UFC 195: Lawler vs. Condit - Page 8

Are you sure about that Baal? Sure GSP is quite a bit more explosive than Macdonald, but striking wise I'm not sure he's better, and Robbie has really excellent takedown defense.

I guess GSP would never allow himself to get into the kind of stand up war that Macdonald/Lawler turned into, so he'd probably win it on points. But I don't think he'd destroy him at this point.

On January 05 2016 23:35 traxamillion wrote: thought GSP has been retired for a while?

Yah never officially though.

If Lawler wasn't so potentially shopworn at this point and GSP did come back to fight him, it could be one of those beautiful moments where the general perception is a full 5 years behind and the odds would be ludicrously off (not saying there aren't logical reasons for thinking GSP would win, but mostly it would just be hype money based on his popularity and record).

But because of the recent wars Brutal Bob has been in, I couldn't be super confident in him against any Elite fighter anymore. I think he reached his peak in the MacDonald fight. Robbie would amaze me if he won another war in a row (whether he deserved it or not) but I kinda hope they just give him Damien Maia to smash to pad his little insane 2 year legacy of violence and let the division flush out / MacDonald get healthy.

I will definitely bet on GSP by decision if he fights Lawler

GSP is past his prime, had 2 knee surgeries and the game has evolved a lot since his best days. He was having trouble standing against Johny Hendricks who is a southpaw and is just spamming his left hand, when he was not able to take him down. On top of that he was getting hurt in his recent fights and they were alot closer than before.

Now Robbie Lawler is a southpaw, which renders GSP best weapon standing up (his jab) not very effective and has insane TDD. Yes Lawler has been in some wars lately and I have no doubt that GSP can devise a gameplan where he uses kicks mixed with some takedowns to take a decision or even finish him, but the most probable outcome in my opinion is : Robbie finds him and takes him out by TKO ( don't see GSP withstanding Lawler's power) .

I would bet GSP at +200 for sure ^^

Don't think GSP will be at +200. I see him being favored by the bookies.

Yea it's really hard to say where GSP should be. I think he look significantly worse after his first knee surgery. He took more damage in his 3 fights after than basically his entire career combined. He looked significantly less explosive. Since then he's had another acl tear and knee surgery and has had two years off. I think the GSP we'll see would be a shell of his former self. Really hard to predict though tbh.

He is as professional as they come though so if he fights he'll be as ready as humanly possible.

its pretty much impossible to predict, thats why Im assuming he will return as he left, and I think all of you are overestimating Lawlers TD defense, the only fighter who has been able to stop GSPs takedown is Hendricks but he is in another level of wrestling compared to lawler

On January 06 2016 23:59 Baalim wrote: its pretty much impossible to predict, thats why Im assuming he will return as he left, and I think all of you are overestimating Lawlers TD defense, the only fighter who has been able to stop GSPs takedown is Hendricks but he is in another level of wrestling compared to lawler

But keep in mind Lawler can stop Hendricks's take downs.

Overall, i think GSP should be able to get take downs at some point in the fight, but i doubt he can take down Lawler at will like he can with guys like condit.
And i think the fight would go similar to hendricks vs lawler 1, where GSP has a bit the upper hand in striking, but gets much more damage done to himself.

On January 07 2016 02:24 Floofy wrote: Show nested quote + On January 06 2016 23:59 Baalim wrote: its pretty much impossible to predict, thats why Im assuming he will return as he left, and I think all of you are overestimating Lawlers TD defense, the only fighter who has been able to stop GSPs takedown is Hendricks but he is in another level of wrestling compared to lawler But keep in mind Lawler can stop Hendricks's take downs. Overall, i think GSP should be able to get take downs at some point in the fight, but i doubt he can take down Lawler at will like he can with guys like condit. And i think the fight would go similar to hendricks vs lawler 1, where GSP has a bit the upper hand in striking, but gets much more damage done to himself.

Hendricks' takedowns are not as good as they should be given his wrestling pedigree, so that's less impressive than it sounds.

There are some interesting bits on why that is in this video (I think it's the right vid, cant check at the moment):

Takedown defense comes much closer to pure wrestling than takedowns do. In MMA GSP's takedowns are way better than Hendricks'.