GrAPpLiNG iS fiGThINg bRO Ur a caSUAL

[JKS]

Exactly.

The difference between exciting grappling and boring grappling is taking risks. Trying to finish your opponent reduces control and gives them openings to escape or reverse the position. Merab isn't interested in taking risks to finish the fight. He just wants to hold you down for the whole round.

And I think it's skill level too. I don't think Merab just has the high level capability to to do those things.

 

[ClosetVitorFan]

I think you should be allowed to eye gouge wrestlers if your back is against the ground.

Now you're being an idiot just to be an idiot. That shit was never allowed even during the ufc 1 days. But you should be able to upkick them in the jaw if your back is on the ground.

 

[Barteh]

I think you're missing the point. There are exciting grapplers and there are boring ones. You can have grappler vs striker match ups that are very exciting like Khabib vs Conor because Khabib went in there and did his business right. Took Conor down, busted him up with GNP and then choked him out. As a fan, when Khabib was on top, you knew that finish can come at any moment. Then you get the BS we got last night. I knew that it was gonna be 25 mins of the same thing and there was no chance Merab is finishing the fight. It's just to predictable.

You got grapplers like Islam who are very exciting to watch. His fights end in so many different ways with grappling, from GNP or submission inside 2 minsor round 1, not a sunmisson after a KD or a later finish after breaking his opponent down. With Merab you know how the fight will go, 15 or 25 mins or jumping around, TD attemtps, clinch, control, etc and no damage or finish.

Same goes for the striking, Strickland being a good example. Although he's had some exciting fights, he's also had quite a few stinkers. Just front kicking the air and jabbing.

 

[roman510]

It wasn't a complete snooze fest and part of the fight I did fight exciting. It was just when Merab got positions in grappling not much happened. Sean was very good defensively and evaded a lot. But if I am seeing a grappling heavy game plan from Merab, I wanna see more in the grappling from him. But like I said, a lot of it is just capability. I don't think he's good enough to do those things.

I guess we can meet at the point when Merab could've done more with positions he got. But yeah, not a snoozefest

 

[Clark Rogers]

Between this thread and AldoStillGOAT's polar opposite one, I just do not know what to believe

 

[Alpha_T83]

Now you're being an idiot just to be an idiot. That shit was never allowed even during the ufc 1 days. But you should be able to upkick them in the jaw if your back is on the ground.

Meh, doesn't matter. Blanket wrestling needs to stop. I don't really care what the solution is.

 

[FilipEmoFights]

It should have been Sean vs Sandhagen and Lilbib vs Merab

 

[Mask Of Winters]

Maybe we need to merge all these threads so these pussies can cope together? Sounds like more than anything, they need validation.

Let's give them a safe space.

A non-woke white belt?!?! You get a like from me just for that alone.

 

[TerrorTimmy]

Compared to boxing?

Not even close.

Okay? And? It's a completely different business model and hasn't been around for nearly as long. What exactly is your point?

 

[Mask Of Winters]

Meh, doesn't matter. Blanket wrestling needs to stop. I don't really care what the solution is.

I know you might not have realized this because of where you'e apparently from, but a growing number of people no longer accept the mindset of "my opinion is not only a fact, but anyone who doesn't accept this needs to be punished".

 

[JKS]

Same goes for the striking, Strickland being a good example. Although he's had some exciting fights, he's also had quite a few stinkers. Just front kicking the air and jabbing.

NO doubt!!

 

[mraa1]

No, you took the completely wrong conclusion. I'm saying MMA cannot be a real fight, so we shouldn't even bother trying to make it a real fight.

MMA is sports entertainment. The rules should be changed to punish boring control wrestling.

They gimped wrestlers by taking away knees and headbutts in the early days and then they completely reworked the scoring to give the edge to strikers and still wrestlers are dominating fools. There's really not much more you can take away from grapplers without watering down the product to the point of it being indestinguishable from kiclboxing. More rules are not going to help. The focus should be on giving grapplers more of their weapons back which btw would also give the defender more incentive to initiate scrambles to get out of disadvantageous positions. If all you really want is kickboxing/MT in 4oz gloves and a cage then ONE has you covered

 

[Barteh]

They gimped wrestlers by taking away knees and headbutts in the early days and then they completely reworked the scoring to give the edge to strikers and still wrestlers are dominating fools. There's really not much more you can take away from grapplers without watering down the product to the point of it being indestinguishable from kiclboxing. More rules are not going to help. The focus should be on giving grapplers more of their weapons back which btw would also give the defender more incentive to initiate scrambles to get out of disadvantageous positions. If all you really want is kickboxing/MT in 4oz gloves and a cage then ONE has you covered

Lots of people on this forum will agree with you that they should bring back knees and kicks to downed opponents. Maybe with those tools in his arsenal Merab would look a lot more exciting.

 

[blaseblase]

Maybe controversial take but I find it funny people say it’s exploiting the ruleset. The rules and scoring criteria do not favor grapplers at all, they favor strikers. They get a free get up every round, they can be stood up, pure grappling basically isn’t scored by the criteria you have to strike. Get real.

And position only wins a fight if the fighter on the bottom isn't doing anything. If Sean had a good submission game, or if he had elbows off his back and had been cutting Merab up, he could have won the fight. But he was a kickboxer with holes in his game who was being protected by the UFC until they couldn't deny Merab anymore.

 

[Alpha_T83]

They gimped wrestlers by taking away knees and headbutts in the early days and then they completely reworked the scoring to give the edge to strikers and still wrestlers are dominating fools. There's really not much more you can take away from grapplers without watering down the product to the point of it being indestinguishable from kiclboxing. More rules are not going to help. The focus should be on giving grapplers more of their weapons back which btw would also give the defender more incentive to initiate scrambles to get out of disadvantageous positions. If all you really want is kickboxing/MT in 4oz gloves and a cage then ONE has you covered

Disagree. Grappling will always be an important aspect of MMA. But that doesn't mean we can't change rules to force fighters to take risks on the ground, rather than just control their opponent with zero damage for the entire round.

 

[Lepo Lepo]

People want to see finishes, whether on the ground or feet. At no point in those two title fights was there a time where I thought a finish was even remotely close. Sitting in guard or half guard and just throwing non-threatening strikes for “working” is not entertaining unless you’re opening up for strikes or advancement/submission.

 

[FilipEmoFights]

Yeah that isn’t fighting, it’s grappling. It’s offensive but it’s not offense.
If this is your favorite type of fight go watch WWE BJJ competitions and high school wrestling.
Leave the fighting up to the guys…actually willing to fight.

As soon as Merab actually tried to engage in the fight he was hurt and the fight was over (And this is also Sean’s fault for sucking at grappling and Merab fault for sucking at striking)

 

[Dr Brian Pepper]

Lol Aldo didn't do shit in that fight. He got shut down. You don't earn points for defending takedowns.

yeah i know, the point of my post is you SHOULD earn points for stopping takedowns

Training your cardio to be able to spam takedowns non stop is impressive, but imo a flaw in the scoring system

 

[Poatan Power]

I've said it in other topics so I'll say it here:

If you're in a dominant position doing damage, you're doing your job. If you're a fighter in a less dominant position, getting damaged, it is your responsibility to improve position by doing what? Creating space/openings and using it to advance position and escape. Why is this so difficult? Because if you create those openings/make that space, the fighter in the dominant will use those spots to punish you and finish you with a submission or heavy strikes.

So what do fighters in a less dominant position do? They turtle up, clam up, etc. and they don't do any of that. It is significantly easier to defend without any plan of offensive movement if that's all you plan to do. They try to minimize the damage they take and hope they can stall long enough for the ref to stand them up as they accept defeat. That's what O'Malley did last night. He didn't create any openings. He didn't create any space. He accepted whatever ass beating Merab was hoping to throw on him and was praying Merab would create space for escapes/improvement of position even though Merab was winning. It's the definition of stalling/giving up. He had nothing for Merab's game plan.

So cry about Merab all you want. O'Malley was the equivalent of your girlfriend dead fishing you in bed while you do all the work on the top.

 

[Chaotic Progressor]

100%. Holding people down or stopping them from moving is not fighting.

It's anti-fighting, it's stopping the action. Like holding in boxing, and why the ref splits it up when that happens. Which, would be great if they did that in MMA, would result in a lot less boring mother fuckers 'winning' fights or becoming champions. And a lot less 'highly technical great fighters' aka 'guys who hold you'.