Why hasnt the rest of team alpha male adopted tj. dillashaws style of striking? It seems to be highly effective yet watching other fighters from tam they dont have that kind of movement.
Not everyone can sustain moving that much throughout a fight unless you are Dominick Cruz. He's seemed to master the switching from Orthodox to Southpaw to a T. He can throw about every strike from either stance which makes him extremely hard to prepare for. Combine that with his beast wrestling the dude is nightmare for about anyone.
T.J. has a slightly different body type than the rest of the high level TAM males fighters. Although they're all pretty heavily muscled, TJ is slimmer in his physique while the rest are bulgy and stocky with their physiques. It's hard to move around like TJ does when you're as stocky as Chad Mendes is. It's like telling Alistair to start moving like Stipe Miocic.
Probably cuz TJ's striking was green enough for Bang to work with him from the ground up and really mould him how he wanted. Plus he obviously has awesome athletiscm and reflexes
But TJ did one thing vastly better than Cruz, do all that with power. I always believed Cruz was going to out box Barao for most of their fight, but Cruz wouldn't hurt him and will make a mistake at somepoint and get finished. TJ took the best of Cruz but actually had good power. For a Barao fan like myself he is a problem.
Most of them can only strike effectively from one stance. Hell, Faber doesn't even have a good left hook for when he can't trick people into running into his overhand. Furthermore, they (for whatever reason) do not use a key technique in TJ's newly developed striking that is also employed by Eddie Alvarez, who refers to it as "the dart". What is the dart? The dart (or angling straight) is simply a rear straight thrown while stepping out with the lead foot-- left from orthodox, right from southpaw. From here, the rear foot is drawn up underneath oneself, and what was originally your lead foot is kicked out to form the rear leg of what is now the opposite stance. This technique is truly devilish because not only does it allow you to surprise the opponent with a fast stinging blow, it also provides a means to easily switch stances (the benefits of which are numerous), and allows you to move at an angle while you are striking, thereby forcing your opponent to either turn to compensate or disengage and back away to avoid getting shellacked. Rewatch TJ's fights with Mike Easton and Barao with this technique in mind. You will see it everywhere, and it's usually responsible for most of the angles he manages to take. Furthermore, TJ will throw his angling straight from both stances, not one or the other, which allows him to bewilder opponents by constantly changing not only his stance, but also the direction that he is moving in, despite engaging with an otherwise relatively simple offense.
Not necessarily. Cruz's footwork is noticeably more effective as a form of defense than as a means of setting up his offense.
