What happened to Bendo's grappling / clinch / submission game?

Back in the WEC, Bendo was an incredibly athletic grappler/wrestler/clinch artist who had good GnP, a fearsome guillotine, and solid kicks per his TKD background. He beat people up in close quarters.

You could pretty much count on him to physically dominate his opponents, but he was never a guy to strictly out-strike them, or to knock guys out on the feet. That approach carried over to his early UFC career, where we saw him just dominate Jim Miller in the 2nd half of their fight.

That Bendo hasn't been around since he wore the LW belt. He's still an incredibly physically imposing athlete, with tremendous lower- and upper-body strength. But for some reason, he doesn't try to apply his killer close quarters game.

The only time I saw Bendo clearly outstrike an opponent since he won the UFC LW strap was Nate Diaz, who like his brother have a stance that allows opponents to brutalize them with kicks to their front leg.

While I thought his front side kicks to the thigh and rear leg-to-rear leg kicks last night were slick, it's point fighting, and one can live or die by the sword doing that.

The old Bendo used to dominate opponents. And it's not like we can use the argument that the UFC competition is better, since the guys he fought in the WEC title fights were as good an anyone in the UFC.

Granted, we know Cowboy's wrestling game and TDD have come a long way since the WEC, and he's developed that nasty counter knee against wrestlers.

But I just can't figure Bendo out. It's like he left the part of his game that made him so fearsome on the wayside after getting to the LW title in the UFC.

 

Idk but I wanna say that since the Miller fight, his takedown game has declined and he's been forced to work in the clinch and stand with people that were able to match him in those areas(Frankie, Gil and Thomson most notably).

 

This is what happens when you fight the top 5, both fighters always look average. Look at Cowboy last night, win or lose, he didn't look like the Cowboy that beat up Jury. It doesn't mean he lost his skill set from 2 weeks ago, it means he faced someone of equal skill level.

 

Could have to do with him fighting Miller as opposes to those guys.

 

I was surprised last night that he didn't even seem to try and mix things up. Of course he may have just used his gameplan he developed for Eddie. But going for some takedowns wouldn't have hurt his chances of winning.

 

Cowboy is a tough dude, not easy to KO, and Benson had no obligation to just stand around and lose the fight because Cerrone lacked the skill to stop Benson from implementing his gameplan.

 

He either fell in love "with his hands" (feet really), or set out to prove a point. Either way it cost him the fight.

 

when did bendo fight nick diaz?

 

I hate to break it to you, but Cerrone did NOT outstrike Benson just because he kept coming forward after getting tagged. That is the biggest myth on these forums. He legitimately outlanded Cowboy in every round and the takedown in the second yielded nothing but ~25 seconds of time spent in top half guard, that doesn't win a round.

 

Its a different world when you're fighting, literally, the best guys in the world. But I hope next time he really gets aggressive and tries to dominate people like he used to. I hope the UFC gives him a big step down in competition so he can get some wins again.

 

I blame taking away his magic toothpick.

 

His gnp against Miller was pretty brutal iirc.

 

i had bendo winning but oh well. his takedowns have never really been THAT good and last night it looked like he wanted to prove he could strike with cowboy or something and didn't even try for a TD.

tbh i wish he would go back to a more ground oriented gameplan in the future/work on his takedowns.

 

well, he did win last night but got boffed. i don't see why he did not attempt even 1 td. needs to get back to wrestling

but i think his real issue is that he owns the gym he trains at

 

He's now a co-owner of MMA Lab?

 

Not to my knowledge, but I think the other guy wanted to say he is in a "yes, sir" type of camp.
I don't think that could happen in MMA Lab, that's a pretty big gym, but maybe a change could be good.

 

He beats up Cerrone on the feet to the point that Cowboy was looking for TDs and you're worried about his ground game?

He didn't even need it last night against a guy half of Sherdog thought was the second coming. Benson is doing just fine.

 

He just doesn't have that "it" factor anymore. Not sure what happened, but I would rather watch Jon Fitch fight.

 

Benson hasn't improved much because his point fighting got him up in the ranks in the UFC. All the other WEC fighters have been steppin up their games.

 

Don't get me wrong, Benson won the "fight". If he had landed a few takedowns, which he could have, the score would have been different.