Saturday, April 30, 2011

Video analysis: Jake Shields has to fight without Cesar Gracie at his side

Georges St-Pierre is on a Patriots-like run right now. To take down the 2007 Pats you had to out-think Bill Belichick and his coaching staff, it's pretty similar to the sort of game planning and execution needed against GSP.

The UFC welterweight has won an amazing 30 straight rounds. That's sick. The man trying to derail this freight train is Jake Shields along with his mentor Cesar Gracie. One problem, Gracie isn't in Canada for the fight. His Brazilian visa doesn't allow him to cross the border to reach Toronto.

Yahoo! Sports' MMA expert Kevin Iole joined us to talk about the Pats versus Indianapolis of MMA. Without Gracie, can Team Shields take out GSP, backed by Greg Jackson, Firas Zahabi and John Danaher?

Shields' team questions GSP's heart.

"I think GSP is a phenomenal athlete. I think you gotta make it a war with him and I think you see what's inside of his soul," said Gracie.

Josh Gross from ESPN.com appeared with me on ESPN1100 in Las Vegas and downplayed Gracie's absence.

"That's not a big deal," Gross said (6:25 mark). There's been lots of times he's not traveled with his fighters or been in their corner. This is not something totally out of the blue for the Cesar Gracie camp."

Is Shields in trouble without Gracie there? Probably not, his head trainer Tariq Azim does most of the heavy lifting. What do you think? Will it matter?

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Video-analysis-Jake-Shields-has-to-fight-withou?urn=mma-wp1625

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