I would say that Akam vs. Rezar is the premium matchup of this entire tournament. A man with international wrestling experience taking on a former MMA fighter, these two have some pretty impressive credentials. With that being said, this one goes so far off the rails that the train turned a hot air balloon.
Jonah’s #1 Akam vs. Joe’s #2 Rezar
Jonah: Rezar is an MMA fighter, Akam is a wrestler, in an MMA fight Rezar could win, but the specific rules of Brawl For It All Akam spams takedowns and wins on points. There’s no BJJ or anything in Brawl For It All, so there’s no danger for Akam when he takes him to the ground.
Joe: Jonah, you know I love wrestlers. Unfortunately, I think you’re overestimating Akam’s wrestling prowess. All I can find out is that he lost in a qualification tournament for the Olympics; I’m not even sure if it was the finals, and it was against a guy from the United States who was well past his prime.
On top of that, Akam is a Greco-Roman Wrestler, not a Freestyle guy. Greco is upper body locks and turning downed opponents. The latter is completely useless, and the former is really freaking hard considering Greco guys depend on locking their hands to gain leverage on opponents and he’s going to be wearing boxing gloves during this.
Now I’m sure that Akam has some leg takedowns, but that’s clearly not his strongsuit, and Rezar should have enough wrestling experience through MMA that he will be able to stay on his feet. Also, it’s way easier to avoid takedowns in rings than it is in cages with the help of the ropes. Rezar gonna light his partner up.
Jonah: I disagree, I’m sure Rezar has some MMA wrestling skills, but that’s nothing compared to having a really strong wrestling background. That’s why wrestlers take down MMA guys all the time. Takedowns aren’t that hard in a ring, and I don’t think you can grab the ropes in Brawl For It All, I mean Pride fights still went to the ground all the time.
Joe: It’s pretty easy to “accidentally” hook one arm around the rope while you pound a guy in the head that’s going for a takedown, and you didn’t even address the biggest issue.
Akam is no doubt a better wrestler, but wearing boxing gloves and trying to take down somebody with any wrestling experience is pretty difficult. And considering he’s a Greco guy who are totally dependent on gripping somebody for upper body throws, that would have zero chance of happening with boxing gloves on.
On top of that, you’re overestimating his wrestling skills. He’s a Canadian wrestler. Canadians are not good at wrestling. If he would have wrestled folkstyle at US College, there’s a good chance that he never would have been an All-American.
But please, let’s first address how in the hell he’s getting a takedown with boxing gloves on.
Jonah: I guess I have a question about everyone of your fighters you said would win due to takedowns, are those all invalid now? Because if we’re assuming they can score takedowns with boxing gloves then Akam can too. Also, Steve Blackman scored approximately 700 takedowns with boxing gloves on in his original Brawl For It All fight.
Joe: Those previous matchups didn’t involve going up against people with wrestling experience. With Rezar’s MMA background, he has trained a ton of defensive wrestling and also will be throwing uppercuts galore if Akam tries to shoot in. In previous matchups, it was a wrestler taking on a total non-wrestler. My wrestling background is junior high wrestling for a couple years and some MMA wrestling and when I went against somebody with little to no wrestling experience, I felt like Brock Lesnar as I could take them down at will.
So any way that Akam is getting those takedowns?
Jonah: Though you discount Canada as a whole, Olympic level wrestling is a whole different animal. Kurt Angle took down Brock Lesnar, and while it wasn’t some one sided affair, Angle is a better wrestler than Lesnar even with Lesnar’s crazy size advantage and the fact that Lesnar was an NCAA champion. If two good wrestlers go up against each other someone is better, and in this case it’s the Olympic wrestler going up against the guy who’s an MMA fighter.
Joe: Jonah, although I think it is hilarious that you are trying to explain wrestling to me, I’m going to have to shut you down since this is truly an impressive feat to fit that much misinformation in one tiny paragraph.
I must have missed the part where Akam made the Olympics.
Olympians and Gold Medalists are FAR DIFFERENT animals.
I want to reiterate that Akam never made that much lower bar, because Canada sucks at wrestling.
Also, Greco guys are just wrestlers who couldn’t make it in Freestyle, making Akam look even worse.
This is not a wrestling match.
I need to ask this question: Have you ever seen a wrestling match? I don’t want to go too deep, but just the stance of wrestlers wouldn’t work when punches are being thrown so it really changes the game.
Kurt Angle took down Brock Lesnar when they were wrestling against each other. If someone is not trying to score their own takedowns, it’s a whole lot easier to shut down your opponent’s offense.
Did you forget that Akam is wearing boxing gloves?
Are you ready to concede victory yet?
Jonah: Nope, Akam is a stud. Blackman succeeded in takedowns when ex Golden Gloves boxer Marc Mero was throwing punches with boxing gloves on, takedowns aren’t this crazy thing that can never happen. It’s not a wrestling match, but takedowns count for a lot of points, takedowns win Brawl For It All fights. GSP is from Canada and is the world’s greatest wrestler making celebrated college wrestlers look like chumps. Rezar is also Dutch, have I missed the great influx of Dutch wrestlers in the world? I’m pretty sure Lesnar was trying to take down Angle as well, and if Olympic wrestling actually paid, Lesnar could have at the very least qualified for the Olympics. Besides we need one of each of our guys in the finals.
Joe: Jonah, I’m not sure what point you are trying to make, but I need to address that you are out of your mind thinking that Lesnar could have made the Olympics. Lesnar won the NCAA Title during an extremely weak time for college heavyweights. He would have been slaughtered at the Olympic trials.
And the reason Blackman could get takedowns is he was shooting on someone who had zero wrestling experience which is why wrestlers have made it this far. And I’m not saying Rezar is a great wrestler; he’d probably never get a takedown on Akam, but getting takedowns and stopping takedowns is a far different beast.
There is no logical way to explain how Akam could beat Rezar, but if you need someone in the finals, I guess Rezar passes out from laughing so hard when Akam tries to throw him with boxing gloves on and Akam wins by TKO?
Jonah: OK how about this, almost all of Rezar’s MMA wins are by submission and his losses are by TKO, he takes punches in bunches and only knows how to submit dudes. Akam just drops him and knocks him out. In all honesty it doesn’t matter who wins, I guess Rezar can probably stuff Akam’s takedowns, so it’s two big hosses throwing hands. It’s what people actually want to see out of Brawl For It All. If you feel very strongly about Rezar winning he can win.
Joe: I just watched two of his fights, and the one he lost by TKO was all built on ground and pound. The won he got a guillotine choke was set up because he absolutely destroyed his opponent on his feet. If it comes down to a brawl, I would probably favor the guy who knows how to box as opposed to the guy who doesn’t know how to box. I think Rezar would make this far more boring than you would like as there’s really no reason to throw anything but a jab and the occasional uppercut in this fight. Still, as far as I know, tickling is not explicitly banned in Brawl for All, and as Rezar’s tag partner, Akam probably knows all of most effective use of a tickle touch to win by TKO (Tickling Kaput Opponent).
Jonah: Research is research, I already told you that you can choose who wins, but as I’ve told you before and I’ll tell you again, you would have chose Dr. Death to win the entire Brawl For It All against Steve Blackman in the finals, Blackman got hurt in the first round and Dr. Death, lost in the NCAA finals to an Olympian.four time All American wrestler and all around tough guy, got knocked out by super random guy Bart Gunn. And if we’re really going to be dicks about it, you’re recent and past MMA fight picks haven’t worked out well for you. What “should” happen doesn’t always happen in fights. I’m short, fat and physically damaged, and I guarantee I would beat at least a quarter of the people you train with in a fight based purely on insanity and coming into fights injured and being very comfortable in that state. Just to put myself over, being crazy and in constant pain makes me far more dangerous than a lot people who have real training.
Joe: Haha, Jonah, you don’t have to worry about offending me because I picked a fight wrong. I mean, Ben Askren was controlling that fight early on, but then he got hit with that knee three seconds into the fight, and it went downhill from there. If that fight goes six seconds, Askren wins easily.
You really threw me for a loop on this one as I feel like things got a tad off the rails. I’m not sure to pick Akam, Rezar, or Jonah, but let’s just have Akam advance.
