Why blame Blaydes for taking down and controlling Volkov, instead of blaming Volkov...

[moreorless87]

Changing the system is one way of resolving this problem. Another one is to just develop wicked BJJ like Brian Ortega for example.

Nobody is shooting on that guy. When you have that kind of BJJ, no one can do to you what Blaydes did to Volkov tonight.

Its not Blaydes fault that Volkov isn't skilled enough to threaten him on the ground.

That is one obvious problem with HW especially, guys like Werdum, Nog and Fedor who were truly dangerous on their backs all had that skillset pre MMA, to reach that level whilst MMA training is I'm guessing beyond most fighters.

I would say also that HW in recent years simply hasn't had much in the way of good wrestling talent around, a lot of fighters have gotten to a high level ranking wise without ever having to face a decent wrestler, not something that would have happened 10-15 years ago were either good TD defence or good sub grappling was needed. Its not even a lack of actual wrestlers IMHO but just wrestling as a whole that's bad at HW with so many old fighters.

I would say for Bladyes he should probably be working more on ground offence though, partly PR wise to build his career but also in this fight he was at risk late in the match when he tired.

 

[20falarVerdades]

Changing the system is one way of resolving this problem. Another one is to just develop wicked BJJ like Brian Ortega for example.

Nobody is shooting on that guy. When you have that kind of BJJ, no one can do to you what Blaydes did to Volkov tonight.

Its not Blaydes fault that Volkov isn't skilled enough to threaten him on the ground.

BJJ guys usually less than 5 minutes to work a submission. The odds of a skilled wrestler being caught in a sub is very low, specially if they are shooting in the end of the round and against the cage. It's literally point fighting

The 10-point system is clearly optimized for lay n pray wrestlers, just look at GSP

 

[Karuzo]

That is one obvious problem with HW especially, guys like Werdum, Nog and Fedor who were truly dangerous on their backs all had that skillset pre MMA, to reach that level whilst MMA training is I'm guessing beyond most fighters.

I would say also that HW in recent years simply hasn't had much in the way of good wrestling talent around, a lot of fighters have gotten to a high level ranking wise without ever having to face a decent wrestler, not something that would have happened 10-15 years ago were either good TD defence or good sub grappling was needed. Its not even a lack of actual wrestlers IMHO but just wrestling as a whole that's bad at HW with so many old fighters.

I would say for Bladyes he should probably be working more on ground offence though, partly PR wise to build his career but also in this fight he was at risk late in the match when he tired.

Fights like these are just part of the game in today's state of MMA.

You really can't blame the guy who won for doing what he had to do to win, though.

What do these fans expect? Blaydes to go in there and get KO'd for their entertainment? Or gas himself out trying to get a GNP finish in a 25 min fight?

LOL!

 

[Karuzo]

BJJ guys usually less than 5 minutes to work a submission. The odds of a skilled wrestler being caught in a sub is very low, specially if they are shooting in the end of the round and against the cage. It's literally point fighting

The 10-point system is clearly optimized for lay n pray wrestlers, just look at GSP

I agree that the current system is optimized for wrestlers, but there are still certain guys that even high level wrestlers want nothing to do with on the ground.

We have never seen the likes of Maia, Burns, Werdum, Ortega, Oliviera get controlled on the ground like Volkov did tonight. And they have fought plenty of high level wrestlers.

Ortega almost caught Frankie in a guillotine. Werdum submitted Cain and Fedor. etc.

 

[Karuzo]

The only thing that's sorta weird was how Curtis basically told people he was going to intentionally make it a boring wrestling match and not to watch.. That is what I want to look into right now.

Why alienate fans, try to purposely turn them away and reveal a dull game plan going in? I mean there is different ways to look at it but it seem to do him very much good here.

He's an alright guy, he doesn't really pretend to be someone he isn't I just feel like he's bitter about the state of the division and he's going a certain route to rebel against it, in only a way he knows how to.

I mean would you have preferred it if he said he was going to get a 1st round tornado kick KO?

Do you like being lied to?

Maybe Curtis just doesn't give a shit and wants to keep it 100% real.

How are you going to complain about a fighter saying what he is going to do, and then going in and doing exactly what he said? Lol...

 

[Deleted member 510653]

I mean would you have preferred it if he said he was going to get a 1st round tornado kick KO?

Do you like being lied to?

Maybe Curtis just doesn't give a shit and wants to keep it 100% real.

How are you going to complain about a fighter saying what he is going to do, and then going in and doing exactly what he said? Lol...

Well, that decision probably set him back further than going forward with his win did, but these young guys gotta learn the hard way sometimes. Not everyone is a promotional genius, but I don't think many people are gonna be in a rush to watch a Curtis Blaydes fight in the future.

 

[moreorless87]

Fights like these are just part of the game in today's state of MMA.

You really can't blame the guy who won for doing what he had to do to win, though.

What do these fans expect? Blaydes to go in there and get KO'd for their entertainment? Or gas himself out trying to get a GNP finish in a 25 min fight?

LOL!

Developing the ability to make distance on the ground for greater power is probably something Blaydes should focus on more plus build up his sub game, if only to make it harder for opponents to escape.

Again for me someone like Volkov is actually lucky he's fighting at HW in the era he is were so few opponents will punish his weakness, were he around 10-15 years ago I think he'd have been pulped or subbed or decisoned a lot more.

I think actually his big problem for his skill set is that he's not dangerous enough when he is standing, guys who've worked the game of defending from their backs successfully like say Anderson or Wanderlei were savages when the fight was standing who could finish quickly. Volkov has power but he's too passive so even when Blaydes was tired late in the fight he couldn't really exploit it.

 

[TeenageMutantLesnarTurtle]

Neither of them are particularly great tbh, nor is Rozenstruik, Lewis, Ivanov, Harris etc. Blaydes is probably the best of an unremarkable bunch. Theres a huge drop off after Stipe/DC/Ngannou.

 

[Safton]

Neither of them are particularly great tbh, nor is Rozenstruik, Lewis, Ivanov, Harris etc. Blaydes is probably the best of an unremarkable bunch. Theres a huge drop off after Stipe/DC/Ngannou.

As a Blaydes fan I agree. He's the biggest fish in a small pond (the pond being the HW division below the Top 3 you named). I feel like he is young enough and has sufficiently untapped potential to be more than this, but as of yet it's not realized.

 

[Karuzo]

Neither of them are particularly great tbh, nor is Rozenstruik, Lewis, Ivanov, Harris etc. Blaydes is probably the best of an unremarkable bunch. Theres a huge drop off after Stipe/DC/Ngannou.

Neither is Francis, really.

Stipe showed that he is in a completely separate class when they fought. Francis did absolutely nothing in their fight.

HW is shit lol.

 

[gevoudane]

I blame Blaydes for not being able to do anything on the ground., He's suppose to be the next big thing. But I doubt it.

 

[Sticko]

What Blaydes wants to do in top position is posture up and rain elbows from above. However he couldn't do that because of Volkov's defense. Volkov was keeping his guard closed which controls Blaydes' hips but makes it almost impossible to land any submissions or do anything offensive. He was also trying to maintain wrist control on both arms, preventing strikes but with no ability to create offense of his own. This defense is basically stalling.

 

[LetThemBleed]

Thought Herb could have stood them up a few more times tbh. Blaydes did very little damage with gnp. Whilst he clearly won he's not getting a title shot anytime soon after a performance like that.

 

[thobra]

Complaining about how Blaydes fought is just silly. It is the same as everyone complained about GSP.

Every fighter will do their best to win. This was Blaydes way to win. He just did his job as good as he could. In the UFC winning is more important than being exciting. He will get his title shot soon.

 

[usernamee]

I'm a big Blaydes fan. But it would've been nice with a little bit more than 1 punch every 30 seconds on the ground.

Also a bit surprised of how fucking gassed Curtis was, he has great cardio, I thought he would look a little better late in the fight. He looked legit panicked when he couldn't get TDs a couple of times late in the fight.

 

[Natesblackshirt]

Oh you dont think volkov showed a good ground defense? COOOOL story bruhhhhh

Not really, holding someone’s posture and arms isn’t that difficult his guard was non existent from an offensive or “I need to stand the hell up” perspective.

 

[HI SCOTT NEWMAN]

That is exactly what I said in a post earlier!!!.

Some of those takedowns were not well timed, but Volkov has always has this bad TDD issue, since his Bellator days. its on him too

 

[Celeron]

Dana came out and criticized Curtis Blaydes for his performance against Volkov, and a couple of people on the forum seem to agree.

My questions is, why should Curtis get the full blame for a boring fight, specifically why is it always the wrestles fault? If Volkov can’t Implement his game plan, cant keep Curtis off him, cant stop the takedowns, shouldn’t it be more on him than Curtis for why the fight turned out boring?

What Dana and other are asking Curtis to do which is really beyond dumb is to stop implementing an effective game plan. “Hey Curtis even though it’s the other guys responsibility to stop you from doing it, we want to you to willingly stop because it’s boring”

Don’t get mad at the winner cause the loser couldn’t counter, and besides everyone is entitled to a boring fight or two, which GSP, Anderson and others have had plenty of.

Curtis did what he was supposed to do and got the job done. Now if he lost by fighting that way then I probably would agree with the criticism, but he won so that’s all the counts.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

The frustrating thing with Blaydes is that if you watch him in the Overeem fight he's clearly capable of opening up offence and KOing people with ground and pound. That was against a guy who's dangerous off his back too, so I have no idea why he plays it so safe.

It's fine from a competition standpoint, but if he wants to make big money, then people have to want to watch him perform and I doubt he gained a single fan last night.

I'm a pretty big Blaydes fan and back him frequently on this forum too.

 

[Peli]

This is a sport but its also entertainment. Curtis blayde is not a draw and people would be okay if he skipped a title shot. No one is paying to see that. That being said, he has had some finishes so this is just one ugly looking win.

That being said, his win in abu-dhabi, he dominated but man was that fight boring too even though he got the TKO. imo, the guy is a very boring fighter in the ring and outside the ring.