What does Du Plessis need to improve upon before fighting Strickland?

[Ares Black]

Let's just say for shits and giggles that doesn't happen...what happens then sir?

Serious question.

A war, hopefully

 

[StonedLemur]

A war, hopefully

I can fully support that answer sir lol.

 

[jeff7b9]

Feels like a lot of people are over rating Stricklands defense and acting as though Adesanya CHOOSING to stay at patty cake range is somehow indicitve of how a fight goes if someone takes the fight to Sean.

Sean does not have major power and it is a VERY realistic threat to simply walk him down and brawl.

Dricus is a major problem for Sean Strickland just fighting his regular ass normal fight he did his last few times out.

Cardio didn't help Sean when Alex knocked him out in round 1 and it won't save him if Dricus bullies the shit out of him and wins R1,2,3 with a 10-8 in there.



Gameplan: walk forward and throw haymakers til someone goes to sleep.
Dricus wins that fight more often than not.

 

[FreedomCricket]

DDP's game plan will be to take a shot to land a shot and turn Strickland's in the phone booth sparring into a brawl.

If I was DDP, I'd probably be talking mad shit too.

 

[ncboy]

trying to figure out what strickland improved between Alex and Izzy fights.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

I have never seen a Du Plessis fight so I pulled up his fight against Till. He looked gassed (although he's apparently had surgery with his nose that will help that). His ground control could use some work. Till reversed him at least once and he looked a bit sloppy on the feet.



What does Du Plessis need to improve upon before fighting Strickland?

HE needs to get better at mma.

 

[corrupted]

His cardio more than anything else IMO.

He matches up pretty well everywhere else

 

[Banana Tree's Nemesis]

“Just Strickland” lol

Not that he didn't beat Izzy fair and square, but even after clipping him hard, he couldn't even finish him with like 20 hard gnp shots and proceeded to win a decision that wasn't any more dominant than the usual decision wins that Izzy arguably likes to collect.

Dricus got a very convincing finish over Bobby, who hasn't lost to anyone other than Izzy at MW and lost the last fight by a razor thin decision which he arguably may as well have won.
Not that Strickland sucks, he's obviously putting things together atm, but it's not like he's showing things in there that we've never seen before.
His record does not read any more impressive than Dricus' imo.

 

[michi972]

I'm still not convinced about DDP. In Whittaker fight he proces he's legit, but other fights? He looked bad against Brunson, Till...

 

[michi972]

Who has he been defending takedowns from? The best wrestler he faced was a mediocre wrestler in Hermansson who has next to no boxing to help set his takedowns up, and even then, the threat of the takedowns alleviated some of the pressure that sean typically brings.

Magomedov just took sean down pretty easily one fight ago.

I don't think dricus even needs land the takedowns, but just make sean think about them. I'll never forget how absolutely confused Strickland looked against usman just from level change feints mixed with strikes.

I think Hermansson is better wrestler and grapplers than DDP

 

[fortheo]

I think Hermansson is better wrestler and grapplers than DDP

I think hermanson is a better grappler, but not a better wrestler and physically weaker than DDP. And as I said, his set ups to his takedowns are pretty bad and he mostly only goes for upper body takedowns. My point stands, though, because as I said, I don't think DDP needs to complete the takedowns -- he just needs to keep sean thinking about them to help set up other stuff.

 

[chinarice]

Other than his defense, he probably doesn't need to improve much. Dude gets tagged a lot but has a great chin and doesn't wilt after getting his bell rung.

I think he just needs to push Sean backwards. I don't think Sean is nearly as effective when he isn't able to walk forward.

 

[Combat Wombatt]

Other than his defense, he probably doesn't need to improve much. Dude gets tagged a lot but has a great chin and doesn't wilt after getting his bell rung.

I think he just needs to push Sean backwards. I don't think Sean is nearly as effective when he isn't able to walk forward.

Getting tagged a lot eventually catches up to you.



So he needs to tighten up his striking defense.



Also, how good is he off of his back if Strickland surprises everyone and takes him down?

 

[chardog]

Lol 1 moment in 1 fight...he just out pointed him the rest of the fight. Didn't go for the finish at any point after this moment.

as if it's easy to out point izzy. DDP is crafty, so we'll see what he does.