Was Max getting better or it's just styles make fights

[Titan1980]

I didnt see anything that would merit saying Max was better. He is a very elite fighter already. And adding a spin kick for an opponent that has a weakness that could be exploited should be par for him. I thought Gaetche would do better but his output was low to begin with and had a bad habit of ducking low to his right everytime he entered into an exchange. Then he took serious damage at the end of the first that obviously took 2 rounds to shake off.

 

[jko1355]

I'm so sick of people acting like Max got dogged by porier in their second fight.... it was a close fight where max landed more but not as hard... also in the last two fights Max chose to bite down and throw and knocked guys out why he wasn't known for knockouts is he didn't swing like that.... the most impressive part is Max has been deciding to throw hard and still uses head movement...

 

[Rod Farva]

Max stayed out of range perfectly. Justin couldn’t find his range.

 

[Harlekin]

Gaethje landed a great kick on Dustin. But he got hurt before and Dustin was trying too hard. Giving Gaethje opportunities, instead of countering and using more footwork.
Gaethje also was circling way better against Dustin II.

Max had way better footwork than Gaethje. Volk has even slicker footwork

 

[josh345]

A bit of both.

 

[KoreanZawmbie]

Justin had problems with distance. Might have been the eyepokes and broken nose, but his volume was low and he missed too much. Max looked great.

Lets not act like eyepokes are purposeful. JG poked Dustin's eyes out pretty bad in their first fight as well.

 

[KoreanZawmbie]

Gaethje landed a great kick on Dustin. But he got hurt before and Dustin was trying too hard. Giving Gaethje opportunities, instead of countering and using more footwork.
Gaethje also was circling way better against Dustin II.

Max had way better footwork than Gaethje. Volk has even slicker footwork

JG has only one huge weapon that he finds massive success with against all strikers, and that is his low kicks. The only guy I've ever seen JG piece up strictly with boxing was Tony, but Tony's striking defense to his face is damn near non-existent.

Against Baboon twice he destroyed the legs first,
against Max he was spamming his low kicks
against DP twice he was spamming the low kicks
MJ the same
Chandler the same
Rafael the same.

 

[Hairrow]

The latter

 

[DapperDave]

Am I the only one who thought that was a super flukey win all in all? Gets super lucky with that spinning kick right at the end of the round and destroys Gaethje's nose, then lands 2 eyepokes. The finish was fucking epic, but come on. I know breaking someone's nose is a thing, but it just felt like Gaethje had some fucking voodoo curse on him or something

In the lead-up to the 3rd Volk fight, there was an interview where Max tried to scream in the mike and he squeaked like a mouse. It was telling, I thought.

IMO, Volk had his number and Max kinda knew it, and it showed in the ring, especially the third fight.

Generally, Max seems mentally strong, well-prepared, and obviously skilled. But he is not bomb-proof. No one is.

Lucky nose-break and two eye pokes ain't meaningless. (The spinning attack was not lucky. The lucky part is where it shattered Gaethje's nose.)

Before the fight, I thought Gaethje wins 8 of 10 against Max.
Now I'm like 7 of 10.