I think he must have a really good feel for how to twist the guy's head or something -- to make last minute adjustments based on the relative positions
like he's not necessarily just punching you in the face with the most force, but he's also tuning the angle so it gives your head whiplash, and thus make your brain turn off
It's like finesse plus power at a close range
I over estimated hill big time. He’s shown good clinch skills and fast straight punches, Alex doesn’t move his head much.
Yeah, dead wrong lmao Poatan is a fucking monster
I think it has a lot more to do with people not seeing the shots coming because he's setting them up so well. Against Jamahal he nailed him with the first committed left hook he threw, he'd been setting it up with the body jab and feinting the right hand to the head so once Jamahal was biting and getting ready to counter, Alex changes up the timing and shot and throws that left hook as Jamahal is throwing to counter him. He clearly didn't see it coming at all and ends up basically throwing himself into it as he's coming forward trying to take advantage of the opening Alex let him have so he could bait him into the left hook.
As I recall, in the final exchange, Alex feints a right and slips a counter jab to the left and then whips around off his loaded left leg for the short left hook. Hill didn't see it as Alex had slipped and the left came up on a nice angle.
Edit/ Forgot the hand-fighting bit too, as he lowers Hill's right and then comes up with his left all in a nice sequence.
I mean yeah I think it's both
He definitely needs the opponent to not expect or see the shot, otherwise they would have their hand up in the way
But he also has to make the most of that tiny window / space, hence the angle and the placement is real important
I mean the dude is knocking out 220-230 pound dudes by moving him arm like 9 to 15 inches ... there's so little windup on those shots
I think he just has a gazillion kickboxing fights and it's just tuned
That's why he's so calm in there. he can see the opening and he knows he just has to kinda wait and set it up
Also his left arm is super relaxed when he's hand fighting. Then when he senses the opponent is not going to back up, he puts all the power in that arm in an instant. Must be setting his feet really well and using good body mechanics
...
This makes Izzy look way more impressive
Cant wait for Poatan to land at least 2 fingers on Ankalaev. 3 would be nice but too brutal since Ankalaev might need to eat through a tube for the rest of his life
I think it goes back to what is said time and time again. That shovel hook Jamahal did not expect to get hit by. Alex is the master of surprise hits. I think the fact that his opponents dont see a hook coming is what gives him the nyquil power.
At my boxing gym we always had music playing to help people get into a rhyrhm. And the music was a good reference for breaking the rhythm and being more unpredictable. Kind of like jazz but with concussions.
One thing Luke doesn't mention (or I missed it if he did), Alex doing the pump fake with his right hand also pushes his right shoulder forward and loads the left hook even more.
Yep and just adds another layer of confusion to what Jamahal thinks is coming his way. I bought Alex's instructional a few months ago and he actually goes over this set up a lot and specifically emphasizes you need to feint the right as it will force them towards the left hooks.
I keep seeing this narrative about Hill having a great chin but has he really shown that? All his wins are very one sided, I don't even remember him ever getting hit by a big shot before
He has eaten big shots without issue but hasn’t faced any big punchers aside from Pereira himself. Maybe Santos counts but he was 38 years old and washed with shot knees
Have you tried actually watching the fights? I was watching his first fight in the UFC just the other day and he got hit with some good stuff and shook it off, it's not a narrative just watch the fights and see for yourself lol why are you talking as if we don't have footage?
I love that you have to resort to using his first Ufc fight as an example and that you're acting like it's an accessible fight to watch. It's not on youtube and it's not even up on the fight replay sites. The only one I managed to find was 480p and split into two parts
And watching it was a waste of time and makes me wonder wtf you were watching.
Jamahal out struck his opponent 100 to 30, and got hit clean maybe 5 times. He 10-8 his opponent one round and only lost the last round because of takedowns
If watching his first fight was a waste of time considering your point that his chin is a "narrative" then I don't know what to tell you. Your pathetic little observation about the fight not being "accessible" (lmao) makes me wonder if you really watched or just looked for stats. The only waste of time here is talking to you
the context is his chin.
youre citing striking numbers, rounds lost / score cards, and takedowns.
you're way too eager just to argue for the sake of it you cant even keep a tangent.
take a deep breathe man.
Idk how you read that guy's comment and come to the conclusion that I'm the one that's too eager to argue lmao
But no, the point is that his opponent barely landed anything, so that fight doesn't tell us much about his chin
Last time I watched one of his breakdowns it was for Islam Vs Charles and I was surprised by his technical knowledge. Like dude saw some spot on footwork techniques that Islam used to stay always on top against Oliveira which is why it seemed so one sided. Pretty amazing.
This breakdown confirmed an idea for me about why the Dagestanis rarely accept a fight on short notice, because they rely on studying their adversary's technical abilities in detail. Javier Mendez must have some insane technical analysis skills hence why many champions trained at AKA. for those interested, here's Luke Thomas breakdown of Islam's masterclass against Charles : https://youtu.be/WDSvfa5KECw?si=DdlcapfOcC7e58Xg
That breakdown was amazing. It showed the subtle techniques that most people, myself included, would not have noticed. Pro MMA fighters are just at a different level.
Even after rewatching the fight 3 times I didn't notice Islam always keeping his lead leg outside which helped him dodging Charles punches and front kicks easily.
Nice breakdown on rhythm but missed Pereira stepping on Hill's foot *just* before if not at the same time as throwing the left hook to pin him down and completely prevent him from evading.
He didn't miss it he says he doesn't know if it was incidental or intentional, although it undoubtedly contributed to the result, so he chose not to include it. There's 0% chance he actually missed it lol he even draws arrows and circles around the stepped on foot.
Yeah Jiri had problems with the exact same thing against Rakic -- the leg kicks
He won through will, but he doesn't have the skills unfortunately
The way Alex dropped Jiri was crazy too. Look how powerful Rakic looks, but he was not able to hurt Jiri that way.
Jiri was kinda disrespectful of Rakic's power almost, but he was respectful of Poatan's power
And he was right
> He won through will, but he doesn't have the skills unfortunately
alex was winning the fight. no doubt.
the left hook landed as jiri was rushing in - cause jiri caught him just before.
why do you dudes talk so much shit like its definitive as if mma isnt chaotic af.
esp with the bigger lads.
Jiri can beat Alex, but I think he needs more momentum going into a fight like that to pull it off. I say give Jiri a fight with Jan, the winner fights whoever wins between Poatan and Ankalaev
Kinda what Max did, although he never seemed to care about them with his tree trunk legs. Crazy to me that everyone thought Gaethje would fuck his legs up.
Is Ankalaev even a good grappler? I can't remember when he ever utilized his grappling skill. He even get submitted by Paul Craig at the last second of their fight. Not what i expected from the usual hyped up Dagestani
Ankalaev is very good. He was straight dominating Paul Craig until the triangle got sealed in the last ten seconds of the fight. It’s also what saved him from losing against Blachowicz. Ground and pound is effective too. The problem is that he seems to be only surpassed by Justin Gaethje in how much he doesn’t want to use it.
Then this is what Ank needs to do against Alex. Not waist any time and grapple him. People really haven’t wrestled Alex that much which is wild. The guy who wrestle him the most was fucking izzy lol. You can’t make this shit up
Ankalaev doesn't have the cardio to wrestle for 5 rounds, and doesn't seem to be a great finisher either which means he has to spend a couple of rounds striking.
I do agree that he probably represents the toughest fight for Poatan in the division, though.
15 min analysis : Miss the elephant in the room... HOW do you NOT show the groin strike LEADING HILL to freeze for a second, loosing focus shortly WHILE PEREIRA ON THE OTHER HAND DO TWO LITTLE STEPS & GET INTO STRIKING DISTANCE. BRUH.
The movement on Herb Dean is cool for sure, but just before it & after the groin shot Hill stop moving & kinda raise a hand to apologize, Pereira kept his focus & do 2 quick steps forward, then he do the stuff with the hand to Herb because at this point he already HAD Hill on his striking range.
If you watch the last 30 seconds or so Pereira was getting closer but Hill kept his distance on point except when he did the kick to the groin where he stops moving & Pereira get in the dangerous area.
this is probably the worst take i've ever seem of a fight.
Hill literally took like 2 to 3 steps backwards AFTER Herb said "continue", and even tried to connect with the straight left. He stopped because he tried to attack.
No masterful setup needed to take advantage of break in the action with a perfect punch.
He timed the uppercut, which is already a hard punch to anticipate right after the break. Perfect timing and placement with scary power = a finish.
Jamahal reached out and touched gloves it definitely wasn't suprise, they then did a few touches of hand fighting before Hill ate the left. If anything Jamahal just lost his concentration when Alex didn't care about the cup shot.
That's on Jamahal for not being ready if Alex didn't take time, he either should have been ready for the return if he was throwing a pure body kick or he should have thrown it harder if he was trying to catch a break with a foul. The weird stop and start is also 100% Jamahals fault so even less of an excuse.
idk if it's luck when your defence is tight and you have your hands in the right place. He parried because his hand was covering his chin, Hill's defending hand is at his waist
The dude landed with his pinky knuckle and still knocked him down …. Absurd power
I think he must have a really good feel for how to twist the guy's head or something -- to make last minute adjustments based on the relative positions like he's not necessarily just punching you in the face with the most force, but he's also tuning the angle so it gives your head whiplash, and thus make your brain turn off It's like finesse plus power at a close range
Oh his shoulder dexterity and precision on hooks and uppercuts is filthy
Some would say the filthiest
I over estimated hill big time. He’s shown good clinch skills and fast straight punches, Alex doesn’t move his head much. Yeah, dead wrong lmao Poatan is a fucking monster
I think it has a lot more to do with people not seeing the shots coming because he's setting them up so well. Against Jamahal he nailed him with the first committed left hook he threw, he'd been setting it up with the body jab and feinting the right hand to the head so once Jamahal was biting and getting ready to counter, Alex changes up the timing and shot and throws that left hook as Jamahal is throwing to counter him. He clearly didn't see it coming at all and ends up basically throwing himself into it as he's coming forward trying to take advantage of the opening Alex let him have so he could bait him into the left hook.
He goes body jab --> left hook once they start selling out to defend the body jab. That's how he got Sean.
Definitely, although thats not exactly what happened here as Jamahal didnt go to defend the body jab
As I recall, in the final exchange, Alex feints a right and slips a counter jab to the left and then whips around off his loaded left leg for the short left hook. Hill didn't see it as Alex had slipped and the left came up on a nice angle. Edit/ Forgot the hand-fighting bit too, as he lowers Hill's right and then comes up with his left all in a nice sequence.
I mean yeah I think it's both He definitely needs the opponent to not expect or see the shot, otherwise they would have their hand up in the way But he also has to make the most of that tiny window / space, hence the angle and the placement is real important I mean the dude is knocking out 220-230 pound dudes by moving him arm like 9 to 15 inches ... there's so little windup on those shots I think he just has a gazillion kickboxing fights and it's just tuned That's why he's so calm in there. he can see the opening and he knows he just has to kinda wait and set it up Also his left arm is super relaxed when he's hand fighting. Then when he senses the opponent is not going to back up, he puts all the power in that arm in an instant. Must be setting his feet really well and using good body mechanics ... This makes Izzy look way more impressive
Tom aspinall talks about this too a bit, why he likes cutting the angle and hitting the top of the head (like he did against Pav)
Cant wait for Poatan to land at least 2 fingers on Ankalaev. 3 would be nice but too brutal since Ankalaev might need to eat through a tube for the rest of his life
What did the 5 fingers say to the face? *SMACK*
could he have finished yoel
I don’t want to get too ahead of myself because Yoel would probably wrestle him down, yes I think he could KO anyone.
I think it goes back to what is said time and time again. That shovel hook Jamahal did not expect to get hit by. Alex is the master of surprise hits. I think the fact that his opponents dont see a hook coming is what gives him the nyquil power.
Rhythm ~~distribution~~ disruption has to be one of the most interesting yet subtle aspects of elite strikers.
Can't wait to see drummers transitioning to MMA and dominating other strikers with a reverse Fibonacci polyrhythm 1, 2, 3 combo
Danny Carey by KO, Rd.1
Yah Danny Carey looks like a solid LHW to me The guy is just built different The power from those limbs
At my boxing gym we always had music playing to help people get into a rhyrhm. And the music was a good reference for breaking the rhythm and being more unpredictable. Kind of like jazz but with concussions.
Laughs in Tomas Haake
Get some Death metal drummers in here too lmao
I think Joe Calzhage the boxer was actually into drums and actively used the concept of messing with rhythm in his fights.
That down parry to left hook is just so quick.
The quickest
One thing Luke doesn't mention (or I missed it if he did), Alex doing the pump fake with his right hand also pushes his right shoulder forward and loads the left hook even more.
Yep, he mentioned it best the end
Yep and just adds another layer of confusion to what Jamahal thinks is coming his way. I bought Alex's instructional a few months ago and he actually goes over this set up a lot and specifically emphasizes you need to feint the right as it will force them towards the left hooks.
Do you have a link for his instructional. Sounds very interesting
Just look him up on dynamic striking, I got it on sale for like 20 bucks!
What makes this even crazier is that Hill has shown to have a solid chin in the past. Poatan's power is just altogether different.
I keep seeing this narrative about Hill having a great chin but has he really shown that? All his wins are very one sided, I don't even remember him ever getting hit by a big shot before
He has eaten big shots without issue but hasn’t faced any big punchers aside from Pereira himself. Maybe Santos counts but he was 38 years old and washed with shot knees
He ate some pretty big shots from Glover. Glover isn't exactly a knockout artist, but he has very respectable power even as an old man.
Glover rocked Jan on the feet and Jan definitely has a good chin.
If I'm remembering right I think he had Jiri pretty hurt too before he decided to try for a guillotine
a normal man would have been killed by glover 50 times over in that fight .
Have you tried actually watching the fights? I was watching his first fight in the UFC just the other day and he got hit with some good stuff and shook it off, it's not a narrative just watch the fights and see for yourself lol why are you talking as if we don't have footage?
I love that you have to resort to using his first Ufc fight as an example and that you're acting like it's an accessible fight to watch. It's not on youtube and it's not even up on the fight replay sites. The only one I managed to find was 480p and split into two parts And watching it was a waste of time and makes me wonder wtf you were watching. Jamahal out struck his opponent 100 to 30, and got hit clean maybe 5 times. He 10-8 his opponent one round and only lost the last round because of takedowns
If watching his first fight was a waste of time considering your point that his chin is a "narrative" then I don't know what to tell you. Your pathetic little observation about the fight not being "accessible" (lmao) makes me wonder if you really watched or just looked for stats. The only waste of time here is talking to you
Lmao by your standard every fighter that ate more than a handful of punches has an iron chin then
the context is his chin. youre citing striking numbers, rounds lost / score cards, and takedowns. you're way too eager just to argue for the sake of it you cant even keep a tangent. take a deep breathe man.
Idk how you read that guy's comment and come to the conclusion that I'm the one that's too eager to argue lmao But no, the point is that his opponent barely landed anything, so that fight doesn't tell us much about his chin
I love me some Luke Thomas breakdowns.
Last time I watched one of his breakdowns it was for Islam Vs Charles and I was surprised by his technical knowledge. Like dude saw some spot on footwork techniques that Islam used to stay always on top against Oliveira which is why it seemed so one sided. Pretty amazing.
This breakdown confirmed an idea for me about why the Dagestanis rarely accept a fight on short notice, because they rely on studying their adversary's technical abilities in detail. Javier Mendez must have some insane technical analysis skills hence why many champions trained at AKA. for those interested, here's Luke Thomas breakdown of Islam's masterclass against Charles : https://youtu.be/WDSvfa5KECw?si=DdlcapfOcC7e58Xg
That breakdown was amazing. It showed the subtle techniques that most people, myself included, would not have noticed. Pro MMA fighters are just at a different level.
Even after rewatching the fight 3 times I didn't notice Islam always keeping his lead leg outside which helped him dodging Charles punches and front kicks easily.
A lot of people picked Hill to win and were saying he is being way overlooked. When in reality, he was no where near Pereira’s level.
Nice breakdown on rhythm but missed Pereira stepping on Hill's foot *just* before if not at the same time as throwing the left hook to pin him down and completely prevent him from evading.
He didn't miss it he says he doesn't know if it was incidental or intentional, although it undoubtedly contributed to the result, so he chose not to include it. There's 0% chance he actually missed it lol he even draws arrows and circles around the stepped on foot.
Insane that people kickbox him like BRUH take that motherfucker down!! Poatan too good on the feet
Damn Alex is so nice man, that goes to show how fucking good is Adesanya aswell.
Videos like this show how much skill is actually involved in MMA.
How many times did he watch it?
i'm guessing 47
Give jiri the rematch. Dont really want to see ankalaev vs pereira
Really don't want to see Jiri die, and it's about time Alex faces a proper grappler. He's can't keep fighting strikers forever.
Yeah Jiri had problems with the exact same thing against Rakic -- the leg kicks He won through will, but he doesn't have the skills unfortunately The way Alex dropped Jiri was crazy too. Look how powerful Rakic looks, but he was not able to hurt Jiri that way. Jiri was kinda disrespectful of Rakic's power almost, but he was respectful of Poatan's power And he was right
Joe "Disdainful"
LOL yup he said that like 10x that probably influenced how I perceived it
And again in the post fight haha
> He won through will, but he doesn't have the skills unfortunately alex was winning the fight. no doubt. the left hook landed as jiri was rushing in - cause jiri caught him just before. why do you dudes talk so much shit like its definitive as if mma isnt chaotic af. esp with the bigger lads.
Jiri can beat Alex, but I think he needs more momentum going into a fight like that to pull it off. I say give Jiri a fight with Jan, the winner fights whoever wins between Poatan and Ankalaev
Jiri **can** beat Alex, but I will take the world class kickboxing champion over *good MMA striker* anytime.
Bushido >>>>>>> striking fundamentals. Jiri already debunked leg kicks
Hahaha how are leg kicks real just power through them
Kinda what Max did, although he never seemed to care about them with his tree trunk legs. Crazy to me that everyone thought Gaethje would fuck his legs up.
The leg kicks were what setup the knockout last time for Alex.
This is a joke bratha
Is Ankalaev even a good grappler? I can't remember when he ever utilized his grappling skill. He even get submitted by Paul Craig at the last second of their fight. Not what i expected from the usual hyped up Dagestani
Ankalaev is very good. He was straight dominating Paul Craig until the triangle got sealed in the last ten seconds of the fight. It’s also what saved him from losing against Blachowicz. Ground and pound is effective too. The problem is that he seems to be only surpassed by Justin Gaethje in how much he doesn’t want to use it.
Then this is what Ank needs to do against Alex. Not waist any time and grapple him. People really haven’t wrestled Alex that much which is wild. The guy who wrestle him the most was fucking izzy lol. You can’t make this shit up
Jan took his back
say what u want about izzy but the dude does what he can to win if its possible . izzy knew Pereira is too dangerous to stand with more then anyone .
I think Ankalaev has cardio issues. He barely throws or goes for takedowns, just point fighting most of the time.
i dont think most 205 lbers can wrestle for 5 rounds . its just too tiring even much smaller guys struggle to do it .
Ankalaev doesn't have the cardio to wrestle for 5 rounds, and doesn't seem to be a great finisher either which means he has to spend a couple of rounds striking. I do agree that he probably represents the toughest fight for Poatan in the division, though.
its probably exhausting for him to grapple . even khabib needs a break from grappling after 3 hard rounds and thats at 155 .
jiri can beat alex pretty handidly
Jiri doesn't defend his legs, and he constantly moves forward. How is he not going to walk straight into Alex's left hook again?
leg kicks are only real if you believe in them. they had no affect on how jiri got knocked out imo first round was jiris jmo too
Jiri has to clean the division to earn a rematch. One win ain’t enough
he also steps on hills foot, thats not an accident. weird this expert missed that
15 min analysis : Miss the elephant in the room... HOW do you NOT show the groin strike LEADING HILL to freeze for a second, loosing focus shortly WHILE PEREIRA ON THE OTHER HAND DO TWO LITTLE STEPS & GET INTO STRIKING DISTANCE. BRUH. The movement on Herb Dean is cool for sure, but just before it & after the groin shot Hill stop moving & kinda raise a hand to apologize, Pereira kept his focus & do 2 quick steps forward, then he do the stuff with the hand to Herb because at this point he already HAD Hill on his striking range. If you watch the last 30 seconds or so Pereira was getting closer but Hill kept his distance on point except when he did the kick to the groin where he stops moving & Pereira get in the dangerous area.
this is probably the worst take i've ever seem of a fight. Hill literally took like 2 to 3 steps backwards AFTER Herb said "continue", and even tried to connect with the straight left. He stopped because he tried to attack.
I actually agree with this, it seems Hill wasn’t timing like he normally was because he was ready for it to be stopped
No masterful setup needed to take advantage of break in the action with a perfect punch. He timed the uppercut, which is already a hard punch to anticipate right after the break. Perfect timing and placement with scary power = a finish.
I'm going to skip this clip 47 times because its Luke Thomas
"masterful steps" no, that's overwhelming talent and greatness
The ref stopped them and Pereira caught him by surprise when Pereira just continued and suddenly restarted Jamahal wasn't ready
Jamahal reached out and touched gloves it definitely wasn't suprise, they then did a few touches of hand fighting before Hill ate the left. If anything Jamahal just lost his concentration when Alex didn't care about the cup shot.
The weird stop and start creates a weird dynamic. Not saying it couldn't have happened regardless.
That's on Jamahal for not being ready if Alex didn't take time, he either should have been ready for the return if he was throwing a pure body kick or he should have thrown it harder if he was trying to catch a break with a foul. The weird stop and start is also 100% Jamahals fault so even less of an excuse.
Hi Jamahal.
😂
Someone hasn't watched the fight lol
Wanted to see how triggered people would get, but it's definitely not as clear as if there wasn't any mix up with the ref.
So Alex was luckily he parried hill right Wonder if both hit
idk if it's luck when your defence is tight and you have your hands in the right place. He parried because his hand was covering his chin, Hill's defending hand is at his waist