Dominic Cruz footwork
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The BW goat
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Not to be that guy, but Dom's footwork isn't really something to copy, as well as his striking. He's a great fighter because the straw that serves his drink is he is a very good wrestler. Without the wrestling, his footwork and striking run into serious issues, like it did against Benavidez, MM and Garbrandt. There's a reason people haven't had success copying his style. Not to mention it's extremely cardio intensive to the point of inefficiency (to his credit he's improved that some).
It's also not a coincidence Cruz has pretty abysmal power. And again, I think Cruz is a p4p great.
I actually don't consider Cejudo a complete nightmare for Cruz. If Cejudo didn't throw leg kicks, I think he would have struggled a lot to generate offense given his cagecraft was historically not very great. A true nightmare matchup would be some one like Aldo I think.
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That’s not foot work. That’s head movement.Cruz's footwork?
It might be the single most overrated thing in MMA history. That and Pillowfists McGregory's left hand.
He literally shuffles around randomly, throwing punches like he's swinging a handbag. It's not even close to being elite footwork. He just happened to fight people who were too small and and not good enough to exploit it.
If he fought elite strikers his own size, his fights would look like the Cody fight. Someone with proper efficient boxing footwork would clown him 10/10.
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I don't like Doms personality nor his fight style. Overrated af
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Cruz's footwork?
It might be the single most overrated thing in MMA history. That and Pillowfists McGregory's left hand.
He literally shuffles around randomly, throwing punches like he's swinging a handbag. It's not even close to being elite footwork. He just happened to fight people who were too small and and not good enough to exploit it.
If he fought elite strikers his own size, his fights would look like the Cody fight. Someone with proper efficient boxing footwork would clown him 10/10.
I think you’re over-egging the pudding a little bit. Cody happened to be a terrible matchup at that moment in time. Great foot and hand speed and fought with great poise and discipline after his camp spent a decade trying to plan for Cruz.
That being said, I think it’s likely that if someone sat down with Cruz and asked him to prove that there’s real method to the madness, we’d find that it’s not as scientific as some would like to believe. I suspect he spent a lot time practicing throwing punches at odd times and from odd angles, then on fight night just stays busy doing whatever little dance moves come to mind. That clearly worked, and it still throws guys off to this day. But I don’t think he’s playing chess in there.
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Think about it, Cruz isn't going to outwrestle Cejudo, he isn't as heavy handed as Cejudo is, the fact that Cejudo DID throw leg kicks shows he's able to deviate from his usual style cause he isn't worried about Cruz's offense. I could see Cruz tiring Aldo out. Henry on the other hand? Not so much, Cruz was fighting an uphill battle from the start and he couldn't make it happen.
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It's both. Cody's great footwork enabled him to always be in position and on balance, and that combined with head movement enabled him to clown Cruz.
Obviously it's more evident in the whole fight, these were just the only gifs I could find.
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Regarding your second paragraph, I think we see it the same way - just randomly shuffling around like I said
On the first paragraph I don't necessarily disagree, Cody was a bad style matchup and very good and focused that night. But these observations aren't only post Cody, this was obvious to me pre Cody, and why Cody would win.
Let's just say, if Cruz fought more fighters who weren't uber manlets, and had Cody's skill, talent, and boxing background (which footwork is a big part of) I think we'd see plenty more "bad style matchups".
People tend to like style over substance, and are fooled into thinking whackiness in the ring is more effective than it is, especially when it works against lower tier opposition.
The reality is a good solid meat and potatoes fighter like Yan is hard to beat, and will expose random whackiness 99% of the time. A bit like Hamed against Barrera. That shitty random style he'd made a career out of was horribly exposed against some good old basic boxing - solid footwork and a jab.
People literally thought Conor's "next level footwork" would trouble and confuse Floyd. When it came down to it, it looked like this.
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Well, even his knees couldnt handle his footwork.
I'm always been hesitant on Cejudo given his hit or miss gameplanning. I think he clearly lost the MM rematch, but what concerned me more was his first round or two again Moraes, where he just sat at range and got kicked to pieces before charging forward in a straight line. I suspect that's a coaching problem, given Paulo Costa had the same issue against Izzy.
But I do agree that if anything, Cejudo's athleticism is a tremendous ace in the hole, even in good divisions like BW.
