Media Robert Whittaker Says "He'd Beat Dricus Du Plessis 9 Times out of 10" and He's "Just A Better Fighter Than He Is"

[orca]

Better in what ways exactly?

more cardio
used his wrestling alot
because he has better cardio

he also is better at pressuring his opponents
he does it for 5 rounds non stop

he has legit submission skills

i dont care if yoel is an olympic wrestler
its basically useless because hell drain alot of energy
trying to wrestle

 

[The Bloody Nine]

strickland backpedal for 4.5 rds
ate alot of heavy kick and punches
he was basically surviving

i know thats your opinion

but most fighters and mma websites thought ddp as the winner
this shouldnt even be a debate

That's not true. The poll here was basically 50/50 on who won.

 

[The Bloody Nine]

Four hundred votes. 51.3% thought Strickland won.

https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/...dp-who-did-you-think-won-mega-thread.4320241/

 

[TheMMAnalyst]

more cardio
used his wrestling alot
because he has better cardio

he also is better at pressuring his opponents
he does it for 5 rounds non stop

he has legit submission skills

i dont care if yoel is an olympic wrestler
its basically useless because hell drain alot of energy
trying to wrestle

Fair points about cardio and use of wrestling; Yoel used to wrestle way more early in his career and was light years beyond DDP, but the neck/back surgery took away that from his game.

DDP does not really have legit submission skills against elite opposition - he’s got a face crank against a gassed Darren Till in the UFC, that’s it. The guys he was running through and subbing were South African regional MMA fighters, so let’s not overate him there. Very strong positional grappler though.

Basically Yoel in his prime had better wrestling, better striking, better fight adaptability, and had even more power and dynamic finishing ability.

DDP’s got better cardio/ability to pressure, I’ll give him that. But in their primes Yoel would most likely take DDP’s head off with the level of explosiveness + technical edges in striking.

 

[CrimsonFan]

Whittaker used to find ways to win fights and these days he finds ways to lose. He won the belt like 6 years ago he is not that guy anymore. He has no power and point fights when you do that at 185 you arent gonna beat anyone 9/10 times

 

[StewDogg11]

Whittaker would not beat DDP the next 9 times they fought. He’s being delusional.

 

[RockyLockridge]

Prime Bobby would've eaten present day DDP‘s best shots and returned with interest, now not so much. The beast named Yoel has damaged several fighters with career altering beating, Weidman, Whittaker, even Costa wasn’t the same guy. I digress, Robert hasn’t come to terms that he isn’t the same guy and likely in his decline.

dont forget machida and rockhold too

They never really looked good again

 

[rjmbrd]

Whittaker was winning the first 4 min of the 1st round before he got taken down, and was winning the 2nd round until he got clipped.

It's strange how so many believe he had nothing for DDP.

"He was winning before he lost" is always a terrible point of view, let alone breaking that out by two rounds where Robert got hurt very, very badly in each.

Dricus is now a perfect 7-0 in the UFC with a 71% finish rate. At some point its reasonable to stop pretending he's tripping and falling into winning fights and accept he looks unorthodox but is one of the best middleweights in the world of this generation of fighters.

Robert was out grappled, looked less physically strong and could chip at Dricus but didn't hurt him. Dricus could take Rob's punches, but the reverse wasn't true. I would pick Dricus to win a rematch and he would be favored in the odds.

 

[rjmbrd]

Prime Bobby would've eaten present day DDP‘s best shots and returned with interest, now not so much. The beast named Yoel has damaged several fighters with career altering beating, Weidman, Whittaker, even Costa wasn’t the same guy. I digress, Robert hasn’t come to terms that he isn’t the same guy and likely in his decline.

Rob went on to beat Till, Cannonier, Gastelum and Vettori. His only losses since the second Romero fight were to Izzy who became a long defending world champion and arguably one of the greatest middleweights of all time.

Suffice to say millage is a thing and Romero put plenty on Rob, but he still had no problem beating elite top 10 fighters like Cannonier and Vettori.

Good enough to beat those guys, not good enough to beat Dricus.

 

[StewDogg11]

strickland backpedal for 4.5 rds
ate alot of heavy kick and punches
he was basically surviving

i know thats your opinion

but most fighters and mma websites thought ddp as the winner
this shouldnt even be a debate

Yeah that’s not true. Quit spreading fake news:

Dricus Du Plessis def. Sean Strickland :: UFC 297 :: MMA Decisions

mmadecisions.com

 

[mister piscadinha]

Fair points about cardio and use of wrestling; Yoel used to wrestle way more early in his career and was light years beyond DDP, but the neck/back surgery took away that from his game.

DDP does not really have legit submission skills against elite opposition - he’s got a face crank against a gassed Darren Till in the UFC, that’s it. The guys he was running through and subbing were South African regional MMA fighters, so let’s not overate him there. Very strong positional grappler though.

Basically Yoel in his prime had better wrestling, better striking, better fight adaptability, and had even more power and dynamic finishing ability.

DDP’s got better cardio/ability to pressure, I’ll give him that. But in their primes Yoel would most likely take DDP’s head off with the level of explosiveness + technical edges in striking.

the thing about ddp is: he seems to be getting better each fight
his grappling against strickland and whittaker seemed way better than before, so were his kicks
who knows how good he'll be next fight
ddp may not even be in his prime yet
late ufc romero would gas and get battered by the african freak

 

[SalvadorAllende]

I like Robert but DDP beat his ass.

I would LOVE to see Whittaker vs Usman next.

 

[TheMMAnalyst]

the thing about ddp is: he seems to be getting better each fight
his grappling against strickland and whittaker seemed way better than before, so were his kicks
who knows how good he'll be next fight
ddp may not even be in his prime yet
late ufc romero would gas and get battered by the african freak

Is DDP getting better? In terms of experience, approach, adaptations, yes. But his technique is still the same, athleticism still the same, fight style (pressure brawler) still the same.

We can’t look at his grappling vs a heavily declined Whittaker and a boxing heavy Strickland as definitive proof of elite grappling/wrestling. He took Strickland down repeatedly but had no control, so I look at that as a showcase of his cardio/will more then elite wrestling/grapplng. His counter-kicking game is improved for sure though.

No one is saying DDP wouldn’t smoke Romero now, but if we go back a decade it’s a whole different beast to deal with.

 

[no fat chicks]

DDP is a way better fighter than he appears to be. It's bewildering

 

[mister piscadinha]

Is DDP getting better? In terms of experience, approach, adaptations, yes. But his technique is still the same, athleticism still the same, fight style (pressure brawler) still the same.

We can’t look at his grappling vs a heavily declined Whittaker and a boxing heavy Strickland as definitive proof of elite grappling/wrestling. He took Strickland down repeatedly but had no control, so I look at that as a showcase of his cardio/will more then elite wrestling/grapplng. His counter-kicking game is improved for sure though.

No one is saying DDP wouldn’t smoke Romero now, but if we go back a decade it’s a whole different beast to deal with.

we dont really know how declined whittaker really is, he was beating everybody until facing dricus(including getting robbed by Izzy)
what we do know is that he's a competent grappler, who looked like a toddler against dricus

strickland is also a guy with good to very good tdd

and i'm not saying he would murk prime romero, just that It would be a good scrap

 

[TheMMAnalyst]

we dont really know how declined whittaker really is, he was beating everybody until facing dricus(including getting robbed by Izzy)
what we do know is that he's a competent grappler, who looked like a toddler against dricus

strickland is also a guy with good to very good tdd

and i'm not saying he would murk prime romero, just that It would be a good scrap

Rob has looked progressively worse every fight since Romero 2 - if you can’t admit this we can’t have a real discussion.

He started getting hurt every single fight after (including non-power shots like jabs) and nobody even tried to wrestle him since Romero as well. Plus getting his knee mangled in the first fight clearly had some long term affect on his wrestling game.

The last time Strickland faced a bricked up power wrestler it was Usman at 170 and he got taken down and controlled repeatedly. He has good TDD, but if we are being honest there are very few elite MMA fighters over 170 that wrestle consistently, just look at his MW opponents and how they’ve fought him.

I don’t want to shit on DDP, he’s awesome because he shouldn’t be so successful, the intangibles of iron chin/pure will are something special with him. But assessing him from a technical level he is an astonishingly reckless fighter - this game doesn’t work at below MW in my opinion.

 

[Wonderfight]

Based on the skills yes. Problem is that I don’t see him finishing Dricuss and Dricuss will try to break him for 5 rounds… Can he survive that? I don’t know.

 

[TSK]

Can say it all he wants. They’ve fought once and he lost by finish. And it’s not like it was some fluke Hail Mary haymaker in a fight Whitaker was otherwise dominating.

 

[Striker Fox]

"He was winning before he lost" is always a terrible point of view, let alone breaking that out by two rounds where Robert got hurt very, very badly in each.

 

[Huligani]

Whittaker is my all time favorite MW alongside Romero, but he got manhandled and destroyed. I'm not seeing it.