This past weekend we saw Gegard Mousasi earn a majority draw against UFC veteran Keith Jardine in a light heavyweight fight.
Mousasi won the fight, but a point deduction for an illegal up-kick cost him the fight on the judges’ scorecards.
Mousasi needs to take a look at this fight and make some adjustments.
Here are two major talking points from the fight:
- Jardine took the fight on very short notice, was visibly gassed by the second round and Mousasi couldn’t finish him.
- Jardine took Mousasi down six times.
Mousasi not being able to finish Jardine tells me Mousasi’s power doesn’t translate well as a light heavyweight. Mousasi hit Jardine with 122 head-shots according to FightMetric with 40 of them being power shots. Jardine isn’t known for having the best chin as of late, and over half of his career losses have been via TKO/KO.
We already knew that Mousasi’s take-down defense wasn’t very good. You can excuse giving up take-downs to wrestlers the caliber of King Mo Lawal, but you can’t let Keith Jardine take you down like that when wrestling isn’t his strong suit.
What do you think would happen against the Jon Jones, Rashad Evans, Rampage Jackson, Dan Henderson and Ryan Baders of the world?
That’s right, he would get taken down at will, and more than likely would not be able to finish those guys with strikes, or submit them.
I think Mousasi is better suited to moving back down to the middleweight division where he would be able to compete on a more level playing field because he’s a small light heavyweight anyway.
The middleweight division is where he has enjoyed the best success of his career, announcing himself to the MMA world by winning the DREAM middleweight GP in 2008.
He already owns a win over the current Strikeforce middleweight champion in Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza. He also owns a win over current Bellator middleweight champion Hector Lombard.
The 185-pound division is a better fit for Mousasi in that there are not as many power wrestlers to deal with and he would not have to worry about such a huge size difference. A permanent move back down to middleweight would be best for the Armenian’s future success.
Do we even know if he can make 185 comfortably? I believe his last fight at 185 was three years ago, and he’s 25 and entering his physical prime. Also, he didn’t have a problem KOing Babalu or Sokoudjou at 205. Changing weight classes won’t change the fact that he can’t wrestle.
If he cuts to 155 he will have a huge size advantage
Pretty sure he can make 185 if he wanted to..he’s not a huge LHW..it’s not like he walks around at 230lbs or anything…it’s not like he’s even close to being shreded…by your logic…Jon Jones won’t be making 205 next year huh? lol…yea..anyways…
The Babalu fight you have to give him credit for..but it’s not like Babalu hadn’t been knocked out before…even Jason Lambert did that…and Sokoudjou..well…6 of his 8 losses have been via KO/TKO..so that’s that.
There are less top tier wrestlers at middleweight than compared to LHW…otherwise…Mousasi can just stay at LHW and take L’s to all the guys I mentioned.
Mousasi at lightweight would be unstoppable
Don’t forget about Phil Davis. He can take down Mousasi and hold him there. I bet guys like Brilz, Hamill, and even Couture could give him trouble there.
If Jardine can take him down, marquardt, maia, dan miller, jacare, chael sonnen, cb dolloway, ed herman, mark munoz, and yushin okami — just to name a few — wouldn’t have a problem. hell, chris weidman would wrestle his ass to death.
He could possibly sub Sonnen, Herman, Dollway…or at least knocked Herman and Dollaway out…thing is..he isn’t beaten ANY of the top guys at LHW…that’s the point you are missing ;). At MW he at least has a shot to beat a few of the decent guys.
What John is saying though is he has the same shot at beating LHW’s decent guys (Franklin, Feijao, Henderson in 5 rounder, Griffin, Rampage, Lil Nog) he would have a chance against. At MW he would have a problem with every person John mentioned because of the style contrast and possible loss of muscle, cardio, and speed moving down in weight.
Whatever Gegard does needs to include improving in wrestling first and foremost. Any weightclass is going to present him problems if he doesn’t make that a priority.
Richard- Gegard vs. Alexis Villa
His point has some validity…everyone knows his take-down defense is suspect…he isn’t going to improve his wrestling much if at all at this point…I could have said this part better..
At LHW…he can’t really take fights against lesser opponents…he has to fight the best available at this point in this career..
Whereas..as a middleweight…all of his credibility is from his run in Japan…so there are plenty of MW fights that are winnable for him at this point in SF…he can be built up again…if he loses his next 2-3 at LHW..then what?
In regards to cardio, power, etc…that shouldn’t be an issue since he used to fight at MW…I could see if he was a lifelong LHW that was making the move down to MW for the first time…that isn’t the case though.
GREAT ARTICLE!!! GOOD READ!!!
lol…like I said months ago in this piece….Mousasi should move back to middleweight..he just isn’t a very good light heavyweight as he struggled at times with OSP.
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