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Rose Namajunas showed a career best performance, it wasn't a long fight but she showed why she is one of the most dangerous fighters in the early rounds.
A thread
A thread
Early on was clear Rose stayed on the outside used her footwork to circle around and use her jab as longest distance weapon to draw out attacks from Weili.
Weili tried to limit the movement with low kicks
Weili tried to limit the movement with low kicks
Interesting was that Weili wasn't really pressuring or trying to step into her low kick to get on the inside.
She prefers to stay more in stationary exchanges but it would have been better here if she had pushed more of a pace.
She prefers to stay more in stationary exchanges but it would have been better here if she had pushed more of a pace.
Rose really was out to draw out as many reaction as she could.
Feinting with both hands and establishing fake entires, here with mixed results but she was building well off it and getting more reads.
Feinting with both hands and establishing fake entires, here with mixed results but she was building well off it and getting more reads.
Bouncing in and out plus also directional changes disguised later on attacks.
For a fighter who has a low kick heavy approach it's tricky to recognize which entry is used to attack. So they might miss and want to follow up what leads to getting countered
For a fighter who has a low kick heavy approach it's tricky to recognize which entry is used to attack. So they might miss and want to follow up what leads to getting countered
Or in this case Rose steppint in and trying to land a 1-2
The step in and out movement plus a non committal jab drew out this combination from Weili
She tried to follow up but Rose changed the position bounced back and circled out
All this to get more reads and make it harder for Weili to see which entries are fake and which ones aren't
She tried to follow up but Rose changed the position bounced back and circled out
All this to get more reads and make it harder for Weili to see which entries are fake and which ones aren't
Another thing what Rose entries did for her was using her reach advantage well.
Her rear foot is pulled back and she is darting in to land a sharp jab that stunned Weili.
She had the weight on her lead what made her open to a leg kick as counter.
Her rear foot is pulled back and she is darting in to land a sharp jab that stunned Weili.
She had the weight on her lead what made her open to a leg kick as counter.
All this gave Rose reads to use her entries to set up the high kick.
She was lifting the leg and Weili was pulling back her hips in reaction what led to her being off balance and increased the impact on Rose's lead high kick.
She was lifting the leg and Weili was pulling back her hips in reaction what led to her being off balance and increased the impact on Rose's lead high kick.
Actually quite similar to what Saenchai does but Weili showed a suboptimal reaction especially because Rose isn't known as leg kicker nor did she really attempted it here.
Nonetheless Rose made her react so all credit to her.
Nonetheless Rose made her react so all credit to her.
Credit to Jack Slack who had described many of the things Rose should do in his great article about her footwork and entires , highly recommend to check it out. https://twitter.com/JackSlackMMA/status/1385546823910268934?s=19
