Media Aljamain Sterling responds to MMA-outlet calling Merab Dvalishvili boring

[Krimzon]

i just want to see offense, and merab gives plenty of that

 

[arcadeperfect]

Merab is not that exciting. You're not on the edge of your seat when the fight is about to start. No fucking way.

People love to pretend they have IQ 4000 and act all like they THOROUGHLY enjoyed every second of it just to show everyone what a DISTINGUISHED fan they are.

You should be able to make a point of not finding Merab particularly exciting and not be branded as someone who "only loves striking"

I fucking love grappling. There are plenty of guys I can't wait for the fight to hit the mat but Merab doesn't bring that to me.


Edit: I find Aljo more exciting so took him out of it. I'm much more a fan of his top game.

You hit the nail on the head with that 4000IQ comment. One of the most annoying type of fans are the ones that act as if a boring fight is so entertaining because they're such educated fans of the sport. I bet you those same fans secretly found Ngannou vs Lewis to be boring af.

 

[Poirierfan]

Merab is not that exciting. You're not on the edge of your seat when the fight is about to start. No fucking way.

People love to pretend they have IQ 4000 and act all like they THOROUGHLY enjoyed every second of it just to show everyone what a DISTINGUISHED fan they are.

You should be able to make a point of not finding Merab particularly exciting and not be branded as someone who "only loves striking"

I fucking love grappling. There are plenty of guys I can't wait for the fight to hit the mat but Merab doesn't bring that to me.


Edit: I find Aljo more exciting so took him out of it. I'm much more a fan of his top game.

You would never know from my post's that I use to almost ALWAY's root for the wrestlers way back in the day. I knew early on at the beginnings of the UFC that the wrestlers were gonna be a problem. I grew up wrestling at a very early age, so I guess I felt the need to root for my own. However, if they never present a real threat and just wrestle, that's a no no for me.

 

[Substance Abuse]

Aljo shouldn't waste his time humoring that post with a response. It was probably some irrational, upset Suredawgger. He should be more upset that SOM wasn't good enough to stop the grappling and keep it standing.

 

[Safton]

Merab is not that exciting. You're not on the edge of your seat when the fight is about to start. No fucking way.

People love to pretend they have IQ 4000 and act all like they THOROUGHLY enjoyed every second of it just to show everyone what a DISTINGUISHED fan they are.

You should be able to make a point of not finding Merab particularly exciting and not be branded as someone who "only loves striking"

I fucking love grappling. There are plenty of guys I can't wait for the fight to hit the mat but Merab doesn't bring that to me.


Edit: I find Aljo more exciting so took him out of it. I'm much more a fan of his top game.

I like both, honestly. I am 100% excited for Merab's fights to start. Compared to Aljo, both have fun moments and both put on stinkers if they aren't able to work their game. I like Merab's pace, it makes things chaotic as fuck and he's not afraid to brawl a bit inside the pocket. But yes, his comparative lack of top game that he uses his takedown volume to cover up for is disappointing and at times makes for a slog of a fight. Aljo is fireworks to watch when he's able to maul someone the way he did to Sandhagen or when he's actively threatening subs and GnP like he finally did to Kattar in Rd 3. But even though I really enjoy him, too, he sometimes has nominally boring moments where he's just dancing around at range landing tapping shots or holding onto the body triangle without any ability to finish the choke.

Nobody's the arbiter of what you can or should find entertaining, so if you don't like Merab's fighting style then that's all good. But I don't think acting like it's unthinkable for others to be entertained by him is any better.

 

[usernamee]

he sometimes has nominally boring moments where he's just dancing around at range landing tapping shots

This is the reason I was a big Aljo "hater" for the longest time until his first Petr Yan fight. In that fight he actually went balls to the walls with pressure and that fight made me a fan of him. But yeah, before that he was always way on the outside and jumping in to land a little kick and as soon as the kick lightly landed he was already on the move back out again lol.

 

[Striker Fox]

99% of Poatan fanboys on this forum haven't seen a single one of his kickboxing fights, yet worship his style and mock guys like Merab and Evloev.

 

[Psychojoe86]

Merab was hugging O’Malley, kneeing his thigh repeatedly, and kissing him on the shoulder.

That’s not fighting nor martial arts

 

[GreatSaintGuillotine]

Honestly yeah. I'm not sympathetic to the gripes of casuals in general but especially so on this topic

 

[JustforBROCK]

Mma media outlet? Lol, no just some fucking loser in Twitter. This is you isn't it? Hahahahhaa

 

[Masturbin]

It's mostly that those guys do not inflict damage and are happy just playing the position and control time game.

They can't damage or sub their opponents.

 

[runjay]

 

[ForeverYoung]

Completely wrong tbh. Belal and Merab aren't even attempting to finish fights. This isn't Ultimate Security Guard championships. Not many people want to sit around at midnight and watch someone attempt to restrain their opponent for 25 minutes.

 

[LoopingRight]

This seems like the rational opinion. All these people criticizing merab seem to be up in their feelings and stuff.

I would agree if this was a new development for Merab against more dangerous opponents, but the issue is that he does this against people like Terrion Ware and Brad Kataona as well. 10 decisions in 11 fights.

This has been his standard m.o. since beginning in the UFC.

 

[mjfan23]

Aljo is absolutely right. That person who wrote the tweet is scum

 

[krelianx]

Merab is impressive, but I don't consider him to be an exciting grappler. Guys like Khamzat, Khabib, Islam, show a lot of versatility in the ground; great transitions, submission abilities, GnP... Merab is just a pressure monster with mediocre GnP, and mostly plays a control positioning game.

The stupid thing is to think that because one finds Merab boring one finds grappling boring. It's as if someone criticized Mayweather or Canelo for being boring and someone said "go watch wrestling".

 

[Neck&Neck]

If Merab would try to finish guys when he has their toes curled back
I’d be more of a fan
His social media game is more exciting than his fights

 

[Only Here for Attachments]

The stupid thing is to think that because one finds Merab boring one finds grappling boring. It's as if someone criticized Mayweather or Canelo for being boring and someone said "go watch wrestling".

Yep, that is an exceedingly dumb take regurgitated here and everywhere by very shortsighted people.

 

[Elegant]

This weirdo has been going non-stop on Twitter since Merab won the title lol, like an absolute mental breakdown acting as if he just KOd O'Malley and won the title back

I see why he was hated so much before

 

[Uber_Noober]

Welp, I’m off to watch some Glory kickboxing.