The first couple “Prelim” bouts of UFC Vegas 90 were quite similar. Both bouts ended in the second-round via knockout, and both match ups saw a striker pitted against a grappler who was absolutely determined to hold them on the floor. Neither grappler could consistently pin their opponent, however, so the fights moved into the clinch along the fence for long periods of time.
Longterm fight fans have experience with this strategy. If a wrestler cannot take their opponent down and doesn’t want to strike, the next best strategy historically is to hold them along the fence and win on control time. That path to victory was labeled “wall-and-stall” many years ago, and it used to be a very common way to win.
Not anymore.
Strikers Nora Cornolle and Cesar Almeida demonstrated why against grapplers Melissa Mullens and Dylan Budka. Mullens and Budka were both capable of landing occasional takedowns, but when Cornolle and Almeida effectively used wall-walking strategies to work back up, the two did not opt to strike. They just kept pushing in the clinch and trying to wrestle.
It worked well enough to win the first, but that’s an exhausting way to fight. Meanwhile, Cornolle and Almeida were more active in landing chipping shots from the clinch. The shared outcome? Mullens and Budka were exhausted by the second, easy victims for comeback wins. Both ran out of gas and suffered technical knockout losses midway through the sophomore round. It’s the type of outcome that’s become a lot more common than a successful wall-and-stall decision victory.
What’s changed in recent years that merely pressuring into the fence is no longer viable strategy? I would attribute the trend to two factors: the change in scoring and an overall improvement in defensive MMA wrestling.
A brief history lesson: Is anyone reading old enough to remember Randy Couture vs. Brandon Vera? Vera hurt Couture multiple times and defended most of his foe’s takedowns, but he spent too much time with his back to the fence. Back in 2009, Couture’s control time won him a unanimous decision amidst mild controversy.
Nowadays, the scorecards would have awarded Vera the win. The criteria has changed, far emphasizing damage and striking success over control time. Takedowns have become less valuable, so obviously failing to get a takedown and just shoving an opponent into the fence has become even less worthwhile.
It only takes a handful of strikes to win a round if the opponent doesn’t throw anything back.
As for the general improvements in defensive MMA, both Cornolle and Almeida are fairly inexperienced MMA fighters. Their coaches and teams, however, have decades of footage to watch on how to defend takedowns along the fence, and those lessons are being passed down. EVERYBODY now understands how to wall-walk, how to control a hand to prevent takedown transitions, and how to break posture by jamming the head to the floor.
An athletic fighter who has drilled these fundamentals is difficult to keep down. It takes a truly special fighter — like an Islam Makhachev, for example — to just dominate their opposition on the floor. Everyone else has to accept that takedowns are usually impermanent, and that the goal is to do damage or take the back as their foe works to stand up.
Just holding is becoming less-and-less viable each year, and as a fan of the sport … GOOD!
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