very unimpressive. i was disappointed. not only did kennedy out-strike him, but seemingly was better at grappling too. roger just did not show any explosiveness of will-to-win in my opinion. no desperation, emotion, anything.
why would you even mention "his mother's side"? does this make him less of a gracie? he wasn't impressive in his last mma fight, no. but you can't really criticize his jiujitsu credentials.
Roger doesn't seem to have a lot of explosiveness, something that is glaringly apparent in his striking game. In addition no gi tends to be faster and in some ways less technical than gi grappling. Especially when you add strikes to the mix. All of that works against him in MMA. He's clearly one of the best BJJ practioners in the world, but sometimes things don't translate as well to the cage. His personal style is one of them.
Tim has also gone an entire match with jacare without being subbed, he has outstanding bjj, Roger dominated the first round but couldnt finish, and after that Tim took advantage of Rogers use of turtle in his escapes to strike with. I thought it was a good learning match for roger, and a good match to watch for the fans. nice blog about tim trainig bjj - http://jiujitsuwanderer.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/rolling-with-tim-kennedy/
Another bjj =/= mma grappling match really. I actually enjoyed the fight, but I thought the outcome was predictable. There's still a big aura surrounding the Gracies (I'm aware Roger is actually an outstanding bjj practitioner in his own right) but its been a while since we've seen any Gracie be impressive in mma. I think what really disappointed me was Roger looked like he gassed in the first, and then mentally crumbled in the second. I don't expect him to be super skilled when he's not on the ground with someone, but I do expect him to at least look like he wants it. Maia was a bjj guy when he started too, but at least he looked like he was trying with his crappy stand up. Roger struck me as having the same problem as Palhares: Awesome if it goes his way, but he shuts down if it doesn't. That said this was my first time watching either guy fight so I might be a bit harsh. I have a bit of a chip on my shoulder over the gracies so that might be part of it
I'm a Tim Kennedy fan. 13 of his 15 wins were finishes so he doesn't go to decision too often. He's never been KOed yet either so he's a tough dude to be sure. Apparently he let the jitters get to him and wasn't too happy with his performance. I'm looking forward to his next fight as he has a lot of potential for a good exciting fight.
Erm...it does actually. Given we still go by the prehistoric notion of passing on last names via the male side of things. He's really a "Gomes" if IIRC. But hey...he can call himself what he wants.
That a notion is common in your culture does not make it "prehistoric" or universal, it's pretty common for Brazilians to go by their mother's name: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_name
hey cool...I stand corrected...I just thought he'd gone "Gracie" for marketing reasons as back when he first came to the UK he was Roger Gomes IIRC. Consider me newly informed.
Not sure when he took it, but certainly Gracie is a more recognizable name than Gomes (although his father Gomes snr has an excellent BJJ reputation though likely not so well known outside of the BJJ community). Two others I know have done something similar, Gregor and Neiman, though the latter is the son of 'Gracie' I think they are all considered family, though don't know the ins an outs of it all.
hello, sure you can. what of it? regardless of what you think of his "jiujitsu credentials", he was completely unimpressive. this was a really abysmal "event". fight really isn't the right word. oh well, our friends kennedy and gomes got paid, regardless. they'll both be fine, most likely. thanks.
hello, hey hannibal, what's shakin'? less a direct criticism of the gomes jiujitsu arsenal and more a question of why his jiujitsu credentials are even being mentioned. "what of it?" as in, why is this a talk point right now? whether we can or cannot indict his jiujitsu credentials has little to do with one fact: the fight just sucked. happens sometimes. we have all seen high level guys that can't seem to fight their way out of a paper bag. likely, we'll see both of them massacre their next opponents (or each other, if a rematch were to happen). by the way... awesome avatar. hannibal for the win! thanks
Umm you said sure you can criticise his credentials in BJJ, then proceeded to say you weren’t criticising his credentials, do you confuse yourself as much as you do us? To make things clear you cannot criticise his BJJ credentials (or no gi grappling credentials for that matter) they are amongst the best the world has seen, and I did find it funny that the no gi v gi training point was raised by someone earlier in the thread when Roger has won the ADCC several times and in 2003 submitted every single opponent a fete yet to be matched I believe. Oh and why are you referring to him as gomes when his given name is roger gracie, again are you confusing yourself?? Personally what I feel you can do is criticise his transition from BJJ to MMA, his takedowns aren’t in the league of jacare for example, nor is his explosiveness, roger plays a more slow methodical game and like being on his back which isn’t best suited to MMA, he is not a natural striker and that part of his game is really missing and needs real work
as i mentioned previously, i also thought gracie was unimpressive. sure, of course you can criticize anyone you want. when i say his jiujitsu credentials i'm talking about winning 10 ibjjf worlds and 2 adcc.
