Yan must win. The Merab Meta Is Killing Bantamweight

[ninja boot]

You ignored the actual examples I gave. Explain the Aldo fight. Merab went 0 for 16 on takedowns but won because he held him against the fence. That isn't solving a puzzle, that is weaponized stalling.

The forcefield you’re talking about is the threat of the chain wrestling. You can't just throw a kick when the punishment isn't taking damage, but getting wet-blanketed against the cage for 4 minutes. It forces opponents into pure defensive grappling mode. It’s effective, sure. But pretending that watching a guy spam 25+ takedowns to secure zero finishes is elite fighting rather than elite gaming of the system is delusional.

that is exactly it. its tough to take big risks when the guy charging at you is relentless and extremely talented at creating dominant positions. someone is going to have to light Merab up with striking if they want to bump him off the top.

 

[jeskola]

The Merab Meta is basically a human infinite takedown glitch, and it’s horrible for the health of the division. He isn’t winning by out fighting fighters, he’s winning by exploiting the scoring system with weaponized, freakishly inhuman cardio. He’ll shoot 20+ times a fight, never slow down, and at some point you stop calling it “good conditioning” and start getting suspicious as to why his stamina is literally superhuman. The goal isn’t to secure clean takedowns, it’s to chain wrestle, cage push, knee your thighs and spam activity until the judges cave.

Look no further than the Aldo fight. Merab landed zero takedowns. Yet he won clearly just by pinning Aldo to the fence and shutting the fight down for 15 minutes. No damage, no real moments, just pure negation. You even saw it vs Cory Sandhagen. He actually had Cory hurt on the feet, and instead of going for the kill with strikes, he immediately went back to grappling and control. His instinct isn’t to end him, it’s to smother him.

If Merab keeps the belt, bantamweight will turn into a 25-minute cardio and clinch exam for every contender. Camps become “don’t get backpacked” seminars. We lose finishes, highlights, and violence, and get nothing but “hustle” and scorecards. That’s why a Yan win would be bigger than just his comeback story. If he beats Merab, he’s not just dethroning the champ, he’s saving 135 from an era of grinding, risk averse boredom.

Merab has grown on me and I enjoy his fights, miss me with this bullshit

 

[mirellale]

TBH I didn't even watch that fight as I have a wife and young kids and had to get them to bed before I could locate a stream of dubious legality and watch Costa/Rockhold and Usman/Edwards 2.

So this forcefield is a completely legal tactic, that has been utilized at some level, in the UFC since the mid-late 90s?

Aldo certainly was on the decline at that time but he should have had better hands, better kicks and maybe even better BJJ than Merab that point. It's not like Aldo didn't chew up wrestlers earlier in his career though that was sometimes aided by fence grabs and shots after the bell. Aldo's standup was always on another level compared to his opponents so he never had to do anything differently, maybe he should have played the ground game with Merab if his striking is neutralized.

This thread isn't really about Aldo though, the point is it takes 2 to tango. Do I wish Merab went for finishes more? Yup. Is it hard to finish top guys? Yup. Look no further than the endless threads we've had about Khamzat/DDP and Islam/JDM.

MMA is chess, not checkers so you know that someone will figure out Merab sooner rather than later.

The forcefield hasn't been utilized since the 90s because back then, failing 16 takedowns usually meant you lost the round or got exhausted. Merab is unique because he can fail repeatedly with zero cardio consequence. That is the glitch I’m talking about.

Saying it takes two to tango is a cop-out. It’s impossible to tango when one guy is solely focused on pinning your hips to the fence to score control time. That’s not fighting, that’s inhibiting the fight. If Yan wins, we get actual combat back.

 

[BowserJr]

So, you're saying that this guy has found a way of winning every single fight by doing stuff?

Here's the thing, and it applies to every single sport or even life itself: When someone is putting you down and beating you, find a way up. Don't complain.Don't call for a change of rules.

In a sport like basketball they created a shot clock cuz a team could go up by a few points and then just play keep away to run out the clock.

People dont watch fights in order to see one guy hold or "control" another. Just like people dont watch basketball to see grown men play monkey in the middle.

 

[mirellale]

Aldo is in my top five favorite fighters of all time, but he was always too content to just rely on superior defense and coast out rounds. He had that loss coming.

Wouldn't that be on the striker for failing to time the takedowns and openings? Why are we faulting Merab for being better than his opponents? Even if you negate his takedowns from the scoring, his opponents aren't doing anything other than getting worked over.

You have a very strange definition of getting worked over. Aldo left that cage without a scratch on his face. He wasn't battered, he was neutralized. That is the core of the problem.

Merab is definitely better than Aldo or any of his opponents at gaming the criteria. He relies on the fact that judges score attempted volume and wall pushing higher than they score defending successfully. If you shoot 16 times and fail 16 times, in any logical combat scenario, you fail. In the Merab meta, you win the round because you looked busy. That's a great cardio exhibition, but not a fight.

 

[gracie_barra_samurai]

I don't think Yan can do it.

Umar has the best chance but only if he starts training with the CEO of EPO

Merab's not too bad to watch. We won't see anyone in the future use the same style due to the cardio needs.

 

[Alpha_T83]

Just wait. This crotch sniffer meta is just getting started.

In a few years, we could have:

125: Mokaev
135: Merab
145: Evloev
155: Tsarukyan (or Usman Nurmagomedov)
170: Islam
185: Khamzat

 

[Superzorro]

If Yan wants to win, he needs a stoppage. Judges don't like the guy.

It’s because he lets his opponents touch him too much.

 

[Prazeres]

Merab winning by spamming takedown which he never gets much control out of letting more opportunity for transitional offence between him and the opponent creates more entertaining fights than more competent wrestlers relative to their opponents like Islam and Khamzat winning a fight by shooting once per round.
Is it a fighting style based purely on freak athletic ability and likely PED use? Yes, but nobody complained when Max was using his unreal cardio to spam more strikes than anybody else could.

 

[BjPenn2017]

This way of fighting is nothing new at all though, it existed before Merab and will exist long after him. Makhachev/JDM and Khamzat/DDP were also chores to watch, these things happen in MMA though it is not really worth getting hung up about.

Nobody seems to train fighting off their back anymore either, I hate to be that guy but you have to be dangerous everywhere. If all you do is train to get up, then your opponent will train to keep you down.

 

[Rampage_Jackson]

It’s called Ring Control/IQ which is one fourth of the scoring criteria.

the lowest scoring criteria

 

[Dobymick]

Cut all europeans

Cut all Russians

Cut everyone with an ethnic name

Just leave americans from the hood and brazillians from the favelas

Let's go back to old school

When we were happy

 

[Skarsgard]

You have a very strange definition of getting worked over. Aldo left that cage without a scratch on his face. He wasn't battered, he was neutralized. That is the core of the problem.

Merab is definitely better than Aldo or any of his opponents at gaming the criteria. He relies on the fact that judges score attempted volume and wall pushing higher than they score defending successfully. If you shoot 16 times and fail 16 times, in any logical combat scenario, you fail. In the Merab meta, you win the round because you looked busy. That's a great cardio exhibition, but not a fight.

Aldo was an outlier with Merab's fights. He arguably beat Merab, but that could easily be my bias coming through.
That doesn't really address the other fighters. More often than not, they're not defending the belt. They are getting beaten up.

 

[dubhlinn]

boring champ

 

[JustBleed69]

I honestly to God find Merab to be one of the most exciting fighters on the roster

 

[humdizzle]

Merab will eventually lose. I mean Umar broke his hand in round 1 and still managed a 48-47.

Moraes nearly tko'd him (it was worse than martins vs islam tbh).

 

[WoozyFailGuy]

In Merab's last fight against dangerous striker Sandhagen, only one of them was close to TKOing the other on the feet...

 

[TheMMAnalyst]

Nah. I want merab to defend against Yan, then defend against Umar again. These guys haven't learned their lessons yet

What lesson does each (Yan/Umar) still need to learn?

 

[FilipEmoFights]

Merab is in Dillashaws stash obviously

 

[FilipEmoFights]

What lesson does each (Yan/Umar) still need to learn?

Gotta stop being Russian