UFC 328 Fight Analyst Care Package
Joshua Van, Sean Strickland, Khamzat Chimaev, Sean Brady
Welcome back to the Movement Martials! Appreciate your patience with me as I’ve been planning a wedding in my absence (my own) and have had minimal time to come here and speak with you lovely people. No worries, as I still have many plans to bring you even better content throughout the remainder of this year. So thank you for sticking with me, and enjoy what I have on some of the most enigmatic fighters on the roster today fighting in the Dirty Jerz at UFC 328!
-Kick
Joshua Van
Who else would top this list off but one of the most exciting fighters of the generation? The new champion certainly didn’t get to prove himself over another crafty action champion in Pantoja, but thankfully Tatsuro Taira brings an analogous set of skills that Van has yet to deal with at this level. If you wanna see how he’s handled it in the past, check out this film room:
While his anti-grappling has been a treat thus far, his striking has always been the most eye catching part of his game. His pocket boxing in particular is just lush, and this video is a quick look into the how and why of it:
And I have a podcast with the lovely Phantom Punch Breakdowns where we break down the intricacies of his striking against gangly range moggers:
I think he’s got a good shot against Taira, but I was very impressed with the Japanese prospect in his last performance. Here’s hoping they make 100k as everyone hopes it should.
Sean Strickland
And the ever polarizing Sean Strickland. Whether through his mouth or his fighting style, everyone has something to say! No one can claim he’s the most exciting fighter out there, but I tend enjoy his fights all the same. In fact, I give him quite a good shot against Khamzat Chimaev this weekend, which you can read about more here:
Now if you want to get into the meat and potatoes of Strickland at his absolute best (or one step below, as he was just so varied in the Fluffy fight) I break down his sensational upset over Israel Adesanya, and why he had the perfect style to take him down:
Yet you can’t call me biased! As I have also written about how his monotony can get him in trouble:
Khamzat Chimaev
The man Strickland is looking to wreste the title from: Khamzat Chimaev. A bright spot for Strickland in this fight is that Chimaev had a lot of trouble dealing with Usman’s job after he survived the first:
Yet the Chechen is an enigma, as his general strategy always appears to be the same, but it expresses itself in an innumerable amount of ways through his fights (Quick finishes, stand and bang with Gilbert, can’t finish and can’t deal with the jab with Kamaru, Position-Maxxing vs. DDP, etc). His last performance solidified his mystique, as the ‘Grappling Conor McGregor’ came out with a fairly boring fight, but showed some spectacular tricks nonetheless:
An interesting fight, and one with two fairly obvious outcomes, that also seem to have just as likely a chance to happen in either direction.
Sean Brady
I do quite like Sean Brady’s hulking technical grappling, but I’ve only written about him in any depth as a case study against the brilliance of Islam Makhachev on the same night, at a card I was fortunate enough to attend in person with the mystical Thick himself:
This fight card is full of lowkey bangers, and though I’d love to make content for them all, let me know what fight you’re most excited to see and which one you think I’ll be making a video about come next week. Have a blessed week friends, and enjoy the violene!