Matthew "Meaty head" Mitrione - an enigma

[OneManGang]

Meathead can scrap, Rashad didn’t like him on TUF but even he had to admit that Meathead was surprisingly good at fighting

...and would have beaten up Rashad inside or outside the octagon.

 

[Pierced7681]

...and would have beaten up Rashad inside or outside the octagon.

Rashad threatened to beat Meatheads ass in the video confessional, but not to his face lol

 

[TRYHARD 2001]

Travis Browne almost blinded Mitrione with eye pokes

Actually, the ridiculous swelling in Mitrione's right eye was due to a punch. He'd been poked earlier in the fight but that wasn't what caused the swelling; that was caused by a straight right that landed cleanly on the eye. Regardless, it was nasty.

 

[kflo]

Some of the better foot movement Ive seen at HW to be honest. Pretty nimble.

I don’t think he took it all as seriously as he could have. Good fighter, quite underrated.

We agree....

 

[TRYHARD 2001]

In Mitrione's defense the guy had legit standup skills. He moved amazingly and could crack (still can). But holy shit was he a terrible grappler! Like, top to bottom he had no ground skills whatsoever, which makes what success he had in fighting that much more incredible. He went from looking like an elite athlete while striking to an uncoordinated teeny-bopper as soon as someone shot on him, his TDD was non-existent, and he couldn't scramble at all. He'd just lay on his back, give up the mount with no struggle, and get punched in the face! Travis Browne made it look easy in their fight, although I will say Travis' ground game was actually pretty decent, particularly his top control. At least by HW standards.

 

[TheGreatA]

He was solid on the feet, trash on the ground. Basically the game was over whenever his opponent even entertained the idea of grappling.

 

[cheesus]

He was a great athlete and had an exception career considering how late he got into MMA. He didn't start training MMA until his late 20's aside from that all I believe that he had was maybe some high school wrestling & competed in some local tough man style competition for a laugh when he was in his late teens. He had a lot of weaknesses but he had a lot of natural fighting instinct and ability, great movement and speed, nice unorthodox and unpredictable style but lacked some basic fundamentals.

Schaub & Mitrione both had very similar careers, started late, both knocked out by Roy Nelson, both lost to Browne, both knocked out legends. Schaub relied a lot on clinching and stalling and landed a big punch, he could out wrestle and submit guys that were very green and that was his apparent strength. Schaubs striking was also pretty goofy and stiff, he had a mean right and a decent jab but that's about it, when he was throwing combo's they looked awkward.

I'd say Mitrione was the better fighter, he looked comfortable being in there, it looked like something he was designed to do, Schaub not so much.