For someone who supposedly has an elusive style...Thompson gets knocked down a lot

[aerius]

I dont understand how you can say that. Machida was one of the hardest guys to hit. Wonderboy had been in there with alot of tough guys,who have to make their hits count. The hits he takes are hard shots and his in an out style componds things when the shot DOES connect.

Was. He was only hard to hit when opponents kept trying to punch his head off with poor setups. Once fighters learned to kick his legs & body before going to the head with combos or dirty boxing him from the clinch, he wasn't all that hard to hit.

 

[HHJ]

Was. .

Wrong.

His style was always difficult to deal with. Chris Weidman had to constantly cut off the ring,and actually gassed himself out in the 3rd round trying to keep up with him. The style was highly effective and it made his career. No one has a perfect style,but Machida's style was unique and difficult to deal with.

 

[Brom Bones]

True. Seems like by the 4th or 5th round he just says "fuck it" to intelligently defending strikes.

 

[Polish Punisher]

Shertards are out in full force.

WB has been fighting top WW's for some time now. He has been knocked down buy some of the best and hardest hitting fighters in the division.

Till just starched Cerrone who has been KO'd multiple times not just knocked down yet the same posters are not making threads about it.

The guy has been in the cage with bone crushing hitters like Whitaker, Woodley, Ellenberger, and Hendricks and not been KO'd.

He has been in with precision strikers like Till and Macdonald and not been KO'd.

He is 14-3 with all 3 losses coming from decision. Never been KO'd, never been submitted.

By what metric is he not a high level striker defensively to have 18 pro fights and never get KO'd.

 

[Pokemon24]

I think wonderboy is fucking boring, but he has to be one of the most sound technical fighters out there. Defensively hes up there. Even till admitted to his footwork being on another level and how hard it was to hit him. Same goes for Woodley, he praised WB footwork and unorthodox fighting style to be very difficult.

He's also never been Knocked out, knocked down yep, but never Knocked out.

 

[Voodoo_Child906]

Brown I thought was almost all a wrestlefuck victory if I recall correctly, but Ellenberger landed a bomb for sure.

It was an elbow from the clinch

 

[El_Diazo]

Shertards are out in full force.

WB has been fighting top WW's for some time now. He has been knocked down buy some of the best and hardest hitting fighters in the division.

Till just starched Cerrone who has been KO'd multiple times not just knocked down yet the same posters are not making threads about it.

The guy has been in the cage with bone crushing hitters like Whitaker, Woodley, Ellenberger, and Hendricks and not been KO'd.

He has been in with precision strikers like Till and Macdonald and not been KO'd.

He is 14-3 with all 3 losses coming from decision. Never been KO'd, never been submitted.

By what metric is he not a high level striker defensively to have 18 pro fights and never get KO'd.

No one is saying he’s not a high level striker. People are claiming he’s the best striker in the division/ufc which clearly isn’t true tho. He’s been dropped 5x in his last 4 fights. If you’re getting dropped that much you obviously need to work on something

 

[blaseblah]

The main issue is he fights with his hands down and doesn't tuck his chin.

 

[LongDongSilver]

A point fighter with some finishes and/ or dominations over top guys

yeeeeeeee haaasaaaawwww !!!

 

[CrimsonFan]

Both guys that dropped him are just huge WWs.

He always gets knocked dowj when hes backed against the cage with nowhere to go.

It also has been happening in the third round on. All that extra moving he does and running gasses him out and once he slows you can crack him.

His chin also seems to be very average. His recovery is impressive.

I also think hes in his mid 30s? Hes likely lost a step in speed and reaction time. For a guy like him who relies on it, the tiny decline leads to losses.

 

[djason1988]

"karate" is an incredibly general term, TS. Machida's karate is the WKF shotokan variety, that relies very heavily on lateral movement, distance management, and timing. Thompson's is the PKA variety, a faster variation focusing on quick scoring kicks at range or else the ability to close distance quickly. A lot of flashiness is present there (Raymond Daniels and MVP are good examples). And that's just two types. Okinawan karate and kyokushin karate are both totally different from those.

 

[MMAcolyte]

Didn't get dropped by Masvidal. So 3 outta his last 4, but not his last 3 fights

 

[Hardkore]

Wrong.

His style was always difficult to deal with. Chris Weidman had to constantly cut off the ring,and actually gassed himself out in the 3rd round trying to keep up with him. The style was highly effective and it made his career. No one has a perfect style,but Machida's style was unique and difficult to deal with.

I give you shit about WMMA, but you're dead on this aspect

 

[Hardkore]

Both guys that dropped him are just huge WWs.

He always gets knocked dowj when hes backed against the cage with nowhere to go.

It also has been happening in the third round on. All that extra moving he does and running gasses him out and once he slows you can crack him.

His chin also seems to be very average. His recovery is impressive.

I also think hes in his mid 30s? Hes likely lost a step in speed and reaction time. For a guy like him who relies on it, the tiny decline leads to losses.

He's 35, and I completely agree.

 

[king of theRing]

Is the karate style not that elusive? Not as effective?
A lot of the offensive and timing moves are great, i.e. Machida KO over Vitor. However, Thompson whos known to evade his opponents strikes, has been knocked down at least once in his last three fights.

Come on bro, is it time to cross train in some boxing? From what I understand he has a kickboxing foundation as well, but its more orientated towards karate than it is boxing.

That karate style sucks vs good dutch style kickboxing or very decent level muay Thai.

Just look at raymond Daniels, or what started happening to machida

 

[eternaldarkness]

what they call blitzing in karate, they call lunging in boxing. it can be very effective in mma but comes with big defensive liabilities.

 

[Hollywood Jack]

When his back is against the cage and the opponent cuts off his lateral movement, he tends to freeze up a bit.

Also, this is just a theory of mine and not a fact by any means, I think his footwork of bouncing in and out as well as side to side means he never really has a solid foundation when he does get hit which tends to lead to more flash knockdowns. I think it has more to do with him being off balance when he gets hit rather than really hurt, again just a theory of mine tho I would have to watch his knockdowns closely to confirm this which I haven't done.

There's probably some truth to this, although against Till, he was legitimately hurt. Perfect placement on that shot and it landed flush. He did well to take that shot and recover quickly. Cowboy, who's known for his chin, couldn't take those types of shots from Till.

 

[eternaldarkness]

he's no george chuvalo, or lamotta.

 

[moreorless87]

No style is perfect, at least Thompson isn't trying to cut to lightweight to fight smaller opponents.

GSP obviously always had issues with boxing defence when people got inside on him as well, his game was basically setup to stop this taking them down when they pushed forward.