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Originally posted by StyleTime
It's unfortunate DC had to get KO' d in the rematch, especially since he was finding success in the match. You can tell this meant everything to him. I agree with Rogan about DC. In basically any other era, DC would have been a long reigning GOAT type of champ. He just happened to be alive during the reign of the only guy who has his number.
Agreed, though it's arguable that Gus actually beat DC, and would always be a possible threat in a rematch. Though I suppose that you could practically say the same about Gus and Jones, so I guess the point is that Gus is also really good. DC did also tend to get hurt quite a bit more than Jones, but then he also thought Rumble twice whereas Jones never once did.
It was definitely an unfortunate way for the fight to end, not only because I was rooting for DC and how personal it was for him, but we'll never know how the full 5 rounds would have gone had Jones not got the finish, such as who would have emerged the victor in the wrestling (as it was basically even for that duration of the fight), whether DC would have ended up tiring from Jones' volume, how much more DC would be able to tag him etc. At the same time in some ways a finish is really the most perfectly dramatic and definitive way of ending such a legendary story and rivalry. It was nice seeing Jones finally show Daniel some respect in the post-fight interview as well.
Also, I picked Woodley over Maia, so I wasn't surprised he won. I still think Woodley could have gone for the finish though. While Maia has taken down wrestlers in the past, I just don't see him lasting long if Woodley is throwing meteors at him. As Cruz pointed out, Woodley was already doing down blocks since he could read the takedowns. I just think Woodley's wrestling game is so much more nuanced than Maia's, that Woodley could have afforded to let his hands fly more often while still avoiding the ground. Smart game plan from him either way though.
Same, I always suspected that Woodley would just be too strong/athletic for Maia's takedowns to work, though I did hope.
My problem with Woodley though, isn't so much that he's started to approach fights by sticking to a smart gameplan that isn't necessarily the most fan friendly. I personally think there's something really compelling about seeing something performed at the most elite level no matter how exciting it might be on the surface, and I've always thought of MMA as a sport first and form of entertainment second, and resent the majority of MMA fans who differ on that. But with Woodley, it almost seems like he goes out of his way to make his fights as boring as possible. I mean, take the Wonderboy fights for instance. Obviously I know that he wasn't exactly trying to get a draw for those fights, but hypothetically if someone were trying to do so, his gameplan was a great way of how you would go about it - win one round by takedown, take three rounds off, and then try and drop him and cause a lot of damage in one round, winning a 10-8. Which is basically what he seemed to do for both fights, and he has this way of counterfighting where he becomes incredible inactive and just sort of puts his back to the cage. Back to the Maia fight, I again fully understand wanting to play it safe, but it seems that he could have definitely been a bit more active than he actually was.