sunthunder Sun Apr 15, 2012 7:25 pm
What's everyones thoughts of Gustafsson?
I thought he was reasonably impressive but not really quite at the point of pushing for a title shot just yet. For as much as he was landing much more than Silva, I thought he perhaps ought to have been landing more really effective hard shots.
He makes use of his reach but not in the way Jones does. Jones keeps a steady stream of hard offense that really establishes a distance between him and his opponents, but Gustafsson relies more on timing his opposition coming forward and landing on the backfoot as he circles out. I'd like to see him sitting down on his straight shots a bit more to really keep his opponents on the outside and allow himself to stay in the middle of the cage.
He was a bit open at times as well, leaves his chin hanging out, got clipped a few more times by Silva than he should have. Fighters not keeping their hands up in MMA always irks me because apart for the exceptions of guys who keep low guards like Anderson, Machida, Fedor, anyone who keeps their hands up consistently is always much harder to hit.
At some point he's a really compelling match up against Jones because he's a much more fluid puncher, and he can perhaps make Jones come after him and exploint some of the holes in Jones' game. But it's only academic unless he can stop the takedown, and there are still a few other light heavyweights I can see him losing to. I think he'd lose at this point to Rashad, Davis, Machida. He's certainly capable of beating guys like Bader, Nogueira, Shogun, I think a fight like that is appropriate now.
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