Mike’s turn to lead:

Should Sokoudjou change camps before he becomes the next Kevin Randleman?

Mike - For one round at UFC 89, light heavyweight Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou looked like an unstoppable force. But then he got tired, his opponent figured out his offense, and subsequently beat him down. What gives? Sokoudjou has been blessed with physical gifts that surpass those of many of his peers. But MMA is a thinking man’s game and history is littered with physically talented fighters who fell short of their potential (Kevin Randleman and Vitor Belfort being the most famous.) Team Quest is known for being a tough gym. These guys feel that iron sharpens iron, but smacking two blunt instruments together isn’t going to sharpen anything. Sokoudjou needs a gameplan coming into these fights. He also needs a Plan B and Plan C. If “punch him in the head” isn’t working, then “punch him in the head harder” isn’t going to work either. He needs to leave the hardheaded confines of Team Quest. Send Sokoudjou to Greg Jackson. Maybe Jackson can actually coax a little judo out of the alleged Olympic-level judoka. Send him to ATT so Liborio can show him some BJJ, or maybe American Kickboxing Academy can straighten out his conditioning. Sokoudjou has more fast-twitch muscle fibers in his body than the whole Jamaican Olympic track team. Either donate them to Nick Diaz or learn how to use them wisely.

Kelly - Leave Team Quest, are you mad? Two or three times a year, Dangerous Dan Henderson takes the African Assassin and his entourage from California to Oregon to gawk at Mount Hood, stock up on flannel, and cross train with Matt Lindland’s posse. He gets a new set of training partners every few months, but apparently the wrestling they’re known for isn’t rubbing off and his cardio stays in Cali. I’ve always been an advocate of a fighter changing camps to get out of a rut and I recently penned an article imploring Chuck Liddell to move camps or get used to uttering the words, “what happened?” But in Sokoudjou’s case I think you hit on the answer back in the Brandon Vera topic. Sokoudjou should move up to heavyweight and use that Faber-like explosiveness against slower and heavier guys who gas out about the same time he does. There are too many talented light heavyweights for him to be a contender while the heavyweight division relies on a retired legend and a WWE star to get fans interested. He’s got the strength and skill to be competitive against some of the bigger guys, but at light heavyweight he’s destined to be inconsistent.