Rodriguez: endless tsunami of spinning head kicks, crescent kicks, spinning backfists and cartwheels

"all the while blocking similar attacks from “Bruce Leeroy” in the process."

Direct quotes from the Sherdog write up of last night's event. El Pantera showed some nice stuff and I'm not trying to argue that he didn't win or get the better of Caceres. But c'mon, no mention of whiffing at air with at least 75% of those head kicks or Bruce Leeroy slipping just out of reach for most of them?

Dude threw 100 head kicks, barely landed any and none of them seemed to hurt caceres. Hell, some his best offense were those manly foot stomps and oblique kicks.

 

Bu.. b..b.but he KO:d that other guy with a flying knee!

 

He has 10 fights give the guy a damn break.

 

I just want to see this happen in one of his fights

 

It's true most of those flashy kicks miss, they very rarely landed, most of the time Caceras didn't even need to block them, they were just hitting air. It was predictable and easy to read after round 1. The fight was sloppy imo. Rodriguez is still very raw, he needs a lot of time. that was a prelim fight, never a main event. Caceras has a losing record in UFC too.

 

He's only 19

 

I liked what I saw. He missed most of these crazy kicks, but he used them to pressure Caceres and he kept it up for nearly all five rounds, and at altitude.

Just because he crushed Fili, I didn't expect him to becone some cold-blooded finisher. Fight played out exactly as I thought it would.

 

Caceres did a very good job evading those attacks. Probably because he is unorthodox enough to understand Yair's style. He would connect more against most other opponents imo.
On the other hand, he clearly has a problem with leaping left hand strikes and kinda counts on his opponent moving back.

 

reminds me of Edgar punching air vs penn the first time and winning... lol

 

He's an exciting prospect, but this would be fucking funny. He can't rely on memekicks for the rest of his career.

 

Or Caceres did a good job avoiding those kicks because he spent a lot of time on his bike.

Overall I enjoyed the fight, but Yair did his best to engage. Hope he gets a top 10 opponent next.

 

UFC really tried to sell this Hype-Job, but failed miserably.

 

What? How?

If he can make a quick turnaround and be put on one of the Mexico cards, it would help a lot.

But how did they fail? He put on a great show, didn't get tired and won.. Wtf?

 

About time someone said it. There were quite a few times Bruce Leeroy put on his Kalib Starnes act. Which is why so many of the kicks missed at least in part.

 

I watch more for entertainment than technique lessons. Those are learned at the gym. Yair is great at what he does and it's impressive he still had the energy to keep doing it 5 rounds. He's so fluid it took him 10 minutes longer to drain than the majority of UFC roster.

 

It sounds silly because of Sage LOL, but this kid is only 23 years old with 9-10 fights. If he improves his boxing defense and boxing in the pocket he'll go very far. He comes from TKD which is why at the moment his hands are where he's lacking. Nothing he can't get better with.

 

Frankie has friends in the emirates

 

Exactly he had total disregard for the offense of Caceres. He threw more kicks than some guys throw punches o total strikes, of course they aren't all going to land.

The pressure from his kicking game is something I noticed. Caceres at very few points managed a consistent attack. He was on the back foot for almost the entire fight.

 

Leading up to the fight, during the fight and after the fight, he felt heavily pushed. Those people working in the van were working overtime.

 

Did you see the Moroz fight? Now THAT is swinging at air.