There is chatter about Sherk's game plan going into last night, which at this juncture are more than relevant. But what underwrites that game plan are the skills and abilities of the individual fighter (or the perceived skill), so when the gameplan fails it's important to inquire whether the skills (or lack thereof) play any role in the defeat. In Sherk's case, the decision to essentially box/kickbox with Edgar sealed his fate from the outset. Sherk simply didn't have the skillset to justify the gameplan, so let's look at some the problems to help us better understand why Sherk's reliance on his limited Thai boxing was a strategic error.

1. Sherk's stance is troubling. He barely threatens the takedown by working from a constant position of a slightly lowered elevation in the early going, but that unfortunately anchors him and prevents him from utilizing a looser, mobile style that can more easily create pivoted angles or a wide variety of distances. As he currently operates, he is only able to inch forward linearly. His stance almost looks like a sugar foot stance that Hughes is doing when he goes southpaw.

2. Sherk is a head hunter. He does posses a good arsenal of lead and rear uppercuts, left hooks and double jab, but almost never goes to the body. This allows opposition like Edgar to work more simplistic defenses and put together better counter combinations that, in turn, can land on Sherk's body. Sherk's head hunting also permits opposition to more predictably game plan and comfortably prepare defensive jab slips, step out angles, and high percentage combinations.

3. Sherk is flat footed. This fits more into the issues I articulated with his stance earlier, but again, it's important to keep in mind that if Sherk were regularly using the sugarfoot stance to more consistently incorporate takedowns, then Sherk could be forgiven sitting on his heels. As it is, not only is his mobility compromised, but it's reduced without the benefit of the constant threat of shots.

4. Sherk uses almost no head movement. The problems with this are obvious, but they're compounded by Sherk's other issues. Sherk not only leaves his head stationary for opposition, but his head is in the proper place for opponents who throw three-punch combinations after cutting angles while Sherk is facing the wrong direction.

5. Sherk only threatens with the right leg kicks and a head hunting attack. Sherk's opposition understand he may throw a handful of leg kicks himself and will likely never throw middle or high kicks. This limits the number, type and effectiveness of available combinations. Worse, while Sherk has short legs, he has even shorter arms. Sherk will never likely develop a dynamic kicking game that will send oppositoin crashing to the mat a la Rashad Evans vs. Sean Salmon, but it could make them more hesitant if they believed Sherk was capable of landing more than lead uppercuts.

6. Sherk's anchored, straightforward movement allows opposition to make Sherk counterpunch. Sherk did try to initiate exchanges, but Edgar often chose to not respond. Sherk is quite capable at putting three and four punch combinations together (to the head), but Sherk's one directional movement offers more of an opportunity to Edgar and others to simply circle out of harm's way and initiate exchanges at a time of their choosing.

7. He has no knockout power. His head hunting could be slightly forgiven were he, like Paul Buentello, capable of actually putting opposition to sleep with a somewhat limited striking arsenal. So while Sherk can do some damage with his quick punches, oppositon need not be overly concerned the lights are going to get shut off if they stand too long with Sherk. And given that Sherk is all too comfortable standing without the ability to KO opposition, he is forced to technically defeat them with his striking skills. The problem here should be clear.

8. Sherk rarely uses feints or threatens level changes. For an adept wrestler with arguably the fastest shot in MMA (I think Ishida might have him, but it's close), Sherk inexplicably chooses to shoot less than a handful of times over the course of three rounds. What's frustrating is that while Sherk does occasionally get desperate with shots attempts, Sherk does have excellent timing. A more diverse striking arsenal could would allow Sherk the opportunity to not telegraph his shots as he does after three or four attempts. It appears Sherk's only got a handful of combinations that allow him to get opposition to cover and to get the distance closed. More combinations with more diverse shot location means more opportunity for takedowns or takedown threating.

Sherk could've made the fight a much more competitive affair by using his reliable wrestling and extreme conditioning to make up for limitedness in his stand up arsenal, but the MMAA product simply could not or chose not to make the requisite adjustments. And unfortunately, he paid dearly for it.

Photo courtesy Yahoo! Eurosport UK