Gunnar Nelson exposed?

Cyantist said:
Is Kelvin Gastelum a can now then?

The guy is the WW Cain Velasquez.
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Gastelum is expected to face Jake Ellenberger on November 15, 2014 at UFC 180. I'm looking forward to it. I fear for Jake if mini-Velasquez gets the W. That will be 3 losses in a row for him iirc.
 
Exposed, overhyped.... TERRIBLE!

He's 26 years old and was undefeated. Relax.
 
Gunnar looks like he may benefit from fighting in a smaller weight class. A weight class somewhere in the range between 160-165 looks like it may ideal for his size and body type, but then you look at how he clearly began to fade by about the half way point of the 2nd round, and you see he is no cardio machine built for 5 rounds. Cutting more weight likely won't benefit him any further with that.
 
Formwork said:
Gunnar looks like he may benefit from fighting in a smaller weight class. A weight class somewhere in the range between 160-165 looks like it may ideal for his size and body type, but then you look at how he clearly began to fade by about the half way point of the 2nd round, and you see he is no cardio machine built for 5 rounds. Cutting more weight likely won't benefit him any further with that.
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He looks good with his single one shot lunging, fast strikes, but his defense is very porous and the lack of being able to throw meaningful combos really hurt him.

The way he kind of just lunged in with his hands forward trying to grab Story was also troublesome. Higher tier fighters would have easily clocked him coming in like that.
 
CELS said:
Called this. Gunnar's striking is far too limited. He throws the right over the top again and again. Had some success with the roundhouse, but stopped doing that after a while. Must have been injured, because Rick had no intentions of grabbing the leg.

The reason Machida's karate style works is because he has several different tools and he's rather unpredictable. He throws the cross, the knee, the roundhouse, the front kick, and you never know what's coming next. He can snipe, he can blitz, he can stay in the clinch. Granted, he doesn't do a million different things, but he has a handful of tools that lets him be unpredictable. Gunnar does not, he just has his timing. As soon as his opponents figure out his timing, they know what's coming too.

Damned shame.
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Spot on. And even Machida has been tuning his game recently. Gunnar has talent (and a solid chin) but needs to be honest about why he lost and make major changes.
 
The bottom line is that this is a major fork in the road for Nelson. He can become a more effective fighter and even a more dangerous striker largely by working to be a better wrestler at a much higher rate and working his boxing defense like crazy. He is in the same spot as many guys who are just now realizing that strategies that worked so devastatingly well even a few years ago won't work at all now. I think if he goes the road Gus and Mousassi went, he will have exponentially more success and be able to crack the top 5 and contend for the title and have a legit, i.e. more than a puncher's chance, of winning the title and prove everyone who says he was exposed wrong. Of course, if he gets the idea that he is doing everything right now, he's screwed and may not ever even crack the top 10.
 
Gunnar is a good counter puncher but he is not nearly aggressive enough and has huge defensive holes.

Also, his facial expression changed at some point in round 3 or 4 you could tell from his face that he knew he was getting worked and had to solution.
 
exposed? he was never anything special in the first place
 
Gunner Nelson looked out of ideas and I have no idea how that was a SD.
 
Gunni is far from finished. He's one of the best grapplers in the organization. He definitely has a lot to work on though. His striking offence is one dimensional and his defence porous. He could also use some work on his takedowns. He'll learn a lot from this though.
 
CELS said:
Called this. Gunnar's striking is far too limited. He throws the right over the top again and again. Had some success with the roundhouse, but stopped doing that after a while. Must have been injured, because Rick had no intentions of grabbing the leg.

The reason Machida's karate style works is because he has several different tools and he's rather unpredictable. He throws the cross, the knee, the roundhouse, the front kick, and you never know what's coming next. He can snipe, he can blitz, he can stay in the clinch. Granted, he doesn't do a million different things, but he has a handful of tools that lets him be unpredictable. Gunnar does not, he just has his timing. As soon as his opponents figure out his timing, they know what's coming too.

Damned shame.
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I always get caught off guard when a post in the heavies shows technical insight. Well done.
 
I like Gunni, i think he has some great talent, but he really needs to consider dropping down to 155. Story made Gunni look tiny, imo. Story did a fantastic job sticking to his gameplan. Story was first to strike, kept pressure on Gunni, he was finding angles and reacting and adapting to the areas Gunni was finding success. And when they briefly got on the mat, Gunni couldn't do a single thing to keep him down. Story showed good composure by keeping the fight standing, Story from a few years ago would have jumped on Gunni and possibly get subbed. If Story can fight like this in every fight he makes a compelling dark horse for the 170 division.
 
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