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The obligatory ‘Tim Sylvia loses again’ post
By Zach Arnold | January 29, 2011
(A tip of the cap to Nick Thomas)
He stated last year that he wanted to get back into the UFC or Strikeforce, all while being a reserve cop.
Then he fought Mariusz Pudzianowski at over 300 pounds. He’s fought a couple of times since then at a high weight as well. Going into Friday’s fight against a man named Abe Wagner, he weighed 311 pounds for the fight. Last I checked, the HW limit is 265 pounds.
Given the difficulties that could hit the upcoming Strikeforce HW GP tournament (politics, injuries, etc.), you could imagine a scenario where Big Tim fills in for someone as a replacement candidate. It would have been a credible-enough sell given that he’s a former UFC champion and, yeah, he did lose to Fedor in 36 seconds but Andrei Arlovski also lost to Fedor in Affliction, too.
Now? It’s really difficult to see what is left for Tim in his MMA career. Where does he go from here?
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 29 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
With Cormier and Del Rosario & Villante in alternate bouts, Strikeforce would be really dumb to use Sylvia ahead of them if someone drops out. Also I don’t think Tim is capale of making 265.
Minor point, but I’m pretty sure Daniel Cormier is not in any of the reserve bouts.
From what I’ve read it was his highest ever weigh-in. His 2nd was 310 and that is when he got KO’d by Ray Mercer.
Where does Tim go from here? Back to donuts and becomes a full-time cop.
You can’t go from UFC champ, to getting obliterated by Fedor, to losing to an old boxer, to losing to a can.
His career is over.
He doesn’t take his career seriously…. Why should we?
If he really wanted back in the big shows he would have gotten in shape. Sylvia is a great example of why the 265 is such a great thing instead of it making it unlimited. Sure Light Heavyweights like Roy Nelson can be fat…. But the true Heavyweights are forced to stay in shape to make weight….
Personally, I thought the stoppage was too early. Tim has come back from similar situations. Congrats to Abe, but the stoppage was a little early for my tastes.
“Tim has come back from similar situations”
Give us an example, because I can’t remember a single match where Sylvia got dropped and then came back to win.
fd,
Arlovski 2.
That’s it as far as I can recall.
Actually yeah, I forgot he got dropped in that fight. Big difference between getting knocked on your butt with one punch and immediately getting guard and eating multiple flurries and falling on your face, though.
Even if the stoppage looked a little early, my general rule is if a guy has trouble standing up afterwards or can’t keep his balance/walk straight after getting up, it was probably a good stoppage. And Tim couldn’t even keep from wobbling after the stoppage when he was on his knees.
Tim Sylvia vs. Andrei Arlovski 2
Multiple flurries didn’t really land. It was an overhand right that started it. A single left uppercut that hit him when he was against the cage, and maybe one other shot that caught him on the way down.
I don’t like question marks. Fighter safety is very important, but these athletes (funny calling Sylvia an athlete) know what the consequences could be for getting smashed in the cage. Fighters have come back from worse before. If Frankie Edgar – Gray Maynard 2 would’ve been stopped after the third knockdown in the first there would have been people online that thought it was a good decision.
I’m not for the spectacle of someone being out cold, but I don’t like the thought of seeing a fight and thinking a guy didn’t get a fare shot at coming back from being rocked.
Sure, the ref seemed to be a wee bit quick with the hook, but the hell with it. Sylvia still looked pretty wobbly on his feet afterwards, so Wagner would have likely just gotten in a few more shots anyhow.
Besides, that’s the risk Timmy takes for showing up hog fat to collect checks from small shows like these.
Sometimes you eat the buffet & sometimes the buffet eats you…
The guy looks wobbly when he standing straight up. He’s a behemoth.
Don’t you just love the sort of upset where the winner is just as shocked as the crowd that they won? LOL
Truth be told, that Abe Wagner fellow had pretty solid striking and stand-up. He slipped punches, threw hard punches, threw solid kicks, etc. Hardly world class, but the dude knew what he was doing. And Sylvia (who always liked to brag that he had better boxing than most heavyweights) went against one of the cardinal sins of boxing……never EVER go straight back! That’s exactly what he did, and he got starched. He’s won fights against guys who did that (Ricco Rodriguez), how the hell could he do the same mistake?
I think Abe Wagner would be a solid heavyweight for Strikeforce or UFC. I’m sure he would lose against the better guys, but I think he can beat many lower tier guys. Him vs. Matt Mitrione would be fun.
I agree that the ref had way too quick of a hook but maybe next time Sylvia shouldn’t try so hard to be sponsored by Old Country Buffet because he was ridiculously out of shape.
The Stoppage was fine imo, Sylvia showed he was done with his Roop impression afterwards. Like i’ve said in the past the guy should be a cautionary tale that every mma fighter looks to and says I don’t want to end up like him.
Tim let his ego and his management get in his head and fill his thoughts with nonsense and delusions. Instead of being worried about being the best fighter he could be and having a stable career as a UFC HW mainstay. He chose to chase money and believed that the grass was greener on the other side and we’ve seen him and others be proven wrong when they believe that.
Now he’s become a laughing stock to the entire mma comminuty and has burned every bridge. Fighters needs to learn from him and realise that surrounding yourself with people who don’t have your best interest in hand will lead you to nowhere.
He took away over 500,000 (after taxes) for his fight with Fedor. It was the right decision.
If he would’ve stayed in shape he’d probably be in the SF HW tourney as Zach talked about in the article.
No it wasn’t, Tim could still be a factor in the UFC HW division and at the very least have a steady paycheck and not be a blown up joke of himself.
But instead he chose to take short money and after falling on his face against Fedor was knocked into irrelevance by Mercer.
Now he can’t even get on cards with other washouts because he’s useless to anyone who isn’t a regional promoter.
I hope all these young HW’s coming up, take a long look and see what not to do in their careers.
The UFC/SF would have had a place for him currently if he wasn’t such an awful fighter. What org just brought back the Tim Hague for the nth time?
Even at the thin div of HW, it’s almost laughable that a fighter should opt for a “steady (UFC) paycheck” when one external fight is worth 3+ UFC fights. There really aren’t that many guys in the UFC’s good books, and Tim is not one of them.
Tim was definitely oversold on the idea of crosspromotion and his many (one) lucrative opportunities, but let’s be real – he did well for himself. The problem is just that he let himself get fat and lazy, but that’s his own problem.
I’m not a big fan of big Tim these days either, but that stop was a bit premature for a former UFC HW champ.
We all saw that he wasn’t out, sherdogs description of him “falling flat to his face” sounds way more severe then the reality, and Tim is well known for getting stunned and then recovering.
He was in a similar predictament when AA knocked him down and then he got back up and KO’d AA.
I dont know if the wobbly stumbling after he stood up could have been the adreneline dump and going lax after he saw it was over, or if he would have been able to fight through that at all, but he deserved the chance to try.
A TON of fighters would be wobbly if the ref stopped their fights right after they got knocked down (think Rashad Evans against Thiago Silva and Rampage). Yes Tim was way out of shape and got beat down because of it, but that was for sure a premature stoppage by a bad referee.
Tim should stop pretending to be a fighter and focus on being a cop full time and working toward a pension.
He looked like the only training he did for this fight was the afternoon the camera crew followed him around the gym.
He reached the peak of MMA and is a two time champ. Just quit now before someone gives him a severe beating.
He was way out of shape.
But his hands are fast when he applies himself.
Even all tub of goo you could still see his hands for a sec.
He just seems to be in a bad place were he doesn’t get into fighting shape.
He’s not “Done” IMO.
Not fast enough to stop an early Randy Couture, Fedor Emelianenko, or Ray Mercer overhand right.
Brutal night for Monte Cox. Sylvia and Clementi have been two of his most reliable earners on the indie cards. Clementi has now lost three fights since his last UFC layoff and really embarrassed himself by clowning the Darrow kid before getting choked out.
This post sums it up best:
http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2011/1/29/1962584/out-with-a-whimper-tim-sylvia#58055998
“The Mercer fight was meant to be an exhibition boxing match up until about 36 hours before the event where the commission nixed that idea. Instead of doing the smart thing and calling the whole thing off, Monte Cox shoehorns it in as an MMA fight that neither fighter had prepared for. I can’t say for certain what went through his head, but I’d venture to guess that he was trying to save the chief draw of a card he promoted with a fighter he managed.
Then there’s the four stoppage wins in a row, including a good win over Buentello and a solid showing in a freak fight against Mariusz. Full camps, knowing when he had to fight, doing well. The lowest his weight got was the contracted 275 lbs, but that’s pretty close. Looking good again, Tim.
But a wrench got thrown into the gears when fellow Monte Cox fighter Todd Duffee was offered more money for a fight in Japan than his contracted bout with Abe Wagner. So what does Cox do? Accept the Japan fight for the cash, but he needs somebody to step in against Abe. Eh,
fuckit, Tim can show up if there’s no weight limit and he’s a big enough name to headline. Pull the switcheroo! So now Tim is once again shoehorned into a main event fight without enough time to prepare for it, just to get Monte out of a jam. And what happens? He shows up unprepared, looks like hell, weighs way too much, and gets KO’d.Long story short… yeah. Tim isn’t doing himself any favors by not staying in shape or training as hard as he can, but Monte Cox is also horribly mismanaging him. And that’s the real untold story. Except that Kid Nate already told the story a year and a half ago. Looks like that article could use a followup piece now.”
The only time big tim has ever been put out clean!
And his hesitation regarding the rules is VERY obvious before he eats it.
Mercer took advantage of a pause.
But this is fighting, so thats fair.
Holy crap, this is some epic spin. Hesitation regarding the rules? He kicked Mercer right off the bat, then continued moving forward with his hands up. What part of that suggests hesitation regarding the rules?
In very mild fairness to Tim, 265 was merely the weight he had to cut to in the UFC. His walking-around weight was likely closer to 290. So I mean, it’s not fair to say that he’s gained 50 pounds since his last UFC fight or whatever. He’s clearly in way worse shape than then, and has replaced some muscle with fat, but he’s probably only gained about 20 pounds or less since then, which isn’t an enormous amount for a guy his height and body type.