- Joined
- May 27, 2019
- Messages
- 1,627
- Reaction score
- 617
I can forgive the losses to gathje and oliviera, as far as I dont think losing to either should mean your not worthy of winning a title on any given night. This most recent loss brings a few things to mind for me.
Tony is officially on the decline. Losing to gathje/oliviera in their current forms could happen to anyone outside of maybe khabib. Prior to his loss to Dariush I might have argued he would win a rematch vs either.
Tony's ground game is tailor made vs only specific fighters. If your a good wrestler but not that active, or a bjj guy who doesn't have legit world class subs, tony will win the ground exchanges via higher output and scrambles.
Tony's output has dropped dramatically in the past few years. Also his elbows just dont seem to cut like they used to, if that's an angle or output or just better defense I'm not sure. Watching last night's fight I kept thinking one of those elbows from the bottom were going to slice dariush open but it just didn't happen.
Lastly I'm just sad that Tony will almost surely never get the undisputed title barring a run from here forward. One more loss probably sends him to bellator which I wouldn't even mind being that we may get to see some more of what made him so special vs a slightly lower level of competition.
What did other tony fans see am I missing something or is this really the end of tony as a top level contender.
Fyi I think dariush is great but hes not going to get a title either imo. Hes a top 5ish fighter and no one to overlook, but tony has been the boogeyman for so long this was surprising to me.
Tony is officially on the decline. Losing to gathje/oliviera in their current forms could happen to anyone outside of maybe khabib. Prior to his loss to Dariush I might have argued he would win a rematch vs either.
Tony's ground game is tailor made vs only specific fighters. If your a good wrestler but not that active, or a bjj guy who doesn't have legit world class subs, tony will win the ground exchanges via higher output and scrambles.
Tony's output has dropped dramatically in the past few years. Also his elbows just dont seem to cut like they used to, if that's an angle or output or just better defense I'm not sure. Watching last night's fight I kept thinking one of those elbows from the bottom were going to slice dariush open but it just didn't happen.
Lastly I'm just sad that Tony will almost surely never get the undisputed title barring a run from here forward. One more loss probably sends him to bellator which I wouldn't even mind being that we may get to see some more of what made him so special vs a slightly lower level of competition.
What did other tony fans see am I missing something or is this really the end of tony as a top level contender.
Fyi I think dariush is great but hes not going to get a title either imo. Hes a top 5ish fighter and no one to overlook, but tony has been the boogeyman for so long this was surprising to me.