Combat Sports:
Oh to be young again. Something no matter where you stand politically or otherwise, it’s the sole thing the entire planet can agree upon. It comes with a cost though. When you’re “young and dumb”, sometimes you just don’t know better. But pumping the breaks on rushing that talent to title contension is the smartest thing a promoter can do. Even though “the fans” clamour for that meteoric rise to a strap. It’s actually something Bob Arum for example has mastered with Top Ranks youth movement. And it’s even rarer than hen’s teeth to find the fighter themselves wanting to slow things down. But there are two talents in that ball park.
In the PFL for example one of the youngest and most electrifying talents hales from Dublin, Ireland. The SBG Ireland prodigy, Nathan Kelly will no doubt be the star he wants to. The 26-year old is completely well rounded. He can strike at distance, come forward with aggression, and his kicking and ground game look good to this point.
Maybe in a nitpick, during an aggressive blitz it would be nice to see something thrown from a different eye level. And lots of it. Say uppercuts in a clinch, or short elbows across the face. Sitting on an eight-fight win streak, there’s just a little more polishing that needs to be done as he acknowledges:
Now granted, the PFL format being different than other organizations makes roster spots harder to come by. Something that Ray Sefo stated. And his plans for Kelly are to bring him along slowly as he also said bluntly:
“We like his talent and skill. He’s a great prospect. But he doesn’t have the cagetime others do. We’d like to have him fight in PFL Europe another three, four, five fights then come back to challenge here”.
Pumping The Breaks On His Title Hunt
The UFC’s version is Ian Garry, at least right now. It does seem that every month there’s a new flavor though. But he himself said:
“Four more (fights). I’m not rushing. I’m 25-years of age, I don’t need to rush. I need to develope my skillset”.
Then saying that he’ll head back to Brazil to work on his jiu-jitsu. Frankly, since he does love New York although not a fan of the New York taxes; rolling with RENZO GRACIE might be an even better plan. Hey, if you want the best in that realm, may as well work with the first-family of it.
Dana White post-fight hinted thatStephen Thompson has already turned down the fight. You don’t really want to wreck one young talent against another early on. So that almost disqualifies the 17-0 Shavkat Rakhmonov, no matter how wild and fun it might be. That could be the main-event Garry is looking for. Geoff Neal, who pulled out a week ago is still an option, despite Garry not being into that scrap any longer. Sean Brady would absolutely test him on the ground. But it’s almost feeding lambs to the wolves. Any higher up, you’re talking about the Top-5. And from there on it’s the deepest of deep waters. They are the best for a reason. They are complete fighters. And Garry will need to go through each and every one of them before he gets to put his hands on the belt he wants.
Besides his composure so far another solid thing about Garry is him being a gym floater. You learn more going from one spot to the next. It’s a good thing “fans” don’t make fights. Because he’d already have gone five with the champion. And let’s remember, so far… he’s not had to survive a round by the skin of his teeth and find a way.
That said; both Garry and Kelly are two destined talents that will wear their organizations hardware.
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