How has Barboza’s wrestling not improved?

Epicness

Epicness

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I get it, you get to a certain age or point in your fight career and old habits die hard. Barboza was a muay thai guy who transitioned to MMA later on. But when you look at just a few of the guys who he gets to train with in Jersey...what the fuck man? Off the top of my head:

Weidman
Frankie
Alvarez
Moraes
Zabit

All Mark Henry guys. And stud grapplers in their own right. And the dude trains full time there now...are Khabib and Lee just THAT good? Or is he just too set in his ways at this point?

I love Edson, hes a tough bastard and super exciting striker but i dont wanna watch the guy keep getting beat down like this
 
They are just that good, there are levels to this stuff.

Look at how easily Ronda handled Miesha who was the best grappler before she arrived and Cat the All American wrestler, look at how Maia dominated the "elite" grappler Gunni... or how Khabib dominated RDA who in turn dominated "good" grapplers Magny and Pettis! You're not even safe if you're a grappler yourself let alone a striker. :D
 
It has, but Kevin Lee and Khabib are just really really good
 
Perhaps it has just not to the level to compete with guys like Khabib and Lee
 
Epicness said:
I get it, you get to a certain age or point in your fight career and old habits die hard. Barboza was a muay thai guy who transitioned to MMA later on. But when you look at just a few of the guys who he gets to train with in Jersey...what the fuck man? Off the top of my head:

Weidman
Frankie
Alvarez
Moraes
Zabit

All Mark Henry guys. And stud grapplers in their own right. And the dude trains full time there now...are Khabib and Lee just THAT good? Or is he just too set in his ways at this point?

I love Edson, hes a tough bastard and super exciting striker but i dont wanna watch the guy keep getting beat down like this
Click to expand...

Yes. You can be damn sure he tried TDD and getting up from the bottom after getting thrashed by Khabib and booked against Lee.

I'm sure it isnt stubbornness.
 
He's a gatekeeper.
 
Maybe it has improved...as well as his opponent's wrestling.
 
This lady was owning him pretty badly as well...


50a7fa6418cf02d19c8e4cbaf2fd6f12.jpg
 
Khabib and Kevin are probably the best top control wrestlers in the division
 
It goes both ways. you are not going to see Kabib or Lee throw spinning head kicks like Barboza no matter how hard they train.

<Fedor23>
 
BigMuffler said:
They are just that good, there are levels to this stuff.

Look at how easily Ronda handled Miesha who was the best grappler before she arrived and Cat the All American wrestler, look at how Maia dominated the "elite" grappler Gunni... or how Khabib dominated RDA who in turn dominated "good" grapplers Magny and Pettis! You're not even safe if you're a grappler yourself let alone a striker. :D
Click to expand...

Touché. To be fair i picked Lee to win thinking he would get him to the ground and lock up a sub at some point, but i was NOT expecting to see him brutalize Edson like that.

I guess i underestimated Kevin
 
He's simply not ever going to be as good at wrestling as khabib or Lee. A better question is why hasn't his footwork and cage awareness improved. He's always looking for space to kick and he pushes himself near the cage in the process. He needs to rely on his hands a bit more against these wrestlers so that he can hold his own near the center of the octagon, but his boxing, although slightly improved, just isn't good enough, notably his boxing defense.


Those are areas where he has a better chance of improving, though: boxing, footwork, and cage awareness. If he improved those, these wrestlers would have a lot harder time pushing him to the cage and taking him down.

He's still got a few more good years in him to improve. A lot of guys look their best around 33-35 years old, but I'm not sure if he will improve because these have been his problems for a long time now.
 
Ask the guy in your AV

Some fighters just aren't as physically strong as the rest.
 
Good question but even better answers. Fuck, a good thread on Sherdog. Who would’ve thought?

PS. Maybe I just have an amazing great ignore list haha
 
Just because you train an aspect of fighting and improve at it doesn't mean you become immune to that aspect the rest of your career.

Khabib and Lee are two of the best top control guys in the sport. Most fighters could train a lifetime defending takedowns and getting out from the bottom but still look helpless on the ground against either guy.
 
It's not that it hasn't improved, it's that he fought two of the best grapplers in the division back-to-back.

His defensive wrestling is still solid, but you need more than that to successfully get Khabib or Lee off of you.
 
I think a 25 year old wrestler is a tough match up for a 32 year old
 
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