Marlon Moraes tweets after KO win against Aljamain Sterling.

[kammfreudenstei]

You could see after the fight that he was concerned. Good guy.

BW looks interesting atm. Wonder why The Snake has to call out midgets instead of fighting contenders in his own division.

First part good, second part downhill

 

[Hoop]

I feel that Henry is underrated, and is only now getting some respect..well his fighters anyway

Really? I think Edgar is the only one he's being working with long term and you can see the improvements with Edgar's boxing; feint wise and head movement. He doesn't throw anything creatively, imo, but that could be part of Henry's thing - using the feints and head movements to score take downs with Edgar.

I imagine with Moraes and Barboza he's working on doing the same with them and because they're Thai boxers, adding more to their punching/striking. I haven't really noticed a difference in Barboza. I wouldn't expect him to become a technical, MMA boxer in a short space of time, but he's being with Henry for 2 years at least, IIRC.

When Weidman brought him in for the Romero fight, I thought he looked nice and spring on his feet and wasn't 'walking' straight at Romero until he got KO'd (which was obviously via going for a wrestling move)

I suppose one thing you can't train is composure. Alvarez is still a bit wild and when he gets put under pressure, he reverts to brawling. I thought Moraes looked a bit wild as the fight went on in his last fight, but that was a close one that could have gone either way, imo.

But when you listen to corners mic'd up on FP, you rarely see the fighters following their corners instructions. It's a bit hard to understand what Henry is instructing as it's some sort of code with numbers he's using. I wouldn't have a clue how to corner someone, but he does seem to get very emotional and almost yells at whoever he's cornering at times which is probably just the way he is, but you'd think a calm voice giving clear instructions would be better than yelling in their face.

 

[MPD-Psycho]

The way he went down was scary. Kinda outta nowhere too.

 

[legkicktko]

Really? I think Edgar is the only one he's being working with long term and you can see the improvements with Edgar's boxing; feint wise and head movement. He doesn't throw anything creatively, imo, but that could be part of Henry's thing - using the feints and head movements to score take downs with Edgar.

I imagine with Moraes and Barboza he's working on doing the same with them and because they're Thai boxers, adding more to their punching/striking. I haven't really noticed a difference in Barboza. I wouldn't expect him to become a technical, MMA boxer in a short space of time, but he's being with Henry for 2 years at least, IIRC.

When Weidman brought him in for the Romero fight, I thought he looked nice and spring on his feet and wasn't 'walking' straight at Romero until he got KO'd (which was obviously via going for a wrestling move)

I suppose one thing you can't train is composure. Alvarez is still a bit wild and when he gets put under pressure, he reverts to brawling. I thought Moraes looked a bit wild as the fight went on in his last fight, but that was a close one that could have gone either way, imo.

But when you listen to corners mic'd up on FP, you rarely see the fighters following their corners instructions. It's a bit hard to understand what Henry is instructing as it's some sort of code with numbers he's using. I wouldn't have a clue how to corner someone, but he does seem to get very emotional and almost yells at whoever he's cornering at times which is probably just the way he is, but you'd think a calm voice giving clear instructions would be better than yelling in their face.

Barboza since Henry is literally a different fighter. His entire style evolved. It’s well documented

 

[tehMoose]

Hespect

 

[Hoop]

Barboza since Henry is literally a different fighter. His entire style evolved. It’s well documented

Well, he's not as flat footed as he used to be, but I don't see anything vastly different in terms of his offense and defensive striking.

Henry likes his fighters to throw feints and keeping their head off the centre line - but I've read the myths about him having a glass chin, but when he does get punched, he almost freezes and reverts back to keeping his distance, resetting and throwing the leg kicks.

His striking when it comes to setting up and throwing punches is not that particularly noticeable. But I do feel he panics a little bit and goes back to his old stance.

That's the way I see it. If his 'entire style has evolved' which is a bit of a blanket comment, I'd be curious to read your take on his evolving.

 

[legkicktko]

Well, he's not as flat footed as he used to be, but I don't see anything vastly different in terms of his offense and defensive striking.

Henry likes his fighters to throw feints and keeping their head off the centre line - but I've read the myths about him having a glass chin, but when he does get punched, he almost freezes and reverts back to keeping his distance, resetting and throwing the leg kicks.

His striking when it comes to setting up and throwing punches is not that particularly noticeable. But I do feel he panics a little bit and goes back to his old stance.

That's the way I see it. If his 'entire style has evolved' which is a bit of a blanket comment, I'd be curious to read your take on his evolving.

You touched on it with the flat-footedness, but it's more his movement. When you rewatch his fights with guys like Jamie Varner and Terry Etim, it is amazing how awful he was at escaping the pocket. He was very uncomfortable moving backwards and taking steps straight back cost him big against Varner. He struck a lot like Germain De Randamie in the sense that he took the center and look to land and counter with kicks but was present to be countered himself because he refused to move and when he did, it was straight back. Now announcers blow his footwork left and right because it really is a very improved facet of his game and a game changer in his career.

Fast foward to his fights with Bobby Green, Tony Ferguson (even in defeat), Beneil Dariush, and Gilbert Melendez. All of these guys strategized to pressure the living shit out of him. All of these guys are better and more effective at it than Jamie Varner (even Bobby Green who had yet to lose in the UFC and confidence was sky high). Barboza executed a vastly different style by choosing to fight off the back foot. Whereas early in his UFC career, Barboza would have to have you go backwards or be stationary to land his kicks (Cowboy still has that problem), now he is one of the best in the world at landing those kicks as counters while he is sliding just out of range That is one of his most marked improvements.

In addition to using movement to avoid strikes, you can also see how good he's become at using footwork to avoid the clinch altogether. His fights against Danny Castillo elucidated how bad he was at giving his opponent the clinch, nearly at will, and he relied on his strength which allowed Danny to mix it up by throwing bombs and level changes together. When you watch Barboza's fights with Dariush and Ferguson, who are both pressure fighters (you can really see how good Dariush is at initiating clinch by watching his fight with Magamedov who is no stranger to the clinch and using footwork himself), you can see how he allowed his movement to not only avoid getting taken down, but he denied those guys the chance to even clinch with him, especially Dariush (ferguson got a hold of him by flying kneebar).

In addition, his boxing defense has gotten loads better. He was getting tagged back in the day by far more inferior strikers like Rafaello Olivera, and he even ate some bombs (albeit never getting hurt) from guys like Lucas Martins. Compare the to the Barboza who dismantled Anthony Pettis without getting his clean the entire fight. A lot of guys will say "oh Pettis is on the downward turn" which is fair, but when Edson fought him, Pettis had never been outstruck purely on the feet and he came in that fight brimming with confidence. For Edson, that was the biggest step up of his career and he showed his levels had increased significantly since the days of close fights with Njokuani and such.

This article does a good job explaining these in detail. Jack Slack has also written about Barboza being "a completely different fighter" than the guy that lost to Cerrone and came straight forward and back.

https://www.bloodyelbow.com/2016/4/...nthony-pettis-technique-strategy-jab-kick-leg

 

[Hoop]

Nice post.

You touched on it with the flat-footedness, but it's more his movement. When you rewatch his fights with guys like Jamie Varner and Terry Etim, it is amazing how awful he was at escaping the pocket. He was very uncomfortable moving backwards and taking steps straight back cost him big against Varner. He struck a lot like Germain De Randamie in the sense that he took the center and look to land and counter with kicks but was present to be countered himself because he refused to move and when he did, it was straight back.

I still think when he does move backwards from an exchange and if he gets clipped in it, he looks tentative at times. He sure isn't going to counter anyone coming at him. Henry is a boxing coach and it's no secret that Barboza is not as flat footed as he was, but in terms of his entry into an exchange and retreating, it's nothing really, imo, Henry-esque.

He seems big on coaching feints and keeping the fighters head off the centre line. I still think he has a very heavy Thai boxing stance and doesn't incorporate a lot of what Henry coaches into Alvarez and Edgar. Granted he may be doing something different with Barboza than the other two - and this is no knock on Aldo, but a lot of the fighters he faced were wrestlers with sub-par striking (though the 2nd Mendes fight was a great back and forth) but it takes time to evolve, especially with striking, but there's probably a lot Henry and Barboza could take away from the 2nd Aldo v Edgar fight, where you have another Thai boxer who throws leg kicks, but did a good job of switching up his game and frustrating Edgar.

The name of the game is to become unpredictable otherwise you'll be found out. He's a lot more lighter on his toes than before and uses lateral movement, but there's nothing creative coming off of it. His leg kicks are his bread and butter and I was surprised to hear that he was training with Henry as you'd think he'd try to develop something more from his leg kicks.