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There are two examples that come to mind when I think of fighters who came with an excellent gameplan to nullify a fighter with top tier footwork.
The first is Garbrandt vs Cruz. He kind of waited for Cruz to come to him. Didn’t try to chase him, and didn’t back up much. Hit nice and fast combos whenever Cruz tried to engage. Had Cruz running into big shots and getting frustrated.
Although Garbrandt had excellent footwork and athleticism himself so it’s not like he was truly overwhelmed in that department.
Another example for me is Teofimo Lopez vs Lomachenko. Waited for Loma to come to him, and then blasted big shots whenever he came into range. Had Loma extremely hesitant until the 6th or 7th round where he was like “fuck it” and actually started destroying Teo.
This seems like a very sound strategy when you have the power advantage but don’t have the feet or conditioning advantage. You don’t want to waste energy or even worse get countered chasing, so you let them come to you and when they get into range you fire big shots.
Reason I posted this is because I’m normally a footwork guy, but another training partner of mine actually has quicker and more active feet than me. I have the power advantage while he tends to pot shot and pitter patter and this tactic has worked well for me.
Another strategy would be like Petr Yan did against Sandhagen, where you slowly creep into range with a high guard. I’m not a huge fan of this tactic but it seems to work for a lot of people. Of course Yan was dealing with a serious height disadvantage as well, so he has to slowly close that distance.
The last thing you want to do is be like Tj vs Cruz or benevidez vs Cruz. Full on bullrushing your opponent will only get you check hooked and frustrated, or you just straight up run into big shots or takedowns. Just like Aldo vs Mcgregor or Aljo vs OMalley, but in these cases they had both the power and feet advantage.
Then you have guys like Faber who has decent feet himself, try to go footwork for footwork and move with Cruz. He just ended up getting out pointed for most of the fight. Although he did manage to time Cruz with a big right hand in the 2nd fight, but that was the extent of his success.
Just like when I spar my training partner, if I try to match his footwork and activity all I end up doing is getting out pointed the whole time. So I actually have to change my style to take on my opponents.
The first is Garbrandt vs Cruz. He kind of waited for Cruz to come to him. Didn’t try to chase him, and didn’t back up much. Hit nice and fast combos whenever Cruz tried to engage. Had Cruz running into big shots and getting frustrated.
Although Garbrandt had excellent footwork and athleticism himself so it’s not like he was truly overwhelmed in that department.
Another example for me is Teofimo Lopez vs Lomachenko. Waited for Loma to come to him, and then blasted big shots whenever he came into range. Had Loma extremely hesitant until the 6th or 7th round where he was like “fuck it” and actually started destroying Teo.
This seems like a very sound strategy when you have the power advantage but don’t have the feet or conditioning advantage. You don’t want to waste energy or even worse get countered chasing, so you let them come to you and when they get into range you fire big shots.
Reason I posted this is because I’m normally a footwork guy, but another training partner of mine actually has quicker and more active feet than me. I have the power advantage while he tends to pot shot and pitter patter and this tactic has worked well for me.
Another strategy would be like Petr Yan did against Sandhagen, where you slowly creep into range with a high guard. I’m not a huge fan of this tactic but it seems to work for a lot of people. Of course Yan was dealing with a serious height disadvantage as well, so he has to slowly close that distance.
The last thing you want to do is be like Tj vs Cruz or benevidez vs Cruz. Full on bullrushing your opponent will only get you check hooked and frustrated, or you just straight up run into big shots or takedowns. Just like Aldo vs Mcgregor or Aljo vs OMalley, but in these cases they had both the power and feet advantage.
Then you have guys like Faber who has decent feet himself, try to go footwork for footwork and move with Cruz. He just ended up getting out pointed for most of the fight. Although he did manage to time Cruz with a big right hand in the 2nd fight, but that was the extent of his success.
Just like when I spar my training partner, if I try to match his footwork and activity all I end up doing is getting out pointed the whole time. So I actually have to change my style to take on my opponents.
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