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Khabib vs Poirier GIF breakdown bc I’ve absolutely nothing to do, part 2.
Seems like absolutely nothing, yet this was the problem all night for Dustin. Conceding ground to Khabib and letting him pressure lets him get to his cage wrestling, where’s he’s much more potent than in open space. DP needs to feint or hold ground, he can’t concede to Khabib
Khabib feints to occupy the lead hand of DP, throws a rear uppercut. The lead hook is open, he throws it, but it doesn’t land with any power because Khabib was already square after the uppercut, so he can’t generate any power. Khabib has technical issues with combination punching
After DP concedes pressure, Khabib is free to just shoot with really no setup. This is because of a) Dustin doesn’t have defensive pivots to laterally move as say an Aldo would and b) Dustin’s close to the fence, so Khabib just has to push through to get his meta going.
Watch Dustin’s takedown defense here. It’s flawed because he’s essentially giving Khabib the freehand to strike or the single leg, which eventually happens. Using a whizzer is much more effective. 2 on 1 won’t work well vs Khabib.
Dustin was basically banking on the fact that he could hit switches on Khabib instead of using TDD. Here, he doesn’t use his elbow to knock Khabib off balance before going to the leg, which lets Khabib keep weight on him, and be able to move to the cage to barrier Dustin’s spin
Watch Khabib here. By using an inside wrist, he effectively stops DP from protecting himself from strikes, being able to post to get up, being able to shrimp into full guard. Khabib sets this up by pushing hips forward, moving DP’s weight onto the hand so he can break him down
DP makes a serious mistake by digging an underhook. Usually, an underhook is fine, but with Khabib he works trips and throws well from over/under bc he has such a strength advantage. DP makes the correct move by going to his back, as you can fight grips much better from there.
This starting position gives issues to Khabib. He can’t get his preferred ankle ride (hooking the leg) and then attack Dustin’s posts to strike, so he stalls. While he is good from crossbody rides, seen in the 4th gif here, DP keeps on feet and hands, making it hard to jump on it
Dustin is one of the better shifting punchers in MMA, as seen here. He starts southpaw, shifts orthodox and just misses because Khabib was able to measure his timing, as Dustin was throwing them at a singular pace, to move his head.
Right after, Dustin changes his timing, slowing the overhand so Khabib can’t perfectly time the head movement. Dustin needed the shifting punches to work to win, because Khabib reaches defensively and Dustin could shift over the reaching. Khabib’s chin saves him
DP concedes the pressure again, and KN pushes him to the fence to work.DP inexplicably goes for the guillotine, instead of working any gripfighting/whizzer game. With Khabib’s leg free from full guard, and his arm high in the guillotine, there was little chance of success here
DP starts to do the right thing here, turning into Khabib to move to a single leg but he can’t flatten out to get to his knees to get more drive into the single-leg due to the cage. This is why Khabib prefers the cage wrestling, he’s able to use it as a barrier to stop escapes.
Now, with DP not being able to drive up and basically stuck, Khabib can just control the head and get under the leg (in a cradle-type position) and flatten him back out. DP finally gets to his knees, but Khabib already has the control and can push in to turn DP.
DP thinks about placing a guillotine on here,but he realizes that with Khabib’s positioning,it would be futile. Khabib is slightly turned and places his weight squarely on DP, for DP to get a guillotine, hed have to shift his body midair to get full guard, not worth it or high %
DP loses his stance here after Khabib throws his 1-2, which doesn’t let him a) counter and have power with strikes, b) defend takedowns, c) laterally move or pivot off the cage. He does the good thing by giving the back instead of the single, as it’s easier to grip fight there.
This is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen Khabib do on the feet. He feints the prelim. motion for a takedown, getting DP to react withattempted sprawl. He then takes an outside angle with his jab and follows with a straight, all in stance. His straight is technically wrong tho
Here’s the famed guillotine. DP tries it because Khabib squares his hips to DP’s instead of taking a slight angle. However, as soon as DP gets one leg over, Khabib lifts and cuts off DP’s back leg. This prevents the full guard. It’s still possible from half tho.
Khabib falls to his shoulder earlier, letting him get to his knees and drive to side control. DP tries to recover the guard, but all Khabib has to do is fall to a hip. After, he tries to pull instead of moving his shoulder up and compressing, which lets Khabib’s head slide out.
Khabib transitioned to this crossbody leg ride and attack the inside wrist of DP, stopping him from defending the strikes and from posting. He can move to chokes from here, or he can just beat on you, but having the wrist controlled is everything. Khabib’s a fantastic grappler.
Here’s the finish. Watch how Khabib realizes DP is controlled the over hand, so he punches twice to create a diversion before coming with the same motion to break the grip and fall into the RNC. With the leg in, it’s impossible to get out.
Takeaways!
- Dustin Poirier is an EXCEPTIONAL fighter who just made game-planning errors. Hitting switches and guillotines was not what you wanted to do.
- Shooting guillotine (or D’Arces) is not what you want to do vs Khabib, Tony.
- You can’t let Khabib dictate the pace.
- Dustin Poirier is an EXCEPTIONAL fighter who just made game-planning errors. Hitting switches and guillotines was not what you wanted to do.
- Shooting guillotine (or D’Arces) is not what you want to do vs Khabib, Tony.
- You can’t let Khabib dictate the pace.
Takeaways 2!
-If you can move Khabib back, his reaching can be exploited by shifting and feinting, seen in Poirier and McG.
- You cannot concede ground to Khabib! Make him work with his open space takedowns or reactive takedowns, because those aren’t as good as his cage game
-If you can move Khabib back, his reaching can be exploited by shifting and feinting, seen in Poirier and McG.
- You cannot concede ground to Khabib! Make him work with his open space takedowns or reactive takedowns, because those aren’t as good as his cage game
