Dern, Ortega..and all BJJ players in general.

Maia was pretty good at it sir.
Maia still routinely struggled against wrestlers despite dedicating the bulk of his training time to TDs.

Most bjj people do TDs. It's just hard to play that game against high level guys. Being a good wrestler isn't always enough to implement your bjj unfortunately.
 
The problem is simple: MMA has evolved in the last 10 years to where most fighters in the top 10 are well rounded with no glaring holes in their game. You hit a ceiling now being a specialist because everyone has some level of striking, TDD, and BJJ defense. And getting competent at defending takedowns/subs takes a lot less time than becoming an expert at wrestling or BJJ. Putting all your time into training BJJ just means you get negated by anyone you can't take down. Focusing on BJJ didn't even work for guys like Maia who were the best in the world, there will never be another BJJ specialist that holds in a UFC title.
 
If only it was that simple. A blast double leg takedown is a very explosive movement and many BJJ players lack those fast twitch muscle fibers. They have the squeeze of an anaconda, but the movement of a sloth.
They can be effective from the clinch like Damien Maia using trips and sweeps, but it’s quite difficult to get a takedown on someone that is expecting it.
Most elite grapplers that are successful taking people down have learned how to chain their striking into takedowns. But multitudes more have not.
A lot of elite bjj guys don’t really look in that great of shape. They don’t seem to lift weights or focus on explosive workouts
 
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