BTG 152 - Too Cool Under Pressure

[Music] Hello and welcome to another episode of Breaking the Guard. On today's episode, the theme I want to explore is it possible to be too relaxed when under pressure? And the answer in my opinion is yes, which is what we saw in the UFC 319 main event and perhaps even one of the other main event fights as well. Obviously, I'm going to spoil a lot of things. So, if you want to watch UFC 319, go ahead and watch it. Don't watch this yet. Otherwise, let's start off with some of the undercard fights first. Uh, take a cheat sheet look here. Right. And if you saw my picks, I didn't do that great. Uhhuh. But I did get the first one right. We had Kai Asakura with Tim Elliot. I had picked Elliot to win and sure enough he did win. Uh although wasn't I wasn't feeling great about the pick early because uh Kai was tagging up Tim quite a bit. was way faster on his feet and uh Tim was struggling even with his funky style. He just wasn't able to get a hold of Kai or able to land any significant strikes. But that all seemed to change after round one. Once he scored a at the very end of round one, he scored a takedown. It wasn't really consequential because he, you know, he got pieced up a little bit, but psychologically it was extremely impactful because when they went into the round two, Kai had completely changed his aura, so to speak. He wasn't being that aggressive anymore. He was kind of backing up a lot. And Tim started finding opportunities to hit now. He was landing some overhands, some left hooks. So, uh, this is why sometimes even though you might think the takedown might not mean much, it means a lot because Kai is not a grappler. He's a striker. And I that once he tasted that this guy could take him down, it seemed to ruin his game plan. And Tim did score another takedown towards the end of round two, if I recall correctly. And I think round two was a closer round. Uh because Tim did I think they say Kai landed more than Tim, but I don't know. I felt Tim landed like the more meaningful strikes because he was landing overhands and big left hooks, whereas Kai was landing, you know, good jabs, but they weren't, you know, heavy. And I think the takedown as well. And in general, Tim was leading the dance more. But a closer round for sure. But round three, Tim was able to put everything together, get a a takedown, and ultimately secure submission. So, old wy veteran pulled it off, right? Uh kind of went well, not exactly how I thought, but how it was going to finish is how I thought. Then we had Jared Cananeer and Michael Paige. This was an interesting match again. I felt like Caner either was going to land one of those big bombs or get it to the ground and dominate on the ground. That didn't happen. Not in the way that I once again that I was expecting. Paige's speed was just ridiculous. We all know that. But Jared wasn't able to really find him on the feet. He was just totally lost. And Paige did land some really clean strikes. He is great at showing uh because he landed two strikes. I think one in round two and one in round one that dropped Jared, but not because he knocked him out, but because he tripped him. But everybody's, "Oh, he's down." You know, so he's good at making his impact seem heavier than they were. It's kind of like in Muay Thai when someone lands a a good leg kick, the corner's like, "Hey." And like everyone yelling at makes it seem like it was more meaningful than it was, right? And like And Paige plays it up too because when the guy falls, he starts doing a little show, starts taunting him. So he it makes it seem like a bigger deal than it was, right? And if you watch again, if you don't believe me, if you watch those strikes again that knocked down Jared, you'll see that he was moving backwards and he got hit, hence he fell. And then one of them, I think there was a little bit of a trip involved as well, if I recall correctly. So I don't think Jared was shook or hurt at any point. He was just being outpointed by a guy who was a point fighter. But he did get some clinches against the fence. And uh I think DC's comments were valid there where it's can be very difficult to double leg somebody. Uh especially if they have an under hook. Your double leg is dead in the water. And Jared should have been looking for single legs. Uh, not like obviously a low single, but like DC had a good plan, you know, like high crotch, uh, singles, uh, whether the head's inside or outside are much easier to lift up when you're at the crease of the hip, especially against the cage versus a double because you're a lot more extended off that double since you're trying to get down to the knees and if there's an under hook, you can't even do it. So, he did get one inside trip, but he wasn't able to really stick it because uh Paige got up almost immediately. He Paige showed that, you know, he could wrestle up as long as he wasn't flat, right? Um however, the fight pretty much went the same way until round three where Jared was able to get it looked like Paige was a little restless in that he wasn't getting the finish. So, he got really aggressive at round three and uh Jared was able to take advantage of that, get him down. There must have been at least three minutes on the clock where he was on top half guard, chest to chest, under hook, crossace. And I thought, "Oh, this is it." Because we know Paige doesn't really have any ground game. And sure enough, was able to mount him and did nothing with it. He wasted three and a half minutes on the ground without throwing any real punches, without going for anything of substance. And I was bewildered by that cuz I was like, what was the game plan then? Cuz clearly takedowns was the plan because he kept trying to clinch with him and take him down. But then once he had him on the ground and an ideal situation, honestly, third round the guy's a little tired and you're a guy who's known for ground and pound. Where's the ground and pound? You had him at half guard. That's one of the better positions to go for ground and pound. Like where was it? And then mount also great position to ground and pound. He never really let go. He never let his hands go. He threw like one elbow and that was about it. It's like no, you got to like let the hands fly or and this is the one that was more frustrating. Uh Paige kept giving him an arm triangle and Jared never really chased it. Like at the last one, he kind of chased it, but not really. A guy that's built like him should be able to muscle a freaking arm triangle, dude. Like, I mean, he's a beast, you know? So, very disappointing. He had one kimora that, you know, I felt like he could have finished if he would have really gone after it. He seemed like he was concerning himself. Like, you're down three rounds. Well, at that point, you were down two rounds. I'm sorry. You need to win this fight by a finish. There's no other way about it. And Jared was just coasting like he had all the rounds in the bag and was just conserving himself. That again, that's one of the ones where I felt like a little too relaxed under pressure there. Like, you're under the gun. You got to take this guy out, man. You got to take some chances, you know? And I understand like, okay, I don't want to let this guy pop up right away. But when you're chest to chest and half guard, man, you can freaking let go. And an arm triangle, people are not standing up off an arm triangle. Like, you have a lot of luxury of controlling someone there. That would have been to me the go-to. And then he had him mounted at one point with the arm triangle. I was like, Jesus, come on, man. Like, like the the It's crazy the lack of grappling that some of these top level MMA guys have, you know? And Jared's been in the game for a long time, as has Paige. But Paige has the excuse that he's just a striker. And okay, I think it's a is a terrible excuse, but whatever. But Jared, uh, especially with the game plan of wanting to be on top, man, you really fumbled the bag there, you know? Uh, I honestly don't understand it. So crazy to me. Then we had Carlo Prates and Goff Neil. Uh this was a was an interesting fight. Giov started off doing okay. They were but clearly he wasn't going for takedowns. It's just like all striking and then PR started to take over. He was starting to land all the significant strikes, started to do some serious damage, and uh at one point where was it? Oh yeah. Uh it looked like it was closing 10 seconds. You know, you hear the tuk tuk tuk, the little hammer signifying the 10 seconds. And it looks like Giov was getting a little close to him and Pra perfectly times a spinning back elbow. KO's him dead right before the bell rings. Like you see a GF drops, the ref steps in, the bell rings. Uh just a crazy finish. Uh, and yeah, this very good timing and the setup because he saw that Goff was pressuring into him and was able to roll off of it. And, you know, there's not that many spinning back knockouts, uh, back elbow knockouts. I I believe they said there were eight, so this was the ninth one. Then, not to be outdone, we have Leon Murphy with Aaron Pico. And this is one of the ones that I'm like, man, uh I don't know how people have Pico as like a minus 200 U favorite as he hasn't done well in debuts and this is arguably his toughest opponent to date. And Leon is undefeated in the UFC and I think has an not un Yeah, I think he and he's has a 8 and0 streak. So, it's like, man, the guy's on a hot streak and he's beating some really good guys. And you guys are saying he's a dog. Definitely uh with through money on that. And I'll tell you what, in the beginning, I'm like, "Oh man, like maybe Pico is going to pull this off because he was putting a lot of pressure on Lero." And uh Leon wasn't reacting too great visually, honestly. Like he was like backing up, shelling up a lot. and Aaron was hitting him to the body, throwing good strikes everywhere, lots of great pressure, scored some early takedowns, almost got the back a couple times. So, uh, Pico was all over him, but Lon was able to get up to his feet. Uh he was able to defend himself, wrestle up, land a couple strikes of his own, but just at one point Aaron's pressuring him really heavy. Uh Leon's almost against the wall. And as Aaron's stepping in, another spinning back elbow knock out. And again, this one was worse because he was dead dead. He didn't get up right away. In fact, like he couldn't come up to get the decision called. He was out cold bad, which is crazy because it was two spinning back elbow knockouts within 10 minutes of each other, you know, uh, comprising 20% of all spinning back elbows in UFC history. And this is, you know, well, UFC 319, but with all the intermediary events, you know, there over 300 UFCs easily. Pretty crazy. and definitely puts Leone in the title picture conversation. I think they're saying that he's going to be going for the title shot now against Alex. So, welld deserved. And uh like I said, it sucks for Pico because he did look great, but like I said, like track record wise, he's seems to have always dropped the ball on these debuts. And hopefully he can build up because he looks talented like very fast. Obviously, great wrestling, uh, great boxing also just, uh, made a small error that became catastrophic. Right. Finally, main event of the evening, Kamza Chime and Drius Dupi. This fight did not go the way I thought it was going to go at all. I know Kamzat was coming in as the favorite and arguably the better wrestler grappler. It's just the level of it was shocking. Kamza took down Dry Kiss in 5 seconds. 5 seconds. It's insane. And in the UFC at that level, getting someone down the ground in just 5 seconds is wild. And it's as if Draus had no wrestling defense whatsoever. He sold out for a guillotine immediately and got his guard passed immediately. and got crucifixed immediately. Like it was such you almost think he threw a fight. It was so dominant. But the odd odd thing was that Kamzat besides being in a crucifix for like two minutes did zero damage. He just kind of pitter pattered and didn't really seem to go for the kill. And you could see that uh Driscus is like trying to bridge, trying to escape his arm. It looked like his arm was out in a few occasions, but I'm guessing there was this good squeeze pressure on the thighs of uh Kamza. So, it took him a long time to be able to free himself from that crucifix. And he pretty much ended the round on his back. Uh, and I think it might have been bottom half guard or bottom side control. And you could see that Driscus was not really concerned. He was smiling. And he goes to his corner. Didn't do anything to me. Didn't hurt. I feel great. Very positive. Round two h starts. Take down within 30 seconds. And again, he just got run over it. He he like sprawled but didn't stuff the head and then Kamzac cut the corner, took him down. It looked like a I'm not seeing anything Kamzad doing is like, oh, this is so high level. is more like just not knowing basic wrestling defense, which I'm pretty sure he hasn't been taken down this easily ever. So, I just assume that his wrestling was good. But then again, the people that he's fought didn't try to take him down. Uh, so if I'm I'm thinking of Sean Strickland because I'm like Sean has good wrestling. It's like if you ever even tried to take him down, you would have probably taken him down because Kamsa's not doing anything magical here, you know. And this is when I say fighters are dumb. Like they fight with their ego because like otherwise if Kamzad's not doing anything that I don't think Stricklin could have done or any previous opponent could have done to Driscus. There was no super fast shot or like crazy setup. It was just a shot from the outside that ran him over. It seems insane to me that this is how it this guy was bested. And I'm not going to break down each round, but you had four rounds of the same thing where within 30 seconds of each round, Driscus was taken down, crucifixed repeatedly, and pitter pattered repeatedly. What's interesting, and by the way, Driscus is never demotivated in the corner. He's always saying, "I got this. I got this. I feel good. I feel like Kamza looked a little deflated in the sense that he thought this guy would want to be put away. But uh to his credit, Drisk Chris's spirit remained in the fight. Although in my opinion, this is where I make my case, too calm under pressure, right? He was too relaxed. Like you you need a sense of urgency because you need to finish or you know after round three where you obviously got beat. Now we need a finish because you're not going to win this on the scorecards, right? There's like no way you would win this on the scorecards. It's an easy three round three- zero and the the fight ended up being a 5-0. Spoiler alert, right? So, you need to start taking some big chances. You need to, you know, go for kills. and he was just content not being finished. You know, there was a lot of renegade choke attempts that and again this is the other thing I felt both of them were doing the same kind of thing whereas Kamza probably felt that if he tried to get a finish he would gas and then u that would be just opportunity to win. So he was kind of just like I'm going to score points. I'm going to tag you up a lot. I'm going to positionally dominate you, but I'm not going to give you the opportunity to work. Get me tired because most people in duplexes situation would have folded after round two 100%. That much dominance over you psychologically and physically is exhausting. But Driscus is built different. He absorbed all that dominance. Never let it get to him and didn't seem to fatigue. The the commentating sucks, man. Like they're like, "Oh, he's just gassed." Like, he doesn't look gassed. He looks the same goofy guy he always is. Like, and you know, he did when he was the for the brief moments he was on his feet, he did land some good strikes. Like, if this was a kickboxing fight, he clearly would knock out uh Kamza. But the problem is that he can't defend a takedown for his life against Kamza. So he can only land one or two punches before he's on his back. It's definitely not what I thought. I didn't think he had zero wrestling defense, but when I try to look back, I'm like, he never really defended takedowns. So I guess it makes sense. But you would think against someone like Kamza like he would have some world-class wrestling partners focusing on defending takedowns. So it's really weird. And like I said, the fact that he had zero urgency to escape some of these positions or to really try to take a chance uh is surprising cuz he spent besides being in crucifix most of the fight, he was also on his forge most of the fight. And Kamzat never really went for a rear naked choke hard. He would like go for it and then like com like Driscus would defend it a little bit and then he would just like go go back to double under hooks. He was more focused on positioning because I feel like Comz was afraid of gassing by trying to finish. So he's like I'm just going to dominate. So he was just riding him the whole time. But Driscis was happy to be ridden. He didn't really like hand fight, go to inside stand up or outside stand up and try to get up to his feet and break away. Like he would get up and then like comes that would put a little forward pressure and then he would fall back down again and he would be fine. It's like no, you got to win. Like if you're just trying to survive, you've already did that, you know. And you know, to some people that would be a great accomplishment, but you're the champion. You're supposed to be out here winning. Round five, there is a good shift of momentum. He does get taken down again in 30 seconds, but it must have been somewhere about three or two and a half minutes. There was a point that looked like Driscus was about to get finished with a rear naked. There's a good back attack and then he gets reversed. And in the first time in the fight, Driscus is on top of Kamza. And you're like, well, is this going to be the moment where he does something goofy and wins the fight? And this would have been the the most goofy way to win the fight because he starts throwing a little bit of hands, comes at turtles, he gets his back, gets a rear naked choke, and he's doing a short choke, and you're like, "Oh my god, is he going to actually pull it off? This would be the most hilarious thing if he beats comes out by a choke." He doesn't though. uh comes out, able to survive uh defends it and Driscus is just on his back and he has the bad angle which he's kind of on the side of K's at so he's not square with him and doesn't really have a body triangle. He's kind of falling off. He's still hanging on but he can't really do anything from this point and he just stays there for the last 20 seconds. comes out just talking to him and he ends up losing the decision. You can't be that cool under pressure, right? Like if you're so relaxed that you can take a loss without being dead, there's a problem. And I feel that Driscis may have mentally prepared himself to get dominated. Like he talked about, you know, I know I'm going to get taken down at some point. That's um a weird admission to make because that means you're accepting that you're going to be on your back and that you're going to be taken down which is the first step to being taken down is accepting it. Psychological trick here. If your opponent thinks that you can take him down, you are going to take him down. you as a wrestler, the big part of the battle is psychological that you you're in denial that it's even possible for your opponent to be taken down. You might say at some point I might end up on my back like I slip up a banana peel or something like that. But you can't just say, "Oh yeah, he's a better wrestler than me. He's going to take me down." Because you're not going to fight the takedowns then, right? Because you're just going to be, "Oh, this is I knew this was going to happen." And let it happen. A big part of, you know, wrestling is that you're in denial that this guy can take you down. Just like in guard passing, right? Like if you're like, "Oh, this guy can pass my guard whenever he wants." How hard are you going to defend the guard pass then? Like you see him knee cutting, you're like, "Oh, I knew this could happen." And you just let it happen. And that's exactly what happened. You know, like every takedown was very poorly fought. And I think it's because mentally they were preparing him to deal with being on his back. And on one hand, yes, that was good because he didn't panic on his back, but he also didn't escape off his back. So, it was they went too hard in one direction, right? Like, okay, you're going to be so relaxed because you're going to be ready for this, but we didn't give you any urgency to want to actually win this fight. You were just content on just being chill and not getting worn out. Especially when the converse was that Kzat was like, I'm not going to blow my load here. I'm not going to try to finish him. I'm just going to coast and ride an easy victory. So, when those two forces meet together of I just want dominance. I don't want to try to exert a lot of energy and I'm not going to have any sense of urgency. I'm just going to survive. It makes for a really easy fight for Kamza, right? And that's what we had. So, you can't be you can't be that relaxed, right? You you need to have some urgency to escape. It's still a fight, man. Like, yes, you have to survive certain situations and not be overly uh zealous, but you do need to get out. And Driscus was saved a few times by the referees in getting standups that were, you know, kind of BS. comes out at one point was inside Driscus' guard and throwing some body shots and they stood him up, you know, and I understand, you know, the UFC is trying to be entertaining for the fans and this was a almost all ground work, very nonexiting ground work because again, comat wasn't going for finishes, but it's still a fight, man. You know, it's it's kind of gay to like stand somebody up off like a crucifix or something like that. Like, come on, dude. It's the the the the onus is on the bottom guy to get up, not the top guy. But it didn't really change anything. I'm just saying that just cuz didn't do himself any favors. He was too cool, too comfortable. He need to make himself a little uncomfortable and he needed to push. You know, he did go for it when he had that brief moment, but that wasn't enough, right? Like, if your Hail Mary is going to be the last minute of the fight, you had 24 minutes before that, man, and you're going to wait for the last minute, you're procrastinating, you know, like I don't know. So, I I feel like this is a learning lesson for a lot of fighters if you didn't take it here, which is being totally unfased and having zero urgency in trying to finish a fight is a problem. There should be some pressure because you need it in order to push yourself to do the things that are going to suck. Because understand, getting out of a crucifix is not fun. There's no easy way of doing it. It's a lot of we bridging and you know trying to shake your arm out. Uh the one thing that's interesting I never really thought about it because I've never seen someone stuck in a crucifix that long is that there is a right side to turn to. Uh and we you learned it just by watching this fight. He goes Driscus is in a crucifix for like half the fight. If you turn towards the leg side, it gives the opponent a better punching angle because he turned a few times to the the leg side and those were the only significant shots that Driscus took from Kamza. It was like one good elbow and one hook that he ate. When you turn towards his headside, your head's much closer to their armpit. So now there's no good punching angle. So you're just getting little pitter patters. And plus, that's going to snake out the easier arm to escape, which is going to be the leg arm. Uh, so I learned that technically, mind you, I don't really get stuck in crucifixes like the top position, but good to know, right? There is a right side to position your head to to not get beaten up too much. Uh the other thing I would say is that as the top guy that comes out, you are the champion now. You won it in the worst possible way. You dragged on a 25minute fight in the most boring circumstances possible. You're not going to be a big favorite. Like even in his like I don't know how Chicago is Kamzad's town because Driscus was being booed and Kamza came out to big cheers in all the you know the press conferences and into the fight which is kind of wild but he was getting booed in the fight because when they stood him up the crowd was cheering. So even his crowd was tired of his fighting. So, he does play a heel, so it probably can work for him, but he might not get that many people wanting to watch his fights if he's going to fight like this. And this seems to be very atypical of him. I I think he did respect the durability and the toughness of Dyscase a little bit too much. I understand not going for the kill on round one, two, or three, but around four and five, you got to try to put the guy away if you're dominating him that much, right? Um, and I'm not saying like go 100%, but like maybe 60 at least, cuz I'm telling you, the ground pound was like 20%. This would be the ground pound I would do in if I was sparring. Let's put it that way. If I got a crucifix from somebody in sparring, I'm putting as much damage as Kamzad was, which is just like that's sparring friendly, right? Even to like a child, I would, you know, do that same type of effort. I mean, you got to put a little bit more than that, my friend. You know, like come on. Uh, and you know the yeah, it was just a really dead way to end the the fight because the the fight card because all the other fights were pretty exciting. You know, undercard there was some good bangers, some finishes, some upsets. Uh, main event had a lot of good fights that but I mean the main card but the main event was awful. a a real underperformance by both athletes in my opinion. I mean, Kamzai got the job done, but it wasn't pretty in my opinion and it wasn't clean. Like, I think he should have been able to finish this guy with the amount of dominance that you had. If you can have someone in the crucifix for like 15 minutes in a fight, man, they should have been done. Uh, and yeah, it's just beyond me how this wasn't finished. So weird fight and again perhaps like I said two pe two people that were a little bit too cool under pressure like Kamzad's like I could just coast this not a big deal and Dus like yeah I I don't need to escape this you know I can just sit here and survive like no you need some pressure guys like you're in the fight business your ultimate goal is to kill this guy you know or be killed you got to get out of here or you got to you know you got to got out here by either finishing the fight or by escaping the position, right? Uh so pretty disappointing those two guys because normally they're finishers. So it's weird that you get two guys that get lots of finishes that get one of the most boring fights in UFC middleweight history. uh which I guess is an accomplishment but uh very odd you know and they had a like Kamza broke a punch stat record because there was like over 500 punches landed but he only had 30 significant strikes which they probably counted too many in my opinion maybe had like five if we're being honest to dry kisses maybe two. So, uh, yeah, really underperform fight. I feel that you need to be trying to finish. Don't lose sight of the goal. And the other thing I would say from just gets a situation, yes, you want to be prepared for the possibility that you're going to be in a bad position, right? We do situational rounds for that reason specifically, right? I'm going to start off my back. I'm going to start off, you know, being mounted. You know, I'm going to start off being double-legged. But you can't be telling yourself from a psychological perspective, this guy's going to take me down. Because what that's going to it, like I said, that's sabotaging yourself because you're going to automatically kill your takedown defense because the moment he gets a deep shot in, you're just going to give up because you already prepared yourself to get taken down. No, no, no, no. That's not how we do this, right? In my opinion, the framing for this is I'm prepared to defend myself wherever I need to be. Not that this guy's going to take me down, but I'm a complete fighter. I learned how to fight everywhere, and I know how to stay cool under pressure, but I also have urgency to move and get into a better position. I'm just not going to survive off a bottom crucifix for 30 minutes. It sounds like, oh, it's the same thing. It's a very different thing psychologically because what Drescus went to, I'm pretty sure, is the concession of that he was an inferior wrestler, that he was going to be take down, and that he just had to survive it. It's very different than saying, I know how to fight everywhere. I could am a complete martial artist. I'll be able if I somehow end up on my back, I'll be able to wrestle it back up to my feet. But it doesn't mean that anything that looks like a takedown I fall over, right? I'm fighting every takedown tooth and nail. That's my opinion on this. And like especially if the Driker's corner felt that they needed to wear out Kamza because there are there were concerns that he didn't have the gas tank. Well, if Kamza didn't have to fight for anything, guess what? He's not going to be tired. He's been laying on your guy for five rounds. He's not tired. He might be bored like the crowd was, but he's not tired. If you want to get him tired, he has to be working, which means that you have to be actively fighting the takedowns. You have to be trying to stand up, so he has to put more pressure to hold you down. He has to actually be throwing hands. So yeah, this is just I feel like it's two strategies that converged that made for a very boring fight, which should have been a very exciting fight in my opinion. Anyhow, that's all I have. You guys got to comment and let me know what you think of this fight matchup or my opinions of it. And I'll catch you guys on the next