Does Ortega hit harder than we thought or is Frankie getting chinny?

I listened to Chael Sonnen on this fight earlier. He reckoned normally Frankie gets in an out with good combinations and footwork mixed with the double leg, but when Ortega caught Frankie for a second in what looked like a guillotine, he said that made Frankie forget about the double leg and change his strategy, leading to Frankie getting caught because he kept things on the feet when normally he would have changed levels and been coming in for the take down. 


Another thing was the self-control of Ortega to capitalize on Frankie getting rocked. Throwing exactly the right punches and picking his moment. You'd think it would be common for these highly trained fighters to keep composure at that point and finish fighters, but most fighters instincts are to go ape**** and throw everything including the kitchen sink in a wild flurry, and often fail to cleanly land any of them.

Truly great fighters know how to finish. Ortega is the real deal. The finish was clean and clinical, like a Conor McGregor finish. It was beautiful. 

* Edited at 03.05.2018, 4:33 AM ET *

It's a little from column A, a little from Column B, and a little bit more that has to do with the general evolution of MMA. Frankie Edgar has been doing this since 2005. He's 36 years old, has been in countless wars, and is a pioneer. Ortega is 27 and is a new school fighter; he has the luxury of having benefited from years of adaptation gleaned from studying fighters like Edgar. There is a LOT of tape on Edgar. Lots. And lots. And he certainly is a creature of habit. The inside elbow that was the beginning of the end is a shot that Frankie has been open to for some time, and he has been wobbled by similar shots in the past when he sticks too long. Ortega is huge, and has nasty power. His KO record is nuts.

Back when Edgar started MMA wasn't was what it is now. Nobody really trained 'MMA'...people trained Muay thai, wrestling, Karate etc separately and independently. These things are now trained interdependently... MMA has kind of become its own form of martial art.

Guys like Ortega are much more varied in their striking arsenals. They are much more savvy in the pocket, more comfortable switching between SP and orthodox than the older guys who typically excelled at one type of striking base and either that worked or it didn't. The young guns are more adaptable than that. This isn't a knock on the old guard, because you can only do what you can do in your own life and time. It's not possible to conceptualize the future before it has evolved into reality, after all.

 

Crayz the other factor is that Ortega is a boxer and Frankie is more thai/chute-to-box, and he tried swinging on Brian in boxing space...this is just simply almost never going to end well for the kickboxer. I've been saying this for a long time; in close,  boxing is just miles better. It's because boxing utilizes a tighter guard and boxers rely on torsion from the hip rather than the shoulders. There's not much room for kickboxers to wind up on anything that isn't and elbow and beyond that, hand striking is just more limited in kickboxing. and is used less and differently. Muay thai especially is clash, backoff,clash, backoff...if you watch a boxers it's all about rolling in space.

Brian hit with a Thai Elbow while Frankie was trying to land a one-two boxing combo. Just keep it simple mate, no need for nonsensical waffle to appear more expert than you are. 

* Edited at 03.05.2018, 7:22 AM ET *

Just watched an interesting video on this fight from MindSmash, a great fight breakdown YT channel. Sometimes I'm dubious about some of the claims in these kind of videos as they often assume something was done purposely and strategically in hindsight by a fighter and a deliberate technique was used, when in reality it could have been completely unconscious and reflexive.

But this one is plausible. It talks about how Brian was using check hooks to counter Frankie as he was coming in and Frankie noticing that, but then Brian swtiched it up and Frankie went in when he saw there was no check hook and therefore an opening, and bam, got hit with an elbow instead.

If Brian used did use those check hooks with the intention of then switching up after lulling Frankie into a trap, then wow, the guy's fight brain is in the upper echelons of UFC fighters.

But I reckon it was just more opportune than that and that opportunity to catch Frankie just opened up and in that split second the elbow was the perfect shot to make.

* Edited at 03.06.2018, 7:06 AM ET *