This guy changed his style from a put his head down, out pace you, out chin you, blow for blow, swinging hays like a prime wand, to one of the most technical guys in the sport.
Everything changed after the first ishida fight. Gil was 13-0 with some great wins, The fight was very close, but ishida was a step ahead of gil the entire fight. It was basically a 15 minute wrestling scramble, with gil pushing the pace and ishida counter wrestling and gilbert countering ishidas counters. More of a draw then a win for either guy.
Gilbert then got a meaningless win and then fought josh thompson. Josh is a top tier fighter, a legit threat to anyone, but i thought gil would have this. Josh, very much like ishida, was ahead of gil for all 5 rounds. Josh counter struck and counter wrestled gil, using gils own furious pace against himself. IIRC gil lost all 5 rounds, nothing dominant, just a step behind.
In his next fight against damm, gil looked determined, focused and his striking looked much improved. He looked to be picking his shots for the first time in his career and ended up viciously ko'ing damm. gilbert 2.0 was born.
The ishida rematch was up, this time gilbert waited for ishida, picked his shots and blew him out of the water. At this point I was tremendously impresessed by gils rapid improvements from fight to fight, skys the limit.
Next comes the josh thompson rematch. The same picking his shots, technical gil that we saw in his previous 2 fights came out and dominated josh thompson, winning all 5 rounds IIRC as opposed to losing all 5 in the first fight, its starting to get scary how fast gil is improving.
Gil then fights Aoki, a top 3 lw, number 1 IMO considering edgar beat penn the week before and aoki had far more impressive resume then edgar, but thats another thread ;). Gilbert dominates aoki like no other. Sure some guys have caught him an put him out quick, but no kind of 5 round shutout like that.
The kawajiri rematch. Gil arguably lost the first fight, i personally thought gil won, regardless it was close and a tremendous back n forth war. Kawajiri was a huge threat coming into this fight. Same patience gil picks his shots, lit him up, put him down and finished with some viscious elbows, something we couldnt see from him because of strikeforces old no elbow rule. My god this gilbert 2.0
Last night solidified gilberts pound for pound ranking, destroying masvidal at his own game, he is looking untouchable and I dont see any lightweight in the world beating him.
destroying?? LOL at this newb. Just joined up to post that crap?
I'd say Frankie Edgar has shown just as much if not more improvement over his career
no i was already joined up when i decided to post that crap. wrote it in about 3 minutes, you mad or something bro?
BasBang -
destroying?? LOL at this newb. Just joined up to post that crap?
How is that crap? Because he said destroyed instead of dominated? Great post, well argued and totally on the money. 
Agreed. Seeing Gil where he is now compared to the balls-out slugger that lost to Ishida the first time and barely squeeked out, if you even think he did, the first Kawajiri fight it's truly staggering.
A testiment to hardwork and dedication!
Yes, he's improved. Yes, he's good. But he's never faced the quality of competition that he would meet in the UFC and I have a feeling after last night that he wouldn't fare that well.