Has a fighter ever been so far ahead and then so far behind?

[Levi_]

More than anything I think you need to fight to your own strengths, Rousey was and probably still is an excellent dangerous grappler but we've only seen that recently when Cat forced an opening on to her.

The problem I think was that the fear factor of Rouseys grappling and indeed her opponents not being great strikers(and indeed Rodna herself having a good chin) allowed for a fantasy to build up around her that she was a good striker. Yeah she had power(not impossible she catches Nunes or Holm on a given day) but defensively she was always really poor and looking to go out and focus on striking against quality standup opponents was always going to be highly questionable.

We see some MMA fighters who narrow there game as there career goes on and end up hurting there performance up at least guys like BJ, Rampage, Anderson, Fedor, etc focus in on something they do well at the expense of a formerly more diverse game, Ronda focused on something she does badly.

I think if you watch Meisha fight Holly, you see what Ronda COULD have done with better strategy, especially given she is much more dangerous on the ground than Meisha; Ronda is a threat to ANY female fighter on the ground. I think it is a done deal now though, I don't think she wants to fight.

 

[Iverson75]

How about Brandon Vera, another self-promoter and Rogan hype job

 

[capnlarge]

Tito Ortiz is a good one. Went from dominant champion to going 5 years between wins.

 

[Melas Chasma]

In such a small space of time? Cast your mind back to Ronda in her pomp and the word going around was "she's way ahead of the other girls because she was already an athlete" etc etc. And then you look at her now and it's like she didn't even belong in the cage with Holly and Nunez!!...

Has there been the male equivalent before? A male looking like he's way beyond the competition but then suddenly looking way out of his depth?

No one else. And the main reason for that is that Ronda lost it mentally, not that the competition got so much better. I hate that there are so many people who fail to understand this.

 

[caligo]

I'm not sure how much can be read into her losing to two good strikers. If she's able to clinch up she'll look good, if she's not she's there to be hit. But not all fighters can implement that kind of gameplan. And she did seem more gunshy this time around, so that's probably a factor as well.

The closest analogue is probably Pettis – should be in his prime but seems to have been figured out, or maybe the game has evolved while he's stagnated.

 

[Based and White Pilled]

Pettis

Good pick, but he still wasn't undefeated and destroying everyone in the first round like she was.

 

[legatoblues]

Kerr had a similar fall, except his was based in drug abuse. People saying Anderson also arent factoring in his being over 40.

Those two fighters actually regressed, Ronda was just way, way overrated, and her competition has progressed.

Royce is pretty apt - knew some stuff no one else knew, and looked unbeatable because of it.

Well aware of the the circumstances of Kerr's downfall (Smashing Machine is a must watch for MMA fans IMO).

 

[91 seconds]

As far as life? Thiago Silva

 

[Dorkman]

The difference is he dominated for years and faced a number of styles. He lost two weird fights to Weidman when he was very old so I can't see how he was so far behind...it was simply a number of circumstances that lead to his star dimming.

I don't really think there was anything weird about the first one. Weidmans wrestling was proving to be a huge issue in stifling andersons offence, and he was getting touched up on the ground by strikes. So he started his usual shenanigans of baiting his opponent with lowered hands, and Chris didn't hesitate like others had and kept on the attack and clipped him.

That being said, I do agree that Andersons fall wasn't nearly as dramatic. That and he's been back to fight quality fighter since and hasn't really looked any different besides the natural affects of aging. Only shitty thing for him was pissing hot. Other than that, Anderson took his losses pretty well.

 

[FimbulFightPicks]

So much talk about Silva. Silva was "old" at that time with Weidman, way up in his years. As stated many times, if Silva had retired in his prime with all his consecutive titlte defenses and wins we´d have topic after topic, still to this day about "what if", and theréd a be a whole lot more power with him in the AS vs the GSP goat debate or any other top dominant champion for that matter. He chose to stick around,I´d had liked to see GSp do that, I´d like to see Jones do that, Weidman when he´s Silva´s age and then see Weidman fight Silva if we switched the ages around...And yet to this date, Silva at 41 years of age is an extremely dangerous fighter who actually had a real chance at beating the LHW champ if 5 rounds had been picked albeit very small he was very dangerous and still one of the best strikers.

Now lets compare AS 41 years of age skill and level - to every other fighter when they reach that age. I think he´d again show why he was so far ahead of competition.

The celebration he got at ufc 200 speaks for itself. Absolute legend. Luckily we got to see some Anderson silva head movement from Cody last night, perhaps if not just as good even better, a thing of beauty to watch.