Did Woodley have an ''off'' night?

Andrei Orlovski

Andrei Orlovski

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Or is Usman really that good? Woodley couldn't get anything going from the very first second of the fight. Maybe health issues or some stuff outside the cage with his personal life?
 
Came out with a crap gameplan.

He was banking on one of two scenarios: Connecting with the big right hand or catching Usmans neck shooting in.

Can’t fight a championship fight like that.
 
I think Marty's wrestling shut him down. He didn't seem to want to strike or go forward and he kept backing himself into the cage. Maybe he had a bad night but Marty's gameplan was solid and I think the better man won that fight
 
He had an off night and Usman is also that good. He was barely moving in there he didnt even remember he had a jab until like round 3.
 
It was a mix of both. Tyron wouldn't follow his corner's advice and Usman took advantage of Woodley's backing up style
 
Woodley had zero power on the clinch.. its not something you can fix,pure power.
 
if your corner repeatedly tells you to stop backing up to the fence and you keep doing it, you cannot chalk that up to an off night. woodley also always fights backing up, so it's something about his mindset and/or fight IQ.
 
He was simply beaten by a better fighter, with a better gamelan.

Not sure why this is so hard to understand? Woodley was never the 2nd coming like some tried to suggest. Since he fought Rory, no one had pressured him, and he hadn't been forced to wrestle. His TDD isn't as good as some would have you believe.

Good fighter for sure, but really hadn't evolved much. He's a wrestle boxer with limited cardio.
 
He had a bad night, but Usman kinda forced him into having a bad night if it makes sense?

Didn't look like he could get anything going at all and the pressure from Usman just made it worse
 
Maybe he's "off" the juice

Since the Jones stuff and USADAs claims that they can detect shit pulsing around your system for months (or even years ?!), I think a lot of guys will be having off nights.
 
Seemed like it. Usman still did a hell of a job.
 
Usman is just a better fighter.

Woodley was overrated. Seriously, people were calling him one of the best WWs of all time.

That said, the complete domination, that I did not see coming. I thought it would be more of a grind. But Usman is a better wrestler, and in particular is a monster in the clinch, especially in the early rounds. He just wears opponents down with relentless pressure. Often boring, always effective.
 
No, he wasn't off. He has always the same gameplan. stuff takedowns, throw a huge right hand and occasionally land a takedown with good ground and pound.
If you make Tyron work, you'll beat him. That's what both Rory and Shields did to him.
 
Brandon Wilson said:
He was simply beaten by a better fighter, with a better gamelan.

Not sure why this is so hard to understand? Woodley was never the 2nd coming like some tried to suggest. Since he fought Rory, no one had pressured him, and he hadn't been forced to wrestle. His TDD isn't as good as some would have you believe.

Good fighter for sure, but really hadn't evolved much. He's a wrestle boxer with limited cardio.
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This. It's baffling that people find this so hard to understand. Lawler? Striker. Wonderboy? Striker. Till? Striker. Maia? 1 dimensional bjj guy who Woodley ran from the whole fight.

He didn't face an opponent during his entire reign who a) wasn't afraid of getting taken down or b) could pressure him. Anyone who thinks he had an "off night" clearly hasn't seen his old fights because this has happened before. The guy won the belt in his mid 30s.... he didn't "drastically improve" at that age just like Cormier didn't become "another fighter" at HW... they faced better stylistic opponents who hid their weaknesses more.
 
Andrei Orlovski said:
Or is Usman really that good? Woodley couldn't get anything going from the very first second of the fight. Maybe health issues or some stuff outside the cage with his personal life?
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Sometimes a GOAT has a bad night. I mean, look at all the times GSP had a bad night and got dominated end-to-end including a couple of 10-8 rounds. It happens to the best of them.
 
His sprawl and brawl style just got shut down I think.

Hard to fight backing up trying to land big looping overhands if the guy is in your face holding you up against the cage and trying to take you down all fight.

Maybe if Woodley fought more aggressive and went for takedowns of his own to mix up the striking like Khabib did recently by dropping Conor but Woodley doesn't really fight that style and I think Usman's wrestling is probably better anyways.

He's also turning 37 next month so gonna be hard to hang with all these young fighters in their prime like Usman.
 
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Woodley is used to his opponents fighting cautiously.

Usman said “hold my beer” and just went full fucking throttle at him for 5 minutes with no hesitation.

Woodley was overwhelmed & had no answer, and then had no cardio to do anything about it.
 
it was a bit of both. Woodley looked slow and unsure and Usman was doing everything right for the way he was being fought.
 
Woodley fought the same way last night as he did vs Thompson, Maia, and Rory. He just had a tougher style match up this time.
 
No. This is par for the course. Constantly backing up, low output.

Vintage Woodley.
 
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