Anthony Pettis: "Barboza will actually show up to fight."

[BrazilianDude]

This has been my dream fight for a while. Sooo many beautiful kicks...

 

[Frode Falch]

Learn how to wrestle then.

He knows how to wrestle and grapple. Ist way more easy to avoid fighting, then its to make a defensive guy fight blow for blow.

Doest matter if its grappling or striking. Stalling and jab n run is easy to do compared to strike to hurt, or grapple to finish.

 

[Darwinambrosius]

.

Eddie was doing no damage with his "wrestling". He shut down Pettis' offense while providing none of his own; basically preventing any sort of fight from taking place.

It was a terrible fight. If everyone was satisfied to stall like that there'd be no money in MMA and it sure as he'll wouldn't be on television.

Thats not my point but I wholeheartedly agree.

You have a former champion with 20+ pro fights and a decade or more of training who can't negate wrestling. Eddie did something boring but legal and Pettis wants to throw shade because his weakness got exploited (in a legal yet boring way).

 

[AP_RESURRECTION]

i dont think anyone needs to fight in any particular way, but its def more fun for us fans to see some of the more flashy fights sometimes, this one will likely be that way - dont see either really backing down, petis might be the one who tries to grapple a bit, hes prob a bit more concerned about eeking out rounds these days, just given that hes lost two decisions in a row, esp the last one that was really close

 

[Torrid]

It's the evolution of fuckery in MMA.

Before, strikers were held down while the guy attempted zero strikes, zero attempts at passing or posturing, etc. It was stupid, because the guard is a rather neutral position without GnP, but whatever, it was kind of the US-MMA meta.

Well, strikers are now staying upright, but now they're having their backs pushed against the fence. Still their opponents are doing minimal in terms of actually attacking (in some examples, guys who do it well and aggresively like RDA aren't part of the evolution of stalling), but the fence has become the new cage floor. Their opponents are still outstruck with harder, more accurate blows, but the compustrike nerds over there love to count hammerfists to the thigh and wiffed punches.

 

[tjumper78]

i'd love to see double ko's via simultaneous headkicks by both fighters.

 

[Sauce Castillo]

He always has his his back against the fence? So you've watched two Pettis fights, good to know.

Melendez...RDA...Alvarez....his last 3 fights he's done it alone.

 

[SKITZADACTYL]

maybe he should train to stop it, instead of getting his hairline touched up every 2 days.

 

[legkicktko]

If Barbosa does anything other than mix up striking with wrestling, put the pressure and take Petit's down then his coach needs to be fired.. Blueprint to beat Pettis is out there. Just take the path of least resistance, Barbosa needs a win.

I doubt Barboza does that. Mark Henry coached Alvarez verses Pettis, he is also Barbozas coach. I think he's seen enough footage of Pettis in two straight camps that he will come up with a striking style game plan.

 

[Mr.Maelstrom]

Pettis needs to stop working on his TDD so much, imo. It was much better in the alvarez fight, but it actually hurt him more because it slowed the fight down too much.'

I feel like he was better off just pulling guard and working from his guard then staying pushed against the fence for 15 minutes.

Spot on, dude. Showtime spends way too much energy staying upright as opposed to playing guard while his opponent is dry and vulnerable to submissions.

 

[Cptn1NSAN0]

"Barboza won't exploit my glaring wrestling weakness."

Whiner

 

[EXOICHO]

"Barboza won't exploit my glaring wrestling weakness."

Whiner

Alvarez didn't exploit anything, anthony barely touched the ground. he just walled and stalled him (it was still anthony's fault because he focused too much on staying standing though)

 

[barillas]

This has been my dream fight for a while. Sooo many beautiful kicks...

Definitely, this one is a striking fans dream, should be a 5 rounder.

 

[HaulParris]

and the times they were in the middle and striking.. Pettis was just staring at him 99% of the time and throwing nothing. 3 minutes of round 2 there was no wrestling at all and Pettis was doing nothing.

True. In both the RDA and Alvarez fights, Pettis seemed gun-shy, maybe because he was concentrating too much on anticipating the grappling attack, and being afraid to over-commit to a strike and leave himself defenseless.

 

[CountOfSoCal]

Please tell me about the amazing sport of wrestling in which you win fights by holding a standing opponent and stalling is never broken up or punished.

You mean by negating all their movement and offense because your opponent has the inability to move his feet? It's quite lovely

 

[Cptn1NSAN0]

Alvarez didn't exploit anything, anthony barely touched the ground. he just walled and stalled him (it was still anthony's fault because he focused too much on staying standing though)

The clinch is a part of wrestling/grappling and his holes got exploited. No two ways about it really.

 

[EXOICHO]

The clinch is a part of wrestling/grappling and his holes got exploited. No two ways about it really.

In wrestling, what alvarez did would not be very useful since there would be no cage. pushing somebody into a cage isn't wrestling. His hole is that he's not strong enough for the division at the end of the day. his TDD was on point.

 

[GENERAL AZUL]

Yea, Eddie came to push Pettis against the cage. I became a hater since

 

[Cptn1NSAN0]

In wrestling, what alvarez did would not be very useful since there would be no cage. pushing somebody into a cage isn't wrestling. His hole is that he's not strong enough for the division at the end of the day. his TDD was on point.

Whatever man, I'm not getting into semantics with you. You can tell yourself whatever you want about why Anthony lost that fight. Anyone with functioning eyes can see what his weakness is.

 

[EXOICHO]

Whatever man, I'm not getting into semantics with you. You can tell yourself whatever you want about why Anthony lost that fight. Anyone with functioning eyes can see what his weakness is.

It's not semantics. No wrestler has ever trained to get into an over/under position solely to hold somebody up against a wall and throw pitter patters. Alvarez won because he had a good game plan and a good build against Pettis, who is physically too weak to get off the cage (it didn't help that he backed up straight, but it wouldn't have changed much).

I don't even like Pettis that much, he's wasted potential at this point of his career.