What could Rakic have done to win the third round?

[bng]

not having a schizo corner telling him he is 2-0 into the 3rd would already be a huge advantage and could give him solid chances

 

[Spath]

I think he very comfortable being the hammer but doesn't react well to adversity. If his athletic ability doesnt overwhelm his opponent he shuts down and starts double guessing himself.

He ate everything that Ankalaev threw at him just fine, though. I think his game plan wasn’t good and/or working and he didn’t have much to fall back on.

The corner advice to stay safe in the third was a big mistake as well

 

[World eater]

People are shitting on his corner for bad advice but TBH, is there actually a path for Rakic to win round 3? He had no answer to Ankaleev's speed and the high kicks which won him round 1 already gassed him out. So it's not like he can spam them forever.

If you saw some of his previous fights, you know he was good at combos. Nothing flashy, but a 1-2 followed by a kick. He was just circling and throwing single shots, calf kicks and the occasional high kick. Thinking he was 2-0 going into the third was a huge corner mistake. He should have gone for broke at the risk of getting ko’d. Bad fight that lowered both fighters’ stock.

 

[Thesnake101]

He needed to take the center, bite down on his mouthpiece and be willing to take a shot inorder to land his own bigger one. Y'all pretending ank did something special in the third round one big shot or combination and Rakic could have had a 29-28.

While Ank didn't do anything special, I thought he did as good as you could when facing someone that's willing to circle away and back off from every engagement. Would've liked to see more variety in his punching, but I suppose I understand why he went to the well with the same strikes over and over - Rakic didn't punish him.

It does seem like it could have been winnable for Aleks, but maybe Ankalaev would've adjusted for an exchange in the pocket and gotten the better of that. Power seemed to be on Magomed's side which becomes a big factor in engagements like that.

Very disappointing performance for Rakic. Came into a title eliminator on a 2-fight losing streak and checked out halfway through.

 

[Petarito]

Very diassapointing performance from Rakic. He won again the 1st round and then fell into the trap of trying to play safe and win on points.

I think its time for him to change something. Now!

Perhaps change the coaches and camp

 

[Big Tuppy Hole]

He ate everything that Ankalaev threw at him just fine, though. I think his game plan wasn’t good and/or working and he didn’t have much to fall back on.

The corner advice to stay safe in the third was a big mistake as well

He ate everything because he was caught at the end of alot punchs. He doesn't have the resolve and gritt to bite down and go for it, he was happy to sit on the outside throw a kick and be outpointed.

 

[balkanbomber85]

Ive said it already many times, Rakic has some of the smallest ballz in the LHW + he is delusional.

I bet for this fight he will push the narrative that the fight could have gone either way and that he was just not lucky.

Dude, when you are on a 2 fight loosing streak you dont play it safe at the end, especially not in a fight where neither of you had any significant knock down, control time on the ground etc. No matter what your coaches say about rounds won. Yes, outside of AD he could have lost via SD or even got a SD win, nobody except the religious troll factory would have screamed „Robbery“ (the same guys who say that they see how Rinat won the fight) but thats not the point. If you want to be champ you have to win like a champ, period!

I think he needs to go out of Vienna, leave his coaches and go to ATT or so where his sparring partners will not respect him and push him to his limits. Only in fire fightz sparring sessions against ruthless sparring partners he could forge a new pair of ballz. And also a real fight cardio, not a „in training I can go 20 round“ bs cardio.

 

[Lee Danger]

For such a big dude he didn't sit down on any of his punches at all. Neither of them looked good in that fight.

this, which happened in the Jiri's fight too.
his boxing (or his confidence in his boxing) is hugely upgradeable.

 

[Rio Ferdinand]

Be Poatan? lol

 

[Tweak896]

Rakic looked hesitant 2nd round in Jiri fight. Not sure if he has no cardio or it's a mental thing. It's not like nobody in the world could've beat Ankalaev in that 3rd round. He was so plodding and slow. Rakic just needed to turn it up.

 

[HHJ]

Ank had him figured out by then, so probably had to go for broke and try to force the KO even though Ank would probably knock him out.

Instead he kept moving and getting bashed around, and then tried to hold him against the cage the whole time, trying to coast based on corner advice

 

[HHJ]

Rakic looked hesitant 2nd round in Jiri fight. Not sure if he has no cardio or it's a mental thing. It's not like nobody in the world could've beat Ankalaev in that 3rd round. He was so plodding and slow. Rakic just needed to turn it up.

He doesnt like being pressured and put on the backfoot. His style is to move alot and when he gets crowded he starts to panic.

 

[Tweak896]

He doesnt like being pressured and put on the backfoot.

Good point. Probably takes him out of his game enough to where he doesn't have an answer. Cro cop didn't do well with pressure fighters back in the day too. Not sure what can be fixed for that.

 

[HHJ]

Very diassapointing performance from Rakic. He won again the 1st round and then fell into the trap of trying to play safe and win on points.

I think its time for him to change something. Now!

Perhaps change the coaches and camp

No thats not how it went. He won in the first rd but Ank figured him out in the 2nd. Stopped him from doing what he did in the first.

It was worse for him in rd 3 but I guess following corner advice THEN he tried to coast by clinching up.

Its his style. He needs room to use it but now we see two fights in a row where he gets crowded and less effective when he runs out of room.

 

[HHJ]

Good point. Probably takes him out of his game enough to where he doesn't have an answer. Cro cop didn't do well with pressure fighters back in the day too. Not sure what can be fixed for that.

When he kept getting hit sliding out against the cage it reminded me of JDS who had that same problem

 

[Tweak896]

When he kept getting hit sliding out against the cage it reminded me of JDS who had that same problem

Yeah that's another guy like it. JDS couldn't fix that part of his game too.

 

[DinousaurHeart]

Rakic wasted too much energy moving away and fighting off the back foot, then once gassed out he tried to wrestle and clinch (unsuccessfully).

He fought like he was scared to be in the pocket or throw more then one shot at a time, so he never had the initiative against a guy in Ank who will give it to you if you are willing to pressure.

He needed to make adjustments in the 2nd round and his corner gaslit him into thinking he was up 2-0 (delusional), so he went into even deeper survival mode in round 3.

Rakic might be shook to brawl after the Jiri KO, despite his imposing size he looks incredibly tentative to move forward, throw combinations, or sit down on shots.

Wack gameplan and tactics all fight long, thought kicking off the back foot would be enough.

He was already like this when he fought Jiri, it's just who he is. Dude thinks he's playing some sort of chess game instead of being in a fight...no sense of urgency at all.

 

[The_Renaissance]

I want to stop talking about Rakic like he's a contender to be honest. He's decent but that's about it, he was way too passive last night.

 

[HHJ]

not having a schizo corner telling him he is 2-0 into the 3rd would already be a huge advantage and could give him solid chances

Its funny he said that but it was really the opposite

"this guys got you figured out so you might as well go down swinging"

 

[TheMMAnalyst]

He was already like this when he fought Jiri, it's just who he is. Dude thinks he's playing some sort of chess game instead of being in a fight...no sense of urgency at all.

The thing is I kind of understood it logically against Jiri as a strategy - he's just going to try and brawl you and his poor defense just walks him into shots, plus he doesn't check leg kicks well at all. So in that fight Rakic was able to really chew his legs up with powerful kicks and avoid getting into extended pocket exchanges, where if he pushed forward it would've invited the fight Jiri wanted (but ended up getting anyways int he end).

Ank actually does have good technical kickboxing and can do a lot of things Jiri can't - he can check leg kicks pretty well, he lands his own leg kicks pretty well, he can patiently close distance with technical footwork to not just lunge into counters, he can slip and counter in the pocket.

I said it before in other threads - the way to beat Ank for most guys without the most elite of elite leg kicking games (Jan/Poatan) is to put him on the back foot. Ank doesn't want to brawl, he doesn't like when guys are blitzing him with combinations, he wants to patiently stalk you and back you up into the cage and use reads/feints to draw out attacks he can counter while making you tire yourself out from all the movement.

I guess Rakic's tools/tactics/strategy are truly limited, he tried to wrestle/clinch-fight at the end when he was gassed and out of ideas but it's ineffective against a quality wrestler/grappler like Ank so he just ended up stalling out the end of the fight instead of breaking into space and trying to blitz and actually sit down to punch with power.

Maybe Rakic just doesn't have those tools (ability to throw in combination or sit down on his power shots) or the confidence (to push forward against a very tough and layered fighter in Ank), but that was the clear game plan to be implementing. Instead they were running away the entire fight spamming high-kicks and eating straight lefts thinking he was easily up 2 rounds. The first round was a toss-up honestly, he could've lost that one as well and been down 2-0 instead of up 2-0!

He's probably just who he is at this point and isn't going to change/evolve much. This was a fight he didn't deserve even, he was coming off of back-to-back #1 contender fights that he lost against Jan and Jiri, so they give him a third #1 contender fight against Ank and he does the exact same shit of fighting off the back foot spamming kicks. He probably won't ever get a chance to fight for a title now, and this was a good as opportunity as any to steal Ank's juice/spot and just leap-frog himself into contention.