in a boxing or kick-boxing match.

But like analysts have been saying all week, Masvidal is arguably the best boxer in the UFC, & one of the better kick-boxers. But he DIDN'T get his start in fighting as either a boxer or kickboxer. He was a bare-knuckles street fighter (which may or may not involve kicking, I don't know). Is there even another major contender in MMA who got their start from that form of fighting?

Usman wanted no part of that kind of fight w Masvidal. As important as positioning & timing is to boxing & kick-boxing, I gotta imagine it's twice as important to bare-knuckle fighting, as one of the bigger components of that form of fighting is keeping your hands unbroken. It also likely explains why his strikes are so dang accurate. I'm sorry, bud, but fools don't win championships. At the same time, no world class wrestler would beat Masvidal in an MMA match if he didn't possess an extremely well-rounded skillset as a fighter. A large part of the skill of kick-boxing is counter-kickboxing, so to say Usman simply won as a superior grappler/wrestler last night --who simply stalled things-- it's fool's-speech. You do understand that Masvidal was doing everything in his power to maul him beyond recognition? — & yet he simply couldn't. That's the beauty of MMA.