After 2000+ fights, here is what needs to be balanced/fixed.

Quick background; vast majority of my 2000+ fights come from Online Career mode where the "cheese" is strongest due to the customization of fighters allowing players to design them to exploit various broken mechanics. I've fought in every division from 1 to 20, most of my advice comes from facing top division players where they tend to exploit broken mechanics. I know how the submission system works inside & out and have 200+/- or so submission finishes with 0 points into ground, so when it comes to my criticism on that front I am not a salty player who doesn't know how it works.

Hoping someone at EA can see this and listen to the constructive criticism from a player who has seen it all countless times now. My suggestions for fixes on these issues are simply just suggestions, but what is important here are the issues themselves, any sensical fix for them could help make the game more enjoyable for all.

1. Takedown Spamming goes unpunished

I've had fights where players will push 20 or 30 takedown attempts, sometimes more. Most go blocked, however one is bound to get through due to the distance a takedown can be achieved from. Denying them either results in a simple push away, or a clinch that is easy to escape from. There needs to be a disadvantage for continually going for takedowns and failing to achieve them. One way could be to make subsequent takedowns way slower and easier to defend. The takedown system needs to be looked at as striking is; every strike has a disadvantage for missing it. Takedowns have barely any except a perfectly time uppercut, knee, or front kick, however those often don't even land and the takedown is achieved.

2. The animation where a hurt player falls & sits against the cage needs to go or be replaced

The issue with this animation is that it's literally unguardable. First it provides a few free headshots, then it either results in a finish, a top mount, or holding the hurt player against the cage resulting in even more free strikes. It goes against everything a skill based game stands for; the ability to escape a sticky situation to redeem yourself with pure skill. I've figured out that this can be "exploited" too. I've had fights where I get just 1 good knockdown strike in lowering the opp's red head health fully but the gray bar is still full. Since they were knocked down against the cage my fighter immediately jumps in and starts going for those free head shots resulting in a KO since the red head health bar didn't have time to recover in the split second it took my fighter to start pouncing on those free strikes. I think it's unfair since if it was anywhere else but  the cage the few seconds it would take for me to pounce on them would result in the head health regenerating enough to give the player a chance to use their skill and avoid further strikes.

3. Clinch spamming goes unpunished

Same as takedowns, failed clinch attempts go unpunished for the most part. You can get maybe 1 strike in after you escape a clinch attempt, but the recovery time is super quick so the clincher usually blocks that strike anyways. There needs to be a penalty of sorts for failed clinch attempts as there is with striking.

Elbow shots in the clinch are also way too OP. The only way to block them is to hold R2/RT and you can't move at all otherwise the elbow still gets through, meaning you need to time the escape perfectly to avoid an elbow which is possible but many will still get through. The elbows cause too much cut damage, I've had fights where I'm dominating and still lose due to doctor stoppage from these clinch elbows, even with 3.5 star cut resistance (not the best but moderate). They need their cut damage nerfed significantly (I am a bit biased on this one, I think doctors stoppages are stupid for ranked mode and should be limited to simulation, haven't seen a single player that likes them)

4. Some grapple positions are too difficult to escape, and too easy to exploit

Side mount is the first main issue I have. A good player who memorizes all of the animations & has a good connection can easily block most escape attempts. They can then continually spam elbows exploiting them like the clinch elbows to create/worsen cuts, resulting in a doctor stoppage. You can deny these elbows by feinting a sprawl transition right when the elbow is thrown, but that doesn't feel intended and just an "exploity" way around a problematic system. Plus it drains your stamina more than the opponent, so you're still at a significant disadvantage there.

Top mount, while way easier to escape, is very easy to get into. There are many ways to transition to it with leveled up transitions on top of feints. Once in top mount position, it's easy to get into striking position since there are 2 transitions to it, and once in the striking position the strikes are incredibly difficult to block. The responsiveness on blocking hooks/dodging straights feels way too slow compared to the speed of the strikes. I understand this is a position that should be weighted in favor of who is on top, but this is exploited by high div users who are good at denying transitions, so eventually after the 5th+ top mount there really is no coming back from the damage done.

Flat back mount (name might be wrong on this one) can be exploited. I had a fight the other night where I messed up and accidentally landed in the receiving end of a back mount. The opponent then immediately stood up into striking position, threw 2 strikes, then went back into non-striking mount and immediately back into striking. He repeated this 3/4 times and I was unable to escape since his transitions were literally instantaneous. The fight ended as my block meter had gone down.

5. Some submissions are too easy to finish / The grappling system is too heavily based on stamina

These 2 issues tie into each other. For example, the armbar is notoriously the easiest sub, by far, to deny escapes from. The only way to escape it is to have a stamina advantage and drain the opponents stamina to 0 + block their finish attempts (also very easy). In real life there have been countless times where the gassed fighter manages to get a submission off on the opponent who clearly is less tired. I think the grappling system being nearly purely based on stamina takes away from the skill, since the fight is basically already over when you are on the ground and manage to score a submission on the more tired opponent.

The other submissions that come to mind are the triangle & arm triangle. Triangle is easy to deny escapes from because you can clearly see which leg is moving. Arm triangle because the opponent either tries to roll left, or they lock their hands together meaning a rightwards transition. The others are more difficult but still learnable and that's when stamina ultimately decides the outcome, and not skill.

Finally, the biggest issue with the stamina based submission system; one successful submission can lead directly into consecutive unguardable submissions resulting in the end of the fight with no way for the opponent to escape. Sometimes when you fully execute a submission, you can immediately transition into yet another submission and finish it instantly since the opponent's stamina still has yet to recover, thus not allowing them to deny anything you are doing. This is common with arm triangles as it'll just transition you right back into a position where you can execute another arm triangle and immediately finish it again. 

That's everything I feel is objectively broken or unbalanced currently, there are others but I feel those are a matter of personal opinion so I'll omit them.

Thanks!