Does Tyron Woodley even make Jon Fitch look exciting?
Maybe not, since someone has yet to put Woodley out in 12 seconds, and Woodley has at least tried to finish fights in the past, but for those of you that actually like watching Fitch fight in contrast to Woodley, there might be a point to the argument.
Really speaking, Saturday night was the first argument one could use to make anyone regret calling Fitch boring, and let’s be honest: After his fight with Georges St-Pierre, Fitch has been the fighter most associated with boring fights.
However, Woodley’s performance against Jordan Mein, while dominant, was something else.
Woodley used his wrestling to keep Mein down, and as the commentators described the action, he was “glued” to Mein as he got him down at every turn.
He had top control, moved away from the cage in order to keep Mein down with nowhere to go, and had some occasions to transition to the mount to finish the bout in between the offense Mein tried to muster from the bottom; but for whatever reason, Woodley never went for it.
He never tried to improve his position, though his posture did improve at times, and he seemed content with delivering body shots on the ground and holding position against his opponent, who seemed like he had no answers on the ground.
Mind you, Fitch rarely ever finishes, despite often improving his position, and he’s less apologetic about his “grinding” performances than Woodley has been about his past three performances. However, at least Fitch shows a willingness to try and do something with his takedowns, even if he does so every once in a blue moon, and that small shred of a killer instinct is why so many people argued for both his case at a rematch with GSP and his UFC 127 win over B.J. Penn.
Woodley has shown in the past that he’s willing to find the knockout or the submission on opponents. However, while we all can understand the performance against Paul Daley, a knockout artist that Woodley out-struck, and a submission artist in Tarec Saffiedine who only recently has vastly amped his striking game, Mein is another case.
Some may not have liked it if Woodley had finished him, but Woodley had opportunities to at least put Mein in danger before Mein even mounted any of the offense he mounted.
So when Woodley had the moments to do something with those takedowns and get something going besides arm-triangles that weren’t there, what was keeping him from finishing the fight?
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