Media Cory says Merab's takedown spam is a way to game the system

[HHJ]

It’s not that I don’t personally like it, it’s because it doesn’t represent or mirror actual combat anymore. It’s so far removed from actual fighting. You should be able to see that as a long time fan

Sorry but this is a sport. People are going to be able to game the system from time to time. Bottom line is if someone can utterly control you with grappling, then you dont get to win.

Someone's gonna have to figure out how to stop Merab.

 

[Pequeño Corey]

Corey says Cory is reaching for those grapes. He's trying to make his wine, and the wine is already sounding like a violin with that cheese and wine.

 

[Deceasedxo]

Well Cory how about looking at it this way, instead of saying Merab got 20 takedowns, YOU got taken down 20 times.

 

[Alpha_T83]

Oh for sure. its similar to like Masvidal crying about wall n stall and foot stomping from Usman. You are still being controlled. But its turning a fight into a sport. Which is fine. if thats who you want to be as a fighter.

I agree with you about that.

MMA shouldn't be a pure sport -- it is sports entertainment. But ultimately the rules need to be changed to promote that. The NHL, NFL, and NBA have all made rule changes in the past to make their sport more exciting when "boring metas" emerged. Even boxing did it over 100 years ago with "dirty boxing" being too effective and boring.

I do believe in the long run that MMA rules will change to penalize control/point type fighting. But it might take a while.

 

[wrb]

Nobody's opinion here is crazy, and I actually see all sides, but how can anyone agree with Cory when Merab was the better striker? Merab is evolving, and the point Cory made might have been valid six fights ago, but not now. His takedowns now are just Merab's way of making it sting and maybe compensating for possibly corrupt judges; with zero takedowns, he still won. Look, Cory should see if PFL is an option, as he is talented and obviously very driven, but he clearly did everything he could to beat the guy and fell short, and it's a very hard pill to swallow at that level.


After Merab:

• Umar no longer trains with Khabib and seems to be "on his own," according to Javier (source: podcasts, so nothing official—just rumors).
• Yan is declaring he was "50%" in the first fight, even if Merab only had 50% of the takedowns, he still wipes the floor with Yan.
• Cory is obviously crushed and talking bitter nonsense, which he has never done before.
• Sean seems cool with it for some reason and does not seem to give a shit. lol

Merab is probably the goat and he seems to still be calling out really hard oponents.

 

[humdizzle]

Funny. Oliviera got taken down by a known takedown spammer (gamrot) and he ended up reversing him in the first round. then subbing him in the next.

 

[Tito Tapped]

Merab strikes me as the kind of guy who could hold his opponent down if he wanted but just has too much fun taking them down over and over.

 

[Arm Barbarian]

What he says is true, and it applies to most wall n stallers or lay n prayers.

BUT - It is also on their OPPONENTS to have an opposing game plan to it, and not just be smothered and controlled with no answer.

I'm not a huge fan of all grappling and little to no damage being done, but I also chuckle when folks have no answer to it but whine about it afterwards.

Work on countering it, and catching the dude on his entries, or when you do have moments at range.

I do think that stalling should be dealt with though, if no damage is occuring. Maybe more break ups by refs, or no points awarded for control with zero damage.

 

[richardjohnson]

Sounds like Cory needs to get a little better

 

[93confirmed]

I never liked this dude.

 

[El Panteron]

What he says is true, and it applies to most wall n stallers or lay n prayers.

BUT - It is also on their OPPONENTS to have an opposing game plan to it, and not just be smothered and controlled with no answer.

I'm not a huge fan of all grappling and little to no damage being done, but I also chuckle when folks have no answer to it but whine about it afterwards.

Work on countering it, and catching the dude on his entries, or when you do have moments at range.

I do think that stalling should be dealt with though, if no damage is occuring. Maybe more break ups by refs, or no points awarded for control with zero damage.

It's just funny to me that the UFC pays you double if you win (like brother, imagine getting DOUBLE your pay if you play your cards right), and then shits all over fighters who take the necessary measures to reduce risk.
If you want them to take chances pay the full fucking amount and give a bonus for finishes. Maybe push the regulators you have in your pocket to change the scoring criteria.
These fucks want fighters to put their brains on the line to lose money and MAYBE make the UFC a bit more for the entertainment.
I get these people are stupid but they're not running a charity for pink idiots.

 

[Rampage_Jackson]

Merab strikes me as the kind of guy who could hold his opponent down if he wanted but just has too much fun taking them down over and over.

Yea he could probably finish everyone in one round like Aspinall but he just chooses to have one of the most boring styles that took him years to get where he was going because nobody paid attention to him for his boring ass wins.

 

[Rampage_Jackson]

It's just funny to me that the UFC pays you double if you win (like brother, imagine getting DOUBLE your pay if you play your cards right), and then shits all over fighters who take the necessary measures to reduce risk.
If you want them to take chances pay the full fucking amount and give a bonus for finishes. Maybe push the regulators you have in your pocket to change the scoring criteria.
These fucks want fighters to put their brains on the line to lose money and MAYBE make the UFC a bit more for the entertainment.
I get these people are stupid but they're not running a charity for pink idiots.

Win bonuses stink. Finish bonuses only or performance bonuses for exciting fights. Just winning who gives a fuck. Theres a "winner" in every fight.

 

[Tweak896]

Ehhh reminds me when you play the top UFC video game players and they spam takedowns, they get the win, it works. And it's not fun for the one matching up with them, who probably think they'd look a whole lot better if they had a chance to strike a little bit more or were given space. The system is gamed from the time fighters weigh in the day before to gain an advantage. Merab just has cardio to run it all fight long.

 

[WoozyFailGuy]

I agree with you about that.

MMA shouldn't be a pure sport -- it is sports entertainment. But ultimately the rules need to be changed to promote that. The NHL, NFL, and NBA have all made rule changes in the past to make their sport more exciting when "boring metas" emerged. Even boxing did it over 100 years ago with "dirty boxing" being too effective and boring.

I do believe in the long run that MMA rules will change to penalize control/point type fighting. But it might take a while.

The remedy to this "boring meta" is the same way wrestlers were dealt with before, improved TDD.
If the guy is taking you down 20 times, he's closing the distance 20 times. If you can't capitalize even a single time on that, that's on you.

Merab is really good at what he does, and unlike rules made around other fighters like Jon Jones, nothing Merab does is illegal. The judging criteria has been changed to favor damage, according just purely to that metric even if you take out all of the grappling in the fight, Merab had Corey hurt a lot more than the other way around.

I like Sandhagen, but he didn't have a single answer for Merab and he's butthurt about it.

 

[Natural Order]

I actually thought Cory's impotent standup offense was the most offputting thing about the fight.

Imagine at this point gameplanning for a cerebral, calculated approach to a guy like Merab.

It's all or nothing from the first bell to dust this guy before he can settle into anything resembling a rhythm imo. You've gotta be full tilt aggro on Merab or he'll win.

Cory's typical counterstrike, heavy feint game was nothing but smoke and mirrors.

 

[BowserJr]

I wish this is how they judged fights but it doesnt seem that way at all

I guess on rare occurrence yes but mostly no

According to my understanding of the updated unified rules, damage trumps all. So technically if I clip you with a hard punch and you take me down and lay on me, I should have won the round. According to the letter of the law if you connect on Merab with anything of significance and then he does the upty down takedown dance with you, it should be your round with zero controversy.

Obviously not talking about round 2 I'm talking about the cliche round from Merab that makes up at least 50% of the rounds he wins. And some, MANY, deservingly so. If there is nothing else to score there is nothing else to score. but if he takes any hard shots while playing huggy patty cake, fuck him. Thats not his round.

 

[Caio]

It is like saying a great server in tennis is gaming the system by scoring so many aces.

 

[FilipEmoFights]

I'm not saying it's the most exciting - although I don't find Merab boring, personally, much to my own surprise - but this literally is a sport with rules, scoring, and rankings. If the striking is equal but if guy is controlling the other nonstop making you defend takedowns there's not really much to say.

Really, I think the scoring criteria has room for fudgery if grappling is only considered after striking and damage. Only because if a fighter gets rocked in the first 20 seconds but gets a takedown and top control for the remaining 4:40 it becomes a bit hard to say a single moment outweighs almost the entire round save 20 seconds. On top of that, who's to say that 1 punch to 0 should win a fight in theory if the one who landed zero punches control every other aspect of the fight? But that's probably too tangential to the topic.

I disagree that “forcing you to defend takedowns” is control
That would be trying and failing to get a takedown. Takedown defense should be rewarded, as it controls where the fight is happening. It’s different when ALL the TD’s get defended like in the Aldo fight , unlike Merab vs Corey where he got taken down a bunch of times. Trying and failing to get the td is inneffective grappling and a fighter shouldn’t be allowed to only do that the WHOLE fight. It’s in the rules that they need to seperate them.
This is punishing great takedown defense and rewarding bad wrestling offense, but this is only in specific fights. Aldo is a huge victim of this although you’d think he’d get off the cage by the 3rd fight the same thing is happening to him in.

 

[FilipEmoFights]

Also why can’t Merab keep anyone on the ground you’d think he’d be better at that