Some thoughts in general;
If you have strong grappling, you can feel free to throw kicks more or less with impunity, since guys that would want to strike with you usually won't have the stones to try and counter you with a takedown, and the ones that do have the stones usually won't be looking to strike anyways. See for instance Ryan Hall, or Fabricio Werdum, or Luke Rockhold.
Kicks to the open side are super effective. In a standard closed stance matchup (ortho vs ortho or southpaw vs southpaw), this generally means gitting gud at your lead leg roundhouse/switch kick. The few guys who actually take the time to refine this technique in mma often find a home for it nearly at will. See for instance Rafael Lovato Jr.'s last fight, or Donald Cerrone's fights with both Matt Brown and Rick Storey.
If you have a good teep, this then also synergizes for question mark kicks (see for instance: Holly Holm's KO of Betch).
In the third fight the guy threatened you a few times with wild crosses. You didnt get coldcocked which is good, but didnt really punish him for it either. A very good drill you can do with a parter which i think is essential for mma is for him to throw an overhand, while you duck under and hit a kneetap or sweep single (aka the Tyrone Woodley drill). Keep doing that over and over in training and itle be automatic on fight night.
The body jab is a very good low risk high percentage punch, and if opponents start overreacting too it, that then sets up other stuff.
Also make a note of all the moments where the fighters 'fall' into clinches.
The lead 2 is in fact a most effective method of getting inside. In closed stance matchup, you throw, dip, and weave outside their lead shoulder, as your trail leg steps up, moving into the clinch. This often also puts you into a dominant back angle for a takedown like the ko uchi gaki/gari, or to blindside them with a puch, kick, or knee. The behavior is somewhat different in an open stance matchup. In some ways it is actually even safer, as your head does not have to cross the centerline to weave outside his lead shoulder. Because your lead leg and his lead leg is mirrored however, it can become awkward to actually fully step around outside like in a closed stance matchup. In this case, it is often easier to simply follow through with your duck fully and shoot in on his hips, as, since your head again is not crossing the centerline, you are moving away from his power side, taking away the knee threat.
Floyd Mayweather would use this tactic extensively in his fights to make himself safe while throwing his lead right, and deny his opponent an opportunity to counterstrike by stifling them with the clinch (and setup cheeky punches on the disengage).
For such reasons the principles behind this is also a common tactic in combat sambo, called here a 'casting punch', where the real reward of course was seen as getting into the clinch in good position in the first place. Fedor Emelianenko used this tactic extensively.
As a general rule, i belive it is preferable to slip punches to the outside, as, even if in the case it were a feint, you would still not be in a position to be as easily hit by the other side, and, in case it were not a feint, a back angle is generally stronger.
Joe Louis pretty much made a career out of playing off his opponents jab (left hand lead) in this manner; with either simultaneous jab (jab while slipping outside his opponents jab), or delayed counter (slip the jab, loading his rear hip, then coming back with the cross [and giving him his nickname]).
Against right hand leads, he in fact often employed much the same motions: slipping outside the opponents left and countering, since, southpaws less often develop into prodigious jabbers, as, they more often match up against left hand leads, and the mirrored lead hands often end up jamming each other. As a flip side example, Conor McGregor would use this tactic extensively against left hand lead fighters, slipping outside the opponents right, and returning with a cross.
Because of that same commonality of open stance matchups though, many southpaws also in fact get into the bad habit of reaching out with their lead hand, to stuff their opponents lead hand. Until they encounter a fighter with the good habit of feinting their jab, whereupon they will duly stick their hand out on reaction to jam the phantom jab, whereupon they will duly get knocked out by the trail hand overhand. See for instance, Lawler vs Woodley.
