While his TDD can use some work, he is so powerful off his back it doesn;t matter as much as it could. The one part of his game that he needs to round out to be a more complete fighter, imo, is his takedown.
Does he have takedowns at all?
He won the Stephens fight with 6 td's. He had 2 vs. Bendo and Roller. He's a career 76% shooter. That's Wilt Chamberlain territory.
But you explained one reason why he doesn't need td's much if at all anyway.
His game off his back. He's more of a threat to finish you than you are of him. He can also get up pretty much when he wants to with the sub threat, and sweep techniques. He just was too eager to finish Guida off his back when it ended there. If the emotions of his octagon debut weren't swirling, he'd have gotten up after sub misses. That's his M.O., as is fight I.Q.
Another reason obviously is his stand-up. Nobody has beaten him on the feet yet, so why not keep it there? The only real reason now that his tdd is pretty good and he'll have five rounds to finish is to counter opponents over-aggressive in the striking. That's when he took down Bendo and Roller.
There is no reason to even think about looking for td's offensively until his top game is better. What we've seen so far is extremely vanilla. Weak gnp and subs. And when you shoot you're gambling you don't get hit with a flying knee, uppercut, or locked guillotine. With his high-level striking defense, chances are better he avoids the kill shot if he stays at kicking distance, circles, counters, then clinches onrushing opponents.
