Erin Blanchfield needs to change gyms

[RockyLockridge]

Blanchfield is supremely overrated, just took a little bit for someone to prove it. Santos should’ve beaten her and sent her down to 115 but for whatever reason the real Santos didn’t show up that night

Yeah i think she was exposed big time. nothing to do with coaches, Manon is Just a way better fighter than her, no revisement of strategy was going to change that. The skill gap is wide

 

[Royce's Gi]

She should train at Hammer House

Or Chute Boxe!

 

[Doughie99]

She got out muscled. When she was able to get the clinch, she just got reversed.

Yes she did.

My view is she needs to lose her slightly chubby bodytype, change diet, get much more strict with carb intake, drop to 115lbs after 6 to 9months off, training HARD on her boxing, muay thai, weight-training and wrestling and go destroy the 115lb division.

I think she could be champ at 115lbs, but at 5'3" and slightly chubby she is too small for 125lbs elite-level, not physically strong enough for 125lbs, and her striking is extremely basic. She'd got as far as she can at 125lbs, done well but she's hit a wall and she and her team need to realize that, and make the required changes.

 

[Doughie99]

I think her size has taken her as far as she can go in the division. I don’t see her being able to out muscle Shevchenko or Grasso. I think she would do much better at 115lbs

Essentially..... this.

 

[fortheo]

She got out muscled. When she was able to get the clinch, she just got reversed.

I think part of peoples complaints were that she was only going for bodylock takedowns from the clinch. A single leg is always a good option in open stance match ups and she didn't try it even once.

 

[RockyLockridge]

I think part of peoples complaints were that she was only going for vodylock takedowns from the clinch. A single leg is always a good option in open stance match ups and she didn't try it even once.

I dunno felt like she couldn't get close enough without diving for legs in the centre.

 

[Senzo Tanaka]

This.

Every card, you see this 3 or 4 times.

1 - Fighters should be aware enough to know when they are getting worked.

2 - I never understand why corners don't tell fighters, "Dude, you are getting worked bad. You lost every round and you have been doing the same shit for 20 minutes. Do you want to quit now and get beer? Or do you want to go out here and try for the hail mary KO? That's your only chance."

Also, what is it with people who lose badly for 3 or 5 rounds and then raise their hands after the final bell?
"Gotta convince those judges!"

It's embarrassing.

100%. Which is why I really love when you have a corner tell their fighter that and they go in and get the job done. One of my favorites of all time was Tim Boestsh vs. Yushin Okami. Okami has having his way with Tim and in the 3rd round, his corner told him he needed to go in there and finish him. It lit a fire under Tim and he destroyed Okami with a beautiful elbow finish.

 

[fortheo]

I dunno felt like she couldn't get close enough without diving for legs in the centre.

Dive low single then. She had plenty of cardio to try. The beauty of the single leg in an open stance fight is that the lead leg is closest. Erin just kept trying the same thing over and over and over. It wasn't a good look from a fight iq perspective.

 

[fortheo]

You don’t have an understanding of her skill set . She didn’t have the opportunity. She shoots doubles when they are close to the cage so she can chain it.

She doesn’t have the foot work to cut off the cage either. She can only plod forward. Blanchfield isn’t the type of athlete to shoot a power double from the middle of the cage and push the opponent to the cage. She doesn’t possess that type of explosiveness or speed.

That's why the single is easier to get, especially in the open stance which presents the lead leg closer. It is why demian maia made a living off of single legs as a south paw vs. Orthodox fighters. yet erin didn't try any form of single legs even once. She could have shot a low single a few times, if she didn't get it, then oh well, at least she tried something other than squarely walking in the pocket with lazy jabs.

 

[fortheo]

Same gym has Erin’s girlfriend saying she’ll take nothing less than signing to the UFC when she hasn’t even beat any notable regional fighters.

That said, Erin’s coaches didn’t fail her. She never listened to them on Saturday. She failed them

I didn't hear them give erin any tips about how to get to her wrestling until like round 4 or 5. I may have missed some of the corner advice, though.

 

[Conan the K-9]

I didn't hear them give erin any tips about how to get to her wrestling until like round 4 or 5. I may have missed some of the corner advice, though.

You are right they didnt really help or advise her.
I haven’t seen all her fights, so I don’t really know, but does she have any kind of guard game? I guess she is more a top player and usually one needs to be the stronger athlete to make that work.
The decision to hold on that guillotine seemed kinda odd too, as it was obvious she is not going to finish her opponent with that.
Between round 4 and 5, she said to her corner that, she (Manon) is fucking strong, That’s why she was not grappling or taking her down.

 

[blaseblase]

I don’t think it’s just that

Erin just couldn’t find a space where she was effective she tried to grapple from far manon would just post off of her and create distance.

Her striking isn’t good enough to mix in her grappling. She’s just incomplete she could have tried to take her down more but I’d just see her failing and gassing out quicker and losing the fight even wider.

She lacks tools more than IQ

Stop talking about striking. Fiorot tried more takedowns than her!

 

[El Panteron]

Stop talking about striking. Fiorot tried more takedowns than her!

She was trying throws from the upper body that don't get counted as takedown, rather than shooting.

Seems to be a thing for other MMA women too, could be this is more viable to them or they don't get quality coaching when it comes to wrestling.

 

[Eater of Souls]

I didn't hear them give erin any tips about how to get to her wrestling until like round 4 or 5. I may have missed some of the corner advice, though.

I did not hear any advice that she actually needed early in the fight either. And after three rounds of being frustrated by getting hit in the face every time she charged straight in it is a difficult pattern to break. Instructions on how to close the distance without getting hit would have been nice. She did not keep her chin down, feint, pull-counter, anything. A little advice along these lines might have made a difference.

 

[RockyLockridge]

Stop talking about striking. Fiorot tried more takedowns than her!

In mma striking will always be a factor. It effects grappling. She couldn't close the distance, hence no take down attempts.

Her limited striking toolset made trying for takedowns very hard.

 

[blaseblase]

In mma striking will always be a factor. It effects grappling. She couldn't close the distance, hence no take down attempts.

Her limited striking toolset made trying for takedowns very hard.

She landed 130 strikes. She closed the distance plenty of times. Fiorot having more takedown attempts than her is a damning statistic.

It would be one thing if her corner was offering her fantastic advice that she didn't execute on. But they weren't. The training is clearly the problem.

 

[fortheo]

In mma striking will always be a factor. It effects grappling. She couldn't close the distance, hence no take down attempts.

Her limited striking toolset made trying for takedowns very hard.

She got close enough to clinch quite a few times.. The single leg is closer, much closer than clinch takedowns. You don't need to close the distance much for it, yet not a single attempt at any form of single leg was made from erin. It wasn't just the distance management from fiorot -- it was either lack of fight iq or lack of ability by erin, or both. I don't buy that she was afraid to shoot singles because of cardio expenditure considering she had plenty of cardio left over at the end of the fight.

She either doesn't have a good single leg or she's just one of many fighters who aren't good at adapting mid fight. It is very likely that she's incomplete as a fighter at 24 years old, so I don't think this is that big of a deal.

That said, I wont call for a change of camp quite yet. What they were doing got them to this point -- let's see how they respond and grow from a loss. If they cant grow from this, then maybe a change of camps would be called for.

 

[blaseblase]

She got close enough to clinch quite a few times.. The single leg is closer, much closer than clinch takedowns. You don't need to close the distance much for it, yet not a single attempt at any form of single leg was made from erin. It wasn't just the distance management from fiorot -- it was either lack of fight iq or lack of ability by erin, or both. I don't buy that she was afraid to shoot singles because of cardio expenditure considering she had plenty of cardio left over at the end of the fight.

She either doesn't have a good single leg or she's just one of many fighters who aren't good at adapting mid fight. It is very likely that she's incomplete as a fighter at 24 years old, so I don't think this is that big of a deal.

And that's where the corner is supposed to come into play. But they didn't. They didn't give her any wrestling advice until the 5th round and all it consisted of was "put her on the cage". I don't know if the gym is terrible or they just aren't as invested in her as they should be but something is missing.

 

[fortheo]

And that's where the corner is supposed to come into play. But they didn't. They didn't give her any wrestling advice until the 5th round and all it consisted of was "put her on the cage". I don't know if the gym is terrible or they just aren't as invested in her as they should be but something is missing.

I agree, I didn't like the cornering, but it's one loss -- I'll give them a chance to show they can learn from this before I call for a change of camp. They got along with what they've been doing until now, but a loss has a way of changing perspectives. If she doesnt show growth soon, she should look elsewhere.

At 24, I'm not worried at all about her having peaked. She could realistically be 5 years out from her prime.

 

[Only Here for Attachments]

Does it say anything about the supposed best WMMA division that someone with zero striking or takedowns got to be ranked #2?