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Eddie Bravo Breaks Down UFC 50: The War of '04
Reported By: Boxing Insider - 02/01/2005 06:28 PM
By Ken Pishna, BoxingInsider.com
BoxingInsider.com: There have been a rash of injuries and a slew of card changes to UFC 50 at the last minute. Trevor Prangley has an injury and will be unable to face Ivan Salaverry. Tony Fryklund has stepped up and will face Salaverry, do you like this matchup?
Eddie Bravo: Any fight that Ivan Salaverry is in is a good fight. The guy’s jiujitsu is so good on the ground. His striking is good. He’s really tough. He’s trained with Matt Hume now for the past 6 or 7 years. The guy is really incredible. He came to my school and trained with a lot of my students and I got to see how good he really is. Ivan is very good at jiujitsu. Any fight that he’s in is a good fight. He knows how to move on the ground, which is not too common in MMA. Not too many people know how to move like Ivan.
BoxingInsider.com: Do you think that Tony Fryklund can survive against Salaverry on the ground?
Eddie Bravo: He might be able to survive for a while, but I think if they stay on the ground long enough and if Ivan doesn’t gas, which I don’t think he will. I hear he’s in pretty good shape. If they stay on the ground long enough, Ivan will catch him.
But Tony’s pretty tough. He’s a bomber; he’s a brawler. Ivan could get caught. It could go either way, but I think 100% for sure, it’s going to be one of the most exciting fights of the night.
BoxingInsider.com: Next up, Jorge Rivera and Rich Franklin. This one could end up a couple of ways. It could be a standup war or it could go to the ground with Franklin maybe having an edge there. How do you see this one?
Eddie Bravo: Well, you pretty much said it there. If they stand up, there’s going to be some fireworks. Both fighters like to bomb, but on the ground, Rich Franklin is really good on the ground. We haven’t really seen too much of Jorge Rivera on the ground. Word has it that he doesn’t have the greatest ground game. But I do know that Rich Franklin’s ground is pretty damn good. You have to give the edge in this fight overall to Rich Franklin.
BoxingInsider.com: Another fight that has sparked a lot of interest is Robbie Lawler against Evan Tanner. Lawler is moving up in weight to 185 pounds for this fight. Tanner is much more experienced and a much bigger fighter than Lawler is used to. Do you think that Lawler can come in here and surprise some people?
Eddie Bravo: You’ve got to go with Evan Tanner in this fight. The size difference is just hard to ignore.
BoxingInsider.com: I’ve heard that Tanner looked like he was about 205-210 pounds in training.
Eddie Bravo: That’s incredible. I mean Robbie Lawler walks around at about 190 or 195. So there’s going to be quite a bit of size difference and Evan Tanner has a lot more experience than Robbie Lawler. Lawler’s been having a bit of trouble in his last couple of fights; he hasn’t looked that smooth. You’ve got to put your money on Evan Tanner in this one.
BoxingInsider.com: Frank Trigg and Charuto Verissimo, how do you see this one playing out Eddie?
Eddie Bravo: Frank Trigg likes to take guys down and ground and pound them, but he may not want to take Verissimo down. Against jiujitsu guys, he’s known to kind of change his game and want to stand up. But Charuto is pretty wild on his feet. The guy can bomb. It all depends on how the striking goes. If Trigg is kicking Verissimo’s ass on his feet, he may not want to go down and may knock him out standing. Or maybe Verissimo’s standup is too much for Trigg and he is forced to take Verissimo down. Then Verissimo starts throwing up some triangles and armbars, but can he catch Frank Trigg? He almost had Matt Hughes a couple of times, so it’s going to be interesting.
BoxingInsider.com: Matt Hughes was defeated by BJ Penn, but then bounced back to defeat Verissimo. Georges St. Pierre is stepping up a little sooner than many people think he should. Do you think that St. Pierre has the style and makeup to be competitive with a fighter like Matt Hughes?
Eddie Bravo: I’m a big fan of Georges St. Pierre, but I think he is a little to green to face Matt Hughes, for the belt especially. Matt Hughes is going to dictate the pace on the feet. If he wants it to go down, it’s going down. If Matt Hughes just imposes his will and just takes him down and ground and pounds him, I don’t think Georges St. Pierre has what it takes to defeat that. To defeat the takedown, you have to have wrestling skills at least equal to Matt and Georges doesn’t have that. For the ground and pound, he’s going to be on his back. He’s going to have a guard similar to Nogueira to finish Hughes off of his back and I don’t think he has that. So I don’t think he’s going to be able to stop Matt Hughes at all.
BoxingInsider.com: Some people have stated recently, Tra Telligman chief among them, that Tito Ortiz has been exposed recently. But look at the fighters that he has been “exposed” by, Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell. Do you feel like Tito has been exposed?
Eddie Bravo: Every fighter gets exposed. There’s nobody that’s a complete fighter all the way around. There are only a couple guys that are starting to get all three phases down. It’s very rare. You could say Chuck Liddell got exposed. When you get him on his back, he loses. It’s the same thing with Tito Ortiz. You get him on his back he loses. He gets exposed. What happens to Randy Couture in the heavyweight division? He got put on his back he lost. Josh Barnett beat him on his back; Ricco beat him on his back. Most people can get exposed by being on their back. Most people can’t fight on their back.
There are only a few guys that can fight from all three phases. Nogueira is the closest one because off of his back, he’s still a threat. His boxing has gotten really good lately. Maybe his wrestling sucks a little, but it’s not bad either. He’s taken guys down. He’s probably the closest that you can get to a fighter that can’t really be exposed.
BoxingInsider.com: If Tito Ortiz loses this fight, is he gone from the UFC? Does he have to go down to a lesser promotion and work his way back? He’s one of the few fighters along with the Gracies and the Shamrocks to have built up his name somewhat in the mainstream.
Eddie Bravo: If it’s up to me, I say you still have him in. In this sport you can lose three fights in a row. Look at Bustamante; he’s lost three fights. Look at Pele; he’s lost three or four fights in a row once. He’s still a bad ass! You can’t just drop someone like that, especially with a reputation. If Tito loses, you bring him back again. Like you said, he’s one of the most recognizable figures in the sport. He brings a lot to the table. People want to watch Tito, even if he’s lost a couple. No one cares much about records in MMA. Look at Japan, all those top guys lose fights and they always bring them back. They want them to establish that character. Once you establish that character, you can’t lose that character.
(NOTE: This interview was conducted prior to the revision of the main event to be Tito Ortiz versus Patrick Cote instead of Ortiz versus Guy Mezger, thus the lack of a breakdown on the main event.)
Eddie Bravo is a regular contributor to BoxingInsider.com. You can check out his web site and order his DVD at www.thetwister.tv.
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