Worst Admitted Game Plans

[DaveHilly]

I was just watching a top five Anderson KOs and it got me thinking about some of the worst game plans that fighters have admitted to have used during fights. The two most salient to me are these:

Anderson Silva vs. Rich Franklin 1.

Franklin went on record to say that part of his game plan was to get Anderson to get him into the thai plum clinch because he thought he'd be able to capitalize from there. He went on to getting kneed in the face immediately which lead to the end of the fight.

Franklin: When I went into the first fight with Anderson, because I'm a physically larger person than he is, I knew I would be stronger than him. So the idea in my camp was, because I'd seen him clinch in all his fights before, if he tries clinching with me, I'll welcome that all day long because I'm going to eat him up in the clinch. Before I fought him, I was so arrogant to think that.

Link

Dominick Cruz vs. TJ Dillishaw

After the fight TJ's coach Duane Ludwig came out and said that part of the game plan was to swing at air to set up other shots. This seems ridiculous looking back as Cruz's best shots and takedowns came off of TJ swinging at air and leaving himself prone to a suddenly charging Cruz.

"We're actually trying to miss these shots to create other openings," Ludwig said.

Link

What are some other crazy game plans that fighters have mentioned after their fights? Are there any times where they turned out to be successful?

 

[Leinster Rugby]

"I learned how to stop the take down but I forgot about getting punched in the face"!

Ken Florian

 

[M Raid K]

Sam Alvey said that he was planning to eat shots from Cezar Ferreira to eventually land his own. Basical brawler mentality, but he took it to the extreme level. I remember watching this and thinking "omg, Ferreira is destroying him" and of a sudden it was over after the first combination Alvey threw.

 

[Kneepocalypse]

Franklin the king of gameplans, telling Serra to drop to one knee lol.

 

[RoscoeRufus]

wondering how many times Tarverdyan gets mentioned in this thread...

 

[HoosTrax]

Cat Zingano:

"But she kept saying things like that so I said, 'OK, let's do this.' What better way to put on an epic fight than a flying knee? I expected us to continue to fight. I didn't realize we were going to do a jiu-jitsu match where I'm flying at her and all of a sudden she's going for my arm again. I guess that's one disappointment I had. If I had known she was going to be going for my arms, I would have gone about it differently. I agreed to her kind of fight instead of my kind of fight, and that won't happen again."

 

[DaveHilly]

Franklin the king of gameplans, telling Serra to drop to one knee lol.

I saw that when I was looking for that old quote. Why did he tell him to do that? I'm guessing that was in TUF 4 but I never saw it.

wondering how many times Tarverdyan gets mentioned in this thread...

Haha how did I forget about the Holm Rousey fight!

 

[Melas Chasma]

Penn against Edgar 3.

 

[Melas Chasma]

Cat Zingano:

There was nothing wrong in Cats flying knee. Just because Ronda capitalized it masterfully doesnt mean it was a bad move from Cat. People only say that because they hate to give Ronda the credit she deserves.

 

[SimonNova]

Zingano said something hilarious after that 14 secs debacle vs Ronda. I dont remember what she said exactly, it was like 'I never thought she would want to grapple' or something like that.

Edit : saw the post a bit above. LOL.

 

[DaveHilly]

There was nothing wrong in Cats flying knee. Just because Ronda capitalized it masterfully doesnt mean it was a bad move from Cat. People only say that because they hate to give Ronda the credit she deserves.

Part of what makes a game plan horrible is what your opponent is likely to do in response, though. We've seen in the past that Ronda is amazing at pulling off armbars out of nowhere in scrambles/transition. This was a foreseeable outcome.

 

[HHJ]

Serra/Lytle

 

[BisexualMMA]

After Bellator 149, Kimbo and his team admitted that his second round strategy of dropping to his knees and trying to distract Dada 5000 with fellatio was ill-conceived. He was lucky to get the win IMO.

 

[SimonNova]

There was nothing wrong in Cats flying knee. Just because Ronda capitalized it masterfully doesnt mean it was a bad move from Cat. People only say that because they hate to give Ronda the credit she deserves.

Rushing forward and throwing a flying knee at the beginning of a fight is basically 5% chance of a knockout and 95% chance at ending up at clinch range without proper balance. A sound gameplan vs a non sweety judo blackbelt who produces armbars from her ass.

 

[chubbman]

There was nothing wrong in Cats flying knee. Just because Ronda capitalized it masterfully doesnt mean it was a bad move from Cat. People only say that because they hate to give Ronda the credit she deserves.

Cat admitted to not thinking Ronda would go for the arm. That's just piss poor preparation leading to a shitty game plan.

 

[Boyka]

Miesha Tate vs Ronda Rousey 2.

After getting tossed over and over again, Tate still tries to clinch with Rousey to try and take her down.

 

[FeloniousMonk]

I remember the prefight build
up for Jorgensom's title shot
in the WEC against cruz.

When asked what his gameplan
was, homeboy legit said,
"I don't need one. I'll adapt."

What followed was just about
the Cruziest of all Cruz fights ever

 

[FeloniousMonk]

Rushing forward and throwing a flying knee at the beginning of a fight is basically 5% chance of a knockout and 95% chance at ending up at clinch range without proper balance. A sound gameplan vs a non sweety judo blackbelt who produces armbars from her ass.

"If you come across rogan's
head, you've gone too far. Now
posture up & get your arm out
of there!"

 

[Richard Fannin]

"I didn't realize we were going to do a jiu-jitsu match"
"I agreed to her kind of fight instead of my kind of fight"

kek, IDGAF about WMMA so I missed this gem, this chick is either a very sore loser or very stupid.
Damn, you're a pro MMA fighter who just fought for the title in the biggest org in the world and you release a statement like that?
That makes you and your trainers look like morons.

Also, "worst admitted game plan.... before a fight" : Fujita before Wand
"I don't know how I'll beat Wanderlei, I don't see any way to win so I'll rely on my thick skull and hope he gasses kicking me" (not exact quote, but it was something like that)

 

[Melas Chasma]

Rushing forward and throwing a flying knee at the beginning of a fight is basically 5% chance of a knockout and 95% chance at ending up at clinch range without proper balance. A sound gameplan vs a non sweety judo blackbelt who produces armbars from her ass.

Why you feel need to say "beginning of a fight", like that makes somekind of difference? It was a flying knee and thats it, fighters do that all the time and it doesnt matter at which point in a fight you throw it. If anything, the beginning is the safest time, since the opponent havent got time yet to get comfortable your movement and range and the chance it doesnt get countered is higher than later in fight. And if getting yourself inside a range where your opponent is at her/his best is enough to call that move stupid, by that criteria I could point out million "stupid moves" from fighters in almost every fight ever happened.

People act like the flying knee ended the fight. It was the masterpiece 10 sec performance from Ronda right after that which resulted Cat losing, not the knee. Fighters put themselves in potentially and theoritically dangerous positions ALL THE TIME in fights, it was all Ronda and her skills which made all the difference against Cat.