Breakdown of Morango vs Escudero at Tachi Palace Fights 9

I wrote about Efrain Escudero's knockout of Cole Miller on this blog. Read it if you haven't yet.

Breakdown of Escudero vs Miller at UFC 103

I recommend you watch Escudero-Miller, then watch Camoes-Escudero.

Fight Video of "Morango" Cameos vs Escudero by Sherdog

Escudero is waiting to counter Morango, and Morango notices it. So, he uses different strikes than Miller did. He uses hooks, compared to Miller's mostly straight punches. Why? It's harder to counter. It is harder to track the course of a hook. A cross is easier to watch and recognize once you recognize the distance.

Morango notices that when he strikes, Escudero aims to counter, so he went with hook combinations, clinched up, or stepped back after his strikes to end the exchange.

Morango was very aware of Escudero's game in other ways. He also forced clinches and went for takedowns early on, having success with both, as Escudero was so focused on counterpunching he couldn't respond. Escudero was always looking to counter, whereas Morango used punches to set up his takedowns. That made Escudero think about what Morango was doing, and slowed down his own attack.

Big thanks to Jordan Breen (write for Sherdog) for English and editing.

Breakdown of Escudero vs Miller at UFC 103 (with some Jordan Breen)

After UFC 103, HumungusMMA asked me on twitter about Efrain Escudero vs Cole Miller.

@shiroobi what did you think of Escudero's head movement? 1 foot away from all of Miller's punches.

Of course, Escudero avoided almost every strike by Miller. Escudero was very conscious of Miller's reach, and was able to move his head just off the end of Miller's hand when he struck.

@humungusMMA It's more about length matter I think because Escudero keep length Miller can't hit left jab,When Miller comin Escudero counter.

Cole Miller seemed to think he should be putting Escudero up against the cage, and cornering him with his reach, but in reality, Escudero didn't have any problems with being there, because he had enough space and head movement to stay off the end of his punches. Escudero's head movement allowed him to come forward, making Miller move back and reset his distance, so he could use his reach. However, because he couldn't strike as well he stepped back and reset, Escudero was able to counter.

When Escudero succeeded in countering Miller, he chased him to now allow Miller to regain distance and used his reach. Miller couldn't strike while going backwards, and Escudero kept coming forward, and knocked him out.

HumungusMMA, is this a better answer for you?

I run a site called "SKILL MMA", but regrettably, I haven't done much evaluation of skills in MMA. Hopefully this satisfies you, and you can understand why I run a site with such a name.

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After wrote this, I asked Jordan Breen to brush up the English writing and asked his opinion.

Shiroobi: How you think about content? Is there any chance of improve or any fault?

Jordan: I like it a lot. The one thing I'd point out though is that the punch Escudero clobbered him with coming forward, he actually shortened the punch, which very few guys in MMA can do properly. Most guys would've thrown a lunging, retarded punch, and it would've flown over Miller's shoulder or something. Escudero shortened his right hand coming forward and smashed him right on the chin.

Jordan: Same way Kongo caught Cain coming in. Most guys can't cut their punches short and drive them like that, it's actually fairly high level stuff you don't get in MMA too much.

Jordan: Most MMA guys, running forward at an opponent, would've thrown their punch far forward, and it would've either completely missed, or not had any power on it because it would been an arm lunge.

Big thanks to Jordan Breen for English and giving a thoughtful view.