Fight preparation is EXTREMELY underrated

[idontchecklowkicks]

The reason why a lot of these guys like sean strickland, petr yan and volk are so wildly successful while having almost no finish potential whatsoever and posing no threat neither on the feet nor on the ground is because they prepare for their opponent correctly. Two great examples of incredible fight preparation are gaethje vs ilia and strickland vs chimaev. Gaethje and Strickland were almost entries written off, they were considered perfect matchups for their opponents with massive flaws in their game which would be easily exploited and would lead to them being finished very early or otherwise dominated. Obviously, did this not happen. Gaethje, who seemingly had a disadvantage in literally every single aspect of mma, who was considered a much worse striker, wrestler and grappler and who supposedly only relied on his cardio and chin which would be easily cracked by ilia managed to win because he came into the fight with the perfect gameplan to defeat topuria. Coming into the fight he knew that ilia was untested in terms of his durability and was inexperienced when it comes to dirty, painful fights. He knew that ilia would chase the early finish even if it meant blowing his gas tank. As a response, gaethje used his dirty boxing which ilia was unfamiliar with, used his jab and absorbed the early storm, letting ilia gas out and taking away his vision. Ilia had up until that point never been in a remotely similar fight while almost all of gaethje’s fights have been worse. Similarly, Strickland, who was considered to be too weak, small and square to defend takedowns from chimaev did exactly what he had to do. He let chimaev blow his gas tank in the first two rounds because he knew that khamzat doesn’t have the cardio to continue after that and isnt technical enough to wrestle despite it. Even then, sean remained very defensively responsible so that chimaev didnt have a clean opening to shoot a takedown or land an overhand. These two men (gaethje and Strickland) did not win because of their fighting styles, they won DESPITE them. The only reason they won is because they took the fight far more seriously than their opponents did. They had every disadvantage and were given almost no chance to win yet because of their preparation they managed to do just enough to beat their opponents who had massive advantages

 

[InspiredByClav]

The reason why a lot of these guys like sean strickland, petr yan and volk are so wildly successful while having almost no finish potential whatsoever and posing no threat neither on the feet nor on the ground is because they prepare for their opponent correctly. Two great examples of incredible fight preparation are gaethje vs ilia and strickland vs chimaev. Gaethje and Strickland were almost entries written off, they were considered perfect matchups for their opponents with massive flaws in their game which would be easily exploited and would lead to them being finished very early or otherwise dominated. Obviously, did this not happen. Gaethje, who seemingly had a disadvantage in literally every single aspect of mma, who was considered a much worse striker, wrestler and grappler and who supposedly only relied on his cardio and chin which would be easily cracked by ilia managed to win because he came into the fight with the perfect gameplan to defeat topuria. Coming into the fight he knew that ilia was untested in terms of his durability and was inexperienced when it comes to dirty, painful fights. He knew that ilia would chase the early finish even if it meant blowing his gas tank. As a response, gaethje used his dirty boxing which ilia was unfamiliar with, used his jab and absorbed the early storm, letting ilia gas out and taking away his vision. Ilia had up until that point never been in a remotely similar fight while almost all of gaethje’s fights have been worse. Similarly, Strickland, who was considered to be too weak, small and square to defend takedowns from chimaev did exactly what he had to do. He let chimaev blow his gas tank in the first two rounds because he knew that khamzat doesn’t have the cardio to continue after that and isnt technical enough to wrestle despite it. Even then, sean remained very defensively responsible so that chimaev didnt have a clean opening to shoot a takedown or land an overhand. These two men (gaethje and Strickland) did not win because of their fighting styles, they won DESPITE them. The only reason they won is because they took the fight far more seriously than their opponents did. They had every disadvantage and were given almost no chance to win yet because of their preparation they managed to do just enough to beat their opponents who had massive advantages

Nice