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Hughes couldn't set them up properly because he couldn't do anything in the stand up game to make St Pierre worry about it. GSP had no fear of being punched or kicked by Hughes, so he peppered him standing up, and kept an eye out for the takedown. Not only that, but GSP is so fast, it looked like Hughes was in slow motion. While I like Matt Hughes, it's gonna be tough for him to beat GSP in a rematch.
In defense of Tim Sylvia, I can't see how you can say he's a punk. First of all, he's one of the nicest guys in MMA. All that pre-fight talk is a bit forced upon them by the UFC guys. They encourage them to talk it up so to make it look like some kind of bad blood, and use them in clips for commercials. I thought Sylvia looked pretty good in his fight, but he lacked killer instinct. Monson was a beaten man in the 4th and 5th round. All Sylvia had to do was let his hands go, and it would have been a KO or TKO.....however, he did exactly what his corner told him to do. Pat Militech commands a lot of respect from his fighters, and if wasn't for him, Sylvia wouldn't be where he is. Sylvia listened to him, and it ended up being two very boring rounds. It was a smart strategy, but a very boring strategy. Also, Sylvia's ground game actually amazed me....amazed me that he even had one, and even more so that he nearly submitted Monson.
It was very smart of Sylvia to call out Vera. In a year or two, Vera will have developed his skills and experience enough so that he probably would easily handle him. Right now, Vera, although very skilled, has still had only eight fights. Beating Assuerio Silva (and more convincingly than Tim Sylvia did) is probably is best win. Mir is not the same fighter he was before the accident - he barely beat Dan Christison and got dominated by Marcio Cruz. Mir has to somehow find the competitive spirit he used to have so much of, or he won't beat any top competition. Back to the point, though, right now Sylvia stands the best chance against Vera, but IMHO in a couple of years Vera will have progressed enough to beat Sylvia. It should still be a good fight, and I think Vera has an excellent shot at winning.
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