On Sunday morning Beijing time, UFC ON ESPN 9 will be held at UFC APEX in Las Vegas. At the headline main event of the night, the former secondary champion "Son of The Chosen" Tyrone Woodley will return to the octagon cage for the first time fifteen months after losing the throne, and launch a sharp collision with Burns, the "Brazilian upstart" who just KO Maya in March this year, which is directly related to the career prospects of both sides and the future direction of the sub-middleweights. With the return of woodley, the "king of cold-blooded (field)", players of all levels and the global audience will once again recall the fear and helplessness of those years dominated by the "control flow".
Like most confrontational sports, mixed martial arts has always been based on the theme of "fierce collision" in the early stage of development, and fighters from different genres and with various technical backgrounds have used their strength and courage on the field to compose the next period of bloody legends that are full of breath and intestines. However, with the rapid development of the movement itself and the emergence of powerful figures, the "control flow" masters who pay attention to "tactical execution" and reject "hot blood" have gradually stepped onto the stage of history and firmly occupied the central C position for a long time.
While creating brilliant personal achievements, these masters who are good at "stalking" will also reduce the intensity and excitement of the competition to the latest "height", so that the white dana who are concerned about the box office and the audience who are eager for passion can endure long-term "mental pain". Today, we will take stock of the BUG-level characters who reject passion and are cold to the end of the "control flow" that people love and hate.
King of War
Randy Kotur
As the unprecedented "five champions" in the history of the UFC, Uncle Randy, who has reached the top three times in the heavyweight and was crowned twice in the light heavyweight, is definitely the winner of the winner and the legend of the legend. However, the "embarrassing dominance" of winning the throne five times and successfully defending the title only three times has made him not considered in the "G.O.A.T" industry evaluation.
It can be said that Uncle Randy, who flew up and down and tossed and turned in the two levels of light heavyweight and heavyweight, can only be regarded as the strongest "king killer" in history, but he has never been a qualified overlord of the times. However, even if the dominance is seriously insufficient due to his own shortcomings such as age and technical stereotyping, the "great achievements" of the five thrones still show that Uncle Randy is outstanding.
Unlike his contemporaries, who have a distinct style and outstanding specialty, Randy, who has a wealth of experience in the wrestling field, has brought the high-end concept of "tactical targeting" into the octagonal cage since the end of the last century. With a tactical vision and super execution that far exceeded that era, with a series of completely different targeting tactics and control capabilities, Vito, Smith, Landman, Tito, Riddle, Sylvia and other champion-level strongmen of different eras fell into an "uncomfortable situation" of nowhere and nowhere to be sent, turning the seemingly equal and incomparably expected "strong duels" into cold and boring unilateral crushes.
Although Randy, who is everywhere "grabbing power", is always unable to escape the fate of being expelled after the "strange move" is seen through, the importance of targeted tactics and control ability has been valued and respected by more people in the industry because of the legendary story of Uncle Randy.
Master of Control
Georges-Saint-Pierre
If Uncle Randy had to actively choose "tactical control" on the way to climb because of his own ability, then the most talented, most technical and almost non-existent human fighting "perfect machine" in the octagonal cage, Georges Saint Pierre, gradually embarked on the road of "control flow" after ascending the throne.
After 2006, after Two of Leon's predecessors, BJ Payne and Matt Hughes, successfully ascended to the throne in the second middleweight, the twenty-five-year-old "genius boy" Georges Saint Pierre, who intended to start his reign, suffered one of the worst defeats of his career in the first defending battle in April of the following year.
Facing the seemingly non-threatening "top ten edge man" Matt Sierra, he was hit hard at the beginning of the first leg and was terminated by TKO under the fierce pursuit of the opponent, breaking out of one of the biggest cold spots in UFC history. Although he regained the throne from the other side a year later, the horror and serious consequences of the original "loss of control" still make him remember it vividly.
Since then, "controlling the scene" and "winning steadily" have become the primary goals of Georges Saint Pierre in the defense of the title, and comprehensive technology and extraordinary talent have become a strong support for achieving this goal, choosing to suppress in the face of the standing system, choosing to hang in the face of the tangled system, and choosing multi-frequency switching in the face of all-round opponents. In short, not attacking, not risking, not letting the opponent enter the field of expertise, in the "start in control, but also in the control" is the strategic policy of the "GSP era". Nine consecutive successful defenses have allowed the "flow of control" to flourish in his hands, but at the same time, eight of the nine victories have been judged, which has also made the audience resist this "utilitarian style".
Doll Weapons
Jon Jones
The classification of the light heavyweight Devil and the top predator Comrade "Bone" as "control flow" may surprise many people, but in fact, Jon Jones is not only "controlling the flow", but also more thorough than the "poison index" of Uncle Randy and GSP. Because the first two are at least acquired personal choices, but "bones" are a real "natural controller".
Top physical fitness, terrifying height arm span, and extraordinary fighting talent allow Jones to form a "hardware crush" beyond the technical level of all opponents of the same era, and also allow him to have an overly rich "lethal arsenal". Although the tactical quality is not as impressive as Uncle Randy, and the technical reserves are not as deep as the GSP, Jones has super hardware and corresponding application ability, which is enough to make all his peers, including these two "control flow masters", envious and hateful.
Looking back at Jones's path to the championship, he destroyed the "general" with a super long arm span, defeated the "werewolf" with distance control, killed Ryuta with heavy blows and resistance advantages, and crushed "Honey" with absolute strength, these four former champions who were in the year of fighting, in front of the young bones, as if they had been abolished, collectively mute. What caused all this was not how strong Jones's ability to control the field was, but that he always had the right hardware advantage to make it easy for him to avoid the hard-fought situation.
Jones's super physique makes him the most dominant super king in the octagon, but it also makes his game often one-sided and boring. Although there is nothing wrong with taking advantage of the strengths and avoiding the shortcomings, in the eyes of the audience, this kind of hardware configuration is too unbalanced to compete, and it can never become the "industry focus" of the attention. Fortunately, in recent years, with the rise of a new generation of strongmen such as Reyes, Jones's physical advantage has become smaller and smaller, and his own covetousness for heavyweights has also increased the possibility of him stepping out of the "comfort zone". I believe that in the near future, we should be able to see a strong enough opponent standing in front of him.
Super ninja
Tyrone Woodley
As the longest-serving and most defended new king since Georges-Saint-Pierre, Tyrone Woodley deserves more respect, but his overly conservative "control flow" style of play has been criticized during his reign.
In the first defending battle, he and "Wonder Boy" Thompson fought hard all the time, a difficult draw, and only let people begin to question the ruling ability of the "Chosen Son", to his second battle with Thompson, as well as the duel with the "Soft God" Maya, the cold (chicken) quiet (thief) performance of "no chance to punch, no rabbit and no eagle", really showed the "patience ability" that made opponents and audiences collectively crazy. Although he successfully ended Darren Trier in the fourth game of the title defense game, woodley's popularity rose, but the subsequent "inaction" against Usman still caused his popularity to fall to the bottom.
Although the process of defending the title seems to be ups and downs, and the audience's reputation is also up and down, Woodley's style of play has not changed. If "Bone" Jones is always light and not hot enough because of too many weapons, then Woodley embarked on the road of "controlling the flow" precisely because there was no choice.
As a "small champion" whose size, strength, technology, and endurance are not the top in the sub-middleweight, and even quite a loss, Tyrone can come up with a weapon that is basically a move, that is, a rapid breakthrough and a backhand heavy punch supported by super explosive power. In order to maximize his only trick, he had to choose "a hundred patience into steel" - to give up the strong attack, keep a distance, wait for the opportunity, in the taunts of opponents and the boos of the audience, with superior patience and will, waiting for the opportunity to come.
Such a game, the intensity and ornamentality are difficult to convince the public, but Woodley actually with this "can not control others, can only control their own" alternative "control flow" play, in the sub-middleweight throne for four consecutive times, so that many masters and global black fans complained but helpless, until encountered because of the obvious hardware advantages and enjoy unlimited fire rights of the "fatal nemesis" Usman, before finally abdicating.
Now, Woodley, the "self-control guru" who has lost his belt, needs a real victory to cement his current position in order to preserve the chance of recovery in a new era in which the sub-middleweight is in full swing. Gilbert Burns, who is on the rise, needs the opponent's former champion to serve as his final step into the "Game of Thrones". The outcome of this game will show us that today, when Uncle Randy and GSP have retired and Jones is on the verge of "out of control", Tyrone Woodley, the last big guy, can still regain his former glory for "control flow".