JMMA overrated?

Was anyone else underwhelmed by Sandro?  I'm really starting to wonder about the quality of the JMMA FWs and where they deserved to be ranked. Either that or every other FW in Bellator is underrated.

* Edited at 07.24.2011, 9:44 AM ET *

mine. curran is going to beat sandro. i left mendes out b/c i have yahya beating him. i don't want to jinx that fight. 

After Sandro looked exhausted and out of options against Hioki, it was the first warning sign. Since then he has looked far from impressive in Bellator and he's not touching my top 10 list with a 10 foot pole.

Hioki is the last hope for Pride/Dream/Sengoku all-star featherweights to succeed in the UFC. At this point I'm not optimistic.

Wolfman must have some kind of Chad Mendes issue, even though he beat his #2 Erik Koch.

the issue is mendes is fighting yahya next. i have yayha beating him and along with that hopefully the heavy upset ribbon. it's just a small issue. i can't jinxed my fighter.

Even if Mendes does lose to Yahya he is still top 10!!

Even if you think Yahya will beat him(which he won't) he waaayy more then deserves a top 10 spot over guys like Nam Phan and Leonard Garcia, and Garza...

I really dont think basing rankings on what MIGHT happen is such a good idea.. but its your rankings!

Sandro is in my top 4. I should maybe move him down a bit, but I don't see how he's been unimpressive in Bellator. He killed both of the guys he fought. He may not have knocked them out, but neither were close fights. 

As far as JMMA goes as a whole, a lot of it is the different rules and judging. They judge fights as a whole in Japan and damage and submission attempts actually matter, rather than just who's on top more. The USA wrestlers are the best in the world, and the guys who come over from Japan get out wrestled because they don't train with or fight wrestlers like the American ones. A lot of fights the good japanese guys lose in the U.S. are due to being on their back more, which doesn't really matter in JMMA because you don't win on pure control.

I'd say JMMA is definitely not over rated, which is shown by the fact that most guys on here don't even have Hioki in their top 10, who is easily number two in my opinion. The difference just lies in the wrestling. Going from an organization where you can win a decision off your back to the UFC where you can only win decisions from the top is a huge difference.  

@minotauro's post really brings up the difference: how fights SHOULD be judged vs how they ARE judged.

there's some merit to what he's saying, but it also makes a discussion on rankings more complicated!

Yeah, it's strange. I try to do my rankings not on who would win in a fight, but on accomplishments, strength of wins vs losses, and skill (this is why you will never see one dimensional wrestlers who haven't beaten top 10 guys in my top 10).

And can someone explain why they think Sandro has looked bad in Bellator? I thought he looked good but I want to hear why you guys were unimpressed. Maybe I oversold him a bit before the tournament, but I thought he looked great. He threw heavy leather in the last fight, and Nazareno is tough as hell or else he would have gotten finished, he took some huge shots.

In my opinion Hioki exposed Sandro. If he doesn't connect on that big winging punch, there's not much left to his game.  Bellator commentators are IN LOVE with him but to me he looks one-dimensional and a bit slow.

Don't get me wrong, he's winning fights and clearly is a dangerous dude. But these are mid-level Bellator opponents he's facing and having some problems with.  He's good, but he's not as good as the killer reputation he was getting as he knocked out hapless Japanese foes.

I didn't think he had any troubles with those guys? In both fights there was a point where it looked like he got dropped, but both were slips, they didn't make contact with the punches that supposedly dropped him. Also, obviously I don't know what Sandro was thinking, but it seemed like his lack of headmovement (outside of some really good head movement that he showed a few times) and blocking were just because he wasn't scared of Naz' power. And only throwing the power punches was working, so I want to see what he'll do when it doesn't. 

As far as Hioki goes, I think Hioki has the skills to grapple**** anyone, and if can get on top of his opponent he beats everyone. 

I think Sandro beats Curran though, despite Curran being a tough match up. He would kill Warren, but Pitbull would be a tough fight (and an amazing one)

August 20th we'll both know more!

lol @ grapple****!

nice to see minotauro back....i think....ha

im likn sandro, but i still wanna see how he'll do against curran...gonna be good!