UFC 185 was awesome, let's talk about it

[a guy]

Pettis should have switched to southpaw stance in that fight

It's not like RDA has trouble against southpaws, he mauled 3 of them in a row before Pettis, even knocked out two of them in the first round. He kicks just as well with his right leg as with his left, and has a nasty jab and right hook. Pettis was losing that fight either way.

 

[MuffinGod11]

No way, and that's not a knock on Joanna. What RDA did was nothing short of amazing, and he did it against a MUCH higher level striker in Pettis. His performance was about as complete as it gets, both on the feet and on the ground.

That said, Joanna looked fantastic. Her TDD was beautiful. She was sprawling on angles and defending Esparza's attempts to transition with such fluidity. Her ability to bait then counter punches on the feet, her measured pressure and her cage cutting/control of distance made Esparza completely ineffective. It's hard to overstate just how terrifying it feels to have someone who fights like Joanna in front of you. You get the sense that they want to hurt you, very badly, but they're going to do it in a way that ensures there's nothing you can do about it. There's a sense of inevitability, of helplessness. It takes some real balls to handle that pressure.

I'm replying you here from the Joanna thread in the Heavies because it would get lost in there lol.

I think talking about pure striking Joanna is much better than RDA. I don't think Pettis is as high level as Joanna in general terms, Joanna is much more well rounded striker than Pettis. Pettis footwork against the cage was terrible, either he was too lazy or he has no defensive footwork other than circling squared up to the cage.

He's almost purely an out-fighter, he can't strike in the pocket, he just winged punches head down and RDA beat him up. Pettis has much better kicks sure but Joanna overall standup game is way better, and she has better TDD, both when she's against the cage and vs shots in the middle of the cage.

Joanna's boxing is also sharper, her distance management and use of footwork is superior, not a lot of wasted movement.

I think Pettis is really great when he gets his stuff going but he gets pressured and then it's goodnight. I really like him and fun to watch but for me he lacks on aspects of his standup game.

Idk just my 2 cents lol.

 

[a guy]

I'm replying you here from the Joanna thread in the Heavies because it would get lost in there lol.

I think talking about pure striking Joanna is much better than RDA. I don't think Pettis is as high level as Joanna in general terms, Joanna is much more well rounded striker than Pettis. Pettis footwork against the cage was terrible, either he was too lazy or he has no defensive footwork other than circling squared up to the cage.

He's almost purely an out-fighter, he can't strike in the pocket, he just winged punches head down and RDA beat him up. Pettis has much better kicks sure but Joanna overall standup game is way better, and she has better TDD, both when she's against the cage and vs shots in the middle of the cage.

Joanna's boxing is also sharper, her distance management and use of footwork is superior, not a lot of wasted movement.

I think Pettis is really great when he gets his stuff going but he gets pressured and then it's goodnight. I really like him and fun to watch but for me he lacks on aspects of his standup game.

Idk just my 2 cents lol.

I don't really disagree with anything you said, but I think Pettis is still a better striker than Joanna. He's more limited, but on the other hand he's more specialized. He's so dangerous with what he does that most people either get broken by his kicks or rocked by his crisp punches in a matter of minutes. RDA is the only one who took away the kicks with pressure and did it without running into counter punches that halted his momentum. It took a ton of skill on his part to pull that off, because Pettis still had excellent timing. Essentially I believe that Joanna has a bit more varied skillset and is better in some areas, but Pettis is just so good at what he does that he's the better striker overall anyway.

 

[AllKickboxing]

It would be interesting to see how Khabib, who I feel has a strong chance of beating Cowboy, will do in a rematch against RDA. I think RDA has improved dramatically since Khabib out-grappled him in April 2014. RDA can counter Khabib's reckless outside strikes, especially his flying knees, by cutting off the cage and not giving the Dagestani room to work.

 

[a guy]

It would be interesting to see how Khabib, who I feel has a strong chance of beating Cowboy, will do in a rematch against RDA. I think RDA has improved dramatically since Khabib out-grappled him in April 2014. RDA can counter Khabib's reckless outside strikes, especially his flying knees, by cutting off the cage and not giving the Dagestani room to work.

I think Cerrone is an extremely tough test for Nurmagomedov. A lot of people are looking past that and assuming Khabib will be fighting for the belt, but I think Cerrone has a good chance at winning that fight.

I am also interested to see that rematch though. Defensive wrestling is the last area of dos Anjos' game that needs improvement in my opinion. He's been taken down by a lot of past opponents, but I also think he'll be way better in that area by the time he meets Khabib again. Plus with his improved pressure game, I think he could counter those reckless strikes while walking Khabib down--provided he has the confidence in his wrestling. And speaking of Khabib, after that fight I bet he's feeling pretty good about his chances against Pettis.

 

[sickc0d3r]

It would be interesting to see how Khabib, who I feel has a strong chance of beating Cowboy, will do in a rematch against RDA. I think RDA has improved dramatically since Khabib out-grappled him in April 2014. RDA can counter Khabib's reckless outside strikes, especially his flying knees, by cutting off the cage and not giving the Dagestani room to work.

I'm just as interested in a Cerrone rematch. I thought Cowboy took the momentum away from RDA in the second round of their fight and kept it, and if he can come on strong like that in a rematch maybe he wins a 5 rounder. Unlike Pettis who I look at as more of a sniper, Cowboy is comfortable with the pressure style that RDA brings. And he's already shown that he can grapple with him.
Full disclosure, I'm a big fan of Cowboy and want to see him get that belt.

 

[AllKickboxing]

I think the loser of Khabib vs. Cerrone will fight Pettis while Gilbert Melendez fights Michael Johnson. I think the pressuring style of Johnson and Melendez can challenge RDA's own pressure game more so than other opponents aside from Khabib with his aggressive Sambo. Styles really make the upper tier matches at lightweight and Henderson is a wildcard opponent for everyone except Pettis and RDA.

 

[aries]

Personally I dislike it when the lack of ability to take a punch is explained with a glass chin. I still look for a better explanation why Ken Norton performed so poorly against heavy punchers.
Yes, there are iron chins out there, but often it has to do with ability - often a fighter midjudges the distance and keeps his chin high (good example Donaire knocks down Rigo).

I think you have a valid point. Many times Overeem gets dropped when he is out of position. He can be quite defensively naive and unaware. The right that caught him was because he stepped out to his left but forward and across right into range of Roy Nelsons best weapon, his right hand. The result was he got dropped by a short choppy right hand. Someone with defensive accumen would have either not have stepped forward they have stepped back and left if they wanted to go that way or got low to avoid a possible right hand and they would have done it all with their chin tucked. Overeem doesn't have that awareness or defensive habit built in.

Similarly the way he reacts to a torrrent of punches coming his way is to shell up. Someone with better defence would slip, roll, duck and pivot out. Overeem pretty much waits for the opponent to stop punching before he moves off.

That said it's pretty obvious he has a bad chin. If he had taken the same punishment he dished out to Nelson no doubt the fight would have ended early.