Rewatch O'Malley vs Aljo was an All-Time Bad Performance

JustBleed69

JustBleed69

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On vacation and the Air BNB doesn't have anything on the TV, so I put on one of the free fight marathons on YouTube.

Wtf was Aljo's strategy, to have a kickboxing match with him? He attempts one takedown and completely half asses it. The rest of the fight he is hardly cage cutting and lumbering forward, but not nearly aggressive enough, & just basically seems content to keep the fight at that range. Makes me wonder if he really thought he could hang with O'Malley on the feet; absolutely delusional if that was the case.

If you want a takedown you either gotta get in the guys face Khabib style or you need to back up and make the striker come to you. Just very perplexed by the strategy in that fight, as Aljo does neither.


And it should go without saying, but obviously I couldn't do any better than Aljo; I'm just giving my perspective from the comfort of my couch here.
 
Because O'malley is great at controlling the range. Other fighters aren't as good and it's easier to close the distance and grab ahold of them. He couldn't close the distance like he wanted and tried forcing it and paid for it.
 
O'malley not easy to close the distance on. This isn't the UFC 1 era and there's only 1 Khabib. Guys like O'malley train TDD every day and they'll make you pay with a sloppy entry.

Merab will find that out too when he runs into a strike and get KOed..
 
it wasn't a good look for aljo but I wouldn't say "all time bad" I will say he had to turn around like 3 months after the cejudo fight and he cuts a ton of weight. Sean is extremely good but also a UFC project so he gets these advantages, not that he needs them.
 
usernamee said:
Because O'malley is great at controlling the range. Other fighters aren't as good and it's easier to close the distance and grab ahold of them. He couldn't close the distance like he wanted and tried forcing it and paid for it.
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his movement has really frustrating him as well
 
Sean is super slippery with the footwork, Merab is someone who will test your theory of getting in Sean's face though. He's gonna take mad damage though.
 
JustBleed69 said:
Wtf was Aljo's strategy, to have a kickboxing match with him? He attempts one takedown and completely half asses it. The rest of the fight he is hardly cage cutting and lumbering forward, but not nearly aggressive enough, & just basically seems content to keep the fight at that range
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O'Malley was absolutely aiming to punish bad takedown entries so Aljo couldn't just dive forward attempting lots of takedowns against one of the UFC's sharpest counterstrikers

Aljo actually did win the 1st round with his body kicks cause he had O'Malley so afraid of his TDs, I think his lunge that got him KO'd actually was a TD attempt where he'd punch to the face and then get on the legs once O'Malley raised his guard. But it was too big a lunge and O'Malley knocked him out for it
 
While Aljo did fight like an idiot at the end, O'Malley's ability to dictate distance and circle out helped him significantly. Aljo was not patient and calculated, lunging and leaving himself open. You mix that with what Sean did well and you get the end result we did. Aljo can say the fans got to him all he wants, but he made mistakes and Sean made him pay for it.
 
ElLunico said:
O'malley not easy to close the distance on. This isn't the UFC 1 era and there's only 1 Khabib. Guys like O'malley train TDD every day and they'll make you pay with a sloppy entry.

Merab will find that out too when he runs into a strike and get KOed..
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WildShrimper said:
Sean is super slippery with the footwork, Merab is someone who will test your theory of getting in Sean's face though. He's gonna take mad damage though.
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For sure, not taking away from Sean's skills, I think he's one of the best strikers in MMA currently, I just think Aljo could have approached the fight way better imo.

And yeah, I think Merab is gonna get slept. I rank Merab higher than Aljo, think he's overall a better fighter, but he's pretty bad about closing the distance safely, especially early. He's got the Khabib aggression, but seemingly much easier to hit. He's also kinda willing to strike at times as he hunts you down, which Khabib was way less willing to do until he got you tired from grappling first.
Merab gets clipped by lesser strikers than O'Malley almost every fight, think that will ultimately be his downfall.
 
Idk... Sterling never had the best takedowns... he took down Yan because of how Yan marches forward... Omalley fights on the outside....

It reminds me of fights like Anderson Silva vs Yushin Okami, where everyone says Yushin just needs to take him down, but AS is always moving side to side... not forward...

just like Yushin isn't Chael Sonnen, Sterling is not Khabib or Merab...

I bet Sterling beats Merab though... stronger and I don't think anyone can actually outgrapple Aljo at 135... but that doesn't mean he has the better takedowns...
 
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jko1355 said:
Idk... Sterling never had the best takedowns... he took down Yan because of how Yan marches forward... Omalley fights on the outside....

It reminds me of fights light Anderson Silva vs Yushin Okami, where everyone says Yushin just needs to take him down, but AS is always moving side to side... not forward...

just like Yushin isn't Chael Sonnen, Sterling is not Khabib or Merab...

I bet Sterling beats Merab though... stronger and I don't think anyone can actually outgrapple Aljo at 135... but that doesn't mean he has the better takedowns...
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Bro he took down Cejudo & manhandled Kattar; saying Aljo doesn't have good takedowns is absolutely ridiculous lol.

Comparing Okami to Aljo is crazy, Okami had dog-shit takedowns, Aljo is one of the best pro-active wrestlers in the history of that division.
 
O'Malley is never out of position. He really does have some of the best footwork in all of the UFC right now. O'Malley had answers and I think Aljo was flustered by how things were going.
 
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JustBleed69 said:
Bro he took down Cejudo & manhandled Kattar; saying Aljo doesn't have good takedowns is absolutely ridiculous lol.

Comparing Okami to Aljo is crazy, Okami had dog-shit takedowns, Aljo is one of the best pro-active wrestlers in the history of that division.
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Henry and Kattar both moved forward against Aljo... neither used lateral movement at all... same with Yan...


I am more talking about styles ... not wrestling ability... I dont think Aljo ever fought a guy with Sean, Izzys, Silva style of counterwrestling with movement and counters.

P.s. Okami has better takedown accuracy and defence stats than Aljo and averages almost the same amount of takedowns per fight statistically so you might just not remember him well?
 
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Aljo isn't a great fighter. He's pretty terrible, relatively speaking.
 
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