Doggy Bag: The Future of MMA

Is George Sotiropoulos the next big thing at 155? How does his ground game matchup with B.J. Penn or Shinya Aoki?
-- Christian

TJ De Santis, Sherdog Radio Network: Your thoughts are echoing a lot of the sentiments in the forums following Sotiropoulos' domination of Joe Stevenson. There is no doubt in anyone's mind that the Aussie delivered. However, we need to take a good step back before we call him the next big thing at 155. Especially when the king of that division is one of the best fighters in the history of mixed martial arts.

The domination of Stevenson was based on effective grappling from both the top and bottom position. The most impressive thing from George's attack in my opinion, was how well he through his jab out. On the feet he peppered Stevenson's face with punch after punch. After the first round, you could tell Joe was worse for the wear. Sotiropoulous backed up his strikes with a flawless ground attack; even when Stevenson was on top of George, he was never able to get comfortable.

What we saw was stellar use of the rubber guard and the mission control position. For years I have been watching people attempt the rubber guard and use it ineffectively. Whenever I would see Nino Schembri fight, he would get taken down and try the rubber guard and really get nothing fruitful for his efforts. The other player of the rubber guard you mentioned was Shinya Aoki. The Japanese lightweight has made rubber guard a staple in his arsenal as well, and it as worked wonders for him.

So few guys can do it correctly and efficiently that when someone attempts it, I usually just cringe and go, "What are you doing?!"

George Sotriopoulos has long way to go before we really say he needs to fight B.J. Penn. In my opinion, lightweight is the toughest and most-talented division in mixed martial arts. People are intrigued by light heavyweights in MMA, but the most pure talent I think competes at lightweight.

Give Sotiropoulos a chance to develop. Then we can speculate.