Half Throttle, plus one other

After watching the Woodley vs. Burns fight, I was left feeling frustrated with Woodley yet again. This blog will address my concerns and analysis of Woodley, but it will also show an interest in the Jon Jones saga. 

First, Tyron Woodley. Woodley is one of the most physically gifted athletes that you will see. He was a top wrestler in College and has the physique to show it. Boasting massive legs and glutes, Woodley’s physique screams power and explosivity (like a sprinter’s build). You can see he is loaded with fast twitch fibres and is as explosive as TVT. However, history has shown us that people with so much explosive power can burn out quickly. It is almost as if you have 100 units of power to use in a fight. Explosive people like Woodley, Ngannou and Yoel Romero use up a lot of their power when going for something. So, they have to manage their energy. Contrastingly, there are other fighters that have little power but can go all day. These fighters tend to grind and wear people down. Think Mohammed Ali in comparison to Mike Tyson. Ali was not a one punch knockout kind of guy. He would wear someone down with consistent shots and movement. On the other hand, Tyson would explode with power and knock people out. Granted, both these men were highly skilled fighters in their prime, but some of the differences in their fight styles come from their natural predisposition to explosive power and long, grinding ability. 

Woodley has demonstrated his power in a number of his fights. The one that comes to mind is his one punch knock out of Josh Koscheck. However, in my mind when I think of his fights, I mostly think of a boring and slow affair. Most of his recent fights have gone to a decision. Decisions do not automatically equate to boring fights, but you are spending 15-25-minutes watching a fight. It is how Woodley chooses to spend these 25 minutes that makes it feel very slow and boring. From the outside, it looks like he is going half throttle. For the average punter that does not know much about technique and so on, they just want to see someone giving it absolutely everything in the fight. People like the fighters that go in there to fight and scrap more than the the more technical fights (this has a number of issues in itself) but this is why the fight of the night, fight of the year are always toe to toe slugfests, not a technical master class. 

So, when people see Woodley stay around the edge of the cage, keeping his distance and throwing counter punches, they don’t get excited. Woodley uses his wrestling skill to keep a fight standing and then uses boxing most of the time. As he is an exponent of the one big power punch, Woodley either throws one, or has to throw combinations. Doing both would be too exhausting. However, Woodley seems to choose the counter big punch as he seems to favour his power. Against the better fighters though, you seem to need more than a big punch. When watching the recent Woodley v Burns fight, it was more of the same with Burns pushing the pace and action and Woodley reacting. At the end of each round Woodley would make a face of disappointment/frustration but nothing would change. He doesn’t seem to be able to lift his intensity when behind in a fight. When he lost the title to Usman, he just looked lethargic, and confirmed this after the fight. This would make you think that he would bring the pain in his next fight make a statement and go back and get his title. Instead, he again looked lethargic and took another loss.   

Now on to Jon Jones. Jones has relinquished his light-heavyweight title. For the best part of decade, Jones has dominated the light-heavyweight division (won the title in 2011). Jones was never beaten for the title and only lost the title for what he did outside the ring. And the only other person to have held the title in that time (Daniel Cormier) Jones has beaten twice. Jones is the undisputed number one light-heavyweight in UFC history. If Jones had kept it together out of the cage, who knows what he could’ve achieved. After a decade of dominating, people (including him) are getting a little bored with the history repeating. Jones is also coming to the end of his career and wants to get paid. Therefore, he offered to fight Francis Ngannou (heavyweight) or Israel Adesanya (middleweight champ). 

For me, the more interesting fight is with Ngannou. Generally speaking, moving up a weight, as opposed to down, is considered more of a challenge than going down. Ngannou also has one of the fastest and hardest punches there is. He may be lacking a bit in the technical department, but damn. The guy is a beast and boasts some of the scariest knockouts in the UFC (check out Ngannou vs. Overeem). If Ngannou lands a punch, the fight is over; simple as that. 

Jones is very technical and the technique versus power battle is very interesting. I believe that Jones would really struggle in this fight. With Ngannou’s strength and size, it would be very hard for Jones to be safe anywhere. Standing is obviously dangerous with the knockout power but taking Ngannou down also poses problems. It would be very hard due to his size and strength. That aside, Jones is just trying to make some money before his career is over, so Jones wants a super fight. The UFC is not to keen on paying him more, so Jones said stuff you and I gave up the title. This I understand as what else has Jones got to prove in the sport. Jones wants the money fight and it pains me to say this but I think he deserves it. I am not a fan of the super fights and things like that, however, in this case no light-heavyweight has got close to beating Jones really. The natural progression is to go to heavyweight and see what happens. Plus, I must say I would like to see him get smacked my Ngannou.

It has always disappointed me when you see someone as gifted as Woodley seemingly not fighting to his potential. His efforts always seem lack lustre and that is the most disappointing thing. No matter where it is in life, if you know someone with all the gifts and talents in the world and then they don’t use them, it leaves you frustrated. Then you see people out there who work their asses off with half the talent and they always get some level respect (which should be a lot). Hopefully, Woodley can prove me wrong and perform to the level that he seems capable off. In regards to Jones, give him more money to fight Ngannou (maybe not the $30m he is asking) but that is a fight that people will pay for and Jones deserves a bigger pay day than what champions usually earn. 

Gareth Lewis
Head MMA Instructor