5 UFC fighters who never adapted their fighting styles as the sport changed
The UFC has a breadth of extremely skilled fighters. Thus, it is only natural for many mixed martial artists to make critical adjustments to their fighting styles in order to keep up with an ever-evolving sport like MMA. These adjustments and adaptations vary from fighter to fighter.
Some fighters, like Francis Ngannou, only need to exercise greater patience to preserve their cardio. In other cases, more drastic adaptations and changes are made.
Fabricio Werdum, for example, developed an effective Muay Thai kickboxing game due to the near-absence of competent striking from his toolbox. Alas, not every fighter is capable of growing or changing to adapt to the sport's evolution. This list details five fighters who never adapted their styles as MMA changed.
#5. Junior dos Santos, former UFC heavyweight
Boxing is a layered, striking-based martial art. It involves more than having good punching mechanics, knockout power, and hand speed. Good boxers need expert footwork and movement in addition to other attributes. Junior dos Santos, a former UFC heavyweight champion, was a great puncher.
Unfortunately, he was sorely lacking in one aspect of boxing: footwork. The Brazilian knockout artist didn't know how to pivot away from punches from tight angles in small spaces. He also didn't use lateral movement to circle away from advancing opponents. Instead, his movement was completely linear.
2 minutes and a bit of Cain Velasquez giving Junior Dos Santos a miserable time in their second fight.
@cainmma became the first fighter in the UFC to land over 100 significant strikes and 10 takedowns in a single fight with this performance. https://t.co/3S8qGONuFg
He darted forward and backward in a straight line. This made it very easy to back him into the fence, which Cain Velasquez did to great success in two of their three bouts. As movement and footwork in MMA evolved, both wrestlers and strikers began using pressure to trap foes against the fence, but 'JDS' never adapted.
Instead, he developed a bad habit of turning away to fully expose his back. This prevented him from seeing his opponent's punches and left the sides of his head unprotected. This led to his losses against Ciryl Gane as well as Francis Ngannou.
#4. Nate Diaz, former UFC lightweight/welterweight
Nate Diaz has barely changed as a fighter since his initial emergence in the MMA scene. This was even a point of criticism from former foe Jorge Masvidal during a Twitter exchange. Stockton's finest has always been known for his effective boxing skills and slick Brazilian jiu-jitsu game in the UFC.
Every leg kick Tony Ferguson landed on Nate Diaz㪠https://t.co/wQ3N1AeOpL
But due to Diaz's reliance on a traditional boxing stance, his lead leg is often overexposed. This renders him exceedingly vulnerable to low kicks. With the advent of calf kicks in MMA, having a solid means of defending low kicks is even more important. Unfortunately, the 'BMF' claimant disagrees.
Worse still, Diaz's lead leg means he's vulnerable to conceding single-leg takedowns from dedicated wrestlers. These issues have plagued him throughout his UFC career, but he has never addressed them.
Instead, Stockton's finest merely accused anyone who resorted to wrestling and low kicks of avoiding a true fight with him.
#3. Ronda Rousey, former UFC women's bantamweight
Ronda Rousey's world-class judo skills, which made her the first American woman to capture an Olympic medal (bronze) in judo, made her greatly feared in the UFC during her peak. Her strength was in closing the distance on her opponents to secure a takedown before latching onto the armbar for a submission win.
Closing the distance, therefore, was of great importance. But Rousey lacked the footwork and striking to safely do so. She never kept her hands up to protect her chin during striking exchanges. Worse still, she never tucked her chin, meaning it was overexposed.
Ronda Rousey vs Holly Holm https://t.co/BzvYzdcjqY
Instead of moving behind her punches, she just marched forward without moving her head off the center line. Additionally, she never developed any lateral footwork to cut off the angles of escape used by her opponents. She never stepped across any of her opponents. Instead, she followed them in straight lines.
This led to 'Rowdy's' brutal knockout losses against Holly Holm and later Amanda Nunes. Despite taking a year-long absence from MMA after her loss to 'The Preacher's Daughter', she made none of the necessary adjustments upon her return against 'The Lioness'.
#2. Mike Perry, former UFC welterweight
There was never much substance to Mike Perry's fighting style. The 31-year-old is a former MMA fighter who was once a hot prospect before his inevitable career decline. Back in 2016, he was an undefeated power puncher who had won all nine of his then-fights via either KO or TKO.
He possessed a terrifying degree of knockout power and a good grasp of boxing fundamentals and punching mechanics. Alas, he was not destined for greatness as originally predicted. Instead, 'Platinum' embarked on a win-loss streak for the rest of his career.
December 14, 2019
UFC 245
Neal destroys Mike Perry in 90 seconds.
Only time Perry was stopped via strikes in his MMA career. https://t.co/KEpZ9VSlpL
He never developed his takedown defense beyond securing underhooks/overhooks and sprawling. With the dawn of chain wrestling, stopping takedowns was no longer enough. Fighters began developing ways to fully disengage from grappling sequences.
Additionally, Perry's punching mechanics began faltering. He stopped turning his hips as he punched and began throwing arm punches with almost none of his bodyweight committed. Even knockouts, his bread and butter, have become hard to come by to such an extent that he hasn't KO'd in six years.
Not only did he make no adjustments, but Perry regressed.
#1. Ben Askren, former UFC welterweight
Before Ben Askren signed with the UFC, he was one of the most exciting talents outside the promotion. Fans and analysts were curious about his skills given his reputation. He was an exceptional wrestler whose Olympic-level skills led to him capturing the welterweight titles in ONE Championship and Bellator.
Furthermore, he was undefeated and often proclaimed himself the best 170'er in the world. Unfortunately, being a strict wrestler with no striking skills whatsoever is no longer viable and hasn't been viable for over a decade. Strikes are necessary to create openings for takedowns.
Via: @ufcSince Ben Askren is trending, we had to do a throwback of this spinning back fist he performed vs Demian Maia π³π₯π₯π¨π
πΉ Via: @ufc https://t.co/a219o9xi6O
The overhand-right is a favorite among wrestlers as it requires a natural dipping motion that brings wrestlers closer to their opponent's hips for takedowns. Yet Askren wouldn't even use an overhand-right. Instead, he just never developed his striking and dove relentlessly for takedowns, no matter how many times he failed.
His striking remains extremely rudimentary. Even Demian Maia, who has poor striking himself, was able to outstrike 'Funky'. The sport advanced but Askren never did.