UFC on FOX 16's Bryan Caraway thought outside the box to beat Eddie Wineland

If you’re going to beat a striker like Eddie Wineland, you can’t go about it the usual way.

That was Bryan Caraway’s (20-7 MMA, 5-2 UFC) mindset this past Saturday at UFC on FOX 16, and it’s hard to argue with the results. The submission specialist outfoxed the heavy-handed Wineland (21-11-1 MMA, 3-5 UFC) and picked up one of his bigger career wins via decision at Chicago’s United Center on the FOX Sports 1-televised prelims.

“Just because I have a high-level grappling game doesn’t mean I don’t have other parts of my game,” Caraway said afterward. “He was so worried about my grappling, it allowed me to use my wrestling to make my striking shine.”

But like every good idea, it didn’t occur in a vacuum. The UFC bantamweight said it was his coaches’ work with his better half, women’s bantamweight Miesha Tate, that inspired him to put together a strategy that would beat a standout like onetime title challenger Wineland.

Caraway didn’t want Tate in his corner while testing it, but maybe that was for the best.

“(Boxing) coach Jimmy Gifford, he’s been working with Miesha for a while, and I haven’t really worked on my striking for six or seven years, other than MMA sparring, where I can mix in my wrestling,” said Caraway, who suffered a decision setback to Raphael Assuncao this past October. “I saw what Jimmy was doing with Miesha, the things that he was doing that I really believed in, that wasn’t just cookie-cutter striking, and I took a step forward and worked with him a lot in this camp.”

Caraway also spoke about the work he’s done with noted MMA coach Robert Follis, who helped him develop a winning attitude for the fight. Check out the above video to get his thoughts on being different from other fighters and how that played out against Wineland.

And for complete coverage of UFC on FOX 16, check out the UFC Events section of the site.