The Myth of the Brawling Gonzaga!

Gabriel Gonzaga has earned himself a reputation as a "brawler" or maybe,if there is such a term a "stand-and-bang"-er. I can however not fathom as to why it is so?

First, let`s look at his record: 11 wins (5 TKO/KO vs 6 submissions) and 4 losses (All by TKO/KO). More than half his wins (55%) are by submission, which for a heavyweight is a lot. If we look at three of the best submissions-artists at heavyweight: Fabricio Werdum has 13 wins (5 submissions) , Fedor Emelianenko has 32 wins (16 submissions), Minotauro Nogueira has 32 wins (20 submissions), we find that of the three, only Minotauro has a higher percentage (62.5%) of submissions.

But maybe the truth is hidden by those statistics? Is in fact so that he has developed into a brawler in his last couple of fights? Chris Tuscherer was severely out (mis?)matched and presented virtually no threat to Gonzaga who dispatched Tuscherer easily (admittedly the groin-shot may have helped), Josh Hendricks was dispatched in less than a minute and he took Justin McCully (A BJJ blackbelt) to the ground and easily submitted him.

When he faced Werdum, Gonzaga immediately took the fight to the ground and dominated Werdum for the entire first round. In the second, he gassed, and Werdum destroyed him on the feet and then on the ground.

In the Couture-fight, most would say that the gameplan probably should include some striking. It was, however Couture Gonzaga down and in the process headbutted Gonzaga`s Napao (big nose) into oblivion. Couture then dominated the clinch-game and Gonzaga (his cardio not improving by breathing a mixture of blood and snot for the entirety of the fight) gassed/wilted and Couture pounded him out.

In the Mirko CroCop fight, people tend to remember the vicious headkick, but they conveniently forget that the KO was facilitated by at least two minutes of brutal GnP which probably had Mirko somewhat dazed and probably more worried about another takedown than a left high-kick.

Finally we have the Carwin-fight. In that fight Gonzaga immediately took SHANE CARWIN down. I reapeat, he took Carwin "the great wrestler" to the ground and had him in a very bad spot before a dazed Carwin got to his feet and caught Gonzaga flush. Game Over.

So, what can we deduce from his recent fights? It seems as if Gonzaga takes the fight to the ground at the first chance he gets, unless his opponent is severely out-matched on the feet. His cardio has cost him at least two fights (Couture and Werdum), he does seem to fade the longer the fight progresses and while his chin is debatable but I hardly think that getting KO`d by Carwin automatically qualifies it as being "weak". In conclusion.

I am positive that Gonzaga will TRY to make the fight against Dos Santos into a ground fight, but before the fight can get to the ground, they will, as Dan Hardy put it, "both start standing."

Image via sherdog.com