Woodley showed the blueprint for koing WB

DivineMind

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Explode and bum rush him with 4-5 shots.

I thought Geoff was a little too respectful in that he played WBs game.

He coulda charged instead of going toe to toe with WB.

Thoughts ?
 
Heh, I just so happened to be watching the Luke Thomas post fight analysis, and he's talking about just this thing.

His thoughts: hang back and wait, don't follow Wonderboy around, try to get his timing down, and blitz him with a flurry when he dips in.

Sounds about right. Basically what Woodley did to knockdown WB, iirc. And of course, it goes without saying - it's easier said than done.
 
Way easier said than done. Even Woodley wasn't a to KO WB, lol.

Problem is that WB evades and counters so well.
 
Woodley squeezed out a draw in the first fight and was gifted a terrible decision in the rematch
 
You mean Woodley showed the blueprint how to hold down Wonderboy for a boring decision?
 
Woodley was the only person explosive enough to be able to implement that gameplan.

Woodleys combination of explosiveness, power, offensive wrestling, and an iron chin is something that no one else at WW can replicate.

Prime Woodley was an absolute beast.
 
Woodley was the only person explosive enough to be able to implement that gameplan.

Woodleys combination of explosiveness, power, offensive wrestling, and an iron chin is something that no one else at WW can replicate.

Prime Woodley was an absolute beast.

Woodley built it, Geoff Neal coulda kept the lights on but decided to play footsie with WB in the dark...
 
That worked for Woodley because he just waited by the cage and let Wonderboy come to him. It worked because he eventually was able to time Wonderboy trying to close the distance with his own blitz attack. Wonderboy learned from that though and he's more cautious entering, especially since he got caught by Pettis also.

Wonderboy is always going to be moving back or cutting an angle to reset or keep distance so the they are going to have to be able to match his movement speed when they blitz - and not many can match his movement or his speed. Most fighters are too stationary and don't cover much distance in their attacks or throw 4-5+ punch/kick combination when they do attack.
 
Wonderboye is far better than he was when he fought than. He is in his prime at 37 years old. He's been humbled by his experiences including his fluke loss to Pettis. He's willing to let his hands go now that he's experiences the bottom, you didn't see that in his fights against Woodley and Till. Need to see either rematches with the latter or vs Israel.
 
Woodley was the only person explosive enough to be able to implement that gameplan.

Woodleys combination of explosiveness, power, offensive wrestling, and an iron chin is something that no one else at WW can replicate.

Yeah but he's always waiting for that "one" big moment to strike.
If you watch Woodley's other fights, he's extremely hesitant to throw many strikes.
This style may work well against Wonderboy, but it wouldn't work well against anyone else in the division.
 
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I mean its not hard to understand. Wonderboy,like Machida before him creates a space to pick you off from. You gotta be able to close in on the guy and bust him up at close range. Easier said than done.
 
I mean its not hard to understand. Wonderboy,like Machida before him creates a space to pick you off from. You gotta be able to close in on the guy and bust him up at close range. Easier said than done.

Not sure there that similar though, Thompson's game is to point fight from range or potentially overwhelm someone with offence, Machida didnt have that kind of output and alot of his sucess was based on counter fighting.

I mean if your looking for a fighter with the same style as Woodley than Rashad is the obvious example yet we saw how his fight with Machida went, it was Shogun who ended the Machida era by outlanding him from range and forcing him to attack.
 
Not sure there that similar though, Thompson's game is to point fight from range or potentially overwhelm someone with offence, Machida didnt have that kind of output and alot of his sucess was based on counter fighting.

I mean if your looking for a fighter with the same style as Woodley than Rashad is the obvious example yet we saw how his fight with Machida went, it was Shogun who ended the Machida era by outlanding him from range and forcing him to attack.

Well Machida had those sudden bursts where he would flurry hard on a guy to see if he can open him up to combinations.

Shogun was quick enough to kick machida when he would try to retreat,and also to avoid some of Machida's attacks. It was the speed and also his kicking skill. You never want to play the kicking game with a guy who is better kicker than you,Rashad found that out the hard way w machida. I still think that getting inside on Wonderboy is the move.
 
Except Woodley didn't KO him but basically fought to two draws. Both those fights could have been scored either way. He did have a little more success though.
 
Woodley isn't very good though. He has a powerful right hand, and doesn't have many ways to set it up. If Wonderboy literally followed MacDonald's gameplan, and just feinted, Woodley would have lost easily .
 
Well Machida had those sudden bursts where he would flurry hard on a guy to see if he can open him up to combinations.

Shogun was quick enough to kick machida when he would try to retreat,and also to avoid some of Machida's attacks. It was the speed and also his kicking skill. You never want to play the kicking game with a guy who is better kicker than you,Rashad found that out the hard way w machida. I still think that getting inside on Wonderboy is the move.

Again though I think the difference is Machida was actually waiting for opponents to fry and flurry him, guys like Thaigo, Bader and Rashad all got finished on the counter that way.

I think Machida was a better counter fighter and a better anti grappler than Thompson but he didnt have the same output from range, if you could avoid the big counters when often decisions could be close.

As far as Thompson/Woodley goes whilst the fights were close I think you could definately argue that style matchup favoured Woodley who's big weakenss is to pressure.
 
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