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Rafael dos Anjos ushered in a new era of his career at UFC on Fox 26. It was a thorough domination of former Welterweight champion, Robbie Lawler. After losing the Lightweight crown and dropping two straight fights, dos Anjos decided to forgo the draining weight cut and try his luck at Welterweight. His first fight against Tarec Saffiedine provided an impressive, if not slightly shaky, debut. The former champ cruised to a decisive victory over a skilled opponent. However, he left some questions about his cardio at the same time. With his victory over Lawler, dos Anjos has answered those questions. He has quickly forced himself into the elite at Welterweight.
Everyone familiar with dos Anjos and Lawler knew it was a match-up that promised a healthy dose of violence. Both men love to exchange in the pocket, throw combinations actively, and are comfortable defending punches while keeping themselves in range to fire back. The fight would undoubtedly provide an answer to the question of what happens when an irresistible force meets another irresistible force. However, few expected Robbie Lawler, the destroyer of men, taker of souls, to receive the lion’s share of that violence.
For the first time since his fight with Nate Diaz in 2014, dos Anjos was able to fight an opponent who spent the entire fight in a southpaw stance. As good as dos Anjos is in open guard engagements, fighting another southpaw gives dos Anjos full access to tools in his arsenal that are less prominent against an orthodox opponent, but no less sharp.
Almost as soon as the fight started, dos Anjos began blasting Lawler with low leg kicks, targeting the calf. Landing outside leg kicks on the thigh leaves the danger of riding up the leg if the opponent steps into them, which can expose the kicker to punches. Against a puncher like Lawler who would no doubt look to step in and counter, kicking the calf is a great way to mitigate that threat. Lawler has always had trouble dealing with kicks, making dos Anjos’ decision to establish the leg kicks early an even better one.
Due to Lawler’s reluctance to address the leg kicks early in the fight, dos Anjos was often able to slam them in with little setup. Here he demonstrates a particularly crafty setup. Dos Anjos rhythmically activates his hips, shifting weight back and forth between his feet and taking his head off the center-line. Lawler flicks out a jab, prompting dos Anjos to swat at it and slip over his rear hip. Lawler slips over his rear hip and prepares to fire off a straight left as he anticipates dos Anjos’ weight coming back over his lead leg. As dos Anjos transfers his weight back to his lead leg, he fires off a leg kick, interrupting Lawler’s straight, and takes his head off line to make it miss.
After getting his lead leg torn up throughout the first round, Lawler started defending the leg kicks more actively. He would turn his leg out slightly to catch the kick on his shin when dos Anjos fired. The advantage of this over lifting the leg to check is that it requires less of a weight commitment and can be executed even when caught in a compromising position with a heavy lead leg.
Lawler also dialled up the pressure after eating several leg kicks. At the beginning of the fight, Lawler was moving around at range, probing with his jab, and looking to draw dos Anjos onto him, but after tasting the kicks, Lawler began to move forward and push dos Anjos back to take away the kicks. When he wasn’t knocked off-balance by the kick, Lawler would often rush dos Anjos as he recovered and look to flurry with dos Anjos’ back to the cage.
While Lawler’s best moments in the fight came when he had dos Anjos’ back pinned against the fence, he found shockingly little success in the open. Dos Anjos’ defense was too strong for him to land consistently and find entries, and repeatedly having his leg punted out of stance didn’t help the matter. However, Lawler was able to trouble dos Anjos with his jab on several occasions.
Lawler found success snapping his jab out as dos Anjos attacked to break his rhythm. He also used a pawing jab effectively to occupy dos Anjos’ vision and push him back to the cage, where he could stand dos Anjos in place and put together flurries.
Ultimately, Lawler was largely unable to parlay his jab into further success because dos Anjos consistently countered it. He would land his own jab as Lawler threw, slip it and rip the body, or land hooks and overhands over top of it, but his most potent counter was the lead-leg body kick.
https://gfycat.com/UnsightlyGrandioseGoral
Dos Anjos would wait on the jab with his hands high and slightly extended, before cross-parrying the jab with his lead hand and taking a slight switch-step to land his lead-leg body kick. At first, he targeted the body with his shin, but when Lawler began keeping his rear elbow tight to block it, dos Anjos would instead aim with the ball of his foot, sneaking the kick in under Lawler’s elbow.
Continued here...
Follow me on twitter @RyanAWagMMA for more MMA analysis
Everyone familiar with dos Anjos and Lawler knew it was a match-up that promised a healthy dose of violence. Both men love to exchange in the pocket, throw combinations actively, and are comfortable defending punches while keeping themselves in range to fire back. The fight would undoubtedly provide an answer to the question of what happens when an irresistible force meets another irresistible force. However, few expected Robbie Lawler, the destroyer of men, taker of souls, to receive the lion’s share of that violence.
For the first time since his fight with Nate Diaz in 2014, dos Anjos was able to fight an opponent who spent the entire fight in a southpaw stance. As good as dos Anjos is in open guard engagements, fighting another southpaw gives dos Anjos full access to tools in his arsenal that are less prominent against an orthodox opponent, but no less sharp.
Almost as soon as the fight started, dos Anjos began blasting Lawler with low leg kicks, targeting the calf. Landing outside leg kicks on the thigh leaves the danger of riding up the leg if the opponent steps into them, which can expose the kicker to punches. Against a puncher like Lawler who would no doubt look to step in and counter, kicking the calf is a great way to mitigate that threat. Lawler has always had trouble dealing with kicks, making dos Anjos’ decision to establish the leg kicks early an even better one.
Due to Lawler’s reluctance to address the leg kicks early in the fight, dos Anjos was often able to slam them in with little setup. Here he demonstrates a particularly crafty setup. Dos Anjos rhythmically activates his hips, shifting weight back and forth between his feet and taking his head off the center-line. Lawler flicks out a jab, prompting dos Anjos to swat at it and slip over his rear hip. Lawler slips over his rear hip and prepares to fire off a straight left as he anticipates dos Anjos’ weight coming back over his lead leg. As dos Anjos transfers his weight back to his lead leg, he fires off a leg kick, interrupting Lawler’s straight, and takes his head off line to make it miss.
After getting his lead leg torn up throughout the first round, Lawler started defending the leg kicks more actively. He would turn his leg out slightly to catch the kick on his shin when dos Anjos fired. The advantage of this over lifting the leg to check is that it requires less of a weight commitment and can be executed even when caught in a compromising position with a heavy lead leg.
Lawler also dialled up the pressure after eating several leg kicks. At the beginning of the fight, Lawler was moving around at range, probing with his jab, and looking to draw dos Anjos onto him, but after tasting the kicks, Lawler began to move forward and push dos Anjos back to take away the kicks. When he wasn’t knocked off-balance by the kick, Lawler would often rush dos Anjos as he recovered and look to flurry with dos Anjos’ back to the cage.
While Lawler’s best moments in the fight came when he had dos Anjos’ back pinned against the fence, he found shockingly little success in the open. Dos Anjos’ defense was too strong for him to land consistently and find entries, and repeatedly having his leg punted out of stance didn’t help the matter. However, Lawler was able to trouble dos Anjos with his jab on several occasions.
Lawler found success snapping his jab out as dos Anjos attacked to break his rhythm. He also used a pawing jab effectively to occupy dos Anjos’ vision and push him back to the cage, where he could stand dos Anjos in place and put together flurries.
Ultimately, Lawler was largely unable to parlay his jab into further success because dos Anjos consistently countered it. He would land his own jab as Lawler threw, slip it and rip the body, or land hooks and overhands over top of it, but his most potent counter was the lead-leg body kick.
https://gfycat.com/UnsightlyGrandioseGoral
Dos Anjos would wait on the jab with his hands high and slightly extended, before cross-parrying the jab with his lead hand and taking a slight switch-step to land his lead-leg body kick. At first, he targeted the body with his shin, but when Lawler began keeping his rear elbow tight to block it, dos Anjos would instead aim with the ball of his foot, sneaking the kick in under Lawler’s elbow.
Continued here...
Follow me on twitter @RyanAWagMMA for more MMA analysis
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