Are tight combinations the key to shutting Holloway down?

[Destino2018]

Volkanovski has tree trunk legs and chopped Max to throw off his rhythm no matter what he says now that the fight is over. But what got me was that it seemed like Max started hesitating whenever Volk threw combinations and it messed his rhythm up heavily. Can someone who is more fight savvy explain why Max was shut down anytime he got close to him?

 

[Bear Faced Liar]

Max excelled in switching from orthodox to southpaw on the fly so that he can land strikes from unpredictable angles. He uses this versatility to slowly but surely pile on the damage as a volume striker.

When Volk chopped down Max's lead leg, he was forced to fight on only one stance. With his main weapons taken away from him, Volk was essentially fighting a 50% Max after the first two rounds or so.

It was a great game plan by Volk's team. Also, you needed Volk's speed, power and explosiveness to do something like that. So it was a well deserved victory.

 

[Klaavical]

One of the keys which was apparent to me was Volks strategy of sitting down on his punches and not moving backwards

 

[Coolkid666]

leg kicksssssssss. I knew Volk was gonna do it and it was beautifulllll

 

[hypocalking]

Made me wonder why Jose never implemented a heavy leg kick game to disrupt Max when they fought. It's like Jose doesn't like throwing leg kicks anymore. So weird.

 

[KAZSoliloquy]

Made me wonder why Jose never implemented a heavy leg kick game to disrupt Max when they fought. It's like Jose doesn't like throwing leg kicks anymore. So weird.

he’s thrown a total of 18 leg kicks (landed 13) in his last 5 fights combined. it’s insane.

 

[A Very Serious Cat]

Made me wonder why Jose never implemented a heavy leg kick game to disrupt Max when they fought. It's like Jose doesn't like throwing leg kicks anymore. So weird.

I seem to remember something about knee injuries making his kicking of old harder to do

 

[Paladin]

he’s thrown a total of 18 leg kicks (landed 13) in his last 5 fights combined. it’s insane.

He had been checked a few times and it probably hurt like hell

 

[Destino2018]

One of the keys which was apparent to me was Volks strategy of sitting down on his punches and not moving backwards

Yea seemed like he made Max respect his power while basically having none for Max’s.

 

[KID Yamamoto]

Max excelled in switching from orthodox to southpaw on the fly so that he can land strikes from unpredictable angles. He uses this versatility to slowly but surely pile on the damage as a volume striker.

When Volk chopped down Max's lead leg, he was forced to fight on only one stance. With his main weapons taken away from him, Volk was essentially fighting a 50% Max after the first two rounds or so.

It was a great game plan by Volk's team. Also, you needed Volk's speed, power and explosiveness to do something like that. So it was a well deserved victory.

This. Volk had a very complex gameplan and it paid off. I really want to see a rematch to know what max will do differently in it. There were moments were max was winning exchanges but it was way too little too late.

 

[Pain4Pain]

Volkanovski countered Max with flurries anytime he got too close too him. Volk slipped and weaved punches, had good head movement, and threw some hard shots in the counters. When Max fought Aldo he would mainly try to slip the punches and duck a little bit, which was predictable for Max to target, especially once Aldo tired and could not keep the pace. Alex kept a high pace and never stopped defending the shots.

Alex is a very disciplined fighter who sticks with his gameplans, his defense and counters were diverse and he did not wilt under Max's pressure thanks to his confidence in his power, his athleticism and his sheer will power. Max does not have good head movement, his boxing defense is based off of his footwork by simply slipping out of range just enough to dodge a shot and punch, which works well against slower guys like Ortega. Alex had the speed advantage as well, and because the leg kicks messed with Max's ability to fight long he had to come close, which negates his ability to just back up away from an incoming shot. Alex fought like Tyson in this fight.