I just love the symmetry of it. All week we heard “once a coward always a coward” and “I’m gonna make him quit” and it ended with Justin tapping.
I think you are right. Justin thought he was going to walk over Olivera and stuff his takedowns. He got cracked early and Justin was wobbled. Olivera seemed to sting Justin with straight punches while Justin had to resort to swing for the fences just to keep up.
I also made a thread about fight IQ. Justin has only one way to win. Olivera can win with stand up, clinch, off his back or on top. He can come back from taking a beating. He is the opposite of being a quitter.
I’ll be honest, I though Olivera would have been mentally defeated after that scale fiasco and him being stripped, and him depleting himself trying to lose weight. Boy was I wrong. Props to him.
I have watched most of his fights and he was grown so much. He entered a boy and is now the man!
I was rooting for Gaethje. Not that I dislike Olives, just because I’ve been a fan of his since before the UFC. If we measured fight IQ numerically I would give him a -5. Dude has one of the worse IQs in MMA history. He keeps saying “controlled chaos” but nothing he did in there was under control. Dude is technical for about 30 seconds then immediately goes into war mode. He fights the way Dustin fought in his 20s. Wittman did all the work to help him be more tactical but when Justin gets in there, he just can’t help himself. It’s a shame.
Don’t think that’s entirely fair. He fought completely measured bs Tony and then against Chandler, they started out brawling but Justin then settled and controlled the fight. Those are striking battles tho of his style, Khabib and Charles fought him differently and he could hold up. He’s just not on kHabib and Charles’ level.
That is true. It’s definitely mental. It’s a panic berserker mode when he starts to feel like he is in danger. I forgot he did settle down against Chandler. Imagine how good Gaethje would be if he was able to channel that in.