5 times that a UFC fighter switched up their style to find success

#4. Justin Gaethje – Lightweight contender

Justin Gaethje has developed a more controlled style, leading him to more success than ever

Throughout his time as champion in the WSOF organization and even during his early days in the UFC, Justin Gaethje held a reputation as perhaps the wildest brawler in MMA.

‘The Highlight’ seemingly had no regard for his own wellbeing, as he was willing to go toe-to-toe with any opponent. However, while his approach of whipping brutal leg kicks at his foes to set up his crushing right hand largely worked, it clearly wasn’t ever going to be all that sustainable.

That idea was proven correct in 2017 and 2018, as Gaethje lost back-to-back fights for the first time in his MMA career. He fell to defeats against Dustin Poirier and Eddie Alvarez, both by TKO. Those losses appeared to inspire Gaethje to change his ways and since that’s happened, the results have been pretty dramatic.

‘The Highlight’ is still a consummate striker who looks to avoid fighting on the ground with his opponents, but can no longer be considered a crude brawler who looks to throw nothing but wild haymakers.

Instead, Gaethje’s striking is now a far more controlled, precise attack, with ‘The Highlight’ setting up his bigger punches with jabs, combinations and a lot of patience. It’s been successful too, as it’s led him to huge wins over the likes of Tony Ferguson and Donald Cerrone.

Sure, the old brawler is still in there somewhere, in fact it emerged in his wild fight with Michael Chandler last year. However, it’s fair to say that Gaethje’s safer style is probably going to extend his run at the top for a lengthier time than he would’ve managed prior.

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#3. Charles Oliveira – UFC lightweight champion

Charles Oliveira's stand-up game catching up to his grappling led him to gold in the octagon

The holder of the record for most submission victories inside the octagon with a total of 15 tapouts to his name, it’s safe to say that Charles Oliveira is an absolute monster on the ground.

However, if you rewind just a few years back, it would probably have been fair to say that ‘Do Bronx’ was one of the few throwback fighters left competing in the promotion, as the rest of his skillset appeared to largely lag behind his submission game.

Oliveira often struggled to take his opponents down and on the feet he found himself outgunned on a number of occasions. That was most notable in his losses to opponents like Paul Felder and Cub Swanson. However, when he moved permanently to the lightweight division and began to pack on some more muscle in 2018, Oliveira slowly began to adjust his style.

Rather than focus purely on his submission skills, which remained as dangerous as ever, ‘Do Bronx’ also began to develop a powerful striking game, as well as improving his wrestling dramatically too.

The results were dramatic. The Brazilian picked up the first knockouts of his career in 2019 over Nik Lentz and Jared Gordon. He then firmly outwrestled Tony Ferguson in 2020 to set up a title shot.

When he did claim gold in the octagon for the first time, Oliveira didn’t use his submissions to do so. Instead, he knocked Michael Chandler out with a left hand, proving that changing his style to add to his arsenal was the best thing he could ever have done.