How to beat Merab

[Skarsgard]

Jose aldo is one of the most prolific leg kickers in the sports history and even he could not get it done.

Aldo hasn't been that guy since his motorcycle accident.

 

[Only Here for Attachments]

Aldo/Dwarvish Willy should've been a draw

 

[Luckyme]

Spam knees

This is actually good strategy against wrestlers who spam takedowns. Sure It's low percentage but a single well timed knee can be devastating as Cory, Masvidal, Romero, and others have shown.

And it can be particularly effective against Merab who likes to shoot those low singles. Conor even partially caught Khabib with it in the first round when he attempted a similar TD.

I don't understand why Umar didn't attempt any knees in the later rounds when he was starting to gas and couldn't punch well with his broken hand anyone.

 

[Qays Stetkevich]

Jose aldo is one of the most prolific leg kickers in the sports history and even he could not get it done.

/end thread

 

[jitzmonkey]

Jose aldo is one of the most prolific leg kickers in the sports history and even he could not get it done.

Very true; but his knees are shot compared to when he was a champion.

His leg kicks would've been a lot more effective had he been able to throw them from a more advantageous angle.
I imagine that the old "on the balls of his feet" Aldo of old would've had more success than the "upright on his back foot" Aldo of today; if only just from having the ability to take advantage of small opportunities when Merab would've been momentarily out of position.

Aldo's a stud; but father time is undefeated (I just rolled my own eyes.)

 

[Hymen Crusher]

Merab being champion makes it so much harder to beat him. 3 round fights you have a better chance. 5 rounds it seems so much harder. If It was 7 rounds he probably goes undefeated for 3 more years.

 

[Sasha]

endless leg kicks vs a guy who is going to spam takedowns and has better cardio than you? how does that work? how do you have good foot movement if the other guy can move more than you can without getting tired?

it's very easy to beat Merab. his weakness is like every other human's weakness in the world. hit him really hard in the head, and he will go to sleep. then you win. simple really.

I like the head-hitting part of the gameplan, it's a good idea imo

 

[kahymo]

48-47 on 2 scorecards

one round decided of the result,
people are talking like Merab just won 50-45
he lost the first 2 rounds,
so he needed to win the last 3, which he did

he was able to win because his opponent had broken his hand, which is is main skill
the striking domination on the first 2 rounds was a clear cut

a rematch can go both way, but the odds are 50-50

 

[mkess101]

48-47 on 2 scorecards

one round decided of the result,
people are talking like Merab just won 50-45
he lost the first 2 rounds,
so he needed to win the last 3, which he did

he was able to win because his opponent had broken his hand, which is is main skill
the striking domination on the first 2 rounds was a clear cut

a rematch can go both way, but the odds are 50-50

Umar gassed somewhat too, and the optics are so magnified vs Merab because he doesn't tire and when he sees his opponent slow at all it's like blood to a shark. Not for him to chase a finish, but to just make his opponent look terrible.

From a damage standpoint, it's not like Merab was brutalizing Umar in rds 4 and 5. But the optics were sooooo one sided. It looked like a guy who just stepped into the cage fresh vs a guy who could barely stand up. And Merab just accentuates it by smiling and bouncing around and pushing the pace while we can read the opponent's mind of "when will this be over".

 

[rightfight777]

Get 3 rounds as he's not a finisher
Nurmagomedov won 2 (R1-2), O'Malley won 2 (R3-5), Aldo and Cejudo took the first in 3-round fights
He's not GSP or Nurmagomedov

good point

 

[shunyata]

Merab is not unstoppable or unbeatable.

You just need to be able to negate his wrestling and keep up with his pace.

His striking is mid at best.

There are fighters out there that can beat him - I won't say no names.

Spoiler

*Cough* Umar *Cough*

It was very clear to me that there were times where his chin was WIDE open in rounds 4 and 5.

He commits to spamming a right hand with the left reaching for the leg.

If you block left and time him with a counter right hand it would hurt.

 

[prime_lobov]

Just knock him out and flip a coin to get Herb Dean on one of his early stoppage nights. Marlon Moraes KO’d merab like 6 times in their fight. Could have been stopped easily.

 

[wolfss]

Get 3 rounds as he's not a finisher
Nurmagomedov won 2 (R1-2), O'Malley won 2 (R3-5), Aldo and Cejudo took the first in 3-round fights
He's not GSP or Nurmagomedov

He’s just as good as Gsp or Khabib. His opponent has to catch him clean and finish him off in a flurry otherwise Metal will eat them up. He is a high speed bulldozer.

 

[Doctor Grudge]

Get 3 rounds as he's not a finisher
Nurmagomedov won 2 (R1-2), O'Malley won 2 (R3-5), Aldo and Cejudo took the first in 3-round fights
He's not GSP or Nurmagomedov

You kind of listed why this doesn't work. In a 3 rounder, he's going to put the gas on in round 2 to get the result he needs, he already proved that.

The 5 rounders he is already game planning around the idea that he's going to go lighter in the early rounds. He is smart, so changing it to 3 rounds wouldn't mean that he just loses the two rounds. Merab is risk adverse, he doesn't fight hard in the early rounds when the opponent has energy because he knows he can out scale them. In a 3 rounder, he's going to jump on the guy much earlier, while that means hes at a higher risk of getting KO'd, the odds are still in his favor to gas the other guy out.

He was able to utterly exhaust Henry Cejudo despite Cejudo not needing to cut a significant amount of weight within 15 minutes with straight up wrestling. Even if Cejudo is not quite in his prime, the fact that Merab basically beat Henry with his specialty is telling to what he can do to others in a 3 rounder.

 

[seanb1979]

Test him once every week for EPO. Done.

 

[Iroh]

Test him once every week for EPO. Done.

<[analyzed}>

 

[Harlekin]

Aldo hasn't thrown a leg kick in 10 years

He threw 15% leg kicks vs Merab, that's the most since his fight with Lamas, which is .. yes 10 years.

Umar will beat him, just because of better conditioning, entering his prime and Merab leaving his prime.
Plus no more broken hand probably. And I don't like the religious nutjobs.

 

[Misanthropist]

Umar did more damage to him until he was gassed so that tells you something.

Cardio and boxing. NEVER try to grapple with a cardio machine who is built like a brick and risk zapping your stamina.

 

[SpurNani]

Strangely enough, i feel a style like his teammate Aljo would be best at beating Merab. Bigger, more physically stronger grappler that Merab cant overpower and has BJJ skills if it hits the ground. He also has the reach and is super unorthodox on the feet with good footwork. Also has a good gas tank.

Wouldn’t be the most entertaining fight but yeah

 

[Koala]

You kind of listed why this doesn't work. In a 3 rounder, he's going to put the gas on in round 2 to get the result he needs, he already proved that.

The 5 rounders he is already game planning around the idea that he's going to go lighter in the early rounds. He is smart, so changing it to 3 rounds wouldn't mean that he just loses the two rounds. Merab is risk adverse, he doesn't fight hard in the early rounds when the opponent has energy because he knows he can out scale them. In a 3 rounder, he's going to jump on the guy much earlier, while that means hes at a higher risk of getting KO'd, the odds are still in his favor to gas the other guy out.

He was able to utterly exhaust Henry Cejudo despite Cejudo not needing to cut a significant amount of weight within 15 minutes with straight up wrestling. Even if Cejudo is not quite in his prime, the fact that Merab basically beat Henry with his specialty is telling to what he can do to others in a 3 rounder.

You guys are again talking like he's GSP or Nurmagomedov or a master game planner. No one is planning to win by 1 round. If he fights only 3 rounds, why did he overpower Yan for 5 rounds?
Fight with Nurmagomedov: R5 was decided at the last minute. If Nurmagomedov can throw a combo, he can take the fight. Merab exploits the exhaustion to counter, good for him but the round is not like a domination at all, close until the last minute
Fight with O'Malley: 3-2 and what if O'Malley finds success with the body kicks before the end of the fight? He cannot snatch another round?
Merab has both close fights and close rounds when he fights most elite guys. He is winning most of the last rounds thanks to better conditioning but he's not an enigma