Anyone was impressed with Yoel defense he showed against Rockhold ?

[KevinLee]

Dude was looking like Floyd Mayweather in there. He showed nice parries and x guards. There was a point in the second round where he barely threw a punch. He was just letting Luke throw everything and was blocking and parring most of Lukes shots. He just let Luke frustrate himself and lure him to sleep. Luke was visibly frustrated in the corner of the third round because of Yoel defense. Yoel lured him to sleep and than hit him with the kill shot. It was like he was letting Luke get a false sense of security than he took him out with the kill shot. I know Yoel brother was a very high level LHW champion boxer. Yoel must of picked up some of that Cuban boxing defense. Dude was like a old master in there. Anyone was impressed with Yoel defense and patient like i was ? Fyi if he fights Whittaker like this he should win easily.

 

[Arm Barbarian]

Yep, his defense was freakin awesome against Luke. An underrated aspect of his game.

He takes very little damage in most of his fights.

 

[TriangleMonkey]

King of the 3rd round finishes

 

[TriangleMonkey]

He actually checked leg kicks, an underused technique. Busted Lukes leg on the second kick

 

[VIPERdude]

Dude was looking like Floyd Mayweather in there. He showed nice parries and x guards. There was a point in the second round where he barely threw a punch. He was just letting Luke throw everything and was blocking and parring most of Lukes shots. He just let Luke frustrate himself and lure him to sleep. Luke was visibly frustrated in the corner of the third round because of Yoel defense. Yoel lured him to sleep and than hit him with the kill shot. It was like he was letting Luke get a false sense of security than he took him out with the kill shot. I know Yoel brother was a very high level LHW champion boxer. Yoel must of picked up some of those Cuban boxing defense. Dude was like a old master in there. Anyone was impressed with Yoel defense and patient like i was ? Fyi if he fights Whittaker like this he should win easily.

He was poppin everyone of Lukes punches and he was able to parry everything Luke threw especially in Round 2 alone before the end came. Luke could barely get anything through. So I can agree

 

[RyuHayabusa]

Dude was very comfortable because lukes striking is

 

[KevinLee]

He was poppin everyone of Lukes punches and he was able to parry everything Luke threw especially in Round 2 alone before the end came. Luke could barely get anything through. So I can agree

Luke was frustated as fuck. Hes so used to just smashing through things. He had no idea what to do against someone as cerebral as Yoel. Like @Arm Barbarian said Yoels defense is a very underrated part of his game. Hes super creative with his striking and defense. call me crazy but his creativity with his striking is Jon Jones like. He just doesnt have the length Jones has.

 

[Fatback96]

His defense was awesome unless you throw more that 1 punch at a time at him. The double and triple jab were landing constantly.

Also his kicks were more damaging than Rockholds kicks.

 

[cakemuncher]

Ghey Jesus is GOAT of defense and offense

 

[ClosetVitorFan]

He lost the first round then adjusted and won the 2nd and ultimately the 3rd

 

[SeattleFightFan]

his defense was phenomenal, and it took Luke out of his game.

His defense was awesome unless you throw more that 1 punch at a time at him. The double and triple jab were landing constantly.

Also his kicks were more damaging than Rockholds kicks.

so the obvious question is, why didn't Luke throw more combo's?

we don't know. but we do know that Romero figured him out with what he was doing (which mostly consistent of leg kicks and single jabs/straights).

we can and should wonder why Luke didn't throw more combo's. but it's possible Romero would have just timed and figured that out too.

my guess: it was too dangerous. throwing combo's meant getting and staying close, and he spent most of the fight purposely not getting and staying close. unfortunately that played very well into Romero's strengths...which should make us wonder how great at gameplanning his team really is.

TLDR: Romer's D - esp the leg kick D - took Luke out of his game, and was instrumental in the win.

 

[Emjay]

TS just watched Luke Thomas' podcast

 

[cevo]

Very solid striking by Romero. He actually showed better defense than Rockhold which just shows what a natural athlete he is. Imagine if he grew up training MMA and competed in the UFC in his 20s..

 

[acannxr]

What I remember from that fight is: Romero literally catching one of Luke's punches with his hand, Romero getting hit with a jab on more than one occasion, Luke's leg bleeding from a checked kick, Romero fighting in spurts (and later wondering why Luke didn't put pressure on Romero after his flurries), and wondering why Luke didn't circle out away from Romero during his flurries so he wouldn't get trapped against the cage (then ultimately getting knocked out because he and his coaches didn't adjust for it).

Given that Romero's brother is the former WBA and IBF cruiserweight boxing champion, I expected him to be familiar with boxing defense.

 

[cherryzero]

Yes, I was very impressed with Romero’s defense. Definitely more so in the second round.

I think it took the first round to really get Rockhold’s timing down.

Also I agree with Seattlefightfan, Luke was trying to use his range more in the second so he threw less combinations, which helped Romero’s defense.

On a related note I think Rockhold and Arlovski share a problem that exacerbated their questionable chins, they both tend to back straight up, chin high when they are getting hit.

 

[Johnny_Knuckles]

 

[nublood]

Too bad he's a walking juice farm.

 

[TDD]

I had a good feeling that he would win as i knew Luke wouldnt try to submit him him being a high level wrestler, Rockhold has great kicks but like almost all kickers if you dont give the space they have to box and its Rockholds only weakness as far as skills go and Romero gets underrated because people see him as a wrestler with a flying knee. So i wasnt surprised but still impressed.

 

[Russie]

Very good it was. I expected Romero to lose the fight but looking back I wonder now how I could've picked against him.

 

[WAR RANDLEMAN!]

Luke fought scared shitless and it showed