So hugging won the belts tonight...

Even in GSP's most inactive 5 round decisions, he landed a decent amount more and/or had more submission attempts than shevchenko did last night. Comparing shevchenko's gameplan last night to GSP is rude. She made the most boring GSP fights look reasonably exciting by comparison.

Sometimes you just have to win sir.
 
Even in GSP's most inactive 5 round decisions, he landed a decent amount more and/or had more submission attempts than shevchenko did last night. Comparing shevchenko's gameplan last night to GSP is rude. She made the most boring GSP fights look reasonably exciting by comparison.

I've mentioned before that Valentina is basically a mix of GSP and late career Aldo; she has a complete fighting system in all areas like GSP, but she controls the pace and keeps it low the way Aldo does, if not even more so at times. Another thing she shares with Aldo is she likes to work in quick bursts on the feet with longer breaks in between sequences, they don't throw long combos unless the opponent's hurt and they're happy to stand around for 20-25 seconds without throwing anything.
 
Sometimes you just have to win sir.

Oh, I agree. And she did. I'm just saying, don't drag gsp into this lol. Even his most boring fights had more activity than that fight from last night.

Poor gsp has become the ruler by which all boring performances are measured by I guess <lol>
 
Oh, I agree. And she did. I'm just saying, don't drag gsp into this lol. Even his most boring fights had more activity than that fight from last night.

Poor gsp has become the ruler by which all boring performances are measured by I guess <lol>

Lol
 
You ask Alexa and Sean if they feel like they were just hugged tonight, I'm pretty sure both of them would tell you otherwise sir.
Omalley didn't look hurt at all. Tired maybe, but I doubt he was hurt in the slightest.
 
Dude this is fucking nothing new, y’all were probably saying this about half of Benson Hendersons title defences a decade ago

And y’all probably complained about GSP laying and praying on opponents back in the day it’s nothing new
 
I've mentioned before that Valentina is basically a mix of GSP and late career Aldo; she has a complete fighting system in all areas like GSP, but she controls the pace and keeps it low the way Aldo does, if not even more so at times. Another thing she shares with Aldo is she likes to work in quick bursts on the feet with longer breaks in between sequences, they don't throw long combos unless the opponent's hurt and they're happy to stand around for 20-25 seconds without throwing anything.

I think that's accurate, but shev brought the inactivity to the extreme last night.

I'm not blaming her -- just calling it how i see it. I blame grasso. Seriously, does she even have a wrestling coach?
 
Valentina thought she got robbed by the judges last time so this time she made sure she won that fight. I do not blame her at all.

Merab did what he was supposed to do and what we expected.
 
I think that's accurate, but shev brought the inactivity to the extreme last night.

I'm not blaming her -- just calling it how i see it. I blame grasso. Seriously, does she even have a wrestling coach?

Here's where we come back to the GSP comparison; Valentina was hitting reactive doubles on Alexa, setting up her entry on the hips with striking sequences, punching straight into the takedowns, and basically using the GSP book of double leg takedowns. This is a skill set which has never been seen before amongst the women in the UFC and other organizations I've followed in the past 10-15 years, then consider that Valentina has the best speed & timing in the division along with above average strength. Not surprisingly her takedowns were about as unstoppable as GSP's. Put it this way, Valentina has a better takedown percentage than Tatiana Suarez who is generally considered as the best wrestler in WMMA. It's gonna take time for the women to figure out how to defend Suarez and Shevchenko's takedowns.
 
Here's where we come back to the GSP comparison; Valentina was hitting reactive doubles on Alexa, setting up her entry on the hips with striking sequences, punching straight into the takedowns, and basically using the GSP book of double leg takedowns. This is a skill set which has never been seen before amongst the women in the UFC and other organizations I've followed in the past 10-15 years, then consider that Valentina has the best speed & timing in the division along with above average strength. Not surprisingly her takedowns were about as unstoppable as GSP's. Put it this way, Valentina has a better takedown percentage than Tatiana Suarez who is generally considered as the best wrestler in WMMA. It's gonna take time for the women to figure out how to defend Suarez and Shevchenko's takedowns.

My issue was with Grasso not knowing how to wrestle up to her feet and barely even trying. She rarely tried turtling up, fighting the hands and the hook to get up. She was clearly content with playing guard. It was a very bad look for her, and I seriously do wonder if she has a wrestling coach because there's a lot of ways to get up that she didn't even attempt. I didn't see a wrestling coach in her corner, nor have I heard of one.
 
The highlight of the night for me was Bahamondes. I've never seen this dude and his record doesn't reflect how good he actually is. He's also HUGE for a LW.

2nd most impressive to me would be Souza. How fast she got to the back after hurting her opponent was lightning quick.

PS: top 2 fights were boring for me as well, no real urgency from O'Malley either.
 
My issue was with Grasso not knowing how to wrestle up to her feet and barely even trying. She rarely tried turtling up, fighting the hands and the hook to get up. She was clearly content with playing guard. It was a very bad look for her, and I seriously do wonder if she has a wrestling coach because there's a lot of ways to get up that she didn't even attempt. I didn't see a wrestling coach in her corner, nor have I heard of one.

I think she knows how since she was able to do it in previous fights vs. Valentina, however, she went for subs rather than scrambles this time and Val had also prioritized position control and keeping her grounded.
 
Shevchenko clearly had the advantage on the feet but decided to make it a hugfest for whatever reason.
No, she doesn't have an advantage on her feet, Grasso has much better boxing, knocking her down several times with punches in the second fight, which is why she had to resort to wrestling in the third.
 
If we accept that logic, it means the ex-champs were defeated by hugs. In that case they deserve to lose.
 
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