One of the reasons some people gave Takanori Gomi a chance of beating Kenny Florian was his striking ability coupled with KO power. However, neither made their way across the sea with Takanori Gomi as he made his UFC debut last night.
The difference in striking ability was staggering as Florian pumped his jab into Gomi's face at will all night long. The fact that Gomi kept his hands near his waist the majority of the time didn't help things either. However, the most telling thing was that Gomi telegraphed each punch that he threw with little to no technique. He simply just winged them towards Florian's head and/or body with no type of set up whatsoever. He was able to land about 4-5 significant punches the entire fight.
That type of thing worked back in 2005 when Gomi was king of the hill over in Japan. However, it's evident that he hasn't evolved with the times.
I wrote the other day that it's very difficult for an athlete to come back from losing the motivation to be the best in the world. It's not a switch that you can just turn off and on and that's what Gomi claimed he had done. It'll be interesting to see what they do with Gomi next. The division is full of wrestlers and grapplers, in which Gomi reportedly asked to not fight against in his UFC debut.
He didn't show me anything in the Florian fight, and it just seemed as though he was stuck back in 2005. What say you?
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