Article: Keys to Victory for Gunnar Nelson against Santiago Ponzinibbio

'Gunni has no jab, head movement, or mid-range attack'

Ouch. Though pretty accurate. A big part of what has allowed Wonderboy to have success with a Karate style is that he developed a pretty decent pocket boxing game. It's surprising given who he trains with that Nelson hasn't started to do the same.
 
Uchi Mata said:
'Gunni has no jab, head movement, or mid-range attack'

Ouch. Though pretty accurate. A big part of what has allowed Wonderboy to have success with a Karate style is that he developed a pretty decent pocket boxing game. It's surprising given who he trains with that Nelson hasn't started to do the same.
Click to expand...

it is odd...its like you said the addition of those tools gave a huge boost to thompson off/def; an given gunnar's improved wrestling and world class grappling, he would essentially have no real hole..no real area he couldn't be functionally effective in.

but he insists on not developing this area, when it has been problematic for him at every level he has fought at; his athleticism and the uniqueness of his style has saved him (mostly) But even when he wins the flaws show and opportunities are there to do damage, score points or win fights as a result of those flaws.

as you stated the fact sbg/mac havent helped him make any real fwd progress in this area is concerning or maybe nelson just doesnt want to do it.
 
He needs to look at either Demian Maia or Ryan Hall if he wants to move forward as a fighter.
 
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devante said:
it is odd...its like you said the addition of those tools gave a huge boost to thompson off/def; an given gunnar's improved wrestling and world class grappling, he would essentially have no real hole..no real area he couldn't be functionally effective in.

but he insists on not developing this area, when it has been problematic for him at every level he has fought at; his athleticism and the uniqueness of his style has saved him (mostly) But even when he wins the flaws show and opportunities are there to do damage, score points or win fights as a result of those flaws.

as you stated the fact sbg/mac havent helped him make any real fwd progress in this area is concerning or maybe nelson just doesnt want to do it.
Click to expand...
It's probably an issue with taking a lot of damage in training to develop those areas. Being good in those areas means getting hit a lot I would assume.
 
Uchi Mata said:
'Gunni has no jab, head movement, or mid-range attack'

Ouch. Though pretty accurate. A big part of what has allowed Wonderboy to have success with a Karate style is that he developed a pretty decent pocket boxing game. It's surprising given who he trains with that Nelson hasn't started to do the same.
Click to expand...

You say that, but Conor McGregor doesn't have much of a jab either, he gets away with it more though with those front kicks.

Honestly I'd say Gunnar Nelson's main problem is that his wrestling isn't up to scratch. I don't have a huge problem with him from a striking perspective, he's very much like Lyoto Machida with a lot of the same flaws, but I don't think lacking a jab is necessarily a bad thing given the way that Gunnar chooses to fight.

If anything I think his real problem is that when he goes for the clinch he often finds himself unable to take his opponent down. I know that Robert Whittaker says it's a myth that you need to train at a big camp with lots of pro fighters in order to get good... but I do think when it comes to taking people down, you really need to train with better wrestlers.

A few times I've seen training videos where Gunnar Nelson has taken down McGregor without much problem, but McGregor's posted videos before of them training and captioned them as "taking Nelson down is an endless struggle" - so I don't think he's getting challenged quite enough wrestling.

... inb4 his training with Makwan Amirkhani pays off and he proves me wrong tomorrow night.
 
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