Bas Rutten just posted this on Twitter and I think it's worth mentioning:
They asked me if GSP lacked killer instinct. You have to understand, for "outside" people its maybe harder to understand, let me try.
For sure he plays it safe, this happens most of the time when something bad happened the last time he DIDN'T play it safe. For instance, did he had the killer instinct before he fought Matt Serra? Because if got reckless in that fight, it cost him his fight, from that moment on, you kind of make a decision as a fighter, do I wanna fight like that again? The answer will be NO. So then fighters start to fight more conservative. Now, if that particular fighter had a killer instinct before, it will most of the time come back after a couple of wins.
If you look at GSP's record, then you will see that he has 9 victories coming by way of decision. 6 of those were after he lost by KO to Matt Serra, 6 decisions, in 9 fights. One was a TKO over BJ (not a slug fest) and a KO to Serra by way of knee to the body, also, not a slug fest. One was an arm bar that he put on Matt Hughes.
In the 13 fights he had before he fought Matt Serra, he lost only one (Hughes, and he revenged that) so 12 wins. From those 12 wins only 3 went a decision, the rest were KO's and submissions. So the Matt Serra fight definitely had impact on him, then again, his competition started to get better as well.
There are different kind of fighters, take a guy like Chuck Liddell, he can't turn his killer instinct off, he simply can't, if he could at certain moments, I would still put my money on Chuck. But Chuck is not "wired" like that, he loves to go for the KO, and if that means that he can be KO'd in that process, so be it. And even after he lost 5 of his 6 last fights, and 4 of them by KO, Chuck didn't lose a single fan, why? Because people love fighters like him, finishers, guys who "look for the KO".
Other fighters fight more preserved, a counter fighter, they have a few offensive attacks, attacks they will learn before the fight and change each fight, but mostly fight on the mistakes that the opponent makes, capitalize on that mistake, and finish the opponent. GSP is a fighter like that.
If there comes an opportunity, he will take it and win a fight. But when he fights a guy who also fights reserved and is a counter fighter (50% of Shields wins are by decision) then you have a match that we saw last weekend, not an exciting one. If that fight comes after a night of super fights, and that's what happened, then it's even worse for the fans, because the "Bar" was set high! Ad to this, that he was fighting in his home town in front of 55,000 people, that will put a lot of pressure on him, pressure in a way that, whatever it takes, he doesn't want to lose in front of that audience!
Of course he had a problem as well with his eye, but i could see that he was already "off", BEFORE that happened, he was simply not feeling good in his skin, you could tell. Big sluggish right hand, and a back kick that was off, he had an "off night"! It's very easy to understand, only not for the fans, because they have been spoiled lately with great fights.
I KNOW that everybody was screaming at the TV when he kicked Shields in the head, "Follow it up!!!!!!!", that was what happened in our place. But all these factors that I just mentioned were in place, so he didn't follow up.
That's why people are talking about Nick Diaz against GSP, because Nick will bring it, that's for sure, so GSP will have more moments where his opponent makes mistakes, and if he uses those moments, then we could have a great fight. Other people will say that he will fight even more reserved because then he will be worried that when he moves, he's gonna get caught.
Whatever happens, GSP will have even more pressure on him the next time he fights because now people want to see him "stopping his opponent", and that pressure is not gonna work in favor for George.
So, if everybody could chill a little bit, and stay of the message boards with "advice for GSP" coming from fans, who many of them, not even train, I say, give the guy some love, I am sure that will ALWAYS be better, then what happens right now. And don't worry, he knows exactly what happened and went wrong.
Also understand that he fights the very top people in the world!
Godspeed and party on!
Bas
