So far all Sokoudjou has shown is some great KO power. He was stopped by Glover Teixeira before Pride, and he was dominated on the ground by Machida in his UFC debut. Machida had him in the same arm triangle choke I think three times before finally getting the tap.
Nakamura also lost his UFC debut to Machida, by decision, but he atleast didn't look like he had no clue what he was doing in there.
Sokoudjou should be bigger and stronger than Nakamura, but Nak has victory's over guys who are bigger, stronger, more explosvie guys than him like Kevin Randleman, Igor Vovchanchyn, Cyborg. He also outstruck Shogun when they fought (but Shogun has over rated standup so take that for what it's worth). His only losses are to high quality guys, Machida, Shogun, Barnett, Wand, Hendo and both Nog brothers.
I think inevitably thier Judo will negate each other, but Soku being stronger will just put Nak on the cage until they are seperated.
And though I think Nak will probably show more technical striking, Soku has a higher propensity to land something big and may drop him once or twice, giving him the judges nod.
...and he was dominated on the ground by Machida in his UFC debut. Machida had him in the same arm triangle choke I think three times before finally getting the tap...
Wait, you mean the first time they went to the ground and Machida started a head and arm and Herb Dean stood them up? Yeah he looked freakin' brilliant against Machida.
Whatever you're smoking, you should eithe stop or smoke more.
Wtf are you talking about? I said Sokoudjou got dominated on the ground by Machida.
I'm quite disappointed this fight is only a prelim. I would rather see this matchup on the main card than either of Thiago Silva-Antonio Mendes or Wilson Gouveia-Goran Reljic.
Yeah, I know Nakamura's fights can be boring because he tends to nullify people on offense. But still, he's hung with some pretty high-level guys.
And Sokoudjou-Nakamura is still a matchup between a top-10 and a top-20 LHW (while Mendes and Reljic so far are nowhere near tested at all, with not even one major-league-level fight between them).
As for the Sok-Nak matchup itself, I'd be interested to see how their respective judo credentials might play out against each other, or if they will just serve to mutually negate each other.
I think Sok will win out with his superior power and explosiveness - but I do agree that I'm not really sold on Sok yet, either.
He's only had 3 major-league fights so far (not to mention, he was KO-ed in his last fight just before those).
And yeah, he destroyed two top-5 guys - but those two wins resulted from a grand total of two powerful bursts of striking.
And then he just got tooled in his third fight, especially on the ground (although Lyoto had already had him rocked to put him down in the first place).
So thus far, Sok's whole career is really based on just two explosive moments.
So how he does here against Nakamura (who has shown some good grappling skills) should be a good indicator as to whether or not Sok is really long-term top-10 material, or just two flashes in the pan.