MMA has basically stopped evolving in the last 10 years

[Bballfan123]

GSP got beat by Hendricks, who got beat by Lawler. GSP would not be champion today, probably not even in the top 5 WW. Takedown defense alone, is worlds apart from where it was 10 years ago, everybody just got better, and more well rounded. There isnt a champion from 10 years ago that would be champion now other than JJ, and that’s because he evolved with the sport.

WRONG

 

[Bballfan123]

because UFC isn't recruiting grapplers. as much as it pains me to say it, there's a bunch of Russian/Eastern Euro dudes who are world class and they're actively being left to rot in bumfuck Alphabetistan because the UFC is too lazy to get them.

Half the roster is Dagestani. They and you haveto realize the average American can't pronounce souffle or enchilada correctly. They simply won't watch

Magomed Gulidhastov
Vs
Usriye Magomedov

It's just not western culture unfortunately. We lose interest if we aren't the best or close to it.

UFC can't be 90% Russian grapplers or it will unfortunately lose too much money

 

[Can’t Handle My Riddum]

Were called Cow kicks back then

Excellent post.

 

[tasticles]

GSP got beat by Hendricks, who got beat by Lawler. GSP would not be champion today, probably not even in the top 5 WW. Takedown defense alone, is worlds apart from where it was 10 years ago, everybody just got better, and more well rounded. There isnt a champion from 10 years ago that would be champion now other than JJ, and that’s because he evolved with the sport.

You realize having wrecked knees greatly affects your ability to fight right?

 

[J-Pac]

hmmmm i say you are both right and wrong

For the exception of Anderson Jon jones DJ and Cain, alot of those champs would of gotten creamed.
For instance we all know PRIME IZZY crushes weidman. Prime anderson would of toyed with weidman.
Prime usman TYRON and Robbie takes out GSP. tyron hits too hard, robbie hits hard, and usman is gsp 2.0.
on the other side

Now prime anderson walks through weidman luke Strickland Ddp Bisping derrick brunson , the only issues
would be IZZY Rob whit Paulo AND YOEL. Oh and how could i forget KHAMZAT. Khamzat and Yoel would be a major
problem due to the take down

Francis runs through heavy weight division back then, assuming hes allowed to juice too.

and lastly i will say the 3 kings of the 205 which is Jones DC and Anthony rumble johnson
runs through and remains the top 3 in any era of the 205 division. name a person in 205
whose beating prime rumble and DC.......

I hope you are never my opponent in a worst takes competition

 

[fortheo]

10 years ago there was basically no Russian grappling, the overall level of grappling is light years ahead today, because everyone else has to learn from these guys to keep up with them, and also just to use their techniques, and that's just one facet of the game. Even Khabib sucked 10 years ago compared to his championship run, I don't get how people actually think the skills have stayed the same, it makes zero sense. Even just from going to the gym and doing grappling and striking classes, literally every month our coaches are showing us the new technique or the latest thing that guys are using to win fights, there's new developments all the time, never mind 10 freaking years.

The level of grappling in the ufc today is not light years ahead of what it was 10 years ago. I'd make the argument that the grappling level in the ufc is worse today than it was 10 years ago, but that the striking is better than ever. Ten years ago divisions used to be littered with div 1 wrestlers and BJJ black belts, now you get a random one here and there and a russian guy. The few good grapplers in the ufc today look like the best ever because the ufc hires so little grapplers that there's no real competition for the good ones that they do sign (in regards to grappling).

 

[Cowboy Kurt Angle]

GSP got beat by Hendricks, who got beat by Lawler. GSP would not be champion today, probably not even in the top 5 WW. Takedown defense alone, is worlds apart from where it was 10 years ago, everybody just got better, and more well rounded. There isnt a champion from 10 years ago that would be champion now other than JJ, and that’s because he evolved with the sport.

 

[Vil7]

As the title says, I believe that MMA has basically stopped evolving in the last 10 years. I'm not saying that this is a good thing, just that fighters seem to have peaked about 10 or so years or go and have basically remained the same in terms of talent and ability.

The best evidence for this is that if you go back 10 years and look at the champions they are as good or better than the champions of today.

In 2013 the UFC had champions such as GSP, DJ, Jon Jones, Benson Henderson, Chris Weidman, Cain Velasquez etc.

The prime version of any of those fighters would be a champion in today's UFC or would be in serious contention. And if you go down the rankings the fighters from then are comparable to the fighters today.

My feeling is that we have pretty much hit the peak in terms of the evolution of fighters. The fighters we've seen in the last 10 years are pretty much as good as they'll ever be.

Kicking technique in mma is still pretty crude & basic. There's a lot of room for improvement there.

 

[Cowboy Kurt Angle]

Cain likely beats todays Jon Jones

Jones beats Jiri and Alex

Weidman Vs Strickland is an interesting match but I’d slightly favour Weidman

GSP probably beats Leon mind it is the Hendricks fight GSP but GSP still likely wins

Pettis likely loses to Islam

Volk Vs Aldo is interesting id slightly go with Volk

hard not to favour Renan Barro over Suga Sean

Dj fucks up Pantoja

 

[markg171]

GSP got beat by Hendricks, who got beat by Lawler. GSP would not be champion today, probably not even in the top 5 WW. Takedown defense alone, is worlds apart from where it was 10 years ago, everybody just got better, and more well rounded. There isnt a champion from 10 years ago that would be champion now other than JJ, and that’s because he evolved with the sport.

Hendricks' fights with Lawler went the way they did precisely because he lost to GSP. He became obsessed with the scorecards ticking away from him so just wanted to dry hump and score control points, which is what he felt lost him the GSP fights. Instead of his previous aggressive style where points and KOs were a byproduct of it.

The Hendricks who fought Condit toe to toe knocks Robbie the fuck out though. He just didn't think he was in a position to fight like that anymore IMO.

because UFC isn't recruiting grapplers. as much as it pains me to say it, there's a bunch of Russian/Eastern Euro dudes who are world class and they're actively being left to rot in bumfuck Alphabetistan because the UFC is too lazy to get them.

Those random guys are getting knocked the fuck out every now and then or have styles like drying wet paint. That's why the UFC and others don't give a fuck.

The ones doing well like Khabib, Islam, Usman, etc., all coincidentally are splitting their training with teams like AKA that are teaching them how to strike so they're actually great in both areas.

HW’s has stop evolving. Every other weight class has been getting better

I wouldn't say it's necessarily stopped evolving. Everybody shits on Lewis, but what 265lbs HWs were (repeatedly) throwing and landing flying knee KOs? Barnett's a tub of lard and thorwing spinning heel kick KOs. Hell, it's a few years back but JDS landed one of those on Hunt.

The HWs today have much bigger arsenals than their counterparts. You may not think they do the basics as well, which I wouldn't necessarily argue, but they definitely are doing shit their counterparts weren't.

Also Ngannou just arguably beat the #1 HW boxer so that kinda renders things null regardless. Nobody a decade plus ago could've done that. We used to talk about JDS arguably crossing over but everybody still thought he'd badly lose. We thought the same about Ngannou and turns out were wrong at least.

 

[Foghorn Leghorn]

I think this is a really interesting topic, because it is one fans readily regurgitate (even long-time fans) without thinking much about it. If this thread doesn't die, I'd go into more depth (haven't got the time), but my short opinion is that of fence sitting.

In short: I don't believe the highest level fighters (let's say your Islam's, your Volk's) haven't improved way beyond their predecessors. I also don't think the lower end fighters have improved all that much.

I think the biggest improvement is in terms of size, and that seemed to happen around Jones ascent. Look at the legends of the previous gen that he beat, he was much larger than most of those guys who could have (and did end up) competing at middleweight. Ditto for a guy like Frankie Edgar.

Jorge Masvidal is an interesting fighter to look at in this regard, as he racked up a ton of fights over the transition between these eras. Glover Teixeria is another. Those types of fighters are key to looking at this, guys who had enough fights to be "who they were" during the past era, but who continued on and in some cases found higher levels of success not because they'd improved, but because their peers declined.

 

[RonDante]

The greats would probably be champion or close to it today, but I think you’re overall incorrect

 

[jackleeb]

you're wrong. mma encompasses every effective martial art, which includes jiu jitsu.

no-gi jiu jitsu is still improving. coach danaher and gordon ryan have pushed the frontier in the past couple years and figuring out more effective techniques

if jiri wins saturday, i would consider that a progress in the field of mma. it shows that karate movement may not be effective in offense, but it is an improvement to one's style in movement

 

[SakurabasEar]

LW and Featherweight has, MW, LHW, and HW has basically stopped imo.

You don't have to fallow the AAA athlete theory to believe so. But it makes some sort of sense here. Dagestan will continue to pummel across the board simply because they were raised harder, trained younger, and are generally strong as fuck. Whilst westerners are getting somewhat weaker

 

[HHJ]

I really dont give two shits.

As long as have exciting fights and fighters who cares??????!??!?!?

 

[Kb7]

I wouldn't say it's necessarily stopped evolving. Everybody shits on Lewis, but what 265lbs HWs were (repeatedly) throwing and landing flying knee KOs? Barnett's a tub of lard and thorwing spinning heel kick KOs. Hell, it's a few years back but JDS landed one of those on Hunt.

when i say HW’s has stopped evolving, it’s entirely in the notion that most Heavyweights today rely heavily on the ability & power to knock someone out. The overall MMA skills ie grappling, wrestling, submissions all seem to have regressed.

The HWs today have much bigger arsenals than their counterparts. You may not think they do the basics as well, which I wouldn't necessarily argue, but they definitely are doing shit their counterparts weren't.

Lewis and Tuivasa imo are clear examples of what the HW division looked like for the past few years aside from fighters like Ngannou. It’s slowly getting better but still most of them still lack all around skills

 

[Kb7]

Also Ngannou just arguably beat the #1 HW boxer so that kinda renders things null regardless. Nobody a decade plus ago could've done that. We used to talk about JDS arguably crossing over but everybody still thought he'd badly lose. We thought the same about Ngannou and turns out were wrong at least.

Ngannou was given the chance, Dos Santos was not, for all we know Dos Santos could’ve done similar and have success Ngannou had in his sole boxing bout.

 

[markg171]

when i say HW’s has stopped evolving, it’s entirely in the notion that most Heavyweights today rely heavily on the ability & power to knock someone out. The overall MMA skills ie grappling, wrestling, submissions all seem to have regressed.




Lewis and Tuivasa imo are clear examples of what the HW division looked like for the past few years aside from fighters like Ngannou. It’s slowly getting better but still most of them still lack all around skills

Again though I'd disagree and say that he HWs today have far better all around and deeper skillsets. Not to keep using Lewis but the dude's only been submitted 2x in his entire career despite everybody having that gameplan against him. People say he's got bad grappling but if that's the case he'd be losing a lot more fights from it (he actually instead normally loses standing). Jailton just had him on his back for like 25 minutes straight and still didn't finish him. His grappling actually is good, if not very pretty.

Meanwhile guys like Coleman would get armbarred if you even looked at his arms. And he had a grappling background making it all the more bizarre how he couldn't mix his wrestling and BJJ together.

But that's the other thing. Guys back then were really good at a few things. Fedor and armbars. Cro Cop and LH kicks. Etc. We praise them for repeatedly landing them and having signature moves without wondering if that's more the extent of their skillsets. Have a few moves you're just really, really, good at it and work off them. Whereas guys today know a lot more moves but don't have that same singular proficiency in them so wind up getting a variety of victories.

 

[tastaylvr]

None of those fighters with the skills they had would become champ. That’s if they started from the bottom again I doubt they make it to a position where they could even fight for the belt. It’s just too much nostalgia at this point because you watched them beat up other cans you think it would happen here without realising the fighters are much superior.

 

[Bruce Lee666]

Kicking technique in mma is still pretty crude & basic. There's a lot of room for improvement there.

The problem it's The Grappling you have to choose carefully the kicks if you don't want be takedown, Have High Risky throw a kick against a Elite Grappler.