Kevin Lee's Problem Is Easily Fixed

How quickly can a fight team fix energy management problems?


  • Total voters
    279

ReadWrite

Banned
Banned
Joined
Jul 14, 2013
Messages
10,887
Reaction score
236
Energy Management

This was his debut performance at 170, and frankly, he performed comparably and admirably compared to his lightweight past. Lee didn’t lose because he was depleted from a weight cut, or because he’s in the wrong division, or even because he was the lesser mixed martial artist. He lost because of how he rations his energy.

This is not to say he would have won if he fought at a slower pace. It is only to say that he put himself at a significant disadvantage for a crafty veteran to capitalize upon. In the first two rounds, Lee tried nine takedowns and fired off 67 mostly full-power strikes. You can see the effort in everything he does. And you can see the slowdown as he goes along.

Contrast that to dos Anjos, who manages a smooth and controlled tempo throughout his fights, and it’s easy to see the difference. The Brazilian is a decorated veteran and represented a chance for Lee to collect his first win over a former UFC champion. He is just too experienced and too good to offer a handicap.

The good news is that Lee remains both young and talented. No fighters in the lightweight or welterweight class walk away from viewing his fights and thinking he will be a quick or easy win. Lee has skills and heart and time.

The bad news is that none of those guarantee him anything. The worse news is that he has to find a way to fix this issue on the fly. The UFC isn’t likely to give him a few easy fights to help his progression. He’ll continue to face a murderer’s row not too dissimilar to his last quartet. Dos Anjos, Al Iaquinta, Edson Barboza and Tony Ferguson; that’s not just a group of studs, there’s an actual bogeyman in the mix!

It was always going to be a tall order to jump up a weight class and beat the division’s No. 3-ranked contender. For a few minutes, Lee was doing that. And that is something. That is meaningful. But to get to where he wants to go, to take a step forward, Lee has to do something counterintuitive: he has to slow down.

--MMA Fighting
 
Wasted a lot of energy forcing takedowns without much setup.
 
Maybe his team should train him to stop shooting for takedowns and/or bail out when they obviously aren't working.
 
Hes dancing to much around the cage

ElementaryBeautifulLeafbird-size_restricted.gif
 
Honestly, fighters that gas pretty much never fix it. Nunes is the only one I can remember overcoming this. People might also say Conor because of the second Diaz fight, but then his cardio failed again against Khabib.
 
It takes a minute to call King's/ATT/AMC Pankration for their services.
 
Honestly, fighters that gas pretty much never fix it. Nunes is the only one I can remember overcoming this. People might also say Conor because of the second Diaz fight, but then his cardio failed again against Khabib.
Yeah I think Nunes fights at much more controlled pace now though. Basically, that's what Kevin should do. He's going 100% right out the gate. As hard as he goess i'm surprised he doesn't gas sooner.
 
The fight was close and I was pretty impressed by Kevin striking. I think he could have hang out striking a lot more and not gas himself going for TDs.
 
Honestly, fighters that gas pretty much never fix it. Nunes is the only one I can remember overcoming this. People might also say Conor because of the second Diaz fight, but then his cardio failed again against Khabib.
conors cardio failed him in diaz two aswell. he was checking out the clock consistently since mid round TWO and running most of the remaining rounds.

Energy Management

This was his debut performance at 170, and frankly, he performed comparably and admirably compared to his lightweight past. Lee didn’t lose because he was depleted from a weight cut, or because he’s in the wrong division, or even because he was the lesser mixed martial artist. He lost because of how he rations his energy.

This is not to say he would have won if he fought at a slower pace. It is only to say that he put himself at a significant disadvantage for a crafty veteran to capitalize upon. In the first two rounds, Lee tried nine takedowns and fired off 67 mostly full-power strikes. You can see the effort in everything he does. And you can see the slowdown as he goes along.

Contrast that to dos Anjos, who manages a smooth and controlled tempo throughout his fights, and it’s easy to see the difference. The Brazilian is a decorated veteran and represented a chance for Lee to collect his first win over a former UFC champion. He is just too experienced and too good to offer a handicap.

The good news is that Lee remains both young and talented. No fighters in the lightweight or welterweight class walk away from viewing his fights and thinking he will be a quick or easy win. Lee has skills and heart and time.

The bad news is that none of those guarantee him anything. The worse news is that he has to find a way to fix this issue on the fly. The UFC isn’t likely to give him a few easy fights to help his progression. He’ll continue to face a murderer’s row not too dissimilar to his last quartet. Dos Anjos, Al Iaquinta, Edson Barboza and Tony Ferguson; that’s not just a group of studs, there’s an actual bogeyman in the mix!

It was always going to be a tall order to jump up a weight class and beat the division’s No. 3-ranked contender. For a few minutes, Lee was doing that. And that is something. That is meaningful. But to get to where he wants to go, to take a step forward, Lee has to do something counterintuitive: he has to slow down.

--MMA Fighting
everything in this article is wrong. Kevin lee has an inferior skill set in comparison to the guys that beat him. and inferior gas tank. you cannot ration your energy unless youre having a point fighting match in the middle of the cage. you cannot ration energy when you fighting someone like RDA, Tony, Khabib you either keep up or get finished etc..

his options were, either become a C level striker and stop shooting TDs but RDA was starting to shoot his own TDs in order to gas kevin lee out so becoming a C level striker isnt an option.
your second option is you try and take RDA down and maybe rest a bit in some of the favorable positions like guard side control etc and kill time winning a decision. what kevin lee did was the correct thing to do but his body gassed and his wrestling technique wasnt good enough to take down RDA. so his main problems are fundamental problems both physical and technical.
 
Yoel Romero is proof this article is BS
 
Honestly, fighters that gas pretty much never fix it. Nunes is the only one I can remember overcoming this. People might also say Conor because of the second Diaz fight, but then his cardio failed again against Khabib.
BJ Penn was the worst gasser in history. Then he fixed it while training under Marinovich.

If fucking BJ Penn can get good cardio, anyone can get good cardio.

Also TRTor proved he had great cardio against Jon Jones.
 
If moving up didn't fix it what will? The weight cut was his go to excuse. He either doesn't work hard enough or is just another c-level guy after 7 minutes. Needs to find trainers who aren't just riding his nuts for financial gain too.
 
Maybe he is too stressed when fighting? I remember from my fighting days I did not get tired when training but got very tired quickly when sparring probably due to stress
 
He was 6/17 on takedowns which is a lot of wasted energy and movement. Exactly what the article is stating is his problem. However, if he doesn’t attempt those takedowns then how else is he going to win? His game is literally take opponent down and use brute strength to try and sink in a choke. If that doesn’t work he’s fucked.

On the feet he got outstruck by a large margin. Also, RDA was 4/6 on takedowns and made it look easy. There really was no way Lee was going to win that fight better energy management or not.

He has limited skills and he’s a front runner that tries to use his sheer strength to win. He can and will beat some big names with that style but not the elite or cream of the crop at 170 or 155.
 
You don't fix genetics. He can improve a little, cardio wise, but he'll always be a one and done guy.

It's more about skills. Kevin isn't good at MMA.
 
BJ Penn was the worst gasser in history. Then he fixed it while training under Marinovich.

If fucking BJ Penn can get good cardio, anyone can get good cardio.

And then he lost it all pretty much immediately.

The fight was close and I was pretty impressed by Kevin striking. I think he could have hang out striking a lot more and not gas himself going for TDs.

We have the score cards, Lee only won the first round and was looking worst and worst. It competitive up to a certain point, but the whole thing wasn't close.
 
It's probably something that could be corrected with a few months of focused attention. It may never hit Diaz levels, but it could be dramatically improved in less than a year.

The problems are:
  1. His build doesn't lend itself well to being a cardio machine. He's densely muscular and that muscle demands oxygen. There are guys that have overcome that issue though (Chandler, Volkanovski, Stipe).
  2. It will be tough to focus on a single aspect of his game and remain active. It probably makes more sense to take a step down in competition, and build up another run making small amounts of progress on multiple fronts.
 
Back
Top