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Rewatched Jiri's fight with Karl Albrektsson....

I've been saying since before he got signed by the UFC. MMA is a wild sport and Jiri is capable of knocking out anybody but I really think there are holes in his game that strong wrestlers at 205 will be able to exploit. We've seen him struggle with Halsey, Albrektsson and Nemkov and in many ways against each was bailed out by the 10 minute single round, something that obviously isn't a thing in the UFC.

He would be worse off in Bellator's 205 lb division. I also think he should be an underdog against Ankalaev regardless of whether he beats Glover or not.
 
Jiri's striking defense is shit. He gets lit up in nearly every fight I've ever seen him in.

Still probably beats Grandpa champion
 
R.710b6dadbbd579afe65374ff4269c7a7
V.I.J.
<Goldie11>
 
I mean yeah, its the classic striker vs grappler fight, if Glover gets him down he has a way of finishing people, even after being hurt himself. In like 3 of his 5 wins leading up to the belt he was rocked in the first round and then mounted a comeback. Jiri has to put him all the way out to win, like Rumble did. All these BJJ guys are hard to TKO, like Oliviera, guys dont even want to follow him to the ground when he's hurt because it's still a bad place to be with a BJJ expert. Glover is the same way, you need to starch him or else he can just reverse you and then he's in top control.

Also in LHW.. most of Paul Craigs wins were submissions off his back after guys dropped him. BJJ doesn't get enough credit as a form of striking defense and means of controlling where the fight will take place. Being a black belt and fighting lesser grapplers means you can have a standing 8 count any time you want it by just dropping to your back, aka the Werdum Flop, we've seen Oliviera using this in his latest fights.

Bottom games of glover and oliveira are not at the same level though.
Glover is very impressive from top position, oliveira is dangerous everywhere
 
Wasn't Karl grapplefucked by Phil Davis not long ago?

Do you disagree with Glover having some of the best grappling in the division? Because Davis grapplefucked him too. I mean Phil is probably the best grappler in the whole division... I don't get what your point is supposed to be.
 
Glover's standup doesn't suck and when has Jiri fought anyone with Teixeira's grappling credentials?? Jiri's younger and he's got the heat with all the knockouts - who imposes their will??
 
"But Jiri is so athletic" some Shertards will say. Jiri is good and will quite possibly beat old man Glover, but it's kind of hard getting excited when "elite" LHWs fight in 2022 when you know the "elite" are top 5-10 a couple of years ago. Rooting for Glover so we can get rid of all the Jiri threads.

LHW division has been bad for a while, it's a mixture of the sport not getting many good athletes that are 215+lbs of solid mass due to other sports, there simply being so few men that size on the planet, bigger guys like this tend to mature later so by the time a guy like Jon Jones was rising up the Rampage/Machida/Shogun/Rashad/Vitor etc people that he fought were already on the slide a bit due to being in circulation at the top for so god damn long already. The division has never had a deep top 10 though, big guys get big attention so there was a lot of "legends" at 205lbs. There's a reason in boxing it goes 178lbs-200lbs-unlimited, there's just less talent the further up the latter you go and also of course, body weight is more accurately measured in percentages than by a set amount (something Joe Rogan cannot understand somehow).
 
Maybe I'm crazy but I see this being an easy fight for Glover. His fight IQ is amazing. He won't fuck around on the feet at all.

Jiri has 30 seconds to make something happen and then he won't be able to get up.
 
Yep that's the "before" fight. I am eager to watch the "after" fight to see how Jiri has developed that part of this game. Great stylistic match-up and great props to Glover for focusing on that part of his game more... it really has rejuvenated his career.
 
Albrektsson is very solid, his record doesn't do him justice really.
 
@ExitLUPin

I watched that fight somewhat recently and I think you made some excellent points.

Even though it was almost 5 years ago we haven't seen Jiri fight other pressure wrestlers (maybe Brandon Halsey?).

His TDD is definitely questionable since he loves to come in blitzing with non-stop aggression and endless combinations, if the opponents make the mistake of shelling up to try and find a counter he can just overwhelm them with power/variety and odd timing and set-ups.

I think the biggest factor in this fight though will be the speed; Jiri is so much faster than Jan. Even though he won I remember Glover just looking old and slow until he got to those dominant grappling positions and Jan was really hesitant early and got taken down immediately. It's likely going to be a one round fight, Jiri will blitz Glover and KO him or he'll do something stupid and get taken down and grapple-raped/subbed.

Though there is always the chance Jiri could just hit some crazy reversals and survive on pure youth/vigor. Nikita Krylov almost subbed Glover and survived a brutal three-round war and a lot of it wasn't great technique but just youthful tenacity/aggression/explosiveness.

I do think Jan's weakness to grappling is arguably more extreme than Jiri's but as you say its not really been tested much in a few years now although i think you could look to a fight like the rematch with Mo and see Jiri fighting a more tentitive less aggressive match before getting a finish.

I suspect a big issue may well be cardio, I think Glovers best bet probably would be a stoppage on the ground in the first couple of rounds. The advantage Jiri has I would say is that he doesnt need to be aiming for a decision as much, he could potentially be controled for 3/4 rounds on the ground but then finish Glover as he tires.
 
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Jiri is training with Cejudo for this. He will likely be ready to underhook and steer his way out of clinches and grappling exchanges. Going to be interesting. People writing off Glover could be in for a surprise. With that said Glover is 43 and slow and will have to overcome an early firestorm.
 
"But Jiri is so athletic" some Shertards will say. Jiri is good and will quite possibly beat old man Glover, but it's kind of hard getting excited when "elite" LHWs fight in 2022 when you know the "elite" are top 5-10 a couple of years ago. Rooting for Glover so we can get rid of all the Jiri threads.

hes getting the Tony/Nate dick riding treatment from the fans.
 
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