Did King Mo Really Control Gegard Mousasi on the Ground?
Mousasi abused Mo’s left eye from bottom position.
I have a feeling that I may be one of a very few that believes King Mo may not have won his fight with Gegard Mousasi. Now, before you start sending me hate mail…let me explain.
The hype behind that bout between these two light heavyweights was and is justified. Both are very dynamic fighters and both are going to have very long and illustrious careers barring injuries. Here is my issue with the title fight between Mo and Mousasi. I will grant that King Mo did a wonderful job controlling the fight with takedowns, but…yes, here we go…Mousasi landed close to 50 more strikes the amount of strikes than Mo did. Most if not all of those strikes were with Mo in Mousasi’s guard. A major contributor to Mo’s victory was control, but if Mousasi was able to land strikes pretty much at will from guard did Mo truly have control of Gegard Mousasi. If so, how could King Mo be awarded the victory?
Before we get further in figuring out if King Mo really won this fight, let’s look at the judging criteria. Judges follow this criteria and in this order of priority:
1) The effort made to finish the fight via KO or submission. I would say this aspect of the fight was pretty even. Mousasi tried to work for multiple submissions from the guard and tried several times to remove Mo’s head from his body with upkicks and Mo was trying to work some serious ground and pound to end the fight. Even
2) Damage given to the opponent. Mo’s left eye was completely messed up. Not sure if he could see out of that eye after the second or third round and Mousasi didn’t come out of the fight unscathed. Bloody nose and a lot of time staring up at the lights in the arena. For damage, because of the fact that King Mo could barely see out of the left eye…Advantage Mousasi.
3) Standing combinations and ground control. I give the slight advantage to standing combinations to Mousasi. It look as if Mo really didn’t want any part of the stand up of Mousasi in the later rounds. And I don’t blame him. Mo is an elite wrestler and I don’t begrudge any fighter taking his opponent out of their comfort zone and not take damage. Problem, in this fight Mo took more damage in Mousasi’s guard then standing. So, even though King Mo was in top position, did he really have control of Mousasi? Because of the amount of strikes that Mo took in Mousasi’s guard, I am going to say no. Advantage Mousasi.
4) Takedowns and takedown defense. Here is where Mo completely owned Gegard Mousasi. Mo was able to hit takedowns pretty much whenever he wanted and Mousasi may have stuffed one or two, but with the amount of time Mousasi spent on his back Mo wins this part of the judging. Advantage Mo.
5) Aggressiveness. I think aggressiveness was equal. Both came to fight and both did everything they could to win this fight. It could be interpreted as Mo being more aggressive because of all the takedowns, but with all the strikes that Mousasi landed from the bottom Mousasi was equally aggressive. Even.
Out of the 5 criteria listed above, Gegard Mousasi should still be the Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion. Again, before you start sending me hate mail King Mo fought a good fight. I just find it hard to believe that when someone lands the amount of strikes that Mousasi did over the amount of strikes that King Mo did in the context of their April 17th fight that the fighter that landed the most strikes didn’t win that fight. I would really like one of the judges or a commission official to explain to me while watching the fight why when Mousasi is landed 171 strikes. 121 of those strikes were from Mousasi’s back and Mousasi completely owned the clinch. Mo landed 125 total strikes. 102 on the ground and 9 in the clinch. According to FightMetrics and their formula, Mo won the fight. I still don’t see it. This should be an interesting conversation in the Forum on Five Knuckles…Actually, I will probably get roasted. But I have to go with what I believe.
You can bet this fight and this article will come up on this week’s episode of Shambala Sports Radio.
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you got it right man !!