A Cyclone developing:

was trying to bait him into throwing at his head with his hands down, and Mike just casually jabbed him in the belly instead. Good, stiff jabs too, that make you second guess yourself for deciding to stand in front of him.

Jabs to the head are considered safe but they never seem to be there for me. Body jab was there every time against everyone. Also, I started to feel people's stomachs fold around my jab, so I figured it must be doing something.

Moving forward while moving my head is something I worked on a lot. Believe it or not, whenever I stood still and tried to defend with only head movement, I wanted to work on developing my pure defense whether I got hit or not. However unrealistic, my ideal fight would be to matrix every punch and then knock the guy out. Still working out the details on that.
 
Jabs to the head are considered safe but they never seem to be there for me. Body jab was there every time against everyone. Also, I started to feel people's stomachs fold around my jab, so I figured it must be doing something.

Hell yeah. I'm nowhere near your level, but I feel the exact same way. Jabs to the body are almost laughably easy to land, and yet I struggle to connect with my jab on taller opponent's faces. I suppose that's a matter of distancing, but I'll take a stiff jab to the solar plexus over a stiff jab to air any day.

Moving forward while moving my head is something I worked on a lot. Believe it or not, whenever I stood still and tried to defend with only head movement, I wanted to work on developing my pure defense whether I got hit or not. However unrealistic, my ideal fight would be to matrix every punch and then knock the guy out. Still working out the details on that.

Haha! It makes sense that it was a conscious decision, because at times you move forward with really solid defense. You're definitely at your most effective coming forward, though. Even when you tend to fall of balance a bit (something that happens a lot less now than it did in your early vids), you select your punches very intelligently. I like the wide rights and left hooks to the body.
 
Bump.

As of right this second, Mike is still recovering from a severely broke thumb that happened in his last fight. It happened in the first round, and he still didn't lose a single round of the fight. Finished and won, but had to have surgery and is only just now able to hit somewhat with it again. But prior to that he had gone to Iceland and spent some time with Dadi. When he came back he had a whole different look, and Dadi specifically spent a lot of time on movement. With the philosophy of always moving to a more advantageous position:



And this was the last session with Alex Thiel, an amateur at our Gym who has like 4 or 5 National Titles now:

 
Man what a difference between the first sparring video in the thread and this last one. That's awesome. His style has become really interesting with the way he's working the body while moving and taking angles. When he's settled into the rhythm and decides to mix it up with an overhand upstairs he can really catch some guys. Seems like a taxing style. What's your thoughts on him leading with his face and getting countered, after he gets tired?
 
Not sure what you mean by what are my thoughts on it. But keeping form when fatigued is probably the single most difficult thing to pull off in nearly any Sport. Just in boxing, you get hit in the face when it happens.
 
I'm with you there. I mean thoughts in a more general sense. It's a very interesting style, leading with so many body shots and taking angles continously like that. Seems like a taxing one as well, with the high output, bobbing and weaving and constant movement. You'd have to be in great physical condition to keep that up effectively, right?

I wasn't sure if it was form breakdown, or a result of someone getting tired with that style, which resulted in the punches connecting. What I mean is, it seems that usually someone who uses a lot of movement, headmovements, reflexes and slipping, without using their guard much, (not necesarily talking about Mike) when they fatigue they start to slow down a little and start getting clipped more. In contrast to fighters who parry, block and catch a lot who seem to be able to keep it on a more even keel. I know that's a very rough generalisation.

What I'm wondering is, is there any deliberate attempt to make fighters pick up their hands a little more and play it a little more safe when they get tired, or otherwise change their tactics? And do you work on specific attributes for different styles, like: "Okay, this style is taxing so we need to work more on your cardio" or "that style requires you to muscle your opponent around so we need to work more on your strength" and so forth.

I'm genuinely interested, not trying to assert anything.
 
The way he's moving his feet can be taxing, yes. Hips not so much. The hips are complicated, full of big muscles, ligaments, and tendons. They can handle a lot of work once they're loosened up, which is why fighters of old were able to do it for 45 minutes and when they were well-conditioned, look great in the latter rounds. Also, moving the hips isn't about reflexes. At least, it shouldn't be. It should be about baiting, being in false positions to get the opponent to throw so you can do what you really want. So when I do work on someone's ability to catch, it's not because the style taxing as much as it is just to give them the ability to do something different. Sometimes they're not merely getting clipped because they're fatigued, they're getting clipped because the opponent is catching on to their favorite things to do. You can only fool a decent opponent so many times with the same moves. Mike himself can be a bit robotic in repeating patterns, now that he CAN fight...compared to the very beginning where it was all brawling in response to adversity, we're working on diversifying.
 
Ah yeah it makes sense, especially the baiting and drawing things out. The more options, the better, right? Anyway, thanks for explanation.

I gotta crash now, but I'll check out the thread with Loco as well tomorrow. Hadn't seen the update.
 
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