There's a reason (while I may think he's boring) Belal became a champ and the mat cleaner jabronis here never will.
Belal's plan was to pressure JDM towards the fence with striking, then try to complete takedowns there. It's worked against 10/10 guys for the last few years for Belal. Belal succeeded 3/5 times when he tried.
Belal has this thing that makes him a great pressure matchup against guys, no matter what he's hit with, he throws back right away. JDM would hit him with the jab, Belal would close, throw, and try to pressure.
JDM recognized this, and midway started throwing his cross as his opening strike then trying to pivot off. Belal, instead of walking through a jab to land a more significant strike, now had to wade through hard shots to the face connecting. There was a sequence where JDM hit Belal, slipped, and hit him two more times hard, was beautiful.
JDM also had both the right side uppercut and right side knee ready for the TD attempts and clinch breaks, which is how he cut Belal at the end.
It's a painfully simplistic thing to sit there and go "Hmm, should have throw more TD attempts" when JDM was able to shrug off and punish most of Belal's good TD attempts, let alone if he started shooting from halfway across the octagon with no set up.
