Okay, I’m a total fan of Houston Alexander, I believe he’s an excellent striker and an exciting fighter, but it ends there. At UFC 78 I was disappointed to see Houston get totally manhandled when put on the mat by Thiago Silva. Houston Alexander totally looked like a fish out of water. Okay, so it happens all the time, a striker goes to the ground and is out of his element. He moves on, learns and becomes a better fighter. Well, this clearly is not the case with yesterday’s fight. It seemed as if he learned nothing from the fight with Silva. Houston relied on his stand up to finish the fight before it went to the mat. But that wasn’t the case… again… After being brought down to the mat in the second round, he once again was in the same position that he was in with Thiago Silva, this time with Eric Schafer.
So what does Houston have to say about this? Houston states that the conditioning was there, but he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Okay, wrong place, however, why not make it a familiar place and focus more on the ground game in training? His take down defense was definitely good as he states in the fulling interview, but in order to continue this profession, he has to become more familiar with being on his back.
