- Joined
- Nov 21, 2006
- Messages
- 19,233
- Reaction score
- 21,450
Whittaker put on 2 great displays of committing to strikes while facing the 2 best grapplers/wrestlers in his division this year. Even with the more conservative nature of the Romero fight, his push kicks were damaging and actually thrown to set up his offense rather than merely probing.
Having a focus on neutralizing your opponent's style only is a tricky game to play in this kind of stylistic matchup(esp. when strike total is low), it always leaves an opening for a grappler to swing rounds. In this case, the TDs were actually substantiated with significant proceeding grappling exchanges rather than LnP. Overall I think the fight was close but I believe JoJo left the door open for her not getting the nod by having so much of her volume being on strikes that were only thrown to attempt to maintain distance. If she had mixed in more elbows(which Calvillo was open for on the end of her combinations) and attacked the lead leg more then it might've been less of a window for Cynthia to edge it.
Whittaker's another great example, I can't believe I forgot about him. He's one of the few strikers who are doing it right. While some adjustments are needed when facing grapplers, Whittaker and Joanna always fight aggressively and throw strikes to do damage rather than playing it safe and throwing strikes to keep distance/score points while looking for a big KO shot or waiting for the clock to run out. They understand that effective offence and doing damage is important for winning rounds & fights, it doesn't matter if they get taken down in the last minute of a round when they've spent the previous 4 minutes turning their opponent's faces into chopped liver.