Strickland's style sure isn't the most aesthetic but you can tell he was well prepared and knew a lot of Izzy's bad habits. Sean cut the cage pretty well, and more important change rhythm at the right moment.
The sequence below really highlight this.
Sean's front kick really
What a gorgeous counter by Crawford.
It starts with adjusting his defense now that he's on the ropes.
Switch to the High Guard, to prevent from any big left overhand but mostly to draw Spence's favorite combo opening (jab to the body or rear straight to the body).
Then look
I mean, just look at this. They were both so incredibly sound defensively and offensively. There's so much going on. You wonder why those guys (almost..) never got knocked out, well here's why.
Marvin Hagler vs Roberto Duran remains one of my favorite boxing match of all time (competitive back and forth) but mostly because this is such a fight favorite for the educated fans. It's the little things they do but both do so well that make me enjoy this fight so much.
Ilia Topuria's KO of Volkanovski :
Topuria did a great job at backing up Volkanoski despite his high volume of kick.
Timing them very well and countering with that right cross.
The second good thing Topuria did is to make that read that once Volk was backed against the fence
Fiziev switch stance to orthdox which allows Riddel to circle to his right without having to worry about the famous body kick of Fiziev but then hit a beautiful spinning head kick.
Great manipulation by Fiziev.
朝倉海
Kai Asakura's boxing skills setting up Knee to the body.
When Kai had Motoya in the corner, he landed a body-head combo and Motoya's defense was not up to par. This cost him a Knockdown.
Later in the fight, Kai works in the clinch and keeps Motoya's right arm high in
Sugar Ray Leonard beating the hell out of Floyd Mayweather Sr, toying with him and embarrassing him in top of a bad beating like only Sugar Ray could do.
As soon as Fury looked for those clinch entries, I wanted N'Gannou to look for that forearm frame, or a way to keep Fury out of him.
In Round 8, N'Gannou finally found it, and landed a lot of shots on Fury.
Trying to time and aim that right cross behind the left forearm
Francis doing a good job at not letting Fury put his weight on him in the clinch, but I was he was more active there, framing Fury's face and really putting him into uncomfortable position in the clinch.
Max feint the lead hand and read Gaethje reactions (duck under) so Max does it again and enter with the rear uppercut, then push back with his lead hand.
Max does it again, but this time Gaethje level change into an overhand that miss but Max close the door with the left hook.
Jack Della Maddalena safe entries and exits in the pocket are masterful.
Controlling the distance so well, half step back behind the jab to stay safe but also draw his opponent's counter.
Very rare qualities for an MMA fighter.
Sandhagen touches Yan's wrist faking the wrist control, change levels to feint the body shot and catch Yan with a short lead uppercut but Yan counters quickly with left hook, cross, left hook combo on the way out.
Beautiful.
Kai Kara France defends Askarov single leg & free it as he escapesv and get Askarov against the cage, KKF throw a body jab to get a feel for Askarov's counters then work on Rear cross /Lead hook combos, shifting and using his better/faster footwork to stop the reactive takedowns
Yair threw a lot of calf kicks from Orthodox then feint it to switch stance in order to kick Emmett's body and head and even feint the switch to land the right kick.
Yair's punches behind kicks are fast, he make sure to step in or to the side to really put weight on them.
Yan blocks and counter Aldo's liver shot, then shift behind the lead hook.
Yan working Aldo's high guard then notices Aldo teeps and catch his kick to sweep him
Beautiful.
Chito adjusts from Dom slipping (way too much on the outside) the jab, by adding that kick.
However the timing isn't quite there on first attempt and also the closed stance match up works in favor of Dom here.
The second time it's open stance match up + perfect timing. Perfect.
Petr Yan's beautiful blends together so well defense and offense. He's always aware of his position's pros & cons.
Using slips and outside position to either counter or escape the pocket.
A nightmare to deal with.
Mads outside slips Borics Rear elbow which open to him the double left hook body. Adam's elbow come back down to cover his body but Mads double it upstairs.
Beautiful.
Mayweather's landmark Pull counter
& the adjustment from Maidana throwing the 1-2
(instead of commiting only with the jab)
slipping the "predictable" pull counter from Floyd right at the bell for the end of the round.
Canelo wasn't able to manipulate Bivol's guard at all.
Even when they got up close, Bivol kept pushing him out of his stance, canelo bein square at to step back or in which was a big tell on the upcoming punches.
Bivol elbows locked in timing his offense very well. M.Efficiency
Backfoot Gaethje is amazing.
Circles to the right, outside slip the cross, kick the leg as he roll to his left and land that left hook as he's back in his stance.
Then finds this perfect Uppercut left hook despite Khabib's heavy pressure.
WAR.
Then Jose Aldo for the first time of the fight decides to exploit Jeremy's high guard and destroy his body with a beauty of body shot. Both punches landing on the same exact spot. What a powerful punch (followed by ground strikes) Jeremy was done there. Nasty. Aldo shine again.
Weili's defense against Lemos Ninja choke.
As Weili gets the double leg, Lemos takes the opportunity to use the Ninja choke since Weili's hands are on his legs and his neck free.
She then succeeds in raising Weili's legs and locking them.
Weili frees his leg from the lock
Ismagulov's body jab.
Set ups the over hand right, the level changes itself draw Alvarez counters, Ismagulov constant feints froze Alvarez many times, changes rhythm, Shift behind it, also Damir had such a good eye to see when the Knee or left hook counter was coming & step out
From the bait through the high guard (the opening, that also let him see the jab coming as much as it invited it) the perfect slip that allows him to shift his weight all over his left from his right hips.
Everything is perfect.
Iron Mike.
The first punch (either the jab or the cross) mostly serves to close distance and take the outside position to land the bomb behind it.
But he's also able to frame and hit very accurately.
Absolute beast.
Quick breakdown of Superbon 2 legendary counter Head kick knockouts in ONE FC.
Focusing on how his transitions from Defense to offense are simply elite.
Jomthong blocking the spinning back fist and framing Abiral's right arm to set up the left cross then end it all with an insanely precise head kick.
One of the coolest southpaw.
Khamzat's striking :
I like his shifting entries and how he mixed pretty well uppercuts and cross behind the jab.
Love his pivot behind slips or missing punches to always stay in front of Burns.
Like his switch of stances, the check hook after Burns shifting. So much potential.
The timing of Loma's left counters are unpredictable.
Loma plays with you creating angle and not punishing you right away but then changing rhythm the next sequence and blasting a left straight as soon as he slips.
Also Loma a master at getting the underhook and work from there.
Kelvin's low kick to set up his boxing was a good idea and got him the edge in the fight until Chris Curtis (and his coach Eric Nicksick) adjusted and started to have faith with his lead hook counter which made the fight turn into Chris favor once he found it.
Great fight.
Usyk versus Dubois
If the attention towards this fight is mainly about the Low Blow/body shots from R5, it was also a masterful performance from Usyk, here's some interesting clips breaking down the clever boxing of Usyk.
(THREAD)
The Hand fighting was key in that fight between Stamp & Ham.
Love how Stamp set up her offense off the handfighting, then feinting it and landing that cross to the body, and finishing Ham in a brutal sequence.
Lovely body work.
Thai Queen 🇹🇭👑
Bam Rodriguez is a brillant southpaw. One of the best boxers in the world.
He loves to take that right angle (against orthodox boxers) and has a diverse arsenal from there.
Please watch the 4 exemples against Carlos Cuadras.
1st time : threw the left hand and the outside
Eddie Alvarez gets the collar tie and blast power punches on Gaethje's body. He keeps the pressure on Justin, stay out of Gaethje counters then counters back with body shots as Justin lean forwards (once again)
Masterful.
Max adjusting between every exchanges.
Mixing body and head shots depending on what Aldo is giving him.
When Max starts to miss cause Aldo relies on head movement, he goes back to the body and look for that knee when aldo slip and ducks down.
Beast.
Haggerty struggled to catch Nong-O- on the way out, The Thai was always pulling back well and exited the exchanges with ease but got caught as he entered the pocket.
Nice adjustment from Haggerty to times his second entry and not play that long distance control game with Nong-O
Beautiful elbows from Rodtang & Superlek.
Rodtang closes the distance, showing the rear hand but slices that lead elbow right through the guard of Superlek who was dodging and walk right into it.
Then Superlek's pull back from Rodtang left body hook, then grab the neck and
⚡️SUPERLEK⚡️ x PAIN
Superlek works behind the double jab is absolutely gorgeous. It really alllows him to control the exchanges so much and to set up his low kick, his cross, his lead elbow and more importantly to re engage over and over safely.
The best in the world.
If we have to start over again, let's start over with the best ever.
Duran hooking behind the jab and working the body as he rolls under the counters. Entering and exiting the pocket on his own terms. Always.
A young Gennady already in perfect control with amazing shot selections.
Left hook to set up the uppercut then use his leand hand to lower the guard of his opponent.
Then creates enough space to throw power shots to the body.
1st sequence : Holloway shift to orthodox as he feint, parries and counter to the body, Allen's cross.
kick from orthodox stance exit as southpaw.
2nd sequence : Switch to orthodox after the kick, feint the cross to the body, goes upstairs, set up body kick & exit as southpaw
Do bronx was willing to get through the range and take punishment in order to work around the collar tie.
He eats a left hook but slips the cross counter with the uppercut, get the collar tie and lands a nasty knee to the side early on.
Bon Gamin m.A.A.d city !
Cyril switches stances and low kick Pessoa. The brazilian goes for a lead body kick (closed stance) to back Gane up but Cyril switches stance as he catches the kick and send him to the ground at the same time.
Article coming this week !
Round 3. Not fearing DP's counter any more (who's tired) Charles gets his famous body lock + Hook the leg to work on the takedown but DP froze not wanting to expose himself which allowed Charles to simply take his back, and get the choke after fighting the hands a few times.
Kumandoi doubles on the switch round kick to the body then switch back to orthodox, throw the left body kick to draw Shiro's counter but this was a trap to set up the right cross right just behind it.
Gorgeous!