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I figured I'd give a quick breakdown of Shlemenko's performance against Halsey, since I noticed some interesting things about the fight compared to his previous ones. It was a quick fight and a lot of people are just like, "Pfft, two words: Shlemenko sucked. That's the performance. Moving on." However, there's always way more to a fight than just that, even the 30-second ones like this. So, though the fight was quick, I figured I'd show some of what Shlemenko managed to improve upon in this fight, what he didn't improve upon much and what he didn't do that well. To save space, I'll just spoiler it.
First off, most of the problems Alexander's faced in his career have been because of his sloppy footwork and foot positioning (whether it's standing in the pocket all the time, keeping his lead foot on the inside of his orthodox opponents as he throws his left hands, or squaring up his feet, positioning's been a problem for Alex), and cuz' he drops his hands mid-combination. The second Brett Cooper fight showcased each of these problems, as Shlemenko's poor foot positioning combined with his hands dropping mid-combination allowed Cooper to rock Shlemenko twice in the first two rounds (but I digress). In this fight, however, Shlemenko had managed to show some nice improvements to his footwork, however brief the moments of striking were. Shlemenko's normal footwork-acumen is built off of either sauntering forward, jumping back quickly when his opponents started firing shots, or just standing still, all of which, needless to say, made his movement look very sloppy and showcased his loose understanding of distance. His fight with Brennan Ward showcased all three of these things. He was able to get away with it mainly because of his combination punching, heavy hands, striking variety, and his iron chin.
Against Brandon Halsey, however, Alexander showed that he'd been improving his footwork. In the short time the fight was on the feet, Alex showed a much better understanding of distance (normally, Alex would stand in punching range for most of the fight and wouldn't realize he'd have to move until after his opponent had already started punching) and kept his movements very smooth and methodical rather than haphazard and sloppy. He also made probably the biggest and most basic improvement in his footwork that's southpaw 101: keep your lead-right foot on the outside of your opponent's.
Another thing Alex showed some improvements on, which ties into his footwork, was his boxing. It was very brief, but Shlemenko actually set up his strikes instead of just starting his combination while rushing forward, and he showed a new skill he hadn't used before: feinting. In the only striking exchange in the fight, you can see what happened: first, Shlemenko moved into punching range and, rather than take a giant, powerful step forward combined with a powerful left straight (as he usually did; not that there's anything wrong with stepping into powerful punches, but it's not the best thing to do when you're trying to enter range), he smoothly transitioned into punching range and threw two feint jabs (and stepped his lead foot on the outside of Halsey's, as I mentioned before) and, when Halsey's guard went up, Shlemenko threw a hook that skimmed Halsey's midsection and followed it up with two more short-range punches (it looked like another one of them mighta skimmed Halsey's head, but whatevs). Here's some screencaps of it:
Shlemenko feints a couple of jabs to raise Halsey's guard (exposing his body) while stepping his right foot to the outside--
-- then steps into- and lands the hook to the body.
This's where Storm's old habits showed up again, however, and it's what cost him the fight. As he was throwing his combination at Halsey, he steps forward slightly and leaves himself squared up with Halsey as he shoots in for a double-leg. Funfact: squaring up with your opponents is [almost] never a good idea; it leaves you unable to produce much power in your strikes, makes you a larger target and leaves you in a very unbalanced position.
Halsey didn't get it as Shlemenko immediately got an underhook on Halsey's left side and started to sprawl, which showed that Shlemenko had been working on his wrasslin', but then Brandon shifts to a single-leg then moves himself up to hold onto Shlemenko's chest. Shlemenko then hops backward and tries to spin around-- perhaps trying to put himself in a reverse bear-hug position, which, by the way, Alex has shown a lot of success in getting out of compared to working from the ground-- but Halsey's on to his plan and shifts his weight while still holding onto Storm's leg and takes him down, landing on Alexander's back. Here, Halsey grabs hold of an over-under on Shlemenko's back, Alex thinks he's trying to control him (since Halsey hadn't tried to get any hooks in right away) and uses the opportunity to try and stand up, but Halsey quickly shifts to a rear-choke, gets his hooks in afterwards and finishes Storm.
That's where everyone's been saying that Shlemenko has no submission defense, but Halsey was able to lock in the choke, not just cuz' Shlemenko's ground game would benefit from improvements, but cuz' he was able to use his combination of wrestling and grappling to catch Shlemenko off-guard and finish him. It's an example of Halsey being the "thinking fighter" that he's been getting a reputation for. That, combined with his gigantic arm strength, made almost any defense to be had once he locked it in moot-- not just by Shlemenko, but by anyone. To Shlemenko's credit, he was doing a correct defense against a rear-choke (going two-on-one with the other hand), but there's not much to be done once someone with the strength of Halsey can lock in a rear-choke like that.
Also, cutting an extra 15-pounds isn't gonna fix any of this. Too many people look for that to be the one-stop fix-all solution for a fighter's problems that it's not. Shlemenko's got a surprising amount of physical strength and you can count on one hand the amount of times that he's ever been manhandled- or struggled in his career because of a bigger, stronger opponent rather than because he had holes in his striking and grappling game that they capitalized on, and you'd probably not make it to three if you did that. There's also the thing with Koreshkov-- you know he's Shlemenko's student and Koreshkov's called Alexander his hero before. I doubt he's gonna risk hurting his student's career just to benefit his own.
Against Brandon Halsey, however, Alexander showed that he'd been improving his footwork. In the short time the fight was on the feet, Alex showed a much better understanding of distance (normally, Alex would stand in punching range for most of the fight and wouldn't realize he'd have to move until after his opponent had already started punching) and kept his movements very smooth and methodical rather than haphazard and sloppy. He also made probably the biggest and most basic improvement in his footwork that's southpaw 101: keep your lead-right foot on the outside of your opponent's.
Another thing Alex showed some improvements on, which ties into his footwork, was his boxing. It was very brief, but Shlemenko actually set up his strikes instead of just starting his combination while rushing forward, and he showed a new skill he hadn't used before: feinting. In the only striking exchange in the fight, you can see what happened: first, Shlemenko moved into punching range and, rather than take a giant, powerful step forward combined with a powerful left straight (as he usually did; not that there's anything wrong with stepping into powerful punches, but it's not the best thing to do when you're trying to enter range), he smoothly transitioned into punching range and threw two feint jabs (and stepped his lead foot on the outside of Halsey's, as I mentioned before) and, when Halsey's guard went up, Shlemenko threw a hook that skimmed Halsey's midsection and followed it up with two more short-range punches (it looked like another one of them mighta skimmed Halsey's head, but whatevs). Here's some screencaps of it:
Shlemenko feints a couple of jabs to raise Halsey's guard (exposing his body) while stepping his right foot to the outside--
-- then steps into- and lands the hook to the body.
This's where Storm's old habits showed up again, however, and it's what cost him the fight. As he was throwing his combination at Halsey, he steps forward slightly and leaves himself squared up with Halsey as he shoots in for a double-leg. Funfact: squaring up with your opponents is [almost] never a good idea; it leaves you unable to produce much power in your strikes, makes you a larger target and leaves you in a very unbalanced position.
Halsey didn't get it as Shlemenko immediately got an underhook on Halsey's left side and started to sprawl, which showed that Shlemenko had been working on his wrasslin', but then Brandon shifts to a single-leg then moves himself up to hold onto Shlemenko's chest. Shlemenko then hops backward and tries to spin around-- perhaps trying to put himself in a reverse bear-hug position, which, by the way, Alex has shown a lot of success in getting out of compared to working from the ground-- but Halsey's on to his plan and shifts his weight while still holding onto Storm's leg and takes him down, landing on Alexander's back. Here, Halsey grabs hold of an over-under on Shlemenko's back, Alex thinks he's trying to control him (since Halsey hadn't tried to get any hooks in right away) and uses the opportunity to try and stand up, but Halsey quickly shifts to a rear-choke, gets his hooks in afterwards and finishes Storm.
That's where everyone's been saying that Shlemenko has no submission defense, but Halsey was able to lock in the choke, not just cuz' Shlemenko's ground game would benefit from improvements, but cuz' he was able to use his combination of wrestling and grappling to catch Shlemenko off-guard and finish him. It's an example of Halsey being the "thinking fighter" that he's been getting a reputation for. That, combined with his gigantic arm strength, made almost any defense to be had once he locked it in moot-- not just by Shlemenko, but by anyone. To Shlemenko's credit, he was doing a correct defense against a rear-choke (going two-on-one with the other hand), but there's not much to be done once someone with the strength of Halsey can lock in a rear-choke like that.
Also, cutting an extra 15-pounds isn't gonna fix any of this. Too many people look for that to be the one-stop fix-all solution for a fighter's problems that it's not. Shlemenko's got a surprising amount of physical strength and you can count on one hand the amount of times that he's ever been manhandled- or struggled in his career because of a bigger, stronger opponent rather than because he had holes in his striking and grappling game that they capitalized on, and you'd probably not make it to three if you did that. There's also the thing with Koreshkov-- you know he's Shlemenko's student and Koreshkov's called Alexander his hero before. I doubt he's gonna risk hurting his student's career just to benefit his own.
