#ufc235

There is probably no fighter on the UFC 235 card with more pressure on his or her shoulders than Cody Garbrandt, a man who had won and lost a UFC title before he was 27 years old. Riding a two fight losing streak that saw him drop the belt and get (T)KO-ed in both. Not to mention he lost twice to the man with whom he had an extremely public rivalry. But with Dillashaw recently suffering a quick stoppage loss of his own at flyweight and a whole slew of new bantamweight challengers waiting in the wings, it’s extremely possible that a title change at 135 could happen in the near future. And with it, another crack at the title for Garbrandt.

Before he challenges for the belt again though, he needs to get back in the win column. His first step will be a fight this Saturday (March 2) against Pedro Munhoz at UFC 235. With his upcoming fight, I figured now would be a good time to look at Garbrandt’s last three fights and see what it could tell us about his future.

To begin - what does Garbrandt do well? Garbrandt is one of the best pure athletes in the sport and is easily one of the biggest punchers at 135lbs. He’s got a tremendous mix of power and (both foot and hand) speed, as well as some amazing reflexes. He can cover distance extremely quickly and also react to someone trying to close distance on him. This makes him a particularly deadly counter puncher. His combination of choice is a 2-3 or a 3-2 as opponents try to collapse the pocket on him. In fact, much of the time it feels like the only combination that Garbrandt feels comfortable throwing. To his credit though, it has worked brilliantly up to this point. His breakout performance against Cruz was as absolute master class.

In this exchange we see Cruz try to close range on Garbrandt behind the jab. Cruz come in on a straight line, allowing the faster Garbrandt time to plant his feet to return fire. He lands over the top with the overhand right and follows up with the left hook, sending Cruz flying backwards. But even in his best performance, we can see some of the flaws reveal themselves.

Earlier in the fight, Cody cracks Cruz with overhand right + left hook combo as Cruz goes for what I’m assuming was a front kick. Cody’s attack would have scared off 99% of the rest of the bantamweight division. But not Cruz. 

Instead Cruz realizes that for the that Garbrandt is in range and is flat footed after having landed his signature combo. He immediately launches an attack back, throwing an overhand left + right hook combo of his own as Cody does his point and taunt bit. While it wasn’t as flush or as powerful, he does connect on Cody.

Instead of doing what he had previously done in the fight and escaping to the center, Garbrandt loses his stance and begins to square up to fire back wild hooks in the pocket. Cruz ducks underneath Garbrandt’s frantic attack and cracks him with a left hook from southpaw that puts Garbrandt down for a moment. Look at Cody’s feet when Cruz connects - completely square and not ready to absorb the brunt of a strike. There were a couple of other similar exchanges in the fight, where Garbrandt thought he was safe and ended up out of position because of it. It was an all time great championship performance from the young fighter to be sure, but these incidents were eerily predictive of how TJ would beat Garbrandt.

Because this post is already super long (sorry for that), you can continue reading after the jump

Boxing is one of the oldest and most well-known combat sports.

Boxing was born as a self-defense sport, and appears to be the oldest personal means of defense in the world, as fists are the first instinct of man in self-defense. Known since the Bronze Age, it was practiced in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome;

Boxing is a challenging sport and complete, the physical qualities required are in fact speed, agility, strength and endurance. Boxing requires both aerobic and anaerobic efforts, therefore training aims both at improving endurance (through running, jumping rope, free-body training), and at improving strength and developing muscle mass;

Boxing requires the capacity to withstand fatigue and pain; but also character and constancy. Finally, timing: the right thing at the wrong time will prove to be counterproductive.

A boxing match takes place inside a square called ring, with only the two athletes and the referee inside. The two athletes will have their hands in special gloves protected inside them by bands and closed with the adhesive tape that if removed will mark the performance of the athlete.

Professional boxing does not need other protections if not mouth guards, while the more amateur one also has special helmets.

Unlike kickboxing or other disciplines developed during the boxing years, the only possible moves are the punches mainly of three types, direct uprights and hooks.

The matches are composed of 12 rounds of 5 min each, stopped only by a knockout or the fall of the opponent on the ground that if in 10 seconds he will not get up and he will say that he is willing to continue the match to the referee will lose the 'meeting.

The athletes are divided into 17 weight categories to balance the matches.