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A friend asked me to analyze and score Yan/O'Malley rounds 1 and 3 and I enjoyed it so much I thought I would share with all my Sherbros
I really enjoy doing breakdowns of analyzing fights in moments of individual attacks - it really helps me better understand the nuances of scoring and gives greater insight into which shots were really landing and who was really in control of the fight.
When you don't pause/re-watch/document you are kind of doing the impossible of trying to interpret so many actions and compare against each other in real-time, which is basically a seemingly impossible task to do perfectly well, everyone is really just "guessing" what they think happened if they are being honest.
Since Round 2 is clear the only rounds to score in this fight were 1 and 3 - here is my breakdown of each round including:
-List of landed attacks and rating them light/medium/heavy
-Breakdown of attacks/stat analysis
-Round analysis
***for the sake of adding a "point-scoring" element I created an arbitrary system of 1 point for a light strike, 3 for a medium and 10 for a heavy strike - this is completely made-up just to become an interpretative data point, since it's impossible to actually assign points it's just a rough system to give us something else to gauge***
Please note - this is not a perfect system, we are all going to rate strikes differently and it's tough to tell even pausing/re-watching how clean/damaging some shots are. So this is just my perspective after multiple re-watches where I literally pause and rewind repeatedly after every sequence to focus on strike accuracy/damage and rate it to the best of my ability. You might see things differently; I'm just explaining my point of view based on my perception.
ROUND 1
Suga light push kick to knee (1)
Yan medium low-kick (3)
Suga glancing/light teep (1)
Yan medium low-kick (3)
Yan light low-kick (1)
Suga medium straight (3)
Yan medium body-kick (3)
Suga light low-kick (1)
Yan medium low-kick (3)
Suga medium straight (3)
Yan light body-kick (1)
Suga light push kick to knee (1)
Suga light low-kick (1)
Suga medium straight (3)
Yan medium body-kick (3)
Yan medium low-kick (3)
Suga medium jab (3)
Yan light knee to thigh (1)
Suga medium step-though cross (3)
Yan light low kick (1)
Suga light jab (1)
Yan medium overhand (3)
Yan medium push kick to knee (3)
Yan medium hook (3)
Yan glancing light hook (1)
Yan gets takedown lands 3 or 4 light strikes at best (let's call it 3)
Suga glancing straight (1)
Yan medium low kick (3)
Suga light body teep (1)
Suga glancing straight (1)
Yan light jab (1)
Yan glancing light low kick (1)
TOTAL STRIKES
SUGA
Light Kicks - 6
Light Punches - 3
Medium Punches - 5
Total Strikes = 14
Total Points = 24
YAN
Light Kicks - 5
Light Punches - 6
Medium Kicks - 8
Medium Punches - 2
Total Strikes = 21
Total Points = 40
FIGHT METRIC STATS
SUGA = 23 Significant Strikes > landed 14 and 5 were significantly damaging
YAN = 19 Significant Strikes > landed 21 and 10 were significantly damaging
ROUND ANALYSIS
Yan is very cautious this round, gives O'Malley a lot of respect and both guys are using a lot of feints and trying to make reads, with O'Malley moving away and trying to get Yan to freeze in front of him to step in with punches while Yan is looking to freeze O'Malley to close distance and land low kick/body kicks primarily. Yan is clearly the far better/harder kicker and is landing those with much more authority, while O'Malley has a better feel for the boxing range early. After Yan gets a takedown late and O'Malley gets up it looks like the fight is picking up and Yan has a better feel for the range, he slips like a 7-8 punch combo from O'Malley and is starting to pressure effectively causing O'Malley to shoot a takedown at the close of the round.
Re-Watching this round it is literally impossible for me to give the round to O'Malley. He gets out-struck 21-14 (3:2) and in medium strikes 10-5 (2:1), is being walked down the entire round, the best strike of the round to me is the body kick Yan lands against the fence in the early/middle part of the round. O'Malley's offense is pretty much limited to his hands, he can't kick nearly as well as Yan and takes a lot of solid early damage to his legs.
I think this round is kind of reflective to the inherent biases judges have towards punches/head strikes - O'Malley lands 8 punches to the head (5 medium/3 light) and Yan lands 8 punches to the head (2 medium/6 light) so in terms of punches to the head O'Malley does better. But when we factor in the kicks O'Malley lands only 6 light kicks (2 of which are push kicks to knee which barely do any damage) while Yan lands 13 kicks (8 medium/5 light) some of which are really clean and powerful.
Never once does Yan look stunned or hurt and he is the aggressor the entire round. It's just shady to be honest, this isn't like Sterling/Yan 2 where the first round is so low-volume and tentative that it really comes down to interpreting one or two strikes a certain way. This is beyond clear - Yan is coming forward the whole round, out-landing his opponent 3:2, and landing the bigger strikes from those 2:1. He also gets the only takedown/extended control in the round even if it only lasts under a minute.
Clear round for Yan for me.
ROUND 3
Suga glancing body kick (1)
Suga light jab (1)
Yan light glancing hook (1)
Yan medium jumping switch kick > partially blocked (3)
Suga light body teep (1)
Suga medium low kick (3)
Suga light jab (1)
Yan glancing light low kick (1)
Suga light low kick (1)
Suga light push kick to knee (1)
Yan medium body kick (3)
Yan glancing straight to the body (1)
Suga light jab (1)
Suga light jab (1)
Suga light low kick (1)
Yan glancing light uppercut (1)
Yan glancing light hook (1)
Suga heavy step knee (10) > cuts Yan
Suga medium hook (3)
Suga medium partially blocked head kick (3)
Suga throws a three punch combination which is all partially blocked but does get through, calling it 3 light strikes (3)
Suga medium knee (3) > this could've been devastating but comes up too high so doesn't go directly into Yan's head, instead it goes up past it but definitely does damage
Yan medium body kick (3)
Yan heavy hook (10)
Yan medium left (3)
Suga light jab (1)
Suga medium straight (3)
Yan heavy counter hook (10)
Suga light jab (1)
Yan medium low kick (3)
Suga light jab (1)
Suga heavy head-kick (10) > even though partially block it clearly hurts Yan and causes him to decide to shoot
Suga lands 3 light elbows from the clinch (3)
Yan lands 3 light clinch strikes (3)
Suga light jab (1)
Suga medium straight (3)
Suga medium straight (3)
Yan heavy left counter (10)
Yan medium knee to the thigh (3)
Suga light teep to the body (1)
Suga light jab (1)
Suga light jab (1)
Yan medium leg kick (3)
Yan lands five light ground strikes from top position to close the round (5)
TOTAL STRIKES
SUGA
Light Kicks - 6
Light Punches - 16
Medium Kicks - 3
Medium Punches - 4
Heavy Kicks - 2
Heavy Punches - 0
Total Strikes = 31
Total Points = 63
YAN
Light Kicks - 1
Light Punches - 12
Medium Kicks - 6
Medium Punches - 2
Heavy Kicks - 0
Heavy Punches - 3
Total Strikes = 24
Total Points = 67
FIGHT METRIC STATS
SUGA = 40 significant strikes/46 total strikes > only landed 31 strikes in total, with 7 medium attacks and 2 heavy attacks
YAN = 15 significant strikes/24 total strikes > this is actually pretty accurate for once, landed 24 total strikes with 8 medium attacks and 3 heavy attacks
ROUND ANALYSIS
This is a hell of a round, one of the best of the year! Even if you hate Suga as a personality (which I do) you've gotta respect his toughness and skills. He makes this an insane back and forth round by coming out hot and putting a lot of volume in front of Yan and is doing a great job keeping him at the edge of range.
Ironically it's when he cuts/hurts Yan that he lets him back in the fight - it's kind of a replay of the second round where he stuns Yan with a heavy punch and thinks he can just walk in and lace him again and eats a massive counter. Yan being so short means he wants to trap you against the cage or get you to walk in on him if you have a reach advantage, he has a lot of problems with getting O'Malley to attack him or sit against the cage so there is a lot of range-finding techniques and feints needed to close the space to set-up shots. Once Suga hurts Yan he gets laced by a ridiculous two-piece combination that is absolutely brutal and shows a hell of chin. Yan really only gets the looks he really wants after Suga tags him clean and thinks he can build on it, the range/reach advantage is so huge that in a 3 round fight Suga can use all his gas tank on defensive movement to negate these situations more. If this went 2 more rounds I don't think Suga would be able to stay on his bicycle; he took a really smart approach and banked on forcing Yan to lead and not get stuck against the fence and it worked really well at times.
Looking at the stats O'Malley outworks and out-lands Yan and does comparative damage (7 medium/2 heavy vs. 8 medium/3 heavy). Does the extra 10 light strikes make up for an extra medium/heavy attack from Yan? It's really a matter of opinion and how you rate those strikes.
I scored the round for O'Malley originally and on rewatch I'm torn, I feel it could go either way but I do lean towards O'Malley since he had more sustained offense in spots and Yan wasn't able to really extend the sequences where he hurt O'Malley with counters. However, a lot of this had to do with O'Malley grabbing the cage/hooking the gloves to prevent takedowns, stop GnP, and also escape against the cage late.
But if we disregard the cheating it's a coin-flip round that kind of comes down to perception of damage; does getting cut from a clean knee to the face equal a huge counter hook that stuns you and makes you lose equilibrium and retreat? It's impossible distinction to make, I think however you score this round is fine and based on people's preference to score blood more heavily it's not surprising they went with O'Malley.
To me Yan definitely got robbed, he had two clear rounds and then a coin-flip round that leaned ever so slightly towards Suga. O'Malley over-performed and put on a great fight, so I think it's one of those situations where when someone exceeds the expectation they get more credit then they deserve. Most of us thought Yan would eventually break O'Malley and he didn't, he ate tons of huge shots to the legs/body/head and stayed competitive and even hurt Yan and won the last round. But that doesn't mean he didn't clearly lose the first round and it's not even really debatable.
Then when you take all the cheating into account, with the number of times he grabbed the cage/hooked the gloves/eye-poked O'Malley really deserved to lose this fight. It definitely pays to cheat if the UFC wants you to win lol.
I really enjoy doing breakdowns of analyzing fights in moments of individual attacks - it really helps me better understand the nuances of scoring and gives greater insight into which shots were really landing and who was really in control of the fight.
When you don't pause/re-watch/document you are kind of doing the impossible of trying to interpret so many actions and compare against each other in real-time, which is basically a seemingly impossible task to do perfectly well, everyone is really just "guessing" what they think happened if they are being honest.
Since Round 2 is clear the only rounds to score in this fight were 1 and 3 - here is my breakdown of each round including:
-List of landed attacks and rating them light/medium/heavy
-Breakdown of attacks/stat analysis
-Round analysis
***for the sake of adding a "point-scoring" element I created an arbitrary system of 1 point for a light strike, 3 for a medium and 10 for a heavy strike - this is completely made-up just to become an interpretative data point, since it's impossible to actually assign points it's just a rough system to give us something else to gauge***
Please note - this is not a perfect system, we are all going to rate strikes differently and it's tough to tell even pausing/re-watching how clean/damaging some shots are. So this is just my perspective after multiple re-watches where I literally pause and rewind repeatedly after every sequence to focus on strike accuracy/damage and rate it to the best of my ability. You might see things differently; I'm just explaining my point of view based on my perception.
ROUND 1
Suga light push kick to knee (1)
Yan medium low-kick (3)
Suga glancing/light teep (1)
Yan medium low-kick (3)
Yan light low-kick (1)
Suga medium straight (3)
Yan medium body-kick (3)
Suga light low-kick (1)
Yan medium low-kick (3)
Suga medium straight (3)
Yan light body-kick (1)
Suga light push kick to knee (1)
Suga light low-kick (1)
Suga medium straight (3)
Yan medium body-kick (3)
Yan medium low-kick (3)
Suga medium jab (3)
Yan light knee to thigh (1)
Suga medium step-though cross (3)
Yan light low kick (1)
Suga light jab (1)
Yan medium overhand (3)
Yan medium push kick to knee (3)
Yan medium hook (3)
Yan glancing light hook (1)
Yan gets takedown lands 3 or 4 light strikes at best (let's call it 3)
Suga glancing straight (1)
Yan medium low kick (3)
Suga light body teep (1)
Suga glancing straight (1)
Yan light jab (1)
Yan glancing light low kick (1)
TOTAL STRIKES
SUGA
Light Kicks - 6
Light Punches - 3
Medium Punches - 5
Total Strikes = 14
Total Points = 24
YAN
Light Kicks - 5
Light Punches - 6
Medium Kicks - 8
Medium Punches - 2
Total Strikes = 21
Total Points = 40
FIGHT METRIC STATS
SUGA = 23 Significant Strikes > landed 14 and 5 were significantly damaging
YAN = 19 Significant Strikes > landed 21 and 10 were significantly damaging
ROUND ANALYSIS
Yan is very cautious this round, gives O'Malley a lot of respect and both guys are using a lot of feints and trying to make reads, with O'Malley moving away and trying to get Yan to freeze in front of him to step in with punches while Yan is looking to freeze O'Malley to close distance and land low kick/body kicks primarily. Yan is clearly the far better/harder kicker and is landing those with much more authority, while O'Malley has a better feel for the boxing range early. After Yan gets a takedown late and O'Malley gets up it looks like the fight is picking up and Yan has a better feel for the range, he slips like a 7-8 punch combo from O'Malley and is starting to pressure effectively causing O'Malley to shoot a takedown at the close of the round.
Re-Watching this round it is literally impossible for me to give the round to O'Malley. He gets out-struck 21-14 (3:2) and in medium strikes 10-5 (2:1), is being walked down the entire round, the best strike of the round to me is the body kick Yan lands against the fence in the early/middle part of the round. O'Malley's offense is pretty much limited to his hands, he can't kick nearly as well as Yan and takes a lot of solid early damage to his legs.
I think this round is kind of reflective to the inherent biases judges have towards punches/head strikes - O'Malley lands 8 punches to the head (5 medium/3 light) and Yan lands 8 punches to the head (2 medium/6 light) so in terms of punches to the head O'Malley does better. But when we factor in the kicks O'Malley lands only 6 light kicks (2 of which are push kicks to knee which barely do any damage) while Yan lands 13 kicks (8 medium/5 light) some of which are really clean and powerful.
Never once does Yan look stunned or hurt and he is the aggressor the entire round. It's just shady to be honest, this isn't like Sterling/Yan 2 where the first round is so low-volume and tentative that it really comes down to interpreting one or two strikes a certain way. This is beyond clear - Yan is coming forward the whole round, out-landing his opponent 3:2, and landing the bigger strikes from those 2:1. He also gets the only takedown/extended control in the round even if it only lasts under a minute.
Clear round for Yan for me.
ROUND 3
Suga glancing body kick (1)
Suga light jab (1)
Yan light glancing hook (1)
Yan medium jumping switch kick > partially blocked (3)
Suga light body teep (1)
Suga medium low kick (3)
Suga light jab (1)
Yan glancing light low kick (1)
Suga light low kick (1)
Suga light push kick to knee (1)
Yan medium body kick (3)
Yan glancing straight to the body (1)
Suga light jab (1)
Suga light jab (1)
Suga light low kick (1)
Yan glancing light uppercut (1)
Yan glancing light hook (1)
Suga heavy step knee (10) > cuts Yan
Suga medium hook (3)
Suga medium partially blocked head kick (3)
Suga throws a three punch combination which is all partially blocked but does get through, calling it 3 light strikes (3)
Suga medium knee (3) > this could've been devastating but comes up too high so doesn't go directly into Yan's head, instead it goes up past it but definitely does damage
Yan medium body kick (3)
Yan heavy hook (10)
Yan medium left (3)
Suga light jab (1)
Suga medium straight (3)
Yan heavy counter hook (10)
Suga light jab (1)
Yan medium low kick (3)
Suga light jab (1)
Suga heavy head-kick (10) > even though partially block it clearly hurts Yan and causes him to decide to shoot
Suga lands 3 light elbows from the clinch (3)
Yan lands 3 light clinch strikes (3)
Suga light jab (1)
Suga medium straight (3)
Suga medium straight (3)
Yan heavy left counter (10)
Yan medium knee to the thigh (3)
Suga light teep to the body (1)
Suga light jab (1)
Suga light jab (1)
Yan medium leg kick (3)
Yan lands five light ground strikes from top position to close the round (5)
TOTAL STRIKES
SUGA
Light Kicks - 6
Light Punches - 16
Medium Kicks - 3
Medium Punches - 4
Heavy Kicks - 2
Heavy Punches - 0
Total Strikes = 31
Total Points = 63
YAN
Light Kicks - 1
Light Punches - 12
Medium Kicks - 6
Medium Punches - 2
Heavy Kicks - 0
Heavy Punches - 3
Total Strikes = 24
Total Points = 67
FIGHT METRIC STATS
SUGA = 40 significant strikes/46 total strikes > only landed 31 strikes in total, with 7 medium attacks and 2 heavy attacks
YAN = 15 significant strikes/24 total strikes > this is actually pretty accurate for once, landed 24 total strikes with 8 medium attacks and 3 heavy attacks
ROUND ANALYSIS
This is a hell of a round, one of the best of the year! Even if you hate Suga as a personality (which I do) you've gotta respect his toughness and skills. He makes this an insane back and forth round by coming out hot and putting a lot of volume in front of Yan and is doing a great job keeping him at the edge of range.
Ironically it's when he cuts/hurts Yan that he lets him back in the fight - it's kind of a replay of the second round where he stuns Yan with a heavy punch and thinks he can just walk in and lace him again and eats a massive counter. Yan being so short means he wants to trap you against the cage or get you to walk in on him if you have a reach advantage, he has a lot of problems with getting O'Malley to attack him or sit against the cage so there is a lot of range-finding techniques and feints needed to close the space to set-up shots. Once Suga hurts Yan he gets laced by a ridiculous two-piece combination that is absolutely brutal and shows a hell of chin. Yan really only gets the looks he really wants after Suga tags him clean and thinks he can build on it, the range/reach advantage is so huge that in a 3 round fight Suga can use all his gas tank on defensive movement to negate these situations more. If this went 2 more rounds I don't think Suga would be able to stay on his bicycle; he took a really smart approach and banked on forcing Yan to lead and not get stuck against the fence and it worked really well at times.
Looking at the stats O'Malley outworks and out-lands Yan and does comparative damage (7 medium/2 heavy vs. 8 medium/3 heavy). Does the extra 10 light strikes make up for an extra medium/heavy attack from Yan? It's really a matter of opinion and how you rate those strikes.
I scored the round for O'Malley originally and on rewatch I'm torn, I feel it could go either way but I do lean towards O'Malley since he had more sustained offense in spots and Yan wasn't able to really extend the sequences where he hurt O'Malley with counters. However, a lot of this had to do with O'Malley grabbing the cage/hooking the gloves to prevent takedowns, stop GnP, and also escape against the cage late.
But if we disregard the cheating it's a coin-flip round that kind of comes down to perception of damage; does getting cut from a clean knee to the face equal a huge counter hook that stuns you and makes you lose equilibrium and retreat? It's impossible distinction to make, I think however you score this round is fine and based on people's preference to score blood more heavily it's not surprising they went with O'Malley.
To me Yan definitely got robbed, he had two clear rounds and then a coin-flip round that leaned ever so slightly towards Suga. O'Malley over-performed and put on a great fight, so I think it's one of those situations where when someone exceeds the expectation they get more credit then they deserve. Most of us thought Yan would eventually break O'Malley and he didn't, he ate tons of huge shots to the legs/body/head and stayed competitive and even hurt Yan and won the last round. But that doesn't mean he didn't clearly lose the first round and it's not even really debatable.
Then when you take all the cheating into account, with the number of times he grabbed the cage/hooked the gloves/eye-poked O'Malley really deserved to lose this fight. It definitely pays to cheat if the UFC wants you to win lol.
