BTG 113 - Geriatric Fighting

[Music] hello and welcome to another edition of breaking the guard on today's episode we're talk about how this weekend seemed to be a battle in the nursing home where we had two older guys fighting on the main event right first off we'll go with uh Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson now this was streamed live on Netflix I made a news item on it as well I made predictions and against spoiler alerts I was right uh this was a decision win for Jake Paul pretty easy fight for him and I will say I don't think he tried to finish Tyson I believe if he wanted to he could have finished him anytime after the third round the there was a few moments where he would throw a good combination I think particularly in the third round he kind of rocked Tyson a little bit or at least stumbled him because you could see Tyson's legs didn't look too great and then he kind of backed off and he had set as much in his postf fight interview how he didn't want to hurt Mike Mike's a legend he loves Mike respects Mike all this type of thing right so this wasn't a fight to entertain the fans it was a fight to elevate his profile and make a lot of money right as long as you got in there knowing that I think you were okay with this I it's a little weird but hey if Iron Mike is going to pick up you know at least you know a few million off doing this if not maybe hopefully more than that that's not a bad day of of work I would do that Jacob bitter patter me for eight rounds two 82 minute rounds I won't complain about you know getting hit or losing a decision you know uh but I see a lot of people online being really upset uh saying oh you know this was rigged or you know Tyson could have really knocked him out if he wanted to I'm like no I don't think so I mean there's always a puncher's chance but it isn't likely just like anybody can technically knock somebody out out if you know the guy just stood there with his chin locked and lets you cold coock him right but it was unlikely and I think they also said Tyson's knee was um he was wearing a knee brace and he had said afterwards uh that his knee was bothering him but it's no excuse all right and he was happy with the result and I'm sure he was because if I again if I picked up a few million dollars for standing in the ring for like 16 minutes that's again not a bad day especially if he didn't really take any damage not a bad day at all uh people endure far worse and get much less you know uh I just think a lot of people had unrealistic expectations that thinking this is going to be Mike Tyson of 37 years ago when he won the title before Jake 10 years before Jake Paul was even born right age is a real thing right it's you're not going to be an explosive power puncher in your late 50s and Mike Tyson's 59 especially when most of the tread has been taken off your tires right it it isn't like Mike's had an easy life with no damage you know so even though he's a little older he's got a lot of mileage left on the tank right it's like no that's a that's a vehicle that has put hundreds of thousands of miles all right so it's got the wear of such a a a car you know but again he he did it right Mike stood on his feet never got you know knocked down again I I don't think Jake was trying to put him down I think if he wanted to he could have that's my opinion on it uh Tyson I think was probably putting more of an effort uh and probably not trying to get a KO finish either if I'm I think there may have been the gentleman's agreement maybe not but this looked more like a sparring match not so much of a fight like it looked like how if I'm grappling somebody and I just had this happened the other day I grappled I went to Grapple with somebody that I thought was a higher rank but within the first minute I realized oh this guy is you know not as experienced as I thought right and then I just took it easy and you know went kind of light and carried him through the the session right that's how this looked like right maybe Jake initially it looked like he gave Tyson a lot of respect Tyson was throwing some heat in the in the first couple rounds and the judges scored the first two rounds with Tyson but then the remaining six rounds were all Jake and it it looked obvious that Tyson kind of got tired and it appeared that his Mobility was severely limited right I do think there was probably something wrong with his legs couldn't really move too well he had good head movement you know at least you know in the pocket like he always does but he couldn't really pursue uh Jake very well now on the undercard I watched part of the world championship lightweight men's fight not that entertaining to me to be honest the women's fight was just uh barn burner they were just smashing each other the whole time not it didn't appear that technical they they just seem to go head-to-head and just trade so highly entertaining although it does seem the woman a man that was big into clashing with heads and she did cut open a sizable I mean a really big cut right on the brow of the right eye of Sano but Serrano at least to me appeared to have gotten the better of the contest despite that big headbutt that opened the cut which again is a illegal blow and most of the commentators and I guess the commentator's judge agreed but of course in boxing it wouldn't be boxing if there wasn't terrible decisions and this doesn't seem to be an exception to the rule Unfortunately they gave it to the current champions so like this is two times that the sran lady lost uh highly contested decisions right what can you do but it was an entertaining fight so if you wanted to see like people stand and trade it was that woman's fight that you came for the Tyson fight was more just a you know Tyson and Jake Paul can collect a big paycheck right uh so there was that you know and hopefully Mike doesn't need to do anymore or things like this right I'm glad he was able to walk away with this unscathed uh doesn't really affect his legacy in my opinion right I think everyone knows or everyone should know exactly what this was which was it was a Payday this wasn't a real fight right uh from either side in my opinion if it was a real fight I think Jake Paul would be able to put Tyson out of there and I know a lot of people hate to hear that but it's called reality right moving in now that was on Friday then on Saturday the main event for the UFC was Jon Jones versus steti miic and this is another one where people were calling elder abuse but I mean come on steep is 42 so yeah he's older but he's not that old I mean I think Jon Jones is 37 so it's a 5-year age Gap what's more significant from my understanding I don't think stipa has fought in at least three years uh so obviously he is of retirement age and I you know he was I that would have made him what like 39 before from his last fight and then hasn't fought in three years so it doesn't seem to me like this is a guy who was like actively pursuing the career right like they just said hey you want to make some more money and just like Tyson he's like yeah sign me up you know I so this does seem like another money fight opportunity although I don't think this was a rigged fight or like a gentleman's agreement fight much like uh what I think the Mike Tyson and Jake Paul situation was I think this was more of a gimme fight for Jon Jones and a Payday for miic right and the result is not unexpected Jon Jones was able to take down mil very quickly punish him with elbows uh but he didn't go away you know quickly he was able to survive the first round did a little better in the second round and then the third round Jon Jones was able to put him away with a spinning back kick uh that got him on the left kidney it looks like yeah you normally see people drop from the left side body shot but it's possible and I'm sure if Jon Jones landed a a shot on my left kidney like that probably would would probably hurt a lot right we normally see those type of shutdowns on the right side though because that's usually a liver shot that puts you away but you know kidney shots also suck um and and that's I'm only guessing maybe it was just you know it just hurt the ABS but I would guess it was probably cuz it the heel really dug in there you know so if it got to the kidney somehow it would definitely put you down as well and that led to a TKO finish JN Jon swarmed him after he dropped so this doesn't answer any questions that we already didn't know which was of course Jon Jones was going to beat Stipe you know in all honesty Stipe was probably done when he was 39 his best years had already passed him at that point but he he definitely had a great legacy in the UFC this was more of just collecting another paycheck and being a headliner he's obviously going to get some percentage points so it obviously made a lot of sense financially to do that and he's probably walking away with less money than Tyson would have got of and significantly more abuse right uh and more damage to the Legacy as well honestly although it doesn't really change my opinion of him much some people it would be oh you know he got destroyed by Jon Jones he wasn't really that good as a heavyweights like the guy's 42 now right uh and again even though the age difference isn't much I think the stages of the career are very different although Jon Jones to be fair doesn't look like the Jon Jones of at least what I remember when he was coming up the ranks and he was just Comal tip toop shape and just destroying everybody he doesn't look as great as he used to in my opinion I think being a heavyweight while maybe for him dieting wise is easier he doesn't look as smooth uh again he has gotten older he's 37 I think for most Fighters that's usually this you're at the point where you're getting downwards right uh physically at least you're not getting um your recovery is not going to be the same uh especially if you're not doing testosterone and you know trt and all this other stuff which he has shown he does do on occasion when he pops uh so you're going to have issues being able to train as hard as you used to and now it's basically going to be relying on very smart preparation and just having your Technique and experience really carry you through those fights and this does now uh question whether he would be able to face a younger fire like Aspen who is a rising commodity uh and I guess we'll find out in the coming days where he thinks he is going to go he seems to have hinted before before the fight a lot about fighting Pereira uh and uh this doesn't necessarily change that factor because he was able to take stipa down quite easily and honestly he could probably do the same to Pereira right um so I think that fight is still an interesting fight right I I think it always was still is but doesn't change the fact in my mind that there is an interim Champion if you're the current champion you're a disputed Champion I I forgot to pay attention to that when they announced him if they just called him the world champion or they call him the the Undisputed which would be a mistake because he would be a disputed Champion since there was an interim there right so there's an asteris into the name right now uh as current heavyweight champion right I I feel like he should be fighting Aspen Aspen has beaten the number three the the number four and the number five and the number six people in his Division I think the he hasn't fought suran yet which uh I mean I would say it would be a good fight to see except that he's the interim champ so the only fight for him is Jon Jones uh and I don't want to keep hand being on this because I've talked about this before so I'll move on right but I think that fight should happen otherwise just retire and be done right if you're if you don't feel like you want to defend the belt against these challenges and you're just going after money fights I mean I don't fault you I would like to fight money fights also if I was given the choice but this is not your show right like you're supposed to be fighting under a structure where you fight Challengers based on the rankings and you defend belts uh once you return from an injury or whatnot and you defend it against an interim belt but if you're not going to follow the rules it seems like well then you you're not allowed to participate if you're running a league you know ethically in my opinion anyhow other fights that happen here well one I had to say another one for the old salty dogs Jim Miller right he's another one who I think he's 41 right so he's a close is he's over 40 he's got a lot of mileage right but he still pulled out a w with a guillotine finish in round one looking great the whole time uh and actually he looked better this time around than he did last time you know and I think he lost his last fight by a decision uh but in this fight he actually looked pretty good it looked like he had the upper hand the entire time in the Striking and was starting to hurt his opponent that guy tried to shoot in and then jumped into a JY Miller Guillotine and it was all over pretty fast got a quick tap out of there appeared to be an armide guillotin I'm not mistaken and when when Joe Rogan interviewed him asking him when he's going to stop he's like I'll stop when I feel like stopping you know and so hey he's I think he's obviously going for records uh besides of course getting paid uh I mean he's got to have the longest active streak in UFC history I would imagine or close to it he got a good amount of wins out of his past four fights he's won three you know so he's still relevant now he hasn't fought uh well Bobby Miller uh obviously was a tough fight which that was his last loss and he did all right there he hung in there so I mean can you break into the ranked that would be that might be like a secondary goal for him I think he just wants to fight to try to amp up his numbers into some unbreakable record but he's good enough where if it's set up right he could get back into the top 15 which would be an impressive thing to do at you know 41 uh but yeah he's doing something right you know he looks in great shape uh I mean obviously not as in good shape as he used to be when he was younger but considering the age looks pretty solid and uh doing a great job moving in there he looked good moving in there uh and was able to secure another finish so good on Jim Miller for representing uh but then of course the co-main event you have Michael Chandler with uh Oliva and no surprises there in my opinion at least that oie rer came out and got the W here although Chandler made it interesting and Oliva always obliging uh they did have some crazy Antics in there I think in the fifth round Chandler uh I think there was about a minute left Oliva had the back body triangle I was just holding on to him and Chandler would just stand up from being flat you know with Charles on his back there sit up stand up you know make a little hand gesture and then just backsplash and then do that a second time before the clock ran out I mean on one hand it's like that takes a lot of energy and a good amount of strength to be able to pull off and at least Michael Chandler's conditioning is solid like he's able to do this repeatedly and doesn't seem you know phased by it on the other hand uh did seem to get dominated you know technically and I think it's one of those guys that just works too much conditioning too much fight Camp stuff not enough skill development right he hasn't had a fight in years but doesn't seem to have increased skill level like he seems like the same guy that just he's going out there and making a show and again everybody likes his fight because he takes lots of wild risks and chances but I don't know I mean if I'm fighting I want to win ultimately I don't just want to make a show of it sure you're going to get put on the stage repeatedly but my ultimate goal when I'm fighting is to prove that I'm the best and I can only do that if I'm fighting technically with good strategy if I'm just going for Haymakers and you know doing extravagant you know slams that don't result in any change of position seems I'm very being very inefficient with my motions so it's a shame you know I've trained with Michael Chandler back in the day uh coached him a little bit when I was at Alliance and really nice guy again obviously solid dude good conditioning but technically there I feel like there's a lot that could be worked on and the fact that that it doesn't seem to have improved by much is uh distressing to me you know but he's another guy that's kind of getting towards that tail end of the career there and um yeah uh it seems like he he's been waiting around for that Michael I mean the not the Michael Chandler uh Conor McGregor right and if Conor Gregor you know watched that fight which he obviously did probably wants to he's still happy with that match up because it's probably one that he would likely win and the style would make it an entertaining fight regardless because Chandler is going to go For Broke you know so I mean I guess that probably might still be on a table although I can't remember that last time Chandler W to fight like he just seems to lose fights in impressive fashion you know uh so it's bizarre you know I I can't really relate to wanting to go through that right like if I'm not getting better in each fight I'm not sure what I'm doing but that's me but uh yeah that's what we've been seeing here you know in the fight world I feel sometimes people are so focused on conditioning and just training in a fight camp that they forget that they have to develop skill right we're not we're not just an athlete that has a very limited skill set so it's just more about conditioning there are certain Sports where I feel like since it's not that complicated there's not that many motions you can just kind of forget about building as much technique I think again I'm ignorant so forgive me if I insult somebody in their sport but we look at something like maybe sprinting right and like a short interval of course there's a lot of techniques behind how to get off the gate and how to develop maximum speed using your toes and the ball of your feet to pull through the ground you know and you know how to chamber your arms so you can get the maximum amount of drive there there's technique there but I again I'm ignorant of Olympic level sprinting technique but I'm I'm pretty sure at a certain Point there's not much more technique you can pour in there and it's more about how well you're preparing uh how much optimization you've done in your diet and streamlining yourself and even the the gear you're wearing the type of shoes you have the type of clothes you have to kind of streamline even maybe your hair do or whatnot to really streamline your aerodynamics as much as possible and of course just training hard enough so to develop more effective muscle mass so you can Sprint and explode faster right and obviously dietary energy to have enough ATP so you can do that 400 meter sprint at 100% capacity I don't think there's as much seminars and learning sessions where you're learning new things or you're building new uh techniques or doing new drills you've never done before or I don't think that's a big part of a worldclass printers training regimen whereas in MMA that is constant for just about everybody there's always new things to learn Jon Jones who is training with Gordon Ryan for this Camp who apparently was also in the corner for Jon Jones right uh and Jon Jones as I've said before is probably the greatest fighter of all time uh with NRI but you know with the cheating and the eye gouging and all the other dirty stuff he does but even if you took all that dirty stuff away the guy is still a technical monster he's got incredible heart and drive and incredible belief in himself so he is on that top three list you know uh but he is still working on on new skills and he's probably what like maybe 20 years in the game as a competitor in the UFC so it's there and I can tell you there's still things in MMA that he probably doesn't know yet right and if he's not at a point where he's still learning new skills right then it's a mistake in my opinion right that's when someone can beat you because they'll find out these weak areas and exploit them because MMA is such a complicated sport there's so much ground to cover that you're always going to be learning new skills right if you're a dedicated student right or you're are starting to specialize and improve certain skills you already know but are not expert at right and you going to try to at least level yourself up right I've talked about this in a previous podcast where there's like you know we rated our skill levels and percentage from 0 to 100% even the most expert of experts on a particular subject is not 100% right I I said I would consider myself somewhere in the top 90% for koros right and you maybe an argument could be maybe I'm not even in the 90 maybe I'm in the 80s right um so that's how harsh and critical I am of skill right so even someone like Jon Jones he's not you know going to be plus 90% on all the skills of fighting right so there's always room to improve and become better uh so I feel like people who stop learning very early in their career once they start tasting success are really shooting themselves in the foot it doesn't mean they can't continue to succeed but I feel like the shelf life is going to be considerably uh shorter for their long-term success because you know as an more veteran fighter you do have experience on your side and you might be have incredible physique and conditioning and that might be able to carry you through a lot of fights with your previous skill set that still works but the Next Generation that comes through that is learning a lot more than you did at that era is going to overpass you uh quite easily I believe so if if you're not willing to adapt that student mindset and continue to learn and and humble yourself you're going to find yourself taking lots of bells