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I'm not sure I've Ever Disliked a Fighter More than Fares Ziam

EndlessCritic said:
Is this a joke? I'm not sure there's a single fighter who has a more imposing gameplan than Merab in the UFC right now.
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Wouldn't his description be Merab's game plan? Merab puts the pace on you while surviving your initial threats and tires you out. Outlasts you is a good description.
 
EndlessCritic said:
I could not disagree more.

My love for this sport (and particular fighters) is tied to the fighters having a particularly unique game they impose. Matt Brown's foot sweeps. Crocop's left high kick. Rousey's armbar. Khabib and Islam's grind. Balaev's single leg. Merab's volume and pressure. Cruz' footwork. Pereira's left hook. Satoshi's triangles. Natalia Silva's distance management. Goltsov's jab. etc. etc. etc.

Ziam isn't winning any of his fights by imposing any game. And watching him win by fighters effectively beating themselves is painful to watch.
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You could argue that Ziam has a game of patience reading your opponent which allows him to eventually capitalize on his opponents mistakes.
 
dipstickjimmy said:
Wouldn't his description be Merab's game plan? Merab puts the pace on you while surviving your initial threats and tires you out. Outlasts you is a good description.
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Merab is 100% offense in imposing his own gameplan. He is so offensive that he does not even need to play defense. His opponents are so busy trying to defend against him, they are not able to offensively do anything.

Merab shuts his opponents down with pure offense. Ziam successfully defends against his opponent's attacks.

They are complete and polar opposites.
 
I seem to be pretty good at picking Ziam fights.

5/5, picked to win them all, he won them all.

I still couldn't really tell you much about him or how he fights, though.

He's a wallpaper fighter, just sorta blends in to the background despite being pretty good.
 
He's clearly showing more offensive aggression lately. I think he's been showing improvements in every single fight and is going to be in or near the rankings for a long time. Better get used to him
 
I quietly like Ziam he's amounted to way more than I initially expected. He's a solid LW.
 
Nobody thinks he will need knee surgery?

Kevin Lees knee got destroyed by briefly being in a calf slicer against Oliveira. Dillashawa knee got destroyed escaping a heel hook from Sandhagen. Ziam being stuck in the calf slicer for what felt like forever was hard to watch.
 
One of the easiest guys to make money off. Guy is brilliant! Not a complete package by any means and lacks fight iq but is skilled everywhere and his reputation isnt as good as his overall skillsets. Keep giving me + odds and I keep on cashing those everytime
 
sonhow said:
One of the easiest guys to make money off. Guy is brilliant! Not a complete package by any means and lacks fight iq but is skilled everywhere and his reputation isnt as good as his overall skillsets. Keep giving me + odds and I keep on cashing those everytime
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Lacks fight IQ? I'd say fight IQ is one of his main strengths. He takes virtually no risks, and shows very good patience in all positions.
 
EndlessCritic said:
Fares Ziam currently finds himself on a 5 fight win streak, after an unimpressive 2-2 start to his UFC career.

He looked awful his first 4 UFC fights, which included a robbery win over Mullarkey, and barely surviving a third round beating against Vendramini.

So why do I dislike the guy? He seems to beat guys and win on pure defense.

For reasons unclear, everyone tries to fight him on the ground. And simply be virtue of being a sound defensive fighter, he is generally able to fend off his opponents' aggression, wind up on top, and steal rounds.

What makes it all so baffling is he's shown almost zero power on his feet at range. I'm not sure he's hurt a single opponent with a standing punch in the UFC. Yet a guy like Mike Davis apparently felt it was a good strategy to pull guard at the start of round 1, rather than try to box.

Why is everyone so desperate to take this guy down, when he keeps shutting everyone down?

The kicker? I literally had money on Ziam yesterday. And I'm still pissed off watching guys lose to him.
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Soo... You hate him because of his opponents mistakes?
 
fortheo said:
He's clearly showing more offensive aggression lately. I think he's been showing improvements in every single fight and is going to be in or near the rankings for a long time. Better get used to him
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Yeah his TDD and overall grappling ability is concerning but he's solid.
 
One of the easiest guys to make money off. Guy is brilliant! Not a complete package by any means and lacks fight iq but is skilled everywhere and his reputation isnt as good as his overall skillsets. Keep giving me + odds and I keep on cashing those everytime
EndlessCritic said:
Lacks fight IQ? I'd say fight IQ is one of his main strengths. He takes virtually no risks, and shows very good patience in all positions.
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Didnt need to wrestle Davis imo but he actually showed me wrong in hindsight as he stayed ahead whole fight because Davis ultimately got too tired to pull off meaningful offense so I guess he did the right thing actually in that sense. I dont think Davis in long stretches had anything on the feet for Ziam so I dont think wrestling gameplan was absolute.
 
13Seconds said:
Yeah his TDD and overall grappling ability is concerning but he's solid.
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I think he's made considerable growth there when you look at his early UFC fights. This is a guy the UFC cut and only brought back because they needed someone for a french card lol -- then he quietly went on a 5 fight win streak. Puelles and Davis were high level grapplers, and he pretty much shut them down on the mat. He wouldn't have been able to do that when he first entered the ufc. He's definitely still got room to grow on the mats though.

It's easy to forget that he was only like 21 in his early UFC fights. People wrote this kid off far too soon.
 
sonhow said:
One of the easiest guys to make money off. Guy is brilliant! Not a complete package by any means and lacks fight iq but is skilled everywhere and his reputation isnt as good as his overall skillsets. Keep giving me + odds and I keep on cashing those everytime
Didnt need to wrestle Davis imo but he actually showed me wrong in hindsight as he stayed ahead whole fight because Davis ultimately got too tired to pull off meaningful offense so I guess he did the right thing actually in that sense. I dont think Davis in long stretches had anything on the feet for Ziam so I dont think wrestling gameplan was absolute.
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Ziam wrestled Davis because ziam hurt his hand bad in round one.
 
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