As in not showing the full scope of his skills so as to have the element of surprise in the title shot...
Highly doubt it. If you saw his trajectory, you saw an evolution from a one dimensional wrestler into a wrestler with very good striking skills. When I saw him in the Assuncao and Easton fights, I honestly thought his striking was coming along even slicker than Mendes' or Fabers'. The speed with which he would string together combinations, his timing it was excellent.
But you saw the development. Some guys are able to really become very well rounded- look at the way werdums striking game and his confidence in it has grown leaps and bounds. Factor in that he probably was hungry as fuck once he made the most of the injury situation that altered the face of UFC 173 and he delivered the best performance with those evolved skills.
