Is Robert Whittaker's style becoming a bit stagnant / predictable?

wildchild88

wildchild88

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Disclaimer: I'm very mediocre at striking, so I'm missing 90% of what he's doing anyway, but just thought I'd put this out there.. read and let me know your thoughts?

After watching some of Rob's recent performances, despite him winning most of them impressively, i'd had the feeling his style was becoming a bit predictable / stagnant, and that it would be a matter of time till he was going to get figured out by more fighters. (I just didn't expect DDP to be the one to do it)

He's got weapons that he is constantly going to eg. the leaping left hook, double jab, as well as the snapping roundhouse kicks, but it feels like he has really been spamming these lately.. he not coming from as many angles as some other elite fighters, with a wide range of techniques, to mix it up a bit.

What do you guys think?
 
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wildchild88 said:
What do you guys think?
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As a Whittaker fan I do think this is the case, he was certainly predictable in that DDP fight and paid the price for it, and yeah his game hasn't really evolved at all so most certainly he has become stagnant.

I truly believe a lot of this stems from his camp which seems rather mediocre, I would love for him to go and work with Volk and his team but that means mixing with CKB and not sure how that would play out.
 
He did a lot of repetitive head hunting against DDP's solid guard, which rendered the karate pot shots ineffective. It needs a rewatch but I get the sense that DDuP was not feeling in danger of Whittaker's striking power so nothing was stopping him from pressing forward hard, and conversely, Whittaker was feeling how bloody hard DDuP was hitting and how strong he was in the wrestling. Whittaker didn't look ready to go toe to toe with him and DDuP looked like he out-sized and out-muscled him. Dare I say DDuP looked better than usual but Whittaker also looked poor in there.
 
He should bring back his teep kick and go overall more to the body.
When DDP had that high guard it was a perfect opportunity to do the 1-2 and then aim for the body instead of continuously headhunting, however I think by that point Rob was pretty much in auto-pilot mode after taking those vicious elbows in round one.

There's also a shit load of tape on Whittaker so it's easier to find out what his main flaws are now compared to seven or eight years ago, DDP clearly did his homework with switching stances and that southpaw jab being factors that caused Whittaker trouble in previous bouts.
He proved he's a student of the game in that last fight by neutralizing almost everything Whittaker sent his way, great performance.
 
Question said:
He should use his teep more and go overall more to the body.
When DDP had that high guard it was a perfect opportunity to do the 1-2 and then aim for the body instead of continuously headhunting, however I think by that point Rob was pretty much in auto-pilot mode after taking those vicious elbows in round one.

There's also a shit load of tape on Whittaker so it's easier to find out what his main flaws are now compared to seven or eight years ago, DDP clearly did his homework. He proved he's a student of the game in that last fight by neutralizing almost everything Whittaker sent his way, great performance.
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Yes DDP looked like he studied tape for sure. His hands were always where they needed to be when Whittaker was striking up top. I was asking myself why Rob isn't going to the body? Sometimes everything happens all at once. Rob's plan A was getting shut down and DDP's power just took over before Rob could even course correct. At least that's what it looked like.
 
I think the real problem with Robert is his chin is gone/going. The Reaper who beat Yoel and Jacare would not have been dropped like last night. Even when he first lost to Izzy his him looked weaker, than he been wobbled by till and cannonier only so many shot he can take.
 
Mmmmmmma1234 said:
I think the real problem with Robert is his chin is gone/going. The Reaper who beat Yoel and Jacare would not have been dropped like last night. Even when he first lost to Izzy his him looked weaker, than he been wobbled by till and cannonier only so many shot he can take.
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This is a good point, I feel like if Rob had more time in that fight he could have made the appropriate adjustments.

In interviews you can really see that we wears his fights, he looks a bit sparked / edgey compared to when he was fresh in the game.
 
He was always like that. This is low key he was never good type of post
Volk always doing the same things but look what he did to unpredictable Yair
Most fighters are predictable, their opponents know exactly what they are gonna do but still it's not easy to stop them from doing it
 
Not necessarily. The problem with his style is that he has to be quick and have the cardio to back it up for five rounds. The moment he loses that quickness and the cardio, he becomes exponentially more vulnerable.

Also, those of you who are now criticizing Whittaker's jiu jitsu have no idea what they are talking about. Whittaker could have had the skill sets of Makhachev, he still would have struggled to get out of that position at the end of the first round.

I'll probably get a lot of hate for saying this but we are not going to know whether Whittaker's downfall contributed to what happened yesterday until we see Whittaker's next fight. Also, it would be more helpful if we see Du Plessis fight Vettori or Costa after he challenges Adesanya for the title. His fight with Adesanya won't tell us much because I think he will lose but everyone loses to Izzy.
 
Brigfa2 said:
He was always like that. This is low key he was never good type of post
Volk always doing the same things but look what he did to unpredictable Yair
Most fighters are predictable, their opponents know exactly what they are gonna do but still it's not easy to stop them from doing it
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It's not a 'he was never that good' thread.

I see where you're coming from, but it really seems like he's also coming from the same angles with every attack.

Volk feints more, and mixes it up a little better, he feels a lot less predictable..
 
LoveSherdogThisTime said:
Not necessarily. The problem with his style is that he has to be quick and have the cardio to back it up for five rounds. The moment he loses that quickness and the cardio, he becomes exponentially more vulnerable.

Also, those of you who are now criticizing Whittaker's jiu jitsu have no idea what they are talking about. Whittaker could have had the skill sets of Makhachev, he still would have struggled to get out of that position at the end of the first round.

I'll probably get a lot of hate for saying this but we are not going to know whether Whittaker's downfall contributed to what happened yesterday until we see Whittaker's next fight. Also, it would be more helpful if we see Du Plessis fight Vettori or Costa after he challenges Adesanya for the title. His fight with Adesanya won't tell us much because I think he will lose but everyone loses to Izzy.
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I disagree about the first point.

He never lost his speed or looked tired, he'd been rocked / beaten up.

I agree though about the bjj though.
 
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While I do think Rob has played a much safer game since the first Izzy loss, I don't think it's fair to suggest that the code has been cracked until we see it repeated.

I think it's more likely that basically everyone, myself included, hugely underrated DDP, who we can all see now is legit as they come.
 
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