long layoff and against competition of a similar level as himself, judging by accomplishments.
On paper there were two layouts to beat Aleks:
1.- Take him down and submit him. This was percieved as the biggest hole in his game. But, to be realistic, if Gonzaga couldn't submit him, very few people can do it. Gonzaga is no slouch on takedowns by any means, but Aleks can and should improve his defensive wrestling. He has a stable full of amazing wrestlers so he should really work on it to even avoid the possibility of being submitted.

2.- Counter punching. He sometimes gets too comfortable (not to say lazy) on the head movement and trusts his reach/shoulder defense too much. He no longer has the jumpy tippy toes style of going in and out, always jumping back after throwing. Now he just stands there after throwing and Gonzaga actually touched him a few times. It's the kind of thing that a heavy puncher would make him pay for (and which already cost him a fight, actually).

That said, with one more fight or two, if he gets solid wins, it's easy to say he could go 50/50 with many of the top HW's, except guys who have great wrestling and are comfortable on grinding a decision based on top position (why risk exchanging with Aleks?).
Hope we get to see more of him.
 
Mike01010101a said:
Physically he is best shape in his life, this is sure. His groungame is zero, this is also sure. Would be good to see him in UFC but this can not happen.
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I'd disagree with that, Gonzaga is still obviously a very competent top game fighter and couldn't really threaten Aleks at all, just had to hang onto that halfguard doing nothing in the end until he was stood up which was I think a legit call.

Aleks I think obviously stands out as one of the few(maybe Reem?) guys from his era who still looks took THAT far off his peak years physically. I'm guessing ironically that his going off the rails post Pride is actually the reason for this, where as guys like Fedor, Sergei, etc carried on fighting/training at a high level picking up wear and tear he didn't as much.

I mean I wouldn't say he's at the same level he was in 2006 but he's probably closer to it than anyone else around then.
 
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Mixfight said:
Aleksander is in amazing shape. Training very hard at a good camp and really putting everything he can into his training and you can see it. With that said he is 37 and battled with alcoholism and you can see moments when his brain wants to shoot off a Ricardo Morais combo but he just doesnt have the legs to execute it and he just stands there with his feet planted swinging his arms and looks a bit silly. During those moments he is very counterable and even Gonzaga landed some bombs on him. This is a major concern for future fights against guys who can really counter with pop in their punches. Its almost like Aleks is in that Fedor stage where he no longer has the athleticism to get away with shit he would get away with back in the days.

Aleksander got taken down twice by Gonzaga and I must admit that his reaction time to the shots wasnt very good. From another perspective Gonzaga is a BJJ world champion and took down Stipe Miocic and CroCop so its not that shocking that Aleks couldnt stop his shot. Aleks definitely needs to work on his wrestling regardless. On the ground Aleksander did exactly the same thing as Anderson did against DC. It wasnt pretty but it was very effective. He maintained a defensive half guard,not letting Gonzaga pass and locked Gonzaga down and completely neutralized his attack until the ref stood it back up where Aleks knocked Gonzaga out.

Aleks had a good performance and showed a good chin and good defensive half guard against a BJJ world champ. It was nice to have to Emelianenko wins in a row against UFC guys.

PRIDE NEVER DIE.
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Pretty sure we both said in the past we won't know how good Aleks is at this point till we see him off his back... He is still the turtle he always was but like you said he did do a decent job of neutralizing position the aleks the got subbed by Monson surely would not of survived that position. And yeah totally agree while his striking is still pretty damn good his stands so tall and flat footed now, I don't know how anyone could stop a shot standing that straight up lol.. What made aleks hands so impressive was how light he was on his feet, even Fedor still has that pop in his step ( he bounced a bit in the Mir fight ) I never see aleks on the balls of his feet anymore
 
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