Fight Strategies that Baffled you/ Gameplans you didn't Understand

JustBleed69

JustBleed69

Touch-Butt Silver Belt
Double Yellow Card
Joined
Mar 7, 2015
Messages
12,525
Reaction score
12,420
What fights have you seen before that had you scratching your head about a particular fighters gameplan or approach to the fight?

Off the top of my head one of those for me is Robert Whittaker vs Israel Adesanya.

Instead of jabbing, throwing leg kicks, mixing in takedowns, etc. he was constantly throwing looping overhands and headkicks at an opponent who is amazing at leaning back and also has a pretty significant height advantage.

Another one is Tippy Toes BJ Penn vs Edgar in the 3rd fight for obvious reasons lol.

What else ya got?
 
Schaub said:
Rumble shooting on DC in their rematch
Werdum chasing Stipe around the octagon
Click to expand...
Both of these are great, especially the Rumble one. I just chalk that one up to him wanting out of the fight tbh
 
Hellowhosthat said:
Just about every Jorge Gurgel fight. Dude was a good level black belt but never even tried to grapple and just lost close decisions to everyone standing.
Click to expand...
Exactly how I used to feel about Demian Maia before he finally put it all together after moving down to 170.
So frustrating watching elite grapplers try and strike for entire rounds.
 
JustBleed69 said:
What fights have you seen before that had you scratching your head about a particular fighters gameplan or approach to the fight?

Off the top of my head one of those for me is Robert Whittaker vs Israel Adesanya.

Instead of jabbing, throwing leg kicks, mixing in takedowns, etc. he was constantly throwing looping overhands and headkicks at an opponent who is amazing at leaning back and also has a pretty significant height advantage.

Another one is Tippy Toes BJ Penn vs Edgar in the 3rd fight for obvious reasons lol.

What else ya got?
Click to expand...


The worst strategy of ALL TIME is Irish Edmond drilling Conor guillotine to defend TDs against Poirier.

Sometimes, it's not always clear whether it's a stupid mistake or dumb game plan either, like someone mentioned Rumble vs DC, but it was Rumble going full retard not the game plan, but this one, they DRILLED IT, and the fighter CAME THROUGH, to the greatest perfection of complete idiocy right into jaws of defeat.
 
Hellowhosthat said:
Just about every Jorge Gurgel fight. Dude was a good level black belt but never even tried to grapple and just lost close decisions to everyone standing.
Click to expand...
He had shitty knees.
Years of wera and tear and imanari fucked his knee up.
 
Nick Diaz fought some dude named Koji Oishi a while back. Koji kept his hands in some awkward wide guard which lead to Diaz pounding his face in with ease. Not sure if it's true but a while back I read that his game plan was to basically parry Diaz's punches by punching the incoming fist and countering.

If you haven't seen it I recommend it, it's odd. The guy somehow beat Nate a few months later but he changed the game plan a bit if I recall.
 
-Conor in his trilogy fight with Dustin, mainly him going for a guillotine(coach even confirmed this was something they wanted him to do after the fight).
-Jorge 2nd match with Usman. I understood putting his hands down to defend the takedowns, but why the fuck was he using his face to block every single strike with careless defense. Underestimed Usman's power and he paid for it with an A LOT more devestating loss than the 1st fight.
-Cody Garbarant in Dillashaw 2 and Munoz fights. Jumping in the fire after getting stunned over and over again until he gets KO'd or KO's his opponent.
-Yoel Romero against Isreal Adesanya. Standing still waiting for a counter against the longer fighter who was picking him apart on the outside. Close fight, but very weird strategy and was his last titleshot.
-Corey Anderson against Jan. Kept throwing naked leg kicks, pretty much begging for the counter right.
-Johny Walker against Santos. Feint, Feint, Feint, that's it?
-Till vs Brunson. Worst version of Till by far. Same combo over and over, expecting to KO Brunson. Was a lot more predictable than he showed in the Whittaker fight.
-Woodley against Luque. Woodley decided to finally throw his hands without setups against an opponent who's got an iron chin, great counter puncher, great power puncher, and susceptible to strong wrestlers. Great fight, but this was the last strategy you should use against Luque.
-Diego Sanchez against Jake Matthews and Michel Perreira. Just wtf.
-Rose in the 1st Andrade fight. Kept going for the armbar from an opponent who's stronger than her and known to slam opponents.
-Ryan Hall vs Topuria. Rolling, rolling, rolling......
-Clay Guida against Maynard. Ditched his old style to play point fighter here. Very odd gameplan.
-Edgar/Penn 3. Tippy toes Penn.
-Perry vs Cowboy. Shooting for a takedown on Cerrone who's the way better grappler and submission artist.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,267,101
Messages
57,449,212
Members
175,716
Latest member
Kombat Konnoisseur

Share this page

Back
Top