Wasa-B - Ok just watching now into r2 but I'm not convinced at all it was jds lack of boxing technique, not saying it wasn't a factor but let's not forget the overall mma context, cains pressure is both striking and tds and swarming on the ground. Junior even said post fight that he was really worried about stopping the td and insure that's we can attribute him having his hands low for.
Cains pressure wore jds already in the first round but junior also IMO didn't look to have the same movement and snap pretty early into the round but I'm sure that was also largely due to cains pressure.
Cain coming fwd as you mentioned was a key thing but I'm just seeing much more than boxing fundamentals at play here
I agree that it is more than boxing, but JDS prepared for the other stuff like the clinching and take downs. He was completely confused though with Cain's strikes, he was way off balance and stopped breathing. When they were separated and when JDS is normally supposed to be dangerous and highly skilled is where Cain did most of the damage. My opinion is what really hurt JDS was his poor fundamentals and Cain's improvement and planning. JDS did pretty well on the ground and in the clinch and got back up and avoided being subbed and it was because of that reason he got a 2nd wind late in the fight and survived. The one thing he wasn't prepared for was that Cain would expose his striking flaws and defensive boxing flaws, and that some of his other boxing flaws would have a cumulative effect on his body really early in the fight. He was in trouble and dead tired way too soon.
Normally in MMA it is very hard for a camp to create any good planning against a guy with good dangerous hands and decent boxing fundamentals when they try to plan offensively because MMA camps really only have one strategy, which is to avoid the strikes and go for take downs and try to grind out a win or win by sub on the ground. I think JDS's camp assumed Cain would try to use take downs and would be avoiding striking and boxing at all costs because of the previous KO, so they were overconfident in JDS's boxing. That, along with the fact that JDS isn't really a technically sound boxer, is what hurt them because they didn't prepare him for a scenario where his boxing could get him into trouble.
Someone in Cain's camp did the opposite of what you traditionally see in MMA. Instead of planning around wrestling and bringing the fight to the ground they decided to not avoid JDS's striking ability. Someone saw a lot of holes in JDS's game and recognized Cain's ability to strike is definitely good enough to warrant training him on his feet to get around JDS's power, get inside, mix it up, counter, and make JDS pay early in the fight for his bad habits. That is not normal.
I think most MMA trainers don't have the confidence and boxing knowledge to take their fighters and train them well enough on their feet so that they can compete with anyone's hands, regardless of their wrestling background. You see that a lot with Greg Jackson's fighters. You see the blanket strategy because the trainers don't have the ability to teach their wrestlers how to box and win a fight with both hands and ground game. It isn't that a guy like Fitch can't learn to KO people, it is more either that he doesn't want to and would rather lay on people, or it simply is that his trainers don't know how to train and motivate him properly to turn him into a solid boxer. It doesn't take that long to turn an athletic wrestler into someone with strong boxing skills, you just have to eliminate their bad habits and keep them improving. MMA trainers do the opposite though, they bring in someone to help teach poor basic punching strategy, or they teach them the wrong shit from the beginning and allow their fighters to use horrible technique.
You see that with a lot of the really exciting Black fighters who are athletic and string together KO wins with their hands. They start off with a lot of hype and then completely dismantle and start losing once their flaws are exposed on the feet. Anthony Johnson, Guillard, Kimbo, Houston Alexander, Paul Daley and others. They get caught and dropped when guys come at them and then all of a sudden they're wobbling around dancing and hurt and can't recover in there. They freeze up, get tired, look awkward, and end up making the same mistakes on their feet. This is the fault of their trainers, who should be forcing them to improve on their feet, but also adapt to being hit and being pressured.
You can't just use traditional boxing in MMA, and I do understand that, but what I'm saying is that when MMA fighters do choose to engage on their feet and even hire boxing trainers, that they need to do it right and learn the proper stuff so they're adequately prepared and trained and are developing additional skills. You should see their striking evolve and sharpen up and you should see their bad habits fade away over time as they become more efficient and fluid. They should become increasingly difficult for opposing camps to prepare for and you should never see what happened to JDS where a fighter gets beaten up that badly over 5 rounds and no adjustments are made to prevent the rape.
Normally in boxing you do not see that at the top levels. Usually fighters will have maybe just a couple flaws that are somewhat obvious that can be taken advantage of, but not a whole host of them. You are not supposed to be seeing mismatches that drastic in skills and performance at the top levels. The only time that occurs is because the trainers are fucking up somewhere and not addressing something their fighter is taking into the fight that is putting them at risk. If the flaw is a really bad one, like poor head movement, or a weak jab, then you will sometimes see a lot of damage result from that one major flaw, but when you are showing several of them at once and face someone tough, then you're gonna look like hell at the end of it.
Those fights between Stout and Taylor/Fisher are good examples. Just a few defensive adjustments and either side could've walked away from those fights without all that damage and without having to have fought to decisions.
