Why do some previous dominate fighters abandon their most successfull weapons?

[Dorkman]

Diego's pure wrestling take down prowess just wasn't good enough at the top tier. His ground game, and scrambles were fantastic, but his ability to get it to the ground wasn't on that same level. Fighters that stuff him forced him out of his element so he just started winging haymakers.

 

[Fight Professor]

Those fighters do not train the same way anymore either because of injuries/milage or just lack of desire after becoming financially stable. That makes their gameplan much more simplistic.

 

[The Great Macsby]

Rashad evans is another 1.

Pisses me off. They have some success and then all of a sudden think they are great strikers. Not everyone can be like conor standing.

 

[MuyThaiElbows]

Rampage abandoning his wrestling killed Rampage being one of the best LHW's ever.

 

[Sidecontrol87]

I think that they work on their weakness so much and they see an improvement which ends up blinding them in their actual abilities. I also think when they drill their weakness so much, that during the fight they resort to their training

 

[Conor McGrammar]

Let me explain, I will use 2 examples. Josh Koscheck, Diego Sanchez are two...and many others ....

Had such a dominate style. Josh first off a four-time NCAA Division 1 wrestler...was phenomenal using his wrestling in MMA. Defeated Anthony Rumble Johnson on the ground for god sakes. Diego Sanchez has a win over Nick Diaz on the ground! (granted it was a decision win)

Both fighters were promising and I was certain with Kos's viscous wrestling and Diego's relentless ground and pound skills would become champions. These guys won with these styles mores so than when standing in my opinion, at least in Josh Koschecks situation his striking was decent had a few nice knockout victories but he always made his opponent paranoid about that take down that rarely anyone could stop. Diego started striking and had a few successful stand up wars but seemed to abandon his entire ground game that brought him to the elite top 5 status.

Its normal for a fighter to want to learn other arts, and perfect the game all around, but when they start to lose trying to be something they are not WHY does a fighter not realize this and go back to doing what made them such a success?

*Dominant

 

[Aluminati]

I know Sherk didn't like idiots calling him boring so he tried to box more, only reason BJ beat him. If Sherk would have tried to grapple he would have taken BJ easily.

This always bothered me.
He really took that speech from Kenny Florian about finishing fights personally.
He then tried his damnedest to finish him, Franca, and BJ, but he needed to wear BJ down and failed miserably.
His main problem was honestly his short arms. He couldn't sit too far back and didn't want to overextend because he was literally a turtle on his back (see fight against GSP).
IMO he was someone who overachieved in spite of physical limitations, mainly due to his work ethic, and his technical ability in boxing and wrestling.