Souza vs. Whittaker

This is the official discussion thread for Souza vs. Whittaker. Let's see what you've got.

If this fight happens, it will probably be outside the UFC in a submission grappling contest i guess

Or against Roger Gracie. He tapped Jacare in BJJ.

Roger have a significant size (height and weight) advantage over Jacare. They just met each other in absolute division.

Jacare all day

Alex, they could fight at 185 as that is where Roger fought at the one time he did in the UFC.

Some of you act like Jacare is one dimensional. He's not. His striking has come along way and he can hold his own on the feet with most MW's. I like Whittaker a lot but he's outmatched here. Jacare by whatever he wants

Whitaker has impressed me over his last few fights but I believe Jacare to be the more dynamic fighter who has more ways to win.

If it comes down to skill for skill, Jacare should definitely win.  My only hesitation is in that Jacare is getting a little bit older, while Whittaker is young, scrappy, powerful and getting more well rounded all the time. 

My guess is Jacare will give him a free grappling lesson.  I'm not counting Whittaker out though. 

Think the fight is going to be closely contested, Jacare's best shot is to take Robert down late in the fight IF he gasses, because I don't think he'll be able to take a fresh Whittaker down. His TDD is great.

?

Jacare just seems so much better.

Speaking of TDD, how many of those fighters have good takedowns?

@rappinpapsoda. That's precisely the point here. Robert's TDD is not representative at this point. He is overated to me (no attempt to disrespect him here) with some win over Clint, Tavares, Hall, Natal.. really? Even his last win over Brunson was in my opinion more about Brunson having zero IQ. Of course their are some good arguments in favor of Whittaker but at this point, it's very hard to be confident with him winning. I am only thinking about hedging on him because of the moneyline, nothing else.

Jacare is very smart and powerful. I can easely see him throw short combinations to break the distance and start to work from the clinch against the cage. It only requires one little trick to put him down. The knowledge gap on the ground is HUGE.

The only way i can see Robert winning would be a flash counter to caught Jacare and eventually finish him (but he have a solid chin) or a very very good space management during 3 rounds and try to outpoint him But this is going to be freaking hard against a guy like Jacare.

Jacre has a round .5 to sub or he will lose tko/ko

If Rob gets in to latter r2 / 3 its his to lose

Souza by sub

I'll start this by saying the ground is death with Jacare, and if the Rob finds himself with Jacare established in top position with his back on the ground, he will almost certainly be submitted. Now where I differ from the conventional wisdom in this fight is my appreciation of how extremely good Rob Whittaker's striking is, amongst the best in MW imo. His footwork is phenomenal and he carries his lethality through the fight, he can burst and recover and burst again. His technique is so sharp and the way he combines strikes into combinations is perfectly designed to break you. People retort with "Yes but who has he done this against, Clint Hester?, Derrick Brunson?. Fair in terms of comparative levels of competition but the technique Rob shows in all of his fights speaks for itself. His prescence of mind during finishing sequences and killer instinct tell me that if he should rock Jacare he absolutely has the ability to put him out. Just look at the finishing sequence of Clint Hester where Rob, in the middle of pure chaos, makes the read of Hester ducking and in 2 seconds sets Hester up with a lazy 1-2 followed by a brutal knee, perfectly meeting the ducking head of Hester. That level of striking intelligence and killer instinct for me will be about in the Jacare fight. Jacare's striking is very basic but it's so effective because of how scary the guy is, he is a physical freak who is able to walk you down and wing back ferocious power that stiffles you and makes you tentative, which in turn makes it easier for Jacare to time you and read you. Jacare has power but he doesn't have the diversity of weapons and the intelligence of how to combine them to compete with Rob on the feet, and I think if this fight stays standing Rob absolutely holds a decisive advantage. Ok, that begs the question WILL it stay standing. The answer is who the **** knows but I am willing to bank, based on everything we have seen about the hustle, heart and athleticism of Whittaker, that he will be able to avoid the TD attempts by Jacare long enough to crack Jacare and turn the momentum entirely in his favour. If Rob is for whatever reason unable to earn Jacare's attention with his strikes Jacare has the ability to chase him down and grab him, but again I like Rob's chances of touching Jacare on the chin. Jacare's chin isn't exactly amazing either, and his head doesn't move much outside of super exagerated and deliberate slips. The slips are nice but his head is only ever moving for 2 seconds at a time, then it's back to stationary hit me. Whittaker being an elite striker constantly has his head moving and because his technique is so fluid he can hold his hands lower and uncork strikes from unorthodox angles that pose problems for guys. I think this is Rob's time, he will be the best version of himself we have ever seen and I think the 37 year old Jacare won't be. That will make the difference and that will see Whittaker KO Jacare Souza.

R

Is this Souza's last fight on his contract?

@rappinpapsoda Yup