FanPost

Rashad Cannot Wrestle with Cormier

Stylesmakefights recently posted a convincing argument that Rashad Evans can outwrestle Daniel Cormier. The majority of his argument centers around how Rashad was able to use mma wrestling to defeat a more decorated wrestler in Phil Davis. Stylesmakefights may be right. Rashad may outwrestle Daniel. However, in the spirit of free debate, I am here to argue that he will not be able to outwrestle Daniel. Evidence from Daniel's mma and wrestling career indicate that Rashad may have a tougher time than some think.

Daniel Cormier has never been taken down in his mma career. Bigfoot Silva, Josh Barnett and Frank Mir all tried to take Daniel down. Do theseheavyweights have mma wrestling as good as Rashad's? Probably not. However, the very fact that heavyweight grapplers were not able to take Daniel down suggests that Rashad is going to have his work cut out. Consider that Daniel has trained with Heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez for years. Does Cain have better mma wrestling than Rashad? Can Rashad switch from grappling to striking more fluidly? Again, I don't have the answers to these questions but training with Cain is definitely in Daniel's favor.

An article by bloodyelbow's Mike Riordan chronicled how Daniel is one of the best wrestlers at defending takedown attempts to the legs like singles and doubles. Daniel is a master of the "go behind". Rashad likes to strike and transition to double and single leg takedowns. Daniel will take Rashad's back in a heartbeat if he tries this. Daniel is better at trips and throws from the clinch than he is with leg take downs. It's not too much of a stretch to suppose that Daniel is better than Rashad in the clinch.

In conclusion, I will mention again that I do not necessarily think thatStylesmakefights is wrong in his assessment that Rashad can out mma wrestle Daniel. I just wanted to point out things that may contradict his thesis. Challenging Stylesmakefights' may cause him to come up with even more evidence that Rashad can out mma wrestle Daniel. The best hypothesis is that which is challenged and modified.



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