You guys didn't watch the fight then. Try watching it in slow motion and you guys will see the level of technique and analysis by JJ and Miocic in their exchanges. You guys confuse a fight that's dynamic, that is, with both fighters varying positions a lot, to one that is mostly technical, and think that if the fighters aren't bouncing around, they are being slow. A fighter will adopt different approaches depending on the fight... Poatan was pretty stiff in terms of movements in his second fight vs Jiri Prochazka... In his fight vs Rountree, however, he looked way faster, way more dynamic... Which is not to say Rountree is better than Jiri Prochakza, only that they had different approaches.
Stipe slowed down after getting 50 elbows (literally) by a HW JJ, many from the vertical position... And even still, he managed to be threatening sometimes, with high accuracy punches while fainting the most important hits.. For example, in one moment, he pressed JJ in the second round, while he had already lost that speed he had initially because of the first round 50 elbows (which, mind you, generally 3, 4 well connected elbows from LHW JJ would wobble his opponents to the point they'd struggle to be in the fight, like Gustaffson... Which just highlights Stipe's huge toughness... Far from someone waiting to get retired) fainting and accuracy made it challenging for JJ, who also adopted his high level defensive skills to avoid most of them... And the ones Stipe landed clean, didn't wobble Jon Jones, which also highlights JJ's chin, who has never wobbled in a fight, as likely the best of all times. If you pause just when Miocic looks slow when rushing JJ in the second round, you'll notice the slower movements are more noticeable from the arms Stipe is fainting the hits with, whereas the arm used to hit JJ is already hitting home, though JJ noticed the faints and blocked the attacks that were tried to be hidden by the faints, most times.
Watching the fight in slow motion should give you guys a notion of the level of the assessments done by both fighters during those exchanges. In one moment for example, Stipe, when rushing, realized JJ would likely move one way and set the heavy hit expecting JJ to move that way... JJ realized that quickly and adjusted his movement not to move where Miocic was making him go... More specifically, Miocic had JJ close to the cage and set up a right hand because moving to the left would be an easier way for JJ to get out of the range, so he expected Jon Jones to go there... Though JJ realized the right hand was being set up and moved to Miocic's right side instead (in he moved to the left, due to lack of space, Miocic would have bigger chances of hitting him with a straight right, while moving to the right would give him the spacing he needed to avoid the, then, right hook)... Jon Jones knew he needed to get away the distance of his arm range not to get hit, so to use the small space of that cage side, he stretched his arms to slightly parry Miocic's right hand and, at the same time, set just where he should step slightly backwards, so he could safely not get hit... Miocic realized that, still, and although JJ's stretched arms bought him a fraction of time, which was enough to barely get out of the way of Miocic's right hand, Miocic still made it closer still because he realized JJ intended to parry him to get enough time, so Stipe slid his right hand just across JJ's stretched arm to make it land as soon as posible... But that still was enough time for JJ to project his body backwards and barely but still, dodge the punch...
Even in the final kick, Jon Jones knew that Miocic protected well enough the most damaging body parts when he had tried the spin back kick two times before, so JJ projected his body as if he'd throw a straight left, which he had done moments before, so Miocic quickly raised his hands... then JJ quickly turned the thrust into a spinning kick to land exactly where he wanted... Miocic realized that as he started to bring his raised arms down, and his right leg up... But JJ landed just before it in the ribs...
It looks slow on the surface, but those are high level set ups from Stipe to disguise the intended shot the most and anticipate the movement, and defensive skills from JJ to quickly know to get just enough out of range... It's's just funny how these MMA fans who call others stupid don't see the irony, as in, they don't take the time to look deeper and just tag along with twitter trends... Ppl that lack the ability to see beyond what it looks like on the surface. That's the difference between MMA entertainment fans that like MMA drama over MMA more serious analysts like Luke Thomas... Though the entertainers nowadays get more engagement because ppl, understandably so, want the lazy but more dopamine quick reward stuff.
