It's Not They Are Coming, It's They Are Already Here!!!

When I think of bad dudes to fight in the UFC, the people I think of are those from the Islands of Hawai'i. Let's face it:

 BJ Penn

Kendall Grove

Chris Leben

There are so many more that I could name but the list is so long. These fighters from the Islands are tough and they love to scrap. They are not afraid to throw punches as Max Holloway showed in his recent fight (and he was winning the fight):

Speaking of the 3 ranked featherweight in the UFC, Max Holloway is one of the most dangerous fighters in his weight class. His last lose was to Conor McGregor three years ago, since then he has been on a nine-fight win streak, with only three of those by Decision to include the GIF up above against Ricardo Lamas. This was a great fight for Max and puts him in sight for a title shot with McGregor. Max has evolved since his last fight with Conor and I believe that he is ready to take the fight to McGregor. Conor has shown that his ground game needs a lot of work with his last submission loss to Nate Diaz. Also Conor showed that his take down game is going to need to evolve if he wishes to remain the UFC Featherweight Champ. Max has shown, he can stay in the Octagon with the best, I believe that he should be the next person getting a shot at the title:

He has great striking from his feet:

He also loves to throw combo after combo:

Max is an elite fighter with huge dreams and I pull for him every time he steps in the ring.

There is one more fighter that I have to talk about from the Island, and if you are from Hawai'i...you already know who I am talking about:

Travis "Hapa" Browne could be one of the most versatile heavyweight fighters I have ever seen. He is one of those guys who can do it all.

Just ask Chad Griggs, who was the man who stopped Bobby Lashley's win streak in StrikeForce. Griggs came to the UFC looking to continue his win streak but instead met Travis, the fight ended like this:

Travis has the ability to strike from all sides of the Octagon. He has shown his ability to stop great wrestlers do what they do best, take the fight to the ground ask Josh Barnett:

Travis has also had a few upsets, that even myself thought were amazing. His KO victory over Alistar Overeem was amazing:

For people who do not remember this fight, Overeem was dominating the fight and Travis had hit the canvas twice but was able to whether the storm for the victory. Travis has a strong chin, for people to be able to put him down, you have to constantly be hitting him, but he does love to counter and force his fight on people. Even if you are the taller than him (which most fighters are not) you still do not have a chance, remember this thing of beauty:

It took Struve a full second to hit the mat, meanwhile he was out the moment the punch landed. Also this is one of my top favorite KOs ever in a UFC fight. 

Travis has one of the toughest test coming up at UFC 200. Cain Velazquez is no push over by any means. He is a former Champion and has great heart and hands. He was the man who dethroned Brock Lesnar from his reign and I think Cain has the ability to get back to mountain top. I think Cain is going to try and utilize his wrestling to help him win this fight, but as I have mentioned Travis does have good wrestling defense for those with great wrestling takedowns. I am pulling for Travis Browne in this fight, and hope the next fight Travis gets is one for the Heavyweight Title. He has also been around the title talks but has not sealed the deal to get that shot, hopefully this will be that match that puts him over. 

I am a huge fan of Hawai'i fighters as most can now tell by this blog I have here. There are great fighters from all over the world but, I feel that with Hawai'ian fighters they are as tough as they come.