Paul Craig has an awful fighting style.

I

IveBeenHere4yrs

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I know he has some good names in his W column (Jamal Hill, Ankalaev, Shogun) but his days in the UFC are numbered. He flops on his back trying to pull guard, no offensive grappling style, he flinches, chin up in the air and he looks very weak at MW.

He has one of the meanest mug pre fight, up until Bruce Buffer intro in the octagon but as soon as the bell rings he's like a dog with his tail between his legs.

He should consider going into Polaris submission fighting. Everybody knows his game now!
 
Tweak896 said:
Some guys don't have it in them. Craig is his own worst enemy. Should've worked on power striking a year before joining mma to be like a LHW Burns. Plenty of blueprints out there to be a success as a BJJ specialist.
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Werdum was a rare example of someone who developed very solid Muay Thai after years of flopping around on his back. He could afford reckless kicks because nobody would follow him to the ground. And he touched the gold because of it.

Craig is a single trick pony and anyone with a bit of discipline solves it easily.
 
Pepy said:
Werdum was a rare example of someone who developed very solid Muay Thai after years of flopping around on his back. He could afford reckless kicks because nobody would follow him to the ground. And he touched the gold because of it.

Craig is a single trick pony and anyone with a bit of discipline solves it easily.
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And Werdum was a high level talent and it took him years to get there, basically until his second ufc run.
 
IveBeenHere4yrs said:
I know he has some good names in his W column (Jamal Hill, Ankalaev, Shogun) but his days in the UFC are numbered. He flops on his back trying to pull guard, no offensive grappling style, he flinches, chin up in the air and he looks very weak at MW.

He has one of the meanest mug pre fight, up until Bruce Buffer intro in the octagon but as soon as the bell rings he's like a dog with his tail between his legs.

He should consider going into Polaris submission fighting. Everybody knows his game now!
Click to expand...

So you're saying like he flinches?

What constitutes a flinch?
 
Tweak896 said:
Some guys don't have it in them. Craig is his own worst enemy. Should've worked on power striking a year before joining mma to be like a LHW Burns. Plenty of blueprints out there to be a success as a BJJ specialist.
Click to expand...
I mean, it just simply isn't like that. Some guys just aren't going to be skilled in a certain area no matter who coaches them or how much they train.

Look at Pettis or Condit for example. Trained with high level wrestlers but never developed solid takedown defense or defensive wrestling. Rumble and MJ trained with legit BJJ black belts for years on end, but that was still a very weak part of their skill set.

Shit, Amirkhani devoted himself to boxing for some time after the loss to Allen if I'm not mistaken - you know what happened in his first fight back? He got dropped twice by Jason Knight.
 
I'm on the fence wether going into fights with the gameplan to pull guard is an act of bronze balls, knowing that even in wins a beating is somewhat likely, or if Paul Craig is a hopeful optimist thinking it's gonna work the next time.

I'd like to think that he understands that it's a suboptimal strategy considering decisions are a thing afterall.

I feel like we've seen a whole lot of improvement on the front of defending/ denying td's against the cage and actually quite substantial improvement in landing hard shots vs stalled out double leg attempts over the last years.
Not everybody can be Chimaev type of grappler. Slow grappling can work too. Imo Paul would do so much better if he put an emphasis on a jab focused standup and made opponents close the distance so he can enter the clinch and take the fight down via upper body wrestling.
Instead he tries to pressure at all cost and shoots slouchy double legs against the cage or just eats a shot and drops to his butt. I guess what I'm saying is, I do like Paul, but I agree, his style does not really supplement his grappling skills the way it should and that for quite some time now.
 
Mike said:
And Werdum was a high level talent and it took him years to get there, basically until his second ufc run.
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I'd say he was more of a worker because he was not the fastest nor the most athletic guy out there - not an athletic specimen like JDS was, for example. It took him years to find a coach to tailor a style and yes he certainly worked his ass off.
 
He is not very fluid in the striking, too slow. But his biggest issue is he has his chin straight up in the air every fight.. I agree with you on that TS. I can't believe he has not corrected this by now as he has been in UFC for many years, his coaches should be able to fix this the very first time they saw it.

He obviously has great submissions and it very crafty on the ground. But he has got to fix the chin up in the air issue, because he does that every single fight and I just can't see him going anywhere until he improves this, he is too slow as well.
 
He needs to go to a new gym, have some new coaches take a look at him. He's stagnating in Scotland.

His striking seems to have gotten worse ever since he picked up a striking coach (yeah he actually never used to have one) and he is a bjj specialist that can't get opponents to the ground unless they are dumb and follow him there.

He needs to go to the US, learn some offensive wrestling and basic striking defense. He doesn't need to become a good striker, he obviously doesn't like striking and he is really worried about being hit. So he just needs to be able to survive long enough to close the distance and get the fight into his realm, which is teachable even at his age.
 
I don't really get why he moved down to MW, he doesn't hit harder at 185 and has a real speed disadvantage. You can add that MW are better all around technically, and be sure that he won't be able to sub those guys like he did at 205.
 
haj02 said:
He's such a cringy guy, growls at face offs and acts like he's going to go to war then tries to pull guard. I was at the fight in London a few years ago, he absolutely sucked and I've hated him ever since.
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The growling is the bear part.
The flopping is his jew part.

IveBeenHere4yrs said:
I know he has some good names in his W column (Jamal Hill, Ankalaev, Shogun) but his days in the UFC are numbered. He flops on his back trying to pull guard, no offensive grappling style, he flinches, chin up in the air and he looks very weak at MW.

He has one of the meanest mug pre fight, up until Bruce Buffer intro in the octagon but as soon as the bell rings he's like a dog with his tail between his legs.

He should consider going into Polaris submission fighting. Everybody knows his game now!
Click to expand...
Nah, if somebody manages to willingly pull guard and submit a future champ, and even dislocating their arm. I’d love to watch that cause i train bjj, if it works and finishes fights why not.
But its better to vary your toolbox or you end up like spamming imanari rolls like a retard cause it worked on an old bald hawaian.
 
haj02 said:
He's such a cringy guy, growls at face offs and acts like he's going to go to war then tries to pull guard. I was at the fight in London a few years ago, he absolutely sucked and I've hated him ever since.
Click to expand...
I feel the same about Ion Cutelaba's antics. Tries to intimate opponents, then folds like a pretzel if things don't go his way. Super satisfying to see him get stopped every time.
 
IveBeenHere4yrs said:
I know he has some good names in his W column (Jamal Hill, Ankalaev, Shogun) but his days in the UFC are numbered. He flops on his back trying to pull guard, no offensive grappling style, he flinches, chin up in the air and he looks very weak at MW.

He has one of the meanest mug pre fight, up until Bruce Buffer intro in the octagon but as soon as the bell rings he's like a dog with his tail between his legs.

He should consider going into Polaris submission fighting. Everybody knows his game now!
Click to expand...
He has a good guard, unfortunately people have gotten very good at fighting from inside someone’s guard.

Olivera, T-City and Diego Lopez are exceptions but it really seems that the days of offence from the guard are coming to an end. I think the Eastern European Smesh style signalled its decline.
 
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