Gleison Tibau is a tough guy at UFC's 155 who has size, strength, great ground game and some decent striking to go with it. He had a very close and competitive loss to Tyson Griffin recently. His strength and striking advantage definitely showed in the first round, but when it hit the ground at the end of the first he was quick to throw up a tight omoplata on Stevenson. Stevenson took it slow and waited till end of round.
Second round started off even better for Tibau, he took Stevenson down and even mounted him at one point. Stevenson scrambled out of it back to standing as soon as Tibau tried to go for a triangle from the mount. Then after a little bit of standing and Tibau striking he shot at Stevenson who locked up his trademark guillotine and finished the fight.
Striking is something Joe Stevenson still has to work very very hard at to get more comfortable with during the fights, even to only be defensive and for takedowns. They can show him hitting mitts all they want, but it didn't change one bit since his last fight. Lack of striking is limiting him quite a bit especially against opponents like Tibau who had strength and striking. Tibau should definitely be in the mix at 155 for a few more fights, he's got all the skills to be extremely competitive and he just has to pull out a few wins. Not sure what's next for Stevenson, may be Griffin or Sherk?
Subscribe