#TrueTalkTuesdays 98
Coming off another win against Aleksei Oleinik, Derrick Lewis shows why he is the beast.
He is not a technical wizard, that’s for sure. On the ground, he looks pretty clueless. But even then, he is relaxed – not wasting any energy. Usually, people who don’t know what to do panic and go berserk – exhausting themselves in the process.
Derrick doesn’t though. He just accepts the position and seems to stay calm. Only when he feels like it, he just stands up out of seemingly impossible positions.
On his feet though is where Lewis really shines. He has Dim Mak like power throughout the whole fight – never showing signs of fading. Even when he is tired, he can still one punch KO anyone on the planet.
Aleksei had a decent game plan going in, which I would think just about everyone would adopt – take him down and beat him on the ground. I didn’t agree with Aleksei’s decision to invest a lot of time and energy into a scarf hold.
Don’t get me wrong – I love neck cranks and chest compression submissions. But there is a time and place for it. They are difficult to pull off against skilled opponents, doubly so when going against someone 40lbs heavier than yourself.
I saw Aleksei appear to attempt to setup his famous choke, but it looks like he thought it wasn’t going to work. Perhaps Derrick’s neck was too big? I’m not sure, but it’s curious he never want full bore on that Ezekiel choke when he had ample time on top to setup one.
Ultimately though, his downfall was not anticipating the Beast’s early charge in each round. In the first round, Aleksei was able to avoid serious damage, but in the second round charge, he wasn’t so fortunate.
That’s the problem Derrick Lewis poses to everyone – he can end the fight at any moment. It doesn’t matter how dominate you were in 4 rounds, in one second he can win. The perfect quote describing the situation was said by boxer Deontay Wilder:
As I always say, these guys have to be perfect for 12 rounds, I only need to be perfect for two seconds, and then in the blink of an eye it’s bam baby, goodnight.
Deontay Wilder, Former WBC Heavyweight World Champion
That raw power makes him hard to deal with. It’s like playing a video game boss that is severely overpowered that can one hit kill you. Yet, they always have a glaring weakness that is simple to exploit – but requires patience and diligent execution with no room for error.
For someone that dangerous, you want to ideally minimize the amount of time you are exposed to it. Daniel Cormier showed the right game plan in my opinion, take down, back take, rear naked choke.
What do you think? Do you agree or disagree?
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