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Stream UFC 318 on ESPN+ https://plus.espn.com/ufc/ppv
Dominick Cruz breaks down the trilogy fight between Max Holloway and Dustin Poirier this Saturday in New Orleans.
#UFC318 #UFC #Holloway #Poirier
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Video Transcript
[Music]
Okay, now no secret Dustin Porier has
power in both of his hands. What makes
him so tricky is he's a nasty southpaw.
But what I noticed the most is how
accurate he is. He doesn't miss your
face when he's in the middle of havoc. I
mean a full-on like they're just
brawling. He's connecting with
everything he throws. Very sharp. But
what also makes him so dangerous is his
defense. When he's here in the pocket,
he he keeps this elbow to block the the
body and he keeps this elbow to block
the the chin, but he's also hiding his
chin behind his shoulder. So he's here.
He's fighting hands. And when these
punches come, he keeps this tight and he
keeps this over the top. When you come
hook, he's here. When you come body
shot, he's here. When you come over top,
he's here. And then he's just, it's like
a mixture of like a Philly roll and a
shoulder roll. Keeps his elbow up like
this. And this stays planted. Because if
you decide to come up with a high kick
or an overhand, he's blocked. He's
always right here. Overhand, he's
blocked. But if you're coming with any
of this lead hand, he can hand fight
here. And then if you decide to come
around it, he can lift his elbow here
and his his chin is hid and he if you go
to the body, he drops this here. So he's
doing this and then also he can wipe it.
So when you throw a punch, he can block
and he can throw in between that. That's
what makes his defense so good. Boom.
Boom. So when you hit, he shields this
side to return.
Oh,
power discrepancy on display once again
in that exchange.
So, what what Porier does so well is
he'll get this lead hand fight going and
then once you get in this habit with
him, he keeps it tight. Then he goes
inside of it with the double jab. Boom.
Boom. And then he switches to the left
hand. The left hand, he throws heat, but
it's setting up a shift. So, he's hand
fighting double jab left. Now, that's
actually setting up this overhand right.
And man, he clipped Max with that.
[Applause]
That shift really gets you moving back
because you have to respect his power.
And the other thing that you see out of
Porier, he's very sneaky with this calf
kick. A lot of times you don't see calf
kicks from a southpaw uh conventional
stance because our legs are so close.
It's hard to get around this. Porier
does a little funny thing where he'll
hand fight and he runs at you. And when
he runs his feet, it makes you run back
that you step back because you think
he's approaching you. And that run, he
blasts the calf kick off that. Now, most
of the time, what you see on a calf kick
is here.
But that's easy to check. They turn the
knee out just like that. So, he runs at
you and he just blasts your calf. He
makes this work over and over again.
It's very tricky of him.
It was a nice leg kick right there by
Porier. One of the things from about Max
is when he's facing a southpaw, he
doesn't necessarily just circle to the
weak side. This is the weak side because
this is the strong side of his body is
the back side. The strong side is the
side that's farthest away because it can
generate the most power because it's the
farthest away from me. Has the most time
to generate power. This is considered
the weak side. What we want to see out
of Max is to circle this man side to
side, but mostly be going to the weak
side because now what you're doing is
you're forcing a Dustin Porier to lead
with the jab, lead with the hook, and
lead with an uppercut. And this le this
right hand of is easier to deal with. If
I'm moving this way, but if I start
moving this way towards it, and that's
when the left hand comes in, that's when
these double jab shifts start working.
He goes double jab and shifts. Boom.
because I'm circling towards the power
side of a Dustin Py
[Applause]
with big power.
So if I'm Max Holloway, keep this lead
hand fight going. Kick the outside of
this leg. Be looking for the right hand.
Lead hand fight is expensive where you
got to stay on this. You got to lead the
jab. One thing he did really well is
hand fight. Jab inside
hook inside jab. He keeps his elbow
tight. And then what you're also going
to see is basic weapons out of a south
Paul verse conventional. The basic
weapons for me is my backside. So I'll
hand fight here. I want the kick to the
liver from Max right here. I want the
kick to the head. I want the kick to the
inside. And last, I want right hand low
kicks on that side. These kicks are
going to be huge work for Max Holloway.
He didn't use a lot of kicks in their
first matchup. Dustin Pouy is not a big
wrestler, not a big shooter. He likes
Sabra. So, I think we're going to see
more kicks. And the last thing you're
going to see out of Max Holloway, I
think with circling to the weak side
more back knees and elbows. This is what
he didn't do. This tap kick needs to be
there. The back teeth kick that sets up
when Porier comes in. We got the knee
that also sets up the hand fight. Elbows
clinch over under this crash position
here. Here,
here,
and
here are the positions where we can see
different type of damage from Max
Holloway with the elbows and the knees
in the pocket because punching punch for
punch with Dustin Porier in the pocket
did not serve him for two fights.
Oh, Porier's all over him.
Dustin's got a
What makes Dustin Porier really
dangerous, too, is he's pulling you.
He's trying to always do this to get you
to reach and he's so good at sliding
back and you think you're hitting this,
but he'll just take one little baby step
back and he'll clip you with this right
hook and then that sets his sequence up.
So, Max Holloway is going to make
adjustments to this. I have a feeling.
And the number one adjustment is start
with the hands, finish with the kicks
because this man's moving backwards. Max
Holloway's got nasty, very, very good
kicks with a lot of dexterity. So, what
I think we're going to see is this hand
fight. Then you're going to see what we
want to see out of Max is throw this
back hand, backhand versus back hand on
a southpaw. But what Dustin does real
well is he slides back and he clips you
over the top with a hook.
Oh, counter right hook.
So, when you go to hit him with the
right, boom, you're getting clipped. And
then he follows the combo. Boom. Then he
bop bop bop and you get clipped. So,
what we got to see out of Max is not
only the fake right there. So, he can't
time that slide back. So, when I try to
go, he's going to slide back there.
That's what we want out of fake. And
then keep circling to the weak side.
Then, when you're ready,
throw the right and throw the kick
because he can't time the left hook if
you're kicking him. So, we're here.
Boom. That kick right there will work.
The other thing we're going to see out
of Max, I think once he slides back, he
starts clipping you, you're going to see
this. Boom. He kick to the gut. Hands
fight, hand fight, cheap kick. There's
no hook. There's no boxing. The way that
Max can beat the boxing of Porier. Use
his kicks. Use his range. This cheap
kick slides in there like a jab. It's
just like going here. And that's one of
the things we saw out of Max as well. He
was countering this head shot by going
to the body. So whenever Porier would
slide back, he'd go here. And so now the
adjustment right there, there's your
head kick. So I think we're going to see
some adjustments for Max with that slide
back hook, the pulling sequences. Py
likes to pull you into the pocket and
brawl. And he's very accurate. I think
we're going to see more kicks, more
knees, more elbows, and a lot more
trickiness out of Max Holloway this
time.
Oh, that that's in there. This is one of
Porier's best weapons is this
guillotine, too.
Tighter and tighter. That's it, man.
That is tight. Tight.
Now, do I think we're going to see a lot
of grappling here? No.
But if we do get into these grappling
exchanges, expect to see his favorite
ghillie. Okay. So, if he gets flipped
and turned back against the wall, he
likes to defend here. And then when this
head comes down into the hip, I'm going
to show you what he looks for. He gets
over the top. We all know this. We know
the basic guillotine where you throw the
legs in and it's an arm in guillotine
around the neck, hands like this, and it
goes into the choke. Okay? And the legs
come up. What we see at a porier is he
likes to let go of this arm and sneak it
right in here and he pulls this up and
he likes to put pin this elbow on your
back. So now if you come out and you're
looking from space, this hand's under
the neck here. This goes over the top
and he's using this elbow to pull the to
leverage. He pushes his elbow down and
he's pulling this hand up in the neck.
So this goes he locks his hands like
this. This elbow goes over the top and
it's strangling him right here.
He can't leave his neck in there though.
It's in there deep though.
I'm here. Boom. He pushes into me on the
double and I just keep this here and
then I jump. And when I'm here it just
it just gets really tight because I have
my elbow up in the air. This allows no
arm in guillotine. And I promise you, he
gets a lot of chokes here. He couldn't
get everybody every single time he goes,
but he goes for it because once this is
locked in, it creates space. Now this
guy's got to move his hips back there.
Now he can get to here. That buys him
the time he needs to escape. A lot of
times
against Kabib. Didn't work that way. He
got held there. Dustin Porier working on
a guillotine here.
That's in tight, but turning to a hip.
the way he's doing. Buys him some air
and he sticks with it.
Wow. Nanco Medal pops his head out.
Crowd goes bananas. A lot of times you
jump for the guillotine and you finish
it. But there's a lot of times where you
jump for the guillotine and you end up
down here on your butt and both are in
and you're on the neck and they pop the
head out. Ah, and now I have to work all
the way from here to get all the way
back up to here. And let me tell you,
that is exhausting. So, there's a gift
and a curse to the guillotine.
Dustin Porier shows you what it looks
like better than most of us.