Masvidals underrated grappling showed against Maia

[Liverkick-king56]

The disrespect Maia is getting, he's a far better grappler than Burns has shown so far.
Even an out of prime Maia was able to take Burns down, Burns did a great job of recovering but Maia was struggling with Rocco Martin at this point of his career. Sure he's not the striker Burns is but y'all are disrespecting Maia's ground game here. HE FITCHED FITCH

 

[tasticles]

Well, I guess for an old fart like myself, this is the closest we get to see Lidell vs Arona in 2005

I heavily favored chuck to win that match especially with knees to the head allowed. We will never know for sure.

 

[tasticles]

The disrespect Maia is getting, he's a far better grappler than Burns has shown so far.
Even an out of prime Maia was able to take Burns down, Burns did a great job of recovering but Maia was struggling with Rocco Martin at this point of his career. Sure he's not the striker Burns is but y'all are disrespecting Maia's ground game here. HE FITCHED FITCH

I agree mostly. They must give out judo black belts like happy meals in Brazil. I've never seen any kind of judo from him among many. His take downs were the biggest issue for him. A legend on the ground though

 

[Liverkick-king56]

I agree mostly. They must give out judo black belts like happy meals in Brazil. I've never seen any kind of judo from him among many. His take downs were the biggest issue for him. A legend on the ground though

I think his single leg is better than any take down Burns has shown so far. Maia had a great single leg and unreal back takes from takedowns, issue is he didn't have much else besides a decent body lock and the infamous double leg from a mile out.

 

[Paladin]

For the first round and a half. Those 38 year old legs will get heavy and have trouble stuffing the take downs.

People really underestimate age. Even P4P great Usman went from P4P to two fight lose skid in the blink of an eye

 

[ricains_cretins]

Yes, but keep in mind Masvidal had short hair at that time.

 

[Fedor5723]

Sad to admit it but that was a hungry Masvidal.

 

[Skarsgard]

Still one of my favorite sub sequences of all time. Poetry in motion.

It's like art.

Maia blessed Sonnen that night. That triangle will live on forever.

That's still my favorite submission of all time.

 

[Skarsgard]

Imagine Colby beating Leon
Imagine Mas beating Burns

That's a good story

That's literally the worst case scenario.

 

[Normot]

People talk about Masvidal being old but he actually still lost to a 40 year old Maia when Masvidal was in his prime.

 

[Fedor Fan]

I agree mostly. They must give out judo black belts like happy meals in Brazil. I've never seen any kind of judo from him among many. His take downs were the biggest issue for him. A legend on the ground though

Watch the Chael fight gifs in this very thread and educate yourself.

Chael a greco guy fell victim to Maia's Judo.

 

[tasticles]

Watch the Chael fight gifs in this very thread and educate yourself.

Chael a greco guy fell victim to Maia's Judo.

That's fine. I stand corrected. One of those cases where he's gonna look bad against elite wrestlers sometimes. I haven't watched some of these fights in forever and it's easier to remember him butt scooting or being a human backpack.

 

[AMAZINGUFC]

Burns is in trouble
[MEDEDIA]

NO, he is not

Burns ground game is completely different and still poses a danger with his KO power.

 

[TheAmericanGazelle]

Burns has a different game than Maia, with better wrestling.

Maia was more likely to submit him than Burns (ages aside), but Burns is more likely to control Masvidal with wrestling and top control.

I'm not expecting a finish, but I'm expecting a clinical shutout, not entirely different in effect than the Colby fight except swapping crazy pace for harder punches.

 

[Trabaho]

Yeah Burns is much tougher than Masvidal & won't mentally quit when things aren't going his way. I think Burns is a very easy pick in this fight.

Jorge is mentaly tougher. He starts coasting but never loses spirit.

 

[corrupted]

Burns is in trouble

His defensive wrestling hasn't been questioned IMO. He's always been decent. Hasn't been able to reverse or get his own game going over the top of that, but has not been totally wrestle fucked by anyone that I can remember.
Lost yes, but not run over.

Either way, burns isn't some unstoppable wrestling machine. In fairness, Maia's biggest flaw was that he didn't have very good takedowns ... So his most dangerous weapons were harder for him to use against guys that had decent defense. I don't think it will come down to that anyway. I think he's gonna fence grind him and try to climb on his back. I think Jorge has some wholes there.

Fighter Kevin Lee told me

 

[corrupted]

Still one of my favorite sub sequences of all time. Poetry in motion.

It's like art.

Maia blessed Sonnen that night. That triangle will live on forever.

In the scramble, I don't think we've seen a much better grappler in MMA.

 

[Eric Silva 2.0]

Burns is in trouble

Yes, his grappling in underrated. A few things to consider. Maia was almost 40 years old in that fight and still won. Jorge is now the old guy in this fight, he's 38. Burns has looked very good in his past few fights. I think he's a clear favorite and I expect him to have the clear advantage on the ground. Burns also has very good power. Masvidal has to respect Gilbert's hands but when he was fighting Maia he just had to focus on defensive grappling.

 

[r-harper-1]

Burns is rightful favourite…..but Masvidal a live underdog imo …..Burns likes to scrap and he doesn’t have a very good chin ….. wouldn’t be surprised if Masvidal clipped Burns and put him away

 

[Eric Silva 2.0]

The disrespect Maia is getting, he's a far better grappler than Burns has shown so far.
Even an out of prime Maia was able to take Burns down, Burns did a great job of recovering but Maia was struggling with Rocco Martin at this point of his career. Sure he's not the striker Burns is but y'all are disrespecting Maia's ground game here. HE FITCHED FITCH

Let's not also forget what an almost 42 year old Maia did to Askren on the ground. Most guys don't want anything to do with Maia on the ground but Askren did what he usually does and got the takedowns. When they got to the ground the difference in grappling was unexpected for me. Maia toyed with Askren once they got there. It was beautiful to watch. If there was such thing as grappling art, that was it.