Did Cody prove "Neo Footwork" is more Rogan nonsense?

I know Dom likes to mention Willie Pep but he fights nothing like Willie. Willie used controlled and efficient movements to evade punches, Dom dances spastically all over the cage for no reason. busy movement =/= good movement. Cody doesn't move his feet as much but he has better footwork.



everytime Willie moves, it's with a purpose.
never been enamored with Dom's game, I maintain a lot of his success is due to fighting shorter guys with significant reach disadvantage.


I disagree with you lol. As usual. Cody doesnt even have a reach advantage over guys like Faber, TJ, Mizugaki, Bowles.
 
I know Dom likes to mention Willie Pep but he fights nothing like Willie. Willie used controlled and efficient movements to evade punches, Dom dances spastically all over the cage for no reason. busy movement =/= good movement. Cody doesn't move his feet as much but he has better footwork.



everytime Willie moves, it's with a purpose.
never been enamored with Dom's game, I maintain a lot of his success is due to fighting shorter guys with significant reach disadvantage.


I disagree a bit
Dom's shifts are clearly patterned on some of the better outboxers in history. But he's over reliant on feints, and Cody (a long time amateur boxing) read his feints easily. Cruz's striking works against guys who haven't been boxing for nearly a decade. What Cruz is doing is adapting a very very difficult style to implement in MMA, and I think it works (I agree he's usually bigger and longer) despite not being as tight and smooth as you'd want it to be. It's not so much the reach but he's actually pretty good at fighting long, loopy shit punches and all, and he uses his height well (guys are punching up at him, or trying to)

One of the best things about the Cruz/Cody fight was Cody literally using some of Dom's favorite tactics (crouching and using it to spring to either side, an Ali favorite) against him with way better and more effecient footwork. I think Cody just showed that Cruz's footwork wasn't as tight as people believed. And of course, above the waist I think most can agree (and this isn't hindsight I've been saying this) his boxing is pretty trash, his punching mechanics are sloppy and people have been trying to convince me for years he's throwing "casting" punches on purpose.

Also, Cody in spurts showed that he could punch and kick Dom's body pretty much anytime he wanted to. Mindblowing that no one else ever tried.

Either way, Cruz will rebound - but with his knees, his age, and the fact that he just lost we could see him fall off the proverbial cliff soon in terms of effectiveness. Still though, the guy that fought Friday beats every BW not named Cody Garbrandt or TJ Dillashaw (maybe Rivera if he gets a bit better).

I do feel way more confident in my DJ/Cruz pick though. If DJ can defend a takedown or two he could win a comfortable decision.
 
Rogan talked about and praised Cruz for his "neo footwork" on several occasions. Did Cody just prove that this is nonsense and traditional fundamentals are what matters?
Rogans Jiujitsu knowledge is "world class" but his striking and training knowledge is somewhat of a dinosaur. The whole idea of "neo footwork" is a croc of shit. Some guys in the UFC are just tough as hell and have great cardio or strength and conditioning, but lack mastery of techniques. An artist creates and transcends what he has been taught to do. So a guy decides he wants to move differently? He shouldn't be classified into a category (neo footwork) because categorizing is what keeps people boxed in and predictable. Cody just proved he had better timing, power, and reaction time(defensively and offensively). Dom showed he can't adjust when his style isn't working.
 
Just proved that it's a bad term that doesn't serve any purpose besides to over simplify what Cruz does
I fucking hate how Rogan makes up new terms and gets everyone else to say them. For instance, everyone used to say low kick until he started saying leg kick. Shit drives me nuts to this day.
 
I fucking hate how Rogan makes up new terms and gets everyone else to say them. For instance, everyone used to say low kick until he started saying leg kick. Shit drives me nuts to this day.
To be fair I don't actually think he made it up
First time I heard about it was on the UG a few years ago
A got wrote an large article about Cruz (and laughably Conor's) footwork and how it was changing the game. That same guy wrote an article of all of the NAMED boxing tactics that Cruz uses.

Joe read it there, mentioned it on the JRE and somehow it's become a thing to describe anything that's not straight line striking... so like, good boxing footwork in general. The thing that Dom did that was new and unique was shooting off of breaking angles, but even that can be seen in boxing and striking when guys cut a weak or strong angle, turn their opponent and use it to grab a clinch.
 
The term neo footwork is garbage but Cruz still has great footwork. It wasn't Cody's footwork that was special but his anticipation, timing, and countering ability imo. Dom use his footwork to not get great positionings over his oponents in the cage, but to confuse and potshot his opponent from angles and timings they cant read. That's where most of his opponents looked lost but Garbrandt could read Cruz.

That is the most standout thing about Cody to me. He's a great counter puncher for his age.
 
Cruz is 58 in knee surgery years. Cody is younger and quicker. Cruz had much better footwork than Cody, but it doesn't matter once the speed goes. Speed is the first to go, power last, but Cruz has never had power, so its time for the glue factory I'm afraid.
He didn't have better footwork than Cody is the thing, he just moves his legs around more, it's not better than less wasted movements
 
He didn't have better footwork than Cody is the thing, he just moves his legs around more, it's not better than less wasted movements

No he was cutting beautiful angles, putting himself in great position to land on CoGar, CoGar was just too quick.
 
Rogan talked about and praised Cruz for his "neo footwork" on several occasions. Did Cody just prove that this is nonsense and traditional fundamentals are what matters?

No.

This forum really needs to calm the fuck down with all this stuff, where a fighter loses and then all these internet droogs pile in saying how overrated and overhyped they were.

In some cases (Rousey), this is true.

In Cruz's case, it definitely isnt.

Cruz does have brilliant footwork and movement, just ask all of the top fighters he beat handily while reigning at the top of a good division. You dont outbox TJ Dillashaw if you're not a pretty sweet mover.

Cruz simply got beat by a young, hungry, determined, skilled, fresh, dynamic, physically outstanding challenger.

It happens. It does not mean the champion was a mirage. He clearly proved his attributes through many fights with top-quality opponents.
 
Cruz does have brilliant footwork and movement, just ask all of the top fighters he beat handily while reigning at the top of a good division.
you mean all the midgets he fought? can you name one person over 5ft7, or equal to his size, that he's beaten? go ahead, I'll wait
 
Cruz's style is a manlet centric. He bounces around and uses his reach advantage to land shots which are not that technically great. Cody had speed, accuracy and head moment to expose it.
 
you mean all the midgets he fought? can you name one person over 5ft7, or equal to his size, that he's beaten? go ahead, I'll wait

Brian Bowles.

But wtf does that matter anyway?

Cruz was fairly tall for his weight class, just like Jon Jones & Conor McGregor & Anderson Silva & Chris Weidman & Luke Rockhold & Carlos Condit & Alex Gustafsson etc all were.

What difference does that make?

You should go re-write everyone's record to only include fighters the same height as them or taller. Have fun with that...
 
Rogan talked about and praised Cruz for his "neo footwork" on several occasions. Did Cody just prove that this is nonsense and traditional fundamentals are what matters?
The neo footwork can go in the same trash can as the "Machida era" and Koschecks K1 level striking. Rogan is so overrated. The only reason he sounds so smart is because he only had Goldberg to challenge his knowledge.
Anytime he's had an actual fighter next to him he sounds like a noob.

That being said, I'll go easy on Doms footwork. It's his first loss in like 10 years.
 
Brian Bowles.

But wtf does that matter anyway?

Cruz was fairly tall for his weight class, just like Jon Jones & Conor McGregor & Anderson Silva & Chris Weidman & Luke Rockhold & Carlos Condit & Alex Gustafsson etc all were.

What difference does that make?

You should go re-write everyone's record to only include fighters the same height as them or taller. Have fun with that...
the point is his techniques and footwork was never "great", it just worked because he was fighting guys he had a significant attribute advantage over. Brian Bowles was 5ft7, not over 5ft7 and he punched like this:
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Cody was the 1st good boxer his size that he's ever fougth in his career. He didn't pass the test.
 
His footwork worked for him for 10 years and 22 fights. Cody was just younger and quicker. Age is always the sport killer in the end.
 
the point is his techniques and footwork was never "great", it just worked because he was fighting guys he had a significant attribute advantage over. Brian Bowles was 5ft7, not over 5ft7 and he punched like this:
rs62d3.gif
k7OIlux.gif


Cody was the 1st good boxer his size that he's ever fougth in his career. He didn't pass the test.

Bullshit.

TJ Dillashaw is a good boxer and Cruz passed the test.

Dont embarrass yourself by trying to pretend that Dillashaw is some tiny dwarf. The size difference between him and Cruz is miniscule and negligible, a totally standard size difference for any two fighters in any weight class.

0/10
 
Doms footwork still works just not against Cody. Give credit to Alpha male and Urijah for training Cody and the game plan.
 
I think the beauty in his style is his looseness and unorthodox nature. You guys may think it's sloppy and amateurish, but it's highly highly effective, and hee cuaght Cody with some pin poijt bombs in there.

There were shots he landed where I went, when did he even throw that shot, and from where?

My god, you guys are severely underrating the hell out of Cruz right now.
 
Cruz's style is based on using feints to catch his guy off-balance, be it with a strike or a takedown. He's not deliberately throwing with poor boxing technique, but figured those strikes from side-to-side and forward-backward movement will throw guys off.

Calling it "neo footwork" sounds like something someone who watched Matrix 10 times would say. It's a cringe-worthy term. But take that away and Cruz made himself a legend with a unique style.
 
Rogan talked about and praised Cruz for his "neo footwork" on several occasions. Did Cody just prove that this is nonsense and traditional fundamentals are what matters?
One loss and all of a sudden everything Cruz has accomplished is being questioned??
 
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