Yeah not knowing the opponent is the big thing there. I just take that as Woodley was increasing his training workload in the hopes of fighting at 213. He ended up fighting at 214, so he'd have fluctuated his training load at times. What I take from it is that Woodley had a bit of time advantage only because he fought before Maia did.
Maia had the advantage of being the challenger and always thinking about how to beat the champ. After Maia beat Masvidal he'd be thinking and planning on how to beat Woodley whether he ended up getting the shot next or not. Woodley wouldn't be as locked in on Maia because as the champ he couldn't be 100% sure who is next.
This is completely overanalysing it by me haha. In the end I think it was a completely even playing field, but that the short preparation time was worse for Maia than it was for Woodley just because of the way they match-up.
Good stuff as usual from BJJ Scout here. Mentioned how Maia only had 5 weeks to prepare and how it would have been hard to change his approach much in that time. Also said how Maia used to clinch a lot more in the past and only really did that at the very end of the fight. Would have been nice to see Maia attempt some throws/trips from a clinch. Maia's gone away from that as he's worked on shooting in on the legs of late. That's a shame because he had a lot of success at MW with takedowns from the clinch and at WW his size could help him.
You never know if you don't try it:
Maia had the advantage of being the challenger and always thinking about how to beat the champ. After Maia beat Masvidal he'd be thinking and planning on how to beat Woodley whether he ended up getting the shot next or not. Woodley wouldn't be as locked in on Maia because as the champ he couldn't be 100% sure who is next.
This is completely overanalysing it by me haha. In the end I think it was a completely even playing field, but that the short preparation time was worse for Maia than it was for Woodley just because of the way they match-up.
Good stuff as usual from BJJ Scout here. Mentioned how Maia only had 5 weeks to prepare and how it would have been hard to change his approach much in that time. Also said how Maia used to clinch a lot more in the past and only really did that at the very end of the fight. Would have been nice to see Maia attempt some throws/trips from a clinch. Maia's gone away from that as he's worked on shooting in on the legs of late. That's a shame because he had a lot of success at MW with takedowns from the clinch and at WW his size could help him.
You never know if you don't try it: