ArmoredFoe
Kill or be Killed
LOL.. THE aoki fight was laughable.. If Japan MMA fighters think this guy is their best pound for pound fighter and that somehow this match was going to legitimize the sport over their, they must be really proud. lol.. The funny thing is Aoki makes more money than most of the Strikeforce fighters do combined in Japan.. It just goes to show you how marketing can have the biggest effect in these sports and not actual talent. Look at the WWF back in the days when 90% of the people who watched believed it was real. Hogan vs Warrior was a great match back then when we were kids.Now I love MMA and UFC has the best of the best however most matches aren't that exciting or heart pounding. On occasion some of them are and usually its the same fighters that make the excellent matches occur. Aggressiveness seems to be the best way to judge that. Matt Hughes and George St. Pierre fights for example have that aggressiveness every round. These strikeforce title fights were a joke. If they spent that much money on paying Henderson to take the loss, at the very least have the fighters practice fighting each other to make it look real. Fighters in the World Wrestling Entertainment/Federation spent an entire day going over how the fight would turn out. lol.. OK so I'm being facetious here.. I want these MMA fights to be legit and real all the time. The brunt of the money should come when you win, not when you get signed up for the fight, and most definitely not in order to prop up a fighter by taking a loss.. If Henderson's first knockdown was a fluke that wasn't supposed to happen and he said "Oh SH%T" I need to stop throwing even baby punches, and we got what we saw in the rest of the fight.. Then shame on them.. Henderson needs to fight like his life is in danger and if he doesn't kill his opponent in one minute, some terrible thing will happen to his family.
Aoki by the way looks like a dog trying to wipe his A$$ on the ground.
What you have to remember is Japanese MMA is totally different than MMA in the US or say Brazil. The Japanese are all about putting on a show and making heroes out of there top guys. There top guy could lose 20 times and hes still a hero because he fights with the samurai spirit. In the US, you lose 3 times and you get your walking papers. Which is why alot of fighters dont care about the fans because when your winning they love you and when you lose they hate you and move on. In Japan there dedicated to there heroes to the end.
As for Aoki "wiping his ass" some call it butt scooting, alot call it crab walking. its a legitimate "technique" in a sense alot of the ground players use in tournaments...the problem is this is MMA not a BJJ tourney. Also in Japan when a guy starts crab walking, they dont stop it or stand them up right away because thats part of the technical aspect of it. Most of the US crowd didnt get to see anything he had either because Aoki got nulified on the cage. In Japan they only fight in rings. Dream pulls out there cage for there annual new years event sometime, theres one other Japanese organization that uses a cage, but cant recall the name at the moment. Its just a different sport in Japan. There not big on getting the KO so to speak, the Japanese fans want to see "Chess matches" Sure they love a good KO or someone who is a good striker, but while I love Japanese MMA, the one thing I always say is if they expect to come to the US and make an impact they have to develope there striking.
Aoki is an awesome fighter on the ground, but I'll say it again, a BJJ black belt might as well be a white belt if you cant take the guy down or have a back up with a decent striking game and we seen that with Gilbert vs Aoki.
As for MMA, I watch everything, from grassroots shows, to watching small tourneys in Brazil, I go to local BJJ tourneys in the area. I really love Shooto. Such a small tournament, but have some great fights. Im really loving Bellator also, as I said I love there seasons/tournaments they have. I love UFC like the next guy, but to me the UFC is all marketing also. While I agree the UFC's fighters are the elite, but alot of times its hype and marketing. Ive seen to many boring fights from them to only care about there organization. I look at it like this, from the biggest to the smallest, they all give me a little something so as I said I watch everything.
