Modern Day Gladiators
Posted on December 10, 2010, 09:56 AM by Anton GurevichGladiators in ancient Rome were slaves, who fought to please the local crowd. Semmy Schilt and Georges St. Pierre are surely not slaves, but they are still a perfect example of modern day Gladiators. They enter the arena to please the emotional and material needs of fans, promoters and who's not. And just like in ancient Rome, sometimes it's the Emperor, and sometimes it's the crowd who ask to satisfy their needs. They may be competing in different sports (not speaking about weight categories), but there's a lot of analogy in their current status. Some people will call it disrespect, some will say it's a pure ignorance, and some will try to explain that it's just a product of a well-timed PR machine. But still, the fact is there. Both Semmy Schilt and Georges St. Pierre will sharpen their swords and wear their armor, going to one of the most important battles of their career. It's a battle for honor and legacy. A battle to prove everyone once again that they deserve their titles and position.
Despite being the reigning K-1 Heavyweight and (four time) WGP Champion, Semmy Schilt was not featured on poster of this Saturday's K-1 2010 WGP Final. Instead, K-1 decided put Alistair Overeem on the cover, a fighter has not won even a single K-1 trophy in his career. Overeem also did huge promotional work for FEG in Japan, appearing on numerous TV shows and promos. It looks like everyone forgot who's the reigning Champion of K-1 WGP.
Schilt is one of the greatest K-1 fighters of all time. Second consecutive victory of the most prestigious trophy in the world of Kickboxing will earn Supersized Samurai the deserved superstar status around the world. But more than anything, it will force the K-1 to recognize Schilt as someone who deserves the right spotlight, stolen by the more-marketable Alistair Overeem.
Georges St. Pierre on the other hand, gets all the deserved recognition. He travels to Philippines, does TUF and trains mascots some self-defense tricks. What St. Pierre lacks is respect from a certain part of Mixed Martial Arts community, and most of all, from his opponents. Despite beating not "some of the top", but "top opponents" in his division (including the somehow 'forgotten' victory over BJ Penn), some people still taking away credit from his victories, calling St. Pierre "boring" and saying that he's afraid to trade punches.
Even Josh Koscheck, yes, the same Josh Koscheck who refused to stand against Paul Daley, was knocked out by Paulo Thiago and destroyed by Thiago Alves, is presented as someone who can knock out GSP standing. And that's where GSP's most important battle this Saturday. A KO victory over Koscheck will shut a lot mouths, and prove everyone why "Rush" is currently ranked as #1 P4P Fighter not only on LowKick.com, but on many other media outlets. It's GSP's most important battle since the second fight against Matt Serra. With his hand raised on Saturday night, GSP will prove he's the Undisputed King of this sport, especially after Anderson Silva's unimpressive performance against Chael Sonnen and Fedor Emelianenko's defeat against Fabricio Werdum.
This way or another, we expect nothing but fireworks this evening. Whether they manage to defend their titles or not, Georges St. Pierre and Semmy Schilt are true giants of combat sports. They are a Modern day Gladiators, who already earned their place in history, but still need that one battle to prove critics wrong.
Comments
One thing that sets silva over GSP is that Silva showed he can overcome adversity. GSP showed he exact opposite with the Serra fight, he showed that he definitely can't overcome it besides having such impressive wrestling
Well GSP was rocked and out of it...its harder to come back from that then getting dominated on the ground while taking almost zero damage
Ninja silva was rocked by sonnen in the 1st and the 5th.
serra also kept attacking after rocking him where cheal really did not
anyone can get rocked or caught, and the difference is gsp learned from it and got better because of it. the difference between him and silva is that silva was dominated for 4 and a half rounds and it showed he has a weakness in takedown defense. and since the serra fight gsp has fought better competition than serra and he's dominated every one of them and made them look like amateurs.
@JIzzle, he got rocked in the first but Sonnen just layed off of him and didnt pressure n hit him and the 5th round Silva didnt get rocked he was off balance and fell while Serra rocked GSP and kept on him and didnt stop punching his chin for even a sec
G.S.P wasnt just rocked he was out on his feet
I'm not saying that GSP didn't learn from the Serra fight. He obviously did. I'm saying that with all the tools he had, he coolant overcome adversity with a much less well rounded fighter. Silva showed a lot of heart in his fight and it's not like Chael didn't stop his GnP attack when Silva fell
Couldn't* I hate autocorrect
he actaully has shown he can and does overcome adversity by being completely dominant over his opponents since that loss and destroying serra the second time round
Common man thats such a stupid comment to make. We all know Silva purposely let Chael beat on him for 4 1/2 rounds just to he could "overcome adversity". He could have subbed him in the first round if he wanted to....
Yeah... my comment is more stupid than someone saying that a guy let another guy hit him for 22.5 minutes. Whoa do I feel stupid.
don;t worry about it man we all make mistakes.....plus there are alot of other stupid comments out there on this site...
Well you know the Lakers arn't the best team in basketball because they made it look close. They're the best team because they dominate and get the W, and look good while doing it. When was the last time GSP convinchly lost a round???
semmys fingers are so long, that guy would clean up at finger wrestling contests if such things existed...i would never make a pinky promise with that guy, id just take his word for it
That's not overcoming adversity that's learning and growin from a mistake
silva overcame nothing he laid on his back for 5 rounds got punched then when sonnen was gassed he threw up a submission and barely got a win still got the win .thats not overcoming thats waiting to capitalize on a opportunity just as serra capitalize on a slip by GSP thats the way it goes. but GSP's manager says a move in weight class has to happen so hopefully GSP vs Silva will happen
LOL wow that is possibly the trolliest comment I've seen in a while. He took punishment for 4 1/2 round and had the heart to stay in the fight and win. You need to quit hating.
don't get me wrong, silva is a great fighter who has an amazing streak of wins and title defenses, but i don't think the middleweight division is really providing a lot of tough competition for him. the sonnen fight was the toughest he's had so far and he could've easily lost it because it was a bad matchup for him and he's gotten ****y. belfort will be another good test for him.
Hey not hating, Silva is 1 of my fav fighter ever & he will go down in history as 1 of the best but your love for him, may have you wearing blinders but regardless hope GSP puts a hurt on koscheck
*isn't really
Great Post !
Georges is gonna shut douchecheck's mouth once and for all !!!
Semmy is a great kickboxer but I'm hoping Reem wins it this year....
Georges by devastating K.O. 2nd Rnd!!!!!!!!!
As much as I don't like Kos, I wouldn't mind seeing him win this fight. Kos VIA out lay and praying GSP.
How you could root for this guy in any fight is beyond me
everyone one gets caught sometime but Silva got dominated by Sonnen that never happened to GSP it is worst to get dominated than get caught because it was lucky punch behind the ear. That you were dominated there isn't any excuse or explanation
worse*
Only one... you lack at something
As cool as MMA is, modern day gladiators is purely for hype as a slogan of heroism since they are nothing like the true gladiators of the past. I am not hoping the gladiators come back but they were in a different and far more formidable and desperate leaugue. Imagine the fear of being forced into a gladiator ring to face a guy that may have won his last 8 fights. Cute comparison we have nowadays.
Lol ya its like I remember Tim Kennedy saying how he finds it "cute" when people say about there fights "Ohhh its gonna be a war" because he was actually in the military and knows what a real "war" is.
you're all wrong at this point. mma is a lot more similar to gladiators then you think - in nearly all gladiator-fights noone died - they were well educated in every style of combat they were allowed to use, and trained professional fighters. to train them at a point where they can compete in huge fights was quite expensive - so letting them die would have been quite stupid.
only in very very fiew fights the losing gladiator had to die. MMA is a lot like a modern form of gladiators.
btw i do study roman history
roman history is much like catholic history. biased and deceptive. ask the many roman enemies what they were like and you can make a better statement about their true lifestyle. the romans did definetly have to the death duels in unfair demonstrations with their captive enemies or slaves. the romans claim that the Irish have decended from spain and yet DNA(which my dad is dealing with) is saying we do not originate from spain in general but from the jordan in the mediterainian empires. The romans had us believe this for the sake of spreading catholisism.
romans like to make themselves look good but in reality were tyranical. what you are fed in schools is research approved by rome.
hey thats the point there where gsp screws up that arm bar on hardy. good luck gsp. monteal is going too be crazy sat nite.
GSP is definitely a great ambassador of the sport and I am thankful for everything he has done to entertain us. That being said, He needs to KO Kos on fight night. A TKO just won't cut it and we know that his submission skills are insane but we are all expecting more. A well timed strike to put Kos to sleep will not only shut Kos up, but it will also shut the critics up as well. Not to mention all the hype that will follow if he does manage to KO Kos. A possible weight class shift could be in the near future. Why is he always number one on the P4P rankings? I won't dispute it. But because of his position, I'm sure we are all demanding him to finish the fight. Or be finished. And if he really wants to continue his stardom blasting off into space, he needs an extremely sick KO. And as far as the vicoty over Penn, whether GSP knew it or not, Phil Nurse assisted him in cheating. So let's not continue to use that victory in GSP's campaign to be the greatest ever. In the previous battle between him and BJ, GSP won a razor thin decision that could have gone either way. With BJ being back in the WW division now, I think GSP is afraid to fight BJ because it could be damaging to his career. I think we will probably see GSP move to MW before GJ has a title shot.
If a gladiator wins he gets to live a little bit longer, and if he wins enough he can be a free man. MMA fighters get money, pride, glory, free t-shirts, free energy drinks, probably free beer, girls. One can easily argue that they are the same thing, but deep down any MMA fighter can quit any time he wants. A gladiator does not have that option if he wants to live.
what you say is just not true
I'm Greek so I know the Roman History enough to tell you that even though Colosseum was a brutality compared to the Ancient Olympics, a gladiator in the Ancient Rome was quite expensive as an investment, for having one killed in every fight.
Deaths were occurring for sure, but most of the times it was unintentional, and then the owner of the Gladiator who won , had to reimburse the owner of the dead one, with a ridiculous amount of money. Bare in mind that usually, owners where the ones who run the Gladiators training camps.
Only in rare cases a Glad would be killed intentionally and for the sear pleasure of the crowd. So I agree with braQQizzle, but I stand firm in my saying that Colosseum was too brutal and I consider it a disgrace when people compare it to MMA.
please place your counter-argument. I'm excited to hear it.
pretty sure i gotta stay up all night to see both these fights.. dammnit lol
koscheck is a finisher , gsp is not. i dont think gsp will finish koscheck. we will all see if koscheck can land a few good bombs on gsp s chin. i know deep down if koscheck lands gsp is going down.
Gladiators in ancient Rome were slaves and the UFc fighters are like slaves yes that makes them the same.Overeem dosen haveto prove anything in MMA becose K1 champ Semmy Sciltt komes from MMA any were and Fedor destroyed him in MMA fight
Thank you Anton! So many people talk shit about GSP and that's probably because there's NO REASON TO HATE THE GUY
any 1 that hates gsp has no taste ! i love the guy! its just that gsp does not finish fights! and as the champ! gsp needs too work on that a little more! gsp is a classy guy !