What if Barao came in with a wrestling game plan?

[Junior D S]

If you would've told me and most of the MMA fan community that Dillashaw was going to out strike Barao I would've called you insane. But something else that hasn't been brought to attention.. Barao defended every single one of Dillashaw's takedowns and he didn't just do it, but he did with with ease. Everytime Dillashaw shot or clinch Barao pushed him off like TJ had no wrestling game what so ever.

With such great TDD one has to wonder just how good would his offense be? Barao is obviously one strong motha f*cka. What if he at least tried for the takedown? He didn't even attempt one, and this is mixed martial arts! if TJ doesn't even have to think about the td then his stand up is going to be a lot easier on him. Barao didn't mix it up with takedowns, and if he did something tells me he could've got TJ down.

With how easily he defended I would've loved to see him shoot on TJ. Something tells me Barao has good wrestling if only he used it. Not only could that of thrown of TJ's striking but it would've made Barao so much more unpredictable. I believe Barao's choice on not wrestling makes it very easy for him to gameplan for.

We all know Barao has a great submission background to! I don't believe his corner even considered telling him to shoot which is weird to me. Nova has great coaches, but theirs a time where they had to notice being on the feet wasn't doing Barao justice. I would love to see a wrestling game plan if their is a rematch.

A lot of people say Barao just had an off night while TJ peeked perfectly for this fight. But at the end of the day we have to look at what it was. TJ was the better fighter then Barao. What do you sherdoggers think? Could Barao actually of done better if attempting a wrestling game plan? Because Barao's take down defense is so good, if not the best in the division could that mean his wrestling could be very underrated?

 

[countswagula]

Dede was constantly telling him to shoot after Rd. 2

 

[LordBarnaby**]

It wouldn't have mattered, Renan do Nascimento Mota Pegado's wrestling isn't as good as Dillashaw's so he would have failed there.

 

[Jew Jif Shoes]

I faintly remember him shooting once, but he was unsuccessful. I may be remembering incorrectly though.

 

[spid3yo]

Problem with that plan is that in a 5 round fight you have to get after that strategy from round 1. There is no way Barao goes into the fight thinking he's going to NEED offensive wrestling to survive and would start this fight as such; nor do I think he would have had much success from it. By the time he could have even attempted that plan mid fight it's round 3 and he's still on queer street. Don't see wrestling in the cards for Barao to use as a means to win that fight.

 

[Emjay]

Gassed

 

[theanticool]

I don't think he would have been able to close the distance to get in position to shoot.

Also his corner was begging for him to shoot after the 2nd round but Barao never even considered it.

 

[HIMBOB]

Throwing in some Takedown attempts would have done nothing but helped.

If they got stuffed who cares it would at least create something else for TJ to think about and hopefully put him off his game.

More leg kicks would have been good to slow TJ down, but really the lack of TDs was my biggest issue.

 

[HIMBOB]

I don't think he would have been able to close the distance to get in position to shoot.

Also his corner was begging for him to shoot after the 2nd round but Barao never even considered it.

On the rewatch there were times when they would exchange in some pretty wild punches and these were the one area Renan did better than TJ so he kept doing that, however these were the perfect times for Renan duck under and land a TD.

 

[frederick]

He was on auto pilot after the big punch in the first round.

 

[Selukrid612]

He shot multiple takedowns on McDonald and his offensive wrestling is clearly far behind his TDD.

 

[ravifreitas]

He shot multiple takedowns on McDonald and his offensive wrestling is clearly far behind his TDD.

He took him down and submitted him though, after some brilliant instruction by Dede. Also, Dede was asking for him to take TJ down. It was stupid to trad with TJ after realizing how good he was striking.

 

[Selukrid612]

I just looked up the FightMetric numbers, Barao went 4/10 on takedowns against McDonald, whose weakest area is wrestling.

 

[5H3RD0G]

I think his legs were done after the first, he has to work on defense and counters. TJ trains with TAM so it's not the easiest task to take him down either.

 

[VictorCosta]

Barao should fight Aldo fights.. Combo with leg kicks and wait to counter. Barao is too wild striker.

 

[Shammon]

I also thought that after getting blasted on the feet, he should have tried to take the fight to the ground.

Barao surprisingly has very good wrestling, most of what we've seen is defensive, but whatever. It shows he at least has the basics down very well.