It seems to me Cain did himself a disservice being too scared of Werdum's ground game. Yes, he did get submitted but only after he was exhausted and got the crap beat out of him. I think Cain can still poses great dangers to Werdum from the GnP position. I think in the next fight he should entertain the GnP part of the strategy or at least be not so limited by ruling it out entirely, thoughts?
Cain isnt going to hurt Werdum on the ground. If he postures up to punch he will get swept or submitted or at least distracted to where he has to regroup and hold on. There is no hype, Werdum's ground game is that good. Perhaps Cain can try to just control Werdum but I dont see him doing that either. His best bet is to land clean and KTFO Werdum standing without clinching or wrestling. Moving around and striking. Avoiding tie ups and looking to land big. Cain cant win in the clinch, he cant win on the ground but he could definitely hurt Werdum standing but that wont be easy because Werdum is just as dangerous and has a good chance of KTFOing Cain too. Cain needs to use less energy and wrestling and clinching and more on movement and and swarming attacks with big power. If wrestle then use it defensively.
He took him down a few times if i remember correctly and didnt want to play around there.Cains strategy was close distance and dirty box and when that didnt work he didnt have an answer.And for the first time in his career he was in a back and forth fight and his Mythic cardio proved to be a myth
Cain isn't doing shit in Werdum's guard. He needs to keep it tight quarters and probably work Werdum's body. He can't just blindly shoot for singles whenever he feels like it
It looked to me, that rather than "buying too much" into Werdum, he didn't take it serious enough. Had he been worried, I think he would have spent more time acclimatizing himself. It seemed like a "here, hold my beer" thing
Absolutely. Cain needs to be very aggressive unless he is in Werdum's guard. In the guard he should land a punch then restart to his feet.
this. Cain had never been in a back and forth war before the Werdum fight. it's easy to not gas when the other guys are so passive to your aggression, but once he went up against a guy who was going to force him to fight for any and every position and meet his aggression with aggression, he was overwhelmed.
He SHOULD be very worried about Werdum's ground game, as should nearly every fighter in MMA who isn't an ADCC champion.
Cain has about almost 0 % chance of winning the ground battle with Werdum, and should avoid it at all costs. Werdum tools him standing too, but at least there he's got that puncher's chance.
