How come Phil Davis couldn't take "Rumble" down?

Davis has some excellent wrestling and his scrambles are great as well. He just can't get it done when he faces a decent wrestler with good striking. Being primarily one dimensional at this level will only get you so far, and then you start dropping off. It probably also helped Johnson isn't cutting 60 lbs for a fight anymore.
 
lowsingle said:
he is not good at closing distance on takedown attempts

his wrestling style relied on attacking from a half collar tie

in wrestling, people shoot from here
brad-watson400.jpg


but rumble made him shoot from like 3-4 feet away every time, so he had time to see the takedowns coming

puts into perspective, the crazy speed guys like sonnen and gsp have to consistently hit double legs from way out there
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GSP before his surgery. Wow. He would be halfway across the octagon before his opponent flinched.

Props to the goat.

Also I lold at someone saying davis has jake shields syndrone ahahahaha
 
Rumble 205 is the real deal, and strong as hell. IMO he rounds out the top 4 in the LHW division with DC, Gus, and Bones. Any combination of those 4 guys makes for a great fight, but Rumble-DC is really intriguing.
 
leosgf said:
First of all, Rumble was really ready, his defendive wrestling were on point. Also, Phil couldn't set them up with striked. And another thing I noticed is that Rumble broke Phil mentally when he defended the first shots, you could see on Phil's face, he was like: "Shit, can't I get this fucking takedown?".
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He completely broke Phil when he landed the first big punch.
 
Phil telegraphs too much, and he isn't good at striking really, so that makes it even harder to take someone down in MMA regardless of his wrestling credentials. You can see his takedowns coming from a mile away.
 
I literally cannot fathom how Rumble fought at 170 lbs most of his career.... Even at Light Heavy he looks gigantic

then of course...
qf0PO.jpg


lol
 
A kid trying to take a grown man down
 
I can't give you a technical breakdown because I never trained wrestling in my life.

I can tell you this, while Davis was good in pure wrestling it didn't transfer well to MMA much like Mark Munoz, Davis' is obviously slightly better though. His MMA wrestling is just not as good as Rashad's for instance who was able to stuff him all night. Another thing is he didn't really do much to set his TD's up against Rumble who looked a lot stronger and obviously a better striker.

His next fight should be against Dan Henderson if Hendo loses to Cormier, which he will.
 
People underestimate just now strong AJ is. Not to mention, dude has improved leaps and bounds. This is not the same Rumble that lost to Kos..
 
A. Rumble is a very good wrestler himself.
B. He's quick and strong.
C. Davis is much slower and horrible at closing the distance. Therefore this made Rumble see his TD attempts coming from a mile away.
D. Rumble is a much better striker than Davis. Davis' inferior striking made it that much harder to close the distance for TD attempts.
 
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Steve08 said:
Great insight, definitely puts in perspective how different shot range is in wrestling as compared to mma.

I would only add that Davis seems to alternate between "kicking mode" or "wrestling mode" exclusively; he is not good at blending skills to use strikes to set-up shots. My thought is that he wouldn't have so much trouble closing the distance if only he used the threat of punches to get inside, as Cain does so well.

I can't say much about the tactics of Chael cause I don't like him as a fighter, but regardless of his speed, GSP was also VERY GOOD at using the threat of his jab to set-up shots (and vice versa). Many of the takedowns in his second fight with Koscheck were hit while Josh was flinching in response to lead-hand feints and unprepared to counter-wrestle.
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chael punches from the same slightly crouched stance that he shoots from. when he takes his penetration step, he does the same head duck as when hes going to punch (the first step of a takedown that covers distance), so his opponents have to guess whether hes punching or shooting. he is masterful at disguising his punches as takedowns also

but when he does come in, he covers the gap so fast that they dont have time to switch defenses. like stanns tdd wasnt great but sonnen looked like a lion taking down a gazelle whenever he wanted a takedown

this gif for example shows a few of sonnens attacks. as you can see that first step on his right foot, anderson never knows how to react, he can only step back and then wait for the next motion. devastating second of hesitation for a counterstriker
sonnen200_medium_medium.gif
 
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