Many people are not getting it. Sure, you can argue that not taking more frequent fights against lower competition didn't help his development. You can argue that a huge seasoned vet like RDR was simply too big of a leap. You can argue that he's still very early in his UFC career.
But the bottom line is I think you'd be missing the point: he simply isn't world class level talented for MMA. Period. He literally hasn't had any significant improvements in the past couple years. He's close to his ceiling already.
This is not a situation like Brock Lesnar where you're like holy fuck this talent level is insane and he's just still so raw. This isn't a guy who made the massive leaps like we saw in Brock vs Mir 1 vs 2, going from getting subbed to one of the most dominant ground performances in MMA history. This isn't Chris Weidman knocking out Uriah Hall and treating Mark Munoz like he never wrestled a day in his life, taking short notice fights with massive last minute weight cuts and and still coasting over Maia. This isn't Khamzat where you can blatantly see the incredible athleticism (for MMA) in the way that he moves around the cage and manipulates opponents.
Striking is one thing, and you can't expect Bo's to be super developed yet, but in MMA he's simply not a dominant grappler either. In modern MMA, it's also pretty much a prerequisite at this point to be incredibly tough mentally and physically durable. No one could question his mental toughness as a wrestler, to go through the grind to become a world class wrestler, you have to be tough beyond imagination....but that's apparently a different form of toughness than being Big Nog or Evander Holyfield in combat sports.
I see absolutely no reason to believe he will come back from this loss much stronger. At least with Aaron Pico, you could see the extreme physical talent for MMA from the beginning, he just lacked the defense and/or durability. I don't think he'll reach the highest level in the UFC because of those deficits, but I think he's much more talented than Bo for MMA.
It's like people have forgotten that guys like Jake Rosholt and Ed Ruth existed (though I would still say Ruth is more talented for MMA than Bo). Maybe they didn't have as much international wrestling experience as Bo, but who fucking cares at that point? They both won 3 NCAA titles each! At that point, does it really matter in an MMA context if Bo is a bit better in straight wrestling? It's virtually meaningless. And heck we've seen wrestlers like Aliakbari that are much more accomplished than Bo in international wrestling, plus are in the much more shallow HW division, and still are middle of the pack fighters. Aliakbari simply isn't supremely talented for MMA despite being astoundingly talented for wrestling at the highest levels of world competition. Why should it be surprising that Bo is in a similar position?
It reminds me of when people on Sherdog were arguing that Brock would beat Cain because he won an NCAA title while Cain's highest placement was 4th....and they somehow didn't realize how absurd that argument is. First of all, they didn't even wrestle in the same years, and second of all, the difference between 1st place and 4th place matters in straight wrestling....but within the context of MMA with all the other factors, that slight difference is absolutely meaningless.
They were also acting like Bilyal would walk in and he invincible in MMA simply due to his wrestling background. We never got to see it happen, but it wouldn't be that shocking if he got KO'd by Tim Johnson. You just never know.
