I swore to myself that I would never come on this forum and be one of those people that say I told you so, but to all those people that I have spoken with this week that looked at me like I was on crack when I said that, "GSP would win by out wrestling Koschek and deliver some ground and pound", I TOLD YOU SO!!!!!!
Here is the what most of you don't know about George's wrestling experience. I am a wrestling coach in Canada and we have one of the best technical coaches in the world named Victor Zilberman (formally a Soviet Champion). He runs a small but very elite program in Montreal that currently has in its room World Champions and Olympic Medalists. For many years George has trained with wrestlers that would simply destroy most NCAA all-americans (to be an all-american you have to place top seven at the college nationals). Even though George has not had the competitive exposure/experience that Josh has had, he never-the-less has had some of the best wrestlers on the planet to train with and has done so for a very long time. George regularly scores takedowns on the kind of wrestlers that Koschek has NEVER beaten in competition. By the way, George has wrestled in smaller tournaments and has won them.
Also, in MMA a fighter's ability to get takedowns is very much dependant on how they can set it up with their strikes. Look at the begining of the second round when George came in for two consecutive combinations that forced Josh to deal with and turn his mind to George's striking. One the third time George came in and was simply able to lower his level and blow right through a frozen Koschek.
He has outgrappeled Koschek, Trigg, Hughes, Sherk, Parisian so my question to this forum is, "can we now all agree that GSP is in fact the best MMA wrestler at 170lb. in the UFC??"
I'd agree that he's the best MMA wrestler at 170. I wasn't sure before tonight, b/c I thought Kos's wrestling would be too much for him, but I was wrong.
GSP's wrestling and all-around ability is unbelievable.
Thanks Frosty. What you say, has actually been said by Georges himself on his SpikeTV special. He dominated Koscheck wrestling...he is so fucking good at it.
By the way, for all the American's who like to travel to Vegas watch the UFC then I would encourage you to get your passports ready for a St. Pierre title fight cause there is simply no city in North America like Montreal. Get ready to have your mind blown with a city that parties in ways that are illegal in most U.S. states. I'm not just being biased cause I'm Canadian because I'm from western Canada where many don't even particulary care for French Canada.
FWI.....you might want to bring your own penicillin.
Well shit, he cheated then. Of course it is MMA and not wrestling. He put Koscheck down and kept him there, something Kos would have never believed in a million years.
Frosty, also, GSP talked of training at a boxing gym in Canada that has a title belt holder, I think he said WBA. He didnt mention the weight class.
Hey reasonmethis,
you may notice that in MMA fights that people leading up to fights will often comment on the strenghts that the athletes bring to the fight. In this particular fight the one thing that was talked about over and over again was how good of a wrestler Koschek was. So if that is his major defigning characteristic I thought it was appropriate to point out that GSP was actually a better MMA wrestler than Koschek.
Oh and by the way, what do you mean by "he took him down when Kos was striking". Was GSP supposed to demonstrate his wrestling skill by asking Koschek to get into a freestlye wrestling stance so that Kos could appropriately prepare himself for GSP's upcoming shot.
You are right, GSP did take him down when Koschek was striking. GSP also took him down when he himself was striking. GSP also took him down when Koschek had a single leg and was attemting to finish.
So Mr. reasonmethis maybe you could reason me that.
gsp owned kos in mma wrestling. that simple. he took him down easily, effectively, repeated. kos took gsp down once, with great difficulty, and to no mma advantage.
gsp owned kos in mma wrestling. that simple. he took him down easily, effectively, repeated. kos took gsp down once, with great difficulty, and to no mma advantage.