Evaluating Wrestlers That Changed Their Style

For Sherk, you didn’t mention the Tyson Griffin fight. It was understandable why he decided to keep on the feet because he was going against mirror image of himself. But for Edgar he probably could of shot more cause he had more of a significant weight advantage.
Also, with Sherk, I do agree he is trying please fans but to me, since his fight with BJ, he does not shoot with the same velocity he had in the past. There is some talk that his knees are going bad, I wonder if that is the case?
For Koscheck, he seems to keep it on the feet where he know have an advantage in striking. Against Alves, he made attempts to take him down but Alves was close to 200 around fight time. That’s what’s going to make his fight with GSP interesting.
Rashad, I have to disagree with you of him being outwrestled and lost the fight. Remember, Tito held the fence to nullify his takedowns. I’m not saying he would of won, but that changed the outcome of the fight the same way the it changed the Randy-Brock fight.

Good points. I don’t think that these guys need to go back to purely wrestling either. They just need to realize that a predictable gameplan is much weaker than a dynamic one. Show multiple looks and strategies to keep the opponent off-balance.

It’s funny to think that now GSP’s style would be considered the most conservative when compared with all of the above fighters. But these wrestlers should try and emulate him to some extent. His success comes so easily because he’s able to keep his opponents guessing. His standup and wrestling both benefit each other – his opponents become tentative to react (watch the superman jab hit BJ in the face), and their delayed reactions allow his striking to wrestling transitions to be more successful. He’s been so successful recently, that his grind-it-out style has been leading to TKOs by accumulated damage.

Matt Hughes and Dan Henderson win decisions for a reason. Takedowns, top position and GnP are all good things. Even in the absence of damage, sitting in top position can win you a round. Avoid the subs and sweeps and the round is yours for the taking.

Rampage said recently that he is going to re-embrace his wrestling – that may be a nod to Machida’s respect.

I’m going to have to voice a different opinion though.

The problem is not ‘wrestling’ or ‘striking’ per se but the lack of multi-dimensions as an MMA fighter.

What bigweeze stated above is absolutely correct. The key is being able to use a multi-faceted strategy to keep your opponent from knowing what is coming next.

Had Sherk tried and landed more takedowns during the fight with Edgar it would have to a certain extent nullified Edgar’s dynamic stand up movement. Edgar may well have still scored more on the feet but Sherk’s takedowns and ground and pound would have significantly reduced the time that he got beat up on his feet.

The problem with the above fighters (except Rampage) is that they don’t mix it up. Koshcheck was beating Thiago up on the feet but if he mixed in takedowns the chances of him getting caught by a wild punch would be reduced. When you’re thinking of defending a takedown you don’t let your hands and feet fly as much as when you’re simply thinking about the stand-up war.

Rashad had exactly the same problem. After getting out-pointed on his feet in the first round, against Machida he should have changed up his style and started mixing the punches with takedowns. I’m not saying this would have beat Machida (who I have loads of man-love for) but i think it would be more effective than his ‘punching only’ style. The different between the Machida fight and the Liddell or Griffin fight is that although Rashad lost the first round in both those fights he wasn’t dominated in the way Machida dominated him standing. Machida dropped him. Both Liddell and Griffin didn’t event come close.

Rashad Evans changed his style abruptly at UFC 88.

I disagree right from the start. I don’t view this as an event where he just decided to change styles. I think it goes back to the Sean Salmon fight. He knew he could take the fight where need-be, and wanted to focus on striking to show it off and get more comfortable — result: KO.

Furthermore, I think all of his bouts post-TUF were a result of having Greg Jackson come up with a gameplan for each fighter. It played to Rashad’s strengths, the opponents weaknesses, and some surprises. I don’t think Rashad woke up and decided at UFC 88 he would change styles. Post-fight interview confirms that as the gameplan was to stay standing because trying takedowns against Chuck burns you out and then you get caught once tired.

After drawing Tito Ortiz in a fight he really lost, he barely edged out a decision against Michael Bisping.

I really get tired of hearing this. Tito grabbed to stop a takedown. IF Rashad gets that takedown he possibly steals the round. Which means he wins. Just because Tito effectively won the round and had that point deducted doesn’t mean Rashad lost that fight, because had Tito not grabbed the fence he is on his back with Rashad on top. From there anything can happen as well. So I have to point this out as a flaw to simply say Rashad lost that fight.

As for the rest of the Rashad analysis, I point you to my comment about it being more of Greg Jackson’s gameplans and not Rashad switching styles. Rashad took a slow building process to add different tools to his arsenal, and it’s paid off. Mr. Jackson is the puppet master who most of the time comes up with gameplans that help him toward victory.

As for Diego, he was using his stand-up more and more as evident by his KO win over Joe Riggs. I agree about not seeing him as a champion, but I don’t think his loss to Fitch factored into him being a striker, I think it’s a natural progression that we saw early in his UFC career and the Fitch loss was more of a way to say it’s time to move down in weight, not a change of style.

As for Sean Sherk – I think the interview where he states that going for Fight of the NIght is “addicting” is the telling factor. However, had he went for takedowns constantly on Edgar, I’m not sure he wins, but it’s a different fight for sure. We know his gas tank, and that would have weighed on Edgar potentially, but we’ll never know.

I do think Koscheck thought he was an unstoppable wrestler at 170 and that led to him not staying as sharp there, and with GSP’s phenomenal wrestling it did surprise him. And I personally don’t believe he thinks he HAS to KO GSP in order to beat him. I think he is in the same boat as Sean Sherk in that he was to be exciting and go for the finish which puts him in danger due to his lack of technical defense in his striking. Another fighter caught up in trying to be exciting instead of improving to make a run at the title - in my opinion.

I’ll agree that Jackson should keep it standing, but he needs to start checking leg kicks. We all saw what Forrest did to his leg, and against a proficient striker such as Machida it will lead to an embarassing loss in my opinion. However, if he can fix that flaw he has the tools and I agree with your overriding point about Quinton - and for the record I scored the Rampage/Forrest fight a draw. :)

Great article.

My biggest problem isn’t wrestlers striking. A lot of times, it can be a smart game plan. Plus, they need to get experience in real fights where they are on their feet. If they don’t they will be sitting ducks when they can’t take their opponents down.

My problem comes in when these wrestlers are losing the striking battle, and make no attempt to adapt their gameplan throughout the fight. I just don’t understand it. I think a lot of it is just being stubborn. Sherk losing to Edgar and Koscheck losing to Alves are two great examples of this. Both were getting beaten throughough the fight on their feet, and they never went for a lot of takedowns during the second half the fight.

It’s great to see guys like Gray Maynard and Frankie Edgar improving their striking. But at least they still stick to their bread and butter when they hve to.

Diego fought at UFC 69 against Kos in a pure standup fight. He wasn’t even trying to take the fight to the ground. This fight precedes the Fitch-Diego fight. And after the Fitch loss, Diego pummelled Bieheldken in classic Diego TD and GNP fashion. I don’t think your analysis holds up with Diego.

I don’t believe Rashad’s style changed drastically either. I believe Rashad has just gotten better at striking over time, as evidenced by his performances.

Rampage was always a guy who was willing to stand and trade in addition to slamming people. He beat Vovchanchyn, Bustamante, Randleman, Liddell, and Arona and lost to Wandy and Shogun. His losses weren’t due to failing at wrestling, and he didn’t change his style as a result. He’s tightened up his striking, but he never went through a dramatic change in styles as the article indicates.