A lot of the LHW battles seem to be mostly stand-up boxing at this point? Take down defense has come a long way and I’m assuming a lot of this comes from Chuck Liddel dominating the UFC LHW class using just stand up and solid take down defense.
Pride shoot fighters using clinches, knee’s and lots of elbows was the most effective fighting style, which does not match up good against a boxer. For some reason though, boxers seem to be more effective in the cage. Anderson Silva seems to be the only effective shoot fighter in UFC right now. How long until shoot fighters learn to develop what he has?
In the mean time, is there anyone that can give Rampage a run for his money? I see him as the best boxer in the LHW division right now. Not the best striker, but the best over all boxer. He has some good ground game too that he showed against Henderson. He’s a phenomenal athlete and his strength allows him to neutralize better wrestlers on the ground.
I’m thinking Forrest would be a good fight for him at this point after TUF. Forrest has heart, but I think Rampage just has raw athletic ability and Forrest would not be able to use his size as well against Rampage as he showed how effective he can use it against Shogun (who looked like crap anyway). I give Forrest credit, but I take a lot away from Shogun in that fight, he looked awful which makes it hard to measure up how good Forrest will do against a prepared top ranking LHW.


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