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UFC 214: Cormier vs Jones 2


wandshogun09

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23 hours ago, Noah Southworth said:

I can see Woodley vs. Maia being a modern day version Shamrock vs. Severn. Woodley is going to be worried that if he gets too close, Maia could get hold of him, get him down and start tiring him out. And Maia is going to be worried that if he gets too close, Woodley could land the one big punch he needs to end it. As a result, I expect a lot of tentative circling and neither fighter being willing to make the first move.

You're probably going to be spot on, sadly. Unless one man gets after it early doors, it may very well just turn into a dance, featuring the occasional air jab.

Although, Maia seems to hesitate far less, these day, now he's on such a run of wins. He seems confident he can take down any man. I think his last fight will do him some good too, because he showed he can stick with it for many rounds against a very good fighter.

I seem to be one of the few non-racists on here, as I quite like Woodley. However, I'd be gutted for Maia if he has a poor showing.

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I actually see it more so going in a way where Maia rushes Woodley early. I don't see him standing his distance at all as that plays right into Woodley's hands. When Woodley lands those huge rights, he lunges from a huge range. 

Whether he can take Woodley down is another matter, but he certainly won't wait till Woodley gets a real sweat going making it even more of nightmare to get it to the ground.

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Maia definitely needs to be aggressive, early doors, mostly because his smothering style is going to test the cardio of Woodley. Again, Cruz did a grand job, during the 2nd Woodley/Wonderboy fight, breaking down Woodley's style and, seemingly, lack of activity; it all comes down to him looking to explode with power - he needs to fight that way, because he's a big fella with a somewhat limited cardio level. Woodley's nightmare opponent is probably someone that will grind him down for a few rounds, as he's not getting the opportunity to pick his moments.

Maia loves to smother guys too.

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I had a rare free house last night and decided to stick on Fight Pass for a while, and one of the fights I happened to re-watch was Gustafsson v Jones. Whilst it was a close fight, and if it had of been able to go another round I think Jones could have stopped Gusty, I found it crazy that no judge gave Gustafsson the fight or even a draw.

I had it 48-47 for Gustafsson, with only the fifth round being a definite for Jones, and one other that I could have given him, but equally could have given it to Gustafsson. Jones landed a spinning back elbow in the last minute of the round, I can't remember now if it was the 3rd or 4th, and after that had Gustafsson in trouble. But Jones was also losing the first four minutes of that same round to my eye, so that was a difficult one.

It was a hell of a fight and I think the sooner the re-matches happen between Cormier/Jones, Jones/Gusty and Cormier/Gusty, the better. These three are so good that it would be almost criminal if none of those match up's end up producing a trilogy. 

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Thing I've observed about Maia (I could be wrong, so feel free to correct) is that he doesn't just smother; he constricts. He's the grappler's equivalent of a pressure striker, forcing his opponents to expend energy defensively. They're not just fighting to get into a more active situation, or to get out of being neutralised, they're fighting to fend off his submission attempts, which they know could come out of absolutely nowhere. In the same moment, he's got them fighting to avoid losing, and thus stopping them from going on the offensive.

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No you're right, that's exactly what makes him such a nightmare to fight. I'd say guys like Jake Shields and Jared Rosholt would fall more under the 'smothering' description than Maia does. Maia's game seems to offer more of an actual threat and you have to constantly struggle to survive. If you watch BJ Penn in his prime, his BJJ is similar in that respect. Constant pressure, often using body triangle from the back mount position to fuck up your breathing and endless strikes and submission attempts. Must be a fucking miserable experience fighting someone like that who's that good at it. I've always said, as bad as it is for you, I'd rather get knocked out. 

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I am so much more interested in Woodley/Maia than I am in DC/Jones II. Whilst it is possible that Woodley and Maia could be defensive bore, there are so many different ways the fight could play out and either fighter could win. With DC/Jones II, even though it’s technically possible DC could win, especially if Jones has slipped or is as rusty in this comeback as he was in last one, I don’t believe for one second that he will. I don’t believe DC will win, I have no interest in watching someone like Jones win, so my interest in their fight is negligible.

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This isn't because I dislike him (and I do, so very much), but I don't find Jones' style all that exciting to watch. It's intriguing, certainly, like watching somebody unlock puzzles with skill, but it just doesn't "ring" for me. Not particularly a fan of DC's style either.

BTW, is there any fighter with the nickname "Marvel"? Would be up for seeing him fight DC just for the stupidity of it.

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I've updated the opening post and previewed the Woodley vs Maia and Cyborg vs Evinger fights now. 

Don't know what I've done to the poll though. Tried to amend it and now it's gone completely and when I try to edit it there's no option to redo the poll. 

Fuck it. 

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3 hours ago, Carbomb said:

Thing I've observed about Maia (I could be wrong, so feel free to correct) is that he doesn't just smother; he constricts. He's the grappler's equivalent of a pressure striker, forcing his opponents to expend energy defensively. They're not just fighting to get into a more active situation, or to get out of being neutralised, they're fighting to fend off his submission attempts, which they know could come out of absolutely nowhere. In the same moment, he's got them fighting to avoid losing, and thus stopping them from going on the offensive.

 

3 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

No you're right, that's exactly what makes him such a nightmare to fight. I'd say guys like Jake Shields and Jared Rosholt would fall more under the 'smothering' description than Maia does. Maia's game seems to offer more of an actual threat and you have to constantly struggle to survive. If you watch BJ Penn in his prime, his BJJ is similar in that respect. Constant pressure, often using body triangle from the back mount position to fuck up your breathing and endless strikes and submission attempts. Must be a fucking miserable experience fighting someone like that who's that good at it. I've always said, as bad as it is for you, I'd rather get knocked out. 

We're dealing with semantics, here, but we all agree on the same thing. By "smother", I do mean, once he gets you, he's all over you - we saw with the last fight that even if he can't get the positions he wants, he'll still keep a hold of you until the last.

It's a right bugger for anyone, but particularly a fighter with potential cardio issues.

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8 hours ago, ColinBollocks said:

It's a right bugger for anyone, but particularly a fighter with potential cardio issues.

Definitely. But at the same time, Maia isn't a cardio freak himself. His cardio isn't terrible or anything, far from it. But I don't think Maia has ever dealt with a wrestler with quite the same physical strength, power and athleticism that Woodley has. He dominated Jon Fitch and Chael Sonnen but I don't think either of them match Woodley's physical/athletic attributes. Nor did they bring the KO threat. I guess the nearest opponent to Woodley that Maia has faced was Rick Story. He's a tank and strong as fuck but Maia buzzsawed straight through him. I'd love it if he could do that to Woodley but I have my doubts.

I just think Woodley is going to be very difficult to take down early on when he's fresh. And then you wonder how much energy Maia is going to burn trying to take him down and how it might effect his conditioning if the fight goes late. 

Its such an intriguing fight style-wise. 

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Fair enough about the semantics thing; the main reason why I was differentiating was because people had been using the term to describe the styles of people like Jake Shields, Jared Rosholt, Jon Fitch, Phil Davis, Ryan Bader and whatnot, so I just wanted to point out that I think Maia's style is a lot more active and threatening than theirs.

If the other guys are human blankets, Maia is a human boa constrictor.

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