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I agree, but to a degree.“Jiu Jitsu guys have no takedowns,” he said. “And we saw it with Kron Gracie. Kron Gracie is legit a very high-level grappler. This man won the ADCC’s. I can’t remember what year right now, but he won the ADCC’s, and yet he looked clueless. He looked absolutely freaking clueless on how to get a takedown last Saturday night! It was ridiculous! It’s not like Cub Swanson was a high-level division-one wrestler!
“And so one of the things that I actually appreciate and like about Demian, is that he’s a Jiu Jitsu guy who kind of put his ego away and said, 'Okay, well, I am a Jiu Jitsu guy, but I’m gonna learn how to wrestle so I can take people down and then do my Jiu Jitsu from there.' And I like that. And I don’t think enough Jiu Jitsu people do that. And I think if more people followed Demian’s lead they would be better off.”
https://www.bloodyelbow.com/2019/10/18/20920240/ufc-singapore-ben-askren-on-demian-maia-fight-jiu-jitsu-guys-have-no-takedowns-mma-news
Because while I do think every fighter needs to evolve on all areas and become (at least) "OK" everywhere in order to compete nowadays.
But on Kron's example, I understand he wanted to see how he would fare standing up, and as such, this is not really indicative of how his grapplin evolved.
And I recall Maia did the exact same thing (against Weidman). He said he wanted to see if he could KO someone, and in order to put an honest effort, he had to NOT go to the ground with Weidman, even if it cost him the fight (which it did).
Granted, he was supposed to fight Bisping, but it is irrelevant.
One fight is not indicative of anything (given the above variables). Kron might have a great TakeDown game; we just didn't see this time.
Let us not forget he was coming of 5 wins, all via submission, so at some point, the fight went to the ground.