Holloway can't be hurt by leg kicks, it seems

Shay Brennan

Shay Brennan

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He has most likely absorbed more leg kicks out of any champ in the UFC, without ever being hurt or his movement being compromised.

He has absorbed: 33 leg kicks by Gaethje, 57 by Yair, 75, 67 and 28 by Volk across their trilogy.

Holloway just might be the toughest, most durable fighter in UFC today.
 
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Bret 'The Hitman' Hart said:
Rogan has an unhealthy relationship with low kicks and destroyed legs
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You are correct. I’ve been watching UFC since before UFC 1 and Rogan use to have an unhealthy relationship with ‘fighters being rocked’ which changed to an ‘unhealthy relationship with leg kicks.

Rogan also once famously said “that eye is rocked.”
 
FlyingDeathKick said:
I mean I thought Yair compromised his leg and that's why he started wrestling unless my memory is wrong. Either way tho 57 leg kicks from Yair? That must've hurt. I swear Gaethje didn't land 33 tho, Max was doing a good job avoiding most of them.
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Yair not only hurt him to the legs, he had Max completely confused as to what techniques were possibly coming his way. That's the only time in my life I have seen Max basically "panic-wrestle" in a fight (or look to wrestle at all really in the last decade).

Max can out-technique guys that are bigger/hit harder like Gaethje because they don't really do too much in terms of diversity of techniques. It's the same set-ups and combinations and simple shots, which makes him efficient and effective in one way but also predictable and easy to read in another. Even when Geathje was landing he was getting hit with counters on one-leg a lot because his entries and timing were somewhat predictable.

With Yair the toolbox is so incredibly deep that it's pretty much impossible to sit in the pocket and go technique for technique with him, better to just take him down and drown him off his back.
 
TheMMAnalyst said:
Yair not only hurt him to the legs, he had Max completely confused as to what techniques were possibly coming his way. That's the only time in my life I have seen Max basically "panic-wrestle" in a fight (or look to wrestle at all really in the last decade).

Max can out-technique guys that are bigger/hit harder like Gaethje because they don't really do too much in terms of diversity of techniques. It's the same set-ups and combinations and simple shots, which makes him efficient and effective in one way but also predictable and easy to read in another. Even when Geathje was landing he was getting hit with counters on one-leg a lot because his entries and timing were somewhat predictable.

With Yair the toolbox is so incredibly deep that it's pretty much impossible to sit in the pocket and go technique for technique with him, better to just take him down and drown him off his back.
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Max landed plenty of punches on Yair. Max wasn’t panic wrestling because he wasn’t hurt. Poirier vs Holloway II and Volk vs Holloway I were fights in which Max took way more damage than the fight against Yair. The leg kicks from Volk is the fight where Max looked more compromised from leg kicks than any other. That first round against Yair was pretty even and I don’t recall a takedown, but it’s been a while.
 
CedricBee said:
Max landed plenty of punches on Yair. Max wasn’t panic wrestling because he wasn’t hurt. Poirier vs Holloway II and Volk vs Holloway I were fights in which Max took way more damage than the fight against Yair. The leg kicks from Volk is the fight where Max looked more compromised from leg kicks than any other. That first round against Yair was pretty even and I don’t recall a takedown, but it’s been a while.
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Relative to Justin if we are being honest Yair was way better - more out put, more diversity, repeatedly catching Max defensively open.

FIGHT STAT COMPARISON

Yair/Max
RD 1 - 37 / 38
RD 2 - 42 / 58
RD 3 - 20 / 38
RD 4 - 24 / 43
RD 5 - 36 / 53
[159/230]

Justin/Max
RD 1 - 12 / 25
RD 2 - 18 / 30
RD 3 - 20 / 29
RD 4 - 35 / 35
RD 5 - 18 / 62
[103/181]

So just looking at the stats:

-Justin only had one round (RD4 - 35 strikes) where he exceeded Yair's worst round (RD 3 - 20 strikes).

-Yair's worst round was RD 3 when he got grapple-fucked and he still only got out-landed 2:1; Justin got out-landed 2:1 in the opening round and 3.5:1 in the last round.

-Yair landed 50% more strikes than Justin despite spending 25% of the fight on his back

Please name another fight where Max Holloway utilized wrestling repeatedly to beat an opponent.

I think you are confusing Volk/Max 3 with Volk/Max 1 (in the third one Max got his ass beat, the first one was close enough where people claimed Max got robbed, though I had Volk winning pretty clearly).

If you think Volk has better/more damaging leg kicks than Yair I've got a bridge to sell you my friend...

<Grimes01>

The first round with Yair was pretty even but once Yair got his kicking game ramped up Max immediately looked to clinch/wrestle. I don't think anyone "no sells" taking damage better than Max, so we need to look at his in-fight adjustments to see how his opponents are doing - since Max is a pure stand-up fighter if you get him to wrestle you early he must be feeling the damage and realize he needs to change the fight dynamic.
 
They were very effective in the Volkanovski and Rodriguez fights.
If you pull a strategy and it goes well it's not a guaranteed victory. Holloway was hurt but he had it in him to counter, circle and win.
Some people manage to get less affected by pain than others.
 
Shay Brennan said:
He has most likely absorbed more leg kicks out of any champ in the UFC, without ever being hurt or his movement being compromised.
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Volk literally destroyed Max's lead leg in their first fight. Max could not stand in orthodox and switched to southpaw and got absolutely wrecked on the feet. It was one of his worst performances. He completely changed how he handled leg kicks after that fight. Go back and watch the first two rounds especially.
 
Wreckless said:
He's been around for so long now that I feel like he could fall off any time soon. The guy became champ 7 years ago and is still beating everyone not named Volk. Pretty impressive stuff.
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Max's first ranked win was almost ten years ago. His first UFC fight was twelve years ago. It's crazy that he's still this good.
 
TheMMAnalyst said:
Relative to Justin if we are being honest Yair was way better - more out put, more diversity, repeatedly catching Max defensively open.

FIGHT STAT COMPARISON

Yair/Max
RD 1 - 37 / 38
RD 2 - 42 / 58
RD 3 - 20 / 38
RD 4 - 24 / 43
RD 5 - 36 / 53
[159/230]

Justin/Max
RD 1 - 12 / 25
RD 2 - 18 / 30
RD 3 - 20 / 29
RD 4 - 35 / 35
RD 5 - 18 / 62
[103/181]

So just looking at the stats:

-Justin only had one round (RD4 - 35 strikes) where he exceeded Yair's worst round (RD 3 - 20 strikes).

-Yair's worst round was RD 3 when he got grapple-fucked and he still only got out-landed 2:1; Justin got out-landed 2:1 in the opening round and 3.5:1 in the last round.

-Yair landed 50% more strikes than Justin despite spending 25% of the fight on his back

Please name another fight where Max Holloway utilized wrestling repeatedly to beat an opponent.

I think you are confusing Volk/Max 3 with Volk/Max 1 (in the third one Max got his ass beat, the first one was close enough where people claimed Max got robbed, though I had Volk winning pretty clearly).

If you think Volk has better/more damaging leg kicks than Yair I've got a bridge to sell you my friend...

<Grimes01>

The first round with Yair was pretty even but once Yair got his kicking game ramped up Max immediately looked to clinch/wrestle. I don't think anyone "no sells" taking damage better than Max, so we need to look at his in-fight adjustments to see how his opponents are doing - since Max is a pure stand-up fighter if you get him to wrestle you early he must be feeling the damage and realize he needs to change the fight dynamic.
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1. Justin outlanded Yair’s 2 worst rounds against Max (rounds 3 and 4). But that’s very minor.

2. Max arguably won the 2nd fight against Volk. He clearly lost the 1st & 3rd. Also minor.

3. The only fight in which leg kicks played a major role was the 1st fight with Volk. Max arguably won the 2nd and Volk’s gameplan in the 3rd fight is still going over heads …

Biggest reason why Gaethje was losing out of the gate; bigger than the broken nose & eye pokes, was that Max is much more beatable when you make him come to you.

It goes over heads because you have to be elite to utilize this gameplan. Ortega at the time he fought Max, for example, wasn’t at the level; thus Max looked great coming forward. But Gaethje could’ve fought much better and Ilia should fight much better, if they make Max come to them. Volk’s 3rd fight is still relevant. The Gaethje that jabbed Fiziev to death in the latter rounds, could’ve done much better circling & jabbing. Ilia looks to have the necessary footwork (and Gaethje showed it against Khabib & Fiziev).

Max isn’t as susceptible to leg kicks as people think. He showed in the 2nd fight with Volk, that he can shorten his stance, check, and has unreal toughness. But where Max is still vulnerable is building off his jab if you have great footwork, a great jab, and he has to respect your leg kicks (fight with a narrow stance). Gaethje was coming forward too much and trying to extend the exchanges. Ilia has the tools to make this very competitive by making Max come to him & circling, jabbing, and forcing Max to adopt a narrow stance. (I’m a huge Max fan btw)
 
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FlyingDeathKick said:
I mean I thought Yair compromised his leg and that's why he started wrestling unless my memory is wrong. Either way tho 57 leg kicks from Yair? That must've hurt. I swear Gaethje didn't land 33 tho, Max was doing a good job avoiding most of them.
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Meh. The first takedown was in the late 3rd round; and Bisping & Anik were debating whether Max was shooting for a takedown prior, or just feinting a level change to enter the pocket.
TheMMAnalyst said:
Yair not only hurt him to the legs, he had Max completely confused as to what techniques were possibly coming his way. That's the only time in my life I have seen Max basically "panic-wrestle" in a fight (or look to wrestle at all really in the last decade).

Max can out-technique guys that are bigger/hit harder like Gaethje because they don't really do too much in terms of diversity of techniques. It's the same set-ups and combinations and simple shots, which makes him efficient and effective in one way but also predictable and easy to read in another. Even when Geathje was landing he was getting hit with counters on one-leg a lot because his entries and timing were somewhat predictable.

With Yair the toolbox is so incredibly deep that it's pretty much impossible to sit in the pocket and go technique for technique with him, better to just take him down and drown him off his back.
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Max and Yair wound up on the ground (3rd round) because of what looked like an inadvertent trip. The total strikes was just displayed before this (it read Max 125 - Yair 123). Yair was getting G&Ped and thus Max went back to it, after Yair worked his way back up. This was far Max getting pieced up on the feet and he needed to panic wrestle. He was slightly ahead in total strikes, coming forward (which can sway judges in close rounds) and had outlanded Yair in head & body strikes to that point. Why wouldn’t he go for takedowns after a trip allowed him to see that Yair didn’t have much on the ground as far as problems for Max to solve?
 
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