BTG 190 - Damage

Hello and welcome to another episode of Breaking the Guard. Damage is the name of the game and we just had the UFC Strickland versus Cheimaev come through and that was something that I noticed. I and I spoke with my brother afterwards and he was on the same page. Fighting is about doing damage and some people seem to forget that. And it's kind of alarming that even at the highest level you cannot be aware or have it as part of your game to damage people in MMA. I'm going to give you a few examples and obviously spoiler alerts here if you missed the UFC last night. Sean Brady in his fight with Neil Magny uh totally dominated him. Took him down. Had him on the ground the whole time. Had every position he wanted. He could get the mount. Like it was one not surprising because I've seen how uh I can't remember his real name. I but I know the the fight name is Neil Magny. Uh Joaquin Buckley. Very powerful guy, you know, on his feet, explosive striking. Has decent wrestling defense but zero ground game. Especially after the last fight you would think you would work on getting up to your feet or something to that effect and zero. He was just stuck to the mat like a like a fly on fly paper. He just didn't really struggle that much, just stayed there. On the other hand, Sham Brady who essentially had mount for like 12 minutes did zero damage. Joaquin was not cut. Didn't look like he was bruised. Just looks like he got wet blanketed for a whole fight. Now, Shawn is a excellent jiu-jitsu guy and showed that by how he was able to secure takedowns on someone who's tough to take down and control them very easily and get positions that he wanted, but can't get a finish? That doesn't make any sense. Unless you think about that he forgot he can do damage. This is not to say he didn't try. I just felt it was very weak attempts. He would do lots of pitter-patter punches. He was like and doing a lot of hammer fisting. Just about none of that got through. Uh Joaquin blocked most of this hammer fist nonsense in my opinion. The hammer fisting stuff and the pitter-patter is good if your opponent panics. But if they don't, then it doesn't really do much unless you're going to use their blocking to try to set up arm bars or, you know, try to get behind the elbow for arm triangle. But if you're doing that just to do it, it's worthless and it's rude. From a coach perspective, I'm like, man, just actually hit the guy, you know? Now, I know some people don't go for hard ground and pound because they're afraid of gassing out, in which case I'm like, improve your conditioning so that you can dedicate to throwing some serious punches, and also realize you don't need to throw a million ground and pound punches. My philosophy for ground and pound has been very simple. And back in my fighting days, it worked really well. It's quality over quantity. I don't need to throw 100 punches to hurt somebody. I throw one or two solidly placed shots that are precisely aimed, they're going to hurt you. If you're just flailing around, then yeah, you're you're going to have to use a lot more volume. And don't get it mistaken, volume will knock you out, even if it's pitter-patter. If they're all landing flush, you will get knocked out at a certain point. The concussion is like vibrations, so even if it's a small vibration, if we keep amplifying that, eventually it becomes big. But it's just not efficient, and it's not practical, because normally when someone gets hit, the next thing they do is they start blocking or moving out of the way. But if I could place a well-timed bomb, then it's going to make my work a lot easier. So, to me, I want to be a sniper with ground and pound. The other thing you have to consider is that when you do throw strikes, you are going to become off balance, and it's going to be a better opportunity for your opponent to escape. So, if you have to constantly throw barrages of punches, you're going to have a harder time controlling people, which I think is another reason a lot of guys don't do it. They don't have the control. That said, if you're picking your shots, it's very easy to maintain control. I don't say very easy, but it's easier to maintain control. The time that I want to throw a barrage of punches is when I see my opponent's not defending themselves well, and I want to signal to the referee this guy's done. Then I can throw a barrage, and it doesn't have to be crazy powerful or anything. It could be a pitter-patter. But if they're all landing, and he's not able to get out of the way, the referee is going to do the work for me to stop it. But otherwise, I'm not throwing pitter-patter punches. I'm going to be throwing hard shots, calculated. Sean Brady never did that. It was always pitter-patter. And maybe he's happy with, you know, going three rounds and not getting hurt. Certainly, there's worse ways to win a fight. I just think it's not great that you couldn't finish somebody that was exactly where you wanted them the whole fight. To me, it means there was a either a bad strategy or a technical shortcoming in your game. And I think it's a technical shortcoming in that you don't have ground pound. It did not appear to me there was any serious threat of getting hurt. And I think that's also why Joaquin he didn't get gassed, he just couldn't get out. Obviously, Joaquin has a lot of technical deficits he has to take on, which is like the ground game is non-existent. You would think after a year of not, you know, fighting like you would have picked up the ground game some more, and it doesn't seem like that was a a calculus at all. Which is sad. Like you're professional MMA fighter, you should know a lot more than ground that you showed. But that was one fight. It worked out for Sean Brady in either case. But in my opinion, when you have devastating ground and pound that could puts the fear of God in your opponent, it's going to be so much easier to submit them. Because when you see somebody like David Loiseau back in the day, crazy elbows. All right, he just had really strong elbows. He could be in your closed guard or anywhere and man, you're going to be going lights out. You get a lot bigger reactions when you see that guy throwing elbows because people know if I stay in the path of this, even if I'm blocking, it's like taking a sledgehammer. So, having that type of ground and pound is such a powerful tool, not only to finish but to intimidate. Because if you're under somebody who can throw that type of ground and pound, you're not comfortable at any moment. Because you know if I slip for 1 second, it's over. Whereas if you have someone like Sean Brady on top of you right now, you're relaxed. I'm like as long as I don't get caught in the submission, I'm okay. And it's a lot easier to not get submitted than to not get knocked out. Not get submitted, I could cross my hands on my chest like the old school jiu-jitsu thing from bottom mount and you know, not much is going to happen. In MMA, you know, if I put my hands up a little bit here and you're not throwing any heat, I'll be fine. So, I can relax. Whereas if I'm with a killer that has, you know, powerful ground and pound, I have to be constantly thinking I need to get out of here as quickly as I can cuz every second I'm in here is danger. Now, another fight that had this was the co-main event. Atyra and uh Joshua Van. Atyra first of all is huge. I mean, he fought in a lowered stance but his legs is uh torso he will appeared much bigger than Joshua Van. He also scored a takedown almost instantly. Very powerful drive got Van right to the ground. Another one straight into the mount. Joshua Van didn't seem to have a good guard. It was pretty easy for Atyra to mount him when at will. He did show recovery though. He was able to go into butterfly guard. Uh he would go into a kipping escape butterfly guard and then sometimes he was able to get up but a lot of time he was stuck on his back anyways because Atyra would just keep mounting him. So the the guard defense of Joshua is quite weak. But recovery was decent. But Atyra was another one that did zero damage on the ground. He was moving around a lot trying to get position or getting positions but no ground and pound. And after a round or two of total domination from Atyra Joshua did a good job of again like Buckley, composure. Why? I'm not getting hurt. I'm okay. Even though I'm getting dominated in these positions, nothing's really happening. I'm just losing a perception battle. The moment uh was it? Maybe in the late round two or round I think it was late round two or maybe round three, Van hammered Tyron with a right hand, lasered it, and floored him. Tyron's surviving was like a a miracle of God because he was out cold. When he hit the floor, his head ricocheted on the mat, and that woke him up, and he was able to defend himself in the guard. Super impressive. The guy is clearly made of tough stuff. And in the following round, took quite a beating on his feet. His face got completely marked up. He was like red like a cherry, but he still was in there. His wrestling ability suffered tremendously as you would expect when you barely survived a round. The next round was probably not going to be great for him. But he did bounce back. I believe it was around four if I got my rounds right, and was able to score a takedown, able to get mount again, not able to do any damage. And then maybe it was around four round five, Van was able to put some extra beating on him, hurt him pretty good. Uh it looked like it started with some body shots because Joshua was starting to getting a lot more comfortable on his feet and throwing combinations, and Tyron, another thing, had zero defensive capability on his feet. The only head movement he had was for a level change. Everything else, his head was like fixed in the center, and whatever Van threw at him connected. And he started mixing up head and body, and really did a number on him, and he was hurt pretty bad against the cage, started to turn away, Van went to follow up, referee stopped it. Now, in my taste, as my brother has the same taste as I, they should have let it go a little longer. The guy had suffered far worse and came back. So, to stop him from there seems very premature. Do I think it would change the outcome? No. I either he would have been finished or he would have lost the decision, either way. The point being here, Tyron needs to have some ground and pound. If you're mounting someone at will and you can't hurt them, what the hell? In fact, to me, it's like you had mount all this time and it didn't help you win the fight at all. That's crazy. It was like you wasted your time even doing it then. Besides the perception of winning the round, it really didn't do nothing for you, which is insane. You give a striker that same proposal, which I'm going to place you on your feet in my striking range for three rounds and if I can't hurt you, man, my striking game sucks. How else would you describe it? I had the guy exactly where I want him for three full rounds and I couldn't hurt him. That doesn't make any sense, but that's what's happening on the ground for these guys who are excellent grapplers. Tyron is a great grappler. His takedowns, awesome, man. He got in, drove really strong. He Every time he got a clinch, he was able to throw uh Van very good wrestling, and then on the ground, his guard passing was solid. You know, he made the butterfly of Van look like it was non-existent. >> Clearly a solid grappler. >> But this is not grappling, it's MMA. You have to do damage. And he's going to make your grappling a lot easier when people fear being on the bottom. They're going to make more mistakes and they get their back more. But these two gentlemen, very high-level guys, seem to have zero concept of doing damage on the ground. I would say in Tyron's case, he also needs to work his stand-up defense. He He was throwing punches and you know, he landed some strikes on his feet. So, it wasn't like he didn't know how to strike. He just didn't know how to defend. It was uh You got to move your head around. Shoulders have to shift. You can't just stay in head locked into the center. It's crazy to me because like it's like fighters that have these strange gaps. And mind you, we're not early 2000s like when I was starting where there were clear gaps because there were people that weren't cross-training or anything or doing MMA. It was like I was a kickboxer and then I'm going to do some grappling preparation or vice versa. These should be modern MMA fighters that do everything at all times. So, the defense should be there. The ground and pound should be there. It's It's why when people like, "Oh, you know, like we have the best generation of fighters." I'm like, "In some cases, yes." Like I said, the outlier guys, sure. But overall, I'm not seeing that. Technical level and skill level is not the highest it's ever been. Uh um if it has, it's not saying much. All right. I was talking to one of my black belts, Jason, and he and I were in agreement that the level at MMA still has so much good to go as far as top athletes. Like we don't have a Michael Jordan in our sport. I don't think we've ever had it. Someone who was that talented and that mentally dialed in. The closest is GSP. But I don't think he's quite there. But if there was anybody, it was him. I don't know. I I love GSP. I think he has the He lives a true martial arts lifestyle from what I've seen. And the few conversations I had with him, obviously his resume speaks for itself. But the only other guy would have been Jon Jones if he didn't tarnish his legacy with all the stupid things he's done. But short of those two, man, there's a lot of holes. There's not There There's no MJs, right? Which is promising in a way or a way cuz that means there's a lot more room for growth in the sport. But I get into this now because the main event comes at Chimaev and Sean Strickland. One as a fan, it's annoying when you give up your acting performance right before the the main event. Anybody who's been following this know there was massive amounts of trash talk leading up to this fight to the point that they I've never seen this before. In the cage, there were the 40 security guards or some crazy number of security people in there to prevent them from fighting each other cuz they had this from everything before that, the belief that things were going to get off the wall. And they you know, these guys were going to fight before the fight. God forbid. But then, right before they are about to touch gloves, they are laughing at each other and they both like they touch gloves twice and they're smiling and they're talking to each other and they look happy. And if you're not watching the game, that's when you realize, "Oh, this was a show. These two are friends." And they've been selling this fight this whole time and there isn't any real animosity. And perhaps some of this was even coordinated. Now, mind you, I don't have any inside knowledge of this. It's just what it appears to be. Because and again, I won't spoil it yet, but after the fight, they were all friendly. All compliments. And it was even admitted that this was done to sell fight. In my opinion, that's like the magician showing the trick. Don't do that. It feels very lame. I don't know. I did not like that at all. Chael Sonnen talks about this quite a bit like don't you if you're going to play a bit, you got to play it all the way through. Don't stop just before your your show begins. You know, I've been hyping this up for a long time and I'm about to start the show and then I'm going to reveal my hand like this is actually all fake. Enjoy. It's like, "What?" So, um the I mean, you already got the numbers you needed as far as attendance. So, I guess technically you could do that. But, it just seems like a bad way to do it. Like, you should let the let people feel If you want to, you know, quote unquote squash the beef after the fight is when people are used to, not before the fight. Anyhow, the acting class aside, the fight itself, I did get quite a few questions asked of me from friends, like, "How do you think this is going to go?" Because obviously you guys know I've trained with him and in the same training room with Sean Strickland. And if you guys heard my preview it Friday, it was the same, which is I don't think Khamzat can finish Sean. He's not going to catch him in a submission. He's not going to knock him out. So, the only way he has to win is by decision, and he doesn't have great cardio. And another factor that we learned was that it appears that he didn't make weight. The way that they just he stepped on the scale and they called it when you could see the the dial moving on the scale. It looks like they just needed to get it off, and apparently he did that that there's allegations that he was cutting over 40 lbs. By the way, well, I don't know. That's the other thing I know is some people they measure the weight cuts at different times. All right? Like, Strickland has said that he can be in 230s off camp. So, you could say, "Oh, well, he cut 45 lbs to make 185." But, he's not, you know, 230 something two or three weeks out of the fight. All right, he's like in the 200s now. So, to me in in his case, a lot of it is losing weight. Like you're actually losing fat and leaning out. So, you're dieting. That's not the cut. In my opinion, the cut is water. Right? How much we're going to squeeze out in those last uh weeks. I expect it's probably in the 20-ish lbs range for Strickland. Now, I'm not sure if they're using the same type of math from Khamzat where, you know, off camp he's 230-something. Either way, if you mismanage a cut, it's going to affect your cardio tremendously. Back to my prediction point was Khamzat doesn't have good gas. He didn't have a good cut. Uh at least from the perception of it. It's going to be really hard to win a five-round decision for him. He struggled with Drakkar in the last round and got into some trouble. And that was a fight that he totally dominated for the first four and a half rounds. If he can't do the same to Sean, man, it's going to be rough. On the other hand, Sean, great cardio guy. He works all these bad positions that he's going to get into all the time. You guys heard me talk about it, but like all the training I think is a little monotonous, but he gets lots of, you know, bottom rounds starting from turtle, starting from bottom guard, bottom half, you know, all these different situations all rounds. He's not going to panic or freak out if he gets taken there and he works in getting up every single time. And to mention, he is So, he's just black belt. He is good on the ground. He doesn't make silly mistakes that a lot of MMA guys do. So, he's not going to freak out. And he's going to do well in the later rounds as evidenced in in other fights. So, to me it appeared Sean had the better chance of winning the decision than Khamzat did. He had to weather an initial storm I would expect. I And I don't think anyone is camped out contrary to that, which is that he's probably going to get taken down early in the fight. And he's going to have to weather that storm, get back up to his feet, or defend himself, and repeat that several times until the tank of Chimaev starts to wear out. The fight itself played out quite like that. Round one, Sean got taken down almost instantly, which to me is kind of crazy. But, uh and he got covered. Now, he was he tried to get up multiple times, could not detach himself from Khamzat. Khamzat was doing a great job of mat returns, and got some nice like quarter-turn lifts on him, and just controlling the back the whole time. The theme of the day, zero damage. Did not throw a single significant strike from top. He just held him. And part of it is because Sean was trying to stand up the whole time. When you punch somebody, you lose your grip. He's out. Especially when he's always working to get up. So, the fact that Sean was always moving didn't really allow Khamzat to let go. Now, in my opinion, what's the point of holding a guy if you can't hit him or submit him? Right? Like, sometimes it's better to let someone go, but get a nice shot in as a parting uh shot. Cuz if you can land some significant damage, it'll be worth it. Especially if you know you can get this position again. I think the problem with Khamzat is he's not sure if he can. So, he has to hold on to every position like it's the last time he's going to have it. But, zero damage. He didn't really get any significant submission catches, either. Uh Sean was doing a good job hand fighting, not letting any chokes come in, not letting any submissions whatsoever. Only in like the last 30 seconds did Khamzat have like a little bit of a bite of a cross face, you know, like high for like neck crank or whatnot, but nothing really. And Sean was able to make it and survive the round, weather the storm, so to speak. When they're going to be between rounds, you can see Sean's fresh. Khamzat looks worn and looks mentally not great. You can even hear the corner, Arman Tsarukyan, in there telling him to calm down. Round two comes in and Khamzat tries to throw some bombs. Strickland starts getting the jab established now, and he starts landing with good frequency. And then, Khamzat rushes in for a takedown, not a good one, and gets stuffed. And Khamzat pulls guard. Not with Sean all in top of him, but Sean kind of shoved him off and Khazmat pull guard. Not in a great way. It looked like this is someone pulling guard because they're exhausted. Sean gets into his guard, goes into half, and starts winning the round. Landing little shots here and there. Not as much damage as I would like, but better than zero. And controlling Khazmat that round. And he he did land some ground and pound. Much better than the other two fights I mentioned. When they go into round three, Khazmat looked really dejected. And Sean looked good. But at at this point, if you were to ask me what's going to happen next, I'm like, "Oh, Khazmat's probably going to get finished." He looked terrible in that round two. And unless he's like pulling a rest round, it's not going to go well. However, it seemed like maybe he was pulling a rest round because when round three came in, he looked a lot fresher than Strickland did, if I'm being honest. But that didn't really change the fight in that Strickland was just jabbing the hell out of him and marking up his face significantly. Khazmat, I don't think went for a takedown in round three. He tried to stand with Strickland. And he he landed some shots cuz he did break uh Strickland's nose at some point. I think it might have been a jab or whatnot, but you could see he was leaking. But if you go by the punch stat and just by watching, Strickland's jab was not missing. He was just landing it constantly and doing a better job of not getting put onto the cage. It also seemed like Khamzat was afraid to push the pedal because he was probably going to gas if he did. I had Strickland winning round three. So, right now it's like two to one. Then it goes into round four. And was this the round? I think uh Khamzat did score some takedowns on this round. He did land some strikes. It's still a close round. But, it wasn't uh in Sean's favor. Khamzat won round four. So, and this surprised me. I'm like, "He's not wearing out. He's somehow got like a a second wind in the round three." And Strickland also looked to seem to be getting pretty tired, and he looked like flat-footed. He had a good poker face, but to me watching it, it's like you could see there's there's pain in those eyes. Like he he's struggling to be in there, but he is as still in there. But, Khamzat looked a lot fresher. He was hopping around everywhere, but effective as my still wasn't getting all the damage that you would expect, but he won that round. So, to me it was two-two, round five is for all the marbles. And round five again, Strickland now is getting a lot more of that jab action. He gets taken down, but gets up pretty quickly with no consequence. And continues to land that jab, land some additional punches as well. Khamzat's face is completely marked up at this point. Strickland's got blood on him because he's got the broken nose and he's trickling. So, they they both taken some damage. Chimaev gets another takedown. Strickland gets back up. Again, a takedown of zero consequence. I don't think he was ever quite on his back. He was on his knees against the cage and just working up from there. And the fight ends on their feet, both exchanging uh To me, it was a Strickland round, which is also what the punch uh stats show. And he ends up winning the split decision to gain the belt. So, first of all, congrats to him. Uh having been in some of the training sessions there, I could I know he's been working hard for it. And pretty cool to see. On the other hand, there's a lot of people saying, "Oh, it's a robbery." And I go back to point number one. The name of the game's damage, dude. And you could take a guy down 30 times. If you're not hurting him, it's not really that consequential. A takedown that is like, I dragged you onto the ground and then you pop back up to your feet is not really significant. If there was zero damage done by either guy, like there was no punches, that was the only exchange, then okay, yeah, it's significant, right? Like, obviously, I got one takedown to nothing. So, I'm winning this round because I'm the only one that had some control in this fight. But, when we have lots of damage being done on the feet, and then they get you on the ground for like a second and then you come back up, that to me is not really worth even acknowledging. And I'm a grappler. And but I like that didn't do anything. Now, round one, he had significant takedowns. Quarter turn lift, drive them into the ground, those hurt. And those take energy from you as the guy getting slammed. So, those type of takedowns, yeah. I see them equivalent to doing damage. But, just dragging a guy by tripping him and then pulling him off the cage, it's not a damage takedown. It's good if you can make use of it, otherwise, who cares? So, people are like, "Oh, he had two takedowns. That was an easy win for round five. They robbed him." I'm like, two takedowns that did nothing, dude. Like, the takedown has to lead to some consequence. So, this is another area where Khamzat lost his fight. If he was able to do damage with his takedowns, maybe he would have won. Now, I know the counterpoint, which is what I feel is the likelihood. He couldn't do damage with his takedowns cuz you know the moment he would try, Strickland would get up to his feet right away. Which is a tactical decision, but the problem is, then don't complain when you lose because your takedowns really you can't you don't have the control to leverage your takedowns. All right? I can bring you to the mat, but I can't do anything with you because the moment I do, you're out. So, I don't have enough control over you to be able to exercise a submission or a striking option. This is why it's important in MMA to learn how to get up to your feet well. And Sean did a great job of that. And so, and that arguably won him the fight cuz if he didn't have that, he would be in submission threat the whole time he was on his back or be under ground and pound threat. But, because he did, uh Khamzat was never able to take advantage of it. I will say though the I was hoping the fight would be more entertaining cuz round one seeing him get totally dominated I'm like oh man rough but like expected uh Khamzat's a monster on grappler and wrestler and he just had to weather the storm so he actually did what he was supposed to do. Round two the massive turnaround was like oof that's exciting it's like good twist in the story and like oh what's going to happen in round three? But then three four and five were kind of like ah it's kind of like these outpointing battles which hey but that's what it takes to become the champion with your tool set so be it. I just wish we could have a little more action there. Again not a Michael Jordan performance in my opinion but he still got the win so that's a amazing feat. I think Khamzat has to really work on his conditioning and it's not like oh he needs to do more sprints or more no it's in my opinion zero to do with that. Two main factors one probably the weight cut and but I'll put the weight cut second if I'm being honest. I don't think the weight cut was the primary factor. I think the primary factor anxiety. I think Khamzat doesn't do well when he's facing somebody that's not going to give up and fold. He has a rough he now don't don't mistake this as me saying you know he's a or a bully no dude's tough he can fight hard and he's very well skilled but I think he's used to being the dominant fighter with people just folding on them. His earlier fights were like that. The fights I've seen him struggle with Gilbert Burns because Gilb that was arguably Gilbert's last great performance in my in my books where really put Chimaev through the the grinder. And um you can see there that there is definitely he struggles a bit when the fight gets hard, much like anybody would. But the gas tank wasn't quite there. His fight with Drakkar's kind of showed that as well, even though that was a really weird fight from both fighters. But to be tired from that type of fight doesn't make any sense in my book. To me, this was like a tactically played fight and for whatever reason they're really worn out. Doesn't Doesn't make sense to me, right? Like that's anxiety. Cuz there was no physical exertion and you were able to hold someone in a crucifix for like minutes at a time. You know, you you're not getting tired doing that, right? I could hold someone in a crucifix from top side control all day long and I'm not going to gas. Zero. So to me, he has like either finishing anxiety, like he feels like he needs to win the fight now and he's not capable of doing it and that's getting him nervous, which is draining the tank. Or something else going on, but needs some sports psychology work in my opinion. Cuz his skill set realistically should be beating Sean Strickland. With the level of domination that he had on the ground. And mind you, his stamina was decent, right? Like he's not getting knocked out. All right? And he's landing some shots. Strickland just has a better jab. All right? And he was able to land that jab early. But other than that, like, Khamzat has enough striking keep stand-up capability to be able to engage into the ground. The problem is he doesn't have the gas tank to do that continuously. Or to be able to do damage. So, like, I feel like Khamzat needs to really work in that sports psychology aspect so that he can fight harder without draining himself. Because I don't think he needs to run more. He doesn't need cardio from a physical capability standpoint. I think he needs the mental relaxation so that he's not stressing himself when he shouldn't be. He should be able to relax when he's in dominant positions. Normally, people get tired when they're in the compromised positions. Ergo, you're D'arce Chokehold, and and you're getting gassed because you're not where you want to be. And this is why it's important to train yourself to be in the bad positions because then you get comfortable with them, and then you realize you should you only need to, you know, exert energy when the situation calls for it. And that's why some of these guys, like I told you, like Vann, you know, and Joaquin Buckley, they didn't get gassed and they were mounted the whole time. Why? Because they both knew I'm not getting hit, I'm okay. Now, they may or may not have good capabilities of getting out of there, but they didn't get tired. Normally, you Well, just realistically, you're going to get a lot more tired when you're uncomfortable mentally than otherwise. So, being able to be comfortable everywhere, even in bad spots, makes your cardio seem much better. Speaking from experience. Okay. My physical capability of cardio is nowhere near where I was when I was younger, yet in certain situations, my perceived cardio is a lot better right now. Just because I don't stress as much. So, I I think Khamzat needs to learn that capability if he wants to be able to level jump. Because he's going to struggle with guys like Sean who are tough and resilient and not just going to fold. They're going to stay in the fight the whole time. And if you're not ready to deal with somebody like that, you're going to have a harder and harder time. And that A lot of this you get through experience. But Khamzat's not young. He's in the in the fight world at least. He's 32. Right? So, he's entering what should be his peak era right now, but he still has a huge flaw in the skill set, which is his conditioning, you know, endurance uh problem. So, he needs to close that gap quickly if he wants to be able to recapture gold and cement the legacy. And now he's also had his first official loss. Which I'll tell you, Sean's good at taking out people that are not supposed to get lose, right? Like he was a massive underdog. I think at one point it was like plus 600 or something like that for Sean, which to me is crazy. I don't feel like I had access to any additional information that made this an easier pick for me. Like I said, if I was a gambling man, I would have thrown a lot onto Strickland. Just because the odds were too silly. All right. I get people favoring Khamzat, but thinking that the fight was going to be a blowout is a little ignorant. So, uh the bookies kind of goofed on that in a big way. But, in any case, I'm happy that we got the title back in the US. We need to keep some of these UFC titles. And uh the fact I get to train with this guy and stuff, it's cool to see. But, I could also tell you that there's a lot of room for improvement all around. I mean that. Like I said, on one hand, you would think that more it like a little disappointed in the progress overall in MMA. Like it seems to have, in my opinion, stagnated quite a bit. I felt like at this point the top-level fighters should be really well-rounded. And it's still not the case. There's a lot of gaps. Strickland's pretty well-rounded. I would say that. I I just wish he had more finishing tendencies, although and more pressure. Like the the the switch from round two to three, he stayed very conservative. Now, I think what my brother said, which is he was probably a lot more fatigued than hurt than he gave up. So, he just stayed at in his pace, which comes out that I'm doing. Anyhow, overriding theme of this conversation is damage. If you're in MMA, you have to hurt people. And if you're a grappler, you have to start hurting people when you have them in your positions. If you're getting the mount or you're getting the back mount, and you're not hurting your guy, you are in a severe disadvantage because you have to use a considerable amount of energy to get these positions. To do nothing with them makes no sense. Learn how to do ground and pound because it is different. You do have to learn that like I said, in my opinion, if you if you try to throw volume in striking, you will get frustrated because people will escape easier and you will lose control. To me, ground and pound philosophy is sniping. We're picking our shots and we're trying to do damage. And I I mean like very specific sniping. Most people in ground and pound, even in striking on their feet, when they think of punching somebody, they just think punch the head. This whole area here. When I'm thinking ground and pound, I'm thinking nose. Or I'm going to hit right in that the left eyebrow, right? Or I'm going liver shot, right? Right under the floating rib. I'm not just punching at a vague target. Because if I if I'm trying to hurt you, I need to pick a spot. Otherwise, I'm spreading damage everywhere. If I'm throwing a body shot here and here and then, you know, the leg and then here and like I'm not in amplifying the damage in one key area. I need to pick, you know, a couple spots. Like I might say the nose, liver. Those are honestly two pretty good spots to go for. Cuz if you bloody up the nose, now the breathing stops starts being a problem. That's going to affect the cardio, affects the vision, and that's going to make everything else a lot easier. Obviously, if you take out the liver, it's usually a game over situation. And it also sets up distractions because now when you start taking body shots, that elbow starts to come down a little bit more. And if you're like me where I don't have long arms, when I cover this, I can't cover my face now. So now head shots are a lot easier. Whereas if I'm not worried about body shots, my hands and my guard can be high. So it makes it trickier, but if you throw a few body shots, now I got to lower this and I get used to lowering this. Now the the the head becomes a bigger target. But in any case, it's sniping on the ground. And that volume. That's my take on it. You guys can let me know what you think in the comments. Thanks for tuning in and I'll catch you all next week.