Justin Gaethje is officially the best kicker in MMA

[ThaiSexPills]

He mauled him. Wow. Awesome

 

[Craisier]

Technically I feel edson is better but justin carries the threat of wrestling and turning shit into a brawl quick so you're forced to eat them. However justin's effectiveness can't be denied. He uses kicks better than anyone in mma currently for sure

Yeah, I'd say kicks are the weakest base on their own. Part of why Gaehtje beat him is because he has a much better understanding of boxing and mixes it in a lot with punches. I just think at the highest level a strong kicking game isn't enough without the right amount of boxing etiquette.

 

[IndyCovaHart]

Barboza is one of my favorite fighters but he is too chinny to exchange with power strikers.

He really needed to stay technical on the outside in this fight.

 

[INTERL0PER]

Barboza really needed to stay technical on the outside in this fight.

Agreed... but how? How the holy fuck do you keep Gaethje off of you?

I give Gaethje a chance against any LW in the top 10, because he's a vicious, dangerous brawler and the way he fights means you basically HAVE to fight him. He has no sense of self preservation and attacks with ruthless intentions from the opening moments.

 

[GordoBarraBJJ]

Fight didn't go long enough for anyone to truly judge.

This - and he ended the fight in in boxing range not kicking range.

 

[Schoolboy Q]

Technically I feel edson is better but justin carries the threat of wrestling and turning shit into a brawl quick so you're forced to eat them. However justin's effectiveness can't be denied. He uses kicks better than anyone in mma currently for sure

Lol yeah what a takedown artist that Justin Gaethje is!

 

[ExitLUPin]

Barboza is one of my favorite fighters but he is too chinny to exchange with power strikers.

He really needed to stay technical on the outside in this fight.

Since when is Edson able to stay on the outside against fighters who move forward and get after him?

Varner, Michael, Tony, Khabib, Lee and Hooker all gave him alot of problems and all beat him besides Hooker just pressing forward

hes only able to stay technical on the outside against the likes of Pettis, Giblert, Felder, Bobby Green who all let him stay in his range and fought a counter style or played on the outside with him

 

[Dankoz]

Good performance, but not even close to being best kicker in MMA. Jon Jones is on completely another level.

 

[Swoliosis]

Lol yeah what a takedown artist that Justin Gaethje is!

The guy was an NCAA D1 All American, no easy feat. He does carry the threat of wrestling.

 

[rjmbrd]

the same goes for Justin?

So far, JG has fought two truly elite guys in Eddie and Poirier, and both of them knocked him out. In each case, they won rounds before putting him away, and they won with fight IQ while he showed mostly autopilot sensibilities.

Barboza is 5-5 in his last 10 for a reason, and MJ is literally a journeyman. He's pretty close to a .500 record at this point overall.

JG is 3-2 now, both the losses being against the higher quality opponents and he lost in spectacular fashion. We'll have to wait and see a few more fights.

 

[Schoolboy Q]

The guy was an NCAA D1 All American, no easy feat. He does carry the threat of wrestling.

That’s great and all, but being a takedown threat requires you know....actually going for takedowns, which Gaethje NEVER does.

 

[ExitLUPin]

So far, JG has fought two truly elite guys in Eddie and Poirier, and both of them knocked him out. In each case, they won rounds before putting him away, and they won with fight IQ while he showed mostly autopilot sensibilities.

Barboza is 5-5 in his last 10 for a reason, and MJ is literally a journeyman. He's pretty close to a .500 record at this point overall.

JG is 3-2 now, both the losses being against the higher quality opponents and he lost in spectacular fashion. We'll have to wait and see a few more fights.

so elite Poirier got KOd stiff in a minute by a journeyman

interesting

 

[ImmigrantMentality]

It's like Jones outwrestling DC, DC imo implements his wrestling game against others better but against Jones it's a bad match up. Barboza hurts other fighters with leg kicks worse than Gaethje but head to head, Gaethje's pressure is not a good match up Barboza

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

Barboza is one of my favorite fighters but he is too chinny to exchange with power strikers.

He really needed to stay technical on the outside in this fight.

Agree, and maybe more than the chinniness is the hittability. He has good footwork to set up his offense but he doesn’t have good head movement.

What worried me for Gaethje coming into this fight was that he would just walk into everything Edson threw. Once he came out a little more strategic you could see that he had a great chance of winning. Still ate some big shots, but in spite of how explosive he is EB really hasn’t been a big one-shot KO guy in his career.

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

Looking ahead, I think the biggest question for Gaethje is whether this big KO power is here to stay or whether he’s just happened to catch a couple guys with poor head movement and boxing defense.

I can’t wait for his next fight. I think he’d eat Cerrone for a snack.

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

So far, JG has fought two truly elite guys in Eddie and Poirier, and both of them knocked him out. In each case, they won rounds before putting him away, and they won with fight IQ while he showed mostly autopilot sensibilities.

Barboza is 5-5 in his last 10 for a reason, and MJ is literally a journeyman. He's pretty close to a .500 record at this point overall.

JG is 3-2 now, both the losses being against the higher quality opponents and he lost in spectacular fashion. We'll have to wait and see a few more fights.

I think that’s a pretty one-sided look at his two losses. Eddie and Dustin hobbled out of the octagon that night. Yea, the closed the show with big bombs that put JG down, but they were on thin ice when I happened. If JG had been even a little bit more sensible in those fights it would’ve spelled trouble for both of them.

Now, did Justin learn something from those losses (his first ever)? Or is this simply what’s going to happen in his career when he bounces between top ten guys (who he can beat) and top five guys (who beat him)?

Personally I think it’s a little bit the first thing and a little bit neither. I think he’s tweaked his style just enough to have an advantage over almost everyone in the division, but he’s also simply going to be a high variance fighter no matter what.

 

[rjmbrd]

so elite Poirier got KOd stiff in a minute by a journeyman

interesting

Yes, welcome to MMA. Being a journeyman doesn't mean you never win a fight. This is common sense and shouldn't need to be stated, but here we are.

Michael Johnson has a 19-14 record. That is the very definition of a journeyman fighter. His win over Poirer was sandwiched between - wait for it - FIVE losses. He's been tapped out 8 times.

Dustin has a 24-4 record. He's literally never had back to back losses in his career - Johnson has done so on four occasions, including losing three in a row.

Poirier is the more complete, more proven, higher quality fighter. He was knocked out by a journeyman, because that happens on occasion in this sport. Cheers.

 

[MayhemMonkey]

that didnt happen lol..... he won by punching him in the face.

 

[rjmbrd]

Eddie and Dustin hobbled out of the octagon that night. Yea, the closed the show with big bombs that put JG down, but they were on thin ice when I happened. If JG had been even a little bit more sensible in those fights it would’ve spelled trouble for both of them.

Hard disagree. Sherdog had both Eddie and Poirier winning across the board on their score cards leading up to the 3rd and 4th round finishes. Feel free to look up further media scores, you'll find the same. That is not skating on thin ice.

"If JG was more sensible" you say, but if doesn't count. If Conor was a better wrestler, he'd beat Khabib. JG is who he is and thats why he lost to Eddie and Poirier.

Now, did Justin learn something from those losses (his first ever)? Or is this simply what’s going to happen in his career when he bounces between top ten guys (who he can beat) and top five guys (who beat him)?

Personally I think it’s a little bit the first thing and a little bit neither. I think he’s tweaked his style just enough to have an advantage over almost everyone in the division, but he’s also simply going to be a high variance fighter no matter what.

Like I said, we'll have to wait and see.

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

Agreed... but how? How the holy fuck do you keep Gaethje off of you?

I give Gaethje a chance against any LW in the top 10, because he's a vicious, dangerous brawler and the way he fights means you basically HAVE to fight him. He has no sense of self preservation and attacks with ruthless intentions from the opening moments.

This.

The only way to face Justin Gaethje and not go through hell is to put him on his back.

I suppose there’s always a chance you could place a perfect shot and knock him out, but so far it seems to take a lot of volume to do that job.