Has anybody heard Garcia discuss the possibility of fighting mma? Obviously he is very skilled in sport bjj and SW but it would be interesting to see how he would do in mma.
he would get pounded
There was an interview in FCF a couple months ago.
And?
DangerMouse,
Sorely mistaken!
"he would get pounded"
And here I was thinking that being one of the best sub grapplers would be beneficial for an MMA fighter.
Saulo Ribeiro
unlike other bjjer's who failed at MMA, Garcia is a no gi terror, incredible with submissions and not just position minded, and has great takedowns and a very active guard. I would say he has at least as much potential as Shaolin did
Saulo shot into a knee on kondo and got cut bad.One fight on one day.He was crazy to fight a top fighter in his second fight.But he also beat Jason Ireland who's a good fighter.
he could sub a few people. But overall his game is WAY to open. He would get pounded pretty bad by the top guys.
I used to think Garcia would get pounded, but then I saw the spider guard (Nog-ish) game he showed on Garcia 3 and realized there is more to his bottom game than X-guard. Garcia has great takedowns and is the best in the world at taking the back. What people tend to forget is that Garcia has one of the best top games out there (when have you seen him swept?). That makes for a game well-suited to MMA.
However, it would ultimately come down to the question of whether he can deal with striking. If it turns out Garcia is a genetic freak and has the hands of Kid and the chin of Gomi, I'd say he becomes a second, even better BJ Penn. (Not likely though.)
Garcia is fun to watch, I would love to see him in MMA.
If he doesn't translate well then he'll get KO'ed... still fun to watch :)
Obviously he would need to adjust his training to mma but he is smart enough to know that. Watching the way he handled Diego Sanchez gave me some hope that he could actually be very good at mma although no one really knows until he fights a few times.
What I was really interested in with this thread, however, is if anybody had read or heard anything about him saying he was or was not interested in fighting mma.
Some great bjj'ers just don't love fighting and I think really want to stay
pure BJJ even when they are talked into going into the ring. Machado and
Saulo probably trained for their fights a bit to relaxed. There are some
key differences that the fighter must understand about the different rules
and the opponenet's strengths. If Garcia/Jacare/Roger prepared right
they would be extremely tough MMA fighters at their weights. If they
entered the ring thinking all they need to do would be a front kick, to a
clinch, to a mount, to rear naked then they probably will be surprised.
I'd be interested to see him try.
So much of his success comes from elements of jiu jitsu that I can't see really being applicable to mma. That said, he's such a gifted athlete, I bet he'd figure out a way to make his game work.
if memory serves, the article didn't make it seem like
he was gonna do mma anytime soon. i wouldn't either if
i was him. he's probably making more money with
teaching, seminars, privates than he would in mma.
He would certainly have to make a lot of adjustments. I don't think he could walk in with just his sub wrestling skillset and beat Gomi or Sakurai or Pulver.
hes probably a great natural athlete who could do well if he trained right with a great team for awhile
The dude is an innovator, i'm sure he'd adapt well, but he'd obviously need to train well.