Werdum's striking looked much better than I would have thought. If he wasn't so dead set on getting the fight to the ground I think on at least a couple of occasions he had the opportunity to finish the fight from the stand up. Unfortunately every time he had Overeem turtled up against the cage from punches he would immediately shoot for a single leg take down. For all of Overeem striking prowess, he did not look vastly superior during the stand up exchanges--and yes I know he was worried about being taken down.
It just made the holes in Overeems weak striking game more apparent to the clowns that dont know shit.
CokeBoyz - It just made the holes in Overeems weak striking game more apparent to the clowns that dont know shit.I agree, Overeem is strong and powerful, but appears to be lacking in striking technique and footwork. He never attempted to block any of Werdum's punches or kicks, he just kind of stood in front of him and absorbed the shots.
OftheWay -CokeBoyz - It just made the holes in Overeems weak striking game more apparent to the clowns that dont know shit.I agree, Overeem is strong and powerful, but appears to be lacking in striking technique and footwork. He never attempted to block any of Werdum's punches or kicks, he just kind of stood in front of him and absorbed the shots.
Seriously, I think the OP may have missed something. There was a point where Werdum was landing pretty much every shot during a few flurries and Alistar was not only tucking his chin and covering up, but his eyes were closed.
Closing your eyes and covering up is NOT an effective technique. I am fairly confident JDS would end Overeem in a horrible fashion.
I was suprised by Mauro's comments towards the end of the fight saying Overeem was putting in a poor performance. Exactly as the OP said, Werdum dropped during every exchange giving Overeem no real shot at setting up his standup game. Overeem showed solid TDD, did not fold like the 205lb fighter was known to do, spent 5+ minutes on the ground in absolutely no danger.
Overall I think Overeeem answered a lot of questions in a very dangerous fight
People want fighters to be like superheroes, but it's not realistic.
Werdum was wise to strike when he did and flop when he did. It did keep the Reem off da Riddum....but on the flip, flopping that much has to also be scored against him. Its passivity. Its retreating.
Not that shooting to pulling guard cant work, he got it a few times but he flopped what seemed like 4 or 3 times for every successful guard pull.
He also was slow to get up. The ref did not do a good job of warning Werdum about that. I think it warranted a stalling penalty since Werdum did it nearly every time. Smart, he stretched the rules without penalization but a good ref would have warned him then penalized him the next time.
please cut the bullcrap.Werdans punches had zero power He flopped to his ass because he had zero chance to takedown Overeem even after Cormier made up a story about how Werdan took him down in practice Thats about as believable as King Mo lieng about James Toney subbing him in practice.Werdan flopped to his ass about 20 times and looked terrible in doing so He clearly lost every second of the fight.Im not a fan of either
when you are a good power striker you don't bother using footwork or head movement against a guy who is hitting you w/ pillows. it does not make any sense to move away as it makes it harder for you to attack; unless you can fight backwards, which in mma only a. silva can do. you wait until you see an opening and fire. also it does not make any sense to over committ with counter-power shots against a guy who has a good chance of submiting you. also see a. silva; vs maia, leites.
vs rogers, a guy who is not great maybe not even good, but who can hit w/ power overeem showed great footwork, counter-kicking, and parrying. why? because he could not afford to take a good shot. was overeem's striking "on" saturday? no. but the takedowns in the first round, the better power shots in the second, won him at least two rounds. in a 3 round fight that's all you need.