Dupp wrote:So I was catching up on mma hour and caugh woodleys one on one interview with Ariel before the fight. Man, dude was so confident. Looking and feeling good. No big weight cut. Honestly sounded like the best he’s felt coming into a fight since he first started fighting.
Unfortunately it didn’t pan out. Not sure what else he could do. Apparently he was fitter than ever too. He just doesn’t have the combos and confidence to let fly. Jab, right cross. Very basic stuff. His jab isn’t even threatening so really there’s only on punc to worry about for jake.
Anyway. I never watched Woodley when he was champ so can someone explain to me how he was champion and so good? I’ve seen all his recent losses since usman and nothing really before. Like what changed? Did he decline in certain areas? Because watching him fight he doesn’t give a former champ vibe with his skill set or heart for lack of a better word.
Post GSP 170 was interesting:
There was the wave of Diaz, Lawler, Hendricks, Condit, Jake Shields and Fitch who were all fairly close to one another. You then had Maia, Woodley, Rory and Wonderboy as the 4 guys who were coming up following them and guys like Josh Koscheck who were clearly on their downward spiral.
Rory was the best early on - beating both Maia and Woodley but the fight between Lawler/Rory really took a bit out of Lawler and REALLY took a bit out of Rory.
Lawler had epic wars against Hendricks (2x), Condit and Rory that left him fighting in a style that wasn't sustainable for much longer.
Woodley came through and was the perfect mix of TDD and raw KO power to make short order of a somewhat washed Lawler. Before that, he blew out Condit's knee in impression fashion.
He then faced off against very boring stylistic matchups in Maia/Wonderboy in his next 3 fights. Wonderboy/Woodley was a dance where both guys looked to counter shot each other and Woodley snoozed his way to defending the belt. Maia/Woodley was another snooze fest in which Woodley just looked to sprawl and box Maia to a decision. Avoiding the ground at all costs and inflicting damage on K1 Maia was the blueprint that everybody else would use to beat Maia in the coming years.
Woodley/Till was weird, don't know what that was tbh, Till
The next wave of 170 guys were more technical at boxing than Woodley, while Woodley aged out of his elite power and those other guys (Usman, Colby and Burns) all mixed in offensive grappling better and fought at a pace that an aged Woodley couldn't handle and he was a sitting duck.
He was a good strategist who fended off an impressive Wonderboy/Maia, rolled through the old guard in short order (Lawler/Condit/Jay Heiron), had a few setbacks early on (Nate Marquart and him had a crazy firefight that he lost, Jake Shields got a controversial win over him and Rory beat him down pretty badly).
