If you're mad about UFC noche, go watch kickboxing which is very exciting right now.

wildchild88

wildchild88

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Firstly, kickboxing / striking is amazing at the moment with a wealth of talent, and explosive, super exciting fights and superstars..

Fighters like Superlek, Haggerty, Rodtang along with many many others.. hell even Buakaws latest fight at k1 Max was very exciting.

If you found the main event at noche boring, the solution is very simple, switch to a product that has what you want.. there are plenty of alternatives.

The fighters are doing what they need to win, you can't expect merab to go toe to toe with Sean.. it's just not feasible.
 
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wildchild88 said:
Firstly, kickboxing / striking is amazing at the moment with a wealth of talent, and explosive, super exciting fights and superstars..

Fighters like Superlek, Haggerty, Rodtang along with many many others.. hell even Buakaws latest fight at k1 Max was very exciting.

If you found the main event at noche boring, the solution is very simple, swi tch to a product that has what you want.. there are plenty of alternatives.

The fighters are doing what they need to win, you can't expect merab to go toe to toe with Sean.. it's just not feasible.
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Don't try to make this into a grappling vs striking thing. You can still like grappling even if you don't like the five round cardio wrestlers who can't finish a sandwich.

In the last couple of months have had both Belal and now Merab winning the titles in fights where they did close to no damage to their opponents despite almost 25 minutes of domination. In both cases the most significant damage of the fight was made by their opponents during the 30 seconds or so they got going. Merab has a 22% finishing rate, that's just crazy low, even worse than Belal.

I don't know if there needs to be a rule change or something, I accept that if the wrestler lands 1 significant strike in the round and the striker lands 0 then the wrestler will win. It's just atrocious to watch. I think for real they should change judging to where position control has 0 impact on the score and they only count damaging strikes, whether from the top or the bottom.
 
ticho123 said:
Don't try to make this into a grappling vs striking thing. You can still like grappling even if you don't like the five round cardio wrestlers who can't finish a sandwich.

In the last couple of months have had both Belal and now Merab winning the titles in fights where they did close to no damage to their opponents despite almost 25 minutes of domination. In both cases the most significant damage of the fight was made by their opponents during the 30 seconds or so they got going. Merab has a 22% finishing rate, that's just crazy low, even worse than Belal.

I don't know if there needs to be a rule change or something, I accept that if the wrestler lands 1 significant strike in the round and the grappler lands 0 then the wrestler will win. It's just atrocious to watch. I think for real they should change judging to where position control has 0 impact on the score and only count damaging strikes, whether from the top or the bottom.
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you should be blaming Leon and O'Malley for not throwing enough strikes and allowing these guys who are "doing no damage" affect their fighting styles. you can't blame the guys who won when THEY WON. there doesn't need to be rule changes, strikers have a huge advantage already because the fight starts standing and every single rd starts standing.

why are these guys so scared to just walk in and throw knockout strikes if these guys are doing no damage to them? because contrary to what you and many people believe they're getting THEIR ASS KICKED. it's that simple. when you fight someone who has way better stamina then you and continually slams you into the ground and never allows you to get the looks and space you want and need, let me know how easy it was to knock them out so i can go and tell O'Malley and Leon how to win via twitter coaching.
 
The whole thing that makes MMA a distinct combat sport is the mix of striking AND grappling, how the two can combat each other and how they can be mixed together. Without a strong grappling element MMA becomes redundant as you will see far better striking showcased in multiple other sports. Sean lost because he is too one dimensional for MMA at that level, why be mad at the guy that dominated him?

But yeah, kickboxing is awesome. Watch it. K-1 has a serious uphill struggle to try and get back to where it once was, and could use all the help it can get.
 
TeenageMutantLesnarTurtle said:
The whole thing that makes MMA a distinct combat sport is the mix of striking AND grappling, how the two can combat each other and how they can be mixed together. Without a strong grappling element MMA becomes redundant as you will see far better striking showcased in multiple other sports. Sean lost because he is too one dimensional for MMA at that level, why be mad at the guy that dominated him?

But yeah, kickboxing is awesome. Watch it. K-1 has a serious uphill struggle to try and get back to where it once was, and could use all the help it can get.
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But Sean isn't too one dimensional for MMA at his level. He became the champion by beating a wrestler nearly to death, so clearly his style works.

How is Sean anymore one dimensional than Merab is? Merab only fights one way also.
 
ticho123 said:
Don't try to make this into a grappling vs striking thing. You can still like grappling even if you don't like the five round cardio wrestlers who can't finish a sandwich.

In the last couple of months have had both Belal and now Merab winning the titles in fights where they did close to no damage to their opponents despite almost 25 minutes of domination. In both cases the most significant damage of the fight was made by their opponents during the 30 seconds or so they got going. Merab has a 22% finishing rate, that's just crazy low, even worse than Belal.

I don't know if there needs to be a rule change or something, I accept that if the wrestler lands 1 significant strike in the round and the striker lands 0 then the wrestler will win. It's just atrocious to watch. I think for real they should change judging to where position control has 0 impact on the score and they only count damaging strikes, whether from the top or the bottom.
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Frankie Edgar was like that. Barely did any damage to BJ when he won the belt, and that was over a decade ago. This is MMA.

Lol at you crying about rule changes. Boring tactics exists in every sport.
 
ticho123 said:
I think for real they should change judging to where position control has 0 impact on the score and they only count damaging strikes, whether from the top or the bottom.
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Even by this narrow criteria you chose, Merab would still win. He was the only one throwing strikes during the grappling sequences, he used knees effectively to force Sean to change position and he pummeled Sean when he was turtling or scrambling. The fact that Merab can't finish him doesn't mean that those strikes don't score.

To your overall point though, I agree. You can like grappling and not like certain performances. I enjoyed Merabs dominant performance but I can see why others would not.
 
Doctor Grudge said:
But Sean isn't too one dimensional for MMA at his level. He became the champion by beating a wrestler nearly to death, so clearly his style works.
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Beat him nearly to death? he clipped him then added a few follow up shots to finish it. It was a short fight where not much happened until the finish. Aljo had a grand total of 2 takedown attempts, one of them with a few seconds left in the round. Its not like it was some extreme pressure test of Seans defensive grappling skills.

Doctor Grudge said:
How is Sean anymore one dimensional than Merab is? Merab only fights one way also.
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Merab actually has pretty good stand up, and its complimented by his wrestling threat. I wouldnt consider him one dimensional.
 
ticho123 said:
Don't try to make this into a grappling vs striking thing. You can still like grappling even if you don't like the five round cardio wrestlers who can't finish a sandwich.

In the last couple of months have had both Belal and now Merab winning the titles in fights where they did close to no damage to their opponents despite almost 25 minutes of domination. In both cases the most significant damage of the fight was made by their opponents during the 30 seconds or so they got going. Merab has a 22% finishing rate, that's just crazy low, even worse than Belal.

I don't know if there needs to be a rule change or something, I accept that if the wrestler lands 1 significant strike in the round and the striker lands 0 then the wrestler will win. It's just atrocious to watch. I think for real they should change judging to where position control has 0 impact on the score and they only count damaging strikes, whether from the top or the bottom.
Click to expand...

Belal dropping Leon right on his head was the most significant damage in that fight.
 
The Siege said:
Even by this narrow criteria you chose, Merab would still win. He was the only one throwing strikes during the grappling sequences, he used knees effectively to force Sean to change position and he pummeled Sean when he was turtling or scrambling. The fact that Merab can't finish him doesn't mean that those strikes don't score.

To your overall point though, I agree. You can like grappling and not like certain performances. I enjoyed Merabs dominant performance but I can see why others would not.
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Merab also had a very tight guillotine attempt at one point too. I don't understand the criticism of Merab -- he was working a lot.
 
The UFC should become a mixed striking combat organisation only and ban grappling/wrestling since casuals who pay for PPVs and tickets find grappling/wrestling boring and only want striking

The FOTN at UFC 306 was just a striking match only between Ribovics & Zellhuber for example

Striking only matches excite the casual crowd, when the crowd shows the same excitement for grappling/wrestling matches then it might change but all you hear is booing and jeers at live events whenever grappling/wrestling is involved
 
I see this as a mechanism design issue.

Merab and his coaches are clearly incentivized to fight exactly like he did. A finish is sweet, but risky to try.

Here is an outrageous proposal: finish the champ to become the champ.
<HisEye>
 
Karate Combat is the best alternative imo

200w.gif
 
Sorry bro, UFC is still my boy
Not in to kicking boxes
When I want more violence I watch BKFC
 
TeenageMutantLesnarTurtle said:
Beat him nearly to death? he clipped him then added a few follow up shots to finish it. It was a short fight where not much happened until the finish. Aljo had a grand total of 2 takedown attempts, one of them with a few seconds left in the round. Its not like it was some extreme pressure test of Seans defensive grappling skills.



Merab actually has pretty good stand up, and its complimented by his wrestling threat. I wouldnt consider him one dimensional.
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So then O'Malley beat Sterling's so badly he couldn't even use his wrestling. O'Malley landed 25 significant strikes on 71% accuracy. Sterling had serious problems controlling the center, I did look over my notes and I did give it to Sterling in r1, but r2 he was pretty much phased out entirely.

O'Malley is fast, long, accurate, and mobile. It clearly isn't that easy to just get in and wrestle him, which is why Sterling got ran over.


Almost every grappler is said to "have pretty good standup", almost as a way to say they're not Royce Gracie on the feet. There is nothing threatening or damaging about Merab's stand up. It's like saying O'Malley is not bad off his back because he never got submitted or hurt on his back.

Merab will even just straight up run in to get into wrestling position, there are many times where he doesn't bother setting it up.

It's just a natural bias people have for wrestlers, that they are assumed to be more versatile. Merab isn't a versatile fighter at all, he is just so good at what he does he is able to beat people despite that, and that's ok. I don't get why we have to apply all these other positive attributes to him that he hasn't really shown.
 
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