Yair did what he had to do... He lived up to the expectation, how many bouts we've seen announced that sound like fireworks and get us all excited and end up being lacluster? Remember Diaz vs Condit? Lesnar vs Hunt? Mir vs Crocop? Machida vs Henderson? They all sound exciting, but we all know how they went... He was matched against Brice Leeroy, to have an exciting fight, and he delivered, crowd went crazy during all 25 minutes of the fight, yet you complain Full disclosure I'm mexican
It's ridiculous how everyone's parroting what Bisping and Florian said. They are just jealous they can't even do the kicks Yair was doing. It's not like the fight was for a title shot or anything.
I think you're missing the point here he looked meh against a maybe mid-tier opponent. To add to that Caceras didn't even follow a reasonable gameplan his gameplan was just dumb. I think people are thinking Yair might not be as good as they initially thought. He has talent no doubt but what's his ceiling is what people are thinking.
It's just stupid weak spinning shit that catches out weak competition. Bring that against a fighter with strong fighting technique and he gets stiffened. Fighters like Stephens, Max, Lamas, and Bermudez will chew him up and spit him out. The UFC will protect him for a bit longer though. Even fights like Doo Ho Choi, Jury, and Guida are all tough fights for him. Doo Ho Choi survived the grappler test (Tavares) and it'd be interesting to see if they test Yair against someone like Guida. I don't think they will because it could crush an up and comer.
My point is Yair went there to put on a show, against an opponent who has an exciting fighting style, I don't thin neither of them really had a game plan, other than throwing flashy kicks... Watch Yair's previous fights as a reference, and you'll see the diference
Thing is he threw a lot of crazy stuff and it was all landing with no real impact on the fight. I have never seen that many head kicks land without somebody taking a nap. He did not fight a cautious fight so I am not sure what " he did what he needed to do means"
I don't think anyone is complaining about the entertainment value of the fight. It was very entertaining and they were able to keep it up for 25 minutes. Most of the criticism comes from the lack of basic fundamentals he seems to be lacking. You can't get by on entertainment value alone. If so, guys like Pete Sell, Erik Silva, Matt Brown, Leonard Garcia, etc. would be all-time greats. greats.
This isn't the time to either overhype nor discredit Yair. Dude is 23 years old and just getting started. Him winning a somewhat close fight against a mid tier doesn't mean much at this point as he has room for improvement. Even Machida split decisioned low tier fighter early in his career. Anderson Silva was getting destroyed by cans. We'll know how good he is when he fights top fighters. For now he's a good prospect. Nothing more nothing less.
True While I agree with what you are saying, I don't think ths fight had any other purpose than being entertaining... I don't consider Caceres to be a step up in competition
Do I say spinning kicks for every fighter? No i did not. I rate spinning kicks a lot and I think the spinning kick to the body is underutilised. The difference is Yair doesn't have much power behind them as he's often off balance or they are just glancing blows. Alex got hit with a number of them and they did nothing.
Sherdog on current fighters: "every fighter is the same. A wrestler with good boxing. There isn't anymore unique fighters that throw caution to the wind anymore! MMA and UFC suck now!" Yair, a fighter with a unique style emerges. Sherdog: "He just throws spinning shit. Where's his boxing? So weak. He's terrible and boring." This forum is full of cry babies, cry babies that are attached to DHC's nutsack like flies on shit.
