Diego Sanchez, Dan Quinn, Frank Mir and Obasi in a room together would be the Ultimate Fucking Conversation.
For unbeatable win, add Dana White piping in from the intercom with "That's fucking ILLEGAL."
siouxNYC - honestly, i think it's the wing chun and the years he spent practicing it. being a big, aggressive dude probably helps his cause, but when you watch him you can definitely tell he's a different kind of striker.
interesting...i asked because i have a friend who grew up as a boxer but also trains wing chun. he is british guy who has been boxing since he was 5. he is also a bouncer part time and feels wing chun is excellent for attacking and surprising people when you need to strike. his boxing is excellent but man his wing chun strikes are fuckin fast and powerful.
and about obasi...his actions were clearly that of someone who was truly hurt and pissed about those m-1 guys not even recognizing him as a fighter since he couldn't throw a high kick. it's quite obvious that he isn't just "wing chun for life" since he has developed some sort of ground game. he feels wing chun can be a dominant striking form. who knows maybe it can be. machida has shown how karate can be used in mma. you just got to take the strong points and integrate them properly into a complete game.
bottom line...they shouldn't have been judgemental bitches and they should have let him spar. yeah obasi lost his cool and started spouting off shit but who cares. let him fight and find out who is best.
Does DFW know about this guy? That breakdown seems like exactly what he would want in the TUF house.
Lucas Maximus - M1 is looking for people to get wrecked by their boys, no loss for "Wing Chun Man"
Yeah, especially when this try-out was for M-1 Selection Americas with only american up and coming fighters, and most likely wont have any fighters that have ever fought for M-1 before. But dont let the facts interfere with good old hating.
There was no actual live sparring at the tryouts, just hitting pads and grappling semi-hard with oleg savitsky.
Porkchop - This Wing Chun guy looks like a real jackass but if they threw him out for falling down after doing a high kick than that is kinda bullshit.Wing Chun does NOT have high kicks. None at all. It is many times referred to as Chinese Boxing. It does incorporate low line kicks and straight kicks (back leg and front leg lead).
I'm wondering tho.....does wing chun not practice kicks to the head? I mean pretty much every striking style has a roundhouse style headkick right? Even if it isn't muay thai like.....how can he not kick to the head without falling over?
It's wrong if they threw him out on the basis that he wasnt a muay thai fighter but it was more than likely that he couldnt throw a head kick.....thats not right either but maybe he just seemed like a mentally weak individual or a "tommy try-hard" who will never make it. I mean, thats the impression i got.
The guy he fought in the first video.....fucking awfull......no way that guy even had anywhere near 26 fights, let alone being 26-0. and wing chun guy celebrated like he just beat mohammed ali.
there is no conspiracy holding back wing chun guy.....i cant even find a fight record for him.....has he even gone pro? i mean he's gotta be able to find pro fights.....i've seen guys who dont know shit with pro fight records.
Maybe the grappling didn't go so well for obasi?
Upon further musing, I suppose it might be tough to arrange sparring for crowds of would-be MMA stars, so they need some way of cutting to the chase.
It's way more fun to speculate without all the facts though, so I'll stop thinking about this.
siouxNYC - There was no actual live sparring at the tryouts, just hitting pads and grappling semi-hard with oleg savitsky.
M1 is a gigantic joke
give the man a fucking fight. Lol judging a fighter on a highkick....WTF!!!!!!!!!!!! It is MMA....not ballet dancing.
I am sure Brock Lesnar is incapable to throw a decent Highkick....and he is one of the best.
ps : the guy from M1 in the video is a dutch trainer and promoter....maybe he thought he was auditing for K1.....but he should wake up...he is not.
MattBenwa - Wow, if he wants to be a fucking fighter he should learn to conduct himself in a more professional manner - crying on your knees for a fight isn't great for your career IMO.
GSP seemed to do ok with that..
IM A MFING WING CHUN MAN
Let him fight
What happens if a guy's background was mainly from boxing and bjj?? Obasi was abit spastic though.
To all the people saying they didn't select him because of his kicks you are mistaken.They grappled and did padwork and based on that they didn't select him they had every right to, watching his previous fights its pretty clear that hes not that good, game but not very skilled, his opponents are all seem to be guys who have never fought before and little training.In what I've seen Apy is a nice respectful guy and hes right, the Wing Chun guy is extremely close minded and would never succeed with Wing Chun, he said he would never do Muay Thai, being that close minded will get him nowhere.Regarding Machida, Machida isn't the first guy to use karate, Kyokushin karate has been a dominant striking art for a long time, high level kickboxers and lots of MMA fighters have Kyokushin as a base so karate has been in MMA a long time, Lyoto's style is Shotokan but people forget he also trained MT, BJJ and is a good wrestler. Machida is also an exception to the rule, there haven't been many other effective Shotokan karate guys and very few people fight like Machida. Machida's success is not solely based on Shotokan.
Acexnz - To all the people saying they didn't select him because of his kicks you are mistaken.
They grappled and did padwork and based on that they didn't select him they had every right to, watching his previous fights its pretty clear that hes not that good, game but not very skilled, his opponents are all seem to be guys who have never fought before and little training.
In what I've seen Apy is a nice respectful guy and hes right, the Wing Chun guy is extremely close minded and would never succeed with Wing Chun, he said he would never do Muay Thai, being that close minded will get him nowhere.
Regarding Machida, Machida isn't the first guy to use karate, Kyokushin karate has been a dominant striking art for a long time, high level kickboxers and lots of MMA fighters have Kyokushin as a base so karate has been in MMA a long time, Lyoto's style is Shotokan but people forget he also trained MT, BJJ and is a good wrestler. Machida is also an exception to the rule, there haven't been many other effective Shotokan karate guys and very few people fight like Machida. Machida's success is not solely based on Shotokan.
ok Apy....
jujubre - give the man a fucking fight. Lol judging a fighter on a highkick....WTF!!!!!!!!!!!! It is MMA....not ballet dancing.I wonder how James Toney's high kicks look? In any case, WAR WING CHUN GUY!!!
I am sure Brock Lesnar is incapable to throw a decent Highkick....and he is one of the best.
ps : the guy from M1 in the video is a dutch trainer and promoter....maybe he thought he was auditing for K1.....but he should wake up...he is not.
M-1 came off as big douchebags. Dana should sign this guy to a 1 fight deal. Who knows? This guy may be the next Machida. He'll even probably fight cheap.
I dont have a problem with them thinking he isnt good enough at this time for M1, but there is NO justification for rejecting him for not training in the specific martial arts they think work best in MMA.
We should encourage people to explore the depths of their arts and get as proficient at it as Maia is at jiujitsu and Machida is at karate. I dont know why people feel MMA fighters have to be cookie cutter mixes of boxing, muay thai, wrestling, and BJJ? I know that those are the styles that have worked the best in MMA's short history, but if Machida showed us anything it's that people can be effective in other styles as well.
People making comparisons to James Toney, Maia and Machida its ridiculous!
Maia could have rolled and tapped his partner and looked very dangerous on the ground, machida woulda smoked those thai pads, and I am sure the pad holder would have never held pads for anyone as proficient while holding for Toney!
M1 is looking at becoming a major name in MMA and for sure I think they were right to reject him based on his ability to roll, and hit the pads.
There arent any good mma fighters who wouldnt have done at least a "B" on one or two aspects of the modern day mma matrix (bjj+wrestling (grappling) and muay thai, western boxing (kickboxing)
The Tryouts were to test the MMA ability and the simplest (not necessarily the best) way is to test grappling and kickboxing attributes of the fighters and this guy miserabely failed, not only did he fail he acted like a complete prick and bitched and moaned about having trained WC for several lifetimes!!!!
That doesnt sound like the kinda of fighter that anyone would wanna have on their books, irrelevant of the fact that he failed miserably to show any decent kickboxing or grappling.
Can someone please give me an example of the high level fighter who wouldnt have impressed in them in either grappling (bjj and wrestling) or kickboxing/boxing (MT, Kyokoshin, boxing)?
I am sure there were many many much better fighters on the day than that dude. Besides he should fight a little more cos with such huge holes in his game, he will be found out pretty quickly! I and probably a few others were itching for the guy to get in there with someone and get his ass handed to him, but I think it was the right thing to do to let him bitch and go.
Also regardless of style, when you have been around class fighters for many years, you sort of get a eye for someone who can really walk the walk. You can see something about a persons movement, power, confidence and all round ability, and clearly this guy was found lacking. I find it suprising that so many people are pissed that he was rejected.
I agree that other more traditional arts can be used in MMA and there is no doubt in my mind that more people will use a TMA effectively soon enough. But they will have to work their way up the ranks, they wont be able to turn up at tryouts for major shows and beg for a chance and cry if they dont get one!
Dana give this guy a TUF 32 man slot! Just to hate on M1.
robbie380 -siouxNYC - i'm pretty sure i've been ringside for all of shawn obasi's UCL fights. when he first fought he was a ferocious striker with a glaring hole in his game (grappling). he lost to a wrestler after beating the hell out of that wrestler, and then he lost to bryan vetell before bryan went on to the IFL. then shawn took some time off and started studying bjj at fabio clemente's school, and since then he's been wrecking dudes. seriously, just cutting right through them like a hot knife through butter. he went through a couple opponent's in the UCL, beat up someone at a show in vermont, and now the dude can't get any fights.is he winning because of the wing chun striking or just because he would be a ferocious strikers no matter what form he was using?
it's a shame, too, because he's exciting and entertaining as hell. is he a little nuts? maybe, but he's a fucking wing chun TMAer who has crosstrained more than he lets on, and he can bring it in an MMA bout.
also, why isn't wing chun used or practiced for mma?
Is ALWAYS about the striker not the style when it comes to striking. Mike Tyson was born for his peekaboo style...but he could have trained his entire life as a ballerina and STILL be a world class killer. Same w/ prime Cro Cop, Ernesto Hoost, Semmy Schilt, Andy Hug, Floyd Mayweather...it's about them. They've all just happened to find the style that's best for their attributes.