#steve erceg

[theanticool]

Ramazan Temirov stops Steve Ercg in the 1st - UFC Fight Night: Ankalaev vs. Guskov

One of the few highlights off last weekend’s UFC card. FLW continues to carry.

[zackswrath]

Steve my fallen boy I love you MY LOVELY BOY MY SON LOOK WHAT THEY DID TO MY SON

[starrgazed]

literally stone temirov to death

[theanticool]

Erceg-Elliott and Prates-JDM talk because those were the only fights I cared about on that UFC Perth card.

Elliott was the exact style match up I would want if I was Erceg's manager trying to rebuild his career after getting a fortuitous win against Ode Osbourne. For all of Elliott's weirdness, he's not a dangerous puncher and his striking can be neutralized with the fundamentals. For all of Elliott's head movement, stance switches and foot feints, he is not Dominick Cruz. His entry into exchanges are very same-y with his head movement being limited to dipping deep on overhands. And most decent counter punchers he's faced end up cracking him, even if he's never been finished. He had nothing for Erceg coming forward. Lots of arm punches and noncommittal jabs. Did some work early with the kicks but as Erceg really dialed into Elliott's patterns, even those stopped coming as he worried more and more about the counters. And there were plenty of those. Erceg was lighting Elliott up with em. Quarter step backs into that right hand being a particular favorite. But the jab was on full display too - using it to draw out reactions, punish Elliott for standing too close or as a means to close the door as Erceg retreated out of exchanges. Just a very solid performance for Erceg and much needed win as he rebuilds his stock.

Onto Prates-JDM. The vibe coming into this one was Prates was likely going to do awful things to JDM. Just had all the physical advantages (power, size, speed, etc) and was the more diverse fighter. But this exceeded my expectations. The high guard is such a crutch for JDM and it shouldn't be because this isn't kickboxing or boxing. You're wearing 4 oz gloves, mate. Pinning them to your forehead and and trying to wait out your opponent's attack just isn't a viable option. Especially when they are so much bigger than you. And Prates is probably the best striker in MMA when it comes to using hand and wrist traps to open up strikes on the feet. He'll grab your wrist and lower it just to throw a head kick or an elbow over the top. And he did it here. Broke through that high guard with little to no resistance with knees and left hands and anything else he wanted. A perfect example of this is Justin Gaethje, another pocket boxer that had to change his defense when he got to the UFC because guys were exploiting the high guard. And this guard relies on him being on the front foot. Easy leg kicks for Prates. In fact, he almost stopped him on leg kicks. Great win for Prates. In a better run promotion, we'd have the title booked and he'd either be next or fighting someone like Michael Morales or Kamaru Usman for a shot at the belt.

[theanticool]

Steve Erceg hits a nice giggler sweep on Alexandre Pantoja - UFC 301

Rewatching the fight. This was dope.

[theanticool]

Always love a good reversal. Alexandre Pantoja gets taken down by Steve Erceg. Immediately, pushes Erceg down his body with hands and legs. Erceg stands tall in open guard so Pantoja just sits through to grab the single leg. Turns and runs Erceg into the cage for his own takedown. Very Demian Maia.

[theanticool]

Going back to that Jack Slack quote I talked about the other day: All fighters have habits. Because they’re human. No matter how technical or how blazingly quick they are, they do things over and over because they are more comfortable with some parts of the game then others. And these can lead to opportunities to exploit.

Kai Kara-France showed this at UFC 305 on Saturday against Steve Erceg. KKF is a guy who has historically struggled with lanky jabbers. But here, he was able to exploit a habit that Erceg has - he backs out a lot. If you’ve ever taken a boxing, kickboxing or Muay Thai class, you’ve probably heard “don’t take more than 2 steps backwards before moving left or right.” This is because 1) you’re taking yourself out of position to counter, 2) it’s wasting energy, and 3) 3 steps is basically running, giving your opponent the initiative to catch you.

Erceg rarely if ever backs up more than 2 steps in the video. But he backs out…a lot. It was a 4 minute fight and I cut together a full minute of Erceg just hopping back out of range whenever KKF looks like he’s about to blitz at all (I left a few out too). And KKF is able to establish a rhythm off of this - he comes forward behind a 1, 2, 3 or even the high guard, Erceg will hop out of range and then will either feint the jab or commit on it in order to set up the distance he wants (or a kick if he’s really far away).

Eventually KKF uses this info to start attacking the step in jab to reestablish range (look around the 2:34 mark). The big knockdown that starts the end of the fight comes after an initial hop out of range from Erceg. KKF shows the body jab, Erceg hops out. Erceg steps back in, KKF throws a jab away. This causes Erceg to throw his jab, putting him in closer to KKF. Too close. KKF throws the 1-overhand and Erceg is caught with his feet in the air trying to backpedal a 3rd step on the big looping hook. KKF took Erceg’s habit of jumping out of range + desire to keep initiative and found a way to make it work for him.

[theanticool]

Steve Erceg survives awful first round to take UD over Ode Osbourne.

Great fight. Terrible performance from Erceg and his team all things considered. Yeah, Ode is a terrific athlete and a surprisingly deadly puncher at 125lbs, but he's extremely limited. And he really telegraphed everything he wanted to do.

Ode kept allowing Erceg to step forward and he'd just tag him with the lead right hook (open stance match up - Osbourne is a southpaw). But Erceg kept stepping deep into range and getting hit with it until one managed to actually drop him. Ode followed up with a lot of big blows and it really looked like he was about to put Erceg out at several points. But Erceg rallied when Ode chose to wrestle with him on the mat. Did enough to see the bell and get to round 2. In the 2nd, Erceg went heavy to the wrestling. Shot after shot just to tie up Osbourne and negate the speed advantage. He started mixing in kicks and attacking off the breaks (Ode showed some serious improvements with his TDD). I think Erceg was mostly trying to recover but he managed to edge out the round. I think the 3rd is how most people envisioned this fight. Erceg using feints to draw out responses from Osbourne, forcing him to commit to coming forward and getting countered in return. Erceg eventually manages to turn these exchanges into a takedown where he almost locks up a RNC. Ode scrambles up but Erceg keeps head control and hits a gorgeous inside trip to get the fight back down and the fight ends with him landing big shots from mount.

If you scored that one a draw, couldn't blame you. Ode really had Erceg on the edge of a stoppage in the 1st round. It's really apparent that Erceg is just not defensively aware when he's in the pocket. And it seems like his team isn't doing much to fix that. But also, this is the dangers of getting pushed too quick. Everyone gets to see the holes and plan accordingly b/c they want your spot.