James McSweeney Is A Clone

MMA clones are everywhere.

Go to your nearest fight club and you'll see them.  Guys with Chuck Liddellesque mohawks, Chuck-bellies, and a reckless sprawl-and-brawl style were a the big thing a few years ago.

Following Chuck's recent defeats, some of the imitation and emulation of Chuck Liddell has stopped, but that hasn't stopped some of Chuck's nuthuggers from telling me that they still believe that Chuck Liddell is still the best fighter in the world, but just needs to make a few small adjustments.

Yes...sure guys, whatever you say.

Anyway, nobody can be truly authentic. We all take bits and pieces of what we are exposed to, integrating some of those things into ourselves. But some fighters take this a bit too far, and actually try to be another fighter. I'm sure that you'll be seeing the GSP and Anderson Silva clones coming out soon enough.

And if you're going to emulate someone, you couldn't pick much better examples than those two. I did not, however, expect to ever see anyone emulate Keith Jardine.

That's exactly what I saw last night when James McSweeney fought his fight against Wes Shivers.

McSweeney truly is Jardine 2.0. He may not be quite as herky-jerky, but everything else is the same, right down to the flailing arms and crazy leg kicks with his hands down at his waist.

He even does that thing that Jardine does where he disengages with a spin, and then runs back in the opposite direction for about three seconds.

In typical Jardine fashion, McSweeney nearly gave the fight away by not capitalizing on his momentum and frequently disengaging instead of attacking when his opponent was vulnerable.

It makes sense that McSweeney has picked up some of Jardine's habits.  He has been training with Jardine at Greg Jackson's for the past year. But I sorely wish that he had taken only some of the positive things about Jardine's game, rather than embracing the entire awkward package.

But the entire idea of imitation, is a mistake, I think.  There are a ton of fighters right now that are all training in their little mma factories to become MMA robots without unique styles. That's perhaps the worst way to train.

A slightly better way to train might be to look at a fighter with similar talents, and try to pick up on some of the good things that fighter does.

Georges St.Pierre trains to excel at every single aspect of MMA, while making use of his advantage in wrestling.  Lyoto Machida has become great by not only learning the major aspects of MMA, but by learning how to exploit them.

These two approaches are the smartest.  Georges St.Pierre wins not just because of stylistic advantages, but also because of technical superiority.

Lyoto Machida might also have technical superiority, but he wins also because he trains not just to be the best, but to beat the best.  That should be the goal of every MMA trainer and fighter.