Edson Barboza is still legit!

[standandtrade7]

Khabib recently said Barboza is one of the top fighters of the division, since then, everyone thinks Khabib is nuts (the guy who just called the champion getting dismanted, against everyone's better judgement). The reaction of skepticism from the board was pretty crazy.

Everyone is so down on the guy after losing to Johnson. The funny thing is that if you read the forums before the fight, people were saying

"If this guy had even a remotely decent chin, he could be top 5 one day".

Yet in his fight with Johnson, he proves he has more than a remotely decent chin and actually proved pretty durable. Yet now everyone discounts his losing effort and basically are saying in not so many words that he stinks and that everyone will now be able to beat him with a similar gameplan.

Any kicker can be stifled by the right pressure fighter. Barboza isn't the same guy that lost to Varner anymore. What Johnson did to him is what RDA did to Pettis. But just because those guys did it doesn't mean every swinging dick in the division will be able to pressure him like Johnson and come out on top.

Johnson has three attributes that made his performance possible.

• Blazing Speed
• Endless Cardio
• Ridiculous chin/durability

Let us face it. If either of these three were lacking, he could have lost that fight. The shots that both Dos Anjos and Johnson ate to secure their respective wins would have put out most of the division. Barboza landed 15 flush body kicks on Michael Johnson, and some hard ass counter hooks, how many other lightweights could take that?

I think there is a lot of positive to take from his performance. His striking defense looked so much better than it has in the past. We are talking about a guy who 18 months ago was getting tagged by Rafaello Olivera, and now he kept Michael Johnson to a 20% striking accuracy making him miss left and right. He even landed almost the same number of strikes as MJ did while going backwards, the numbers in that fight were close as fuck. It takes a second watch to see that Johnson was swinging at air a lot of the time.

I am not going to be that guy that makes a mistake of counting someone out, especially when they are constantly improving. Sure he lost to Johnson by the same old pressure tactic, but kickers will always struggle with that. He performed pretty well against Johnson considering what a nightmare tactic Johnson was able to employ. I for one, think that MJ that night could have beaten Pettis. It is not about who is the better fighter, instead, who matches up the best.

It was less than two years ago that Dos Anjos was getting handled by Evan Duhnam, both in striking and in wrestling. Now he just dismantled the LW king. I am not going to make the mistake of counting anyone out in this division over a few losses, considering what a shark tank it truly is.

He only dropped one spot with the loss so I'm sure even the UFC realizes it was a tough matchup for him and he performed well.


Barboza skills have continually improved, and now he proved his chin isn't as bad as everyone thought. I am not making a champion prediction here, but nothing tells me this guy won't come back strong and break the top 5 in the near future.

 

[GrindingANARCHY]

I think Khabib was more so taking a shot at Pettis than he was giving Barboza credit.

 

[amazingrtc3]

 

[D1wrestla]

Well I haven't really seen anyone say edson isn't legit. He is a legit rope 10 guy.

 

[Karelinator]

Deadly, ridiculously potent kicking technique, really great to watch.

Rest of the game is very good too.

As we've seen over and over again though, constant pressure does shut his game down.

Probably won't be ever able to get to the very top due to that.

 

[brisko21]

Physically one of the best. But he still just can't win the fights that he should. MMA isn't about who's the better athlete, or who is more physically gifted. Barbosa is a perfect example of this.

 

[Private Whatley]

He's quite possibly one of Khabib's toughest match ups in that his striking is always deadly and he's demonstrated some extremely impressive takedown defense. If he can fend off the takedown threat, it becomes an extremely interesting fight. That being said, it's not as though Khabib is a slouch on the feet either and the constant threat of his shot will likely force Edson to be more conservative with his kicks. Nonetheless, he is the only kind of fighter that I see being able to solve the Khabib puzzle at LW because I don't see anyone matching his grappling ability.

 

[MCS]

Edson is physically strong for a LW. He could add takedowns to his game, as fighting against pressure as a distance kicker is often a tough task.

 

[UWanaPlayDaGame]

(...) As we've seen over and over again, constant pressure does shut his game down.

that's way too simple. that blueprint was laid out years ago and it took only a gutsy vet (Varner) and two of the most well rounded LWs in the world to pull it off (Cerrone and MJ);

I'll give people the benefit of the doubt because it took me a rewatch to appreciate Barboza vs. MJ. without pre fight hype and over expectation that we put on a fighter's performance, Barboza looked just fine.

he embraced the challenge of fighting in the pocket, landed wicked body kicks and counter hooks, ate or avoided MJ's bombs and only really got hurt late in R3 when MJ finally hit him flush with a 3 punch combo.

Johnson kept an insane pace, moving forward while throwing one huge punch after another. almost nothing landed but it obviously wins a fight under traditional scoring.

to say that "constant pressure shuts Barboza's game down" is way too simple like I said. Bobby Green did the exact same thing and got his ass handed to him, to the point where he had to stop taunting and started to fight back.

 

[standandtrade7]

that's way too simple. that blueprint was laid out years ago and it took only a gutsy vet (Varner) and two of the most well rounded LWs in the world to pull it off (Cerrone and MJ);

I'll give people the benefit of the doubt because it took me a rewatch to appreciate Barboza vs. MJ. without pre fight hype and over expectation that we put on a fighter's performance, Barboza looked just fine.

he embraced the challenge of fighting in the pocket, landed wicked body kicks and counter hooks, ate or avoided MJ's bombs and only really got hurt late in R3 when MJ finally hit him flush with a 3 punch combo.

Johnson kept an insane pace, moving forward while throwing one huge punch after another. almost nothing landed but it obviously wins a fight under traditional scoring.

to say that "constant pressure shuts Barboza's game down" is way too simple like I said. Bobby Green did the exact same thing and got his ass handed to him, to the point where he had to stop taunting and started to fight back.

Besides Cerrone, every single guy that fights Barboza has implemented that gameplan. Just like they try to smother Cerrone too, it is not an easy task because these guys are getting better at adapting to pressure.

Barboza's striking going backwards against Johnson was something to behold compared to his early UFC days.

 

[PivotPunch]

Physically one of the best. But he still just can't win the fights that he should. MMA isn't about who's the better athlete, or who is more physically gifted. Barbosa is a perfect example of this.

Barbose is a good technician a very good his kicks are some of the best in MMA, his boxing is decent and his TDD is ok he just doesn't perform well when someone pressures him

 

[Gatts]

spent years trying to escew 2L2Q from memory and now I have to go watch it 5 times again.....you monster.

 

[Emjay]

He's fun to watch unless he's forced to fight backing up

The chin thing is stupid because people are basing that on the Cerrone fight. What they fail to mention about the Cerrone fight is prior to him being dropped by a jab (that he took with his eyes closed btw), he took what could be considered "harder", "cleaner" shots without any problem.

 

[Karelinator]

that's way too simple. that blueprint was laid out years ago and it took only a gutsy vet (Varner) and two of the most well rounded LWs in the world to pull it off (Cerrone and MJ);

Constant pressure must be from top level guy with proper skillset, of course, that's going without saying.

That's why I said 'top guys'.

But really even Castillo was able to do extremely well in that first round. Good have easily been stopped.

to say that "constant pressure shuts Barboza's game down" is way too simple like I said. Bobby Green did the exact same thing and got his ass handed to him, to the point where he had to stop taunting and started to fight back.

Eh, no, no Green didn't do that thing at all, in the slightest.

He was pushing forward no doubt, but pace was completely different, not much TD threat and he wasn't punching like at all, spent half of the fight mean mugging and naturally got a ton of crap for it.

Both from Barboza and Sherdog.

 

[standandtrade7]

He's fun to watch unless he's forced to fight backing up

The chin thing is stupid because people are basing that on the Cerrone fight. What they fail to mention about the Cerrone fight is prior to him being dropped by a jab (that he took with his eyes closed btw), he took what could be considered "harder", "cleaner" shots without any problem.

Hey, after that Johnson fight, there should be no question. Even Johnson himself said WTF I hit him with my hardest he has a hell of a chin.

We are talking about a guy who after the Melvin fight, said the only reason he couldn't finish is because Melvin ran away the whole time.

Look how many clean bombs and he still didn't go down.

 

[UWanaPlayDaGame]

(...) Green didn't do that thing at all, in the slightest.

He was pushing forward no doubt, but pace was completely different, not much TD threat and he wasn't punching like at all, spent half of the fight mean mugging and naturally got a ton of crap for it. Both from Barboza and Sherdog.

so he tried to apply pressure but didn't have the skills to do it. and he was a top 10 UFC LW on a huge winning streak. that's my point right there.

(...) Barboza's striking going backwards against Johnson was something to behold compared to his early UFC days.

exactly. not many UFC bro fans can see that that's why I've been rambling on and on about Barboza's performance.

 

[trblesome1]

Edson "bicycle" Barboza

back to the under card until he decides to start engaging and stop retreating

 

[UWanaPlayDaGame]

Edson "bicycle" Barboza

back to the under card until he decides to start engaging and stop retreating

haha that's cute.

 

[CJohnny]

He will be always a top 15 - top 8 fighter and that's about it.

 

[TheTimeIsNotNow]

Didn't read lol but yes, Edson is legit.