Things I Liked from UFC 292

Sugar Show, Chito's Jab, and Weilimagomedov

Everyone is talking about Sean O’Malley, and rightly so. I unfortunately missed the card live but kept off social media to maintain my surprise for the main event, and surprised I was.

Stogie Sean

There’s not much to say about the knockout itself. It’s beautiful, mirrors McGregor’s knockout of Aldo, and came with some accurately placed ground and pound where O’Malley intelligently passed Aljo’s guard to keep him still enough to land. Aljo had a somewhat strange gameplan in that he didn’t pressure essentially the entire first round, and then decided to lay it on right as the second started. Aljo had such blistering success against Sandhagen because he came out like a bull in a china shop at the opening bell. He overwhelmed Sandhagen before he could get any reads and get comfortable. With O’Malley, he took a similar approach as he did in the Yan fight: safely banking the first round and laying on the pressure later.

Disclaimer: The video clips included in this article are not owned by the author. They are included for educational purposes only to illustrate key moments in the fighter’s career and demonstrate aspects of mixed martial arts techniques and strategies. All rights to the video content belong to their respective owners.

Though I am a mere armchair analyst at this stage in my athletic career, I don’t think this was the best approach against O’Malley. Only having one fight against elite competition, in his first five-round fight, let alone title fight, Aljo essentially gave O’Malley the first round to settle into the situation and become comfortable. Though scary, Aljo might have been better off intelligently pressuring and leveraging his grappling advantage earlier. If he forced him to the fence early, he might have brought out some of O’Malley’s less favorable grappling tendencies:

https://twitter.com/MVMNTMartials/status/1691832357773332542?s=20

O’Malley, as we saw in this fight, is a DEVASTATING hitter at bantamweight. When you first think of the best way to deal with a huge hitter, many think you should pot shot them from the outside and stay safe for five rounds, hoping your moment comes when you can get the job done.

This is stupid though.

Why would you give a huge hitter 25 minutes to knock you the fuck out? Though initially scary, you should put the pressure on them early and try to get the monster out of there as soon as possible. Give them as little time as possible to get their shots off and bring them to choppy waters. Even if you don’t finish them, you might tire them out enough in the first that a finish can come easier in the second with their power drained.

It does not give me hope that if they were to rematch, Aljo seems to have it in his head that he has to make it boring for 25 minutes (about halfway through the interview he talks about this). The main reason he got knocked out is that he was so obvious with his decision to pressure after O’Malley had the whole first round to circle and get comfortable.

Sean O’Malley was not the only standout. Zhang Weili showed that she can continue to improve in an all-time ass-whooping in WMMA, and Chito Vera added a key tool to his game that can allow him to win rounds more consistently, rather than relying upon being a damage sponge with excellent power and timing.

Weili the Wrestler

Weili!

Take Downs

Weili showed off a diverse takedown game against Lemos. Lemos was game the whole fight with a few great counter shots and NINJA CHOKE attempts (silly Rogan and DC, D’Arces are for kids), but Zhang’s takedowns, devastating top game, and clinch were too much to bear for the Brazilian. The overwhelming offensive force in Zhang stunted any activity from Lemos. Though I adored her clinch work, and side kicks to keep distance and activity, her array of takedowns were the real standouts of her performance.

“What? This is a kick, not a takedown!” You say. Fool. Lemos is on the ground! She has been taken down! In all honestly though, a cut kick like this is a great tool for getting the takedown if you are good at catching kicks, but not as refined in your clinch and takedown game. If you want to play to your strengths, throw a kick at the opponents standing leg as you catch their kick, and they will almost assuredly be heading to the ground. If you can maintain control of the leg it makes guard passing that much easier. Zhang also takes advantage of Lemos’ high guard with one of my favorite moves: The Underpass. Simply roll the opponent over their own shoulders by bringing their legs to the ground. Rather than trying to pass guard, you can now work from top turtle to implement ground and pound, front headlock chokes, or go right to the back.

Lemos’ right hand is one of her best and most powerful punches, and she caught Zhang with it a couple of times throughout this fight. Weili throws a left hooks across the top of it and converts it into a single outside collar tie (Charles Oliveira loves converting his left hooks into collar ties as well, watch the Gaethje fight). Once she has converted the striking exchange into a grappling one, she works towards the body lock with a deep underhook. Zhang then beautifully steps to the outside of her underhook, and trips Lemos’ outside leg to bring her to the ground. Sweeping out the leg with this trip has the added benefit of bringing you into side control rather than dealing with their guard.

Zhang shows off a portion of her excellent clinch striking in this exchange, maintaining control of one of Lemos’ arms and elbowing her with her free arm. This allows her to turn Lemos into the fence and drop down on the single leg. Rather than defending the single (grab an overhook, push the head, take the leg out from between their legs, and limp leg out), Lemos goes all in on attacking the front headlock. This allows Zhang to quite easily run the pipe and turn Lemos off the cage to prevent her from wall-walking, and Zhang conformably ends up in Lemos’ butterfly guard.

What a lovely entry. In the classic MMA tradition of the wrestle-boxer, power-punching Zhang throws an overhand right with Lemos. Though it lands cleanly, the intent was to use the momentum of throwing the overhand right to change levels into a double leg. You can see that as her punch is still on Lemos’ face, her left hand has already begun wrapping around her waist. This gives her a perfect entry for the double as Lemos’ had thrown a committed shot and her head was past her hips. Initially, Zhang drives with her knee posted outside Lemos’ to trip her. Once this fails, Zhang continues to drive and trips Lemos on the second attempt, completing her double right into side control. Notice Weili’s posture, her back is straight, forcing her shoulder right into Lemos’ gut. Your posture and driving through the take-down are everything when completing doubles. Having good back posture keeps you strong enough to resist their weight on top of you, and driving through keeps them on the defensive, reacting to your movement. Their constant adjustments will eventually pile up enough that success should come. This is one of my current problems in my own grappling. I have quick entries, but pause for too long on my knees and let my posture get broken down, meaning I usually end up in bottom turtle. Posture and drive, the keys to completing a double.

Surprised theres another strike? Though less reliable than a cut kick, knocking someone down brings the opponent down just like any other takedown. Beautiful right hand to sit her down off a kick, and bring the fight back into Zhang’s desired geography.

Another beautiful trip from Zhang. With an underhook on one side, she was able to lock her hands and trap Lemos’ arm on the other side. Though not the oft desired double unders, trapping the arm can work just as well, if not better, as the opponent now has one less tool to defend. Zhang cinched up the body lock over Lemos’ arm and drove her head through Lemos’ chin (beautiful head positioning), which was able to break her upright posture and take weight off the foot nearest to Zhang. Zhang then takes advantage of her bodylock and head positioning to spin Lemos around and over her knee, posted right against Lemos’ knee in the perfect position to carry her over. Zhang again executes this trip beautifully, turning Lemos away from the fence and ends up right in side control. Brilliant positional awareness by Zhang throughout this fight.

Underpass

This was after the cut kick shown earlier, the underpass is a great move when an opponent gets a high guard, and too high on their shoulders. It doesn’t take much to simply roll them over onto their knees if you can keep control of their ankles.

Zhang consistently took advantage of Lemos straightening out her legs after she employed some ground and pound. Rather than keep a tight guard close to the chest, or attempt to wrestle up, Zhang’s strikes made Lemos think “I need to keep distance from her”, so she would straighten her legs out. Lemos has essentially no power from this position except axe kicks from the bottom. By this point, Zhang easily rolls her over into bottom turtle, where she has a plethora of offensive opportunities.

Lemos looks incredibly uncomfortable here, trapped on the back of her head with an immense amount of pressure on her neck, making her an easy target for ground and pound. She attempted to open her guard up to re-establish it as Zhang was in side control, but she left it too open and yet again allowed Zhang to get the Underpass.

Zhang showcased a couple of other cool moments with her grappling. One of the most underutilized strikes from the top are knees to the body. Side control is the perfect position to throw these in, and you can put quite a lot of power behind them. Despite being caught in the ninja choke, Zhang gets a cradle hook on Lemos’ leg to turn her on her side, posture up, and start throwing some hellacious knees to her back/mid-section. While doing damage, it forces Lemos to do something to deal with the strikes rather than simply selling out on the choke. Lemos eventually continues to roll over and give up her back. Beautiful use of offense as defense by Zhang.

This was simply a nice back take from side turtle. Zhang’s grip on Lemos’ arm is enough to swing her over and though Zhang initially ends up on bottom without any hooks, her tight crank on Lemos’ upper body forces Lemos to keep posture with her legs raised. Zhang quite easily gets her hooks in because of this.

Chito’s Jab!

Marlon “Chito” Vera also showcased improvements in his overall approach to fighting. Say what you will about the scorecard, much of Munhoz’s “volume” didn’t land cleanly on Chito. He has great defense, head movement in the pocket, and an active high guard that keeps him safe. Munhoz was making it a great fight, but he was undeniably the more damaged man by the end. Aside from Chito’s insane durability, his jab was the key factor ensuring his victory.

Cheeba Chito

The primary criticism of Chito’s approach to fighting is that it is unreliable, which was exposed by Sandhagen. He has devastating power, a vast array of weapons, competency just about everywhere, and an incredible eye for an opening. He simply takes too long looking for it. Sandhagen didn’t give him this opportunity, instead overwhelming him with offense. Chito did not utilize any offense besides looking for a big moment. The jab is the PERFECT weapon (thanks Jason Perillo) as it can not only create openings, but keep Chito busy enough that when he does not find his moment, he can win on the scorecards anyway.

Jabs upon Jabs

The jab doesn’t even have to be authoritative at all times. Chito merely pokes Munhoz with the jab here to keep distance, and he can hide behind his shoulder as the jab goes up to defense against Munhoz’s offense.

Chito has great combos and straight hitting, and the jab is and always will be one of the best tools for leveraging that.

Again, the jab sets up Chito’s rear hand beautifully. Doubling up on the jab with a pause also keeps the pressure up and allows Chito to gauge Munhoz’s reaction to the jab. He moves backwards from the first jab? Great, he’ll do the same when I throw the second and the longer range rear hand should be able to catch him moving backwards.

Perfect example here of Chito doing something he rarely does throughout his recent run: Staying busy in between exchanges. If the opponent is doing anything, jab them. You will DO something. Learn a reaction, do some damage, rack up points on the judges scorecards, stay safe with a low risk attack (especially for someone as long as Chito in this weight class). The jab will almost always accomplish SOMETHING useful.

Munhoz capitalizes upon Chito’s sprawl by hitting him with a few good shots as he stands up. This sort of work in interstitial moments between phases was something Chito struggled with a lot against Sandhagen. Rather than let Munhoz continue to gain momentum, Chito pops a hard jab right in Munhoz’s face as he resets for the next exchange. Small., but perfect.

Chito lands a hard jab here, and it coaxes Munhoz into opening up. Chito doesn’t capitalize upon is here, but this lets him know how Munhoz will react if he stings him with the jab. Due to Chito’s active high guard, head movement, and lateral movement, none of Munhoz’s offense is able to land clean. Chito’s jab lets Munhoz know that the initiative is on HIM to close the distance, and if he doesn’t, Chito’s jab will simply land with abandon.

Munhoz’s most consistent weapon throughout his career is the calf kick or low-low kick. The jab and the calf-kick play off eachother, and are often used as counters to the other. The calf kick is one of the most used weapons in MMA today, and its no surprise that we are seeing fighters’ jabs improve as a result. Chito perfectly counters Munhoz’s low kick with the jab here, knocking his head back a fair bit.

Chito lands a good jab here, and is now able to capitalize upon Munhoz’s tendency to rush in after being hit with the jab. Rather than rely on defense, he starts throwing more straight shots after the counter him. Though nothing really landed clean here, it let Pedro know the consequences of running in after the jab.

Chito’s jab really was versatile this fight. Chito feinted the jab to get Munhoz moving back, and throws a beautiful 2-body hook-2- high kick combo. Body shot was the only one to really land clean, but Chito is now building upon his own offense throughout the fight rather than solely waiting for counters based on his opponent’s actions. Its a slight change, but enough of one for Chito to find more consistent success throughout his career. Just a little more activity and tactical refinement on such a gifted fighter can go a long way.

Again Chito counters Munhoz’s run in after the jab, landing a nice left hook over the top of Munhoz’s right hand lead. A lot of stance switching this fight, and good on Munhoz to recognize it and switch stances with Chito. Though I’m focusing on Chito’s improvements Munhoz really did look great in this fight as well and gives everyone he encounters a tough out (including winning the only round in his fight against the current champion). Two legends, impossible to finish.

Chito jabs with Munhoz here (I talk about the advantages of jabbing with someone in my Crawford article), and Chito’s superior length (and slight head movement / better angle) allows his jab to hit and Munhoz’s to miss. Munhoz also needs to step in to jab, and this makes Chito’s jab hit all the harder, wobbling him backwards.

Another two Power Jabs from Chito. First one sends him back, and then Chito perfectly hits him during a “reset” (see him wipe his eye to get settled), hitting him hard with the jab again.

Other Chito Looks

Chito’s front kick have always been nice, and chaining the high front kick feint into a snap kick to the body worked a charm. Similar to the O’Malley knockout, Munhoz starts to come in after the front snap kick, and Chito throws a nice rear hand counter over the top of Munhoz’s rear hand.

Despite the floppy looking rear hand punches, Chito keeps the outside angle to continue countering Munhoz as he tries to get offense off. Great positioning.

There was a lot to like from UFC 292, and many fighters making key improvements in their game. The bantamweight title picture has certainly become interesting, and Zhang is looking like a more versatile fighter by the day. Who’s improvements impressed you most, and what do you think you can incorporate into your game?