What happened to Jimmie Rivera? Mentally shot or hypejob?

[VenomCarnage]

I was shocked by that showing.

He did a great job of stopping Aljamain's takedowns but then proceeded to get slapped around the cage by a man who really has no idea how to throw a proper punch. He was literally buzzed on 2-3 occasions by Sterling.

The loss to Moraes could be put down as a "fluke" or a "I zigged with I should have zagged" moment, but you cannot explain your way out of that 15 minute showing. He all of a sudden looks like he's barely top 10, never mind a top contender.

Horrid.

 

[Your Account]

Moraes

 

[Mammothman]

Hypejob, he thought he was the hot shit because he beat a washed up Faber but Moraes took his soul.

I think he will stick in the top 10 but I don't think he will be champ

 

[Baltimore Bro]

A hype job that also ran into a better fighter

 

[ritchest_eva]

The top of BW is a different beast prolly the best top 5 in UFC anyone can beat one another

 

[WalkenWouldOwn]

I am thinking maybe just the style matchup. Aljo has gotten better and better at using his range. His striking is sloppy as fuck but he has been refining it to make it work for him and has been pretty effective with it.

Rivera is a boxer with short arms who excels at counter punching, and can land a TD when needed to score points and change it up. Aljo did not give him much chance to counter because he stayed away, and he is not a guy you want to be on the ground with so Rivera avoided that. I really thought it was a winnable fight for him but Aljo executed his gameplan very well, and Rivera couldn't pull the trigger. All the guys Rivera beat before, even though he beat some damn good fighters, are not guys who use range and kicks very well so it is looking like that is the key to beating him.

 

[Rebel_LioN]

He’s traumatized from Moraes KO. Mentally he hasn’t recovered. He can’t pull the trigger or get into the fire of a fight.

 

[ChaelSonnen]

That's how Aljo makes his opponents look, though. I thought the same when he completely destroyed Mizugaki. He's the real deal.

 

[PurpleDrank]

I only saw the first round but it looked like he had alot of problems closing the distance getting into boxing range. Looked like aljamains gameplan worked.

 

[Coolkid666]

Mentally shot. When Sterling started spamming kicks, Rivera started getting PTSD flashbacks from Moraes lol. Hopefully Rivera can get over it, he's a good upper gatekeeper for bantamweight, could eventually evolve into a ghetto version of Frankie Edgar

 

[Koro_11]

I thought Sterling looked pretty good, he wanted it more.

 

[NoBiasJustMMA]

Neither, Moraes is IMO the best BW in the world and Sterling is really good and has been improving a lot in the last few years.

 

[BenjaminDuffy]

Probably slightly overranked due to the win streak, but more importantly he just happened to be in the cage the night Aljamain Sterling put on easily the best performance of his career so far. Sterling would have beaten all but about two BWs in the world last night.

 

[ArtOfDrowning]

He was clearly a gate keeper but never champ material. His best win is FLW Dodson.

And also he is super boring.

 

[Anaconda99]

One of the fights i picked right, Rivera is solid but he isnt anything special and just had the right matchups, this time he fought fighter who ws too dangerous to take down, so he only had the standup which is realy underwhelming.

 

[tucan89]

Aljo is legit tho, but yeah Jimmie is a bit overrated and can’t finish fights

 

[Mr. Scorpio]

Rivera is a tough fighter, that couldn't adjust his game plan to deal with Sterling. Maybe switching fight teams would help.

 

[GrayArea]

He’s too one dimensional. Also too short and not skilled enough on the feet to hang with the strikers who can prevent his takedowns.

 

[Schoolboy Q]

Hype Job, dude was just a point fighter...22 wins and 16 by decision? Embarrassing.

 

[drbolony]

I think hype job and I blame myself for perpetuating it. I bought it with the streak and the patience. He's definitely a top fighter, just not champ material as I use to say.

I think he and Aljo are on the same level, Aljo just had a coming out party yesterday. Aljo grew into his style, got really comfortable, and it showed.

Rivera is too robotic, he doesn't really flow. He's very textbook and has excellent timing, he just doesn't have the juice.

The very top tier of BW are: TJ, Moraes, Cruz, Garbrandt, Assuncao, Cejudo

Tier ll: Aljo, Rivera, Lineker, Munhoz(Borderline)

Tier lll: Dodson, Font, Yan(For now)