Stylebender is a blue belt, should future fighters

follow his mold? As in dedicate a significant amount of time to striking coming up, then later branch out into areas of grappling? 

His TDD defense is top notch, best in the division arguably and his ground game is slick enough to trick Gastelum into a guillotine and transitioned to a triangle. 

How many BJJ black belts or high level wrestlers do we see come and go without ever really developing their striking, and as such never succeed. 

This nee generation, between Zabit and Izzy really interests me. Can’t wait to see what happens. 

Best TDD in the division you say? Can you kindly name all the high level wrestlers he has faced.

Have heard other people say this. Depends on the fighter. I think blue belt would be minimum level you’d wanna be, though.

Idk, I can see Jacare or Weidman beating him easily because of his grappling.

Jacare would be a big problem for him. Romero would be his worst nightmare.

SmerkABewl - 
GeorgeScoresPoints -

Best TDD in the division you say? Can you kindly name all the high level wrestlers he has faced.

Kelvin is a solid wrestler

If you looks at his stats... Kelvin barely goes for any takedows. In 15 fights, not even 1 takedown a fight on average.

That style of striking works a lot better when you have that much of a reach advantage over everyone. Weidman has good reach and wrestling, would be fun to see. 

WrestlingSucks -

Jacare would be a big problem for him. Romero would be his worst nightmare.

I didnt mention Romero because I see him engaging in the stand up too much.  Jacare and others are more likely to try and work him to the cage and take him down there.

At this point I would favor any top 10 guy with a good top game vs Adesanya.

The problem with this idea is that everyone is not going to have the reach and god given natural striking ability that the stylebender has. 

Most other normal fighters that don’t have these god given attributes,would have to develop their grappling much more. 

Put him against any top grappler and you will see Conor Khabib all over again. 

How does he beat Jacare or Romero?

I think Jacare can take him down. When he does, I believe Israel is royally fucked.

Romero doesn't really take people down and use his world class wrestling so he just try to knock him out. Can Israel handle Romero's bombs? And if Romero does want to take him down, pretty sure he will. 

185 has some monsters lurking if Israel gets past Whitaker.

Weidman is still a badass A level highly talented fighter despite his recent losses.

Problem is 185 is tough as fuck. But Weidam is a dangerous fight for anyone.

Weidman isn’t the best fighter at 185, but i think he might have the most aggressive offensive wrestling. Probably big trouble for StyleBender.

I was a blue belt for my first mma fight and finished in the UFC as a purple belt.  In all my losses I was outgrappled

A belt isn't always indicative of your skill level. There are MMA guys that are really good and have been grappling for more than a decade that are blue or purple belts.

Wasn’t Jon Jones still a white belt up until a couple of years ago.

I could have sworn I saw some VLog where he was talking to Holly Holm and then received his blue belt.

N5Z - 
WrestlingSucks -

Jacare would be a big problem for him. Romero would be his worst nightmare.

I didnt mention Romero because I see him engaging in the stand up too much.  Jacare and others are more likely to try and work him to the cage and take him down there.

At this point I would favor any top 10 guy with a good top game vs Adesanya.

How can you say this when we have seen Asdesanya stuff Kelvins takedowns and even when taken down by others, he pops right back up? We have never seen Adesanya in any remote danger on the ground whether from ground and pound or submissions…

Jacare might pose problems to Adesanya if he can get him down but Israel will be able to defend against Weidman …

Romero poses an interesting threat to Adesanya…I have a hard time seeing how this fight goes…i don’t think Yoel will try to keep it on the feet the entire time but then again, he has the striking, power and explosiveness to hurt Adesanya…plus, Romero has a tough chin too

ons ear -
N5Z - 
WrestlingSucks -

Jacare would be a big problem for him. Romero would be his worst nightmare.

I didnt mention Romero because I see him engaging in the stand up too much.  Jacare and others are more likely to try and work him to the cage and take him down there.

At this point I would favor any top 10 guy with a good top game vs Adesanya.

How can you say this when we have seen Asdesanya stuff Kelvins takedowns and even when taken down by others, he pops right back up? We have never seen Adesanya in any remote danger on the ground whether from ground and pound or submissions…

Jacare might pose problems to Adesanya if he can get him down but Israel will be able to defend against Weidman …

Romero poses an interesting threat to Adesanya…I have a hard time seeing how this fight goes…i don’t think Yoel will try to keep it on the feet the entire time but then again, he has the striking, power and explosiveness to hurt Adesanya…plus, Romero has a tough chin too

You can tell in the way he moves/scrambles what level he is at.

His opponents(outside of Brunson) have not been good wrestlers and have been shooting from miles away in desperation(including Brunson).  We have yet to see him on his back vs someone who isnt rocked/exhausted and his get ups have not been technical ie reallying on athleticism.

Im not saying he sucks, he seems to be improving and doesnt freeze on the ground.  Im saying I dont see him recovering guard or standing up if a guy w/ a good top game gets a dominant position on him.  I also think his tdd is being overrated a little off of defending a couple takedowns from an exhausted and dizzy Gastelum.  Jacare, Weidman, and especially Romero(if he wanted to) would take him down at a near 100% rate.

Joe Lauzon was a purple belt for the longest time. He only recently got his brown. Not having a higher belt doesn’t mean that much in MMA since you only get it with gi-training. 

SmerkABewl -
GeorgeScoresPoints -

Best TDD in the division you say? Can you kindly name all the high level wrestlers he has faced.

Kelvin is a solid wrestler

Hes a decent wrestler at ww