Preview by: Mike Calimbas
This matchup will prove to be an interesting contrast in styles between the up-and-coming Artenas Young and the seasoned veteran in Chad Cook. Will Artenas Young be able to take this fight with feisty fists and fancy footwork on his feet or will Chad Cook be able to impose his gregarious Gracie Barra grappling game on a grounded Machine Gun? I guess we’ll see this Saturday night!
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Chad Cook | Name | Artenas Young |  |
| Nickname | Machine Gun | |||
| 6’2″ | Height | 6’1 | ||
| 205 | Weight | 205 | ||
| 8-8 | Record | 3-1 | ||
| Gracie Barra Texas | Gym | Hoger MMA | ||
| Vs | ||||
| Matt Thompson (L TKO)
Charles Reed (W Sub) Jon Kirk (L – Sub) |
Last Three Fights | Ike Villanueva (W – TKO)
Lex Pappas (W – U. Dec) James Hall (W – TKO) |
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| POWER:
I would give the edge here to Artenas Young based on the fact that he has shown one-punch KO power in his past fights, evident by his scintillating knockout against Raul Jimenez. He also looks to finish the fight on his feet as a primary strategy with his crisp boxing. |
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| SPEED:
Artenas Young has excellent footwork and speed for a guy in his weight class. Also, being a tall, agile fighter allows Young to be very contentious with his counter-punching. That lightness in his feet, along with his hand speed allows Young to be effective in creating angles and reacting quickly to his opponents’ strikes. |
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WRESTLING: With sixteen fights on his record and a penchant for fights ending on the ground (11 of them), I’ve got to believe Chad Cook has the advantage here. While BJJ might be his strong-suit, you don’t fight for ten years as a submission fighter without learning a few tricks in how to take your opponent to the ground. While Artenas supposedly has a background in Greco-Roman wrestling (per Rich B.) I have not seen him use much of it and he certainly hasn’t attempted any take-downs in any of his previous fights I’ve seen him in. For that reason, Chad Cook has the edge. |
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CLINCH: Artenas has not displayed an offensive clinch arsenal too much in his professional fights, as he prefers to create distance to get off with his strikes. Cook is not known as a Muay-Thai fighter either but I believe he’ll use the clinch to close the space and take this fight to the ground as his main strategy. |
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GROUND:
Chad Cook has an overwhelming advantage in the ground portion of this fight with over ten years of training as a BJJ-based fighter.  Meanwhile, I’ve seen Artenas sport white-belt laced Atama shorts to most of his fights. Not too sure if he’ gotten promoted or not but irregardless, he’s a got a lot of catching up to do to get to the level of a Chad Cook in the ground game. |
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| CARDIO:
In sixteen  professional fights, Chad Cook  has made it out of the first round a grand total two times, win-or-lose. It’s either he goes for broke early in his fights, gasses out quickly, or both. Meanwhile, Artenas Young has made a living off counter punching his way to decisions, much to the chagrin of crowds watching his fights. Still, Artenas looked to be strong in the endurance department in his recent fight against Ike Villanueva and looks to be on the way in terms of peak physical shape. For that, I’ve got to give the edge to Young. |
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WINNER: Chad Cook via submission. |
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SUMMARY: Like I said at the opening of this preview, this fight will be an interesting contrast in styles between the counter-punching striker in Artenas Young and the Ground-based submission fighter in Chad Cook. Chad’s looking to rebound after losing five out his last six fights. Young is carrying the momentum of three straight wins in his professional career. Especially for the up-and-coming Young, this fight is huge for him as he looks to achieve greater heights in the MMA world. Now will that work in his favor or will pre-fight jitters affect his performance? Somehow, I don’t think his opponent Chad Cook will feel the same jitters. At 8-8 and with an MMA record spanning ten years, Cook really has nothing to lose in this fight and can just go out there with the attitude of having fun on the greatest stage. The key questions to be answered in this bout is as follows: Will Young be effective with his counter-punching style or will Cook avoid playing that game on his feet and look to take Young to the ground? Cook’s only been finished on his feet once and that was against a top veteran in Matt Thompson so that works in his favor. That leads me to believe that we will see Artenas Young face his first big test during his young career as he’ll have to display his mettle on the ground. On a stage as huge as Strikeforce in Toyota Center packed with over 10,000 people, that can lead to a lot of nervousness and perhaps recklessness. In BJJ, that means mistakes and creating opportunities for your opponent to capitalize on. For that reason,  I’m picking Chad Cook via armbar submission in first round of this fight. |
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BAAHAHAHAHA!!! I guess we shall see.ROFL
http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:na2BPdw1i71KGM::boards.ign.com/teh_vestibule/b5296/191268257/r191268341/&t=1&usg=AFrqEzeWKn6bqpShvul4y2XvOe7Us8qdtA
Well said Pops and Coach.
if i recall mike, you also didnt think machine gun could get past ike either and we saw what happened there. seems like you like to bet against the guy. not tryin to be a dick, but just sayin…
Nah, I got nothing against Chico, Jermaine. I think he’s one of the most promising guys in Houston at 185 and 205. Just haven’t seen his ground yet. As far as the Ike fight…. I was completely, utterly wrong. I’ll admit the same if he beats Cook tomorrow and probably never bet against him again. lol.
I disagree Christian. That was not very well said by Pops and Coach at all. IN fact it was just crap. Tell us why you disagree with Mikes pick. Saying hater’s gonna hate does not explain anything. How will Chico win this fight and why? Saying Mike is hating because he picked against a Hoger guy is crap.All we need now is Ghostman to come in and say he agree’s with this pick to have both camp’s regular opinions. If your guy is picked you praise the writer, if your guy is not you go to directly to Haters gonna Hate…Have an opinion but make it an intelligent one that can be defended..Stay positive guys…Really sucks the life out of the site to see the same crappy responses from the same people all the time..I want you to defend your teamates but have a point…
Had I written the review and said that Chico would win I would get the same responses that I am biased. We went out of our way to have a person who has not been involved with either camp write it and the results are the same….Great job on the writeup Mike. While I disagree with the outcome I think you made very valuable points.
Sorry for any ill perception you may have of my opinion or comments, and I don’t know why I was mentioned in this one. However I picked Chico to win for his fight against Ike at Legacy. He is a very talented and upcoming fighter.
http://www.thecagedoor.net/forum/index.php?topic=358.0;topicseen
I try not to be bias but I also know I can’t please 100% of the people, 100% of the time. All I can do is pick with my own logic. No worries guys. Loving the passion either way and we’ll see if my prediction is right tomorrow night. Good luck to both guys!
Until then…
http://col.hanslanda.com/img/haters-gonna-hate.gif
Haha. What everyone needs to remember is that our picks our are not personal. I remember Justin Murray came up to me after his last fight with Patrick, He said, “haha thats what you get for picking against me.” Kinda caught me off guard but we laughed it off.
The point is, I picked against Justin because i had never seen him win. He always brought a tough game and he was never overwhelmed by anyone but until I saw him win it was hard for me to pick him….As a person he is a nice dude, I have talked to him several times and he has come out to the studio with a few of his teammates for a poster shot.
Its just a pick, no hate, just a pick
now…………………………………………dont be hatin on my comment
@Rich you know for a fact the only reason I disagree is because Chico is my teammate, and I have trained wiht him his entire career. I actually like Chad Cook and in any other fight I would be pulling for him 100%. And it is true he has shown his ground game alot more than Chico has. I did not bash Mike. I respect his pick and understand fully why he went that way.
Thats a better answer than haters gonna hate
Guess you guys never saw Chico’s ammy fights where he showed take down defense for 3 solid rounds.
My view is Chico will win. Not because he is my teammate but because he has proven to open up as a fighter. He should be 4-0 now but he did not open up on light-foot like he should have. He is getting comfortable now and willing to throw his hands as thats been proven his last fights. I def don’t think Cook will get a KO. I have rocked Chico pretty damn hard and he recovered fast and well. As for the ground I think he is good there. You have to understand he trains with big guys like 260+ guys.
Mike im not saying its anything personal or you have something against chico. i dont see why you would. and im not being biased because of my affiliation with chico or hoger mma. im disagreeing because as tim said, ive trained with chico since the beginning and still currently do on a daily basis. i know how good he is. i also know chad is a great fighter with a good ground game. actually taking chico down is gonna be a big task for chad in itself. and even though he hasnt displayed it in any of his fights, he does have a ground game as well. all in all, i think were gonna see a good fight between 2 guys who want it and ill be happy to see our local guys on the big stage doing what they love. nothing personal or no disrespect meant to anyone.
Str8blast you are afraid of Dump Truck and Jermaine you are afraid to see me on the hair growing challenge..lol
Jermaine – I got love for all y’all. No sweatin’ it at all. The key in this one will definitely be the takedown. If it don’t happen, Chico wins. We’ll all see tomorrow.
Y’all going to weigh-ins?
rasta420 shut it. Dump would have to pay me $2k to show that weekend. Thats what I make working fri sat and sunday. So bite me.
Mike don’t take wht our guys say personal. We trained with Chico since Miletich days. So we know how well rounded he is. The rest of the Houston scene has only seen the striker. Like i told you I understand why your pick went the way it did. And Str8blast I got 2000 pennies..i think..lol
Jits guys usually dont have very solid wrestling and take it from a guy who knows, mgy can be very hard to take down when he is fresh and chad obviously doesnt grind guys out. Desperate to find some offense in the first chad will make mistakes and thats something you cant do with chico. There is an opinion of why my teammate wins and the reasoning for ya. KO
Did he really just say jits guys don’t usually have good wrestling? Must be new to our area to suggest Chads wrestling could be suspect. Well unless you don’t consider 2x Alabama HS state championship good wrestling?
Fun times coming up, but keep it positive, I agree with Rich. That is a funny pic:)
I think the deciding advantage for Chico will be his speed. He will be able to handle the take-down attempts and his counter style will take over in the later rounds. Given the “stage” Chico will also not have to chase Cook down as both fighters will have the motivation to go for a win, this will work to MGY’s advantage. 3rd TKO win for MGY.
C’mon Chris, it’s Alabama. Lol. J/J. Well I’m trying to figure out a way to disagree with Mike on the breakdown of the fight just to be difficult, but he convinced me of everything he wrote. But I do Disagree with the outcome. I got MGY. But it’s going to be a battle. Prolly his biggest battle so far. I’m excited.
im not sure if everyone knows who Chad is….he hasn’t been as active on the scene recently but hes one off the original guys from texas mma. Chad is not just good wrestling but outstanding wrestling and hes been using it in mma for more than 10 years… i think chad has like 30 fights….im not sure that record is right. Chico has def got better ground than people think… i know that ifrst hand. its much better than people think. But this fight will be determined by the guys in the cage that night. Chad- long overdue spot on the big show and Chico- props for taking on probably the best 205 in houston. this fight is either mans to take.
☆☆ MACHINE GUN ☆☆ My Bro Chico is going to kick ass and take names, no if ands or buts about it. Don’t y’all know he is a fighting machine..go get em Chico
Just an FYI for those who do not keep up with wrestling, Alabama is one of the top ten states for HS Wrestling year in and year out.
Chris is very familiar of that because he is a wrestling referee as well as practicioner.
But it will all be decided tonight!
Justin, I was completely joking when I came up to you after the fight. I fully expected to be the underdog, and was very suprised that 02 of the 03 of y’all picked me. Your pick did not hurt my feelings in the least, and I wont argue that Patrick should have been the favorite – he is a beast. It just happened to be my night, and I was really just happy with the outcome of the fight.
I really understand how tough y’alls job is. In most cases we are all hometown guys that will pull for each other against other cities and states, and we all interact with each other constantly. I think that you guys on the media side have stayed as unbiased as possible, especially given how involved you guys get with all of the local camps. Also, in more cases than not, you all usually pick right.
Chico wears Jackson/Winkeljohn MMA white belt shorts made by OTM. I’m looking forward to seeing if Chad can take down Chico because if so he really does have great wrestling, but after seeing first hand Bones Jones struggling to take down Chico I think it will only go to the ground if Chico wants it to.
Hey Mike, when you get hungry, i got some crow for ya over here buddy. lol
I said if Cook couldn’t get him down, then Artenas wins the fight. MGY executed his gameplan well, showed a lot on the ground, and won the fight so congrats to him. His stock rises!
BTW – I got big balls but not crystal ones. Thanks Jermaine!
just givin ya shit homie.
MACHINE GUN NATION….fASTER,BETTER, STRONGER….How can anyone not give chico Ground Credit, he has Grecko Roman exp…plus he has won gold at BJJ tournaments, he is too strong for most to comprehend so time will keep revealing how legit he is.
4-1, 4 fight win streak…Push It To The Limit!!!!!!!