What are some fights that caused a fighter to go back to the drawing board and revamp their style forever? The obvious one that comes up is GSP vs. Serra. Georges became a lot more careful after that KO and really tightened up his boxing so he'd never be exposed like that again. It made some of his fights a bit frustrating to watch at times because of the GSP we'd come up on, but getting KOed by such a massive underdog will definitely change you.
To me, the best illustration of this is Tyron Woodley vs Nate Marquardt. This was a Fight of the Year candidate at the time and Woodley, who had been a pretty exciting pace pusher up to this point became a much more economical counterstriker thereafter. His head movement improved significantly, but he would only rarely just go for it, earning him the "Tyquil" nickname. What I think was worse about this is how it also made him move away from his wrestling a bit in exchange for being a counterpuncher. It did earn him a UFC championship, but obviously it cost him in the long run.
View: https://youtu.be/Vwc4XvG4rig
To me, the best illustration of this is Tyron Woodley vs Nate Marquardt. This was a Fight of the Year candidate at the time and Woodley, who had been a pretty exciting pace pusher up to this point became a much more economical counterstriker thereafter. His head movement improved significantly, but he would only rarely just go for it, earning him the "Tyquil" nickname. What I think was worse about this is how it also made him move away from his wrestling a bit in exchange for being a counterpuncher. It did earn him a UFC championship, but obviously it cost him in the long run.
View: https://youtu.be/Vwc4XvG4rig