Steel
11-05-2008, 11:57 PM
Few observations from the spectators view...
It seems a matchup between Urijah and Brown will pretty much always end up being a standup war no matter how many times you match these two up. Why? I believe Urijah's skill, speed, and technique is better than Brown's in the wrestling aspect of the game, but Brown's size and strength seems like it could cancel that out and make both fighters weary of engaging in a ground war.
On the feet, Brown has power obviously and Urijah also has power, but more importantly imo, the speed advantage. Due to Urijah's athleticism and skill, he has the ability to carry out pretty much any game plan you can create. This is obviously a major advantage and with a proper gameplan targeting Brown's weaknesses it is lethal.
If the fight was kept standing it seems an MMA-friendly version of Floyd Mayweather's boxing style could be adapted to pick Brown apart. Brown didnt' seem to like Urijah's overhand right too much and we saw Urijah land it at will against Pulver (very similar to Mayweathers ability). Being able to lead with a powershot at will is a great start for a sharpshooter's game plan.
A decent template for ideas to look at (from a standup perspective) is Mayweather vs Hatton (bigger fighter trying to bully the quicker more skilled fighter). Mayweather was very successful at laying traps for Hatton to fall into and eventually frustrating and TKO'ing him.
The key to the standup in my view is going to be laying traps and capitalizing on them and drag Brown into deep water and then either end the fight on the feet by TKO/points, or begin a brutal up and down fight similar to GSP vs Serra (and possibly toss in the knee strategy utilized by GSP if there is an opening for it after seeing the results of one knee ramming into Brown's ribs). Urijah's speed is key in this area. Speed dazzles someone when you throw a flurry or a group of shots and then you're gone out of their eye sight and they can't find you. Urijah can accomplish this.
The second part of that puzzle is the defensive side. A conservative game plan will work best I believe. I don't believe brawling is a smart idea with a big swinger. I don't think there is any reason to go for any big moves like flying knees, high kicks, reverse elbows etc. when Urijah has the advantage in the more basic tools that can swell up Browns eyes and render him virtually paralyzed standing. The good ol' fashioned hands up, and taking little steps to just avoid the range of Brown while circling and creating angles would be a perfect match to induce confusion and frustration leaving many options.
Again, they're ideas from a spectators point of view and I'm brainstorming here so I'd like to hear others input.
I would love to see Urijah fight a methodical fight and pick apart Brown just as he did to Jens. I believe it will happen in one way or another and my chips are down on Urijah in the rematch.
It seems a matchup between Urijah and Brown will pretty much always end up being a standup war no matter how many times you match these two up. Why? I believe Urijah's skill, speed, and technique is better than Brown's in the wrestling aspect of the game, but Brown's size and strength seems like it could cancel that out and make both fighters weary of engaging in a ground war.
On the feet, Brown has power obviously and Urijah also has power, but more importantly imo, the speed advantage. Due to Urijah's athleticism and skill, he has the ability to carry out pretty much any game plan you can create. This is obviously a major advantage and with a proper gameplan targeting Brown's weaknesses it is lethal.
If the fight was kept standing it seems an MMA-friendly version of Floyd Mayweather's boxing style could be adapted to pick Brown apart. Brown didnt' seem to like Urijah's overhand right too much and we saw Urijah land it at will against Pulver (very similar to Mayweathers ability). Being able to lead with a powershot at will is a great start for a sharpshooter's game plan.
A decent template for ideas to look at (from a standup perspective) is Mayweather vs Hatton (bigger fighter trying to bully the quicker more skilled fighter). Mayweather was very successful at laying traps for Hatton to fall into and eventually frustrating and TKO'ing him.
The key to the standup in my view is going to be laying traps and capitalizing on them and drag Brown into deep water and then either end the fight on the feet by TKO/points, or begin a brutal up and down fight similar to GSP vs Serra (and possibly toss in the knee strategy utilized by GSP if there is an opening for it after seeing the results of one knee ramming into Brown's ribs). Urijah's speed is key in this area. Speed dazzles someone when you throw a flurry or a group of shots and then you're gone out of their eye sight and they can't find you. Urijah can accomplish this.
The second part of that puzzle is the defensive side. A conservative game plan will work best I believe. I don't believe brawling is a smart idea with a big swinger. I don't think there is any reason to go for any big moves like flying knees, high kicks, reverse elbows etc. when Urijah has the advantage in the more basic tools that can swell up Browns eyes and render him virtually paralyzed standing. The good ol' fashioned hands up, and taking little steps to just avoid the range of Brown while circling and creating angles would be a perfect match to induce confusion and frustration leaving many options.
Again, they're ideas from a spectators point of view and I'm brainstorming here so I'd like to hear others input.
I would love to see Urijah fight a methodical fight and pick apart Brown just as he did to Jens. I believe it will happen in one way or another and my chips are down on Urijah in the rematch.