LUKE THOMAS: “I re-watched Dricus du Plessis vs Sean Strickland and CHANGED MY MIND!”

Luke Thomas at UFC 297, Dricus du Plessis scored a split decision victory over Sean Strickland to become the UFC middleweight champion.

But, did he really win?

In this breakdown, I’ll explain how DDP was able to score against Strickland, why Strickland’s defense is so challenging and much more.

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#lukethomas #seanstrickland #dricusduplessis #ufc297

At UFC 297 drias dupy became the new UFC middleweight champion by beating Shan Strickland or did he we’re going to talk about it plus I’m going to explain to you how to understand sha Strickland’s style its benefits its weaknesses and what drick is did to get past it it’s

Time for technical difficulties hello everyone welcome to another edition of technical difficulties my name is Luke Thomas and this is where we go over the weekend’s best fights all right so today on the program you know the score UFC 29 main event for the UFC middleweight title dricus dupy gets his hand raised

Cards on the table in real time I scored it 234 dricus 15 the round numbers for Shawn upon rewatch to do this presentation I scored at 125 Strickland 34 for DDP so I actually think that Strickland has a very good case for winning but there are some issues that I

Think his style is going to has not only caused him problems here I think will cause him problems going forward unless he can make a couple of adjustments to it which I I do think are possible he’s got a great coach got a great team over

At Eric nixi and extreme Couture but I’m going to show you so I think today’s exercise is going to be how does Shan Strickland’s standup basically work for him we’re not going to look at the takedowns in this one because not that they’re not relevant but not necessarily

The most important part of the story to understand but also what DDP did to eventually get around it and maybe what are some things that Shan Strickland could add to get to the next level so as always I don’t present the these findings to you to be the only or the

Best or the most complete these are just mine I always encourage you to hear what other analysts have to say all right with that in mind I normally do like one sheet where I break everything down I’m going to give you two today I’m going to

Go through them kind of quickly CU I actually think you really have to understand why Shawn has this remember I was wrong in the Izzy fight I did think DDP was going to win this and he did but then upon reflection you can see how

Close it is but before we can really get to what DDP did we have to understand what Shawn does so let’s talk about that Shawn striking I want to make sure everyone can read this if you can’t I’ll here I’ll move this slightly out of the

Way for you so you can read it first of all as you can see Sean striking here’s the uh the the the heads up here the headliner um for the slide one cross Retreat step what do I mean by this guys he will cross step his back foot to take

An angle and then use that to step out and get the get a different angle um it’s all in service of that final angle but his back foot will cross behind his front front foot this is typically considered to be a no no as you guys all

Know the rule here the best fighters break all the rules and of course as a former middleweight champion could be a middleweight champion again at some point in the future um he breaks that rule a little bit a lot of Fighters do this when they change angles with their

Back foot but it’s something he does and in particular he does a lot of what they call there’s different names for it but it’s basically a retreating step right he does this the bit where when he backs up he’s almost walking why is this important he’s not moving in certain

Ways like someone who’s trying to have almost an economy of motion and keep their base and balance under them right he’s not taking uh necessarily steps where he’s always got just the right angle to Fire and and receive punches or strikes roll out and then continue reiring that’s really not what he’s

Doing he’s looking to cover maximum distance or at least give himself the option of covering maximum distance so cross steing which is kind of a rule breaking and then taking multiple retreating steps this these would be things that they would not tell you to do necessarily in traditional boxing

Maybe even a traditional MMA striking but he gets away with it cuz he’s made it work for himself this is big you can’t really understand his style and most look at evidence of this until you understand how important how much distance he can cover because he cross

And Retreat step ret Retreats step it allows him to take interesting angles and get offense off off and it allows him to retreat to various positions and cover that ground very quickly because he’s not taking these uh sort of like bracketed steps that they TR typically

Teach you in how to move around the ring or the cage that’s first second a tall stance look at how tall he stands why is this relevant because in order to make use of his style defensively he has to have a narrow stance if he’s got a wide

Stance he won’t be able to move pay attention to how important having a tall stance is for him for two things one to get his retreating steps in number two just to widen his stance if you’ll notice he very rarely ever steps forward with the jab he might step with the back

Foot on the jab he will at times step forward with the jab but what he often does a lot is plants on the front foot and then opens his stance backwards or at an angle with the back foot that’s how he gets out of the way he’ll step

And then lean back that’s how he gets out of the way so really what you have to understand is that tall St St enables him to do that I can’t widen my stance if it’s already pretty wide I have to have a narrow stance that wideness is

What allows me to make use of everything understand that three angle pivots and step outs we kind of discussed some of this he’ll angle off using some of the Cross stepping that’s a big part of it although not just that but that’s a big part of it he’ll use pivoting as well as

Also part of it he’ll step then pivot pivot then step he has a couple of routines and then of course stepping out he’ll just actually just you know make one basic kind of step out to create angles it’s all kind of pretty important to what he does for the retreat shift so

Sometimes when he’s retreating he’ll actually not just kind of walk backwards he’ll actually change stances upon the retreat he does this a couple of times you’ll see some evidence of it and last but not least you’re going to watch him move left off of the jab that’s actually

Really important for him moving left excuse me here off of the jab is really what enables him um to get most of his good offense going it creates some of the the not not the TS but it creates some of the other kicking attacks he

Gets going it gets him his best work on his two it’s actually sets up his best jab he has an interesting jab he has this kind of a jab of a bladed stance and then he has a stepover kind of a jab that’s almost in front of him like a

Chambered push punch it’s really kind of interesting how he varies that up okay so this is essentially what drias had to solve for right how did he do it such that you think he did so here’s what he tried one he would time the left cross step jab so You’ see this effort

From uh Shawn he would sometimes he would fake cross step behind himself and then try and throw another one and he would time it with either from Southpaw or from Orthodox any number of different responses we’ll take a look at them he didn’t always lead with a jab sometimes

He would step then jab sometimes he would just jab then SW angle out but in either case that’s sort of what you’re looking for uh and he’ll sometimes do it off of a shift that the shift by the way would be a stance switch for folks who

May not know so dricus would sometimes do it from a static stance sometimes he would do it as he would shift you get the idea two he would time the left angle off planted weight so how do you actually kick Shawn’s legs if he’s anticipating it or he’s heavy on the

Back foot with a tall stance he just brings his left leg up it doesn’t do you any good what you actually have to do is you have to get him to plant and as he pivots as the back foot is in motion you can crack him and that’s exactly what he

Did three Southpaw body you you saw him go to the Southpaw hit the body with some of those attacks and then of course he would switch it up to the head kick that was pretty obvious and then four does I call it chaos plus stacked attacks he would Stutter Step faint

Change stances two times like any number of ways he could put a series of different confusing combinations together to finally get close enough and to get Shawn to transfer his defense he would land you’d see some of that and then chaos sometimes what he would do is

Just throw a spinning back fist it wouldn’t even get very close and yet what he’d be able to do is it would just shorten the distance and then he would land something else so that’s really what the story is I want to show you one

More thing as we look here before we get to some of the the video evidence this is all the strikes and you can see round one clearly for uh for Shawn in terms of the numeric total round five for him as well two three and four obviously he got

I think he had a little bit more in round four and a little bit more in round three as well he got outstruck in round two but these are so close they’re going to be hard to call it again these are quantitative totals not qualitative totals they’re an important distinction

There but I want to point you to this this is the one I wanted to point you to look at the targeting by excuse me by by Shan Strickland here if I may this is not necessarily unusual for him you’ve seen situations where it hasn’t been like this again this is not necessarily

What landed this is what was targeted he targeted the head 90% this is this is common for him he’ll have upwards of 80 I think in one of his more recent fights he had targeting at like 98% to the head but he’s usually good for around 75 80

85% and above targeting to the head he barely touches the legs and he’s he usually goes a little bit more to the body I’ve seen 20% but this is not necessarily an unusual split let me say something about what cost Shawn Strickland in this fight if I may

Folks here is the issue with Shawn’s uh performance it’s not that it wasn’t good or that there’s not a case for him again upon second watch I thought the case for him got much better the issue is that he has built in so much defensive prowess

Into what he does it has limited a the overall amount of offense that is possible and B it has narrowed even if there were more offense possible it has narrowed the possible targeting that I had just kind of showed you it really begins to constrain him I’m going to

Show you evidence of what I think supports these claims I would say that Shan Strickland has really kind of mastered the style that gives him a lot of defensive uh strength a lot of defensive opportunities a lot of defensive just keeping him in the ball game without

Necessarily taking a ton of hits and he got the headbutt in that one and maybe that played a role with the judges we don’t know but the point I’m trying to make here is there are things he does and I’m going to show it to you where he

Could change gears a little bit potentially to get more offense out of it while still I think maintaining some of the defensive sensibility he has and I think it would take him a lot further right now what I would say is it’s so lopsided his defense to his offense that

It just doesn’t give him enough opportunities to do the thing that matters guys defense in MMA according to the scoring criteria is considered its own reward you don’t get points for it it’s impressive to watch and it’s valuable but it’s not valuable for winning in terms of what the judges are

Looking for as a scoring criteria it doesn’t do that you actually have to have offense so I can understand where you’re saying well numerically he outstruck him but you’re going to see there is a difference in the quality of the shots and it’s the style that Shawn

Has has created I think if you dialed it back a little bit you’d get a lot more out of it with that in mind let’s see if uh you like the evidence for my claims all right let’s take a look at some of the things that I was talking about I’m

Going to show you evidence of The Stance what he was up against how he overcame it some things to understand about Shawn’s style how it could be better blah blah blah let’s get to it all right round one we’re going to go in chronological order here I obviously

Took out an enormous amount just of the stuff I thought would be more interesting we’re going to pay attention to Sha’s footwork here right now dricus is kind of down loading so just pay attention to Shawn right this is not a full cross step he’s not reached it

There but you’re going to see evidence of it later right he’s sort of reaching out he’s probing and he does this steps he’s going to step over to create a lane for the teep there it is and he comes back this is not necessarily The narrowest Stance but that’s a pretty

Tall stance right there what gives him the opportunity to defend is when he can step out in this direction or step out in this direction that is what you’re going to see when he can widen the stance that’s what’s going to give him that defensive strength that he’s

Looking for and here you coming you can see obviously he gots a hand down right here excuse me he’s got a hand down in case it’s low and he’s got a hand up in case it’s high also pay attention to his feet here right and he’s going to sort

Of move out of the way all right a little bit later jab this was a big one for me where was this right so where is he he’s got that style where his let’s see his right hand is here left hand is like this this is the sort of position

That he’s usually in and what he does here is he faints he P he he pumps once throws like a flicking jab boom right and gets him to get the inside cut kick right there turns him Square doesn’t follow up with it where was more of this

Needed more of that to be honest with you look good actually here he is by the way sometimes dricus just walks into range boom pumps the jab and there he is not a whole lot to say for it all right a little bit later here’s dricus moving

Around he goes a high hands he’s trying to enter into close range right he fakes low comes through with a jab doesn’t quite reach him let’s see what dricus does dricus tries to come back this is what I mean watch the back foot pay pay attention to this steps out and he

Throws we talked about this before with sha Strickland he throws traffic right it’s one thing for guys to out slick it or block it or catch it or whatever Shawn does do some of that but what he mostly does is he causes traffic and then he uses retreating steps to get out

Of the way right it’s a particular kind of retreating step too see what I mean right some people will call this cross stepping too by the way cuz you’re moving your feet back and forth like this but I just wanted to pay attention something when you move like this with

These retreating cross steps look look how much distance you can cover very quickly right so here’s what I want you to pay attention to when Shawn is backed up like this look at this okay his head is going to be very hard to hit it’s just going to be hard to find he’s

Leaning back he cannot be touched he’s widened his stance he’s got traffic out in front of him he’s catching he’s blocking he’s moving out of the way his hard his head is going to be hard to hit but what you have to notice about all of

This is look at how his hips are in front of his head they’re he’s backwards like this when you’re like this you’re just not in a position to a be balanced you’re not even balanced you have to come back to a balanced position before you could ever really strike and you

Certainly have no power in this position this is why he can’t counter on these Retreats he’s not in a mechanically advantageous position in order be to be able to do that it’s because his head is much further back he’s Crossing his steps up in these in the in these

Retreats he just doesn’t have the ability to plant and do the kinds of things that are necessary for functional striking it’s extremely effective defense he makes it work very well for himself because he’s made the tradeoff to do this once you make this tradeoff you’re not you’re not fully interested

In these moments in offense you’re interested defense and what I would humbly submit is after a close loss to caner after a close loss to dricus there might be some rethinking that is in order here to get to a better place a little bit later here we go

We’re still in round one good jab doesn’t quite Find the Mark he steps over watch his feet right Jabs this one’s going to swing back just like that reang is the angle kind of pushes him around there’s your te that’s a big part of it he got away from those and as you

Can see by the way we mentioned by the way he’ll shift he’ll switch dances to retreat he throws this he ends up in Southpaw pause his way out look he Jabs right here and then Retreats back to his normal uh stance a little bit later

Boom flicks it out dricus tries to go on the inside which is not a bad idea but he misses and watch what you see here the foot pay attention of sha to Sea he he swings it now he’s changed the angle let’s see what happens dricus goes High

Hands he’s forced to resquare up on him he’s going to jab as he moves there’s not quite cross St him but getting pretty close to it jabbing and then this is what I mean right he’s heavy on this leg but this one’s in motion drias hasn’t figured this out yet so he’s able

To step back like this this is what I mentioned about the angle turn right his stance is already pretty wide but he widened it this direction which gave him the extra space he needed like that now now he can lean back and he’s just hard to hit a little bit

Later this is a good read he watch his watch the timing on his stepping right watch brings his back foot close so he can cheat the distance that’s one one of the biggest reasons why you would do that in addition to the angle change he steps out then changes the timing boom

And he continues to move around this is actually really nice work from him there’s your cross step all right see how his feet are just automatically crossed they would normally tell you this is a no no and for most Fighters it’s going to be a no no Shawn can make

It work and as he does he gets he’s able to pop on the inside doesn’t quite get what he’s looking for dricus tries to time the movement you can see for the first time he tries to move it but he’s a little bit too far away Shawn got

There first he’s trying to come over the top which is a nice idea but it just wasn’t close enough wasn’t timed quite right that he Retreats and by the way look at how he Retreats he’ll cross his feet up this way when he goes back right whoop whoop again they’re different

Kinds of cross steps depending on who you want to talk to this this is the common cross step when he’s retreating like that um you know you’re just backing up is what how most folks would look at it but even then they once you’re once you’re walking in the

Octagon either forwards or backwards you’re not necessarily it would depend but you’re really not necessarily in the right position to strike you’re more in the position to be mobile quite a difference right gets through here with the jab teep again right side goes back to his tall stance and this time he’s

Ready for the for the leg kick so he just brings it up you didn’t get him on the part where he’s planted on the weight you waited until he centered on his weight to go that’s not going to work against this guy and then he comes over the top and

Again he just puts something in front of it by the way this is a common thing with him as well he’ll throw look here closely he’s got two hands he pushes out he’ll often do like a two-handed push uh both to block and sometimes to throw it’s actually pretty common for him and

We keep going boom tep to the gut goes back to his stance reenters him sits down and this one comes underneath the elbow I like this call from dricus so dricus finally in Southpaw changes stances tries to see what works he had gone to the Head kick before didn’t go

Anywhere boom this time he gets underneath the elbow that was a good adjustment from him and these are the kind of strikes it’s like I know he got numerically outstruck but the quality and the and the damage from that strike again you know didn’t leave the biggest

Mark but that is I can understand why judges might value that more than a than a series of Jabs I’m not saying you have to agree but I can totally get that that’s not a crazy thing and then he continues to follow watch this redirection by dricus so you

Can see he’s ready he knows he’s going to step out excuse me he’s going to step out at this angle so he goes and just look at him pushing look at that that’s unbelievable almost like a Kung Fu redirecting the punch he steps to the outside of it and that gives him the

Escape that he needs all right dri is changes stances a little bit later goes to the body but this time switches it up to the head ooh nicely done nearly catches him didn’t win him the round but you can start to see he’s beginning to see that some of

The kicks from Southpaw are going to get him some some good work here comes the two hands from Shawn tries to Parry the jab there’s your cross step step over to the left and then he wants wants to reset the angle what does he do he does

But then dricus pay attention to him so Shawn is trying to put something in his face so he can cross step and then rehab this re-shoot this angle which would give him a different angle on the jab he does all that but then dricus and a new so before they’re like

This now they’re like this right they’ve changed the angle but drick is switch stance he goes back to South ball as he’s entering the space so he tries to come over the top but he just I mean didn’t time it right he does have lead outside foot position you thought maybe

He’ll go to the body he’s too late but pay attention to Shawn this is what I mean once he gets to this position and he throws his back foot will widen whoop and that’s what gives him this space hips are in front of his head and as

Long as that’s the case it’s inherently a defensive posture not offensive but he’s going to be hard to hit just like that all all right so here comes drick is faking he gets a tep for his efforts Shan goes back to his stance look how

Tall he is right this one time he blocks the body kick but you can see drick is knocking on the door follows up switches stance there’s your shift switches stance and look at what Shawn does he’s going to bring this foot back to widen everything lean back he creates traffic

In the middle which is exactly what this is and then gets out of the way and does it again and continues look at his retreating cross steps whoop whoop whoop all the way through little bit later boom look at the two-handed approach here watch pay attention very closely check this out

Watch this boom two hands it stops the jab and it gets the cross stop before he can ever get that going as well right ah look at that look at he just guides this over it’s like almost like he’s got inside bicep control it’s really quite quite remarkable a little bit later and

Here he comes again trying to follow a little bit later jab okay this time dricus orthodox leans off to the side and tries to come over the top this is one of those things that’s just hard to explain right Shawn’s awareness is so good he just automatically has a he has

A the way you develop his Styles you have to have a great feel for counters you have to have a great feel about what guys are going to do and what to anticipate and his anticip anticipation here is remarkable it’s very very good and so drias can’t ever really get

Anything going even though you’ve got him committed he’s moving forward with the jab he’s going to be hard to hit but this is what I mean by paying attention to how he steps when he Jabs Sean a lot of times he won’t step or he won’t step

Hard or he’ll just step with the back foot he won’t step with the front foot when he steps with the front foot he’s got his weight going forward here his weight was it does step forward a little bit it does step forward a little bit but not so much that he can’t just

Rebound the other way he didn’t really go too far he he maintained enough back foot balance to be able to him to lean that direction and so and plus with the anticipation everything else enables him to get out of the way so you’ll notice that Shawn doesn’t do a lot of heavy

Stepping there’s a moment up here we’re going to take a look at where he does but it’s not a common thing a little bit later Here Comes Shawn right you can see he extends the hand here oops excuse me you can see he extends the hand here right gets out of

The way same kind of thing it’s from Southpaw TR come over the top doesn’t work Al also he had lead uh inside foot positioning also kind of stepping on Shawn’s foot but that doesn’t matter because Sha’s going to step with the watch watch the back foot how does he

Create space look at this tall stance watch how he creates space just like that it’s that back foot it’s that back foot he’ll swing it he’ll step it all kinds of stuff and that gangster lean with the traffic in between makes him very very very hard to hit plus if he

Needs to the Cross stepping the retreating stepping all that stuff takes a punch here nice jab from Southpaw I think he just misjudged the distance but you can see dck is having some success in the first round from Southpaw a little bit later okay this is where he Stutter Steps From Southpaw

Goes to the body goes back right got a little bit something there was kind of blocked but this is what I mean making him work look at this narrow stance that’s going to give him the ability to defend when he needs to right and there

It is he kind of turns into it gives him the hip boom anticipates it gets a hand up hand down but these kinds of things these stacked attacks is what I’m talking about where you’re uh stutter stepping into a into a stance switch and then body kick that kind of

Stuff goes back to Orthodox and then comes over the top and you can see him what’s he trying to do to Shawn Shawn is stepping out there it is he’s trying to move this direction dricus reads it and wants to lower his level then throw the overhand right and oh just misses a

Little bit but he was wide open for it just missed just I mean I know he makes contact but I mean he’s like a big Hard Punch he didn’t give him that but he got close a little bit later pushing forward pushing forward this is such a great example of his jab

Watch what he does here he steps gets a touch steps again and now look his shoulders are almost Square to dricus so it’s not a jab like this it’s more of a jab like this where I’m almost facing you not in a bladed stance and he does

That step over to achieve it because it gives him just a much harder shot plus dricus look at what he’s doing with his hands he’s kind of I’m not going to say blinding himself but he does have high hands to protect himself he doesn’t have the perfect set of vision or fully the

The best awareness of how Shawn is moving you do limit obviously what you’re doing even with one hand PW it out like that and so it enables him to just change the timing and the angle boom and it comes right right through that’s a great shot it’s a great

Shot he tries to come through and look at look at Shawn High Square here comes the punch boom he kind of just misses with it and rolls at the same time just a little bit and he fires back but it doesn’t ever do much a little bit later

Boom you can see Southpaw almost like a question mark kick I believe is what that is yeah it is and of course it nearly C catches him there’s that jab from Shawn here’s your cross step to get the angle he goes through again paw with the rear hand this time that’s one of

His favorite punches especially when he’s got guys Under Pressure Jabs in anticipation boom and nearly gets caught doubly for his efforts but both guys kind of trade there however this is my favorite part of what Shawn does this is the best this is the best sequence for

Him in the entire fight in my opinion here comes drias he gets two hands out M told he brings the two hands out back foot goes moving there it is I mean this look just classic Shan Strickland right this is my favorite brings his feet down changes timing goes right

Automatically goes now what have I told you before he doesn’t get too heavy on the front foot typically not typically this time he does intentionally boom changes timing goes brings his feet together gallops to a new angle re sticks the jab out there right to double

It up so it’s one Gallop over change angle throw the jab again again and then you’re off at an angle throw the right hand he does get caught with the leg kick a little bit but that’s a nice sequence from Sha Strickland you got this is the my favorite one of the whole

Fight right get two hands out redirect change timing go Gallop out to the side go again right hand off angle man that’s a nice okay round two let’s take a look at what happens here right so you can see him timing the left the the leftward movement of

Strickland just kind of gets out of out of the way of it here again stepping back as we have seen before raising uh his hands the back hand protected him just a little bit not much but the the bigger point is that obviously the timing here he just didn’t quite have it

A little bit far away you can see what he’s looking for all right we continue a little bit later jab gets a response gets a little bit closer he does a bit of a sort of outward elbow blocking but there’s the leg kick this is actually how You’ get it done this is

The leg kicking right here right why did it work because this leg has the plant when the back leg is sweeping back and retreating that’s the time of which you can do it that bending back or that sweeping back we’ve talked about this this is why he’s able to get the angle

Changes that he wants this is the kind of thing that enables his jab to be as effective as it has been but nevertheless it does create some other vulnerabilities people try to uh I should say between this fight and Izzy you could see that Izzy just was unprepared for the particular style of

Defense um that Shawn brings but remember Shawn is not putting the same kind of pressure on drias or at least dcus is not responding to it so he he is a little bit more on the back foot in terms of the back foot being mobile and that creating the opportunity to kick

The front leg there you have it he can be kicked you just have to do it the right way but no shade I’m just saying we people have to figure this out over time like it takes it takes a little bit of practice like it takes more more tape to

See you know what would be the right strategy he doesn’t get it right all the time but it it was obviously um a little bit better in that regard okay steps off of the jab tries to come through through gallops to the side we just saw this at

The end of round one right he going to try to take that outside angle doesn’t quite get it but you get a retreat and then a a stance switch from dricus they time the the lead hand touch there it is again and then he just tries to switch

The tying up like right like watch so like here they touch up up but instead of going up he just goes past it and shoots it just kind of Misses also he tries to step on his feet several times it not against the rules it tends to

Happen by accident a lot but also you can do it just so anybody might might be wondering but we’re timing the motion here this time to the right uh or I should say to the to the to the uh to the right here to the left of dricus is

What I was meant to saying um doesn’t really end up going that way he does he typically wants to go to that outside angle but something to pay attention to a little bit later and there you see it by the way stepping on the foot just like that and

He tries to go around this is just you know look at Classic Shan Strickland here right look at this tall stance really tall stance this foot it’s going to go out and at an angle it’s going to enable him to get back he puts some friction in between he has good

Recognition about it all he’s hard to hit hard to hit all right there’s that leg kick that misses sean gets out of the way goes with a jab off the step let’s see if he timed it let’s see how he timed it boom so down up down yeah switch the timing

Up gets the jab but there’s dricas right with the spinning back fist this guy does all the crazy kind of stuff this is what I mean doesn’t work here but you’ll see in just a second he actually throws this again and for interesting reasons it does kind of work let’s take a look

Here just a second it doesn’t work there but this is what I’m talking about so Southpaw goes through the jab watch the back foot boom enables him to get off not just back but at an angle like that Reep and by the way stepping on his foot

Just like that you can see it there he comes back up look at that tall that stance is Man Tall stance goes into range steps returns to the back foot let’s see gets ready for the leg kick anticipates doesn’t come and just beautifully times this jab here right

And this is what I like about this too as well High hands here and he goes right through the guard as he does it uh moving from the you’ll notice it’s just a slight change in timing right so he goes front foot instead of back to the

Back foot he then takes a Stutter Step boom so he switches the timing up and that’s why it ends up Landing but also just pay attention he’s not fully bladed he’s got that that this shoulder very very forward here facing him and when he gets over at this angle it’s still a jab

But it’s it’s it’s it’s like this weird kind of off angle like that where he’s able to get it h it’s a unique development that he’s got and then he goes around that’s a more bladed one when he turns around but again he sweeps the back leg out leans out of the way

And enables him to avoid the worst of it dricus shoots the jab from Orthodox big step it’s just a spinning back fist okay this doesn’t work either you might be saying what’s so valuable about this well watch what does we talked about this before what does Sean Strickland

Sometimes do when he Retreats he’ll stance switch on the retreat not just necessarily cross step he St switches there now they’re both in Southpaw by the way kind of interesting he tries to write the ship doesn’t really reaccount for the range you’ll notice he doesn’t pump a jab to reestablish this and now

Look at drias drias brings the back foot and he’s in motion he’s already going so he didn’t really reestablish range and he gets through a little bit there my point being is the spinning back fist creates enough chaos where that getting back into that Rhythm where

You’re kind of naturally as far apart as you are when you’re both in the center sometimes doesn’t happen and when if you don’t unless you like manually force it again and these kinds of chaotic events can lead to the inability to be consistent about that disrupt the Instinct pushes the

Hand out of the way moves to the left and he tries to step around and then come over the top as you can see he probably want to come well you’ll see he actually ends up switching to the uh the left hand both from Southpaw and

Orthodox as a much better way to get through the lead hand he has some jabbing success with it but this time I think he went for the wrong side more to the inside would have been better but I can’t quite quite see where they’re stepping anyway it doesn’t work and you

Can see Shawn just does what he does he’s actually just going to use this as a bit of a post leans out of the way steps back again creates traffic there you go here we are a little bit later stepping to his own right this time

Let’s see what he does I love this choice of shot right to come underneath like that but the problem is Shawn hand closed just puts it and blinds him right like that he can’t see anything and so he can’t really ever get through through and make effective use out of this

Pushes it out of the way and then he switches the timing up just narrowly avoids it a DDP does that’s good timing by Strickland here and then again what do you know from him he’s already got this back leg kind of posted so it’s easy for him to get that lean and then

He kind of Retreats a little bit later goes to the H this is what I mean steps around cross steps I think he just misjudged the the distance on this one also DDP cuz he doesn’t really change his foot position he steps down and over he just looked to me like strictly

Misjudged this one but again it all comes off of the jab and the extension which creates this opening here it’s just hard to hit he doesn’t get out of the way of it in time you see sometimes they do break through and the left doesn’t do much work there okay so he

Lowers level a little bit comes over the top misses right stays in Orthodox can’t quite get through but he has split him at his middle so let’s see if he can do something with it comes over the top can’t go square but he’s able to just kind of chain attacks together hands to

Leg as the opponent is retreating and he gets to the body obviously that’s going to be more hitable than the head it’s just good work there from DDP and also again the kind of thing that’s probably going to count more for judges um than than a jab again there are plenty of

Exceptions but it’s it’s a very impactful shot lowers level gets underneath the jab this now we’re on the Orthodox side doesn’t extend through Strickland maintains the distance resets he lowers level comes over with the right nowhere close and then just kind of keeps going with the left but

Because he takes a big step here DDP switches stance it enables him to cover distance even for a leaning Strickland so there are ways to do it this is what I mean not just chating attacks together but taking the kind of thing you’ll see him double up on his jab a little bit

Later as well SW shifting through distance these kinds of things are enable him to cheat that distance for an opponent who’s able to really Retreat and maintain space a little bit later gets low REM measures they circling changes the timing comes off of his foot here though right this is

Typically not what Shan Strickland is doing unless he’s outside moving to that angle with the gallop which we saw previously he typically doesn’t put that much weight when he Jabs coming forward but he does here and he pays for it just a little bit right because he came too

Close so all you have to see here from dup um drias dupy is throws the hook doesn’t quite land touches right but he’s able to come over the top and make pretty decent contact nothing super spectacular but the fact that he’s able to even make the connection which

Probably was memorable to the judges this is all a function of him I think leaving his space far too forward see now he has to retreat and it’s going to take him a while to get his feet behind him and curl out and in the process DDP

Can also um step forward and get get it so a bit of a misjudgment there and here at to end the round he’s going to push on the jab from Southpaw this works only because he doubles it and then tries to come around so this isn’t a huge shot but the second one

Gets through again these distance cutting techniques these are the ones that had a little bit more success right putting the attcks together chaining them yes but the double ones also again they’re the same kind of thing but the specific nature of what I’m describing um you get through with those and then

These donks are just swinging here I mean look at that that’s just just look at that that’s just a lot okay and then spinning back fist again doesn’t work but it it has other ways of being beneficial little bit later High hands this is that step off jab that he’s got

He’s going to swing the back leg like that he cross steps just like that right but he makes it work for himself he he’s probably going to reestablish the jab oh almost does kind of flicks it and that’s what we talk about there with him all

The time a little bit later gets his hands up oh clever work from DDP right going to the body so many times now going up up top to the Head switching it up hard to see the difference there with him when it when it’s at his uh when he’s just

Getting going gets underneath comes over the top right hand oh nearly catches them but I want to point out something here these guys are missing and it looks kind of very sloppy and wild and it is certainly to an extent but what you can see is just pay attention to what

They’re trying to do you see DDP kind of Leaping forward with that hook he’s going too wide he’s trying to just make up as much distance as possible so he can throw the right but of course look at the look at Strickland here but look at what stricklin is doing with just his

Feet right taking these big steps backward where he’s able to just really kind of avoid the worst and cause interference in the middle in the way that he does he can’t meaningfully though fire back his hips are in front of his head that’s why he can’t ever

Seem to counter he can put maximum emphasis on the defensive side of it which is valuable but there’s no real meaningful offense and usually when a guy is charging forward like that this when they can run into some serious punches I’m not saying it’s easy to

Switch up a style I’m just saying if I was looking at this what kind of calculation would I make whatever that’s worth I don’t know if your problem is you’re kind of coming up short because you’re just a little bit short on offense what are some ways you could

Introduce offense into a a game like this this would be one area worth exploring it seems to me I think that’s at least fair to say o tries to switch the angle come over over the top it’s still too wide right you have to have something that

Can beat a lot of these hooking shots he’s throwing are not going to get the job done a little bit later now the leg kick works why he Jabs foot is in motion he understands this waits for it and then goes so he he lands this kick before

This back heel ever makes contact with the ground boom gets underneath jab comes through right underneath the jab and it’s more like almost like a pushing shot rather than a the same kind of overhand he was whipping but nevertheless this is the kind of thing that’s effective right

You’re also you’re getting him to step that’s bringing him a little bit closer boom he still gets out of the way of it he has great Instinct there but these are some of the things that enabled him to really get the job done obviously getting getting par excuse me slipping

The jab in various ways was actually pretty key I didn’t put it on the list but you can certainly see the evidence for that as well a little bit later to the body right fakes with the hands boom comes up there sneaks it underneath right this is a

Good attack from this this one he actually switched stances because he’s an orthodox but that setup that convincing that excuse that confusing setup got through body kicks again this was going to be beneficial for his scoring in this round certainly out of the way of the jab spinning back fist misses he keeps

Going though comes over the top top and then just goes to the body again extending your biggest your your furthest weapon to the most stable Target of a retreating opponent it’s a great call by him it works he gets out of the way gets underneath parries it boom goes

Back to the leg himself right cuz what does he do when he parries it he doesn’t allow him to bring his foot behind him where he normally would back to a balanced stance he is unbalanced in this particular situ situation so before he can get back to a place of balance he

Has to move he has to move so drias dup C puts it here and then while he’s moving cracks him because that makes this leg have to be the the stable one right he didn’t just change his stance he made the stable one the one behind so

Um very effective way in which you can you can there are ways to leg kick Sean uh Strickland he has very good leg kick defense but there are ways to get through over the top look at this one really kind of now this one whips more and like instead of coming around this

One he’s like very much coming in a more linear way over the top that has some success as well hard to see U certainly one those coming sometimes all right pushes him out of the way he tries to LEAP into range that makes sense he’s already leaning back but he’s probably

Going to cross step his way out sure is but as he does that makes him vulnerable when your feet are more mobile they’re just not going to have better defense I mean certainly that Mobility is a form of Defense but in terms of like absorbing impact it’s just not going to

Be as ready that’s a great time to do it as well because he he’s so willing to retreat that way it makes him vulnerable the benefit to that style is it makes him very mobile the downside is it really lowers his offense and in this particular case doesn’t give him the

Same kind of leg kicking defense that he typically enjoys boom right to the face comes around right and this time we’re on Southpaw and he kind of takes just a huge leap here I think he just misjudged it um Shawn did uh in terms of to the distance and that one breaks through

Okay Championship round is almost done here here we are a little bit later a little bit later they’re kind of uh touching up top here he gets out of the way of a jab a little bit excuse me dricus does comes through elicits a reaction hook around that and then he

Pops him here that’s a great combination from Shawn right there as well he does get square with him but I like this because he touches that hand first whips the corner around kind of hand traps a little bit and then fires that right hand right down the middle and he gets

His head off the center line a little bit and angles off as he does yeah that’s good work here that’s my maybe my second favorite thing in terms of his offense that he was able to produce in this fight and here comes drick is trying to Wing over the top doesn’t get

The job done but I want you to pay attention to something notice he tries to grab this arm here he gets a better view of it a little bit later you’re going to see right here I think check this out watch what Dickus does he lowers his level punches to the body so

There’s another variation you thought it was going to come over the top I thought it was going to come over the top look at that he goes to the body there it is that’s nice work from him but we’re going to see something here in a minute

I want to show you as well watch that now that is intentional right you know the guy is going to lean so you actually put it out there and you punch past him on purpose why would you punch past him on purpose well because you’re going to

Take that hand on this arm and you’re going to pull it out of the way to create a lane Boom for that that’s why that’s nice that’s nice from dricus punch past the guy pull down on the hand boom look at him you can see it right here look at

That got him got him nice work puts it down Boom Big Shot that lands right and he’s able to punch and get away but that was a clear uh this is round four probably dri is’s best round maybe right gets here here by by the way here

Comes the jab boom kicks him underneath when his weight is planted on the lead leg in this particular case and the back foot is in motion watch this reaches out with the hands gets a response Right comes forward so now he’s going to be in excuse me now he’s going to be in

Orthodox right kind of sticks the hands out there pulls the hand down hand traps it boom comes right over the top beautiful shot look at the clock it’s 210 watch him do it right here again 9 seconds later slightly different comes from Southpaw switches as he Jabs

Forward double the jab like he had set up the jab previously this time he had to double it because of the stance switch and then comes right over the top boom some of the best work from dricus in this fight probably certainly in close proximity and last but not least

Here we are just a couple clips of round five now look who’s leaning huh and who’s getting out of the way who’s pushing forward the rolls have reversed a little bit but Shawn is able to kind of roll I mean and and uh duple C misses

There from I think wide South no excuse me wide Orthodox yeah wide Orthodox boom and then he kind of goes forward there a little bit and this is just really great work from him a little bit he gets caught but he also gets through with that jab

That’s tremendous work from him there as well and there you go so the question is who won who won as I said before at the top of the program I had in real time dupy winning 234 I had Sean Strickland winning one and five upon R 125 you can

Make a good argument either way it’s not a robbery robbery is when the system fails because there’s some sort of Injustice there’s no Injustice here you can get a scorecard for either person folks always look at stuff after the fact they’re like oh well after the fact under further review it becomes one

Thing or another that could be true the problem is that’s not the people don’t have those technological tools or the ability to go over those the evidence in that kind of a Way in real time real time is not a way to get the most effective judging it’s very quick

Judging it’s not the most effective and we just have to kind of live with that so you can make a case in either direction what I would say is DDP I think showing some definite ability to adapt and find ways to break through even with a very difficult and

Defensively challenging opponent on the other side I would say Shawn had a lot of things that went well for him but I do think his style is so defense oriented he’s leaving offense on the table and the judges are seeing that a little bit in terms of how they’re

Calling these fights all right just something to think about thank you guys so much for watching I greatly appreciate it thumbs up on the video Hit subscribe and yeah I’ll be back with another one of these very soon until then thank you guys much for watching the fights I appreciate it until next

Time enjoy the fights