This is such a lame defence when I hear this, from fans usually.
It's simplifying the argument to create a straw man for yourself to knock down.
Not everybody who finds wrestlers or certain kinds of wrestlers boring want to watch kickboxing. Or, they'd watch fkn kickboxing. There's ground and grappling elements which still involve violence - aka ground n pound, elbows, and submissions; BJJ is still interesting, combative, violent;
Wheras, holding people and stalling (not saying that's what Merab did btw. no comment on him/separate/in general... ) is NOT that. It's not combat, it's not violence, it's not causing damage, it's not trying to cause damage, or win. It's a lame fkn way of using a trick, essentially, something you know how to do, to just kill the action and 'win' rounds. It's fkn lame.
Plenty of us still like ALL the elements of fighting Aljo. Just not bullshit types of wrestling. Take somebody down, sure, but for a purpose; prime example of what I'm talking about, which is bullshit is what Usman used to do; like, v Masvidal 1 - fkn holding him against the fence and not doing shit, just keeping him there not able to fight back. Oh, my mistake, he did toe stomp!
