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Tuesday, Jun 18, 2013

Full Contact Fighter’s “The Daily Takedown”: It’s Fighting, And In Close Fights, Aggression Matters

Tyron Woodley (photo via Esther Lin / Showtime)

By Joshua Molina

Aggression matters.

So when Tyron Woodley watches back his fight with Jake Shields, he should remember that.

For the first two rounds Shields did what Shields does well — stuck to his opponent like sticky rice.

Shields pushed the fight forward and landed more leg strikes and punches through the first two rounds. Shields came forward and forced Woodley to play defense and counter strike.

Sure, Shields couldn’t quite take Woodley down, but he tried — something like 18 times. That’s a guy who wants to win, a guy who is forcing a fight.

One could argue that Woodley was so psyched out by Shields’ superior Jiu-Jitsu ground game that the fear essentially slowed him down and forced him fight over-cautiously.

Great fighters don’t blame the judges unless the decision is obviously wrong. You can’t complain when it’s a close fight and you lose a decision.

If Woodley wanted to win convincingly he should have stormed out in the first round throwing bombs to rock Shields. Instead, he let the former Strikeforce middleweight champion control the pace and Woodley didn’t get going until the third round.

Bad strategy. Who thinks Woodley would fight differently in a rematch?

As for Shields, he came through during a big fight. He showed he still has a lot left and could still be a contender for the welterweight strap. He was hungry again and his victory over Woodley will be a huge step forward for his confidence.

Let’s not forget, he took two rounds from Georges St-Pierre, at a time when GSP wasn’t dropping a minute to anybody, much less a round.

Unfortunately too many fighters these days are fighting to survive instead of fighting to win. Often fighting to win means taking chances, and possibly getting knocked out or submitted yourself.

With the UFC roster so big, fighters know they are a loss or two away from getting cut right to the World Series of Fighting. Just ask Jon Fitch.

Word to the wise. If you want to fight in the biggest MMA company in the world, then fight to win, don’t fight not to lose.

If you are going to KO’d or submitted badly, it’s better to do it in the
UFC where maybe 450,000 people are watching on pay-per-view, than somewhere where 45,000 people are watching.

posted by JoshuaM @ 7:00 am
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