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Originally Posted by Nate_Deezy
By the way, I realize Sasaki (Lister's opponent) is an MMA veteran. But UFC is the big stage. And some people have trouble making that transition.
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You're actually wrong man. Sasaki is used to the bog stage, he is a Pancrase veteran who has also fought in PRIDE which is certainly a much bigger stage than UFC as you are fighting in front of 50,000+ people and not the 10,000-20,000 like UFC.
Watching the fight, it is very difficult to knock Lister in the fight, my only criticism would be that he was not patient in working the submission and it nearly cost him the fight. He underestimated the submission defense of Sasaki which was Lister's own fault, Sasaki is a Pancrase vet obviously versed in subs and sub defense.
The difference in the Lister and the Leben fight was that Lister looked sharp for the first 2 rounds and then gassed via his own fault for not ebing patient but Leben looked sloppy the entire fight.
I just don' see him ever holding a title or getting a title shot.
Watching Leben and watching Swick, I would put the house on Swick to dominate Leben in a rematch. Leben is not learning at a fast enough pace or he has possibly reached his potential and this is it, nothing against him, I always enjoy his fights but he is looking really sloppy right now, I think with relentless training he could become a great fighter as the chin and heavy hands can take you very far but you must also be able to move well in the ring and he is unable to right now. Only time will tell with him, right now I have mixed feelings.