Another thing this philosophy applies to is wrestling against the cage. How many times have we seen a wrestler get their opponent against the cage, and fail to take them down. Then try the same takedown, fail, hold them against the cage, etc….
It drives me crazy. Why are you not striking and using your other weapons between takedown attempts? Let go of the single, throw a quick 1-2, dive back under for a double. They base out, switch to a single. They defend, let go, clinch them and dirty box. Push them back again and work the takedown.
It’s frustrating watching the same thing over and over again. And there are very few specialized camps anymore so everyone trains the same thing.
Alot of good strikers are good at GnP too though. Rampage is an underrated pick imo. You didn’t want either Shogun or Wand punching down at you either. Anderson could put em out quick when their head was against the mat too.
I’m guess most fighters don’t train ground and pound while sparring. So they don’t do it in a real fight.
Same with elbows and knees against the cage. It’s not something they train in sparring at 100% so you don’t see guys spamming it in the octagon, where as to a casual viewer, it looks like the obvious thing to do.
Camps all used to be unique and specialized, but now, it’s pretty homogeneous.
Only things I can think of off the top of my head is Serra Longo guys will have good BJJ, Zahabi fighters will be strategic and cerebral, Whitman fighters will have good boxing and IQ.
The reason it’s not used more in my opinion is that it’s not a martial art, and instructors have an agenda to push their martial arts like Ju Jitsu. I feel MMA is Primarily boxing and wrestling, but if you go to an MMA Gym that’s usually not what they will prioritize because it’s not a martial arts.