UFC's Greg Jackson: The Overrated Strategist

For some time now, Greg Jackson and his gym have had a reputation of being the very elite of strategic fighting. For the most part, this stemmed from the ever-increasing risk-averse style of Welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre. Since UFC 94, where GSP completely broke BJ Penn, St. Pierre has fought more and more to his opponents weaknesses; content to take decisions instead of striving to finish. Specifically, in GSP's title defense against Dan Hardy, between rounds Jackson told the champion not to pass guard. This was seen by many as irrefutable proof that Greg Jackson encouraged his fighters to take the easiest way to victory. Yet, there's much more evidence to the contrary.

The problem with the stigma Jackson's gym carries, is that the logic just doesn't follow it. If Jackson was such an amazing strategist, we'd see drastic style changes in the gym's fighters fight-to-fight. Granted, we've seen this from GSP before, but rarely from any other of Jackson's fighters. In fact, thinking over the last couple of years, I'm inclined to think Jackson is highly overrated as a strategist.

Despite the reputation of Jackson as a strategist that encourages his fighters to play it safe, he has several fighters under his banner that never adhere to that. First is the oft-mocked Leonard Garcia. Garcia is well reputed to win fights on heart and missed arm punches alone. His first bout against TUF vet Nam Phan is a prime example. Despite his detractors, Garcia wins fights by relentlessly pressuring his opponent swinging for the fences. Despite being battered by fighters like Nam Phan and Chan Sung Jung, no one seems to be able to slow down Garcia's propensity for engagement. However, despite his advantage in resiliency and cardio, Garcia's fighting style is never tempered to exploit his opponent. There's never any doubt that when Leonard Garcia steps into the cage that he'll march forward winging looping punches hoping to out work his opponent.

The same can be said for long time Jackson-fighter Keith Jardine. Any time the Dean of Mean steps into the cage, the audience is treated to rhetoric concerning Jardine's "unorthodox striking". In this case, "unorthodox" means sloppy. Jardine is a long armed fighter with unconventional movement. This served Keith well earlier in his career and, at his peak, he was able to defeat two former Light Heavyweight champions in Forrest Griffin and Chuck Liddell. However, it didn't take long before his opponents realized that, by not succumbing to Jardine's off beat tempo, they could defeat him with technical striking.

Now, by no means, am I trying to discredit either Garcia or Jardine, who have both enjoyed success at the highest levels of MMA. However, in both cases, the fighters seem to lack progression in making their offense reach its most effective. This seems especially peculiar since both train at a gym where strategy is reputed to be the main focus. In this case of both fighters, we've yet to see Garcia refine his relentlessness with straight punches to pressure his opposition, or Jardine improve his footwork and lateral movement to make his herky-jerky style more effective.

This problem was never more apparent than the Fight of the Night between Donald Cerrone and Nate Diaz at UFC 141. Throughout the first round, Cerrone was barraged by Diaz throwing a multitude of quick, straight punches. For those 5 minutes, Cerrone made the mistake of planting his feet waiting to land his own strikes while Diaz overwhelmed him. Going in to the fight, this may have been part of Cerrone's game plan - to counter the Stockton Slap with power punches. However, after 5 minutes it was clear that wasn't going to be the case. My problem here isn't with Cerrone's performance, it's with Jackson's inability to recognize the problem.

In between rounds 1 and 2, Jackson never once mentioned distance or movement to Cerrone. He didn't tell him to counter or circle away. He observed Diaz's overwhelming style and told Donald to "end your leg kick with punches and look for the takedowns." This is by no means bad advice, but in the second round Cerrone repeatedly showed that he was not willing to follow Nate to the ground. He found some success sweeping Diaz's leg with low kick sweeps, but never followed him to the mat. Again, late in the round he was eating punches at the the end of Nate's reach. Between rounds 2 and 3, the only thing heard from Jackson is for Cerrone to "give [him] five minutes of Hell!" Despite the rousing pep-talk, from the start of the round we see Donald making the same mistake he made in the first two rounds in standing right at the end of Diaz's punches.

Now, I'm not here today to negate the achievements of Greg Jackson's fighters opponents. However, to me, there is a problem when so many fighters under the banner of an elite strategist are unable to evolve. For Cerrone, Jackson was impotent in his attempt to adjust his fighter's strategy to gain the advantage. For both Garcia and Jardine, Greg Jackson has been completely unable to develop these fighters in a way that maximizes their strengths and negates their weaknesses.

As an analyst this pattern makes me very skeptical of how Carlos Condit will be able to handle Nick Diaz when the two fight for the Interim Welterweight Championship at UFC 143. Condit is known as a powerful and creative striker and grappler. Nick is a relentless volume puncher and elite grappler, known for overwhelming his competition. Condit, with out a doubt, is up to the challenge, but I question how helpful his corner will be if he's troubled by Diaz's unrelenting attack.