i was talking about mma on here years before tuff came out so that theory is shot to shit, and i pwned the f**k out of you regarding arona and teh natural progression of fights in pride v ufc so you really shouldnt speak to me, seriously
as for bulldog, i didnt read his last post because its long, but if hes been training striking for 14 years id expect him to know that being overly muscled kills you on a speed, endurance and rom level in terms of striking. now weather or not matt hughes has that size(and type) of musculature is a matter of opinion, but what is apparent is hughes does not bang well and by that i mean he doesnt seem to have a good concept of relaxing his shoulders, sitting on his punches, throwing solid combos, kicking, distance/footwork, throwing from the hip ... he throws like more like a tense weight lifter than a striker .. to be fair, this is true for 90% of the mma world .. if you dont believe me watch a ufc with anyone whose done muaythai or boxing and ask them what they think of studs like leben and franklin(not to say they are overmuscled, but they dont understand striking very well and were considered to be striking gods by TUF fools like you)
granted you cannot throw in maa the same as in a pure kickboxing bout because youll get taken down right away, but you can still differieniate the overly muscled guys(coleman, hughes, monson, shrek, kerr etc) from the boys who are much more wirey but bang much harder (gomi, fedor, crocop, liddell, vera) on the basic way they throw: from the shoulder(former) and the hip(later) ... conversly, when you come into mma from a striking background you need to train your muscles differently for a different type of balance and footwork, some people adjusted very well (crocop, hunt) and some didnt(schilt, leko)
Not disputing that musculature hinders striking, it does. I said so in my post. What I also said is that it wasn't his musculature that hindered him in the GSP fight. GSP established a good "riddum" in the fight, beat Matt to the punch, won the scrambles, and outwrestled Matt to boot. People have established habbits that they default to when they get clipped. I duck my head, throw loopey punches and follow it up with a shot, or neck tie up. Not the best technique, but this is what I know and default to.
Long, wiry is better for striking and MMA in general. Sean Sherk is someone who is heavily muscled and throws good combos, has a stiff jab, and decent head movement for a midget musclebound freak. We saw what happens when a world class striker goes against a good MMA stiker in the Wandy/CC fight. (See Silva/Franklin as well). Most MMA guys are more grappling based, and as such start off on a wrong foot. What we do in wrestling isn't conducive to striking. Traps up, waist bent forward, flat on our feet, one foot forward with hands at midline of your torsos to prevent shots. This structure doesn't gel with the elbows tight to the body, chin down, hands up striking of western boxing. When wrestlers throw, they have a tendency to drag their jabs and crosses leaving their chins wide open.
So I do not totally disagree with your assertions, however, to say that Hughes is a bad striker because of his musculature isn't correct.
