Originally posted by: Bucho
Date: April 17, 2019 at 02:03 AM
Source: https://forum.mmajunkie.com/threads/ufc-236-poirier-vs-holloway-ii.73465/
MysterLynch said:
And he attempted none in the first. he opted to go all out in the stand up. As he got tired looked for takedowns. The fifth round, when he was exhausted saw his most TD attempts. Israel was the better fighter, but Kelvin did not fight a smart fight and most of the TD attempts were out of fatigue then strategy, the one in the late fourth round was moronic. Had Kelvin secured a TD in the first, it likely would have seen Israel a tad more cautious.
Again, Israel was the better fighter that night, but it does not mean that Kelvin could have done better.
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In the early going Israel was already fighting Kelvin cautiously. He's a naturally cautious fighter, especially in the early rounds.
And Kelvin's always been far more effective as a striker than as a wrestler. Since TUF, Kelvin's notched up 14 fights and only scored more than a single takedown in one of those outings. Leading up to Izzy he had
zero
TDs in his previous 6 fights. He may have started out in high school as a wrestler (a decade ago!!!), but even
waaaaaay
back then he wasn't even close to as credentialed as the likes of Derek Brunson, who went 0 for 7 against Izzy. There's zero evidence that Kelvin has ever had a high-level MMA wrestling game. Kelvin has much more in common with a Brad Tavares, who went 1 for 12 against Izzy, than with a Chris Weidman.
Meanwhile, those Tavares and Brunson scraps - given that both are better wrestlers than either of Izzy's earlier opponents - suggest that Izzy's TDD has improved at an exponential rate over the course of his short UFC career. Put him back in with (a clean version of) Vettori now and Vettori gets less than nothing.
